Tag: Work

Meant to say

I’m an organised kinda guy, I have a folder on my desktop called Blogstuff into which I put links to articles I want to mention or investigate further. Every now and then (more then than now) I go through it and clear out the stuff I’ve used and the stuff that, on a second read, doesn’t appeal anymore – that’s actually a side issue, the shortening of my attention span these days with so much information available and clamouring for my attention.

So, without further ado, here are a few bits-n-bobs for ya:
The Laws of Applause
Clapping has long been the bond between audiences and performers, but is it losing its meaning?

“The English also gave birth to the catcall, an actual wind instrument brought into theatres for purposes of disruption, although the Spanish used whistles for the same purpose as early as the 17th century.”

The Non-Expert?s Desk
Dennis Mahoney answers anything. In this article he answers the following question:

“Why, when you’re waiting for a lift (having already pressed the ?call lift? button), does someone always arrive after you and insist on re-pressing the button?”

The Leather Man
“Anecdotes of the Leather Man are rich in flavor and run the whole gamut of human emotions. Pathos is often substituted by humorous situations but a strong desire to help the needy and unfortunate is evidenced by the guardianship of hundreds for this homeless itinerant.”

Are Science and Religion compatible?
“We need separations between religion and science, ethics, and the state. But there is an appropriate domain for religion, and in this sense science and religion are not necessarily incompatible.”

That’s enough for just now I think.

Like a new toy

Behind the times? Me? Never!

OK, so I’m a week (ok several) behind on this one, but I must say I’m loving Google News.

Especially since I found out that “There are no human editors at Google” because “The headlines that appear on Google news are selected entirely by computer algorithms”.

Colour me impressed! (which I’m reliably informed is a subtle shade of mauve).

OK, off to gym soon, then home to watch some footie, although I am intrigued by the new ‘soap’ on the Beeb River City, but only because it is part filmed in Dumbarton, my home town.

File sharing

MP3s, the RIAA, Napster, Kazaa, illegal downloads. Ring any bells?

Puddle of Mudd, Coldplay. Ring any bells?

The connection is simple. I have downloaded both albums in MP3 format. I didn’t own the albums. I do now, on the strength of the tracks I downloaded.

File sharing good.

Another view point.

Ambrose Bierce

The Devil’s Dictionary offers “The most irreverent and sardonic definitions of common terms this side of the inferno.”

Favourite entries (so far):
OMEN, n. A sign that something will happen if nothing happens.
VOTE, n. The instrument and symbol of a freeman’s power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.
ACADEME, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.
ACADEMY, n. [from ACADEME] A modern school where football is taught.
PAIN, n. An uncomfortable frame of mind that may have a physical basis in something that is being done to the body, or may be purely mental, caused by the good fortune of another.
NONSENSE, n. The objections that are urged against this excellent dictionary.

Backtracking

HTML Design: If you are aware of the movement towards CSS and away from tables and frames for site structure, read on. If you don’t, I would skip this.

A List Apart and WaSP. Two sites campaigning for the same thing, a move towards acceptance of the standard (as defined by the W3) CSS and XHTML definitions.

The suggestion was that browser makers would try and implement proper support, and we (the designers for want of a better term) would follow and code our sites in nicely degrading XHTML and CSS. So if you used an older browser, you can still access site content without any major issues.

The main man, or one of them, behind this push is Zeldman. A legend in his own living room. Today he posted a suggestion on his own personal site. The suggestion being that “transitional XHTML layouts that include some table-driven formatting feel more and more like a reasonable choice”. He eloquently states his reasons, none of this is his desire, or by his design, and I have to say I agree with him. But is he backtracking? Are we all slaves to the browser makers?

This isn’t an attack on Jeffery Zeldman, on the contrary, I sympathise greatly. As he states, he is being driven to a ‘reasonable choice’ rather than a desirable one.

The last estimate I saw stated that there were around 500,000 blogs. That’s a helluva large petition if you ask me. If I had the energy I would start a campaign. Gimme a few hours though…

Full Report by Zeldman – explains why he came to this decision.

Children of the Revolution

Marc Bolan sang “You won’t fool the children of the revolution”, and in our age of instant information, electronic gadgets galore you can be assured that our children aren’t suffering and are, possibly, benefiting from all the wonderful advances we now take for granted.

Wired has pulled together some articles that point the way to the future Born Digital: Children of the Revolution.