13
Aug 10

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 may be… erm… amazing.

posted by: NickDuncan category: Online News 7 Comments

Yup, I actually said “amazing”. On the way to work this morning an update from Mashable on Facebook caught my eye. It appears that Microsoft’s new version of Internet Explorer may just surpass everybody’s expectations. I decided to do a little digging myself and found that Microsoft have made a “test drive” facility available for their new Internet Explorer version and the results really do look promising.

Internet Explorer is due for beta release this September.

Here are some metrics that have been released from Microsoft:

IE9 Acid Test

As you can see from the image, IE9 scores an amazing 95/100 as apposed to its previous score of 20/100.

To be honest, I never thought I would see the day that Microsoft would actually pull this off. Over and above all of this, Microsoft is trying its best at complying with requests from thousands of developers for better interoperability between browsers with regards to markup (tags, scripts and language). Microsoft has submitted over 2,100 tests to working groups at the W3C.

Well done Microsoft!

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13
Jul 10

WordPress 3 error: Warning: Cannot modify header information

posted by: NickDuncan category: Tutorials 2 Comments

This error message has the ability to drive some developers completely insane. However, the solution to this error is A LOT easier than you think.

The error:

Wordpress 3 error - Cannot modify header information

What to do

  • Identify the file where the error originates from. This is stated in the actual error. In this case it is “functions.php”, not “theme-editor.php”
  • Remove the white spaces before the “<?php” or “<?” tags as well as after the “?>” tag.

Believe it or not, you are done. Easy as pie.

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5
Jul 10

Caffeine withdrawal symptoms – watch out!

posted by: NickDuncan category: Random 7 Comments

Death by CoffeeToday I was faced with an ugly monster that is caffeine withdrawal. I felt like a druggie that had been hit by a planet repeatedly so I decided to do a bit of research to figure out what type of monster I was dealing with and found that caffeine addiction is nothing to laugh about.  It is estimated that one in eight people will experience symptoms that will interfere with their ability to carry out normal day to day activities and tasks. Although caffeine withdrawal is seldom dangerous, it can leave you feeling very uncomfortable for a few days. Trust me, I know!

Headaches

Most people suffering caffeine withdrawal will encounter moderate to severe headaches which can occur 12 to 24 hours after the last intake of caffeine. Be careful what medication you take at this point as combining caffeine with aspirin may be a bad idea. Consult your doctor before hand.

Depression and Tiredness

Through your caffeine withdrawal it may be common to feel slightly depressed and sleepy. Many people often have trouble concentrating and putting yourself through caffeine withdrawal may bring on significant mood changes. Hence it would be good idea not to plan on doing this near to an important date (such as your anniversary!).

Other Symptoms

Many other symptoms have been recorded, such as

  • Flu-like symptoms,
  • nausea,
  • vomiting,
  • muscle pain,
  • joint pain,
  • diarrhea,
  • stiffness.

How do I stop drinking coffee?

The best method in order to get rid of your caffeine addiction is to ween yourself off. i.e. if you drink 8 cups of coffee during the day, only drink 5 the next, 3 the day after that and so on until you’re eventually off caffeine altogether or you are on a limited amount of decaf. Make sure you drink lots of water in this time. Many experts reckon it will take only nine days to kick the habit which is much better than stopping smoking!

Good luck!

Image from MediumTall

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3
Jul 10

Google Chrome Market Share Increasing in South Africa

posted by: NickDuncan category: Online News 2 Comments

When Google first released the Google Chrome web browser, the initial sentiment was neither here nor there. However, times have changed as more and more internet users have converted to this amazingly quick and stable web browser. I have conducted some limited research on the market share relating to web browsers in South Africa.

South Africa

This research is based on information aggregated from 2.5 million page views  from 6 different web categories: Entertainment, shopping, travel, kids, blogging and business. These stats are a comparison between the dates Jul 2009 – Dec 2009 to Jan 2010 – Jun 2010.

  • Chrome increased from 5.64% to 8.16% (up 2.52%)
  • Internet Explorer decreased from 70.78% to 69.42% (down 1.36%)
  • Firefox increased from 15.43% to 15.57% (up 0.14%)

As you can see, South African’s are reluctant to let go of Internet Explorer.

Global

This data (from Net Applications) follows the same date range as above, Jul-Dec 2009 to Jan-Jun 2010 and yields similar results.

  • Chrome increased from 3.45% to 6.31% (up 2.86%)
  • Internet Explorer decreased from 65.24% to 60.74% (down 4.50%)
  • Firefox increased from 23.76% to 24.32% ( up 0.56%)
Browser market share Jan-Jun 20101
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2
Jul 10

Google Me, maybe?

posted by: NickDuncan category: Online News, Online Tools 4 Comments

GoogleThere’s been a “bit” of a rumor going around that the search giant Google may have another go at creating a social media platform. We all know that these rumours don’t just randomly appear out of nowhere, and after some research it would appear that a simple tweet has snowballed into a huge media-covered wonder.

A tweet originating (and then vanishing) by Digg’s co-founder, Kevin Rose wrote, in part, “huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon ‘Google Me‘, very credible source.” Soon after this was tweeted, the tweet disappeared without an explanation. What makes this even more interesting is that this rumor was apparently confirmed by former Facebook executive, Adam D’Angelo. D’Angelo stated, “This is not a rumor. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it. I am completely confident about this.”

Does this mean Google is actually putting in more effort to create the ever elusive Facebook-killer? I sure hope so, but with recent failed products such as Google Wave and the completely dissapointing Google Buzz, I sure hope Google culminates its best efforts to get this done properly. However, it IS evident what Google’s capable of and I’m pretty sure this can actually be achieved if there IS in fact ”a large number of people working on it”.

I for one, am not a Facebook fan as I despise having my personal information and pictures stored on a central server. I am however, waiting for the Diaspora launch which is rapidly growing in popularity. If Google can come up with something as secure and catchy, with a little flare I’ll be sure to give it a bash too. Good luck Google, you’ll need it.

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