Archive for August 2001

Quiet lately, I know… buried in articles, words, thoughts or a doctor’s waiting room… did put up two gotchas.

WebReview has a cool issue out on Blogs. Speaking of blogs, Blogger celebrated the big 2! Does that mean it is now entering the terrible twos? I have a terror two-year old living in this house. Wow, he is the same age as Blogger. OK, I am sleep-deprived, so forgive any weird comments.

My Web appreciation of the day goes to Susan Clot De Broissia, chapter leader of DigitalEveDallas for all her hard work and keeping it going.

Not trying to be a namedropper here, but Zeldman pointed out a must-read article: The King of Closed Captions. I’ve been familiar with Joe Clark for a long time because I am an avid supporter of CC especially with my profound hearing loss. In 1983 or so, I got my first CC decoder – a butt-ugly clunky brown box with old-fashioned TV handles for changing selections. The first CC thing I saw was a Bond, James Bond movie. Which one? I don’t recall. I DO remember being in awe because for once in my life I didn’t have to ask, “What did she say?” “What happened?” “What’s so funny?”

Most of the answers were, “Nothing.” “Just that blah blah. OK? Shhhh!”

Then I discovered a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=B0007IO6V4%26tag=manalangcom-20%26lcode=xm2%26cID=2025%26ccmID=165953%26location=/o/ASIN/B0007IO6V4%253FSubscriptionId=0EMV44A9A5YT1RVDGZ82″ title=”View product details at Amazon”>Dynasty and Alexis vs. Krystle cat fights. I hated waiting a whole week to see the next episode. The next day, I would talk about the show with my best buddy. It was amazing to be able to talk to a friend about a TV show and what happened.

I watched EVERY show that was CC in the early to mid-’80s. By the late ’80s, there was enough CC TV programs for me to make choices.

CC expanded to cable and I finally got the opportunity to watch old movies like “Double Indemnity” and most Hitchcock films thanks to Turner Classic Movies. TCM captioned many of its classics. I still have not seen original “The Odd Couple” movie in CC because no one has provided CC! Plus, the arrival of DVD provided more opportunities to view older movies.

Then in the late-’90s (or so), MTV and VH-1 captioned its music videos. By then, I was over rock ‘n roll TV. Nonetheless, it was an exciting moment to see the words of a song instead of just listen to music and watch da moves.

Now, if online videos would get captioned, I’d be a happy camper.

W3C takes another step to ensure quality Web pages with its new QA (Quality Assurance) Activity, which has a dual focus and I quote:

• solidifying and extending current quality practices (specification publication process, existing validation tools, test suites, common test framework, etc.) and
• sharing our understanding for issues related to coordination, certification, education, funding, and tracking the quality of products and services related to W3C technologies.

They have a WG (working group) charter and IG (interest group) charter. These are excellent examples of well-written documentation for the sake of processes. [ thanks to zeldman for the Web lead. ]

This website features a Blank Page according to the recommendations of the TPILB-Project.

Thanks to Backup Brain for the Web lead.

Web appreciation of the day: Dori Smith for all of her work on Wise-Women, WaSP, BackUp Brain and more.

While most of the Web is asleep on the weekend (non-business related places), Shirley Kaiser was busily revamping her Brainstorms and Raves Web site. She moved it to its own domain and redesigned its look. I give it two pencils up (what can I say, I am writing my notes with pencils in hands). Today, she provides an in depth tutorial on using Blogger. If you have been wanting to try it, but didn’t feel ready… maybe this will nudge you along.

It’s a shame we’re in the year 2001. I miss saying “nineteen – something.” “Two-thousand something” just doesn’t flow. Someone conducted an online survey to determine what the new 2000s should be called and I believe the winner is “aughts.” So, here we are in the year “aught-one.” Really, this is not as bad as some of the other nominees.

Web appreciation of the day: Joel Evans and Sam Evans of geek.com. Every day they work to search the Web for hot news and report it. It’s no easy task. Since I joined these fellers’ team, I find some days just don’t wanna look for news and write about it. Yet, they’ve done it day after day for over a year.

Bad news… Industry Standard. I don’t think I need to explain.

Cheering myself up by watching Photoshop tennis right now. It’s better than a Connors and McEnroe match! That’s right… it’s the man I talk about too often that I am beginning to wonder if I am an obsessed fan…. Jeffffffreeeeeeeeeeeeey “The WaSP” Zeeelllldman! His opponent is Scottish lad, Brian “Rustboy” Taylor. Taylor just returned with a quizzical look on his face in response to Zeldman’s maneuver.

OK, you guys can stop seeing Process Methodology… Oh My! on ALA. I’m sure you were sick of my face after three weeks’ exposure. Hey, the man had to go on a speaking tour to make your day. I guess I am in an insulting mood today. Shame on me. I apologize especially if you liked my process article. If you didn’t like it… (no, Meryl, don’t say that) (But they’re mean to me) (Come on, girl. If you want them to read your stuff again…) (*sigh*).

Anyway, it’s a double issue. Again, great of the man to make up for it… but he shouldn’t have to since he provides us with a service on his own time. Today’s marquee is Practical CSS Layouts: Tips, Tricks & Techniques by Mark Newhouse. Glancing at it… it’s pushing me another step forward into creating my first table-less Web page. Table-less sounds naked. Anyway, even if I finally get around to doing it, it won’t mean I’ll give up tables completely. You know, it’s an addiction. Is there a tables patch? It’s a good article that is well accompanied by code and visual aids.

The second article, Global Treaty Could Transform the Web by Dennis Mahoney gets into politics (not my strongest subject). According to the Cnet article, International policy-makers met to discuss the creation of common rules affecting online trade and commerce. Like most things politics, they didn’t come to agreement. Dennis clearly explains the situation and gives us food for thought. I just don’t see restrictions happening on the Web.

Almost everyday I get SPAM saying to “reserve my .info domain name today!” Now you can find out who actually went through it in the whois database.

Web appreciation of the day: Shirley K. Have you appreciated your Web personality lately?

We’ve lost a lot of good sites (we sound like a broken record). Some because they ran out of green. Some because they were damned tired. According to Matt Marshall of Mercury News, content is spreading like it’s 1999 (gosh, that seems long ago). I still have the same question — where’s the revenue model? Collecting a bunch of dollars to start a business doesn’t mean anything without a solid business plan focused on profit.

Wow. We’re getting lots of good information from Oregon’s WebVisions. Shirley provides the right details to make you feel like you were there. It’s a nice change to hear about a successful Web-related conference. It’s been nasty this year… Internet Content closed down due to lack of attendees. Internet World Chicago had empty rooms.

Anyway, I am getting off the point. Jeffrey Zeldman kindly posted the notes from his lectures at WebVisions. Check out the Web Standards and CSS lecture notes. So much material… so little time.

Da do da ron ron. I can’t get that right.

Unlucky in Web speed? Tired of waiting for a cable company or phone company to get the friggin’ DSL or cable connection in your neighborhood? You could try using software to speed up your Web experience, but think hard before trying Webearly3.

My Web appreciation of the day: Ev of Blogger and Jeffrey Zeldman. Have you appreciated your Web guide lately?

Digital Web has released a new issue covering community. It makes me want to e-mail all my favorite, hardworking Webmasters, e-zine editors, etc. and express my appreciation for their devotion to providing quality content. If we don’t show them our appreciation, then they’ll ask themselves — “Why do I do this? No one cares.” I know how they feel. I experienced the same thing early this summer. I may not have a cool e-zine or anything going here, but I do write articles for such places. As a writer, I have the luxury of choosing when I want to write an article.

On the opposite side, these folks push themselves to publish weekly, monthly, and daily. If I got burned… then, it’s no surprise that some people left the Web biz altogether. Peter Fielding and Stephen Van Doren eloquently write about it in Digital Web.

After you read these… drop a quick note to those who make a difference for you on the Web.

OK, this is interesting. Some people are finding my Web site through a search engine. No surprise, right? It’s a little weird when the phrases are:

• blog nudity
• tulum nudity

Hmm… I promise I didn’t put “nudity” in my META TAGS. “Blog” is understandable. “Tulum nudity” sounds mondo-perverted at first. Tulum is actually the name of the ruins I visited in Mexico back in March. The last set of phrases:

• mister water cool – probably referring to the cool water mister I used when I went to Six Flags on a 95+ degree day last summer.
• meryl streep photos – need I say more? Unfortunately, her being famous doesn’t help people learn how to correctly pronounce my name.
• cheap used aeron chairs – Wow, come to my place for cheap stuff.

Maybe it was not that interesting. I’ll make it up to you with these tidbits.

Is Killing Robots Okay? Eerie.

Top 10 Model Languages of All Time.

Thanks to BrainLog for the Web leads.

Creative 404 page.

Web leads from from NextDraft:

A little to the left, Barbie. Bend over a tad more. Hold that pose. Thank goodness the court ruled that Barbie can pose nude. We wouldn’t want to deprive her of her rights.

Child of the ’80s? Get ready to learn the facts of life in the “naughties.” Blair, Jo (?), Natalie, and Tootie reunite to do Facts of Life reunion movie. We don’t know if Nancy McKeon will make it back or not. Aw, come on, Nance. Have a little fun.

Now for some real computer news from Davenetics. Have a free tracker on your Web site to get visitor stats? It may be used as an Internet monitoring system.

Trying out a new concept and giving a rating to the books I’ve read. If it works out, I might add movies. What do you think?

I agree with John Freyer that it’s good to keep life simple and not own so many belongings. That’s why I’ve slowly been selling my Theatre World Annuals. Anyway, back to John. He plans to travel around the country based on objects from his life, which he has sold via his online project Allmylifeforsale.com. He has been selling his life’s possessions on eBay and has reduced his personal belongings down to what will fit into his 1994 White Honda Civic, all of which will also be for sale.

During the trip, Freyer will visit as many of the items as he can and will keep us posted with the day to day of his travels. He has sent out notices to all of the high bidders on his auctions, announcing his trip and asking for permission to visit his former possessions. His last item, the Allmylifeforsale.com domain name closed yesterday at a whopping $1,165. However, he won’t just let the high bidder buy it. He put the following statement in the auction, “I reserve the right to question high bidders of there intentions for development of the domain before the sale is final.” To be continued.