50,000 watts of power … Got my radio on
Creating a one-click sync between your microformat data and a visitor’s address book or calendar couldn’t be simpler with Django. In fact, the built-in generic views give you everything you need.
If you use Django, it seems inevitable that the database will quickly have a lot of data that just lends itself to microformats, particularly calendar […]
For quite some time now I’ve been using js-hcalendar on a few different sites to parse out hcal-formatted events.
While I think it’s a fine script I kept running into limitations with it, so I started hacking and came up with my own.
It’s obviously based on the fine work in js-hcalendar, with a few extra […]
I had a need today for a simple textarea word count script, so whipped this up using jQuery. It ain’t fancy, but it works:
$(document).ready(function(){
$(\”#text\”).keyup(function() {
$(’#count’).html($(’#text’).val().split(/\b[\s,\.-:;]*/).length);
});
});
I’ll leave it to you to remember you have to have jQuery in place, and sort out the IDs on the textarea […]
Over on Boxes and Arrows there’s a brilliant piece translating The Elements of Style for designers. As a big fan of E.B. White and the work he did to improve writers everywhere (as well as Charlotte’s Web), this one is a must-read.
And for those who really think visually, The Illustrated Elements of Style.
The web development community in the Kansas City area, like Kansas City itself, tends to be a bit insular and scattered, at least in my experience. And quite frankly, many of the developers in this area are sadly lagging behind the times when it comes to building modern, standards-compliant, forward-thinking sites. Sure, there’s folks like […]
Over on Creating Passionate Users, Kathy Sierra is musing on the value of ideas and how they spread.
In particular, I like how she pointed out that ideas by themselves mean little. How they’re implemented means everything.
It’s not about our ideas, it’s about what the ideas can do for our users.
Ideas are a dime a […]
Found on Boxes and Arrows:
Web Dogma ‘06
Anything that exists only to satisfy the internal politics of the site owner must be eliminated.
Anything that exists only to satisfy the ego of the designer must be eliminated.
Anything that is irrelevant within the context of the page must be eliminated.
Any feature or technique that reduces the visitor’s ability […]
My article on “stupid users” seems to have stirred quite a bit of debate, with quite a few people seemingly convinced that the users are, in fact, stupid, and there’s nothing that can be done about it. That’s just not the case.
There’s quite a bit that can be done to help “stupid users.”
I’m […]
It’s true. Every day, in web departments and web design firms across America (and probably the world), a common and ugly refrain is repeated”
Our users are stupid.
They won’t get it.
Project managers and developers describe their own users as below average, behind the curve and not savvy.
It’s disgusting. No other mainstream industry would dream of […]
I just found out my birth tree is the Walnut Tree. I’ve never heard of this whole “Birth Tree” concept before, but it was interesting:
Walnut Tree, the Passion
Unrelenting, strange and full of contrasts, often egoistic, aggressive, noble, broad horizon, unexpected reactions, spontaneous, unlimited ambition, no flexibility, difficult and uncommon partner, not always liked but often […]
On the web everything is marketing and marketing is everything and, yet marketing is nothing and nothing is marketing.
That’s the kind of paradox that could make a Zen master wobble, but not understanding the basic truth in the paradox is a surefire way to make sure your web marketing will fail (and probably your web […]
With a new wave of highly effective (and funny) commercials touting the Macintosh’s resistance to viruses, and a new wave of critics insisting Apple is ripe for the malware writer picking, where does the truth lie? Are Macs susceptible to viruses?
Yes. No. Possibly. Probably not.
It is possible for a Mac to catch a virus, […]
I’m launching the redesigned/realigned/whatever you want to call it/new look today in conjunction with CSS Reboot. Good luck following that link today – it seems to be getting pretty hammered.
Truthfully, the new look isn’t quite ready for prime time, and I know it. More tweaks and enhancements are coming. My excuse? I have a new […]
Back in 1994-95, when I first started working on the web and the web was young, web pages were generally designed around one simple and near-universal concept: providing information to as many people as possible in most efficient and effective way possible.
Much of that mindset comes from the academic, technical and military origins of the […]
What do you do when you feel you’ve reached a plateau?
After a few years of learning and trying a ton of new things, there comes a day when you look around and there just don’t seem to be any nearby mountains to climb. So what then?
My particular plateau is one of professional development. I’ve […]
I got a little shout-out from Kathy Sierra over at Creating Passionate Users today. Woohoo! For those that don’t know CPU is one of the most interesting blogs out there. It deals with technology, marketing, the brain, and how we learn, or, as is too often the case, don’t learn.
So what did I do to […]
So, why’s it so ugly around here? I mean, more so than usual?
Today (April 5) is CSS Naked Day, a glorious geek-out where designers hide their designs and show the glorious structure of the underlying code.
In other words, you should still be able to read and use this site (and any other taking part) as […]
I feel like Navin Johnson getting his name in the phone book. Spammers have found my blog.
This is the kind of spontaneous publicity I need! … That really makes somebody! Things are going to start happening to me now.
I hate spammers. All the appeal of the potted meat from whence they derive their name, plus […]
A lot of folks have been asking where I’ve been, what I’ve been doing, and why updates have been so infrequent. By a lot of people, I mean one, besides my mom, but still, given the number of people who are actually interested in me or what I’m doing, that’s a pretty high percentage.
So, […]
And there shall be much rejoicing across the land: Microsoft is killing off FrontPage.
‘Bout time. This wretched piece of crap-ware is (arguably) the worst thing that ever happened to the web.
Thanks to FrontPage, a gazillion people decided somewhere along the way that they were web designers, despite an utter lack of talent or ability […]
Note to self: resolve to be less negative in the New Year. My top referrer search is “Christmas Music Sucks,” a term for which I seem to be very highly rated.
So, come 2006, I’ll work on making The Bitter Pill slightly less bitter, even though I suspect this resolution will last about as long as […]
Squidoo has gone to a public beta. I had the good fortune to beta test it, and I can say that I had my doubts early on, but that was then.
Seth, Heath et al have turned up the juice, and I think this thing is going to rock.
I still don’t know how to […]
Hats off to Malarkey for saying what many of us have been thinking for quite some time:
People still delivering nested table layout, spacer gifs or ignoring accessibility can no longer call themselves web professionals.
The full interview is at Accessify.
If your mechanic said he had no interest in learning about fuel injection or electronic ignition, you […]