Archive for August 2001

August 31 issue of A List Apart is out.

First up is Daniel Short’s Build a “Send a Page to a Friend”, which shows you step-by-step how to add “Recommend page to a friend” capabilities to your Web site using HTML and ASP. The article comes with an example for downloading so you can play with it in your sandbox. If you don’t use ASP, there are other tutorials: BigNoseBird CGI, Recommend-It (no code), CGI Resource Index (do search for ‘recommend’ to get list of code), Python, ASP and VBScript, and PHP Script Center.

Second at bat comes Steven Garrity’s Evolving Client Content. Many companies are cutting back, reducing budgets, and getting rid of fluff. Alas, that means quality content could be a sacrificial lamb. “Clients have come to you looking to communicate. They trust in your understanding of the medium.” Key word: communicate. While working on your client’s project, ask yourself, “What did the client say about this?” If you don’t have an answer, then you have a communication gap. Document it and keep working until you find all the gaps. Follow up with the client on the documented gaps.

Webreference article is online. If you’ve been seeking word marriage counseling on confusing couples, then it may help ease your pain. Other troubling couples covered in a previous article.

Thanks to Phil Ringnalda for his excellent Blogger archives support. We appreciate it!

No brilliant thoughts today. Bogged down with projects. That’s Thursday for me. I did get around to writing another Grammar Gotcha article for Webreference and it’ll be in tomorrow’s newsletter.

<blush> Thank you, Shirley for today’s Brainstorms and Raves comments. I’m not worthy.

Many Web designers may be familiar with Nick Finck and his work with Digital Web, but how many have visited his personal Web site? The photographs are superb, the navigation easy, and the work beautiful. Even with information overload, I felt relaxed looking around and admiring his talent. Thank you, Nick.

Bad-managers.com published Processes and the Bad Manager, an article about the dark side and how it handles processes. Yeah, I wrote it. E-me your thoughts at meryl@onramp.net.

Microsoft has released IE 6.0 and lists the new features. First, it does not come with built-in Java support. Downloading Java separately is a pain. Plus, IE Win, versions 5.5 SP2 and 6.0 no longer support Netscape-style plug-ins, such as the plug-in installed as part of QuickTime and earlier versions.

It sounds like more trouble than it’s worth to download and install, download and install… download and install (the plug-ins and Java). The new features? They don’t sound too exciting: Easier downloading (easy for me especially with Download Accelerator), image toolbar to ease the grabbing and printing of pictures (whoo hoo), media bar – user interface for locating and playing media within the browser window (hmm, this may have possibilities), auto image resize (a decent idea), and tools for protecting privacy (yeah… MS would know all about that).

It really doesn’t sound like an upgrade worthy of a whole new version number. It’s an excuse to have something roll out with XP. I could be a good little reporter and actually download the thing and tell you about it. When it comes to browsers… I like to sit and wait for the original release to get cleaned up. Since IE 5.5 works and has few problems, I’ll stick with the oldie.

I actually did download Netscape 6.0 and it was horrible. I tried so hard to get used to it and like it since it was standards compliant unlike 4.7x and older. It sucked so much… off with its head. 6.1 came out and it’s a goodie.

The original – Super Hot Shot Gal Football Player! Yes, that is a motorcycle helmet and big brother’s high school varsity jacket.

How the future Roger Staubach photo looks to a person who has protanopia – a form of red/green deficit

As seen by a person with deuteranopia – red / green color deficit.

As seen by a person with tritanopia – blue / yellow color deficit.

Vischeck can run a check on a Web page, an online image, or download a Java version or Photoshop filter for Windows. Photoshop created the football pictures. It was easy to download the Photoshop filter and install it. After unzipping the file, follow the README directions to place the file in the right directory. Open Photoshop and a photo, then go to FILTERS > VISCHECK and follow the prompts. It’s a great tool for Web designers.

Webreference set out to challenge itself to converting its tables-based Web site to CSS. You can read about it in this nicely written tutorial: Advanced CSS Layouts: Step by Step. I want to try this challenge… but first, I am going nuts trying to improve my front door entry into meryl.net world. I hate the front page.

To understand what people see when surfing using a text-only browser, you may want to download Lynx and use it for test your Web designs.

Zeldman posted a new article on PDN-PIX on How to avoid clients. It covers all the important aspects of what NOT to do if you want to land a client.

RFPs (Request for Proposals). This is your potential client’s call for help. This is their way of saying, “Here’s our problem. How can you help us solve it?”

Your response to the RFP is the solution to their problem. But the response is pointless if you don’t follow the template and rules documented in the RFP. The template is there for a reason. They want all responses to be outlined in the same way to make it easier to do a comparative evaluation. The only thing different in the response is YOU: your company and how it outlines the solution.

After submitting your response… you begin the waiting period. Well, at least, you didn’t have to sit in a doctor’s office waiting room for three hours last week.

Mike of SAMOHT reflects a lot of what I think about when it comes to software process engineering in his November 8 mutterings. It addresses the article that I referenced yesterday.

They Write the Right Stuff is an in depth look at NASA’s perfect software and the process behind it. According to the article, “the last three versions of the program — each 420,000 lines long-had just one error each. The last 11 versions of this software had a total of 17 errors. Commercial programs of equivalent complexity would have 5,000 errors.” It discusses SEI (Software Engineering Institute) and how NASA is one of the few organizations that made it all the way up to Level 5. How did they do it? Again, from the article:

“It’s the process that allows them to live normal lives, to set deadlines they actually meet, to stay on budget, to deliver software that does exactly what it promises. It’s the process that defines what these coders in the flat plains of southeast suburban Houston know that everyone else in the software world is still groping for. It’s the process that offers a template for any creative enterprise that’s looking for a method to produce consistent – and consistently improving — quality.”

I work for a telecommunications company that is driving toward reaching Level 2 certification. It’s tough work even though we had process documentation in place two years before we started. I have the honor of implementing the Software Subcontract Management Key Process Area. For the past two months, we held twice-weekly meetings and briefings to make this happen. On weekends, I documented the stuff. After all that and a million questions… it is still not perfect.

I applaud NASA’s ability to do this and produce such clean code.