Raymond.CC Blog

As most of us are aware, HTML and CSS are simply some of the best things in the world: after all, without them, where on Earth would we be? We wouldn’t have the world wide web , we wouldn’t learn about new software, heck, I’m pretty sure some of us would just die. So to me, the internet, no matter how vast it is, how far out it is, unusual it is… it’s a place that I consider at home in. But among the many things the internet has to offer, HTML5 is coming in and taking the headlines very quickly. In fact, Raymond shared a HTML5 compatible Virtual Network Connector, ThinVNC. Since then, a lot of my Stumbles from StumbleUpon have been HTML5 based and give an interesting, if not time wasting look at what’s to come.

Browser Pong

Easily one of the best examples of what’s to come, Browser Pong launches three windows on hitting the Play button… and your window is effectively your paddle. There is also a different browser window bouncing around, being the ball. If you’ve played any video games in the past twenty years, you know what do to. Up and down keys control the right paddle, A and Z for the left. And if you want to make it super easy or even harder… make your paddle bigger or your opponent’s paddle larger. Great time waster, that’s for sure.

Torus

Tetris, a classic. And now the classic in HTML5 has an interesting twist: to play it on a circular playing field. “But Paul,” I can here some of you cry, “Tetris can be boring after playing classic mode for so long.” Which brings me to what else Torus offers: two more game modes. A Time Attack, as well as a Garbage mode, two different ways to play the same game. I personally find it different… and nice to see as well, to know that a classic didn’t get left behind in the transition to HTML5.

Youtube

Now this one I know a lot of people weren’t expecting but Google’s been doing some work behind the scenes to jump to HTML5. Why? So they can get viewed on the new i-Devices by Apple and other companies that don’t have flash on their phones, mobile devices, or game systems. I point out the fact that while it does indeed work as promised, I find Youtube to be slower without Flash, however, this is not to say that it doesn’t work at all. I’m also not the only one who finds this too, but it comes with Youtube converting it on the fly to a media format for your browser to read while people upload to Youtube as well… so to say the least, their servers won’t be able to handle both as well as Flash can. Either way, it’s one of those that is also a prime example of what HTML5 can’t do.

Overall, HTML5 is slowly taking off. Not as fast as some geeks want, but at the same time, fast enough for people to adapt. And especially seeing how Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari browser, and even Google’s Chrome browsers don’t fully support HTML5 yet, it’s safe to say that the web, while dynamic, isn’t in any rush to jump to HTML5. So it’s safe to say that if you are antsy to use HTML5, you best code it yourself: there’s not that much out there… but there is a lot more then there was three months ago.