Web Standards, Accessibility and Other Stuff

I read numerous RSS feeds, mostly related to front-end web development. But there are a few that I read that are not tech-related…

• Most People Are DJs - music and entertainment podcast
• Blaugh - comic of the blogosphere
• Word of the Day - from Dictionary.com
• I don’t like you in that way - celebrity dirt
• My photos on Flickr!

By the way, I use NetVibes, an awesome personalized “home page” which can not only read and organize RSS feeds, but also blogs, email accounts, social networks, search engines, instant messengers, photos, videos, podcasts, and game widgets!

Today is September 11. In the States, the date is abbreviated as 9/11. This date has obviously become massively significant since September 11, 2001, when thousands of innocent people were murdered during the World Trade Center disaster.

OK, George Bush and the CIA messed up when it came to solidifying an alliance and finding chemical weapons. If the United Nations wasn’t so wimpy and wishy-washy about its own rules, then the U.S. wouldn’t have had to step in the problem in the first place (and thus save the world from an evil murderous regime, again).

Before you bash Bush, remember the answer to these questions:

• Who is killing hundreds of innocent people every month with car bombs and other cowardly acts of destruction?
• Who is stopping the people of Iraq from creating their own government and having a peaceful life?
• Who is hiding behind the name of “Islam” to excuse their terrorism?

The damn terrorist “insurgents”, that’s who.

And:

• What country freed the Iraqi population from a greedy, murdering tyrant?
• What country is helping the Iraqis create their own government?
• What country is spending billions of dollars of its own money and sacrificing hundreds of its own lives to do so?

The United States, that’s who.

Help stop spam!

Did you know that you can report spammers to the U.S. FTC? If you get spam email that you think is deceptive, forward it to spam@uce.gov. Learn more about it and the CAN-SPAM law on the FTC spam site.

Now let’s hope the FTC’s budget is increased 1,000% for this effort!

Here are some great tips for doing a presentation. This is a summary from an excellent WSG Meeting Podcast from last year , Presentation Mind Control by Paul Fenwick (29-June-2006).

• Use pictures.
• Better yet, use multimedia–audio, video, animation, etc.
• Make it emotional.
• Use anticipation–provide a challenge, a few proposals, then lastly a solution.
• Move around; don’t stand still.
• Perform live examples–beware of technical mishaps.
• Practice your presentation.
• Time your presentation (to stay within your limit).
• Do a Q & A–admit it if you don’t know answer–ask the audience.

When I was planning on moving to Northern California, my cousin told me to check out Fry’s Electronics. Man, he wasn’t kidding when he said it was big. It’s like a super Wal-Mart but for just computers and electronics! It’s a computer nerd’s dream! What’s amazing is that there’s enough business for four of these stores in the area, which actually makes sense since this is Silicon Valley.

Fry’s has everything from computer and electronics-related–Macs, PCs, hard drives, flash drives, PDAs, DVDs, blenders, TVs, cameras, air purifiers, blenders, office furniture, and much more (including snacks and cold drinks).

I guess there are Fry’s store locations in Southern California, Texas, and a few other states. I hear the store in San Jose, CA is decorated like a Tiki Hut or Polynesian pyramid or something, and the store in Burbank, CA has a big flying saucer spaceship crashed into the front. Here’s picture of a “normal” Fry’s store:

When I first used Gmail (Google’s free email service), it was a little awkward at first because the logic behind it is different than all other mail applications…and it’s brilliant. It’s based on email conversations. Email messages are groups into a conversation; this makes your email much better organized and much easier to scan. Seems simple, but it is quite unique, and it’s executed well. The AJAX is smooth and make tasks much easier. There are also a nice Contacts feature and a built in text-messenger (Google Talk).

Google’s other fine products and services makes it a fine choice for online tasks including Google Calendar, Documents and Spreadsheets, and Groups. I find Google’s web applications easier to use, faster, and just slicker than most other similar apps. Google Docs are really cool because not only can you edit docs and (simple) spreadsheets online, but you can collaborate with other people.

Yahoo! made a good effort in the new version of Yahoo! Mail, but falls short in load speed and overall performance.

And unless you pay, you get bombarded with advertising in Yahoo! Mail. MSN mail isn’t much better. And staying away from Microsoft applications is usually a good idea. Ads are much less bothersome in Gmail, in fact, I hardly notice it at all as they are subtle text ads, not big, blaring, graphical ads. The Google ads are also relevant to the content of the email, which can actually be helpful sometimes.

My long-time “flagship” web site O.D. Mag is gone. It was an online magazine that I created with friend Mike Pfeiffer (see Most People Are DJs) way back in 1996. It featured poetry and prose, music articles, movie reviews, etc. The web site spawned from the O.D. fanzine that we has published during the two years prior.

O.D. had gone through several design revisions and had become quite interactive (with the power of PHP!). But the site was requiring too much time to maintain, and without making a buck (gotta feed the kids). So sorry to see you go, Opinion Dominatrix.

I’ve canceled a hosting account with CIHost that hosted the O.D. Mag site and others. I wouldn’t recommend them, try StartLogic. It was quite the hassle to cancel the account since it was connected to other projects. I had to move another web site and domain from this account and had to move a fair amount of files to another server for my Web Axe podcast. Then I had to fax a confirmation form to CIHost.

So now it’s all done. Good-bye O.D. Mag, it’s been fun.