Introducing EasyCaptions: A simple system for adding captions and an interactive transcript to online videos. EasyCaptions uses progressive enhancement to provide the best possible experience for all visitors, regardless of their browser’s JavaScript, HTML5 or Flash support.
It does exactly what is says: expand textareas. No more, no less.
If you change the default controls to match the look and feel of something your visitor has never seen before, you run the risk of creating confusion, distrust, or alienation. Even worse, if the controls are poorly made or conceived — and many are — you might make your site less usable. A cardinal sin.
The more I think about it, the real beneficiaries of a uniform UI across browsers aren’t the site visitors, but rather the designers who demand artistic control and the clients who insist the product looks the same everywhere, without understanding that it’s okay (even expected) to have some differences.
Most browsers do not allow images to be cropped using CSS3’s border-radius. Tim Van Damme recently posted a workaround for this issue. Here’s a MooTools script that automates Tim’s workaround yet degrades gracefully when JavaScript is disabled.
Mozilla, the makers of Firefox, refuse to support the MP4/H.264 standard because it isn’t open-source and free from licensing constraints. Without Ogg, Firefox’s HTML5 video is rendered useless and requires a Flash-based fallback system. However, Firefox’s handling of the video element breaks the fallback mechanism. A scripted solution is required.
Here’s a simple script that will detect whether HTML 5 video is supported in the browser, and if it is, will check to see if this is Firefox. If yes, it deletes the specified video element but leaves the Flash fallback in its place.
MooTools’ removeClass utility will only work if the classes you want to remove are listed in the same order as the target element’s className property. Here’s a new removeClasses utility that fixes this shortcoming. A framework-neutral version is also provided.
I’m currently working on a new quiz system at work, and decided I’d incorporate Filament’s wonderful stylized checkboxes and radio buttons into my project, which meant it was time to roll up my sleeves and code me some Moo.
As a Mac user, one of the more annoying issues I frequently encounter is funky PDF handling in Firefox and Safari. Here are some things you can do to get PDFs working in your browser(s).
I’m happy to introduce you to my latest project, LearnSWFObject.com
This week — a year and a half after settling with Microsoft — Eolas has gone on the attack again, filing suit against “Adobe, Amazon, Apple, Argosy Publishing (publisher of The Visible Body), Blockbuster, Citigroup, eBay, Frito-Lay, GoDaddy, J. C. Penney, JPMorgan Chase, ‘transactional’ adult entertainment provider New Frontier Media, Office Depot, Perot Systems, Playboy Enterprises, Rent-a-Center, Staples, Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments, Yahoo, and YouTube.”
