« December 2003 Entries »

I Do Not Use Accesskeys

A standard is a standard is a standard. But what if those standards don’t work as directed?

Over time, I’ve come to the conclusion that Accesskeys are more harmful than good. Until browsers allow a user to override a document’s Accesskeys, I won’t use them.

Continue Reading… | Comments Closed (42) | posted to Accessibility

Merry Christmas

Off to enjoy family and friends for the holidays. I leave you the gift of links! Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Festive Kwanzaa, and so on. Whatever you celebrate, and even if you don’t, enjoy the rest of 2003.

Continue Reading… | Comments Closed (13) | posted to Ephemeral

CSS: Copyrightable?

Yesterday’s post began with a soliloquy on the relative ease of theft that comes along with standards-based design. This is an issue I’m deeply concerned about, for obvious reasons. I’ve had to tackle some hard questions head on when it comes to CSS theft. I still don’t have any answers, only opinions.

Some excellent discussion ensued on both topics yesterday, but there was some confusion between them. Let’s free this topic from the specific case, and move along to the more general issue at hand.

Continue Reading… | Comments Closed (51) | posted to CSS

The Case of Jackson vs. Gawker

Not that I don’t have enough of my own rip-off problems to contend with, given the handful of new sites based on Garden designs each day…

The downside that hasn’t yet been explored, with regards to standards-based design, is that separation of content and presentation makes it entirely too easy to steal one and not the other.

Continue Reading… | Comments Closed (41) | posted to The Industry

How to Conceive a Layout

I don’t normally respond to CSS help requests, instead referring the asker to the css-discuss mailing list. It’s mainly a time issue, but I’m also of the opinion that you can’t learn if you have someone else doing it for you. I’ve never been one to ask for help if I could figure it out for myself. With Google and a few good books, I believe everyone can figure out CSS. It’s not easy, it takes time, but it is do-able.

Continue Reading… | Comments Closed (33) | posted to CSS

Accessible Image Replacement

Image replacement is back in the news — Levin Alexanders’ ‘Graphical Headings’ is going around again. (note that Tom Gilder also brought it to our attention around the same time)

Classic FIR has three problems, which I summarized this summer:

Continue Reading… | Comments Closed (41) | posted to CSS

News and Links

It’s that time of year again. The holiday season must mean that WestCiv is offering its online CSS course for free, and what do you know, they sure are. The introduction is available for another few days, so if you’re looking to learn or brush up on your CSS, this is the place to be for the next few months. §

Continue Reading… | Comments Closed (10) | posted to Links

Browser Stats

Where do you go for accurate, up to date numbers for current browser share?

There aren’t many centralized resources aggregating this sort of thing on a wide scale anymore. Thanks to lazy developers who have written bad detection scripts over the past five years, plenty of browsers identify themselves as IE anyway, which makes tracking more of an art than a science.

Continue Reading… | Comments Closed (32) | posted to Browsers

CSS is Visual

Quite a high-threshold discussion happening on fellow Canadian Jeremy Shield’s weblog.

Nothing really too new here, except for the observation that, with everyone’s help of course, we’ve more or less made it impossible to argue that CSS design is inherently ugly.

Continue Reading… | Comments Closed (26) | posted to CSS

New Finds

My top five new reads that I think everyone else should be reading too:

• random($foo) — frequently updated with links and commentary, always interesting. Tech and culture.
• paranoidfish — great commentary (if, sometimes, beyond my level) and great links. Tech.
• die puny humans — Uh, yet more frequent links and commentary. Culture. (Twisted, Good.)
• 1976 Design — Fellow WaSP Dunstan Orchard’s quirky design weblog. Dunstan is a character, good times are guaranteed to all.
• DW: What’s New — not technically a new find, but a great news source that probably doesn’t get enough credit. Run by Nick Finck and other DW authors (myself included, occasionally, when I remember)

Continue Reading… | Comments Closed (42) | posted to Publishing

ASP to PHP, with MT to Boot!

Step right up, step this way. Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you the amazing journey from one server-side technology to another. You’ll be amazed, you’ll be awed, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry. You’ll… okay, so my writing style needs to calm down a touch.

I’ve been working on this on and off for months now, and I meant to have it up far earlier than this. Some of the final details are fuzzy at this point, but the bulk of it is on target.

This is the process I went through when upgrading my Movable-Type powered site from IIS (and ASP) to Apache (and PHP), from start to finish. For the benefit of Google, and you the reader, I’ll try to spare no detail. Much the same as I ended up blessing the kind souls who have written up their own experiences, one day I hope someone will find the exact answer they need somewhere in this.

Continue Reading… | Comments Closed (22) | posted to Server-Side

Dispatch the Flying Monkeys

And here’s the extra special edition wherein it’s announced that for a limited time only, I am on the job market! Yes, that’s right, the holidays are fast approaching, and what better way to cope with a killer Visa bill than a shiny new spot at a great company?

I’m looking for a full time design gig in Vancouver, B.C. I want to work with a forward-thinking firm in virtually any industry that’s relevant. Be it custom design, online media, software development, or any other, I’m open to suggestion. You know my work, but much more is available upon request. Serious inquiries can be sent via this site’s contact form.

If you, or anyone you know are in need of a designer up on the latest web standards, let’s chat.

comments off | posted to mezzoblue