Pixels (px) Vs. Em

Okay so this is a highly debated topic between what I believe are perfectionists in their own regard. Unfortunately for the other group, I’m going to take the side of pixels. Here’s why:

When I build a web site, I write code for it to be viewed on a computer screen. If I make a mobile version of that site, I write code for it to be viewed on a smaller mobile-device screen. And in both cases I believe that my site should render in a pixel-perfect manner across all browsers. Because that’s what is intended of me. That’s what I get paid for.

The W3C recommends using EMs on sites because of their scalable nature. What most people don’t realize is that most of the W3C’s recommendations don’t get adopted by all browsers, and that browsers themselves are customizable software. So there’s no way of determining the final outcome when you use EMs. Pixels on the other hand always deliver the desired results.

Pixels have been criticized of being too rigid. But that’s exactly why I like using them. Because they’re 100% reliable. And I believe that as developers, our jobs end in making sure our web sites render perfectly across browsers. It is the job of the Operating System and browser to make sure the user gets a customized browsing experience. For example, I’m pretty sure visually impaired users and users who have large screen resolutions browse the Internet on a 200% – 300% zoom on their browsers. Unfortunately, that’s where our web technology stands today. What’s the point of making fonts bigger yet images stay the same size?

Mobile devices will continue to rise as a popular means of browsing the Internet. But most “computer” web sites are not meant to be viewed on a mobile device. Either because they’re designed that way, or because there have less bandwidth-heavy mobile versions of the site available. In both cases, pixels play a significant role in ensuring a perfect browsing experience on a mobile device. One must not forget EMs are calculated based on pixels. So its more a question of responsive design than calculation of font sizes.

There definitely are occasions where EMs trump pixels in terms of them being a measure and not a unit themselves. And they should be used in those situations. I don’t see why percentage values (%) based on pixels can’t be used in those situations either.

IMHO pixels should be the standard in web development, not EMs. Not only because of their reliability and ease of use, but also because the pixel is the unit based on which a web page is actually rendered, not hypothetically rendered.

Do I need HTML 5 and can I use it now?

As of writing this post, the Internet is going bonkers about HTML 5 and how it is going to revolutionize the web as we know it. HTML 5 got a sudden surge in popularity in the last two years because many big players like Apple and Microsoft have started, or have promised to start support for HTML 5.

Although HTML 5 is expected to achieve a ‘W3C Recommendation’ status by 2022, many if not all major browsers have rebelled and have started to implement partial support for HTML 5 increasingly with each release. As things stand, HTML 5 is extremely shaky at the moment with different browsers implementing different features of HTML 5. This reminds me a lot of the browser wars from the ’90s, but the big difference is there no longer is one major player monopolizing the Internet, and browsers are now trying to be nicer to gain popularity. As current trends go, HTML 5 is gaining popularity like never before, and with good reason. It would be the next step in the evolution of the web.

But all that said, one extremely important question remains: Do I need HTML 5 and can I use it now? The answer to that question should be: yes, with the number of tools available, things are certainly looking up for HTML 5.

But …

Unfortunately, I would say NO. But allow me to elaborate. I feel HTML 5 is extremely unstable and would require an additional amount of effort to pull of successfully, if at all. If you are building an HTML 5 site for say, an iPhone, there will be no problem because you’ll have to check for compatibility for one device. But if you are looking to start a web site from scratch, or planning to upgrade your web site, I would recommend against using HTML 5 (as of the date of writing this post) because regular XHTML is supported across all modern browsers, and you don’t need HTML 5 today. When it comes to whether you can use it now, again, I would say NO because you can only partially use it now.

I would love to see HTML 5 become what it should be, and soon. Major players like Google and Facebook should impose a mandatory upgrade of all browsers to support HTML 5, and all users to upgrade their browsers. That would be the only way HTML 5 can see daylight anytime soon, other than the few bits and pieces which will slowly start to gain acceptance until it is released fully.

But until that happens, we don’t need HTML 5 immediately, and what’s worse: we can’t use it immediately.

The great payment squeeze

Pay me? Please?

As far as my understanding of services go, one gets paid for services if the client is satisfied with the service offered. A simple connection, and an exchange of synergies. I’m not sure if it is ‘customary’ here in India to not ask for money after a service is rendered, but people squirm where they stand when faced with the moment of sorting out finances. Sometimes, and usually the side which owes money gets offended at this ‘impolite and inconsiderate gesture’ on the part of the service provider. Or I could just be imagining things. I do have a very active imagination.

Whatever the cause, Indian companies, particularly media agencies and other service providers with no tangible products seem to find it difficult to make their clients pay them. This fact caught me by surprise because these agencies are in no way small-time. Quite the contrary, these were established firms with big clients.

Now since there are no funds to go around, it obviously affects the company both in-house and otherwise. Freelancers and vendors get caught in the crossfire, which is extremely unfair, because they are independently functioning businesses.

What I find hard to understand is why these agencies hire services when they are unsure of clearing payments for them. Or rather, with what nerve. The thought process that sparks this kind of behavior is a mystery to me, unless, there is something sinister going on in the background. Again, it could be my active imagination, but maybe… Just maybe.. They don’t really give a crap!

With this lack of empathy and basic business etiquette, a very unhealthy atmosphere is created for all involved. There would need to be a kind of buffer at every level of involvement. The freelancer needs to set a buffer because the client has a history of not paying on time. The client would need to set a buffer because their clients never pay on time, and so on.

I have recently changed my policies to reflect this, where I specifically mention that my client’s payment to me is independent of their clients’ obligation to pay them. I think it would be best if all companies had this term clearly outlined in their contracts, especially if they plan to outsource a certain part, or all of the service.

Anahita Open Source Social Networking Platform finally launched

Anahita Screenshot

Have you seen that scene from the Matrix where we are introduced to Neo in his dark apartment and his computer’s searching the Internet for something? That’s how I was sometime in November of 2009. Only I was looking for the perfect open source social networking platform. I was very impressed by BuddyPress, but then I stumbled upon something that raised the bar so high that anything else just didn’t seem right. It was the Anahita Social Platform.

Despite several revised road maps, changes in technology and promises of public launch in January of 2010; Anahita is finally out.

This underrated social platform is absolutely stunning in terms of architecture, UI and overall design. What’s better, it runs on Joomla and the Nooku framework. It makes BuddyPress and practically all open source social networking platforms look very outdated.

Its demo currently requires an annoying form to be filled out and it does not have free documentation or a developer community, which would turn  about 90% of the their audience off, and I feel this needs to be looked into. But other than that, it is absolutely brilliant and I highly recommend this.

Looking forward to more developments from them!

Hilarious YouTube client-vendor video

Rich Internet Applications (RIA) and the future of the Internet

Flex

No doubt, RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) are the future of the Internet, today. There seems to be a surge in demand for Adobe Flex and other RIA frameworks which can be rapidly developed and with amazing results.

I’m going to highlight Flex, because its the best example I can think of to make my point. RIAs were built to bridge the gap between old browser technology and what is about to unfold in the next year or so. So, in short, Flex and other such technologies will be on the decline once HTML 5 is officially out. This is because one will not need plug-in RIA technology like Flex (which btw is basically Flash, and hence is the proprietary technology of Adobe).

This reminds me of an interesting person I met in a company I used to work for who mentioned that optimizing web sites for mobile phones was the future. I insisted otherwise, stating the simple fact that mobile technology was then leaning towards computer technology, and hence the market that was being referred to was very short-lived. And it has happened now.

This is on almost identical lines to the RIA surge we are seeing today. Flex, Flash, Sun Java, Microsoft Silverlight and all other proprietary technologies will have a run for their money once HTML 5 is out, and there would no longer be a need for these plug-ins to be installed on the browser.

What will remain, though, is good old JavaScript. Now, the second and more important point I would like to make is this: What can Flex, Silverlight and Java do that JavaScript cannot? Absolutely nothing. They are all exactly the same thing. Microsoft and Adobe have done an excellent job in creating a need in the market and tapping them in just the right places. But if they are going to survive the HTML 5 aftermath, they’d better come up with something spectacularly unique.

What I am heading at, if you haven’t already guessed the flow, is that JavaScript and AJAX are the best technologies to use (IMHO) in terms of scalability and in terms of availability of resources and developers (check my previous post on what web technology to use on your web site). If Google Maps, GMail,  Facebook, Yahoo, Bing, Twitter, WordPress, Banks, Airways, Railways and virtually every major player use JavaScript and AJAX; there is something obviously very wrong with everything else, right?

“Freelance Companies” in India

India Emerging

Let me begin by explaining the meaning of the word “Freelancer” in plain and simple words:

“A freelancer is a self-employed individual“

For the origins of that term and some more interesting facts on freelancing, I recommend reading Wikipedia’s page.

There seems to be a common misconception here in India that companies can “work on a freelance basis” . What ever that means, is up to your discretion. Companies are companies. Freelancers are freelancers. These are two different things which have been entwined and abused for the contents of someone’s wallet far away.

I used to find it very hard to comprehend why the number of professional freelancers is so minuscule in a country like India until I started making sense of the larger picture: We have no talent to pull it off.

Companies are ruining the image and charm of freelancing by claiming freelance services and quite frankly turning potential clients off. I’m going to share something with you which I stole off http://www.getacoder.com

We have more than 9 years of experience in Software Fields to work with commercial customers around USA as well as all around Glob. Customer satisfaction is our valuable profit. We have expertise in various domains and having enough work experience in it. We have experience to work with many Web Technologies Flash,Photoshop,Dreamweaver,other Programming Languages , Software evelopement, Database Developement and other Designing related work. We have much experience to work with ASP,AsP.net,PHP, MySQL, MSSQL,VB.net and WordPress Joomla 1.5, Drupal. Please open PMB for detail discussion. Thanks Regards [ Company name removed in case of law suits ].

I have no interest in making this up. If you have visited a site like GetACoder, I’m sure you see something like this in EVERY post. The whole essence of freelancing, which was what spawned these sites, is lost and is replaced by cheap services by companies who should be given an award for survival tactics.

What’s worse, potential clients assume that the prices quoted by these scumbags are “market standard” and expect professional freelancers to charge “something along those lines”.

In short, India is a destination for mindless outsourcing at an extremely affordable price. It should come as a surprise to a country with the second largest English speaking population in the world to not understand the world around it.

Don’t believe me? Google: “freelance companies in india”

Thank you, come again.

Google kills Internet Explorer 6!

Trash IE 6

Google is officially stopping support for Internet Explorer 6 this year. It seems all that campaigning was not in vain, and not unintelligent. Finally companies are standing up to the menace that is IE6. With GMail and other popular Google phasing out support by the end of this year, 2011 will be a very good year for the Internet, which incidentally coincides with the Microsoft D-day for the end of support for IE6. Either way, next year will officially be the end of Internet Explorer 6, and this year is the official “beginning-of-the-end” year!

This is what Google had to say:

“In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology.  This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5.  As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.”

What web technology to use on my site?

Biggest Piece of the Cake

I think this should have been one of my first posts. If you’re making a web site for your business to showcase your company, etc. you will use XHTML-CSS and JavaScript for best SEO results.

But what if you have a bigger plan? What if you want to build a larger web application? What server-side language will you use?

The only person who can answer that is you. But you must get guidance from an unbiased source. Web developers tend to become fanatics of the language they are used to working with. It turns into a kind of patriotism. People will recommend a lot of web languages and frameworks and pull clients into what they are comfortable working with, as opposed to what the need really is.

You know you’ve picked the right technology to use on your web site if:

• It works without any hitches
• There is tons of help available on the Internet (documentation, forums, communities, open source)
• There are tons of companies / individuals who can take over half-way through the project
• It is the most popular

The last point is stressed because the more popular a technology is, the lesser the chance of you getting into trouble. We don’t want something that, only the person who developed your application and a handful of others know about, do we? We want something that everyone knows about, so we have more options to choose from.

In my opinion, the technology that falls under this category is PHP. This has nothing to do with the fact that I am a PHP developer. I migrated to PHP from ASP.NET because of all of the above mentioned. There are many skeptics and articles all over the Internet that might disagree, but I don’t want to end up red-faced in front of my clients who want more flexibility in developers, and scalability. The fact everyone will agree on, whatever the reasons might be for it, is that the number of PHP developers in the world outnumber any server side language by a HUGE number.

If you are looking to use a web technology in India, you can bet on PHP because it is about to become the largest PHP development community in the world. This means unlimited support and flexibility.

There are newer languages that boast better features, but don’t come close to the market share of PHP.

The closest example I can think of is: Would you pick a Windows PC with all its vulnerabilities and viruses for your office or a Linux-based computer? I’ve used Ubuntu Linux. I’ve never been a bigger Windows fan. I admit Ubuntu is far superior to Windows, but I felt isolated and let-down because Windows boasts a larger market share and all major software run on it perfectly.

In short, it all comes down to:  support and market share. If, in the future, some other technology can boast such a market share, I will migrate to it and recommend it.

Successful Client-Freelancer Relationships

I came across a very interesting post where the author describes in detail the “rules” for successful client-freelancer relationships on FreelanceSwitch. I would have preferred “guidelines” or “tips” better than “rules”.

I think it holds good in many client – service provider relationships outside of freelancing as well.

Here it is: http://freelanceswitch.com/clients/rules-for-successful-client-freelancer-working-relationships/