Web Standards, Accessibility & More

So it’s the dog days of summer, and that means vacation time for a lot of people. I was fortunate enough to be able to take almost two weeks off work and had some good times.

King Tut, Hearst Castle, and Sea Lions

First, I took the family to the special King Tut exhibit at the De Young art museum in San Francisco. That was neat, but the kids and I were very disappointed because there were no mummies!

Next, we drove down the central coast of California. We stopped in Monterey for a bit, then took a bunch of pictures thru Big Sur; it was the first time we had driven the whole way. We spent the night near Cambria and went to Hearst Castle the next day. It was a 5-mile bus ride to the castle on top of the mountain, which was neat in itself. I thought the best part of the castle was the outdoor pool. We then drove further south to Morro Bay. Cool little town with seafood restaurants, boat tours, sea lions, big beach, and one ginormous rock.

Carson and me on beach in Morro Bay

Art, Rock Stars, BBQ, Tigers, and Golf

Then I went on a trip to Michigan (just me) to celebrate my brother’s birthday. Connected in Dallas and met a few interesting people on my flights (including a army guy who just ended a 1-year tour in Afghanistan!)  I went to the Ann Arbor art fairs with my parents on the first day, then met my Web Axe co-host Ross and a few other guys at the Arbor Brewing Company. I golfed 9 holes with my brother and dad. Then took a cruise in my dad’s ‘68 Mustang convertible and ate at a neat ’50s style drive-in called Tom’s Root Beer Stand. Then I went to Henry Ford Museum, where there was an awesome special exhibit “Rock Stars Cars and Guitars”. We then went to dinner at an awesome new barbecue restaurant/bar in Detroit called Slows. The last night there, we went to the Detroit Tigers Major League baseball game, and there were at least 8 home runs, and a Tigers grand slam in the first inning!

Front of Comerica Park

Garlic Festival is Last Stop

I worked this past Friday, then today I took the family to the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California. We ate very garlicy pizza, bread, and stuffed mushrooms–all very good! It was very crowded and very hot, but a lot of fun.

Phew, OK, I think I covered most of the last couple weeks. Now back to work.

The U of M Dentists web site went back up last month after an extended period of downtime. The site is an  “Online Network of University of Michigan Dental School Graduates and their Practices”. Here’s the strange story…

Last December, I noticed a few web sites of mine were completely down. The reason was tragic. A former co-worker of mine in Florida was hosting the sites, and he died suddenly. His computer business was sold, and the plug was pulled on the web servers (literally).

It took me a week to figure out what happened, then a several weeks more to track down the new company and get some domains transferred into my name. What a mess that was. When I finally had time (after reviving other higher-priority sites), I converted the old ASP code (yes, Classic ASP!) into nice, simple PHP. And the Access data to MySQL. It was a tedious but worthy effort.

I’m glad I decided to re-launch the site instead of ditching my pet project. And since its return, a few dentists have requested to be added to the network.

Here are some comments on several (American) sports and sports teams.

BCS versus Playoff

It’s become pretty clear that to determine a true NCAA football champion, there must be a playoff and not rely of the top two ranked teams from a computer ranking. I would suggest a 4-game playoff, but a an 8-game playoff would be needed to satisfy everyone completely. Every year, there’s controversy over the “true” national champ, and I’m tired of it! Currently, the top five teams in the college football rankings all have one loss (Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and USC), so who’s to say which two should play for all the marbles? Let them decide that on the field with a playoff.

Lowly Detroit Lions

So the Detroit Lions NFL football team is 0-12. They are becoming very close to being the first 0-16 team in history. Only one team has gone 0-14, and they had an excuse–it was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their very first year of existence (1976). The 1980 Saints started 0-14, and last year’s Dolphins lost their first 13 games. The Lions themselves started the 2001 season 0-12 before finally beating the Vikings (who they play tomorrow!).

U of M football and basketball

So I won’t talk about my alma mater’s horrendous football season, but at least the Michigan Wolverine basketball team is finally doing well. They upset two teams already early this season–fourth ranked Duke and the week before, fourth ranked UCLA.

Bay Area Sports

So I’ve been living in the Bay area for 1 1/2 years now, and am still easing into the area’s professional sports teams. I did go to a San Francisco Giants baseball game this past summer, and am looking forward to a Golden State Warriors basketball game. I do have tickets to a San Jose Sharks hockey game in January (they’re playing the Detroit Red Wings).

Playoff basketball and hockey is here again. And I’m liking it.

I like many NBA teams, but the team from my hometown is my favorite–the Detroit Pistons. They’re up 2-0 on the Orlando Magic, and playing game 3 this evening. Also, today, Pistons guard Chauncey Billups won the Kennedy Award (for sportsmanship).

I’m not as much a hockey fan, but I usually get playoff Red Wings fever. They’re starting the next playoff series against Dallas tomorrow after destroying Colorado last week. The Red Wings will be well rested, hopefully not too rusty.

Go Pistons and Red Wings!

Chauncey Billups of the Detroit Pistons

I’m a tennis fan, and I’ve sure been enjoying the Australian Open this year. Incredible matches; the level of play has been remarkable. Unfortunately, not many Americans made it to far into the tournament.

Yesterday, Novak Djokovic crushed world number one Roger Federer in the semi-finals. Glad for this as Federer just wins too much! And my favorite two players on the women’s side are in the finals, Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic.

Ana Ivanovic

My family shops at Target, you know, the huge American retail store. I really like that store (especially when there’s a Taco Bell or Starbucks inside). But I think their corporate image, at least for me, is in a serious decline. This is mostly due to a couple of lawsuits going on against the company.

In the world wide web industry, we should all be familiar with the NFB vs. Target lawsuit—the biggest case regarding web accessibility in the United States, thus far. Target is actually fighting to keep its web site away from users with disabilities, and technology limitations. This is like a store closing its doors to anyone with a visual, hearing, or motor impairment. How naive and shameful!

In the second lawsuit, the American tennis great (retired) Andre Agassi is seeking an injunction against Target for using his name without permission. Apparently Target is putting Agassi’s name on sandals without permission when they’ve already been asked to stop. How silly.

Yesterday was a fun day. It was Cinco de Mayo, and my wife and I got away from the kids and had a great Tex-Mex meal at Don Pablo’s. Of course, had to wash it down with a Corona and a Margarita on the rocks. But more importantly, the Detroit sports teams all won! All games were at home.
The Detroit Pistons won big over the Chicago Bulls in the first game of the second round of the NBA playoffs. Take that, Ben Wallace!

The Detroit Red Wings won pretty convincingly over the tough San Jose sharks in the NHL playoffs. Not a huge hockey fan, but will always watch the Wings when I can.

The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals. Gotta get to the very nice Comerica Park before I leave for California. Damn Comerica. They put their name on the nice baseball stadium downtown, and now I hear they’re leave the city…