Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

If you’ve ever tried to get an animated .gif file to continue playing in IE after a link is clicked, javascript runs for a form submit, or the window.location is set to a new URL, then you’ve probably already gone through the phases of frustration, and come straight to Google.

Here’s the setup. You’ve got a piece of javascript redirecting the user on a click (yes, I know this is a bad idea). Hopefully you got this from a legacy app:

<script language="javascript"><!--
function go(href) {
     $('spinner').style.display = '';
     location.href = href;
}
//--></script>
<a href="defaultAction.htm" onClick="go(this.href);return false">go</a>

Internet Explorer stops animated gifs when there is a javascript event, so if you try this code, it’s going to fail dramatically. What you need (for IE6 and IE7) is a hack:

<script language="javascript"><!--
function go(href) {
     $('spinner').style.display = '';
     location.href = href;
     $('spinner').src = $('spinner').src;
}
//--></script>
<a href="defaultAction.htm" onClick="go(this.href);return false">go</a>

Yes, reassigning the src attribute of an img will cause the image to keep animating, even when in the process of loading the next page. Note–this doesn’t work as well in Firefox. For that, you should either (a) upgrade the application to load data through AJAX, not URL redirection, or (b) use an iframe pointing to the image.

PS, if you need some ajax loading indicators, there’s a bunch!

Google Chrome, Google’s new web browser is out, and you can download it! Gizmodo earlier posted some screenshots (as did TechCrunch and Walter Mossberg), but I thought I should post a few of my own captures of the fast, new browser in action.

The first screen you see shows your recent history and a bookmarks bar

The about:memory page shows memory usage of Google Chrome, and any other browser you might have open (Firefox, IE, Opera, Safari). It’s a nice, sneaky feature that makes you feel better about how Chrome manages system resources.

Google Chrome stole Firefox’s Awesome bar. In fact, the Google “do anything” bar is less usable than Firefox’s, and uglier to boot.

As Reisigner noted, Chrome is faster than other browsers. It shows this off with its own task manager.

Chrome seamlessly imports bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history from Firefox

For those afraid Google might do some evil, and watch what you’re surfing on the internet, Matt Cuts in Preventing paranoia: when does Google Chrome talk to Google.com? writes about how Chrome will contact Google:

I knew that as soon as Google Chrome launched, some readers would ask tough questions about privacy and how/when Google Chrome communicates with google.com. So I decided to tackle this issue head-on. I talked to the Chrome team to find out if there’s anything to worry about. The short answer is no. For the long answer, read on.

So, Chrome is a gorgeous, fast, simple, and secure browser. Why not use it? No more crashing, lightning-fast page loading and rendering, faster javascript, a standards-compliant renderer, nice import features… there’s really no reason not to switch.

With the release of their latest version of Wordpress, 2.5, the official Wordpress site has undergone a redesign by Happy Cog studios:

The main page has been refreshed in boring, pastel colours, and prominent links to their Wordpress for Dummies book via Amazon affiliate link and their hosting affiliate suggestions have been added. I’m honestly not impressed with the redesign, which has included work on the administrative interface:

It’s as if they took the strong ideas and colors of Wordpress past, watered them down, spaced them out, and made sure everything looks sufficiently web 2.0 without actually adding a substantial improvement. Every administrative screen now looks different and inconsistent with the others. If I upgrade, I’m definitely going to miss the old theme. On the other hand, no work had been done since Wordpress 1.5 on the administrative look and feel, so any work, regardless of how it feels, is welcome. Perhaps this is just a stepping stone to a truly better admin panel?

The WP 2.5 release notes blog post indicates some other nice changes:

• Multi-file upload with progress bar
• EXIF extraction (the photobloggers will love this)
• Password strength meter
• Few-click plugin upgrades (I am expecting some 0day exploits here)
• Built-in galleries
• A new Shortcode API (Isn’t this just BBCode ripped off?)

I’ll probably end up installing this with the next release of my own blogs and themes, as the features look promising.