Robert Palmer
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MobileMe browser requirements page found
Joining in on the conversation about tonight's .Mac outage, reader Chad sent us a link to a page he discovered on .Mac. He said that while trying to access his .Mac service on his iPhone, he was redirected to a MobileMe browser requirements page. One of the suspicious things on the page is the fact that "calendar" is spelled wrong (i.e. "calender"). You can see a screen grab of the page after the break. The page in question shows Safari as the top browser to use, followed by Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7. On last night's talkcast (MP3 Link) Michael Rose, Robert Palmer, and I talked about the possibility of Apple marketing the Safari browser for Windows users through the MobileMe service. It looks as if that guess is true.Thanks, Chad!Update: Apple has updated the page (see new screenshot after the break).
Found Footage: Managing Active Directory with Workgroup Manager
Years ago, Macs didn't even acknowledge the presence of Windows networks, which made those LAN wine-and-cheese parties pretty awkward. Now, however, OS X machines are exemplary network citizens, and apparently can even manage Windows workstations under the right circumstances. TidBITS linked to a roundtable discussion at Cornell University, where Philip Halcomb, of Cornell's Mann Library ITS staff, demonstrated managing user accounts in Active Directory. Now, this wouldn't be very exciting, except for the fact that he was using Mac OS X Workgroup Manager to do it. Sweet. Phil's part starts at about 7:30. It's a long QuickTime video, too -- almost an hour -- but for IT folks, especially in an education environment, the roundtable series is a must-see. (Thanks, MHA, for Phillip's name!)
Safari 3 allows styled form controls
This was included in WebKit builds beginning several years ago, apparently, but is something I recently stumbled upon. Historically, Safari has been pretty insistent on making sure web page form fields (like drop-down menus and buttons) retain the Aqua look-and-feel. Web designers, on the other hand, have gotten used to choosing colors and font sizes for those controls, so they fit in with their site's design. Hopefully everyone can now be happy: Safari 3 allows web designers to style form controls with CSS. The results are pictured: instead of a glossy, Aqua-like control, Safari displays a matte-finish control in the color and size of your choosing. You can even apply background images to form controls. If you don't apply styles to your controls, then Safari retains the Aqua look. This shouldn't require any changes to code that's already written for other browsers: Safari 3 should pick right up on the formatting, and display it as the designer intended. It does, however, open up WebKit-specific CSS to your form controls.
You're gonna have to face it ...
Hello everyone! My name is Robert Palmer, and I'd like to first thank you in advance for letting me blog for you here at TUAW. I've been using a Mac since 1992, and have owned five Macs since. By day, I'm a web developer, specializing in clean, honest, standards-compliant XHTML and CSS. By night, I am asleep. Here's me a dozen years ago, photographed with my high school girlfriend.*Up until I started working for myself last November, I was the de-facto IT guy for a 15-workstation Mac network in a graphic design studio environment. I plan to cover plenty of ground for you at the crossroads of the design and Mac worlds. Cheers to everyone, and be so kind as to leave your best "Addicted to Love," "Simply Irresistible," or "Looking for Clues" jokes in comments. That's right, get it all out of your system now. *First commenter to correctly name the model pictured wins at the Internets. Hint: It was photographed in a classroom.
