Archive for September 2001

I wrote about the new Web Designer’s HTML Card from Bob Stein of Visibone. Yesterday, I received more products:

HTML Foldouts – the newest product from VisiBone that comes in three foldouts: Tags, Styles, and Characters. It’s the same information as the HTML Card divided into three cards with larger print. Definitely much easier to read and still as accessible as the Card. In determining which to buy:

• If you have trouble reading small print, go with the Foldout.
• If you easily misplace things and don’t have trouble reading small print, go with the Card.
• If you easily misplace things and do have trouble reading small print, open the Foldouts and staple them together.

Web Designer’s Color Hexagon Mouse Pad – of all the color layout resources, this is the most useful since it sits right here on my desk with my mouse. Just look for the color and there’s the code. The only complaint I have is the surface material. The slippery material does not have enough traction for the mouse movements and I prefer the soft, rubbery mousepad. The rubbery mousepad’s dull and rough surface may make the colors not match as closely as this smooth one.

Web Designer’s Color Card – the standard portrait sized color chart with three-holes for putting into your planner or notebook. It’s laminated with high quality material, so no worries about messy co-workers or kids messing with it. Hang it up in your cubicle and bring it to life with some color. I prefer the mousepad since my “home” cubicle has no walls, but if I did Web design in my office – it’d be my first choice.

The Color Card shows the 216 Web safe colors just like the mousepad and has an additional small version of the color chart in the lower left-hand corner to stimulate deuteranopia, a form of color blindess. Did you know that color blindness affects 1 in 12 men? 1 in 250 women? More on colorblindness in my previous blog entry on Vischeck.

Also, the 8 1/2 x 11 Card has a Visual Index so you can find the color by its code. It only took a minute to figure out how it works.

VisiBone provides many options of its color and HTML products. You can’t go wrong once you figure out which best fits your needs. You WILL use it. Boy, this sounds like a marketing / sales spiel, but I’m telling it like it is and I get no money for saying this.

ALA Issue Up Today

What a nice way to begin the Jewish New Year — we get treated to the first ALA in a month (understandable). It features an article from J. David Eisenberg on How To Read W3C Specs. I am so relieved! I thought I was the only person who couldn’t understand W3C’s specs — OK, I understand *some* things. Smart people like Eisenberg understand them and write about them for us in articles and readable user guides.

The new issue of Digital Web Magazine is up! I like to take my time reading it by reading one article a day or every few days to last me the whole month. I started with this month’s feature: Measuring User Experience by Christopher Schmitt. One thing I don’t like about working in processes is having to create metrics. Once the metrics are created, then I can handle it since it’s all math. Creating the formula is the challenge. Christopher’s approach makes it look easy and it is not overwhelming like some of those show-off PhD-style articles. He steps through it by looking at log statistics, defining goals, and creating measurable objectives. It’s easy to confuse the definition of goals and objectives and the article clarifies the difference.

When reviewing logs, Schmitt mentions that hits don’t tell you the whole story. Web sites with 20 graphics on a page will make the “visitor count” look bigger than it really is because each graphic is counted as a hit — not when ONE user comes to your site. Yeah, this may be old news… but if it really was old news, then why do we still see counters on Web sites?

Kudos to Nick Finck for a beautiful Digital Web cover page. I believe it appropriately captures recent events and quotes one of the best articles written about the tragedy.

Aerial photo of Ground Zero.

Gonna save the other articles for another day… not to worry, Ben, I’ll read yours.

More photos from Texas A&M’s Red White and Blue Out game plus an article. Gig’em!

Are you a writer who is having trouble sleeping? Could this be why?

Palm Trademark Follow Up

Last week, Pal*, Inc. lost a few fans when announcing it would enforce its legal right to its trademark if the non-for-profit Pal* fan sites didn’t drop “Pal*” from the URL. The word on the street courtesy geek.com is that Pal* has had a change of heart, but the crowd says, “Too little, too late.” It’s not real clear what’s happening behind the scenes, so I checked with Pal*Loyal, one of the impacted Web sites. It quotes a statement from Pal*station, “In a very positive move for Pal* and the Pal* community, they have decided not persue people from having the word “pal*” in their domain names.”

OK, I read the whole thing and I am not confident that this is the end of it… yet. I checked other resources and all I am getting is “word is” blurbs. As expected, no reports of this on the company’s Web site. I agree with Pal*Loyal’s Carl Brooks who said it perfectly when he stated, “I wasn’t going to issue this story until an official statement was released from Palm Inc., but I decided to release it early and wait for the official annoucement – you know the same way we handle the Pal*, Inc product releases. Leak the rumor and then use the official blurb as confirmation.”

Conventions, Conferences, Seminars, Webinars — Oh My!

ContentBlog is buzzing out all over and getting good press since ContentBiz’s Managing Editor, Anne Holand went live with the blog. Today’s notes caught my eye especially since I had tried to attend a Webinar a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, it was on a day that I worked in the office and I missed it. What made this particular Webinar exciting is that it was online AND closed-captioned! I hope this will become more commonplace especially since the arrival of section 508 (nothing to do with alients), but I’m not holding my breath. It doesn’t apply to conferences. It doesn’t even apply to the private sector. Regardless, it *is* a start.

I was excited when I first discovered the Internet, chatting, emailing, etc. because it opened a new world for me, a person with hearing loss. As usual, the disadavantage quickly popped up in the form of online videos. I can’t friggin’ figure out what they’re saying and lipreading video files is impossible. Now, I’m all for Webinars when accompanied by text, captions, scripts, chats or whatever else that would help someone in my situation know what the heck is happening. But can they really happen? If I had a choice between a captioned Webinar and an in-person conference, I’d choose the Webinar. I’m a decent lipreader, but statistics indicate lipreaders only catch one-third of what is said! So try reading every third word of this note and see how hard it is to follow. Anyway, I get bored at conferences since I don’t catch everything that is said. It depends on the speaker, the topic, and the environment.

Now, if I had to choose between a conference and a audioconference… which do you think I’ll pick? It’s possible to have a Webinar that ensures all attendees, no matter the disability, benefit. I urge trade show companies to think about this.

In the ’50s we had “duck and cover” drills. In the ’70s (at least while I was growing up in Texas), we had tornado drills. And for most of my life at school and at the office, we have fire drills. Annoying, but an important step in safety. We become accustomed to the flight attendants and their seat belt, life vest, oxygen mask drills that most of us probably don’t pay attention unless it’s our first time on a plane.

A captain may have started a new, but important drill. One that should become another safety measure of which we should be familiar as knowing CPR or the Heimlich maneuver. As soon as you see someone waving a knife or some makeshift weapon, start throwing anything and everything at him to confuse him. Of course, we hope to never be in this situation again. Regardless, if it happens, it’d be a great tribute to the heroes of Flight 93. Read more Aboard Flight 564 — The Washington Times. Thanks to Steve Champeon for the great link.

Is it taking longer and longer to start up your Windows-based PC? Some programs may have snuck their way into your Startups list. Considering the names of the files are unrecognizable, you can check out this list of start up programs to help you determine whether or not it’s safe to remove them. Thanks to LangaList for the lead.

Another good lead comes from ResearchBuzz regarding DayPop, an search engine that indexes news sites and blogs. Its search features include the ability to specify what content to search (news, blogs, or both) and the age of materials being searched. Also, Dan Chan created a Blog for information on the development of DayPop.

Bookpool is having a 2001 Bookmark Design Contest. Bet one of you talented folks out there stands a good chance of winning. Prizes? Whatever happened to doing it for the love of art and design? Yes, there are prizes and they come in only one color – green! First place – US$3,000. Second – $2000. Third – $1000. Wow, that’ll buy ya a lotta books just for designing a bookmark. I ain’t associated with ‘em and not lookin’ to borrow money from the winner. Drop me a line if you enter.

It’s naked! My first attempt table-less CSS. I still have a few things to iron out, but not bad for a few hours’ work. Can’t take the credit for building it… I had a lot of help from Little Boxes’ layout.

Gig’em Ags! What a heartwarming picture in 1024×768, 800×600, and for slower speeds, here is the smallest version. One of the best bands in the country, the Fightin’ Texas Aggies Marching Band, spelled out USA. Plus, Texas A&M University put aside its maroon color to show support for America in its “red, white and blue-out.” Student organizers sold 70,000 “Standing For America” T-shirts at the A&M / OSU game and generated an estimated $150,000 for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Even the coaches donned red, white or blue shirts.

Happy Birthday, Ann!

Palm Trademark
PalmOS users, how many of you use PalmLoyal.com? HappyPalm.com? PalmGuru.com? What are the chances you’ll remember their possible new URLs such as PalmOSLoyal? HappyPocket? or HandGuru? Not likely, eh? Not to worry, I made up those URLs, but if Palm gets its way these fan / informational sites will have to drop “Palm” from their names or add “OS” because PalmOS is open source. Thanks to Happy Palm’s Charles “mr_b” Brown and PalmLoyal’s Carl Brooks for spreading the news that Palm, Inc.’s lawyers are threatening to take legal action against Web sites that are violating its trademark usage rules.

I explained my stance on geek.com by saying it’s these Web sites that are giving Palm, Inc. free advertising, marketing, word-of-mouth, or whatever you call the spiel. Palm, Inc. is within its legal rights as Brooks said, “By law, Palm Inc. does own the trademark named ‘Palm’ and many more. They do have the right to exercise their right to protect their trademarks.” Whew, you would not believe how many trademarks Palm, Inc. owns. You can see the list along with more details in his article.

Trademarking is serious business. Companies like Kleenex, Xerox and Coca-Cola can stand to lose the rights to their trademarks if their brand is overused and practically becomes a word in our vocbulary. I admit I’m guilty of saying, “Do you need some Kleenex?” Technically, we should be saying “tissue, copy, and soda.” I remember reading and discussing the whole trademark issue and I wish I had a resource that further explains why companies are sensitive. It makes sense. However, I don’t think using “Pal*” (yes, I added the * in place of the m so they don’t sue me… OK, I’m getting carried away) in these fan sites is going to cause problems for Palm, Inc. since they’re spreading the news about its business and associated products. It’s beneficial to the company!

Palm, Inc. needs to review its stance enabling such Web sites use it without abusing Palm, Inc.’s rights to the trademark(s).

Articles:
SiliconValley
The Register
HappyPalm
PalmLoyal

Design Styles
Webreference, up to its usual high standards, delivered another informative issue of its Webreference Update Newsletter reviewing Curt Cloninger’s book Fresh Styles for New Designers. He covers ten new underground Web design styles and points out examples of each style. However, I disagree with his comment that avoiding bad usability has led to a generation of bland, copycat Web sites that are unexciting. He probably thinks this Web site is sterile and a real sleeper. I think clean and simple is a good style and brings more attention to content. This does not mean I think all sites should be this way. I get a kick out of amazing design that appropriately use Flash, CSS, and jazzy techniques. I’ve explored some of the URLs that Webreference included in the issue and was in awe. I’m sure Mr. Cloninger says a few things in his book that I would not agree with him, but it sounds like it’s worth a lookie-loo.

Hey, I found a gotcha on Curt’s Web site. 1950′s should be 1950s. Gotcha coming soon to a Gotcha near you.

I recently blogged the power of the online community and Weblogs during times of crises. My local paper, The Dallas Morning News covers the topic in today’s issue. Slashdot and Kottke are mentioned, so it’s good to see our neighborhood join traditional print.

While we’re on the topic of the Morning News, Alice in Wonderland fans may want to check out my review of Joriko’s software.

Are you bandwidth prejudiced? Before you start laughing and calling me names, this is not my idea. Or perhaps, you’re a person who is using a modem and can understand what this is about. This Web site is “dedicated to stopping the hate of people using 56K modems.” I used a 56K modem until fall 2000 when a cable company finally offered it in my neighborhood. We still don’t have DSL in this bustling Plano community just walking distance from the new Apple store in the high society-ish mall. Now, I don’t live in a high society neighborhood, but it’s nearby. You’d think the broadband companies would clamor to get our business. Noooooo, they take their sweet little time and we’re at their mercy. My parents desperately want DSL or Cable in their Fort Worth home and it’s not available! They were told it’d be available in July. It’s September and it still ain’t there.

The point is that not everyone has the choice of buying high speed Internet access. Personally, I believe broadband is failing because it is not getting up fast enough, but I am sure there are many reasons and I’m not here to analyze those reasons. How bad is the prejudice against people with 56K (or my goodness, even slower)? How often do you came across a graphically-rich Web site with videos, audios, and other files that would take literally hours for 56K (or less) modems to receive?

Ironically, the graphics on the Web site loads slowly even with a cable connection. When designing Web pages, one of the first things to consider is who is the audience. If it’s other businesses, then you’re probably OK to design for fast connections. Not all small businesses have the luxury of a fast connection. When the audience is home-based, I’d watch out for the heavy duty stuff. Besides, I’ve always thought clean design says more.

Gosh, I remember the day I got a 1200 bps modem and we had to drive an hour to buy it, but it was worth it!