November 27, 2003
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving to Marty, Daniela, and whoever the other person is that actually visits this site on purpose.
I will also use this day to offer my opinion that parades are boring in person, but on TV parades are downright torturous.
November 25, 2003
Fellating US Presidents may be hazardous to your social health.
Via CNN.com: "Lewinsky says her past has hurt her love life"
Get out!!
"The one thing I don't do well with, with a guy, is ambivalence," she said. "I want to shake them and say, 'C'mon, just like me! Do what I say!"'
Maybe it's not just the fact that you blew the leader of the free world that makes dating hard for you after all.
November 19, 2003
World Toilet Day
Following the unprecedented success and unexplainable popularity of Talk Like A Pirate Day, I am giddy with excitement about World Toilet Day.
To quote the mighty Mos Def, "tell the feds, tell your girl, tell your mother, conference call your wack crew, and tell each other." It's World Toilet Day!
November 18, 2003
The Paris Hilton Sex Tape Phenomenon
I've got to come up with a name for the phenomenon of things completely unrelated to the web blogging world at large being spontaneously picked up by the world of A-List bloggers.
The latest example of this is the Paris Hilton Sex Tape craze. I present Exhbits A-C:
As is discussed in Exhibit C, the motivation to post about such a hot topic can easily be explained by the desire to rise push up their GoogleRank (an interesting double entendre, if you ask me).
But this does not explain such highrollers as Kottke and Hammersley getting in the fray. Their blogs are usually very focused, finely tuned web musings. Moreover, they have little need to resort to such measures to increase their page views. Their web hosting bandwidth bills are already high enough each month, I'm sure.
This particluar topic aside (since it's so obvious), what makes a given topic blow up on such popular blogs? And on this particular topic (since it's so trashy), what makes a topic that would usually be hidden in the back of the sock drawer of most web sites suitable for posting on normally PG-13 blogs?
Let's Get Small
I'm going to go out on a limb and say something that I assume the rest of the uber-hip (see, I used "uber" so I must be cool) web design world will find objectionable: I hate pixel fonts.
To be clear, I hate their usage. Of themselves, some of these fonts are cool. Like these. But the de rigeur (again, cool-proof) usage is to use them at such miniscule proportions that they are essentially useless. What's more, they are commonly used in sites as headers for content sections, navigation, etc. Arguably, the areas where readability counts most.
Indeed, the use of pixel fonts at lilliputian sizes is not just accepted and cool, but seemingly required. Wherever you see them used, you can barely see them used!
How did the use of these, and especially at such tiny proportions, become so universally smiled upon? The ultimate good bad example is the very popular k10k.net site. Can anyone read the headings on all the little content boxes on this site? And the navigation?
What gets me is that these fonts are lauded even by the same web designers at the fore of useability and so-called forward-thinking design? How can this be?
Yes, these fonts are much sharper at small pixel sizes than other fonts, but does this mean that you are required to use them at sub-atomic sizes? I can turn off anti-aliasing and make Arial Black somewhat more legible at 8 pixels and the whole design world would run screaming for the hills. That is, if they were listening in the first place. Why then is it acceptable to use these pixel fonts at such small sizes?
I'm not fond of posting questions without answers, but the unfortunate circumstance I find myself in forces me to do this. I am obviously on the out on this subject. If a site so popular and regarded as an example of good design on the web such as k10k uses them, and a man so highly worshipped as Zeldman pushes them, I must be missing something. Right?
So, would both of the people that read this site kindly offer their points of view on this and show me the light?
November 13, 2003
Attack of the Killer Electric Toothbrushes
While browsing the web looking for Christmas Wish List ideas, I came across the Sonicare Electric Toothbrush.
Check out how violent and grotesque the depiction of this instrument is! I hesitated to add it to my list, so intimidated was I. The damage this toothbrush could seemingly do to my gums is alarming.
At the same time, however, it sort of reminds me of a dog just out of a lake vigorously shaking water all over the place.
Maybe I'll put it on the list after all.
November 07, 2003
Links to ALA and Zeldman.com are redundant.
I could post something about one of the latest articles on Zeldman's site, A List Apart, on how content is king on the web. But if you're into this sort of stuff, I can't imagine you haven't been to Zeldman.com and the ALA site already this week.
Both are on my daily visit list, although updates have been less frequent as of late, but are picking up. They should be on yours, too.
November 05, 2003
Tenacious D-VD
The notion of Tenacious D having a DVD is a humorous one. The fact that they chose to call this DVD "The Complete Master Works" solidifies them as the band with the best sense of humor since The Beatles.
November 04, 2003
CSS on parade
The marketing agency for which I work just launched its new site today. It's written in standards-compliant XHTML and CSS (and it validates as XHTML 1.0 strict!) and is chock-full of the latest CSS tricks and gadgets. The XHTML code for each page is alarmingly light, and serves as a shining example of how clean web site code can be when CSS is used for layout.
Big ups go to my main man, Marty, who did most of the heavy lifting on the development side. Excellent work, and just in time for your 3-month review!