Webcams at Universities
September 27th, 2003
Parents love'm and alumni remisce with them, Webcams are a great way for us to increase interest in UTSA.edu.
I was surprised to find that there was not a single Webcam on campus. Though some what passe now (that was "in" back in 98), I think it's a great way to get parents and alumni to come back and visit the site.
This was recently a topic on the University Web Developer's Mailing List. I posted the Webcam comments from the list, and hope that they will prove to be helpful down the road as we reach this crossing.
The hardest part of this is finding a place to put it and getting the infrastructure (ethernet and power lines, and protection from the elements) in place. How can you justify the man power to back up something so frivolous to our IT department?
Create validated HTML
September 26th, 2003
It 2004 and most Web developers still have not caught on to the idea of standards. Anyone with a long term commitment to Web development should keep these small items in mind.
I usually don't even think about DTD's, html language or character sets. This is because I include them by default at the top of every page that I code, usually copying and pasting those 3 lines.
Here are some quick resources:
- Validate your HTML at the W3C
- Document Type
- Include this in your html document
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
- then validate your CSS
Sorry about the uninspired post. It's early on a Friday morning.
University Web Developer's Mailing List
September 24th, 2003
An essential communications outlet for higher education Web people. Discussions include design, politics, the technical and much more.
http://www.usask.ca/web_project/uwebd/
<uwebd />
UNIVERSITY WEB DEVELOPERS
–>
The Business Value of Web Standards
September 24th, 2003
Probably the most important article on the Web about making the business case for Web standards.
The Business Value of Web Standards
Major headings from the article along with my brief summaries:
- Speed Development - Focus on one design, rather than hacks for incompatible browsers
- Simplify Maintenance, Increase Opportunity - Seperate design from content makes for easy up-keep of sites
- Open Up Access Options - mobile phones, PDAs, screen readers, etc
- Reduce Bandwidth Costs - Cut file size in half
- Improve User Experience - Quick download = happy user
Jeffrey Veen, authored The Art and Science of Web Design, works with AdaptivePath.com and is a definite addition to our list of reading.
Microsoft ClearType Increases Reading by 15%
September 23rd, 2003
Deep in the bowels of Windows XP exists a feature that could increase your reading speed by 10%-15% if you use a flat screen. You have to turn it on though.
I caught this one of an article by Jakob Nielsen entitled Avoiding Commodity Status. Nielsen breaks down this statistic as follows:
To estimate the cost-savings from anti-aliased screen fonts, consider a business professional who makes $50,000 per year. If this user spends 20% of his or her time reading emails, intranet pages, and other documents on the computer screen, then the screen costs the company $20,000 per year (using the traditional rule that employees cost twice their salary due to benefits, overhead, etc.). ClearType will make this user at least 10% more productive while reading from the screen, for a gain of $2,000.
The article is actually about the need to treat the design of computers much like that of building architecture. He mentions Apple's practice of highering design firms to keep computers liveable.
Start saving today by activating ClearType.
The real reason that I like ClearType and Macs (Macs come default with this tech on) is that I prefer to use actual text on the Web, rather than pictures of text. Recently, before the release of UTSA.edu, an image on the page was added to replace the text that was there because it was unsightly. So, if everyone is using ClearType or a Mac, all of my text will be as smooth as an image, easier to read and faster to download!
Eric Meyer is back
September 23rd, 2003
His tag line reads, “Helping clients improve the bottom line through the use of Web standards”. Free of his Netscape weights, hopefully he can fill the gap in dialogue about Web standards and business.
ComplexSpiral.com is Eric Meyer's new consulting company. Elegantly designed and chock full of original and useful content, this site just might be the standards activists' dream come true (see Mejoe.com Standards article)!
First ariticle up for consumption, Rounding Tab Corners. Though I am not currently using CSS tabs on any of my sites, I have used them in the past and look forward to giving it a go with this CSS only technique. In fact, inline with the Amazon model, tabs are probably the fastest growing page format in the industry, next to the two column blog format.
Thanks Eric!
UTSA vs Google
September 23rd, 2003
This joe vs Google search engine campaign has got me excited. I am going to do this with UTSA too.
My sparked interest in Google's page rank system has got me wondering how much I can improve UTSA.edu's search engine ranking. Using stebsoft.com's trusty analyzer, I am going to check certain phrases to see what kind of improvements that I get.
I am going to chronicle these efforts on the UTSA vs Google page.
Science Friday in San Antonio, 5 Seconds of Fame
September 21st, 2003
Ira Flatow's Science Friday was in San Antonio yesterday. I got a change to ask a question, broadcasting my voice on the bottom dials of radios across the nation.
During the second segment on Preserving the Mission, I got a chance to take the stage and ask a quick question about the contribution of the Canary Islanders to the building and maintenance of the missions as well as a clarification of myths and legends surrounding a basement or tunnel underneath some of the missions (the Pee-Wee Herman joke about a basement in the Alamo actually has some basis in these myths).
I even met Ira twice, once at a Texas Public Radio lunch and later after the show (the show was sponsored by the UTSA College of Engineering). It is very obvious that he is passionate about his topics. At lunch, he barely participated in the small talk. In response to my inquiry about the first segment (on Texas Wind Power) though he would not let us leave withought filling our ears. He is also kind of nerdy. I guess it's not surprising, though it is definitely not what I had expected. His photos portray a warm and vibrant, young high school english teacher. In reality he looks like a dedicated science teacher - he dresses for comfort (obvious through his black, old school Reebok tennis shoes), has messy hair and seems like he might mismatch his shirt buttons on occasion.
Earlier I mentioned that he wasn't much for small talk, though that's probably the fault of fame. After you meet so many people, the small talk must seem worthless. How many times do you think hes heard, “Oh, I love your show” or “I listen all the time”.
I regularly listen to Science Friday, and had the opportunity to come into contact with the odd experience of devoting all of my attention to the show. When was the last time you tuned into a radio show and did nothing else but listen? Usually I am driving, cooking, eating, on the Web, working, or multitasking in some way. Sitting down and focusing on the show was very difficult (I had also eaten too much and the auditorium was very hot). I am a product of the wired generation, and so I guess I could come up with plenty of excuses for my attention disorder.
Search for Joe at Google
September 21st, 2003
Come on, I know I'm not the only one. I'm sure that you too have done that ego building/breaking Google search.
Remebmer Googlism.com? Well, I on occasion check out what pops up when I do a search for "Joe" on Google. My site of course does not even show up in the top 50! So I've decided to conquer that task. I'm going to do the ultimate search term campaign in the non-commercial Webs history. I will make mejoe.com show up first on a google search for "joe". Wish me luck (or better yet, link to me with joe in the label)!
This campaign goes back to a post entitled "Ranafrog.net No More"that I made about selecting mejoe.com as a domain name.
Maccaws.org Standards Sites - UTSA.edu
September 21st, 2003
Making a Commercial Case for Adopting Web Standards (Maccaws.org) recently added UTSA.edu to it's list of sites that have been built with standards.
MACCAWS.org advocates the construction of a kit that makes the business case for using standard code on the Web. This is one of the best ideas I have heard in the Web Standards movement for quite some time. Their Standards Site is a showcase of big and small sites. Likely they had found the link at Zeldman.com's August 21 post.
Not only does this case need to be made to those that lead the way at the top of the ladder, but to current and incoming developers. I am currently teaching a Web design class, where the topic of standards constantly comes up. This is usually in response to the rogue Web design books that student's obtain. The books are littered with code examples that include
<font>
tags and pure table layouts with spacers images and the works. The expected wisdom of the teacher is often under-cut by the immortality of a voice from a book that is often only 2 years old.
Will someone please write a book about this!