August 11, 2003
Switch To Mozilla
This week I’m doing something a bit different for my Gorilla Web Tip. For Gorilla Web Tip Number Six - Switching to Mozilla, I offer some of the best reasons I can think of to give Firebird a try. This article is geared toward the average Web user as an audience. Feel free to forward on to friends or post on your sites.
August 08, 2003
SOW: Takeoff by Aceyalone
The Artist: Aceyalone
The Song: Takeoff
The Album: Love and Hate
Released 2003
I’m here to tell you hip hop is alive and well. About a month ago I went and saw Prince Paul, Eyedea and Aceyalone. I was blown away. Prince Paul was entertaining, but his terrific albums don’t translate into a show easily. Eyedea was amazing. This guy has real skill, step aside Eminem. His beats were a bit average, but he made up for that with his rapid-fire rhymes and crazy energy. If you like Saul Williams and poetry slam style raps you’ll love him.
Which brings me to Aceyalone, this week’s artist. I’d been in to him since I heard him on one of my all time favorite hip hop songs, “When the Sun Took a Day off and the Moon Stood Still” by Freestyle Fellowship, from Beneath The Surface, which is a great album everyone into hip hop should own.
I’ve always loved his style and his unique way of storytelling, and with his new album, Love and Hate, he’s added some quality production (great beats and samples) and more of a get down and party feel to his intelligent and thought-provoking lyrical style. This is the kind of hip hop I like the most; a good balance between beats and rhymes, that makes you move and think at the same time.
I chose “Takeoff” as the Song of The Week not only because I feel like it’s a great track that encompasses what Aceyalone does well, but it also has a killer sample that took me way back. Anyone else know where it came from? Give a listen. I’ll send a brand spankin’ new copy of Love and Hate to the first person to comment with the artist and name of the song Aceyalone samples on “Takeoff”.
Recommended if you like: Freestyle Fellowship, Black Star, Common, Aesop Rock, Ugly Duckling, Dilated Peoples, Black Eyed Peas
**Don’t see the player? You can listen to the Song Of The Week, and previous songs, from the Asterisk* song of the week player on the top of the homepage.
RSS, Generated Code and Newsreaders
I just got through reading Kottke’s Refined RSS Feeds and the related comments and after my brain stopped hurting, it got me to thinking.
First - RSS. I don’t really care much how RSS works, and whether or not it’s human readable. I guess that would be preferable, but really, I just want to know that it works and that I can syndicate my site to folks with newsreaders. The rest I’ll leave to people smarter than I to sort out / fight over.
Second - Generated Code. I find it strange that with Web standard development gaining more and more acceptance that I don’t worry too much about the code Movable Type generates. I’m pretty sure it all validates and all that, but I’ve never really looked at it. I spend lots of time working on valid templates for my projects and then, with the exception of MT, I go to great length to make sure the content that goes into those templates is coded correctly. I’ve got my fingers crossed that my MT code will stand the test of time.
Third - Newsreaders. I have a newsreader, but I rarely use it. I much prefer to read people’s sites via the browser where I can take in the site as a whole. I’m in the process of doing a redesign, and I’m working hard on my content markup and presentation (a sneak peak) at the moment, so I realize that aspect is very important. But one of the other reasons I’m redesigning is to optimize the template, the “extra” content and elements around my main blog entries. Things a newsreader won’t pick up.
So I’m curious, are you reading this from my site, or from a newsreader? What is your preferred format for reading blogs? What are your feelings on this stuff?
August 06, 2003
Dave Shea on CSS Image Replacement
Could this article be more timely?
This week Digital Web is very proud to bring you In Defense of Fahrner Image Replacement by Dave Shea.
From Digital Web:
This article is a must read for any designer who wants to push the boundaries of web design yet still have something as structurally sound as a typical CSS based layout.
The "Information Architecture" Community Has a Problem
I put Information Architecture in quotes because I’m not sure if that term is the correct one anymore. There are so many different names for what I consider Information Architecture that I’ve lost count. Information Design, Interaction Design, heck, just a week or so ago the Interaction Architects, who get no respect by the way, piped up.
I’m sure many out there will view all of these as separate professions and that is fine by me. There are just as many that see this fragmentation as a bad thing. I personally see these as separate disciplines but just find all the rest more confusing than anything and the pointless discussion over who does what, what its called and all the semantical differences therein annoying. For a group of people who share similar skill sets (regardless of job title), included in which are defining, naming, simplifying, semantics and organization there sure seems to be a problem with all of the above when it comes to nailing down what they actually do and what you call it.
In my opinion it’s not what you call it that will make it of value. Rather it’s the necessity, and quality, of the services provided by these folks that will get people to pay for it. Not marketing a job title. The “Web Producers” tried that and look where they are now. No one knows what the hell they do, they’re probably all Web Masters again.
Don’t get me wrong, Information Architecture and all of its related disciplines are very valuable both on the Web and off. I’ve done my part to try and educate my stakeholders and clients on the benefits of the discipline and practices of Information Architecture. I’ve been doing my best to keep involved with the IA community but it’s getting hard.
There signal to noise ratio right now is horrible. I can’t be bothered to read any of the once interesting e-mail I get from AIFIA and I’m frankly really turned off by all argument that goes on whenever someone wants to brand a different form of IA or coin a new term. I mean, who cares? I’d be most of the people writing the checks don’t. They call us all Web designers.
There are a few good resources out there. Boxes and Arrows and IA/, both of whom seem to choose to take an all inclusive track on these subjects (hint, hint), are going strong with great information. Digital Web and Evolt have some good resources on IA for more general Web professionals. But aside from that it seems like Information Architecture (et. all) is suffering from a serious identity crisis.
If IA and those who practice it can’t define themselves and agree on a common language for their disciplines, how can a client expect to benefit from those services. If they are as confused as I am, IA has a real problem. Again it’s about what you do — not what you call it.
I’d like to see more education, more marketing of skills and services, more case studies and best practices, and for cryin out loud more consistancy from the IA (and related) communities. While we’re at it I’d like to see less argument, less finger pointing, less elitism and less confusion as well.
But what do I know? I’m just a Web Designer.
August 05, 2003
Better than FIR.
Two techniques for CSS image replacement popped up recently, one from Seamus Leahy and the other from Stuart Langridge.
To add to the mix, we’ve got a Digital Web article by the one and only Dave Shea on this subject coming later his week. It’s a great one, keep your eyes pealed for that.
And Paul thought there was nothing new and good to talk about!
McGovern on Quality Web Publising
In this week’s New Thinking Newsletter Gerry talks about how Quality Web publishing is about saying no.
I think some of his insight, as well as a quote or two, might have come from talking to the folks down at the hospital. If you are involved with Intranets you should read this. He clarifies many things that I’ve come across myself in my work.
When he talks about how good publishing is about quality not quantity he is dead on when it comes to almost every Intranet I’ve seen. As well as many other sites out there. I know I take quite a bit of his advice to heart.
On a related note, last weeks article from Gerry, The Seven Deadly Sins of Web Writing, is worth a look as well.
Mezzoblue CSS Redesign
Actually it’s more of a rebuild, but I have to admire Dave’s ability to find time to take on such an endeavor — it couldn’t have been easy. Wonder what the new wife thought of her hubby crouched over a monitor crunching CSS code?
Makes me have to lament all the updating I’ve not had time to get to. Well, hopefully soon.
Check out more on his effort and a mildly heated discussion on CSS vs. tabled layouts to boot.
