Ever had to teach a topic your not familiar with?
Posted on März 3, 2009, under General.
About five years ago I got a phonecall from somebody, asking me if I would do some teaching for the German Bundeswehr. I asked for the subject and the person told me, that it was a Java Course… The person asking was my Java tutor, I had done a cours with, only 3 months before.
I didn’t take me long to decide and with shaking legs I accepted. I knew, that it was mostly about knowing more than the participants. As I was pretty sure about their level of Java knowledge and I had about three months to prepare, I expected things to turn out fine… And they did! Do you know the feeling? Tell me about it!
Now, I am still regularly giving courses, but the subjact has switched from Java (which I was and am not to fond of anyway) to Web Design, Web Development, eMarketing, SEO and more… I really enjoy the job, even though I now have to travel to Germany once every three months. I would really love to do some teaching in Ireland. Anybody and Idea?!
No more Support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
Yesterday was one of those days, where I had to put up with the odds of the IE6 again. It wrecked my head, even having found different handy solutions for e.g. using PNG, it is still a major act to get it right. It used to be a challenge, but it has become a nuisance, so with effect of tomorrow, the 1st of March 2009, we will no longer be supporting the IE6 in web design.
The Internet Explorer 6 was developed in 2001, but since, the Internet has completely move beyond the IE6. The Internet Explorer 6 is in fact probably the worst browser ever. Just to list the two most important of its oddities:
- Barely supports the current standards in XHTML and CSS
- No native support for PNG Graphics
If we, the web developers and designer do not stop the support of IE6, nobody will. A lot of companies still use this old piece of software junk, because we still provide nice looking sites for it. Mostly at our or our clients costs. Why should they bother with the expensive roll-out of some proper Browser?
So what are the consequences?
Sites we design by standard will not be tweeked anymore to look exactly the same in IE6 and if they break completely, we will provide a text-only version by unsing a special CSS-Stylesheet. I addition, of course, we will offer the possibility of downloading a state-of-the-art browser of your choice.
It’s the clients choice
Some clients will insist to still have support for the IE6 and if our strong recommendations do not suffice, we will inplement IE6 support at additional costs.
Alternatives
The Firm List – Honest business …
I just got this reply to my request for mediadata, as i was thinking of paying for the Full Membership:
Hello Chris,
To be honest, I might be phasing out Full Memberships in the
near future. They really haven’t been worth it for me and I will
be exploring other options in the future.Pretty much every firm who has become a Full Member firm has
done so to either try to get higher up in the list when they are
in a city/town with lots of listings, or else they feel they’ve gotten
a lot of benefit (in whatever way) from being on The Firm List and
chose to give a little back.I really don’t think it will be all that beneficial for you… the features
I usually think are worth it are the chance to have more exposure
(on the site and in Google) through Profiles and Press Releases,
but I am exploring opening those up to all firms in the near
future, so it wouldn’t be fair to you.Sorry I don’t have that data together and sorry to sound like I
am talking you out of giving me money, but I think it’s probably
the right thing.Let me know if I can be of some other help.
I believe this is the true way of keeping customers. Well done, Matte.
