welcome to my garden • june 24, 2002 • tucson, az
Mark Pilgrim is taking 30 days to show you how to make your web log more accessible. There is much more to be learned than just web log accessibility from these posts. He’s covered personas, structured HTML, DOCTYPES, and more already. This will be one to print and refer to for more than just my blog...
»plink« · June 25, 2002
I’ve been getting my talk ready for Web Design World 2002, working at our church’s VBS in the mornings, trying not to think about the nearly 1000 emails that have already piled up in my inbox (most of them from webdesign-l and css-discuss). And then our car wouldn’t start on the way home this afternoon, so I made a trip to Batteries Plus for yet another car battery (we seem to go through them every 2 years or so).
On the bright side I received my reviewer’s copy of Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation, by Owen Briggs, Steven Champeon, Eric Costello, and Matt Patterson. I’m looking forward to reading it and seeing how my input affected the outcome of the book. And it is pretty cool to see my name listed in there with a bunch of other, really talented, folks.
Oh, and I’ve been working on a little something else, too...
»plink« · June 21, 2002
To Mom and Dad - here’s to many more years together! And happy (belated) birthday to my baby sister, who is still in her 20s, while I am firmly entrenched in my 30s...
»plink« · June 20, 2002
Riding to work the other day I noticed a dove a foot or two inside the road. It appeared as though its wing might be broken, as it was hanging a bit unnaturally on one side. As I approached, it looked up and hopped away just a bit, revealing its dead or dying baby.
Perhaps that is why they are called Mourning Doves...
»plink« · June 13, 2002
Reflex is a big Czech life-style magazine. Their online presence uses valid CSS for all of its layout (and it comes really close to valid HTML 4).
Oh, and it’s really quite pretty, too. Thanks to Marek Prokop for pointing it out on CSS-D
»plink« · June 12, 2002
“The basis of any design job is that of ‘functionality first’—what you do has to work. If it just looks pretty, then you are a stylist. If it works but looks horrible, you are probably an engineer. It takes both!”
MINI7 font designer Joe Gillespe is interviewed in the latest netdiver close*up. More than a pixel font designer, Joe’s designed computer games, worked in advertising, and played in bands across the UK. But you may know him best for Web Page Design for Designers (into its seventh year now).
With a background like that you can imagine that the interview covers a lot of ground - from the importance of branding to information architecture to dealing with clients so you both win...
»plink« · June 11, 2002
The Web Standards Project is back, with new group members, a new design, and, yes, a blog...
»plink« · June 11, 2002
A very interesting article on Apple's iPod, and the design chain that pulled it off. A design chain is an interesting concept (more than that, really, as it is an everyday occurrence), and something I had never thought about before...
»plink« · June 11, 2002
Time to recommend some products. First up are a couple of items for OS X. If you use an iDisk (like I do for this blog, and some other sites that I have put together), then you owe it to yourself to check out Goliath. It’s a WebDAV client that will connect to your iDisk and actually make it useable - even over a modem. And it also works with many other WebDAV servers. This was recommended to me by Jeff Greenberg (no URL...), and now I am recommending it to you.
The next OS X item is Silk from Unsanity. They just released version 1.1 of this freeware utility that enables Quartz text rendering and smoothing introduced in Mac OS X 10.1.5 in all Carbon applications. Requires OS X 10.1.5 or newer.
Finally, a product that at first does not seem at all related to the above recommendations. But stay with me, and I’ll see if I can tie it all together.
Since I have been riding my bike to work, and the days are growing hotter, I have to do something about the sweat and resulting odor. Enter Dove™ Body Refreshers™. I tear one in half, wipe the offending odor away, and apply my deodorant. I’m happy and my office mates are happy—or at least they aren’t complaining.
So, if you are a geek [you, know, someone who actually knows (or even cares) what a WebDAV client is, not to mention Quartz text rendering and smoothing, let alone OS X...], spending too much time at the office, and don’t have time to shower, pick up a pack and see if it helps. The only down side is that people might actually come around again and talk to you, interrupting your ability to get work done...
*In this case the standard disclaimer is that I have no affiliation with any of these products, other than being a happy user of them...
»plink« · June 11, 2002
This picture of Mars led me to this image by one of may favorite artists, M.C. Escher, which led me to create this tribute...
»plink« · June 10, 2002
Ten years ago today I became a father. Since then I've been promoted to daddy. We have three girls now, but Jordan is the one who started it all. Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!
»plink« · June 6, 2002
“Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are a technology with a lot of promise, but their often-hyped potential leaves some designers feeling blindsided by the 2x4 known as reality. This article sorts out the differences, and makes a case for educating yourself now in preparation for the future.”
From this month's feature at Digital Web. Some of you might even recognize the author...
»plink« · June 5, 2002
Recognizing a cash cow when it sees one, Apple announced today that it is making the eMac available to anyone, as opposed to just students and educational institutions. From the Apple press release:
“Apple designed the eMac after talking to teachers and students about what they most wanted in a computer — features and attributes like a PowerPC G4 processor, a 17-inch flat CRT display, an all-in-one design, and lots of useful applications — at an affordable price. And then something happened. The Apple switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree. The phones started ringing. And ringing. Then came a blizzard of email. All from people of all ages demanding to know when they could buy an eMac for their home. Well, we’re pleased to announce that the answer is ‘now’.”
Apple also announced the availability of the QuickTime 6 public preview...
»plink« · June 4, 2002
I beat the bus for sure today.
My best time to work on the bus is 40 minutes. It's usually more like 45-55 minutes, depending on traffic. If I drive the entire way I can get to work in 20 minutes. Recently I've been riding my wife's bike in to work, since one of my gear shifters had dried out and was ineffective. Hers has the baby seat, which adds about 10-15 pounds to the bike. I'd been getting there in about 45 minutes, 40 if I pushed it and got a lot of green lights.
I had both bikes tuned up over the weekend, and rode mine in to work today. Halfway there I dropped the water bottle. It must have been a sight to see the top come flying off, propelled, along with most of the water, halfway across the four lane street as my rear tire ran over it.
I made it to work in 35 minutes today. Even after stopping to get the bottle and retrieve the top out of the street...
»plink« · June 4, 2002
You appear to be using a browser that does not implement style sheets correctly, or you have turned style sheets off in your browser. If it's the latter, turning style sheets back on will greatly enhance your experience on this site, and many others on the web. If you are using an older browser (such as Netscape 4) you may wish to know that there are standards compliant browsers available for all platforms. See the Web Standards Project's Browser Upgrade Campaign if you would like to find one for your particular needs. Otherwise, rest assured that you are seeing all of the content that everyone else is - it just doesn't look as pretty...
