Besides fixing a couple bugs in my use of HTML5 History, I made a few changes to make sure it ran in all recent browsers as much as possible. I use feature detection and provide a notice to the user if a particular feature isn’t available. Except for a couple visual effects and the new advanced layout features, it works pretty well across all recent browsers. You can also download the PowerPoint version.

I’m sure it has plenty of bugs left and room for improvement in the coding patterns but hopefully you find it useful.

John

Last week I presented at BUILD Windows on new technologies in IE10/Windows 8.  The features I showed are available to sites running in IE10 and Metro style apps built for Windows in HTML.

The session is a high-level overview of what’s available – and still doesn’t cover everything – so if you’d like to learn more about these features check out the IE10 Dev Guide, which lists all the new functionality in IE10, and these other great sessions by my colleagues on the IE team:

• Building beautiful and interactive apps with HTML5 & CSS3
• Designed Metro style apps using CSS3
• Building offline access in Metro style apps and websites using HTML5
• 50 performance tricks to make your Metro style apps and sites using HTML5 faster

The session recordings are only available in h.264

UPDATE: My slides are now available here.

With that in mind, Arun (the moderator) collected a list of demos from each of us to showcase some of the new and emerging technologies.  All are very cool, but, not surprisingly, my favorites are a few from Beauty of the Web:

• foursquare playground
• Mike Tompkins Firework (yes, that’s 16 videos playing at once…your GPU – and your browser – matter)
• The Killers
• Jack and the Beanstalk (no, that’s not Flash or Silverlight)

And if you didn’t hear yet, IE9 launched on Monday night!  2.3 million people downloaded IE9 in the first 24 hours. If you weren’t one of them, download it now at www.beautyoftheweb.com.

To celebrate, the IE team hosted a party at Austin City Limits Live.  The venue is incredible and the setup for the party was amazing.  Add an open bar and three great bands and you have the best party I’ve been to in a long time.  Pop 17 has a video and here are some other shots:

The IE team’s even throwing a party with free drinks and good bands so if you’re around, be sure to stop by the party on Monday night.

See you in (hopesfully sunny) Austin!

While the US team’s hard-working, don’t-quit attitude and resulting success made me proud, I’m thinking of something different: their names.

Brad Guzan
Marcus Hahnemann
Tim Howard
Carlos Bocanegra
Jonathan Bornstein
Steve Cherundolo
Jay DeMerit
Clarence Goodson
Oguchi Onyewu
Jonathan Spector
DaMarcus Beasley
Michael Bradley
Ricardo Clark
Clint Dempsey
Maurice Edu
Benny Feilhaber
Stuart Holden
José Torres
Jozy Altidore
Edson Buddle
Landon Donovan
Robbie Findley
Herculez Gomez

Unlike most national teams, you can’t look at a player’s name and know the team he plays for.  It’s only in the lack of a common origin when looking at the entire group do you realize it’s the US.  From Donovan to Gomez, Hahnemann to Onyewu, I’m reminded that this country is a mix of people from all across the world.  And as a first-generation American, and someone who believe it’s the spirit of the people who come here from around the world that make this country great, I’m proud. 

Happy Fourth of July!

I’m at NT konferenca, a Microsoft conference in Slovenia, speaking on Internet Explorer 9.  So far the trip has been great.  The event isn’t the size of Microsoft MIX or TechEd, but there’s an amazing energy.  Partner booths are everywhere and people are excited about the sessions. 

It’s also great to see the momentum behind Internet Explorer 8.  Here are a few examples…

And my favorite:

This is my first trip to Slovenia and what I’ve seen is simply beautiful.  This morning I woke up to this view from my room’s balcony:

You can see all my pictures from the conference as I upload them here.

He sounds just as good live as he does in recordings.  A 13-piece big band backs him up, which I love hearing, and they even got to solo.

He surprised me with his humor.  For example, one woman in the front row would not stop screaming, even when he was just talking.  He addressed her several times, the first time saying, “wow, you’re crazy.  you love me now, but one day in my career you’ll probably kill me.”

Here are a few shots:

I drove north of Whidbey Island on I-5 and came down onto the island across Deception Pass.  When I first arrived, heavy fog blanketed the area.  I couldn’t see one end of the bridge from the other or anywhere close to the water below me.  By the time I hiked a couple hours through Deception Pass State Park, though, the fog had lifted.  These two shots capture the change pretty well:

The area is simply beautiful.  The water was blue and clear and the islands make an excellent backdrop.

I drove south from Deception Pass to Ebey’s Landing, the start of another hike I’d like to take in the future.  By now the weather was perfect and the Olympic peninsula and mountain range made for a great backdrop.  I didn’t see any whales surfacing but hopefully will on another trip.

I kept driving south through the island and took the ferry from Clinton to Mukilteo and back to Seattle to finish a great day (with a stop at Albertson’s for my favorite summer beer: Kona Brewery Longboard.  Kona also makes my favorite winter beer: Pipeline Porter).

Check out the rest of my photos here.

If you haven’t tried Bing yet, you should.  They do a great job for all queries and an excellent job for certain types.  For example, try ‘american airlines’ or ‘bmw’.  You’ll find categories of results to help you find exactly what you need.

Bing Travel is my favorite, though.  Search for a flight and it’ll tell you whether to buy or wait based on its prediction of how prices will change.  You can then subscribe to email alerts for that search so you know when to buy.  It’s incredibly helpful.

And the homepage pictures are simply beautiful.  I love seeing the image each day and learning a few new things.  Here’s a recent one…