Archive for September 2001

Got my Visibone HTML Card today! Thanks to Shirley for pointing it out to me. I needed a resource that had everything in one shot so I didn’t have to go digging through HTML books for HTML code and special characters. Plus, no looking for a CSS book for the CSS properties. I only knew Visibone as the color king and use it in Photoshop. Never realized Bob Stein and Co. also printed these incredible cards. This stuff uses high quality materials and the no glare lamination will keep it protected from a 2-year-old’s spills and a 7-year-old’s messes.

It covers HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.1, CSS2, and Special Characters. That’s not even everything in it. There’s practically a book shoved into these four pages and I can keep it on my desk between the monitor and the CPU for quick access. The legend makes it easy to find things quickly. Case in point, whenever you see a chain (link), the item has to do with URLs / links. If you see a green (or blue) critter… it’s a ladybug. Yes, a picture of a bug as well as a bug with the browser. Thank goodness, they didn’t use a spider.

I find the HTML-CSS Functional Index incredibly useful. Items in blue are HTML and items in purple are CSS. The two are grouped together by elements so you know what works together. For example: Bold. It shows <b> and <strong> in blue to represent HTML. Then for CSS, you’ll see {font-weight}. It’s nice to see the association without having to rely on the little gray cells.

Also included is a HTML to XHTML checklist. If you’re trying to convert HTML documents to XHTML, refer to this list to know what needs changing to meet XHTML standards. Wow, it even has tidbits on SSI and Universal Resource Locators.

Damn, I wish I had this when it first came out or better yet, when I first started learning HTML then I could’ve upgraded cards! Would be a lot easier than upgrading books. Hey, book publishers… don’t panic. I won’t give up buying my beloved books.

I finally memorized some of the more frequent special characters, but it was always a pain to find them in my books or online especially since I could never find them listed in the index. I can just whip this thing out and turn to the back page. Ta-da! Instant special character listing. Instead of skipping accents altogether out of laziness, I can start adding them since it’ll take two seconds to find it. á ñ α How about that?

Yes, I used more superlatives than I normally would in my writing, but this resource is that good.

Webreference could not have picked a better time to review of Derek Powazek’s new book, Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places. Digital-Web has an interview with Powazek in its current issue. After last week’s horrors, the Web community has truly come together like never before. Rather than relying on one-way journalism, we get the benefit of two-way communication through online communities via bulletin boards, postings, mailing lists and much more. Powazek’s { fray } is the ultimate example of a community Web site. Anyone can submit an article and anyone can reply to the articles posted. People have shared their personal true stories about life in general. The success of { fray } has led to fray day 5 around the US, a global storytelling event artfest and storytelling open mic. I heard the one in Austin during SXSW was crowded and a big success.

After I read as much news reports as I could, I went to blogs and group sites to read what others were feeling. Some of these resources were better than the professional resources. Wired covered this today after I had already written my entry. I loved the paragraph about the Muslim man and the Jewish Hasidic man. That’s how I wish we would treat one another today. Just treating each other like humans and respecting our differences. I wrote about learning of the crashes and what I was thinking in { fray }. My story is not unique at all, but it was an opportunity to write down what I experienced living in Texas. Though I didn’t like The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Its closing describes last week… “The horror. The horror.”

Stan Goldin of Harry Potter Wizard Store has just reported The Blood Banks are full. Blood donor centers in many parts of the country report that they have an adequate supply of blood right now as a result of the enormous public response. However, needs will be on-going and supplies are temporary. Willing donors are asked to schedule appointments or come back in about a week or two. For information on how and where to donate, contact the American Red Cross at 1-800-GIVE-LIFE or 1-888-HELP-NOW.

Again, remember you can give blood EVERY 56 days or if you donate platelets, you can do it every 5 days. If you have not given blood yet, wait a week or so like Stan says. Blood does expire and it would be good to have overlapping supplies rather than have them all expire in 42 days and then we’d be out again. If you can’t give blood for whatever reason, encourage your friends, family, co-workers, and everyone you know to do it. One hour of your time helps THREE people.

Well said, Mr. Pitts! Well said! This is a must read. This writer from The Miami Herald had the courage to say what many columnists are afraid to say.

I received my usual newsletter from Harry Potter Wizard Store and it … I can’t even find the words. In it was a picture of the owner’s family in New York one week before it all happened. The twin towers stood tall into the sky behind the smiling family on a beautiful sunny and windy day. He wrote:

“Fans of Harry Potter know that Harry was orphaned as an infant at the hands of an evil force. The horrible tragedy that hit us in this country, and the rest of the civilized world, has made orphans of many hundreds, if not thousands, of real-life children.”

If you’re looking for more original articles and resources, I compiled a few I’ve found today or earlier this week:

I, Cringely | The Pulpit. Robert X. Kringley of PBS shares his thoughts on the attacks.

E-buddy Shirley Kaiser put together a great resource.

Jason Kottke has been collecting resources since 9-11.

Zeldman has released an article called 911 and I think everyone has gone to read it because I can’t get through.

Tuesday – 8:30 AM CST
Richardson, TX
Telecom office

I walked past three rows of cubicles to talk to a manager about scheduling. She told me to wait a minute because she was listening to the radio. Confused and unable to hear the radio, I asked what was going on. Reading her lips, “Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center.”

“What? No, I think I missed what you said. Say again?”

Obviously, I had heard it right the first time. But it just didn’t register because everyone around there didn’t look somber. I mean for news of this magnitude… I think we were in shock and I just didn’t believe it because I could not hear it for myself from the real news source. After I finished working on the schedule, I returned to my desk and went to the trusty computer. Tried to get into news source #1. Traffic. #2. Traffic. #3. Traffic. Reload… reaload… reload… “A third plane crashed into the Pentagon,” reported a co-worker. Back to the Web… get the damned resource. Load damned Web site. Ah-ha! I got the front page and I clicked on the article… load, dammit. Error. I was a madman. I wanted my news. I needed to see it for myself.

Another report… “Planed crashed in Pittsburgh.” My need for Web news had never climaxed like this and I couldn’t get to it. I stopped trying. Took care of some real work stuff. Eventually, I got an article and read it… several times. I was truly numb. Could not feel anything. Silence. Stayed that way for the rest of the day. Didn’t want to talk to anyone. I couldn’t cry, at least, not right away. Just wanted to go home and hug my family.

When the Web calmed down, I searched every news Web site I knew and read all I could. After shoving article after article into my brain… I still couldn’t cry. Couldn’t believe it. New York. Twin towers. Dad’s birthplace. Ellis Island. The Big Apple now with a hole in its core.

Then I had to do the talk with a 7-year-old girl who worries as much as I do. At the time, I hadn’t come across any “How to talk with your kids about violence” resources and was totally on my own because Paul had to go to a meeting that had not been canceled. I was honest with her. Told her I didn’t know what to say or how to say it. She said just tell her and I did. She asked questions and I didn’t want to answer them in the way she wanted to know. It was just too much to tell her at her age and I wanted the sparkle in her eyes to stick around for a few more years considering kids grow up way too fast today.

Just when Paul had to leave for his meeting, I finally broke down and cried. I never dreamt that politicians could move me, but they did. I cried when I saw Congress standing on the Capitol steps singing “God Bless America.”

I spent the rest of the week in procrastination galore mode.

Blood drives – please, please give blood again 56 days after you donate. There is ALWAYS a need for blood. We had a serious shortage over the past year. Plus, blood expires in 42 days and there are burn victims who will continue to need it. Just make it a seasonal habit… four times a year… summer, fall, winter, and spring. I gave blood 50 days ago and will do it again in 6 days.

<silence>

Last week I complained that I was missing out on the fun at the conference. Sad to say, the conference was not exactly crowded. Several places reported the there were practically no exhibitors and even fewer attendees — thank you, New Economy. It’s no fault of the conference organizers. Internet-Content.com quit having conferences because in one year they had hundreds of attendees then in the following year they had under 50. Also, the Internet World in Chicago conference was void. I heard that this year’s SXSW was not as exciting as last year’s.

Again, it’s the economy not the organizers. Also, let’s be honest… it could be the prices. Some aren’t too bad whereas others hit US$1,000. Whether or not a person is hurting, it’s steep for those one-person businesses. Plus, the cost of airfare and a place to stay. Perhaps, part of the problem is the flux of conferences. Too many choices. We all don’t have the time or the luxury to attend all of them. Maybe each major industry should consider combining resources and conferences to give us fewer choices and increase the number of exhibitors and attendees.

I was thinking about attending a conference in the next state over (pricing is a bit high for two days) or to SXSW so I could meet the faces behind the names especially since both places are a short flight for me, but now I wonder if it’d be worth it. Well, the Web ain’t going anywhere, so it can’t last too much longer — I hope.

Anyway, back to WEB2001. Heather Champ took great photos. I have seen pictures of most of the people before, but it’s good to see them in a different setting. WebReview had a speaker’s blog, but everyone must’ve been too busy to share their thoughts.

Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler have released a new book from New Riders titled Web ReDesign: Workflow that Works. The kind folks of Webreference review the book earlier this week and it sounds might fine. I have not had the opportunity to check out the book, but it sounds like the book I wish I had written. The authors have scores of Web design process experiences and they share their stories in an interview with Webreference.

Many complain the processes put chains on people and stifle creativity and progress. I’ll be honest and say that putting processes in place for the first time does create more work. HOWEVER, once you get through that, it does make a project go smoother. It doesn’t matter if you create your own life cycle, follow CMM, or use Rational’s RUP. It’s not about how much money you spend. It’s about getting something in place and documenting it. I try to tell people two remember two things when it comes to processes and projects: (1) COMMUNICATE (that’s a biggie… repeat it ten times or until it is ingrained in your brain) and (2) when people do the work, ask if it’s documented. I’d hate to see an employee leave and all the rest of ‘em scratch their heads to figure out what dear departed employee did.

More gotchas posted.