Fluid as in layouts that respond to user interaction’s, when a user resizes a window or changes it’s content the layout accompanies such actions. I’ve seen several sites with some sort of fluid layouts in contents and I really enjoyed seeing the pages adapating when one resizes the browser window, so, I did some searching on the subject and found some nice tutorials/examples of how it could be achieved.
I got some ideas from Menno, in a particular post where he addresses Web Development of Applications using CSS. He suggests two approaches to obtain flexible layouts.
First approach you have one panel that uses all 100% space available from you browser, if you have two they have to split that amount in two (whether it’s equal or not depends on whatever you have in mind!), if you have tree or more panels you distribute the space for the amount of panels.
You can check Menno examples using this approach here, here and a nested version here.
On the second approach he suggested that when you have multiple panels, only one should be extendible, all the other should its size fixed, for instance you’ll have tree columns, you defined a fixed size for the ones on the sides (left and right) and you allow the pannel in the middle to extend itself with the window. Menno also created a simple example using this second approach, you can check it here.
I personally prefer the first approach, simplicity rules, and the user can effectively distinguish what’s going on. One rather interesting example of fluid layouts comes by the hand of Cameron Adams, in one of his experiments he plays with some CSS and javascript to conceive a page that dynamically changes layout according to window sizes, see it working here (don’t forget to
resize the window!), and discover how you can go from this layout:
to this:
May 25th, 2005
It’s seems that the organization for this year “What the hack!” is in trouble, they just received an inspiring letter from the Mayor of Boxtel (the town that was supposed to receive the event), stating that it will not issue the license for the event with fear that the event will “endanger law and order as well as public safety”. The organization just released a press release, but the here’s a fairly literal translation of the letter they just received:
Dear Sir, Madam,
I have received word that you intend to organize an event “What The Hack” from July 28th 2005 through July 31st 2005 on Landgoed Velder in Liempde.
In order to organize such an event, you will need to obtain a permit ex art. 2.2.2. of Boxtel local ordinance 2004.
In light of the fact that there is grave fear that this event will endanger law and order as well as public safety, I, in my capacity as an authorized official, am herewith informing you that I will not issue such a permit.
A copy of this letter will be sent to the owners of the Landgoed Velder estate.
I assume that I have sufficiently informed you.
Yours truly,
MAYOR OF BOXTEL,
J.A.M. van Homelen
When I attended to HAL 2001 I was surprised for the excellent organization the event had, and I personally don’t recall that there were any incident there. Well it’s to soon to make anything, but nevertheless it would be a shame if the event didn’t happen because of this. It’s one of those situations where one can shout: “What the HACK!”
May 24th, 2005
Much have been writen and said about online banking security in Portugal, but some days ago I received an email from one of my banks regarding some recent security failures (if one can call them as so) that affected some of their costumers.
As with most of the client/bank activities, banks tend to hide some if not all of the security information, but as Internet is probably their most important client channel these days, of at least the one with greater growth and potential, and being a insecure media by nature makes them tend to be more clear. I state this because I know by experience that banks do almost anything to hide fraud problems they have, so that most of their clients consider their operations almost secure, and as banal as it might be.
The email stated a peculiar kind of fraud, phishing, one of the older forms of aquiring important third parties information, but in these version of the act meanning when someone copies the login windows of your bank (or any other website where one needs a login/password to enter), change the inner form, so that once a user enters his/her personal information (might not even be logins or passwords) it’s information instead of being sent to the bank their expecting the personal information is sent normally to a machine that’s compromise in a sense that whoever had all this trouble also has some kind of control over that machine so that he/her can recover the stolen info.
Addressing to a recent wave of these types of attacks in Portugal, most of the banks decided to take measures to inform their users about this type of occurrence, and opted from one of several options available today to secure this problem.
I don’t really recall if it was or not regarding to this problem, but sometime ago, one of my current banks had it’s login process changed, the motiv: Security! And I say: Pure bullshit! Yup! No extra security there my friends! Just a stupid process to lead the user in thinking that’s actually more secure, when it’s indeed opening the door, to the most ancient art of stealing passwords: deliberately watching someone introducing their passwords! 
I won’t stat which portuguese bank opted for this process, but I’ll explain the reasons that make me state this fact. Their login process begins with a rather common type of form:
but, as soon as you try to enter your login information, whether by clicking at the text boxes or by using the keyboard a new pop-up window opens (dawm! I hate pop up’s! Thank you Firefox!), and a “virtual keyboard” is loaded:
This means that in theory you couldn’t use your own keyboard to enter the information, rather than that the bank expects you to simply use your mouse to click by click enter your login information! I found this concept particular interesting in a multitude of ways. Starting from the fact that some browsers don’t open the new window at all, and even from those that opens (vast majority! clap! clap!) I have one in particular that still let’s you enter the input directly on the text boxes, so no advantage there! 
Other major security point here is the time one can scroll the mouse from key to key, as opposed to the velocity one clicks on multiple keys on the keyboard! Yup, it’s true, hackers love that extra time!
If this isn’t enough to you, I can also state that those hard and secure passwords that you can never spell out, but still can enter them by instinct, won’t work that way on the virtual keyboard, since you have to know them by memory, and they can’t memorize as simple action, but rather in a set of multiple actions (moving the mouse, press button, move again.. etc).
I’ve check the code that builds the page, but couldn’t find anything there that prevented me from programming a brute force attack to the script that receives the users login information, so to me, just one of those extra, fancy, loose time features!
But not all of the banks are trying to re-invent the wheel, one of my other banks uses the system I find more well designed, and from what an user can actually get some kind of security against these problem. They just randomly ask for some of the characters/digits that compose the users password. Across site you’re advised never to release your entire password, they even mentioned it on their mailings and paper documentation.
It’s not the most elegant solution, but at least in theory only the user knows the entire code and he never has to reveal it, which I find the most usable approach!
Just in case mind your back!
May 20th, 2005
The EU recently ran a workshop dedicated to open source software and international cooperation - and its presentations (available online) make interesting reading, if you need an international view on public sector open source software, or you’re simply curious about other open-source initiatives trough out the world.
May 20th, 2005
According to a report I came across some days ago about hopping habits and their implications on the online merchants the Internet is rapidly becoming the ultimate window shopping experience for online shoppers, in a sense that online shoppers are more prone to visit 10 or more sites before making a decision on where to buy and return to that website. It kind of simulates what we do on our everyday life when shopping downtown or at the mall.
The authors of these report also state that shopping cart abandonment is a new trend in online shopping, something that didn’t happen for instance two years ago, and that forces online commerce sites to rethink about their marketing strategies. They suggest that online merchants set their focus on the reasons that drive costumers leaving their site without buying. The authors refer to the fact that window shopping is one of downside effects of having better navigation tools and faster connections than before, allowing the shoppers to visit and compare more sites before making a decision.
Online shops should redesign their costumers experience if they haven’t done it before, Some of the suggested improvements is turning their shopping carts in more than just a commodity or a mere convenience factor, since it’s rapidly became a key factor for the user that window shops on their sites, and later returns to make a purchase. Online consumers have learned to use shopping carts as the ultimate comparison shopping tool.
Another curious thing mentioned in the report was that online costumer often take as many as 18 hours before making a purchase, which wasn’t even near to what most of the merchants was expecting, but a rather common thing for the common shopper like myself. Almost every-time I shop online I end up spending quite sometime comparing prices across different sites, sometimes even in the same company like amazon.com and amazon.co.uk for instance, and later (sometimes even days later) return to a particular site, recovering my shopping cart and making the purchase. According to the report here’s some average times from first visit to purchase:
- 50% took more than 1 hour
- 40% took more than 3 hours
- 35% took more than 12 hours
- 28% took more than one day
- 21% took more than three days
- 14% took more than one week
- 4% took more than two weeks
Times are indeed changing in the e-commerce world, or not!
Further suggested reading:
May 20th, 2005
