This one was not fun to diagnose, I initially thought it was something with the HTML5,  Chrome Frame or Modernizr. I was wrong, it was a bug with jQuery.

The Solution

It is an issue with jQuery version 1.6.2 (which was the latest version at time of development). Luckily they fixed the issue, so the fix on your end is simple… Update to the latest version of jQuery.

Here’s the support ticket from their change log.

With some help from LongTail Video Support (thank you!) I found a solution.

It turns out that sometimes the config attributes for the playlist are not carried over. So, you can force them in your [jwplayer] shortcode attributes.

Here’s some sample code to show you what I’m talking about.

Original:

[jwplayer playlistid="123"]

Updated:

[jwplayer playlistid="123" playlist.position="bottom" playlist.size="250"]

The key attributes being “playlist.position” and “playlist.size” I hope this helps!

You can resolve this by uploading your files to a live production server, but that is a pain, especially if you’re still in development.

There’s a very simple solution:

1. Close Chrome completely
2. Launch Chrome from Terminal with the “–allow-file-access-from-files” argument

open /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app --args --allow-file-access-from-files

This will allow that session of Chrome to access local files. Note: Once you close and reopen the application you’ll no longer have access to local files again.

A freelancer is not just a designer or developer, you have a few new roles now like sales, accounting and customer service. Introverts have to work a bit differently than our outgoing counterparts. So here are some helpful tips for freelancing and keeping the business going.

“Sir, Would You Like to Buy These Pixels?”

Our biggest hurdle is sales.

We don’t typically make good salesmen, but we can use this to our advantage. People who are serious about getting results are less interested in getting sold to and more interested in what you have to offer. Spend some time and go through your own resume, why are you qualified? Did you get results for clients at your last job? Talk about it, especially if it’s a well-known client. Be real and don’t fake it trying to sound like Joe Schmoozer, because it will show!

Build partnerships. Lets face it, even if we hold to the advice above, our cold calling skills aren’t going to win us a lot of business. We sound awkward, and we’re not good at holding conversations about the weather or the Dallas Cowboys. Get some friends that compliment your services. If you’re a designer start getting in touch with some development agencies (and vice versa). Even if you have to offer a discounted partner rate (and you should) partnerships will be keeping your lights on.

Keep a great portfolio. I won’t spend time on this because it’s obvious, but the point should be made that our work is what’s going to sell what we do.

Take GOOD care of your clients. Your business is going to be made up of a lot of referrals and repeat customers. This is a good thing. Referral projects and projects for repeat customers cost us no advertising or sales dollars. Be sure to hook your clients up with a freebie here and there, and if you close a referral they send, give your referring client a gift or work in a cut of the profit.

“Where Does This Decimal Go?”

This really isn’t just a tip for introverts… but don’t be afraid to get professional help. Don’t mess around and get yourself in trouble with the IRS, find a good accountant to take care of your taxes. There are a lot of invoicing and accounting software packages that will help you out as well. Definitely check out Harvest, FreshBooks and QuickBooks to name a few.

Keep yourself accountable and don’t let the freedom get the best of you! Since you no longer have a manager breathing down your neck, you’re going to need some goals. Use time-tracking software to make sure you’re still working a solid workday. Check out Harvest, FreshBooks and Basecamp to name a few.

“The Phone Keeps Shaking, and So Do I”

Being a business owner you’re going to feel that need to always be connected. Do yourself a favor, turn off email notifications after business hours and give social media a break. Sure you can still check it when necessary to make sure the sky is still in place. But let’s be real, we’re quickly drained by a lot of social activity, I think this still applies on the digital world. Give yourself some time to enjoy peace and quiet. If you feel the phone shake, you’re going to check it and too much connectivity can be dangerous.

To Conclude…

There will always be ups and downs, but that’s the recipe for any good adventure. Above all things mentioned in this article, the best advice is to use what some consider to be downsides as an advantage. What you lack is networking skills make up for in solid client relationships, what you lack in sales make up for with building trust with partners and existing clients.

Let me know if you need anything!

Now it’s time to sell you…
Emerge specializes in attractive website design for businesses, developers and agencies. I know the web really well, so as a standard my sites are always easy to update, optimized for search, and ready to promote your business (as long as it’s not shady).

It is finally time to start switching to HTML5 for projects moving forward. If you’ve been following the progress you already know that xHTML will eventually be outdated and browsers will, eventually, support HTML5 functionality. So it doesn’t make sense to continue with xHTML; plus, now our clients to use HTML5 functionality as it becomes available without too many headaches.

Below basic doctype template I’m starting out with, please feel free to give me feedback.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title></title>
  <meta name="description" content="" />
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
  <link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" />
  <script src="js/jquery.min.js"></script>
  <!--[if lt IE 8]>
  <![endif]-->
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Note: I included a holder for JQuery and and IE specific stylesheet (just in case). These can obviously be removed if they’re not needed for the project.

With that being said, we should take some time and talk about life over coffee. No phone calls, no texts, no tweets.

Thanks for checking it out, hope you enjoy!

1. Web Template

I typically use either a 12 or a 16 column grid on most of my designs. I also need to see what it will look like in 800×600 and 1024×768, so I basically just created a nice little .PSD file that includes all of my necessities in an overlay folder at the top of my document. It helps to get my design going on the right foot (after planning, research and sketches of course!). For the grid system I’m using overlays from 960.gs.

Download the Web Template (.zip)

2. The Viget Photoshop Color Fix

Have you ever sliced out an image and the colors are slightly different from what you saw on your .psd? Photoshop does this horrible thing where it changes how you see your colors in Photoshop window to match your monitor. This is unacceptable for the web! Make sure you run this fix to ensure that your colors come out right.

Read the Blog Post

3. IETester

We all hate IE, but we all still need to make sure that our visitors and clients don’t hate us (because you know they all use it!). The difficult thing about designing for IE is that you can only have one version of it installed on your PC; unless… you don’t have 3 virtual PCs running do you? That’s a shame, because IETester gives you the ability to open a different version of IE in separate tabs (from 5.5 to 8).

Get IETester

4. AutoPopulate

This was originally developed by Roger Johansson and basically auto-populates your input field with instructions (ex: “Enter Your Search Term Here”) but it still keeps your fields accessible by doing it using the title attribute. I’m a big fan of JQuery, and so is my friend Andy Stratton, so he created a great plugin for it.

Get JQuery Populate Plugin

5. JQuery UI

Ok, JQuery is an awesome hotdog, and JQuery UI is all the relish, mustard and ketchup. JQuery UI allows you to easily create a datepicker, a slider, a dialog box…, or even make elements resizable. I find myself using the tabs more than anything.

Get JQuery UI

6. FireBug

If you’re a web designer, you probably already know what this is all about and you can skip to the next one. FireBug has saved me countless hours in my CSS, it allows you to inspect and alter live CSS on any site. This is great if you’re fixing an issue on a website that has already been integrated into a complex CMS (e.g. Ektron!).

Get FireBug

7. SwfObject

There are a couple good solutions out there for flash replacement, but I stick with SwfObject because it never lets me down and it’s not complicated. It basically allows you to add your flash file in an accessible way by providing alternate content for people without the Adobe Flash Player.

Get SwfObject

8. sIFR

I have a love/hate relationship with sIFR. I always seem to have to tweak the heck out of it to really get it doing what I want, but it is still the best font-replacement tool out there.

Get sIFR