overcome ie7+ie8 lack of media query to perform layout switch. litwol piggybacked ride on omega multi-layout support. but he couldn't use media queries. so the aim was to provide different means to trigger layout change without relying on media query.

no media quries

function hook_css_alter(&$css) {
  if ('[your theme name]' == $GLOBALS['theme'] && ($theme = alpha_get_theme()) && $theme->settings['responsive']) {
    $request_session = request_session_get(); // This is my internal api. tells me parameters about current widget request. namely what size it wants to be in this request... narrow or wide.
    $old_grid = $theme->grid;
    $layouts = $theme->grids['[your custom layout name]'];
$size_selector = [some selector criteria/request];
    switch ($size_selector) {
      case '1':
        $layouts['layouts']['narrow']['enabled'] = FALSE;
        break;
      case '2':
        $layouts['layouts']['wide']['enabled'] = FALSE;
        break;
    }
    $new_grid = alpha_grid_css($theme->theme, $layouts, $theme->settings['responsive']);
    if (!empty($new_grid)) {
      foreach ($new_grid as &$item) {
        unset ($css[$item['item']]);
      }
    }
    $fill_old = array_keys($old_grid);
    $fill_new = array_keys($new_grid);
    $wanted_css_files = array_diff($fill_old, $fill_new);
    foreach ($wanted_css_files as $file) {
      $css[$file]['browsers'] = array('IE' => TRUE, '!IE' => TRUE);
    }
  }
}