Biggest Hit

The CSUN Tweetup was a smashing success. Video games and certainly an open bar this year helped acquire more attendees! Check out these hilarious photos. Special thanks for Jared Smith and Mike Paciello for organizing.

Amusing Slide

This presentation slide cracked me up. It’s from the end of @PaulJAdam’s presentation “HTML5 & WAI-ARIA Forms-jQuery Validation”.

Amusing slide from Paul Adam.

Reality Check

This slide from ARIA Widgets presentation by @Todd Kloots pretty much says it all. In the web development world, we are in between HTML4 and HTML5 right now (we developers can start coding HTML5, but much support is currently missing from browsers and assistive technology).

Great simple slide from Todd Kloots.

Session With Most Style

The session Accessibility is the New Black by Wendy Chisolm and Elle Waters is definitely most stylish. Photo from tweet by @GoodWitch.

Accessibility Is The New Black!

Practical

The slide “Benefits of web standards” by Howard Kramer from A Web Standards & UD Approach to Access gives some great info on why coding properly is important.

• Makes it easier for people & search engines to find your content (including AT users)
• Separating structure and behavior makes your site easier and less expensive to develop & test. (And much easier to update.)
• Makes your site lighter (smaller file size).
• Semantic markup makes your site more accessible to different kinds of browsers and devices, incl. mobile devices and AT.
• Designing with standards in ensures that your site is forward compatible.

More

Want more?! Check out my Flickr CSUN12 photo album the Web Axe Women of CSUN12 podcast! And I’m already looking forward to next year…

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The logo is a general-purpose visual identity for a broad set of open web technologies, including HTML5, CSS, SVG, WOFF, and others.

I agree with the many who say that that HTML5 is just HTML5 (the markup) and shouldn’t be conglomerated together with other standards such as CSS; mixing them causes confusion. Then, the W3C responded with this statement The HTML5 Logo Conversation. Whether you agree or disagree, or like or dislike the new logo and W3C’s angle, there sure has been a lot of fun (and great coding!) as a result.

Fun Stuff

• HTML5 Pants
• Flash animated HTML5 logo
• Zillions Of Hilarious Parodies
• W3C HTML5 Spinning Logo (Flick it!)
• Official W3C HTML5 T-Shirt
• Official HTML5 Logo Is Out: Get Your Badge! from WebResourcesDepot
• Pure CSS HTML5 Logo – By Darcy Clarke

Commentary

• Two cheers for the W3C’s HTML5 logo from the HTML5 Doctor.
• New W3C HTML5 Logo: Looks Ok But Inconsistent, Fire W3C Communications Person Who Led Messaging by Tantek Celik.
• Jeremy Keith Adactio Badge of shame.
• HTML5 and the New W3C-Endorsed Logo by SitePoint.
• Bonus: HTML5 is dead. Long live HTML. by @ChipCullen

What do you think of the new logo and the W3C’s line of thought?

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Click here to view the video on YouTube.

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• My boys having fun trick-or-treating (dressed as a policeman and Indiana Jones).
• Putting on a green monster mask and freaking out kids at my door.
• Twittering with folks around the country about Halloween.
• Carving pumpkins, my wife does a great job!
• Baking pumpkin seeds, but burning half of them. #fail, LOL
• Making my Halloween 2010 Flickr album.
• Going to a totally decked out Halloween store with the family.
• My wife dressed as a black cat! I like.

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The drive up was good, and not quite as far as first expected, about 6 hours or so from South Bay. We made a short stop to drive thru a tree, literally. I learned there’s a few trees where you can actually do this; we visited the Chandelier tree (below). Then, a little later up the highway, we saw a Bigfoot crossing sign.

Our hosts were great, and they sure showed us the outdoor classics of Humboldt county (not the marijuana though, sorry to disappoint!). But first, on the night we arrived, my friend took me out for beers with his buddies from work: about ten professors from nearby Humboldt State University. They were definitely not reserved as one might expect, but quite the opposite; fun, goofy, beer-pounding guys. And I guess I live in “Central California”, as the locals there claim that area of the state the true “Northern California”.

The highlight of the visit was probably walking through the giant redwood forest in the Redwood National Park. My kids pretended they were Ewoks, creatures from the Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi. Many of the trees are very very wide, about 300 feet tall, and can be 1,000 years old. We saw numerous large yellow slugs called banana slugs (yuck!)

We spent an afternoon in Arcata, a groovy hippie town which is home to the university. Lots of great coffee, organic food, and free spirits. The farmers market in downtown Arcata was fun, even had a bluegrass band. One ingenious woman sat on the curb with a typewriter and a sign that read “Poem Store“.

We also did some light hiking and walked along a few beaches, and even saw a bunch of seals hanging out on a sand bar. A couple swam pretty close to us, too.

We stayed overnight on the long journey home as we drove south down the coast on Highway 1 (rather than 101 as on the way up). We stopped at a couple of cool little towns, Fort Bragg and Mendocino. We stayed at cabin which was fair, but was totally worth it due to a hot tub overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The four of us took a nice, scenic dip in our underwear!

The next day we drove by some cows, and had a great brunch at fine place called Alexander’s. We crossed the Golden Gate on the way home and, even with as much fun as we had, were glad to be back home in Cupertino.

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The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

Transcription

Man1: Acme corporation is finally getting into the social media game.

Man2: Have you thought about how you’re going to engage with individuals and provide value to the community?

Man 1: Hell not. We’re just going to build a bunch of fancy social media web assets and then spend a bunch of money on a big media push. We’re going to be rich.

Man2: What’s social about that?

Man 1: Nothing. But it’s going to look super cool, and we’ll have the mainstream media tell everybody that Acme is now engaged in social media. It’s going to be sweet.

Man2: You’re an idiot. No wonder your Twitter account got suspended.

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Part of that fun was the classic ’80s “hairbands”. Or the guys with make-up, some call it glam rock. Yes, looking back, they do look pretty silly. But a lot of the music was great, and that’s what counts!

Judas Priest (Birmingham, England)

Leather all the way, man. Hits such as “Breaking the Law” (Beavis and Butthead’s signature jingle), “Living After Midnight”, and “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’”. More about Judas Priest on Wikipedia.

Judas Priest. Lookin' bad ass, or not.

Iron Maiden (London, England)

I’d have to say the ugliest ’80s rock band. But with kick ass songs and even famously demonic album covers, these guys were pioneers for several years. Never was huge on the charts in the U.S. (I think “Run to the Hills” may be their most popular tune), but Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast made it to #1 in the UK! More about Iron Maiden on Wikipedia.

Iron Maiden. Very ugly mugs.

Twisted Sister (New York, New York)

Hilarious rockers who made it big (briefly, that is) with entertaining videos for hit singles “We’re Not Gonna Take It” (a #21 hit in the U.S.) and “I Wanna Rock”. More about Twisted Sister on Wikipedia.

Twisted Sister. What is that?!

Motley Crue (Los Angeles, California)

Famous band known for hard drinking, tattoos, and womanizing. Hits included “Shout at the Devil”, “Girls, Girls, Girls”, and “Dr. Feelgood”. I always liked the “Looks That Kill” song and video! (I was about 13 when it came out.) More about Motley Crue on Wikipedia.

Motley Crue. Glam rock studs.

Scorpions (Hanover, Germany)

Second for ugliest behind Iron Maiden, but totally awesome tunes like “Rock You Like a Hurricane”, “No One Like You”, and “Still Loving You”. More about the Scorpions on Wikipedia.

Scorpions. Don't look; just listen.

Def Leppard (Sheffield, England)

I saw these guys in concert around 1985 during the Pyromania tour, by far their best album. Included hits “Photograph”, “Rock of Ages” and “Foolin’”.  In the late ’80s, hits continued with “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and “Love Bites”. Def Leppard was huge in the U.S., but not nearly as admired in their native UK. More about Def Leppard on Wikipedia.

Def Leppard. Talk about curly hair.

Van Halen (Pasadena, California)

Arguably the most successful rock/metal bands of all time, and the best lead guitarist of all time, Eddie Van Halen. Hits include “Runnin’ with the Devil”, “Aint Talkin bout love”, “Unchained”, “Panama”, “Hot for Teacher“, “Jump”, and many more. Unfortunately, the band started to suck bad when David Lee Roth left and the Sammy Hagar joined (thus becoming “Van Hagar”, ha ha).  More about Van Halen on Wikipedia.

Van Halen. Yikes, this must be an early photo.

Ratt (San Diego, California)

Lesser-known, but solid ’80s rock. Most popular tunes include “Back for More” and “Round and Round” (great video, and with Milton Berle!). More about Ratt on Wikipedia.

Ratt. You may fill in this caption, ha ha.

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• Top 10 Hair Band 80′s Rock Albums Of All Time!
• Top 8 Worst Band Names of the ’80s

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