Radio UserLand Notes

I'll be at the Springfield Macromedia User's Group meeting tonight at 7PM. It's at downtown fave Mudhouse, so come down and say hi and talk about Dreamweaver. I'll buy you coffee if you've used Lingo before 1996.

I carry four books every where I go. I bought a backpack to carry my laptop, accessories and *specificially* these four books:

• Frontier: The Definitive Guide by Matt Neuburg
• Radio UserLand Kick Start by Rogers Cadenhead
• Designing With Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman
• HTML & XHTML The Definitive Guide by Check Muscian and Bill Kennedy

Matt's Frontier book is available on the web for free, but there's something about thumbing through it away from the computer that helps me. Rogers' book writes about topics specific and relevant to Radio, so it bridges the gap of 6 years between the two publications.

The last two are crucial for modern HTML designers. Zeldman's book is not a how-to, but a "why for" of web design. My big lesson learned reading his book is that HTML design is a craft, not a job. Clever people can make a website do almost anything, but a craftsman can make even the simplest website something to admire. Finally, the HTML and XHTML reference is great for "What does *that* do?" It's a reference tool and not a guide.

What's the best part? Analog reading is fun for me. It forces me to think and remember what I read instead of relying on the electronics to help.

What's the worst part? The four books, bag, laptop, camera, power supply, cables all weigh nearly twenty (20) pounds. Yuk.