Can you believe that with 177 million blind people in the world there is only one location where you can play online poker when you are blind or visually impaired?

All inPlay offers three games (see below) of poker that are accessible and although you can only play for fun and small prices like DVD players, gift certificates, free memberships and trophies it could be interesting to see if accessible slots are the next big thing in accessible gaming.

Texas Hold’em

Take part in the worldwide phenomenon that is Texas Hold’em. Real opponents, virtual tables, fake chips, full of excitement, thrills and fun. All inPlay is proud to bring you the world’s first ever fully accessible online Texas Hold’em game, for you and your friends to play together as equals.

Crazy Eights

At last, a fully accessible game for the whole family — All inPlay Crazy Eights, a faithful translation of the world’s most popular card game (also known as Uno).

Draw Poker

5 Card Draw: Nothing wild. The classic game of poker. Real, live, human opponents. Win bragging rights with your friends. And if you lose, its only play-money, so you can keep your house.

“We have an extremely gracious and kind group of volunteers that donate their time to helping new members with anything they might need. These volunteers are often blind or low vision, so they know the challenges that come with using screen readers and screen magnifiers. They are happy to show you how to play the games and have a great time. They will introduce you to our friendly online community,” says Jérémie Spitzer, cofounder of All inPlay LLC on the website.

Will we see web standards and accessibility in the world of online casino’s soon?

The term Timed Text or (TT) is the term of text media synchronized with other media that of the Video and Audio. In other words, simply put text media with a foreign film, or for the hearing impaired, or subtitles. This term of time text applications came up with the first SMIL 2.0 applications and thus became part of the W3C over all indulgent to implement this tool into all forms of Audio and Video applications. Since then the W3C has formed a working Group that will initiate the Time Text to all existing XML application software that can be implemented to audio and Video text formats.

So when you think of Time Text it is not a new thing of today, it’s just an application added to the part of Audio and Video to enhance the outsourcing of media on the applications widely used today such as SMIL, SAMI, Windows Media Players, Quick, Mpeg’s to name a few examples. Therefore, we will look at the everyday use in the world of technology and see where we implement these areas of Timed Text ( TT ) and how it is used.

Timed Text what it is exactly

Timed Text is not a new invention by any means, but as we, all know the W3c saw that we need a TT that we can all use for most common world texting. HTML, and XHTML along with XHTML + Time can all use this application, it was up to the W3C to finally look at an alternative constructive use of Time Texting in a software format that could be used widely by applications. Therefore, the saw a need for the HTML, as it needs a Time Text in HTML format that can be adapted to all applications of Audio and Video. A tool of text plus timing of Audio and Video for countless reasons, some of Subtitles, from foreign language to the world of adding time Text to Video and Audio, like that of Karaoke and Closed Captioning for the hearing impaired. The W3C first attempt at this was a release development in 2003 for the adaptation of SMIL version 2.0 called the Distribution Format Exchange Profile or the (DFXP)

Therefore, you can read what is being said when volume is low or spoken in a different language adaptation or made for the hearing impaired. A tool to be added to Mpegs, and Mp3 and Mp4 formats, as well as other software’s like that of HTML, XHTML and so forth. The first draft was compatible to Quick Time, SMIL, SAMI, and many other Audio and Playing devices on the net for presentations of Time Text synchronization with the Audio and video Presentation. A Synchronized word texting with the application of video and audio like we mentioned before is not a new area but a necessary one when giving presentation to foreign clients in the business world today. Do they not only see the rich text image or hear sound but also can follow along in text format when the presentation is presented to them.

Timed Text and its Uses

As we can see there are many different uses and implications why we would use Time Text technology tool in the world of our Business and personal lives today. For the Business reasons we would use this in presentations to a large variety of reasons such as Closed Captioning, and Hearing Impaired, Foreign Language, with subtitles. Thus to give a clear crisp presentation of text with synchronized wording to the Audio and Video of the Presentation for audience that cannot hear everything you say but can follow along with the presentation. In the personal Life of the everyday person we use Text Time tool in Karaoke, and in Audio and Video of our everyday lives, when you watch that foreign film, and thus or the volume is just too low, for the hearing impaired to be able to follow the film, or Audio of entertainment. Therefore, if you have ever watched a foreign film with subtitles then you have done Time Text , or sang at a party or night out at a Karaoke again you have used Time Text.

Overview of Time Text

More Over to the point a small tool of time text in today’s world can make a difference to our Business and personnel lives. If you want to be heard well in a presentation and you use time text technology in your creating of the project, you find that the overview response is greater than ever before. Yet did you not get that line in the movie you watched when they spoke the language you did not understand. Well did the production of the movie not use subtitles for your native tongue so you can follow along with the film. Without Time text, we would find that our lives would be different you would never get that contract at work if you had a client that was hearing impaired because you forgot to give them the text with your presentation. As for you would not venture into a foreign film, or try to sing at a party without the words in front of you on the karaoke machine.

Resources Used:

• Timed-Text - a need for interoperable captioning options and authoring solutions
• First Public Working Draft for Timed Text Distribution Format Exchange Profile (DFXP)
• W3C Timed Text Homepage
• Timed Text Overview
• MPEG-4 Part 17
• Timed-Text - authoring solutions
• Support for 3GPP Timed Text
• Overview of a timed text stream

As developers, the evolution of web browsers is something we’re all concerned about. How are they the same? How do they differ? Who’s winning the so-called browser war? What about security? Web standards? Just what are the current statistics in this world of browser madness? Does any one browser have an advantage over the others? With these questions in mind, we spoke to Chris Hofmann, Director of Engineering of the Mozilla Foundation, and asked him about Firefox and where it’s headed.According to W3Schools–which admits that its audience is more browser-biased than other, more general sites–MSIE users account for 63.5 percent of users, while Firefox has substantially moved up in the world, accounting for 26.3 percent of users. Netscape users account for slightly less than 1 percent, and Opera users account for another 1.8 percent of users (leaving 7.5 percent of users unaccounted for). You can check the W3School’s stats yourself here. Our own stats show that Firefox has captured a total of 19.53% of the market, an impressive increase from past months.

As noted above, Firefox is making great strides when it comes to its user base. Many developers are actively promoting the use of Firefox, whether it’s by developing sites specifically for the browser, or encouraging users to download it and give it a try, promoting it as a more secure alternative to MSIE. So what’s so special about this browser?

Firefox Security

We asked Chris what he sees as the single most important feature for a web browser. He explained: “Most people try out Firefox because they have heard it provides a solution for the many security and privacy problems they have encountered with Internet Explorer. AOL and Earthlink studies reported in a US congressional hearing showed that as many of 80% of [Microsoft] Windows and Internet Explorer (IE) users have been impacted by Spyware, Adware, Viruses and Security Exploits that have been tied to Windows and IE. Kim Komando of USA today has a good recent write up of how users are affected. Firefox does not provide or support ActiveX or the complex security zone model that is built into IE.”

When asked why they don’t support ActiveX, Chris replied: “Firefox doesn’t provide support for proprietary technologies such as ActiveX and the Microsoft Security Zone model [because] these two features set up the possibility for the silent download, installation, and execution of remote code as a feature of the browser. It’s a powerful feature that web developers can take advantage of, but has also proven to be a feature that is prone to security and privacy problems. In the late 1990’s, security experts warned of the potential problems with ActiveX and security zones. This article published in 2002 about the most ‘Dangerous Software Ever Written’ highlighted many of the problems that have recently been exposed as security exploits. It wasn’t until six months later that Microsoft announced their ‘Trusted Computing Initiative.’ 18 months after that, Microsoft provided the first steps toward securing problems in IE with the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2.”

“The different approach taken on the Mozilla Project is to keep users in control and aware of dangerous actions like downloading, installation, and execution of remote code. We also think it is important to engage security experts on the Mozilla project (any security researcher can download all the code), encourage security research (we offer $500 bug bounties to encourage research), and to act quickly on the feedback we get from these experts. A study by scanit.be (an independent security research firm) shows the dramatic difference in response time and the ability to stay on top of security problems between Microsoft and the Mozilla Project.”

Continue to read article on Webreference.

OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards that was formed in 1993 to oversee the development and adoption of standards for Internet business information exchange, has just completed the ratification of the Digital Signature Services (DSS) specification, version 1.0.

DSS was originally proposed back in 2002 when the organization first formed a technical committee to develop XML-based protocols for digital signatures and cryptographic timestamping in Web services transactions. The core protocol involves digital signing processes, whereby a user can send documents to a server and receive back an electronic signature on the documents, or send both documents and a signature to a server and receive an answer as to whether or not the signature verifies the documents. The key part of the signature is a Base64-encoded binary and can be either a CMS (Cryptographic Message Syntax) or PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) key. This is all wrapped up, along with a timestamp and other optional elements, in an XML container.

The primary benefit of a standardized method for digital signatures is that it will make it easier for web-based applications that require such a feature—primarily e-commerce sites—to be able to handle the task without writing custom code for each project. With an agreed-upon standard, companies could use a separate server for signature services or even contract it out to a third party. OASIS says that the Universal Postage Union—a United Nations agency—collaborated in the development of the DSS standard and is now incorporating it into its Electronic Post Mark system. The EPM system is designed to facilitate international commerce by standardizing document and information exchange.

Continue reading this article on Ars Technica

When we hear the word XHTML we automatically think of the CSS interface and the text language of the internet or World Wide Web. Recently we got use to using this tool of script to write into the CSS scripting to perform our many tasks and designs on web pages and browsers. But why the change over from the old to the new XHTML 2? Well it has a large part to do with the introduction of the new Microsoft software’s and internet Explorer 7 releasement. The W3C works on making sure that all software’s are compatible in use with each other so they can integrate into the multi interface designing. It is a lecture place of rules and guidelines sort of speak. But when Microsoft changes up its software’s and no longer integrates it forces other software’s to upgrade with it. These software’s are CSS, SMIL, HTML, along with TIME Text, and All Window media Players so they can interface with the world’s leading software giant.

The new platform of internet explorer 7 caused a real change over and it took the software companies to time to upgrade and they axed some areas and cut some corners, and added new things to the Windows web explorer software of the Internet Explorer 7 platform. In truth it was a learning curve for most web designers and programmers they had to re educate themselves in the working of the new platform and its implement of HTML + Time. So we will learn how this was done, and what some of the new changes are. In Addition why it is important to educate yourself on this new HTML 2, as well as when to use it, and when not to.

The New HTML 2

When Internet Explorer 7 platform came out it changed the revolution of web pages and web site design for the future, until then all web pages and design along with all standard W3C programming worked off later versions of Internet Explorer 6 and earlier along with Microsoft Windows 98 up to ME. So things were based on a platform called HTML. The new HTML 2 came about when the need for a platform changed the internet Explorer series, and new Window Operations of XP and Vista came into play. Microsoft sought out its competition and started changing the platforms along with structure and look of their new software for the future and to isolate its competition. So the upgrade of all its clientele had to come about SMIL, CSS, DOM, HTML, and so on could not run on the new platform of Internet Explorer. HTML 2 was born and came into operation, the Computer programmers had a task at hand to upgrade themselves and learn the new language of the time. In order to use effectively and operate the language script needed to perform the necessary web page design capable of working on Internet explorer 7 and later versions of Internet explorer, as well as adapting the CSS, Java, and so forth text. The one text that changed slightly was the old version of HTML to the new version of HTML 2. It cut out some routine language that you use to need from CSS, JAVA and so forth. Making it easier to write the language faster on its own platform integrating the other platforms of other script.

HTML 2 Use and why is it easier to use

Once you learn the script language of the new HTML 2 you will see that they corporate allot of the CSS, JAVA, and other scripts into it sort of an enhanced upgrade of the previous HTML, allowing you to write into the HTML 2 platform without having to call up and load the CSS platform and others. It implements this. Also it made the programming much more faster and reliant on itself, the additional upgrade allowed the time lapse of web browsing speed up and download and upload of Audio and video seem more faster than before. Today HTML 2 is widely used when creating an interactive sight that uses Java, CSS, DOM and SMIL, SAMI, and even Windows Media Players. The presentation of the web pages is more vibrant in colour, and sound, with crisp clear resolution and speed of uploading for the personal use of the user.

HTML 2 and You

Programmers that use HTML 2 have learnt to use it by its interface privileges what the platform is capable of doing and they have learnt what it is not, majority of the interface like mentioned combined many parts of the old existing interface scripts like CSS, Java, DOM, SMIL and so forth. So the ability of using at least half of this platform structure was a genius way of interactive use, when writing up a web page. Samples of this today is Utube, and MySpace, along with Face Book and even Internet dating sites, and chat rooms, along with Brave Net web site design free web page builder. To find this type of platform on the net its simple look for a site that uses Audio Video cut and paste style formats of script language and you have found HTML 2.

Resources:

• XHTML2 Working Group
• The future is XHTML 2.0
• How Easy is XHTML2
• XHTML2
• Conversation with the XHTML2 Team
• xHtml5 vs. XHTML2
• Accesskey Problems remain in XHTML2
• Questions on XHTML2
• XHTML2 as Universal Document
• XHTML2 for storing Content
• Dive into HTML, Dive into XML
• Big Bad XHTML2
• Put XHTML 2 to work now
• Wikipedia on XHTML
• XHTML2 Schemas
• The future of HTML, Part 2: XHTML 2.0

There are a number of ways in which CSS can be deployed:

External CSS Files

The best way to use CSS is to store the CSS data in an external file and link to this file using the <link> HTML element. This approach allows the CSS definitions to be used by every page on your Web site.

Internal CSS

You can store CSS within a HTML by including it using the <style> element within the <head> section at the top of your HTML file. However this approach means the style definitions cannot be applied to other files. This approach is not normally recommended.

Inline CSS

You can embed your CSS inline with HTML elements: for example <p style=”font-color: red” > uses CSS to specify that text in the current paragraph is red. However this approach means that the style definitions cannot be applied to other paragraphs. This approach is discouraged.

Ensure That You Validate Your CSS

As with HTML, it is important that you validate your CSS to ensure that it complies with appropriate CSS standards. There are a number of approaches you can take:

• Within your HTML editor: Your HTML editing tool may allow you to create CSS. If it does, it may also have a CSS validator.
• Within a dedicated CSS editor: If you use a dedicated CSS editor, the tool may have a validator.
• Using an external CSS validator: You may wish to use an external CSS validator. This could be a tool installed locally or a Web-based tool such as those available at W3C .

Note that if you use external CSS files, you should also ensure that you check that the link to the file works.

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This introduction isn’t meant to teach you everything about Cascading Style Sheets, but is rather meant as an overview of what can be done with CSS. Read through this article, and then decide whether or not CSS is right for your site. At the very least, you’ll know what can be done using CSS, so when the time comes to gain more control over the layout and typography of your site, you’ll know where to turn.

What Are Cascading Style Sheets?

CSS is a form of HTML mark-up that provides web designers with greater control over typography and spacing between elements on a page.

Why Should I Bother Using CSS?

1. Greater control over layout and typography. CSS provides you as a designer with precise control over the fonts used on your site, including size, letter spacing and text decoration. Elements on a page can be positioned precisely using CSS. In fact at least one major HTML Editor, Dreamweaver 2, uses CSS to control the layout of a page, although it does provide the option to convert to tables.
2. Site-wide changes become easy. Rather than having a style sheet as part of the HTML code of a page, it is possible to specify the URL of a style-sheet that is to be used when formatting a particular page. This makes it very easy to modify the entire site by simply editing a single file.

What About Browser Compatibility?

CSS support is provided in Internet Explorer 4+ and Netscape Navigator 4+. However, some annoying browser inconsistencies continue to make life difficult for those deciding to use CSS on their site. It is possible with a little bit of JavaScript to serve up different style-sheets depending on the browser that is being used to view your site. Alternatively, workarounds can be used so that the style-sheet works in both browsers correctly.

Source : SitePoint

Cascading Style Sheets (or CSS styles) are collections of formatting definitions that affect the appearance of web page elements. You can use CSS styles to format text, images, headings, tables, and so forth. With a single style you can pre-designate the color and alignment properties of an element for an entire document. For example, you could apply a style that turns all text to blue and right-aligned.

Workflow benefits

Using CSS Styles will save time. For example, let’s say that you assigned a style to all paragraph text to make it italic. Later, you decide that italicized text isn’t legible in the body. Simply remove the italics setting from the CSS style, and, presto, you’ve reformatted all of the text.

Kinds of CSS Styles

When you create a style in Dreamweaver, you choose from the following three options:

• Custom Style (class)

Creates a style that can be applied as a CLASS attribute to web page elements, including ranges or blocks of text. There are many situations where you would choose custom for your style. For example, if you want to make some of the text on your web page yellow and bold?but not all the text?then you would want to create a custom style. The name that you give this custom style appears in the CSS Styles panel. (See Example 1 to view a CSS Styles panel with a list of custom styles.)

• HTML Tag

Redefines the default formatting of specific HTML tags. If you wantall your text in an h1 (Heading1) tag to be purple, you can specifically modify the h1 tag. Subsequently, all text surrounded by the h1 tag will be purple.

Note: This kind of style will not appear in the CSS Styles panel (although it will appear in the Edit Styles dialog box in case you want to designate a different color).

• CSS Selector

Allows you to use a customized declaration for your style. For example, you could define a style which affects a tag within another. This third kind of CSS style is meant mainly for advanced users, who know how to write a style declaration. For more information, see Eric A. Meyer’s Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide (O’Reilly & Associates, 2000). Note: To eliminate the underline in linked text, use this kind of style.

Document-level and external Style Sheets

A CSS style can be document-level (located within the HTML) or it can be external (located in a separate document known as the external style sheet). Example 2 shows you the CSS Styles panel with a style located in the HTML document and another located in an external styles sheet.

Updating styles on an external style sheet

Using an external style sheet makes it possible to automatically update all the style-affected elements in your web site by changing only the style sheet. This can be a significant time-saver for making formatting changes in a web site with many pages.

Source : Adobe

CSS is the abbreviation for Cascading Style Sheet. A style sheet simply holds a collection of rules that we define to enable us to manipulate our web pages.

CSS can be applied to our pages in many ways, however the most powerful way to employ CSS rules is from an external cascading style sheet. When used in this manner the full power of CSS can be brought to control the design and appearance of our work from a single controlling location, which makes it easy to update our site on a global basis.

It would be foolish, impracticable and probably impossible to write an article that covers all aspects of CSS. What I would like to do is take you on a journey, a journey that will begin with the simple things. We will look at how CSS rules are structured and how we can optimize our style sheets by using shorthand within our rules. We’ll investigate many aspects of CSS throughout our journey. I hope you stick along for the ride.

Creating Cascading Style Sheets

Does that sound complicated? Well if it does, nothing could be further from the truth. A css file is merely a text file with a .css extension, it’s as simple as that! We can create the file in DreamweaverMX or in something as simple as Notepad, it really doesn’t matter.

There are dedicated CSS editors out there. My favourite CSS tool is TopStyle which, unfortunately, is only available for the Windows platform. It is a first rate CSS editor and I highly recommend it. If you’re working on a Mac, take a look at http://www.westciv.com/style_master/, I have not used it but it should be worth a look as a TopStyle alternative. To be fair to DreamweaverMX, its CSS panel is greatly enhanced over previous versions but Dreamweaver is not a dedicated CSS editor, it just does CSS editing as well.

Continue reading this great article on CommunityMX

Simply put, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a way to separate a document’s structure from its presentation. The benefits of this can be quite profound: CSS allows a much richer document appearance than HTML; CSS saves time—you can create or change the appearance of an entire document in just one place; and its compact file size makes web pages load quickly. Eric Meyer, a past member of the CSS&FP Working Group and an internationally known expert on HTML and CSS, tackles the subject with passion and delivers a comprehensive and thorough update to his groundbreaking book.

All readers will benefit from both the depth and breadth of his experience and his clear and honest style. Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition is a thorough review of all aspects of CSS2.1 and a comprehensive guide to CSS implementation. The book includes content on positioning, lists and generated content, table layout, user interface, paged media, and more. It explores in detail each individual CSS property and how it interacts with other properties, and shows how to avoid common mistakes in interpretation.

Where To Order? Try Oreilly.com (official publisher’s catalog information with links to several popular retail sites)

If you prefer to hold a book in your hands before deciding to buy it, some chains like Borders are carrying the title (as they do most O’Reilly books). You could also try ordering it through your local neighborhood bookstore, which would no doubt appreciate the patronage. You might have to wait a few days for it to come in, but it’s a small price to pay for supporting community merchants.

Changes From the Second Edition

• Updates to reflect changes in the latest draft version of CSS 2.1
• Browser notes updated to reflect changes between IE6 and IE7
• Advanced selectors supported in IE7 and other major browsers included
• A new round of technical edits by a fresh set of editors
• Clarifications and corrected errata, including updated URLs of referenced online resources

Source : Meyer Web