As IE6 fades into the background, I tend to use transparent PNGs more and more often. A common use is as part of a rollover sprite using a positioned anchor tag to manipulate various jQuery visual interactions.

Of course, I then finally remember to take a peak in IE6 and cringe and realize I’m pushing the limits and usually slap in some conditional comments and feed up a GIF for IE6.

jQuery has certainly made dealing with IE6 easier, as a lot of the built in UI widgets and plugins make the effort to deal with the IE6 discrepancies.

There are also several PNG-fix plugins for jQuery to deal with IE6: pngFix, iepngfix, ifxPng, etc. These are nice, but I hadn’t found one that dealt with background positioning when using transparent pngs.

Today, by accident, I came across a solution. Angus Turnbull who runs TwinHelix.com has had a great PNG Fix script file that goes way back which I’ve used numerous times. Somehow I missed the news but about a year ago, Angus came out with Version 2 of his great script. The big update includes the ability to position a transparent PNG file in IE, which is what is needed to make the CSS sprite rollovers.

GREAT! One catch…IE still has an issue with positing the PNG when called in the CSS via a hover state. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Angus then suggested a solution that seems obvious in hindsight: add a simple addClass call via jQuery to swap the CSS class on hover. For whatever reason, IE6 is cool with that and moves the position of the PNG image for you.

In summary:

• Grab the IEPNGFix files from TwinHelix
• Add the ‘ img, div, input { behavior: url(“iepngfix.htc”) }’ line to your CSS file. (Read the included instructions for specifics.)
• For the hover effect, provided you are already using jQuery elsewhere on your site (and these days, who isn’t?) add a function to swap out a class name for IE6:
  
if ($.browser.msie && $.browser.version == 6 ) {
$(".yourLinkClass").hover(function() {
$(this).addClass("fixingIEhover");
}, function() {
$(this).removeClass("fixingIEhover");
});
};
• Add one extra declaration in your CSS file (likely your separate IE6.css file) to position the background for the new class you created ‘fixingIEhover’.

I have to imagine someone more observant already came across this type of solution. And maybe there’s already a jQuery plugin that DOES do all of the above. If there is, let me know! Otherwise, I hope this helps those of us left that still have to tolerate IE6 for a tad bit longer to make it just a bit easier.

Please add this feature. Thank you.

• “I’m looking for a rock star freelance visual designer to work with me on several projects…”
• “…is seeking rock star Graphic Designers to work in various parts of the Twin Cities…”
• “…and rock star developers to create comprehensive design systems…”
• “…for a rock star front end freelancer to help us keep our clients happy and their businesses growing…”
• “…maintaining a rock star appearance and pleasing smell….”

When I find a potential job lead, I then write a personal cover letter and send it in. Of course, that’s not what rock stars do. We’re too busy to deal with individual contacts like that. So I thought I’d go ahead and do a ‘open cover letter’ to all those looking for rock star web pros!

Dear Babe or Dude:

I am writing in response to your job posting looking for a Rock Star web genius. I believe I would be a good fit for your organization as I have really awesome hair and look pretty good in jeans. I’ve been building web sites for 10 years and have been hooked on heroin for the past 4. I enjoy a good jam that doesn’t necessarily go anywhere but none of the wussy ‘jazz fusion’ or ‘flash intro page’ crap. Meetings are fine as long as a bong is being passed and we don’t start before noon. I do ask that you adhere to my employment rider that is attached in lieu of a resume. Do note that I will not accept green M-n-M’s on the premises at any times. I look forward to your $10,000 advance at which time I will definitely begin maybe thinking about doing some web work for you.

Rock on. Hendrix Rules! UX 4EVER! Peace out. Later.

But then a twitter conversation kicked off with someone asking for some advice on their CrowdSpring sourced logos. And that got me thinking about how these design contest sites are all still thriving like crazy.

Yes, there’s the typical arguments against these sites such as: they are taking advantage of designers…it cheapens the industry…they’re full of copyright infringed sources…it’s slave labor, etc. All valid, sure, but none of those arguments ever seem to convince anyone to not use those sites to source design, or for designers to not submit to such sites.

The bigger issue that I see is that it’s simply just a bad purchase. I tried to work up some math and a detailed explanation full of examples, but hopefully I can get my point across better via a simple analogy:

You are hungry. You have $10. You can either:

a) Go to Old Country Buffet

or

b) Grab a sandwich at the Birchwood Cafe*

(* = insert whichever yummy, fresh, tasty, organic, local, made-to-order, fave sandwich shop you prefer)

(Point being one place is going to give you a lot of options, none of which are really worth the $10 you are spending)

I thought I’d try and start a series of posts that point out interesting designers and artists around town that I’ve stumbled upon via my web travels. I thought I’d start with a list of type-related firms and people around town. The list is surprisingly long.

• Chank. We all know chank. Fun stuff.
• FargoBoy, which appears to have just one typeface, but it’s a nice one. Created by Paul Wide L’Heurreux which, I presume, hails from Fargo. Currently in Minneapolis.
• Formerly of St. Paul, then Rural MN, and now in Minneapolis, Eric Olson and Nicole Dotin are Process Type foundry pumping out some amazing product.
• Mark Simonson of St. Paul has been creating typefaces for local publications and media for decades. Wonderful typefaces and a fun blog as well.
• Locals Stuart Sandler and Mike Ibach have an army of sites including Fontalicious, FontBros and Font Diner

Have others to add to the list? Let me know!

I can’t promise that it’ll an exciting read in all of its scanned-in-bitmap-text glory complete with typos and bad grammar, but some of you might get a kick out of the screen shots at least. Enjoy!

the-future-of-graphic-design-1995

A teaser screen shot:

(remember Zima?)

Of course, the very week we did that, the Boxee team announced support for Netflix streaming. Well, I had to check that out, so visited the site and 5 minutes later, we were watching Netflix on our new TV. Whoa! Cool!

I thought I’d put together a handy guide to compare the options:

Winner? At this point, I’d say it’s a solid tie. Which should be of some concern to the Satellite and cable operators. Unlike the music industry, the TV networks appear to have caught on that the consumer wants the content online, and rather than fighting, they seem to be embracing it. Hulu is extremely fair and convenient service for the consumer. We get TV on demand in exchange for a handful of ads. Netflix streaming is instant gratification at its best.

Yes, there are still networks that have yet to get on board, but given the success of Hulu and Netflix, I don’t see how they can plead ignorance and not get their things online soon.

With a little luck, having to deal with the Cable and Satellite industries will be a distant memory within 5 years.

And since we’re on the topic of letterpress, and given that it’s election season, here’s a bonus link to some very fun political-centric letterpress prints by Depression Press.

Today, David Brooks has a column talking about the class war. It’s mostly an opinion piece on how the GOP is bleeding itself of traditional supports. The snippet that stuck out to me, however, was this one:

The Republicans have alienated whole professions. Lawyers now donate to the Democratic Party over the Republican Party at 4-to-1 rates. With doctors, it’s 2-to-1. With tech executives, it’s 5-to-1. With investment bankers, it’s 2-to-1. It took talent for Republicans to lose the banking community.

That’s a ratio that seems oddly outside the  norm for an industry that I never really considered leaned one way or the other politically. What makes technology liberal (aside from Al Gore inventing the Internet jokes)? I could come up with some random theories, but I’m probably not in a position to back any of them up. Just thought I’d share that interesting datapoint at the intersection of technology and politics. I’ll leave the analysis up to the pundits.

Over the past month or so, at LEAST once a week, we get a nice lady robot calling us to inform us that my union supports Al Franken.

Well, there are a few things wrong with these phone calls:

• autodialing robots are evil
• I’m not in a union
• My wife isn’t in a union
• after the 5th time, do they really think they are cementing votes? Methinks they may be pissing off votes more than not.

So, I hunt down Al’s campaign web site and call the number. Apparently he’s turned his daughter into a voice mail robot. So, I write an email. An email to not-so-subtley complain about these very annoying and misplaced campaign calls (even if they may not be sourced from his office).

Do I get a nice personal response? An apology? Well, no. Instead I immediately get added to the campaign’s email spam list.

I thought McCain was the only candidate running this season that was clueless about the internet?