Web Standards, Accessibility and Other Stuff

You probably don’t remember O.D. Mag, and I doubt you know of Screenplaze or U of M Dentists.com. But you may want to become familiar with my latest personal project, TimeTracker. It’s a standards-compliant, accessible web application, even with some “web 2.0″ jazz sprinkled in. It’s written out of need of a friend who’s a music therapist, but may be used in many other fields and professions. Here’s a description from the site:

TimeTracker is a web-based application designed to track and report sessions between professionals and their clients. TimeTracker is designed for social workers and psychologists, but can also be used by countless other professions including counselors, teachers, and physical therapists.

I eventually hope to sell this application, but contact me if you’d like the info for a free trial account.

Yes, Yodlee is still hiring here in Redwood City/Shores, California. And you or someone you know can be my boss! Yodlee is seeking a Director of Mobile and UI Engineering (UI Engineering is me). My groovy manager left the company a few weeks ago and we need a replacement. Anyone interested please use my name as a reference or contact me directly at “dlembree at NOSPAM yodlee dot NOSPAM com”.

So I’m finally on Twitter, the social network that informs users of what each other is doing. The web site and service is excellent; it’s very easy, fast, and it just works! There’s an excellent Twitter API for developers to have fun with. My Twitter account is dennisl.

“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

Last week, my wife Carey and I went to a Cirque du Soleil show, KOOZA, in downtown San Jose. I gotta say, it was well worth the $90 per seat we paid! Incredible performances, great stage set, and great music. It’s just so spectacular and entertaining, and the clown acts are hilarious. It was longer than I expected too; about 2 1/2 hours including the 1/2 hour intermission. If you ever get a chance, go see Cirque du Soleil. This year the KOOZA show is coming to Hartford, Philly, Chicago, and Boston.

Got an email a while back from an old friend back home in Michigan. Yes, it was one of those goofy lists, but many of them were funny. I’d modified a few of these for the better.

You know you’re from Michigan when…

• You find 32 degrees “a little chilly.”
• You drink pop and bake with soda.
• You know what a “Yooper” is.
• You go to Canada on your 19th birthday.
• You think owning a Toyota is un-American.
• “Vacation” means going up north on I-75. You measure distance in hours.
• You can drive 65 mph through a feet of snow during a raging blizzard,
  without flinching.
• You design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
• You know it’s possible to live in “the thumb”.

My family shops at Target, you know, the huge American retail store. I really like that store (especially when there’s a Taco Bell or Starbucks inside). But I think their corporate image, at least for me, is in a serious decline. This is mostly due to a couple of lawsuits going on against the company.

In the world wide web industry, we should all be familiar with the NFB vs. Target lawsuit—the biggest case regarding web accessibility in the United States, thus far. Target is actually fighting to keep its web site away from users with disabilities, and technology limitations. This is like a store closing its doors to anyone with a visual, hearing, or motor impairment. How naive and shameful!

In the second lawsuit, the American tennis great (retired) Andre Agassi is seeking an injunction against Target for using his name without permission. Apparently Target is putting Agassi’s name on sandals without permission when they’ve already been asked to stop. How silly.

I performed a web site “tune-up” on my web company’s site, CheckEngine USA. It’s been almost two years since I launched the company and the web site. Because the site already implemented web standards, it took a short amount of time to do the work. What do you think?