Dave Massy's Blog : Ramblings

Zones, Testing and Dave

DMassy — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:57:00 GMT

I just made a post on the IE Team blog regarding Zones and Mark of The Web. It's always a good idea to test with default settings and run pages in the internet zone if that is where they will be deployed so that you experience what users will experience.

As noted on that post I'm leaving Microsoft after eleven years. It has been a difficult decision to leave a place that has been part of my life for so long but some things can't and probably should not last forever. My reasons for leaving are personal as it is time for me to make a few changes in my life. I wish the IE team all the best and I'm looking forward to seeing the next versions of IE.

Thanks to everyone both inside and outside Microsoft for some great times
-Dave

Strange things Web Sites do!

DMassy — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:58:00 GMT

I'm going to start making occasional posts when I find a website that is doing something particularly bizarre although I won't name the specific websites in question.

Yesterday I decided to send some feedback to a local radio station about the lack of decent coverage of the recent storms in the Northwest which meant that many of us were isolated without power, phone, internet etc. So I went to their website which appeared to be quite professional and found a "contact us" page where I clicked on the appropriate email address. Nothing happened. At this point I realised that the email address wasn't text but an image!
The only reason I can think that they went to the trouble of creating images of text is to avoid spam. I guess that's a creative solution to the spam problem but it make it more difficult for people to give them feedback and leaves those using screen readers with no solution for contacting them at all. Accessibility is really important for websites and is something that every web master should consider! I'd expect a radio station of all things to want to be accessible to the visually impaired.
Naturally I typed in the email address and sent them feedback on this as well as the poor news coverage of the storm.

Have you seen something really strange/bad that a website is doing?

-Dave

P.S. The website concerned has promised to fix the problem.

Thick skins and responsibility

DMassy — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 15:09:00 GMT

I can't seem to log into Neowin to leave a comment on yesterday's interview but there was one post from FloatingFatMan that I wanted to comment on:

I'd personally HATE to be on the IE dev team, cause you know that no matter what you do, a sizable portion of the userbase are just gonna bitch bitch bitch... Very demoralizing... (See... look... Even I could be construed as bitching about it with my first paragraph :-))

I don't find it demoralising at all although I won't deny that there are occasionally days when you have to have a thick skin. The truth is I love being on this team and I think that's a sentiment shared by other team members too. Working on what is arguably the most used piece of software in the world is a big responsibility, as we have the ability to affect people, their productivity, their enjoyment and the productivity of companies in so many ways. We don't take that responsibility lightly, but I do not see it as a constraint or a heavy burden we must bear, I see it as giving our jobs real meaning and purpose.

We're continuing to grow the team. Visit http://www.microsoft.com/careers/default.mspx and have a job that you couldn't possibly hate!

NeoWin interview

DMassy — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 14:53:00 GMT

I got interviewed over email by the Neowin guys http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?category=main&id=26911

They included a link to my blog here so I figured it's about time I posted an entry. Although this is one of those circular links :-)

I know I need to post here more frequently. In the meantime I've done a few posts on the IE team blog http://blogs.msdn.com/ie

-Dave

Undeserved Attention

DMassy — Mon, 21 Jun 2004 00:48:00 GMT

Wow! I got /.ed - http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/04/06/20/1740256.shtml

Great to see all the supportive and accurate comments coming in :-)

I do have to point out though that my return to the IE team really isn't big news. The Internet Explorer team has been very busy for some time and rightly been focused on security as a priority. It's clear from the comments though that many people are unaware of the great work the team is doing for Windows XP SP2 to ensure a secure browsing experience. Please take a look at Windows XP SP2 following the links in my previous post if you aren't aware of it.

Wireless expectations

DMassy — Thu, 12 Feb 2004 19:27:00 GMT

I suddenly realised yesterday how I've come to rely on wireless access. I have it at work and I have it at home and I've come to expect it at airports and coffee shops. Yesterday I found myself with a couple of hours spare at Logan airport in Boston waiting for a flight in terminal B. I found a seat with a power outlet next to it so I could charge up my laptop battery for use on the flight and was pretty pleased. However terminal B seemed totally lacking in wireless hotspots and I wanted to synch up my email so I wouldn't be quite so behind this morning, I was quite prepared to pay $10 for a couple of hours of access!
All the airports I've been through on the West coast recently have wireless available, Seattle, San Fransisco, San Jose. I guess it's easy to take these things for granted. As it was I was too tired to get much productive work done and the flight was full making doing any work on the laptop near impossible in the cramped seating of coach.

We talk about the occasionally connected world and how things have changed from people jsut using desktops which are always connected to being more and more reliant on laptop and tablet PCs which are occasionally connected. This is where the server reliance of the web breaks down and we need a way to ensure we have data cached on the client for offline use synching up automatically when connectivity is available. That's a smart client!