Feel free to include it in your IE Stylesheet:

/*

An ODE to IE6 – By A Webdesigner
—————————-
The road has been long,
full of anguish and pain.
How long will we endure,
the internet’s shame.

Once you were nice,
all light and fast.
Then came Firefox,
and lit up your ass.

Get a better browser,
the geeks have been saying.
The internet looks weird,
No PNGs displaying.

Conditional Statements,
feel like dirty code.
With anger and hope,
I write this ODE.

I create thee,
oh you dirty IE stylesheet,
With the hope of the future,
and pressing delete.

*/

I’m throwing this post out as a last resort. Somebody throw me a life ring here. Some people post solutions to problems, I’m posting a question.

Does anyone know if the most recent update to IE6 supports the “progid:DXImageTransform…” filter to get PNGs to work properly? Another potential issue could be that I am running IE6 in Parallels on my Mac. Either way, IE6 doesn’t work with any PNGs. This includes an entire backlog of sites that I have done in the past.

I’ve tried multiple things and none of the usual tricks work. Burn M$ Burn. Anyone?

** Update **

That filter uses a directx component on a video card. Won’t work with virtualization software.

Thanks Jeff.

I didn’t see a date to start selling these, just a price. It could be vaporware for all we know. Apple is on the eve of dropping the first real multitouch screen device on the market, and this could be Microsoft’s attempt at stealing some thunder. It’s not like we haven’t seen this strategy before. Either way, the concepts behind the device are cool, I just wish their end user was the consumer, and not the retailer.

There have been rumors of Apple switching all of their displays to MultiTouch technology, we will see when Leopard comes out if their is any truth to it. If there is, this is another product that turns into a yawn, but if not, way to go Microsoft.

I read Jonathan Schwartz’ blog entry on the subject and it definitely gives some perspective as to where the Microsoft beast is headed with their hard line, uncooperative attitude towards the Open Source Community and collaborative standards in general. Sun was faced with the same choice when they started losing to open source, and ultimately came to the conclusion; if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

At this point, Microsoft can still easily turn the ship around, but if they keep going the direction they are heading, it’s curtains.

** Update

back·fire -fired, -fir·ing, noun
to bring a result opposite to that which was planne or expected: The plot backfired.

Apparently the report quoted may just prove the opposite, Microsoft is more susceptable than Open Source when it comes to patent infringements. Read it here..

What they don’t understand is that the people who contribute to these platforms aren’t motivated by money, nor are they motivated by business, they’re motivated by the love of what they do. Microsoft is on the way out, and this reminds me of another behemoth that is grasping at straws on the way out, the RIAA. People have often told me when the MS discussion comes up, watch out for MS, they will recover.

I just never thought they would go this route. They build shitty software for the most part, they should instead scrap what they have done and build off the open source communities. Kind of like a certain fruit company I am fond of. Just another nail in the casket for the company which had it all.

How does that work? I grumble and complain, I tell folks some of the horror stories of Microsoft and how they’ve gotten too arrogant to adhere to the “hey let’s get on the same page” policies of the little guy. In doing so I have switched tons of people to Firefox. I remember when people would get joked on for using AOL as their web browser, the beginning of the end for AOL. I’m pushing that same concept amongst friends, oh you still use IE? And it’s pop-up blocker? And it’s anti-spam-phishing-spyware bundled package with activeX? It looks like we will see more gmail and thunderbird users out there. I hadn’t had any qualms about Outlook until now. Microsoft, stop pissing off the influencers!

The gist of the conversation I remember, the rest was lost in a bit of a haze, so please forgive the generalizing without examples. Essentially what I got was this, yes, we work at Microsoft, there are some good things here, but Google/Firefox/Opensource/Apple/Web Standards are awesome! There is something troubling in this thought pattern.

Take someone like me, I am extremely passionate about what I do and the web. If someone like me were offered a job at Microsoft to do what I do, I would be leary. Why? Because I don’t see passion coming from Microsoft. My two conversations illustrate this to a certain extent. Both of these individuals lit up when we started talking about OpenSource, Web Standards, Apple, or Firefox. I’m curious to know how many Microsoft Employees get excited when they start talking about their own products. Could someone really get excited about releasing a bloated browser full of security holes that isn’t even up to web standards? Everything I have read indicates scope creep nightmares within Microsoft and there is no better killer for motivation.

Back to me. Personally, if I was working on a project, and it’s release got pushed back two years for bureaucracy, for competitors products features, for scalability, for compatability, for office politics, for whatever reason; I would be thinking about how cool my competitors are too. Google releases products and updates blazingly fast. Apple releases products and software at the same speed. The OpenSource movement is so egalitarian it’s hard not to be enamored by it and have a win one for the little guy attitude.

Microsoft has to convince Microsoft to change, it would be nice to see a Microsoft who makes decision for the good of the community, not maximizing shareholders wealth. And in the end, good community decisions make for good business. I don’t see that happening anytime soon. To the two of you whom I met, I would love to keep the dialogue going. Chances are, you have something to say.