The Sun rises on the Dolphin

Wed Jan 16

That cryptic title will speak volumes to those in-the-know in the web world. MySQL, the most popular open-source database system (and one of the pillar stones of the mighty LAMP stack) has been bought by Sun.

This could well turn out to be a very important day in the history of the free web.

Understanding web design

Mon Nov 26

Jeffrey Zeldman, one of the web’s foremost experts and thinkers shines a light on one of the major fallacies surrounding web design: thinking it’s something it’s not.

In Understanding Web Design in the A List Apart magazine he explains what web design isn’t, but many people think it is, and what it is, but many people think it isn’t:

Web design is not book design, it is not poster design, it is not illustration, and the highest achievements of those disciplines are not what web design aims for. Although websites can be delivery systems for games and videos, and although those delivery systems can be lovely to look at, such sites are exemplars of game design and video storytelling, not of web design. So what is web design?

Web design is the creation of digital environments that facilitate and encourage human activity; reflect or adapt to individual voices and content; and change gracefully over time while always retaining their identity.

That’s it in a nutshell. The “creation of digital environments” that “reflect or adapt” and “change gracefully over time”. No word on whether Flash, Silverlight, AIR or any other technology is The Way Forward, it says what we’re about on the web: facilitating and encouraging human activity.

So please don’t think of web design in the same way as print or graphic design, or software design, or information architecture, or a collection of loosely-coupled technologies. It has elements of all of these things and more. Much more. As the inventor of the web, Saint Berners-Lee, puts forth in his book Weaving the Web:

[His] vision of the Web is something much more than a tool for research or communication; it is a new way of thinking and a means to greater freedom and social growth than ever before possible.

Not just a way to sell books (the footnote on that page is just as enlightening as the rest of the text, take a look) or to “connect” (whatever that means) but something that will have a positive impact on the quality of life for people on this planet. High ideals, granted, but noble ones and - with a lot of collaboration and work - achievable.

The Joy of Stats

Mon Oct 29

When I have time (which isn’t often, to be honest) I like to look through the statistics for my websites and see who’s been visiting. Some of the search terms I get arriving at my site are a little … strange. However not as strange as some people’s.

Seeing as I’m short on quality content at the moment I’ll take the wimps way out and post the search terms that have brought people to this site over the last few days:

Requests Search term
42 radiohead in rainbows review
27 marshall super bass
25 postsecret
16 php datatable
12 in rainbows review
12 in rainbows review radiohead
10 marshall superbass
7 css gantt chart
6 css gantt
4 marshall super bass 100
4 where to go in guernsey
4 review radiohead in rainbows
4 gantt chart css
3 gantt css
3 prototype unobtrusive link
3 2plan
3 review of in rainbows
3 wierd & wonderful pictures
3 whitby
3 cartoon church pictures

I think from that it’s quite obvious that I’m serving a series of niche markets with what I write. Which is fine, it fits in with the series of niches in my brain.

A Web 2.0 Strategy Slideshow

Thu Oct 4

I saw this a little while ago and thought it was excellent. If you are developing a website, and especially if you want to be part of the Web 2.0 thing, pay attention to this: A Web 2.0 Strategy Slideshow « Paul Lomax - Two Point Oh.

Ahoy

Wed Sep 19

Pirate flagThere’s not much more likely to raise a smile on the face of hardened Web-farers than the yearly, now International, Talk Like A Pirate Day. Every year on 19th September thousands of slightly mad people from all over the globe mutter things such as “Arr, Jim-lad” and “Avast there, ye scurvy wench”.

You may be asking why? Well, why not? It’s not often you can call your boss a “scurvy sea-dog” and get away with it. You have to take every opportunity you can get.