Bryan Pieper's Blog

Django 1.2, my favorite Python web framework, was released this week. You can view the details on djangoproject.com. They are working a few minor fixes for 1.2.1 to be released next week.

I was able to spend some time upgrading thepiepers.net website from Django 1.1.1 to Django 1.2. The changes in 1.2 made it a must-upgrade. 

After installing, I had to make a few adjustment to get the codebase compliant. The syndication framework changed. In addition, I had a few quirks left in my code from Django 1.1 that caused some issues. I ended up just refactoring my RSS feeds to work with Django 1.2.

Last weekend, we went to Disney World. As usual, we packed the Mac Book with every intention of connecting to the World Wide Web at many points during the weekend.

We arrived at the resort on Thursday night and found a note in our room indicating that the internet was not going to be available starting on Friday. At this point, I was thinking to myself, “not a big deal.” Not a big deal, because I thought there might be another network in range.  As it turns out, the building we were staying did not have internet at all since it was very new. Not only that, there were no other networks in range. Bummer!

Have you ever watched a TV show or movie online that played the same commercial over and over again? At the end of the show, were you more likely to buy a product from that company or less likely?

My wife and I both enjoy “The Big Bang Theory,” but it airs at the same time as “House MD”.  Because of the scheduling conflict, we have to watch it online.

The other night, when she was watching The Big Bang Theory, they were playing a commercial for [INSERT brand here] at every break in the show. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal since we are all accustomed to some level of commercial interruptions from regular TV. In this case, the same commercial was played over and over again. 

Microsoft has not been serious about Internet Explorer since the days of Netscape. Back in those days, they set out to oust Netscape as the #1 browser. As you know, they succeeded in that mission.

With Microsoft’s recent announcement of the preview version of Internet Explorer 9, I believe they might be serious about the future of Internet Explorer. More specifically, they seem to be serious about the idea of advancing the web.

When IE8 was released, Microsoft had basically upgraded its rendering capability to CSS2 and increased the JavaScript performance. The rest of features did little to advance the web. It did bring IE up to the days of Firefox 2, a little dated, but not bad!

Enter Internet Explorer 9, with Firefox-grade JavaScript performance, SVG, HTML5 features and support for CSS3. It is currently in development, but I see this as the most significant upgrade to IE since IE6.

I was browsing around Google last night and to my surprise the look and feel of the Google search results had changed! Here is a look at the new design.

This morning the results were back to normal. Looks like they are testing it on a small number of users right now. 

So far I like the new look, it is still uncluttered with a few nice features.  It had some Bing-like qualities.  Then again, it also has some Ask.com-like qualities.

I’m not sure about the sitelinks.  I didn’t really notice them at first. They blended in with the description of each result.  I like having the related searches on the left and do like the larger search bar.

There isn’t much chatter about it online, so the jury is still out. Have you seen the new look yet?