Current Glamour: I Love A Parade
Current ALA: The Trouble With EM ’n EN | Typography Matters
 
18 October 2001
[5 pm]
Textism’s An Annotated Manifesto for Growth skewers pretense with cruelly witty precision. It’s the perfect thing to read while you're stuck on hold for 65 minutes, waiting to cancel a DSL order because the company can't deliver before January 2002, and your neck aches because you've got a head cold, and you have to sit up because the phone won't reach the bed. Though it’s probably just as delightful in other circumstances.

The brutality that is Photoshop Tennis will resume tomorrow with a live match between Heather Champ and Derek Powazek. :::
 
[1 pm]
The healing power of deranged, bitter laughter: this entry from Textism, and these from mnftiu.cc. :::
 
[7 am]
Taking Your Talent to the Web, Italian style. Istruzioni per l'uso per designer di talento. "Se non leggete Zeldman, beh, e' molto semplice, non sapete che cosa e' il Web"—Jeffrey Veen. (We love it when he talks like that.) The cover appears to be adapted from a design by Carlos Segura and Partners. Hat tip: Marco Ghezzi. :::
 
17 October 2001
[5 pm]
Yesterday, IBM was awarded a patent on web page templates. In self-defense, we are filing for a patent on "chewing food." We'll probably get it, too. Between pushing RAND and patenting standard web development practices, IBM seems eager to displace Microsoft as the world’s least-loved technology company. (More at Slashdot. Hat tip: Ben Henick.) :::
 
15 October 2001
[11 am]
W3C has invited free software and Open Source experts to join the Patent Policy Working Group and "a second public Last Call for the W3C Patent Policy Framework is planned." So far, so good.

Terrorist-related damage to our ISP is forcing us to switch DSL providers in real time. Because of FCC regulations, we have to simultaneously change local telephone service providers. The tech folks are here now, and we're knocking wood.

Ask Dr Web, this site’s long-running (1995—1999) tutorial on the basics of web design and development, has been laminated in time and graced with a new front cover including useful links. :::
 
13 October 2001
[11 am]
Apple, Hewlett-Packard back away from RAND: Both companies have submitted statements urging W3C "not to adopt a policy that would permit the charging of royalties for technologies used in approved standards." (Hat tip: Waferbaby.)
        Patents, Royalties, and the Future of the Web: a concise overview of the problem with patents, the importance of public good over private profit, and the Open Source community’s response to RAND. (Hat tip: L'il Stevie Champeon.) :::
 
12 October 2001
[noon]
Now playing live at coudal.com: in a sexy new bout of Photoshop Tennis, UK preloaded takes on Deutsch designers-drug with soused commentary by textism. :::
 
[midnight]
In Issue 123 of A List Apart, For People Who Make Websites:
        THE FLASH AESTHETIC, by Ross Olson — Scaling, 2-D style, cycle-free motion, and heavy strokes. They're not just web design trends any more. Join Olson on a cultural scavenger hunt as he tracks the ways Flash design techniques have crept into other media. Plus:
        HOW TO SUCCEED WITH URLs, by Till Quack — Dynamic websites are great. Dynamically-generated URLs stink. In Part One of a new series, Till Quack shows how to use PHP to convert machine-generated URLs into human-friendly ones.
        Note: ALA has moved to faster, more powerful servers courtesy of our hosts at Webcore Labs. The site is currently operating on both the old and new servers, and you should have no trouble accessing it. :::
 
11 October 2001
[8 am]
My Glamorous Life No. 61: I Love A Parade. :::
 
9 October 2001
[6 pm]
A letter to W3C.

In response to the vast public outcry, it appears that the W3C working group responsible for the RAND patent policy may be heading back to the drawing board when it reconvenes on 15 October. :::
 
[9 am]
A high-level source at W3C confirms that the standards body desperately seeks intelligent comments on its Patent Policy draft before the 11 October cutoff date. Detailed, thoughtful criticism will make a difference as W3C continues to revise the policy in the months ahead.
        Many of us have expressed our anger over the very notion of W3C seeming to endorse patents on web standards. W3C has read that mail. Now is the time to offer constructive criticism, being as clear and specific as possible.
        W3C has been our best hope to date for a web that works for all, and support for W3C standards in our browsers has vastly improved interoperability and accessibility. We can get our rocks off by threatening to create new standards bodies (which, if launched, would only fragment the web). Or we can help W3C by clearly pointing out the many pitfalls in its current policy draft and demanding that the policy’s authors fix those problems.
        See The Web Standards Project for more information, spread the word on your mailing lists and websites, and please mail comments to the W3C before the 11 October cutoff date. :::