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Category: Web

HTML updates at last!

09/08/2007

Although I can understand why the W3C went the XHTML route several years ago, I think it was a distraction from the beautiful simplicity of basic HTML, which essentially made the web what it is today. If it wasn’t for <B> and <I> and their ilk – yes, even <BLINK> – people like me wouldn’t have been interested in playing with HTML, creating the silly little websites we did, and in time moving onto to new toys like Javascript and Perl.

It was those toys – I’m sure the likes of Justin would crucify me for calling Perl a toy, but that’s what it was for me at the outset – that led people like Rasmus Lerdorf to create new toys like PHP, and XMLHttpRequest, and Ruby on Rails. And it was those toys that led to the likes of Digg, and Flickr, and YouTube, and thousands of other sites that you use every day. They’re not basic HTML by any stretch of the imagination, but their foundations are.

Now it looks like we’re going back to our roots, with HTML 5. New elements will be added to the spec, simple and easy-to-understand elements like header and footer, aside and figure, audio and video, details and datagrid. Guess their purposes, you’ll probably be right or not far off.

Hopefully the new generation of web addicts will embrace HTML 5 like we embraced it’s forerunners, breaking away from walled gardens like Facebook and MySpace and building their online presences in their own space, linked together with open standards like SIOC and it’s cousins. It’s not hard. If I can do it…

Google AdSense Optimisation Muppetry

18/06/2007

Google offered to optimise one of my sites a few days ago, for the second time. The first time my revenues took a dive so I was naturally sceptical, but they’re sinking all by themselves now anyway, so I said I’d give it a shot. The attached is a screenshot of the very first suggestion in their optimisation list. I haven’t included a thumbnail because you really need to see the full size image to appreciate the sheer stupidity of it. I can only imagine what my users would think or do if I tried to implement this idiocy.

I despair of what Google is becoming, I really do. In the past month I’ve had to threaten them with the Data Protection Act several times over multiple implicit refusals to delete an AdWords account; I’ve had a very frustrating conversation with them over a leak of someone else’s private data to my email account, that demonstrates carelessness and ignorance about privacy; and now they throw this shit at me. I’m thinking maybe it’s time to start dumping Gmail, Calendar, etc. They’re hardly leading the field in anything but search anymore anyway.

Creation Museum’s ‘Adam’ runs porn site

11/06/2007

You couldn’t make it up.

WTOL-TV Toledo: The man picked by the Creation Museum to play Adam leads quite a different life outside the Garden of Eden. Records show that Eric Linden owns a pornographic web site called “Bedroom Acrobat.”

Web-Advertised Houses Generate Higher Prices

09/06/2007

This is a US story so the differences might not be as stark in Ireland, but there’s no doubt in my mind that if a seller puts some time and imagination into the process, it will still be appreciable. In the example cited. using a realtor rate of 6%, that difference is a whopping $12,225.

(I don’t say “whopping” very often, but that really is whopping.)

Aodhan Cullen nominated for BusinessWeek award

09/06/2007

The founder of StatCounter has been nominated for a BusinessWeek Young Entrepreneur award, and in my opinion he deserves a vote. Aodhan started the service when he was 16, and the way he developed the service, both technically and professionally, is quite honestly mind-boggling for someone that young chipping away on his own.

The service itself – a remote web stats application – has consistently been the best available, and his attitude to customer service and communications has impressed me since I first bumped into him on Boards.ie some time ago. You can read a note from Aodhan on the StatCounter blog. You can tell he didn’t actually write the post himself. :)

Keywords: a Growing Cost for News Sites

03/05/2007

The concept didn’t really make any sense to me until I read this bit:

“Way back in the old days … there used to be people standing on corners yelling, ‘Extra! Extra! Read all about it!’,” says Murray Gaylord, vice president of marketing for NYTimes.com. “The way people get that content now is going to that search engine,” he says. “It is the same model; it is just the way the world has changed.”

Of course!

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