Bryan Pieper's Blog

On Friday, Google announced they are phasing out support for IE6 after March 1st, 2010.  I was beginning to wonder if this day would ever come. Since Google is putting their weight behind this, hopefully, the rest of the 'net will follow soon. Even Microsoft is urging users to upgrade. 

Just about any web developer will tell you how much grief, pain and agony Internet Explorer 6 is responsible for when building a website. Whether it be lack of standards compliance, undocumented "features", security issues, hair-pulling quirks or just plain stupidity, IE6 will not be missed. We all have a few choice words for IE6 (and IE7, even IE8).

So, let the celebration begin! Farewell IE6, don't let the door hit you on the way out! 

Have you ever had multiple friend requests by the same person on Facebook?

The other night, my wife Beka, mentioned to me about how she was annoyed by an individual that kept sending her friend requests. Of course I smirked a little because I am one who ignores friend requests from people for various reasons. 

// begin rant

I do not abide by the “everyone’s welcome” policy on Facebook. Primarily, if I have never met you in real life, I will not respond to your friend request.  I’m not interested in building a friend list to say, “hey look, I have a bazillion friends!” 

So please, if you send someone a friend request, give him or her time to respond. Not everyone is on Facebook everyday. There are many times when someone just does not want to be your friend on Facebook.  Move on and please do not send multiple friend requests to one person.

// end rant

What do you think about multiple friend requests?

Happy New Year! May you and your family be blessed in 2010 and the years to come! To start off the New Year, I wanted to list off some random thoughts in the tech and online world that have impacted me.

Do you own an iPod, iPhone or a Mac? A decade ago, that idea that one would choose a Mac over a PC was unthinkable. In 2000, I was a PC (and a Linux geek). Today, I am still a Linux geek, while I use a Mac at home and at work. 

The Mac and OS X transformed the consumer computing experience. This transformation has inspired a decade of new ideas and devices making Apple undoubtedly the most influential brand.  As I wrote earlier about the Apple Tablet, it could easily alter the mobile computing space again. Would Windows 7 be what it is today if it wasn’t for Apple?

Online search has changed dramatically. Yahoo is no longer numero uno. Have you used a metacrawler lately? Do you need to “Google it?”  We will see what Bing does this coming decade and what comes about from real-time search.

Hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

Have you heard anything about the rumored Apple tablet device?  There is plenty of chatter about the mythical device, so I won’t mention any speculation here.

It is amazing how Apple has managed to generate an extreme amount of publicity about this device.  2010 has even been dubbed as the year of the tablet.There is no other brand on the planet that can generate this kind of buzz and speculation about a product that doesn't exist.

If it surfaces, the tablet could the best thing since the sliced bread! I currently own a Macbook and would love to add this device to my collection. Though, if they make the bonehead move of tying it to a cell phone provider, I’m out. 

Google announced yesterday that they are combing relevant results with the real-time web.  The results include data from Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Jaiku and Identi.ca. 

Here is a sample result showing real-time data:

This has been talked about around the blogosphere for the past few months. Glad to see this incorporated in a way that doesn’t exclude the relevant results. To see more trending topics, check out Google Trends.

On a side note, Bing has had a twitter feed for a little while.  Haven’t found it to be any more useful than the existing twitter search functions.  What do you think?

Goodbye Delta, hello LUV! Thank you Southwest Airlines for not making me pay a fee to bring my luggage.

Last month, we traveled to Omaha to visit my northern relatives. I researched this trip for about 3 months looking for the best deal. I finally found a flight on Southwest.com. The deal was not only cheaper than the rest, but it didn’t include hidden fees to bring my clothes.

Seriously, why is it that most of the other airlines want to discourage you from bringing your luggage? Doesn’t the traveling experience most often include a suitcase or two? It is nice to know that LUV is still focused on the customer. They even let me chose my own seat... double bonus! Southwest, you have gained a customer today for not charging me to bring my luggage. Way to go!

What are your thoughts on bag fees?