Monday, 12 August 2002

YA Accessibility Book Due Out. Author and accessibility expert Joe Clark is, to say the least, a complete obsessive. I have just discovered he has a new book due out late this month, Building Accessible Websites, and given his obsessiveness no doubt it will be the best book on the subject.       Click on the title of this post to read about it at Amazon.com. 7:39:01 PM    Add a comment.

Information Architecture Classic Being Revised. The one book in my collection from London, that I considered so precious I carried it by hand from that side of the globe to this one, is Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville. I received my copy of it just after it was published in February 1998.       Now the guys are working on the second edition, due out this month in the US. You can download chapters 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 from the O’Reilly & Associates website.       Wish me luck, though, in trying to obtain a review copy. The book’s Oz distributors can be prickly to say the least. 6:38:31 PM    Add a comment.

Phillip Kerman's ActionScripting Classic Updated. Phillip Kerman’s classic on Flash ActionScripting has been updated for Flash MX. The new version is named ActionScripting in Flash MX.       In the back of the book is notice about another exciting-looking book on Flash MX matters, also published by New Riders. Object-Oriented Programming with ActionScript by Branden Hall and Samuel Wan is due out in September. 1:27:31 PM    Add a comment.

Towards The Accessible, Usable Web. I have received review copies of some books by Glasshaus, the new imprint for web professionals that is a spin-off from Friends of ED and Wrox Press in Birmingham, England. They are excellent books, and in some cases quite unique, so it is a mystery as to why none of the local bookstores have any of them in stock.       I like Glasshaus’ current books so much, in fact, that I am going to make a special effort to review all their books. Accessible Web Sites Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation Practical JavaScript for the Usable Web Usability: The Site Speaks For Itself 1:20:50 PM    Add a comment.

The Ultimate For Avoiding RSI? The Repetitive Stress page on the Wacom US website has some unsolicited letters from new Wacom users about how their new art tablets helped them in dealing with Repetitive Stress (RSI) and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS).       I have used Wacom art tablets for years, ever since I decided I was not going to put up with the RSI I had rapidly developed after starting to use desktop computers. 11:54:58 AM    Add a comment.

The Last 1% Takes 99% Of The Time. That is a truism that I recalled late last week while waiting for the last bit of content to arrive from the agency and client for the Jalna website.       I want to wrap this thing, upload it and get on with something else. But this last 1% is taking forever. 11:35:44 AM    Add a comment.

Let's Ban Basic and Simple. Let’s ban the use of the words basic and simple from use in all discussions of web sites and other New Media projects. The simpler and more elegant the web site appears, the more thought and planning has gone into it and the more hard work has gone into the coding that drives it.       Clients use both words in the naïve belief that such a web site will be cheap. It will not. Web sites, and New Media projects, are nothing like printed documents where your secretary can just bang one off in a copy of Word, print it on your desktop printer and hope it will do service in place of something designed in InDesign or Quark XPress by a real designer and printed by a real press. 11:17:50 AM    Add a comment.

Seven Caroma Stools So Far. I have only just begun scouring all the hardware stores scattered about Perth. Seven Caroma stools have turned up so far.       I might not have a big fat fancy black leather couch, but no visitor need ever complain that I do not have enough things to sit on. 11:08:00 AM    Add a comment.

That Is It, I Am Done With HTML. Not with HTML as such, but rather HTML 4 and earlier. I am in the process of converting the Jalna web site over to XHTML, and all the sites I do from now on will be XHTML plus CSS.       No more ancient HTML DTDs for me. Time to be contemporary. 10:46:00 AM    Add a comment.

I Wonder Where My Other Boots Are? I just remembered that I have another pair of RM Williams boots at the factory having their worn-out leather soles replaced with hard-wearing Neoprene. They should have returned at the same time as the other pair. Where are they? Time to phone the local outlet, and get them to track them down. 10:40:13 AM    Add a comment.

It's A Beautiful Day. After so many grey and cold, cold days today is a real Perth winter day—bright sun, not a trace of a cloud in the sky. The temperature outside, though, is approaching zero. Where is that coming from? There are no snowfields for the cold to creep down from, here. 10:34:55 AM    Add a comment.