This time it’s not IE.
Wow, FireFox does not play nice with styling legends.
FireFox, I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.
Archive for May, 2007
@media links to check out
This is a list consisting of all the websites and books recommended during the course of the conference that interested me enough to warrant writing down for later evaluation (including links to most of the presentations):
@media: Day Two
Today I got two free books, Jeremy signed Bullet Proof Ajax for me and I snagged an extra Microformats cheat sheet for Brandon. All in all a success.
@media: Day One
One day I’d like to be able to make the same kind of contribution to the web design world that these speakers have. Trying to find a way to do that is as intimidating as the idea of writing a Master’s thesis. How does one come up with new ideas?
The speakers have all been excellent so far. I always need a few days to process information though so I don’t have much to say at this point other than: Andy Clarke remembered me from Web Directions North! I was flattered.
A few sessions feel like the same information I got at WDN which makes me question just how many of these conferences one needs to go to in a year and makes me feel better about the fact that I won’t be able to attend An Event Apart, mind you I haven’t heard most of their speakers… Are conferences addictive? Either way I’m out of funding sources and would have to pay for that one myself. Since I’m on the market for a new computer that’s not likely.
CADE/AMTECH Conference
I was in Winnipeg speaking at the CADE/AMTECH Conference last week. The weather was beautiful and I saw an excellent hockey game in which the Manitoba Moose (the Vancouver Canucks’ farm team) played spectacularly only to to be knocked out of the AHL playoffs in a very Canucks way (up 2-0 at the end of the first, lost 2-3 in OT).
As part of the Technology Enabled Knowledge (TEK) initiative at BCIT Danny Catt, one of the faculty, was sponsored to take a trip around South America and Antarctica studying local research and responses to sustainability and environmental issues. Throughout the journey he used blogging, digital photography, virtual lecture software, shared file storage space, and of course e-mail to keep in touch which his students and communicate with the world.
Terry Fuller, the instructional development coordinator that was helping Danny with the project submitted a paper to CADE to talk about “Using the Internet to make Meaningful Global Connections in the Classroom.” I was involved in creating the web page and blog that was the highlight of the project and Terry asked me to talk about the “technical” side of designing the website.
Rather than boring the crowd with PHP, HTML, CSS, CMS and other TLAs. I talked about the rest of the stuff that goes into the design process: user needs, site objectives, functional specifications, content requirements, information architecture, navigation design, visual design, and all that good stuff but for those of you who care the site was driven by Drupal and included a XML driven flash photo gallery, a Google map mashup, and some video and audio recordings, though not as many as we’d hoped – apparently it’s tough to upload media files from the middle of the Amazon – who knew?
The project was a lot of fun and very different my usual daily duties. I’ll post a summary and the slides soon.
If you can’t say something nicely…
I have lots to say but trouble finding the time and words to say it.
Blog posts I hope to make in the next two weeks:
- Taking credit where credit is due – in response to a discussion about women in IT at zeldman.com.
- My thoughts on the hiring process and the job market and why I do what I do where I do for the pay I get.
- Some of the steps we’re taking to convert our templates from tables within tables within tables to just… one table, well it’s an improvement.
- Highlights of our presentation at CADE and my thoughts on the rest of the conference.
Until then, if you think of yourself as a web designer – go take A List Apart’s Web Designer survey.
