After feeling pretty pleased that I had so easily switched from the old site’s templates to MT4’s, I spent this weekend fine-tuning my sidebar and transferring static pages into the MT4 content management system.
Then I decided to check out how valid my pages were. Horrors! I had 128 errors.
The majority of errors were caused by Movable Type code, with problems popping up in all sorts of templates, modules and widgets.
The first Web Standards meeting in Singapore took place this evening at Raffles Girls' School. The turnout wasn't large, but new friendships were made, and I could now put human faces to personalities I'd been conversing with online, for years.
Lucian began by giving an introduction to web standards, recalling the good old browser war days.
Lucian also elaborated on the aims of the Web Standards Group here in Singapore. We will promote the use of web standards in Singapore. The group comprises people from Education, Private and Public sectors. We will share technical know-how with each other, and help to spread the word.
Next, Coleman gave a presentation titled "How to bluff your way through web accessibility". However I don't think he was bluffing us very much in the end ;-)
He noted that in the physical world, there is legislation - such as the Building Control Act 1989 in Singapore - which ensures that the disabled can move around in buildings.
On the web, however, the disabled still have problems accessing information. Coleman showed a video of a visually disabled person using a screen reader. They take a longer time to receive information aurally. They can't use devices like mice because they don't know where to point to. Label your images so that these users can at least know what they are.
Coleman gave a good analogy about the importance of standards. What if, for instance, you tried to watch a new DVD, only to discover that it won't play on your screen as it's not big and new enough? (An allusion to websites that can only be viewed in certain resolutions using certain browsers, etc)
He introduced the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and its different checkpoints, as well as Section 508 which requires Federal agencies to have accessible websites.
Lucian and a few others also noted that the Dutch government just made accessibility mandatory for their websites as well. I think the private sector worldwide will take a longer time to catch on, as most have yet to see the business value of web standards. Oh well, there's never been a better time to 'Go Dutch'!
Our third and final presenter, Nick Pan, showed Natalie Jost's diagram, illustrating the separation of markup, presentation and behaviour.
He explained how using web standards will allow programmers and designers to work concurrently, as opposed to waiting for each other to complete their work, save the files and pass it to the next person in the production line.
He demonstrated how CSS lists were used in one of his projects, which had a multiple-tiered navigation bar.
Russ Weakley, the guy who created the very useful Listamatic, will be in Singapore to give a CSS workshop. More details over at Pebbleroad.
So far, I've heard two types of very contrasting reactions about this full-day workshop. It's priced at S$350 (that's US$230 going by an exchange rate of 1.55) but the reactions I've received so far go along the lines of "So expensive!" or "So worth it!".
I know $350 is a lot of money to some people, especially if you're in a small company or a freelancer. Pitching web standards when everyone else at work is concerned about the bottomline and whether it will cost more time and money to implement, is difficult but not impossible if you know how to put across its benefits from the viewpoint of your bosses. Easier said than done, isn't it!
I worked as a web designer for the first 4 years of my career. I've since become the client, and web coding is no longer a key part of my job. Project management and new media innovation/development, is. Still, I hope to work with designers who practice web standards, because knowing that there are nested tables, spacer gifs, font tags and other bloated code in there somewhere, makes me feel uneasy.
At least I can now go to SXSW this year, look Jeffrey Zeldman in the face, and tell him that we have finally done something about Web Standards in Singapore.
Onwards!
[Update: We'll keep a list of everyone's accounts of the events, on WebSG, so head over there. Join our mailing list! ]
Technorati Tags: web standards, web accessibility, meetup, singapore,
I received a new laptop last week.
Naturally, I've been trying out all the features and software...
would you believe I've hardly had to do any typing ? Almost everything in this blog post was written using Microsoft's speech recognition software.the only problem is , speech recognition is limited to Microsoft software. So I am blogging this in Internet explorer seven .
It's not perfect , but I'm impressed . It seems unable to recognize the word
blowblockblog. let's see if it can recognize other terms likefire folksFirefox. Nope.how about web standards ? [all right]
how about
globalgloballocalGoogle? Nope ...the other thing is , punctuation is a little tricky . You can't say , "full stop" because this is American . You have to say PERIOD (this is typed). however , I was pretty impressed with the double quotation marks recognition .
in any case it gets most of thewoodscorrects. In time the software willthe many ricefamiliarize itself with my voice after frequent use . Then it willfind youfind to you andfine [tune] itself and hopefully there will be less strike throughs.
OK, I've started typing again. Interesting, eh? Didn't know there was such software in Windows Maybe it was because I just downloaded an Office 2003 trial.
[Update: I've just discovered an option that allows you to apply speech
recognition to non MS software. I'm now updating this post using
Performancing for five oaks your folks Firefox, with a combination of typing and speech recognition. overall this is cool. yahoo! ]
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, speech recognition
Someone from usability company Etre wrote in to inform me they that conducted a study on many corporate websites to see how the new Internet Explorer 7 displayed them.
Turns out that many of these websites are busted. I haven't done enough research myself to determine if IE7's new rendering engine really adopts standards as their blog claims. To quote:
The CSS standard does not provide a way to target specific browser versions and as a result the Web developer community has developed CSS filters (also called "CSS hacks")... As we fix these bugs and improve CSS support, some CSS filters will stop working.
My hopes were raised when I read further that Microsoft is trying to strike a balance between adopting standards and also making sure that not too many websites break. Of course, ultimately every website should move towards standards.
For now, we have to make do with a partial adoption. I'll leave it to experts like Zeldman/Alistapart, Meyer and Tantek (yes, the box model hack needs to be updated for IE7). Big thanks to the Web Standards Project for facilitating the reporting of browser bugs to Microsoft.
We can expect to see new tutorials on CSS hacks for IE7 soon. And business will boom for web standards consultancies. Designers who code the old-fashioned way (that's a LOT of Singaporean designers IMHO) will have to upgrade or lose out. If everyone's IE on Windows PCs gets automatically updated in time, people will be scrambling to make sure their corporate websites look fine on IE7.
Good on ya, Microsoft.
Technorati Tags: IE7, internetexplorer, IE, Microsoft, webstandards
Update: Zeldman's post on IE7. Also see IE7 bugs and fixes, part 1.
A couple of people signed up recently and I was prompted to check out how many people in Singapore were interested in a Web Standards meetup.
I was impressed.
Shall we?
[Another question - where exactly can we meet up? Somewhere we can hang out and hopefully with free wireless...]
Just checked my Mint stats and found a re-surge in referrals from Zeldman.com due to his new Ma.gnolia bar*. A friendly 'hey!' to all newcomers. I just signed up with Ma.gnolia myself. It looks much neater than Del.icio.us.
[Update: Since there were no Ma.gnolia groups for 'Singapore', I've just created the Web Standards Singapore Group. Membership is open to all. ]
In other news, I will be singing at the Hilton Hotel Singapore for charity tonight. How this has happened is a long story, but the voting money goes to an old folks' care centre that my company adopted. I'll be having a simple lunch - no spices, no fried food. Then I'm going for some beauty treatment! ;-)
* A pun that some Singaporeans may get - we had a famous Magnolia Snack Bar (our parents may have dated there!) that was restored briefly when Times the Bookshop was revamped at Centrepoint.
Finally after all these years I got to meet Jeffrey Zeldman face to face. He's a really nice guy and I was flattered that he remembered who I am.
I told him we started a Web Standards Group in Singapore but it kinda fizzled out. But now I'm all inspired to get our group going again!
Eric Meyer's latest article on how he improved on Alistapart's print styles, is an excellent read for those interested in the technical aspects of printable web pages.
When designing our organisation's online newsletter, I decided to create a print stylesheet but kept it simple - display:none for the logo, nav bar, and mastheads. The only images I retained for print were one-off photographs included within each article. However, little did I know that some colleagues wanted to print the newsletter to keep as records, and were surprised to find that it did not look like the screen version at all. In the end I had to reinstate some elements so it looked more like the screen version. (I took it as flattery, that they liked my design! :-)
For the screen stylesheet, I also made text resizeable - which I thought was a very useful feature since (and I do lament repeatedly), we aren't allowed to install Firefox or any other browser on our systems, and our version of Internet Explorer (6) is unable to resize text if you use fixed font sizes.
However, once again I received a complaint - this time, from an editorial team-mate who had unknowingly reset his browser to magnify text. At first, the rest of us were baffled by his emails and assured him that the web pages looked fine to us, on our own computers. Then it occurred to me that his browser settings were involved. He confirmed it, but added that to avoid this problem in future, I should fix all font sizes!
I told him that we had other colleagues who were visually impaired and it would not be fair if we prevented them from resizing text in their browser, so they could read our newsletter properly. Fortunately, that argument held.
All in all, it was an interesting lesson in managing expectations. Apart from those initial teething problems, the newsletter website loads fast, is easy to click through, and doesn't waste employees' time with clunky navigation. It's also easy to change the look (for instance, we began early in the year with a 'blue' theme, and during summer I switched to 'red-hot') by simply updating one CSS file. I just wish more local web design companies took stylesheets and web standards more seriously.
There's an ongoing discussion in the Straits Times Forum section, on customer service. Some Singaporeans complained that white people get better treatment. However, two white men wrote in separately to say that they treat sales staff with respect unlike the locals, and they also get charged more. Touche.
Anyway, I'm sure we've all had our vexing moments with sales staff in Singapore.
I got my regular email from Sitepoint and was pleasantly surprised to see a fellow Web Standards enthusiast in it!
All I can say is: Support Chu Yeow and his book, Firefox Secrets!!
I was looking for a new computer table for my studio. I Googled for pages in Singapore, but saw an intriguing-looking article by the Computer Times (now called Digital Life) on creating web pages.
Dated February 2004, I was surprised and slightly perturbed at the statement, "When building a website, keep in mind that everything is formatted in table form." (Oops. My own website doesn't use tables. How??) Fortunately he does warn against using too many nested tables.
However, I was encouraged to read the first sentence on CSS: "Think of CSS as a master template." However, I soon realised that IRAS aren't the only ones who have a limited concept of stylesheets. The writer advises readers to use stylesheets to change text formatting and link hover effects. Which is true, but there's so much more you can do with it. This is 'pre-elementary' (and unfortunately most agencies in Singapore only seem to know how to do this*).
And let's not get into the advice on image rollovers and javascript tickers. That is so 1990's.
Of course this is a beginner's article and most beginners would probably start off by using tables and whatever HTML editor gives them the visual effects they want. And no journalist is necessarily an expert in their field of work. Further research is difficult especially with tight deadlines. But it's slightly annoying to read something that's already out of date the moment it was written.
And what about usability? Browser compliance? Accessibility? Well-written web content? I'd think these would be more important than any fanciful effects on a web page.
Maybe one day, someone should write an article on how the rest of the developed world has been catching on to new coding techniques and approaches, while most of commercial and public Singapore is still left behind.
*If you know of any agencies with a semblance of familiarity with web standards, stylesheets, accessibility and usability, please let me know ... I'm dying to meet them.
I picked up three books this weekend, all web-related:
I was planning to get Dan Cederholm's book for some time. It's doing pretty well on the Amazon.com ratings. I must admit I already know how to do the majority of things mentioned in his book. When I create new web pages at work, I code the stylesheets from scratch - no copying from other websites, even for 3-column layouts. But I bought the book because I know it's a good book, with a foreword by Jeffrey Zeldman, and I want to support good efforts to promote the use of web standards. It would also help to recommend these sort of books to agencies who work for your company - especially if you've read it and can attest to their value.
The other two books simply caught my eye as I flipped through them. Quite often web design books are divided into two categories: Design and Programming/Technology. Instead these books begin by looking at the big picture, and covers elements of both visual design and IT in a structured and semantic way. They don't get into technical details but give you a good overview of how to go about producing a great, relevant website that meets its objectives.
In my current position it's not about selling things but convincing people to change their lifestyles. But as I've progressed it's become obvious that the approach used to get customers to buy into your product, can also be applied to non-commercial objectives. You don't preach to them anymore - you try to sell them your idea. Who'd think that this would ever be like a sales job? But it certainly is!
The Unusually Useful Web Book seems to be living up to its name, because it is quite difficult for me to put it down (in both senses of the word/phrase). Chapters I'd like to know more about would be on web traffic analysis (to gauge customers' habits and wants), project management (to establish clear roles and deadlines), and site promotion. Oh, and the two Jeffreys (Veen and Zeldman) are interviewed in it as well.
I'm looking for articles, statistics and any other relevant information that can help me argue a case for the implementation of Web Standards in my company. I don't have much time to prepare my proposal (like, tomorrow) that's why I'm asking around.
The main problem is that Web Standards aren't really that important if your job is about making a website look attractive to a target group. You can be good at coding pages but who will know (unless you create some massive JavaScript problem that prompts a popup/security alert)?
The truth is, bosses don't read code and it's not one of our key performance indicators (KPI). If the page loads, the page loads. Saving a few KB of space per page means little to them. Only you (and God) will know the extra effort you put in. Meanwhile, everyone else around you who doesn't bother doing it, has more time to complete other work.
The power of stylesheets has also been eroded by another technology - the Content Management System. Most big organisations already have a CMS, so why utilise stylesheets to their full potential when everything's in a template already? The CMS takes away some of the controlling elements that stylesheets have (in terms of positioning and colour schemes).
We codies may love Zeldman, Eric Meyer and CSS Zen Garden, and I know Jeffrey Veen's written an article but that's too general and targetted at an audience that is somewhat enlightened already. We can't push through a vague paper without looking foolish and having our proposal backfire on us. I mean, try talking web standards to these groups:
In fact, in all these aspects, usability ranks pretty much above web standards. In my case, I am responsible for a public service so my team needs to ensure that customers can find what they're looking for as quickly as possible; that their needs are met; and if not, that they should have a channel of communication to request for more information. You can have a website that's beautifully coded, with valid XHTML and stylesheets, that is difficult to use. You'd have won the battle, but lost the war. A lot of things need to work hand in hand for an optimal result, but some things are more important than others in satisfying the objectives.
But a little part of me (the part that joined WSSG - our Singapore web standards group) is nagging at my conscience, knowing that the job could be done better, that web pages could load a microsecond faster, that thousands of web pages could be controlled more easily with proper use of stylesheets.
And that comes back to why I need your help.
I'm mentioned in today's edition of Streats, a free Singapore daily tabloid. Mucho gracias to my friend Joan.
Ms Vanessa Tan, who has been blogging since mid-2002, said: "I chose Movable Type because it's one of the most powerful weblog tools for advanced bloggers who know how to work with databases and scripts. You can also install additional plug-ins written by third parties to enhance the functionality of your website."
...Blogs by journalists are listed on cyberjournalist.net while Ms Tan suggests checking out www.daypop.com/blogrank, a website that ranks the top blogs.
Incidentally, Streats is possibly the only local newspaper with a web standards-compliant website. Way to go!
UPDATE! Streats sent me a list of questions for the interview. For the record here are all my answers:
Web standards buddies - Do you have any hard evidence that the failure to close HTML tags is detrimental to the wellbeing of a website? I'd hate to have the wool pulled over my company's eyes just because our vendor says 'it's OK, IE will display it anyway'.
Our website isn't XHTML compliant yet, though we are required to attain one 'A' for accessibility. My main grouse is that our new CMS rewrites the XHTML-compliant code I paste in, removing closing tags such as 'li'.
Research findings e.g. slower rendering time in web browsers, incompatibilities and all other reasons are welcome. The benefits of keeping clean code in order to facilitate migrating to XHTML in future is a little hard to explain at the moment, but I hope to further this cause in time.
Kindly post your findings and I'll log in regularly to approve them all.
I just submitted my WSSG (Web Standards Singapore) logo. I've decided that nothing I'm going to do in my life will ever be perfect, and my work isn't going to get richer with age, unlike wine, so there's no point keeping it till the last moment.
It's only when I do things like this, however, that I suddenly remember all the times I muttered, through gritted teeth, "I hate print work." But I've forced myself to use Freehand for print layouts, because I know it's good for that, and I always like to learn new things.
I'm essentially a Fireworks user at heart, and when I do have to use Freehand to edit illustrations I get thrown off by the fact that many shortcut keys are different. Hello, Macromedia? Can we have a bit more coherence here! Or maybe the two programs are really different from each other and I'm just not getting it.
I also get thrown off when elements in a document are saved as external files, and when fonts I export to another format get changed. I'm a webby by nature - spare me the ink.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to some good submissions from other members. I hope we're spoilt for choice.
I have been most remiss in updating this blog. That's because I've been busy with something and you can find out more in my separate music blog.
Update: Logic Pro 6 has arrived. Thanks to Lulu of Brooklyn Media - great service, great price (cheaper than the Apple Store, and at least they have it in stock in Singapore).
I will have to continue playing with Logic tomorrow because I spent a good part of the evening at an online WSSG meeting. I'm also working on a friend's photo gallery system. I won't even be watching Champions League tonight. Sniff.
I am glad to announce that, a month into my new job, I have embarked on my mission to promote the benefits of Web Standards.
First, I emailed some colleagues the link to CSS Zen Garden, just to let them know that our current website's use of stylesheets could do much more than simply colour the titles of our page.
Previous attempts in other jobs have evoked mixed responses, depending on whether people think it will create more work or make life easier for them (I'd like to think it does both - more work at first, reworking messy code, then all they have to do is switch styles).
So this time I went out of my way and demonstrated to a team-mate how you could retain the source code of a web page, but drastically change the look of the site. I mean, why should we waste time changing font tags on every page and moving table cells about every time we needed a revamp?
Thanks to my persuasive / arm-twisting skills, we might form a taskforce that looks into Web Standards beyond the forthcoming guidelines, and a more comprehensive use of Stylesheets to streamline our workflow. Wish us success.
Of course you could say that redundant coding techniques create jobs for our recuperating economy. If life was as easy as Zeldman and Co. have made it out to be, then what about the hapless designers who are still arranging their lists using GIF images and table rows, and forgetting to close their paragraph tags? What about the millions who have never heard of Mozilla, and only check their pages on Internet Explorer on a PC? Would this mean that agencies would have to charge clients less, now that a simple revamp could involve only the switching of a stylesheet and some images?
But let's not get carried away: I feel that a site's main purpose should be to inform, or entertain, or project an image of the company's brand. Essentially, it has to convey some sort of message in an appropriate manner. And I know many visitors may not notice that the web page they're clicking on is standards-compliant. But perhaps the odd visitor with a visual problem, an outdated browser or operating system, may notice that your side degrades gracefully into something legible which they can at least navigate.
It could actually boil down to your definition of technology. Should it be used exclusively by the most affluent and intelligent of people? Or should it be extended to people from all walks of life (who are able to access the internet)?
Certainly it is a chore, especially if you're a designer or programmer who thinks coding pages is drudgery. Perhaps I may be asking too much for you to re-think the way you code your pages and re-learn everything they've ever taught you in design school. Your boss probably isn't going to pay you more for doing it, and it won't show in screen-shot printouts of your portfolio. It is a long-term commitment, because there is no such thing as 'half-compliance'.
We also have yet to see any legislation equivalent to Section 508 (though we have legislation for almost everything else). However, I know that this situation will be changing, at least for government websites which are accessible to the public. The guidelines make good sense and also refer to the Web Accessibility Initiative.
Note also that I say 'accessibility' and not the whole Web Standards compliance outfit. Good things take time to bear fruit. But let's just say, things are changing, and it can only improve our online experience.
I should have publicised this a few months ago, but better late than never. A handful of Singaporeans who believe and trust in the virtues of Web Standards, is forming a local community.
Since I still get a healthy number of referrals from Web Standards authority Jeffrey Zeldman, I will take this opportunity to spread the news to everyone who's possibly reading this.
Nearly a year ago, I was pretty cynical of the reception that web standards was getting with most clients and web designers themselves.
To date, I haven't notice much improvement in the industry, although I was glad to know there were at least eight (8) other individuals - at present time of writing - who cared.
Do you care, too? Contact Jaime via this form, and join the force.
An excellent document on Web Standards from 456 Berea Street.
Take the Web Standards - Who Cares Anyway? survey.
I supposed now is as good as any other time to announce that I am on the lookout for new employment opportunities.
Yours truly has to decide whether to go back to web design (seeing how it may not be economically feasible to start a web standards consultancy here in Singapore), embark on full-scale music production, or focus on writing.
Any position requiring a quirky sense of humour and plenty of puns would be good. Other jobs suggested by various friends and colleagues over the past 3 years include script writer / dramatist / actor / radio dj or comedienne.
Whatever my choice is, I want to be happy with what I'm doing, and proud of my contributions. I've had that feeling before and I know I can do it again.
I've been away from the Blogosphere for so long that I didn't even realise Zeldman redesigned. I like it!
I'm also toying with the idea of tabbing for my next redesign (which is not going to happen in a long, long time but I still like to think about it). A tip from me: I don't like the way Photoshop renders rounded rectangular shapes. The corners are pixelated, last I checked (version 6 or 7). Instead, I much prefer Fireworks for designing user interface elements. Try drawing a rounded box in Fireworks and you'll see how pretty anti-aliasing can be.
Unless you're going for the pixelated, k10k look ;-)
I bought a new mobile phone this evening. I am not a chronic handset changer, by Singaporean standards at least, so I was willing to wait for one and a half years before a model I liked came out.
I was considering the 02 models but decided it felt strange sticking a PDA to your face whenever you made a call. I quite liked the calendar feature in my old Nokia 6510 (at the time, it was cutting-edge), so I was looking for another model which had even more advanced organiser features. The camera with 2X zoom was a nice extra, but if MMS rates are still cut-throat then I won't be sending photos or video clips to anyone.
I haven't got a new laptop yet, so I won't be able to sync things up for now. I am pretty busy, working at home, so I should stop playing with it now and dreaming of the Java applications I can download from e-Ideas.
ps. Once I get my settings sorted out, I can also surf using the XHTML browser. Who says web standards aren't important?
I read the latest Foxtrot comic strip, and couldn't help giving a few pointers:
the use of EM and STRONG elements is superior in the sense that they describe the content without committing it to a specific format.
My friend Lucian, who's been freelancing as a web designer, writes of the difficulties he faced while convincing a potential client of the importance of web standards.
I can completely empathise with him, though after being in the industry for three years I've become less idealistic. Face it, clients in Singapore haven't heard of the W3C, Zeldman or the Web Standards Project, and they aren't going to care about it unless you convince them that it helps them save money AND time. Times are hard. Budgets have been cut, deadlines are tight, and our clients have performance reviews to worry about. As a result, I usually keep my sentiments to myself and implement compliant code on my own, after we've won the pitch.
There are times when people ask me how I get my work done so quickly. It's then that I tell them, because I use stylesheets to control the look of the entire website. All I need to do is change ONE file, and the whole site 'looks' different. That's when they want to find out more, and I'll gladly teach them. I conducted a training session on CSS for some overseas counterparts recently, and was glad to see this new knowledge being worked into their current projects.
However, it is still an uphill battle. We still have to live with the fact that most people use IE - not the world's most obedient browser. Many other people working on the project with you may still insert chunks of code which don't agree with the Validator, and you just have to change it after they're done.
People may not be impressed with the reduction in file size that stylesheets usually bring about. Some are, some aren't. 'Lots of people in Singapore having broadband connections' is an excuse I hear, myself. Not necessarily the rest of the world.
This is the reality we have to face. We won't get the sort of reception others have been getting elsewhere. We don't have anything resembling Section 508 or a Web Accessibility Initiative (maybe we should implement fines, Singapore-style). Design schools (as far as I know) do not emphasise this in their curriculum. Many local designers themselves don't know about web standards, or find it too troublesome to implement - despite the fact that other highly reputable web designers have. Employers do not encourage it either, because many do not know about it, or fail to see how this can win more clients, who in turn wonder how this is going to woo more customers and improve sales. It's a chicken and egg thing.
But enough about standards et al. I've ranted enough. I'm announcing my departure from web design. My design workload is slowly being offloaded. I will still maintain my personal weblog, and provide consultations. But my job scope requires research into other areas, and to be frank, I don't see the point of fighting in a market based mostly on price, not quality. Or maybe I'm just too cynical. Try working in Singapore as a web standards evangelist, and see.
After completing a website entirely in Flash MX, dashing off to the Macromedia conference (see pics in previous post), and having a satisfying flambé steak for dinner, I was more than pleasantly surprised to discover that my favourite web standards evangelist, Zeldman, has added this site to his list of externals.
Over 200 hits and counting. It is indeed a great honour.
Zeldman has suggested the (previously) unfathomable - to protect the future of rich web media by supporting Microsoft.
From what I understand, here's the low-down: Back in 1998, a company called EOLAS (short for Embedded Objects Linked Across Systems) devised a means of embedding plug-ins. Microsoft's web browser, Internet Explorer, was deemed to have 'stolen' this browser technology. Microsoft has lost the US$521 million patent case, but counterclaimed on misrepresentation. They lost the counterclaim. The full verdict will be out in a month or two. If Microsoft loses, it will appeal.
A workaround is possible, with Microsoft suggesting that a dialogue box could appear before the plug-in media loads. However, that would disrupt the flow of use. Worse, if EOLAS is not satisfied with any compromises, this decision could spell disaster for many rich web media sites, and as Zeldman notes, would bring us back to a web surfing experience reminiscent of the early 90's. Microsoft has already warned vendors to be prepared for the worst outcome, and is working on a plug-in free version of IE. Goodbye to Flash games, PDF files and Quicktime movies.
In actual effect, it is not only Microsoft that will suffer should they lose the appeal. According to this CNet article,
...should the jury's decision be upheld, Eolas' attorneys promise that browser makers and distributors around the world had better be prepared to pay up.
That may not be a problem for big companies like HP, but what about open source developers of free browser software? What about Mozilla? This is as bad as a previous patent lawsuit, where someone tried to sue for infringement of GIF (or was it JPEG) technology. Imagine a browsing experience without images and sound. Good thing I still have a copy of Lynx in my PC.
In time, more will be revealed, and many questions will doubtless be asked. My list, so far:
'To create and develop the inventions that allow information technologies to enhance the quality of life for everyone.'How will their lawsuit, award of damages and the removal of plug-in functionality in web browsers, achieve this?
On the bright side, web developers may be forced to use alternative techniques such as - you know what I'm going to say already - XHTML, CSS, Javascript and anything else that supports web standards. Although in the immediate future, I do not think the full-bodied experience of rich media can be wholly replaced by these other technologies.
Call me anal-retentive, but I fail to see how an association purporting to promote XML in Asia, has a website with no doctype, unclosed break tags, and no link to the W3 on its web standards page. Sample code was converted to image files. Some images with flat colours, were inappropriately saved as watery-looking JPGs instead of GIFs. No header tags, just lots of <b> tags.
They obviously have lots of information about the subject, but still haven't put it to use on their own website. Oh, just leave me to rant. For the full list of objections, read on.
I'm going overseas next week to train people in web techniques and hopefully get them to appreciate and implement web standards in their work.
At the same time, I'm also teaching a few good friends how to customise their own blog templates using stylesheets. I guess it's almost like killing two birds with one stone, although the former task is much wider in scope and has to be properly documented. Which explains why I'm still in the office right now, hacking away at a decent Powerpoint presentation / tutorial.
I've got a long way to go, but there was one section I definitely thought I should bring up to my hapless 'trainees' - what books to read on CSS. So I whipped up good ol' Amazon.com, and our very own Computer Book Centre to check on the best prices in Singapore for those titles. There were lots of comments posted by readers of each title, and I was running through each one to gauge which books were best for each group of people. Things were getting a little dry.
Hence I nearly rolled on the floor laughing when I saw this recent review by a female web design instructor, of CSS guru Eric Meyer's book, Mastering the Language of Web Design:
If I ever meet Eric Meyer in person, I'll have to drop to my knees and worship him. All of his books are outstanding, but this one is his best.
Lucky guy. But I wonder what his wife will have to say about that! X-D
I've finally cleared the backlog of work in the office and found a few interesting links:
X2 the movie: A brief feminist perspective. Uh, yeah.
MSNBC: Palestinians in Iraq now fear the worst after receiving preferential treatment under old Saddam regime.
Lastly, Zeldman's new book, Designing With Web Standards, is out: download two free chapters here.
I had a long chat with my big boss today, and some things have turned out better than I hoped. He recognised my real interests, addressed my concerns, and I will be undergoing a job title change soon.
If all goes well, I will be travelling more frequently and doing things I've only dreamt of doing before. Just when I was resigning myself to the fact that my code and all my preachings about web standards and accessibility were going out of the window, he presented with the opportunity to teach and implement these principles - and this time I may have the authority to do so, tyrant that I am.
The amazing thing was, my career was something I've been praying about fairly consistently, and just last night I cried out once again for guidance in my prayers. Then, today I was presented with an opportunity to speak with my boss when I bumped into him at the door, but then I decided not to spoil his day. Next thing I knew, he called me over for a chat, so I guess it was something I couldn't avoid!
So thanks be to God for giving us this opportunity to communicate with each other once again, because it really did me a world of good. Amen.
Well folks, you're looking at the latest version of my website. I realised I was spending way too much time working on it, hence I decided to release it in beta stage and work out the minor kinks along the way.
The biggest difference is not a visual one. The code on MOST pages is now compliant with the Web Standards laid down by the W3C. I say most, because I'm sure there's a nasty little bug somewhere which I haven't spotted yet - apart from my Atomz search engine, which generates lots of hideous code on their server, beyond my control.
There are a few more things I'd like to tweak in my own time: putting in proper email spam protection for everyone who posts comments; figuring out how to work the photo thumbnail generator which is apparently installed on my server; retouching my CSS, and making everything more ... dynamic.
A big thank you to Vic Ho and Queenie for their comments on the new site.
Sleep...sleep...I need sleep....zz.
I never run out of opportunities to preach to web coders who still haven't a clue what web standards are about. So listen up to this public service announcement:
The latest issue of Cre@te Online, the UK web design magazine, has a good tutorial on writing compliant XHTML 1.0 which is a transition between HTML (design) and XML (structure). Essentially we are progressing towards the separation of content from style.
The first thing we need to do is to keep our HTML clean: no overlapping tags; backslashes to close each standalone tag (such as 'br /'), use of 'strong' and 'em' rather than 'b' and 'i' respectively, naming of all images with ALT text for accessibility... you get the general drift.
For instant gratification (and further information), go look up the W3C.
As for my new new NEW re-design, the pages coded in HTML so far are totally compliant, right down to the CSS, but nobody can see the new site until I stop changing my ... mind.
I watched a pretty interesting show on the National Geographic channel about the makers of Netscape, covering their phenomenal rise and subsequent fall to Microsoft, and their buyout by AOL.
What struck me most on the show, however, was the dedication of Netscape employees to their work. Some of them would stay over for weeks in the office as their homes weren't in the same city. But they were working for a cause they believed in - and they were willing to fight for it.
Pity they took ages to produce Netscape 6. Skipping one version number didn't exactly make a big impact on consumers, who were already using Internet Explorer by default on their PCs. In the meantime, as Microsoft's lawyers battled it out in with the DOJ, Internet Explorer kept on improving itself. It got developers hooked onto its support for DHTML, for instance, and it loaded much, much faster than Netscape 4.
[Note: Netscape 5 BTW did exist internally, but the engine was scrapped in favour of the open-source browser I affectionately call Mozzy. Maybe they wanted to play catch-up with Microsoft's IE 5, but this confused consumers initially as they were expecting 4 to go to 5 and not 6 - which is reasonable. I came across some popular websites which stated that they required 'Netscape 5 and above', or listed that browser version in their error page feedback forms. As of today, the Guardian website still lists Netscape 5 as a browser even though it isn't available publicly for download. Click here to go to a fictitious link on their site, to see what I mean.]
I also had doubts when I heard AOL was buying it over. When I tried AOL in the UK a few years ago, I didn't feel comfortable with it - probably because it was meant for web beginners, not 'power users' like myself. I wondered briefly how Netscape was coping with the culture change. Well the documentary confirmed that some Netscape staff left after the behemoth swallowed them as the AOL culture was not really that of a 'dotcom'. I probably would have done the same.
Anyway, AOL didn't quite merge seamlessly with Netscape at first. For instance, their AOL browser was based on Internet Explorer's engine, not Netscape's. And when I used it, it certainly felt like an IE browser with the AOL logo slapped on it. AOL later came under criticism for this and I believe their browser has been suitably amended. Correct me if I'm wrong on any point, because I doubt I'm going to install AOL again so I'll never know.
But what I disliked most about the post-AOL takeover was how Netscape's approach towards consumers had changed. Now there are AOL popup windows whenever I visit netscape.com and every time I install a newer version of Netscape, I get AOL icons on my desktop, AOL shortcuts in my bookmarks panel, AOL shortcuts in my start menu. I mean, quit cluttering my screen; I'm back in Singapore now and there's no such service in my country!
Soon I found myself reading up on how to delete all references to AOL Messenger in my Windows registry. I even trashed that pesky aim.exe file which kept on activating whenever I ran the browser. I never asked for it! Like the very giant they were both battling against, they started using Microsoft-like tactics to push their own products, whether you wanted to download them or not.
But don't get me wrong - I'm not anti-Netscape per se (although I don't quite like AOL). I still use their browsers. Versions 6 and 7 are fairly web standards-compliant. I'm even using Netscape 7 to post this entry. But the company has retained less than 10% of the market share as of now. Many web designers don't even bother testing their sites using this browser anymore. I don't agree with this attitude but you get the general idea. On a similar note, in my undergraduate days I used Netscape Search ardently, then I discovered something called Google, which was even better.
Netscape's website now makes me feel like I'm entering another of those typical news portals, with content syndicated from various news sources such as CNN, whose websites I'd rather be visiting directly. The website also went through numerous redesigns, many of which I don't care to remember because they had no impact on me. I just went there to upgrade my browser and found I had to click more times to get to my destination.
Netscape did announce a change its direction for its website a couple years back, from being browser-oriented to becoming an all-in-one news provider, but frankly I would rather have the company focus once again on what they used to do best.
It's so fitting that one of our hottest technology and culture magazines has revamped its website to comply with web standards. Code readers may note that they also have a stylesheet for disabled users. Netscape 4 users will be asked to upgrade their non-compliant browsers. All thanks to CSS.
Shame on you, Microsoft. As Zeldman puts it, it's strange that the same corporation which advocates web standards, fails to implement web standards on its own, newly-revamped website.
I'm currently working on conforming this website to W3C standards. Unfortunately this will penalise users of Netscape 4 and below - but since they're using a browser version that's becoming increasingly irrelevant in this day and age, they might as well be encouraged to upgrade.
But there won't be any major changes to the look of this website as yet - in fact I'm working from the outside in, on a new section which will cover (what else but) web issues. I hope I'll get to study that topic next year >;-)
In other news: I donated to Movable Type. After a couple months of running MT, I have come to the conclusion that there is very little more I'd want in a personal publishing system. And it looks good to boot. I have yet to try out their tech support but maybe one day I'll be daring enough to install all the upgrades... and probably do something really dangerous.
And I can see that posting new stuff gets me on the front page of movabletype.org. What a cheap thrill ... It took all of ten seconds before this website was displaced from the top position. That's how many people are blogging right now. I thought those Americans would be too busy watching the Emmy awards.
For those interested, I also donated to K10K. Aren't I an angel?
The upholder of Web Standards is also a champion of web designer rights. And I thought I was the only one suffering from dealings with people who don't know how to work a browser properly.