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HowTo: Decrease Page Load Times
Whilst working on the weekend, I found that the number of simultaneous requests I could make to a web server was limited by my web browser – severely.
I have one Linux server, performing port forwarding for our overseas offices (mostly so they can use Remote Desktop).
I had developed a PHP page to display whether a connection could be opened on each of the forwarded ports. A connection attempt would be tried against each port sequentially, however this caused the page to load very slowly – especially since some requests were making a round trip from the UK to Australia.
On the weekend I upgraded the page to use a very small AJAX library I wrote. Although the page loaded quickly, the statuses returned from each AJAX request were slow.
Although the browser settings I ended up tweaking will not make the aforementioned page load faster (unless all users make these changes), it does make web pages load faster in general.
Firefox
- Enter into the address bar:
about:config - Then filter on the string:
connections - Change the value of network.http.max-connections to 64
- Change the value of network.http.max-connections-per-server to 32
- Change the value of network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server to 8
Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Create a new text file and save it with a .reg extension.
- Paste into this file the following text:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings] “MaxConnectionsPerServer”=dword:00000010 “MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server”=dword:0000010
- Save the reg file.
- Double click on it to import the updated settings.
Please note that a logoff or reboot may be required after altering the registry. If you are unsure about modifying your registry, please Google these settings first as I will not be held liable for any adverse consequences for these instructions.
In retrospect, I remember using a Firefox extension called Fasterfox in the past, however I would rather keep my extension list short.
Long ago, Mosaic and Netscape allowed users to configure the maximum number of connections. Here is a screenshot I took for you old timers ;-)
A brief look at XHTML5 / Web Forms 2.0
Although it will be quite some time until most users have HTML5 & Web Forms 2.0 capable browsers, Opera currently has some experimental support worth trying out.
Both drafts (HTML5 & Web Forms 2.0) are a joint effort between Opera Software, Apple Computer and the Mozilla Foundation.
If you have a recent version of Opera installed, head over to:
http://www.mikeskinner.net/xhtml5.php and checkout the more powerful controls and validation that will become available to web developers.
WebKit for Windows
The past week heralded the first public release of Safari 3 Beta for Windows.
Whilst I am primarily a Firefox user, this is fantastic news for web developers – we no longer need an OS X PC available to test our work. Previously I would need to test my web application at home, or take my Mac Mini into the office. It is also good news for the general masses who like a smooth and clean interface.
I have to give credit on the startup speed and page rendering time. It’s impressive, even for a beta. However with a beta also comes issues. For many, fonts just would not appear in web pages or on the Safari UI.
The unique thing about Safari for Windows is that is renders fonts similar to the way it would on OS X. The fonts in Safari will look different compared to those in Firefox, Opera or Internet Explorer. For an interesting read on why Microsoft and Apple render fonts differently, follow this link.
Thankfully, these instructions worked for me on both 3.0.0 and 3.0.1.
I just noticed that the WebKit Nightly Builds page has nightly builds for Windows. So if Apple releases aren’t fast enough to resolve issues you may be having, and you like the bleeding edge, take a trip to http://nightly.webkit.org/. I think the gold icon is way sexier than the silver one used by Safari – but maybe I don’t get out often enough?
Thank you Google for Gmail Fetcher
Several months ago I read that Google was trialing
Mail Fetcher on some Gmail accounts. Officially, Google’s position is that “This feature is currently only enabled for a limited number of users. We’re working on making it more available soon.”
Today I checked my Settings / Accounts page, and behold, a new option “Get mail from other accounts” was there. So I added two POP3 accounts…
What does this mean?
- Now I can benefit from Gmail’s spam filtering on my POP3 accounts. I no longer have a need for elaborate Thunderbird email filters. On average, only 1 spam message every 6 weeks makes it to my inbox – this is impressive.
- I can (optionally) automatically apply a filter to mail from any POP3 account.
- I can (optionally) immediately archive POP3 messages, use SSL, and leave messages on the orignal server.
- I can add up to five POP3 accounts.
I don’t store my mail on Gmail – I download it via POP3. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that when I access Gmail via POP3, it downloads mail from my other POP3 accounts too.
So if you haven’t accessed your Account Setttings recently, have a look – you may have access to this feature. Don’t let my repeated use of POP3 turn you off!
Dave, I Digg the new colours used on www.xhtmlized.com
I hope everyone has a relaxing Easter :-)
BaseCamp Tip: [UPDATE] tag
Just stumbled on a cool little Basecamp tip I didn’t know about.
When your typing a message/comment put [UPDATE]. Just like the sample below:
Basecamp turns your update text into a neat little tag graphic! Just like this:
Looks neat on the Dashboard too:
Vista Ultimate + Outlook 2007 Sync = Amusing Error Box
A work colleague encountered this message and I just had to share it.
(Click image to enlarge)
I might keep using Win 2003 Std Svr for a while longer!
Happy Holidays from the Futuretrack5 Team
On behalf of the Futuretrack5 team, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
MSIE 7 RC1 Second Acid Test Results
Someone over at Digg has asked to see MSIE 7 RC1 on acid. Here it is (click for larger version):
The past is here :)
Well,well it should be future, but I just got my old 1996 DAT tape with my songs demo recordings done today, means remastered (not a big deal) and burned on cd. I don’t know why I didn’t do it earlier, but the most liable reason is that I was lazy :)). These three songs are just a little apetizer of what I and my bandmate had done ages ago. Well recording quality and sonunds differs from our imagination, but the core of songs is bright. You might like them or you might not, any feedback is appreciated. The band name was Red Apple Worms (RAW), splitted on early 1997.
Songs:
Happy Birthday Dave!
Many happy returns and many more to come!
10.5 Leopard - No thanks!
OS X. It’s beautiful. In the next 48 hours, the features of Leopard will become more clear. But I will not purchase Leopard.
The other day I read Powerpage.org – Exclusive Leopard Feature Set Leaked
I cannot see any reason to upgrade. I’m probably one of the few users who don’t use Apple software. Because I use Windows, Linux and Mac; I have learnt to use free and open source software on all three. It offers consistency. Google Browser Sync is icing on the cake.
Let’s take a look at the features:
- Spotlight – I never use it – in fact the service is disabled. (I also disable the indexing service on Windows). A lot can be said for "Intelligent file management". I realise many people are not as organised as myself.
- Dashboard – Dashboard is disabled. It consumes memory and slows the CPU. On a G4 Mac Mini with a 1.42 GHz processor & 1 GB RAM – it matters. I haven’t found a widget that I need. Now that I think about it, Dashboard is Active Desktop on steroids.
- Safari – I rarely use Safari (once a month I will load it). If I want the latest Safari, I will download Webkit. In fact the gold compass is damn sexy!
- iChat – I don’t use iChat. I use Adium for MSN/ICQ/Yahoo and also Skype.
- Automator – I don’t use Automator.
- QuickTime – I use it occasionally – but I prefer VideoLAN.
- Mail – One word – Thunderbird.
- iCal – never used.
- Address Book – never used.
So what Apple software do I use?
- Finder. It sucks. It needs a tree view – doesn’t anyone at Apple use removable drives? Windows 98 explorer.exe is more functional – even if less pretty.
- iTunes. I use it. I don’t use it online because I have no need for any iPod. I just want to play existing music.
- Activity Monitor and System Preferences – where would I be without those?
So what does Mike use?
- Mozilla Firefox (Opera doesn’t cut it. It’s ugly, tries almost as hard as Shiira and doesn’t have useful extensions. Granted it’s better than Internet Explorer 7)
- Mozilla Thunderbird
- Adium
- Cisco VPN Client
- VideoLAN
- Microsoft Remote Desktop
- Aptana
- iTerm
- Chicken of the VNC
- Cyberduck
- MAMP
- StarTeam
- Various other open source/free apps (for wireless, networking), OnyX, Vienna
Apple has probably put a lot of hard work into Leopard. I have a G4 Mac Mini. No doubt most optimisation would have been Intel focused. Apple will continue to provide 10.4 security updates – this is imporant to me.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Apple (if Apple gave me a copy, I would install it). They are innovative and always ahead of the alternatives. I will keep using Win 2003 at work too – I have no desire to use Windows Vista – even though work would pay for it. That’s for another FutureTrack5 post though…
Keep living and loving people…
Aptana - Dreamweaver Killer?
Fair play, "killer" is in the eye of the beholder. I never get tired of the "killer brunettes" I see on the way home from work, but I get sick of hearing about "iPod killers" that are anything but…
So why has Aptana caught my attention?
I was reading Digg the other day and came across Aptana. It’s an open source (free in newbish) web developer’s IDE. It does XHTML, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML and probably more.
I have only used Aptana for a couple of hours, but it is the best IDE that I have never heard of. It has the most intelligent code indenting I have ever seen. It "understands" the formentioned languages. I get popups telling me which browsers support what syntax. Less keystrokes for neat, compliant code…
At work I am required to use Visual Studio 2003/2005. At home on my Mac Mini, I have been using jEdit but wanting something more like Dreamweaver.
The Aptana Screenshots do not really do it justice. I hope that many Mac/Linux users find it as suitable as I do. Oh yeah, and the Windows users might too :p
Peace out :-)
Trading well on Alexadex
Alexadex is a rocking website stock-market game. Buy and sell website shares, with prices calculated according the site’s daily reach per million. Gold!
If your running a site or about to start one up, why not buy shares in your own site? It’s a fun way to keep track on your sites rank and fuel your inner tycoon.
It’s been a small personal goal to get XHTMLized into the Alexa Top 100,000. It’s been sitting pretty within that range for the last couple of weeks now. Another tick for Joe’s Goals.
Latest Internet Explorer still falls short
Just under 10 years ago, the first CSS recommendation was published.
Microsoft has claimed that MSIE 7 has improved standards support, namely by fixing major CSS bugs as well as finally supporting alpha channel PNGs.
Whilst I have not installed MSIE 7 on my primary desktop – I have installed it on a server and inside a virtual machine for testing my product. My initial impression is that MSIE 7 falls short of the marks set by the likes of Mozilla, Opera and Safari.
In my opinion – Microsoft should have spent less time making a total mess of the browser’s interface and more time supporting the standards. Microsoft should give users a better browser, not just MSIE 6 repackaged with a new skin, a few bug fixes and a few new features.
Take style=”text-decoration:blink;” for example. Unimportant, but still not supported nearly 10 years after CSS 1 was published.
The interface wasn’t well thought out either – it lacks consistency. That kind of design might suit Windows Media Player 11, but not a web browser. The tabs are also ugly, although having tabbed browsing support is an important feature.
It’s not all bad news though. It also has RSS feed support, some phishing protection and XMLHttpRequest support for AJAX.
Microsoft has a long way to go before I would consider MSIE my primary browser. If they are serious about their web browser, they have 2-3 years of catching up to do. Hopefully their new browser does not include as many security issues as MSIE 6.
MSIE 7 Beta 3 Grade: Fail
PS: Standards compliant browsers will blink the word "Fail". Sorry MSIE 7 users!
Basecamp's Indispensable Page: The Message Archive
Seen Basecamp’s message archive? You find it by clicking the Older messages… link down the bottom of the Messages page, or the quicker way of just typing /msg/all/archive to the URL after your project ID.
These days, I’ve got upwards of 300 projects on the go. With such a hive of activity in my Basecamp, messages get pushed away from latest before I even see them. Often the message is still relevant and I’ll need to add a comment. Hence the Message Archive is indispensable.
But it’s a pain to navigate to.
So quick tip: Under your project settings, add a link to the Message Archive. (see attached). This saves me at least 10 clicks of the mouse a day.
I’ve heard some say that they outgrow Basecamp. Baloney! If anything I’m using less Basecamp features now than before! We don’t even use the To-Do or Time anymore. Basecamp still works like clockwork.
Accessibility - A Brief Overview
A primary motive for creating accessible sites is to avoid being sued for discriminating against people with different abilities. In general, sites that offer goods, services and information should be accessible – and in several countries, accessible websites are a legal requirement:
- USA – Section 508,
- UK – Disability Discrimination Act,
- Australia’s Disability Discrimination Act 1992 applies to web sites,
- The European Union is currently working on legislation pertaining to accessible websites.
The World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative published their Web Content Accessibility Guidelines just over seven years ago. In my opinion, some of the guidelines are less applicable (or even irrelevant) than when they were published. The guidelines were not keeping up with technology and the way that is utilised on the internet. At a quick glance, the new WCAG 2.0 is an improvement.
Below are some tips on how to improve the accessibility of your site. If you are seeking an exhaustive checklist, please use the links above.
Quick-start tips
- Use title attributes on links, buttons, labels, images, input fields, radio buttons, checkboxes, select lists, etc. Browsers that read web pages (also known as screen readers) will read these out. The attribute value should be concise, informative and not too repetitious when coupled with adjacent title attributes.
- Font sizes should not be absolute. Avoid using font-size:11px; instead use %, em, xx-small, x-small, small, medium, large, x-large, xx-large, etc. My father reduces his eye strain by setting MSIE to browse with the text one size larger. It must be frustrating to visit a site with the text set to 9px and MSIE doesn’t resize the text.
- Labels and form elements – link them using the label’s for attribute. For example:
- Avoid using tables for general content layout – instead use DIVs (this will also make your site easier to maintain). Try to use tables for tabular information only, and when you do, ensure that you use
tags in the first row. Screen readers use the table head to present the content better aurally. Some screen readers also announce when they are entering a new table cell – which could get annoying if the user isn’t looking at tabular information.
- Use valid markup. Regardless of whether your site is XHTML or more dated HTML – some markup validators will alert you to missing attributes.
- Warn users if links open in a popup window. Unannounced popup windows can be disorientating if the user can’t see windows opening.
This can be as easy as inserting an icon with a title attribute (mouseover the image to see it):
Link
- Skip links – if you place a link immediately inside your body tag, that links to an anchor at the start of your page content – it can be used to avoid reading out the header and navigation every time a disabled user loads a new page on your site (it can get too repetitive). You can do this with a link placed (absolutely) 500px to the left of the visible page so that abled users can’t see it. Set the title attribute on the link to explain what the link does.
- Does your site work without JavaScript? AJAX and DHTML are popular – but make sure your visitors have an alternative method to accomplish their goals on your site.
- Use an accessibility validator on your site. I use the HTML Validator for Firefox and Mozilla. This extension is primarily for validating [X]HTML, but it also an option to show accessibility messages too (note: this feature is turned off by default).
- Finally, download a text based browser like Lynx. View your site without images, CSS and JavaScript. Pay particular attention to how well your navigation works.
Being disability friendly is not always easy or quick to accomplish. Auditing and development time impose commercial costs. Some of these guidelines are just good site design, whilst others are just courteous usability. All users can appreciate these – regardless of their level of ability.
Dugg, undugg - a few minutes of fame and flame
Andy Warhol was right when he said everyone has 15 seconds of fame.
After being featured on Techcrunch, XHTMLized has naturally received some spotlight.
We made it to the Digg homepage for a few minutes but then pulled down as multiple people reported it as “lame” and “spam”.
I think the main reason for this is we’ve been pegged as some sort of sweat-shop. This couldn’t be further from the truth so I’d like to explain more about how XHTMLized works, as I posted on TechCrunch.
Please read more to find out about XHTMLized.
Web design involves a growing myriad of talents – information design, graphic arts, marketing, and copy-writing to name just a few. That’s a lot on a typical web designers plate. It’s hard to give each area your 100%. By having XHTMLized, web-designers have an option of not having to worry about markup. One less thing for their plate, meaning they can spend more time on other aspects of the site that they enjoy. Just like how building a house requires a whole lot of individual tradesmen, building professional websites ideally requires individuals with different talents.
XHTMLized customer base is designers, programmers and developers. We have very, very few direct business clients wanting a page XHTMLized for themselves. Frankly, I’ve never meet anyone outside the web industry would knows what XHTML or CSS is – although my Nan tries hard. So XHTMLized isn’t competing against freelancers at all. Far from it. Most of our customers are freelancers themselves. So we’re not taking work away but providing a resource which makes some people’s job as a designer a lot more enjoyable.
XHTMLized is the furthest thing from a sweatshop I can think of. To me, if your locked into going to an office 9 to 5, then your working in a sweatshop yourself. Serious. No matter how much you are getting paid – $5 a month or $5 million a year. Your giving up your time. Money can come and go, but you never get time back. As an ex Macromedia evangelist, I’ve travelled extensively. I’ve lived and worked in the US, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, China and of course my homeland Australia. And I have to say from all the people I have meet, the people are the happiest, are the people who control their own time. Be that the reggie bus drivers from Samoa or the guy writing poems for couples in the park. Having time to think about and enjoy your life is what matters most.
If there is a designer who is a gun at photoshop but works on a mac and doesn’t have a PC to do proper browser testing, why should they be left out in being able to deliver a companies site? Without this sort of service jobs like that may only be in the grasp of web design outfits with full-time CSS XHTML employees. Employees stuck in the office working 9 to 5….
We’re small. Currently there are 12 of us doing the XHTMLizations – some are just newly on board to meet the new demands. Majority are in the US – Trey, Matt, Lane, Tine, Jeff and Dustin. Stan, Joseph, Ilya, Dmitry and David dotted throughout Europe. Glorie and Aja in Asia. I’m in Australia where the company is based.
At XHTMLized things are totally flexible. A steady stream of projects flows through. Each project has a budget and timeframe. We XHTMLizers then pick and choose which projects we want to work on. XHTMLizers work when they want. They work as much as they want. They work from wherever they want. They take as many holidays as they want.
How many people in the world are free to just go fishing in the middle of the day and not have to worry about money coming in? Not many. We have this freedom.
Everyone who does the XHTMLizations specializes and has a passion for XHTML and CSS. With years of experience, the process to convert a design is damn fast. I totally agree that it would be difficult to live on US$150 a week. However most projects can be XHTMLized in a couple of hours. It’s easy to convert 2 a day which makes a very good weekly salary. With the pricing each project is quoted. So $150 is the base but this increase with more complicated or time consuming designs. Naturally a cut goes to XHTMLized – marketing, admin, tax further development.
Perhaps the best thing is the majority of XHTMLizers might only put in 20 or so hours a week – then have the rest of their life to do what they want – be it surf, study or spend time with the people you love. That’s the dream, and it’s the furthest possible thing from a sweat-shop I can imagine.
Another huge advantage is the community we have going. It’s very cool working with people from all over the world. It gives a much bigger perspective on life. I’ve freelanced solo before – it’s great. But it can be lonely and reclusive if your not careful. It’s great collaborating and sharing your life with others. Some of my best friends are the XHTMLized team. It’s a goal to have a big meet-up one day. A XHTMLized camping trip at some scenic part of the globe.
That’s why XHTMLized get 100s of applications a month from freelancers wanting to join (big thanks to everyone who have sent in their portfolios – we’re constantly amazed at the talent out there!).
Thanks for all your comments and thanks for checking out our service. I hope this post has answered your queries and provided more of an insight into what XHTMLized is about, who we are and how we work.
Even bigger thanks to all of you who have sent in quote requests due to the mighty Techcrunch spotlight. We can’t wait to work with you to make sure machines dig your designs. Thanks for your patience, as we get around to you all personally.
I’m going to try to submit this to Digg to gain a greater feedback of why XHTMLized was pulled.
TechCrunched
XHTMLized is on TechCrunch. Thanks Michael.
Web 2.0 Coloured Firefox Tabs
Web 2.0 has brought a radical change in the appearance of internet sites. Among others… larger fonts, simplified navigation, AJAX, disabled accessibility and lots of pastel colours.
On the weekend I discovered a farily useless extension for Mozilla Firefox. It makes Firefox tabs have pastel coloured backgrounds. It may make tabs slightly easier to find (if you have the same tabs open all day), but primarily it is an ‘eye candy’ extension.
Colourful Tabs Firefox Extension
The extension is a little annoying to install (with the DHTML at the link above), but once installed it is quite worth it IMHO.
- Use valid markup. Regardless of whether your site is XHTML or more dated HTML – some markup validators will alert you to missing attributes.