Most people developing complex designs for the web are making use of transparent 32-bit PNG images which are fantastic and beautiful and crisp in every modern browser. Sadly not all browsers in wide use are modern, namely Internet Explorer 6. In order to make transparency work in IE6 there are a number of JavaScript solutions available which generally work wonderfully well. However I recently had need to support a page in IE6 whose designs required transparent PNGs but for circumstances beyond my control did not permit me to use JavaScript at all.

After some consideration I had a realization, I didn’t need my CSS to validate either. Since I was able to use invalid CSS I could make use of some dirty hacks in order to achieve my goal. The trick was that none of the images could be inline, so they were all implemented as background images. For each element which had a background image which was a transparent PNG I set the background image normally and then in the IE6 hack changed the background image to a blank.gif¹ and then set the proprietary filter property the the element. The code ended up looking something what is shown below and it worked like a charm under these admittedly narrow circumstances.

#selectorId {
	background: url(/path/to/image.png) top left no-repeat;
	_background-image: url(/path/to/blank.gif);
	_filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src="/path/to/image.png", sizingMethod="scale");
}

I can’t help but jump on the band wagon and be excited about the new browser announced by Google because from the ‘viral’ comic they released and has been subsequently scanned in and posted on the web. The reason the new browser is so exciting is because of the process information Google claims will be available to users.

And just like with your OS, you can look under the hood with Google Chrome’s task manager to see what sites are using the most memory, downloading the most bytes, and abusing your CPU.

Personally I can’t wait to get my hands on this gem when it is released and take it for a spin.

I’ve begun reading 43 Folders pretty regularly and typically I agree with what is written there or at least find in it an interesting perspective. The article Attention & Ambiguity: The Non-Paradox of Creative Work struck a nerve of sorts with me.

In particular the following paragraph bothered me:

Most all makers with longevity talk about a process that involves regular, scheduled work periods that allow generous time for warmups and getting into what Csikszentmihalyi himself has called, “Flow.” For as long as he or she can stay in that Flow state, a good artist is capable of synthesizing unbelievably disparate material and ideas in a way that’s often satisfying and productive. For those who cannot, it means another morning of video games, Facebook, and binge eating.

The reason it tugged on my reply strings is pretty basic, it seems to attribute the state of “Flow” solely to artists. I realize this is not the most significant part of the article, in fact it seems almost like an aside but reading those sentences colored the rest of the article for me. I focused on this so much because I disagree with it, it is not simply artists who get into a “Flow” but I would say any individual who is focused on creating or producing something tends to get into a “Flow”. When I’m talking about “Flow” I’m thinking of a specific mental state which I can most easily describe as focused on a task or action with something akin to tunnel vision. Given a definition such as this arguments could certainly be made for expanding it’s applicability far beyond an association with people creating things.

Other than the above bit though I generally agree with what Mr. Mann is saying. Talent and brilliance does not occur in a vacuum. Producing great works requires a number of things including attention, refinement, and criticisms.