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September, 2001Archives by MonthNovember, 2001

Archives by Month: October, 2001

Listed below are excerpts and links to all weblog, blog entries, posts published during October, 2001.

New Book on Web Design

Web Redesign : Workflow That Works, by Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler has a good review at Slashdot by Steve McLaughlin. As Steve’s review states, it really covers more than redesign. At the book’s companion site, Linda Weinman also states, "Even though the title of this book is focused on a redesign, this book will help you with any form of design at any stage of any web site. So often, developers and designers end up inventing many critical processes that this book will help you better control, such as planning, budgeting, scheduling, testing, and client relations." You can... (136 words, 8 links, 1 image)

02:04 pm, pst31 October, 2001

New Release of Opera for Macs

Opera Software ASA has just released version 5.0 Beta 4 for Opera. This new version has a link toolbar with improved drag and drop not yet available for other platforms (I impatiently wait for that on my PC version!!), a new installer, better AppleScript support, autofill of forms, new balloon help, a revised preference layout, searchable and dockable bookmarks, and more. As always, there’s the free version or the US$39 version that eliminates the ads. See the press release below for more details. Opera Supporter I’ve been a major supporter of Opera for quite some time now, in part because... (1049 words, 22 links, 1 image)

09:14 am, pst31 October, 2001

Type Directors Club Type Design Competition 2002

The Type Directors Club has announced a call for entries for the 5th annual type design competition, Type Design Competition 2002. This international competition is well received, with TDC 2001 bringing in 135 entries from 13 countries. (The winners are impressive!) Check out the Type Directors Club for more information. The deadline for entries is December 21, 2001, and winners will be announced the week of January 21, 2002.... (70 words, 3 links)

09:42 pm, pst29 October, 2001

Another Fun Design Weblog and More

This morning I discovered a nicely done and information-packed design weblog that’s more than a weblog, The Study of Design. The Study of Design weblog has interesting, well-written entries with high quality links to resources around the Web related to design (mostly Web design). But wait, there’s more! (239 words, 7 links)

06:19 am, pst29 October, 2001

Tim Berners-Lee’s Opinion About Microsoft’s MSN.com Antics

Dan Gillmor decided to ask Tim Berners-Lee how he feels about Microsoft’s "latest browser tricks" in an interview posted Friday, mentioned also at his e-journal. Here’s a snippet: DG: What is your reaction to Microsoft’s decision to disable non-IE browsers from access to MSN? TBL: I have fought since the beginning of the Web for its openness: that anyone can read Web pages with any software running on any hardware. This is what makes the Web itself. This is the environment into which so many people have invested so much energy and creativity. When I see any Web site... (276 words, 7 links)

09:07 pm, pdt26 October, 2001

Follow-up to 'Opera Responds to Microsoft’s Latest'

Microsoft claims they don’t want to block users and that they’d change their site by Thursday (yesterday) to remedy that. Here’s a screenshot that I took Friday afternoon at 1:42PM Pacific time with Opera. You can click on the screenshot for the full version. (90 words, 5 links, 1 image)

02:00 pm, pdt26 October, 2001

Opera Responds to Microsoft’s Latest

I received the following press release this morning in response to Microsoft’s latest shenanigans. Needless to say, I couldn’t post it here fast enough! Microsoft doesn’t seem to understand what standards compliant means, to say the least. Opera Comments against Microsoft: Opera acknowledges Microsoft’s decision to allow access for standard-compliant browsers OSLO, Norway - Oct. 26, 2001 - Opera Software ASA today welcomed Microsoft’s quick about face on denying millions of Opera users access to their main Web portal, MSN. Microsoft’s abrupt change of mind came after hostile reactions were reported in the media from many Opera users who had... (649 words, 9 links)

12:09 pm, pdt26 October, 2001

The Basics of Converting Your Site to XHTML

Do you have the impression that XHTML means a whole lot of work to learn? There’s a new introductory tutorial at SitePoint that will help dispel that myth! XHTML - An Introduction, by Nick Wilson, is a good, down to basics way to see the key points for XHTML. You’ll see that it’s just a matter of building on the HTML skills that you already know. It’s really not so scary, you’ll see! Why bother learning XHTML? Well, it’s been the latest recommendation by W3C (no longer HTML 4.01) for awhile now, for starters. Once you’ve seen that introduction,... (200 words, 11 links, 1 image)

07:15 am, pdt26 October, 2001

IAwiki’s BlogsOfNote

Interested in finding helpful weblogs for information architecture? There’s a goldmine of them at IAwiki’s BlogsOfNote page. What’s especially helpful about this listing is that they’re individually annotated, some going into a fair amount of detail, too. My bookmarks are growing.... Among some of my favorites are Christine Wodtke’s Elegant Hack, Louis Rosenfeld’s Bloug, Michael Angeles' IASlash, and well, there’s no point in duplicating IAwiki’s BlogsOfNote. I think you’ll find they’ve listed many of the best weblog sites for IA. IAwiki is also a new collaborative wiki devoted to information architecture. It’s definitely off to a great start, quickly... (223 words, 10 links)

09:25 am, pdt25 October, 2001

Weblog Hat Tip: Digital Web Magazine’s What’s New

I seldom directly mention in my daily writing the sites that I visit on a daily basis. There are just the occasional link references at the bottom of my posts, and there’s a list of "daily reads" in the right column here with links to more, too. The reality is, though, that these independent content writers' daily writings have become an integral part of my everyday life and the daily lives of many others, too. Weblogs and other independent content varies as much as each one of us does, with their own unique personalities. From here on, at least once... (346 words, 16 links, 1 image)

11:59 am, pdt24 October, 2001

New Tutorial: Converting Existing Content to CSS

Yours truly has written a new interactive tutorial to help people learn the basics of converting a web page or an entire site from using <font> tags to using CSS to designate fonts, colors, hyperlinks, formatting, and using style blocks and external style sheets. This new tutorial is geared for those who know some HTML but haven’t tried style sheets yet. This introductory, down to basics tutorial will guide you along with concise instructions, tips, and examples each step of the way. All the markup is included as you work your way through each step building your style block... (199 words, 5 links, 1 image)

12:34 pm, pdt21 October, 2001

Meet MiniMono, a New Variation on the Classic Mini7 Pixel Font

Joe Gillespie’s Mini7 font has been a longtime classic pixel font. Joe has now created a variation of the Mini7 font, the new MiniMono, the timing of which is perfect for the 5-year anniversary of his well respected Web Page Design for Designers site, too. MiniMono is a monospaced version of Mini7, meaning that all the characters will align horizontally and vertically (on a 7x7 grid). Joe provides excellent tips and instructions to get you started playing with this new set of fonts. The main difference in working with pixel fonts, or bitmap fonts, is to turn off anti-aliasing... (344 words, 10 links, 2 images)

08:35 am, pdt20 October, 2001

Univ. of Oregon’s Web Publishing Resources

Colleen Bell and others have put together a tremendously beneficial curriculum resource for web publishing. In addition to some helpful outlines, this valuable site includes links to many of the high quality resources out there for learning about publishing on the web—HTML, CSS, images, colors, web standards, tables, and good practices overall. Definitely another bookmark-worthy site to refer to again and again! [Link via Meryl’s Notes, via Neat New Stuff]... (76 words, 4 links)

05:38 am, pdt19 October, 2001

Looking for a Typewriter Font?

P22 and International House of Fonts (IHOF), known for their quality fonts, are offering a free typewriter font for personal use, P22 Typewriter, created by designer Richard Kegler. There are no strings attached, and it includes all the international characters, too. It’s based on a typewriter circa 1966. As you can see in the sample, it’s a beautifully done high quality font, and its style is fairly clean and not too distressed. While you’re there, check out P22’s fonts, too. You may recognize some, such as Monet, Eaglefeather, London Underground, and more. For lots more fonts, check out WebsiteTips.com’s Fonts section... (115 words, 4 links, 1 image)

06:38 am, pdt17 October, 2001

Speech Support for HTML?

Information Week’s Tischelle George reported yesterday about SALT Forum’s speech support for HTML in the article, New Consortium Aims To Add Speech Support To HTML. What sounds good to me is that the SALT Forum’s goal is to develop this to extend existing languages such as HTML, XHTML, and XML. They state at their site, Most importantly, SALT does not define a new programming model; it reuses the existing Web execution model so that the same application code can be shared across modalities. And since SALT does not alter the behavior of the markup languages with which it is... (343 words, 4 links)

05:13 pm, pdt16 October, 2001

Great News From W3C Re: Patent Policy Draft

W3C has invited continuing dialog regarding its patent policy draft. Not only that, they’ve started a homepage for the Patent Policy Working Group, they’ve invited two free software and open source authorities to join the working group, they’ll work on fixing or fine tuning the current draft, and they’ll have another round of feedback before the next draft becomes a formal recommendation. (204 words, 9 links)

03:07 pm, pdt14 October, 2001

The Mind Game of Fear

We’ve been officially warned by the F.B.I. and our President that we could be attacked during the next few days and to be watchful. Yet we are also told that we need to carry on and live our lives. Part of the terrorists' plan is to scare us to the point of immobilizing us, destroying our way of life, our economy, and more. While it’s only natural to get frightened when planes fly into our buildings and kill thousands of people and now seeing Anthrax pop up, our fear can’t stand in the way of us carrying on. How?... (446 words, 2 links)

07:23 pm, pdt12 October, 2001

Anthrax : What It Is, What We Can Do

Little did I know I’d ever write anything about Anthrax. Unfortunately, though, it’s something that we need to watch out for, heightened by today’s news that the assistant for NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw has been exposed and that Mr. Brokaw and others are being tested. A similar letter was sent to the New York Times, and employees there are also being tested. NPR has a wonderfully done special section on Anthrax, An Anthrax Primer: NPR’s Science Desk Answers Some Frequently Asked Questions. This section covers all the basic information you could possibly want to know about Anthrax, what... (110 words, 3 links)

06:40 pm, pdt12 October, 2001

Speaking Up Gets Attention - the Latest About the W3C Patent Policy and RAND

Tuesday Oct. 9 Nathan Cochran wrote Web standards debate raises ire for I.T. Cochran notes that the W3 has indeed been listening to the multitude of letters that have flooded in to the W3’s Patent Recommendation discussion list. The board meets October 15, so let’s keep our fingers and toes crossed that they’ll take our combined voices into consideration and make some adjustments to this Patent draft. We live in a democracy. We’re supposed to be able to voice our opinions, share our thoughts freely, vehemently voice concerns when something isn’t quite right and make an impact. Given our current crazy... (146 words, 4 links)

09:55 pm, pdt11 October, 2001

Is Your Site Credible?

The Stanford Web Credibility Research site has some fantastic research results on credibility. What exactly is credibility? Well, in terms of a Web site, it’s what’s perceived that matters the most. Perceived credibility includes elements of trustworthiness and expertise, according to their study, What Makes Web Sites Credible? A Report On A Large Quantitative Study: Trustworthiness, a key element in the credibility calculus, is defined by the terms well-intentioned, truthful, unbiased, and so on. The trustworthiness dimension of credibility captures the perceived goodness or morality of the source. Expertise, the other dimension of credibility, is defined by terms such... (446 words, 7 links)

01:22 pm, pdt 9 October, 2001

Update on the W3C Patent Policy Draft: WaSP to W3C: Remember Your Charter and Mission

WaSP has written a formal letter to the W3C, WaSP to W3C: Remember your Charter and Mission. Well said. The deadline to write comments to the W3C on this important issue is October 11. For links and more information, check out the archive posts here on WaSP and web standards.... (52 words, 4 links)

06:00 am, pdt 8 October, 2001

Bin Laden Video Tapes A Chilling Message

I just watched the video on NBC News of Bin Laden’s chilling message to Americans and the world. As I write this, reports vary as to when this was taped, but it was made sometime after the September 11 attacks and probably before the initial attacks to Afghanistan by the U.S. and Great Britain earlier Sunday morning. News Reports Here are some reports about his video. You may note that the translations can vary a bit, but the message remains. Bin Laden: No 'security or safety' for U.S. [10/07/01 6:56 PM EDT, CNN.com] Bin Laden appears on video to threaten... (135 words, 5 links)

06:51 pm, pdt 7 October, 2001

Terrorism: Striking Back Has Begun

You may already know that the U.S. and Great Britain have begun striking back today, starting in Afghanistan. Prime Minister Tony Blair states that there are three main parts to the operations—military, diplomatic and humanitarian. He also states, This is a moment of utmost gravity for the world. None of the leaders involved in this action want war. None of our nations want it. We are peaceful people. Here are transcripts of speeches given today by President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair: Attack on Afghanistan: Tony Blair statement [10/07/01 3:51 PM EDT, CNN.com]] President Bush says... (110 words, 4 links)

03:16 pm, pdt 7 October, 2001

Ready For Some Silly Humor? A Tombats Flash cartoon

I’ve always enjoyed the lighthearted silly humor of Tom Murphy’s dingbat fonts. Visiting Tom’s weblog over the weekend I was delighted to find a link to a Flash cartoon using the Tombats 6 dingbat font. The cartoon’s light humor is just like the entire series of Tom’s Tombats. Tom Murphy also just released Tombats 7 a few weeks ago, too. (110 words, 6 links, 1 image)

06:27 am, pdt 7 October, 2001

Font Aid II: Type Designers Join Together To Raise Money for the Red Cross

Right after the September 11 attacks some of the best type designers from all over the world joined together via the Society of Typographic Aficionados to figure out a way to raise money to help the victims and their loved ones. Inspired by Claes Källarsson’s Font Aid last year, Stuart Sandler suggested using their special skills to jointly create a font that could be sold online, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Red Cross. Thus, Font Aid II was born. The designers agreed to each create one question mark glyph. To the right are just a few of... (561 words, 11 links, 2 images)

06:16 am, pdt 6 October, 2001

HP Supports Royalty Free Standards for Web, IBM Doesn't

Bruce Perens of Hewlett-Packard wrote about HP’s official support of royalty-free standards for the Web infrastructure, thus opposing the W3C’s RAND Patent Recommendation. HP is on the W3C Advisory Board. . . . There are many reasons to dislike RAND, but the one I focus on as HP’s Linux and Open Source Strategist is the fact that a required patent royalty is incompatible with Open Source software. Open Source is by definition royalty-free. Thus, "non-discriminatory" patent licensing actually does discriminate against Open Source. Over the past several years, all successful new software standards have had one thing in common: an Open Source... (317 words, 11 links)

01:12 pm, pdt 5 October, 2001

How To Defeat Terrorism, or Alternatives to War, Continued

Last weekend I wrote about my soul-searching on how the world can best deal with terrorism, not only to prevent something else from happening to any of us again, but what we can do to end violence. Our actions must reflect a desire for peace and unity. There are indeed times when reason and diplomatic efforts are futile. But is the answer to use violence to stop violence? That seems like such a conflict, even though I look back on previous wars and see how horrendous situations were stopped because of fighting back and defending ourselves. I’m listening to... (588 words, 6 links)

06:39 am, pdt 5 October, 2001

W3C Patents Recommendation, Continued

Dori Smith and Jeffrey Zeldman have some very helpful comments and insight. My own view remains that I feel W3C needs to fill in some holes in its language regarding RAND and "Royalty-free" to prevent potential problems. I’d like to see the W3C clarify which technologies are royalty-free, for example. Vague language can lead to being taken advantage of, and I’d certainly like to see those possibilities avoided. The other point Jeffrey Zeldman states, Our other problem with RAND, and it’s a subjective one, is that the timing stinks. The W3C seems not to have noticed that New York,... (267 words, 5 links)

11:23 am, pdt 4 October, 2001

W3C Patents Recommendation - Paying Royalties?!

Following up on Monday’s Paying Royalties To Use CSS or XML? What?!, several design discussion lists have asked for simple explanations of what’s going on with the W3’s patent recommendation. Some have asked what brought this all on, too. Now there are some explanations for us from very kind people who lost sleep just to get the word out in ways that more of us can understand. (343 words, 22 links)

01:51 pm, pdt 3 October, 2001

Paying Royalties To Use CSS or XML? What?!

I won’t duplicate what Jeffrey Zeldman, Ben Henick, and the Web Standards Project have stated so well already. I will write here, though, that I’m also opposed to the current W3 Patent Policy Recommendation. Why? It’s far too vague and leaves open holes for potential problems with its discussion of RAND and what it considers to be royalty-free. Such ambiguity makes me nervous. Remove the holes and I’ll feel less squirmish. Fortunately, W3C listened to our requests to extend the deadline and allow time for discussion of this issue, per the email announcement I received tonight. Date: Mon, 1... (380 words, 20 links)

09:56 pm, pdt 1 October, 2001

More on the Important Role of Weblogs

Dan Gillmor’s article September 29, Webloggers offer views media can’t,[1] offers an open-minded, healthy perspective with which I also happen to agree—that traditional media and weblogs complement one another. A couple of excerpts: “One lesson here was the synergy between old and new media. Traditional journalists have learned the value of paying attention to what goes online and often use Web sites as a tip sheet. “We should go further. We need to recognize what Farber and the webloggers implicitly grasp—that our readers, listeners and viewers collectively know more, vastly more, than we do. “. . . Some... (244 words, 8 links)

01:04 am, pdt 1 October, 2001

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