This article’s a bit more technical than the sort that usually appears here on The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century. However, since it’s about a technology that you, as readers of this blog, probably use every day, I thought it would be worth posting here. Enjoy!

Over at the design-oriented Smashing Magazine site, you’ll find Brad Colbow’s comic, The Life and Times of Internet Explorer 6. It’s the browser we all love to hate, even for those of us who collect a nice fortnightly deposit from Microsoft into our bank accounts. I got a great laugh at DemoCamp Toronto 21 when I said “If you got a cat when IE6 came out, it’s dead now.”

It wasn’t always this way, as the first section of the comic shows (you can click it to read the whole thing):

Once again, you can read the whole comic over at Smashing Magazine.

There’s a fair bit of history covered in the middle section of the comic, but I feel that the most important sections are the first (shown above), and the end, shown below:

That is the real question: “Can we stop supporting IE6 yet?”, followed by a real answer: You have to look at your audience. If you can drop IE6 support without ruining the experience for the majority your audience (you have to make the call on what constitutes a majority), then by all means, go for it.

Expecting people outside our industry to have as much interest in browser technology is about as fair as my insurance agent expecting me to have as much interest in the ins and outs of insurance as he does. I only care about the amount of coverage, the deductible, the slip of paper that goes into my glove compartment, and how much I have to pay a year. Everything else is just yappity-yap from some suit who’s interrupting my work day, trying to show me pages of boring legalese. That’s how we look to most end users.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

It’s the second Monday in October, which means it’s Canadian Thanksgiving (or in French, Jour de l’Action de grâce)! I’d like to wish you a safe and happy holiday and remind you to think of what you’re thankful for.

First came the Calvin and Hobbes reinterpretation featuring Calvin on Ritalin, which made many readers sad. Then came the comic featuring Calvin shrugging off Ritalin’s effects.

I’ve also pointed you to an essay that postulates that Fight Club is really just Calvin and Hobbes set later in Calvin’s life:

I now present Dalvin and Holly, which features a character named “Dalvin” and his imaginary friend:

Here’s a selection of my favourite political editorial comics of the week:

Bloomberg: Canadian Health Care, Even with Queues, Bests U.S.

Allan B. Bevere: On Why the Church in America Cannot Speak Truth to Power

Cogitamus: Wingnut Values on Parade

The Root: Jimmy Carter, True Son of the South, Hits Nail on the Head

FiveThirtyEight: IBD/TIPP Doctors Poll Is Not Trustworthy

[Thanks to AZSpot!]

Click the comic to see it on its original page.

I’m at the Science 2.0 conference today, the conference for scientists and what they need to know about how software and the web is changing the way they work. In honour of the conference, here’s a comic about one of the problems of space travel:

Most of the comics on LeftyCartoons.com flop for various reasons, but I rather like this one:

Click the comic to see it at full size.

Dork Shelf, a blog devoted to Toronto and nerd culture points to Nextround.net’s collection of photos of guys in so-bad-they’re-good Wolverine costumes. My favourite one is Jewish Wolverine, complete with adamantium menorah claws.

If you’re looking for costumed adventurers who really are “from the Tribe” (such as Kitty Pryde, mentioned recently in this blog entry), look no farther than Comic Book Religion’s catalogue of Jewish superheroes. The oddest one is “The Acidic Jew”, whose touch can dissolve anything.

Click the image to see it at full size.

It’s an odd idea, but I’m into it: next Thursday, May 7th, Portland, Oregon’s Floating World Comics will be hosting Full of Pryde, an art show featuring different interpretations of Kitty Pryde of the X-Men. Kitty’s been a popular character ever since she was introduced in Uncanny X-Men #129 way back in January 1980 and was played in the film X-Men: The Last Stand by Ellen “Juno” Page.

The folks at Floating World asked “dozens of comic artists, graphic designers, and illustrators” to create their own renditions of Kitty Pryde, which will be made available for sale, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Hemophilia Treatment Center at Oregon Health and Science University.

You can see some examples of various artists’ renderings of Kitty Pryde at the Full of Pryde blog that they’ve set up.

Today’s Garfield Minus Garfield strip – a web comic strip featuring Garfield comics with the titular character Photoshopped out – explains why the cool kids play accordion:

Thanks to Guillaume for the heads-up!