Not sure why I like this funny Schfifty Five YouTube video so much, but I just do. I think it’s by Group X. I find it quite hilarious and enjoy reciting it now and then. My wife hates it and wishes I liked the goofy SNL skits she cracks up on. Anyway, I found this on my cousin’s Facebook wall. Enjoy!
Highlights on my Halloween this year:
Here’s a list of 6 excellent HTML5 books. I have HTML5 for Web Designers which is a great, succinct book. Jeremy Keith rocks. I have the electronic version of Introducing HTML5 which is also excellent; it’s longer and has more about the new APIs. More from those authors over at HTML5 Doctor.
Bonus! Video tutorial: HTML5 Now: A Step-by-Step Video Tutorial for Getting Started Today (Voices That Matter) by Tantek Çelik
As you probably know, I’m an avid Twitter user. I’m also the author of a web-based Twitter client, Accessible Twitter (AT). I also use HootSuite sometimes (also a web app) as well as a couple Twitter clients on my BlackBerry. In some respect, it’s really not fair to compare my humble Accessible Twitter app to HootSuite, as HootSuite is obviously much, much better off in staffing and funding. It has some great features like multi-column layout, scheduled tweets, and multiple accounts. Accessible Twitter is obviously better in that it’s web accessible, which brings another set of advantages which is outside the scope of this article. But there are also many additional reasons (usability, features)Â why Accessible Twitter is better than HootSuite, as follows.
AT provides a tooltip (title attribute) over the author’s name on every tweet which provides the full user name if available, number of followers and number of friends. In HootSuite, to get this info, you must open the user modal window and wait for an overly abundant amount of information to load.
Accessible Twitter provides icon-sized image previews in tweets with link to TwitPic and YFrog images. And support for more providers is planned. No support in HootSuite.
Unless you create a column for a particular user, HootSuite limits viewing of a user’s tweets to 10. Accessible Twitter provides pagination on a user timeline page, so you can view many more.
Viewing Twitter trends in AT is easy, click Trends in the main menu. AT provides weekly, daily, and current trends list. In HootSuite only the current trends are provided, and it’s opening it is very “un-usable”; it’s a dropdown when entering the search field!
In AT, simply click the (Popular) Links item in the main menu to view the most popular links in the Twittersphere. No support in HootSuite.
AT provides a text input on every page where you may enter a username and jump to that user’s profile or timeline page. No similar feature in HootSuite.
AT provides a “TL” icon in each tweet so that the user may jump to the author’s timeline with one click. In HootSuite, You must open the user details dialog, then navigate to the Timeline tab.
AT provides a link to delete your tweet on all pages in which your tweet may appear. In HootSuite, the delete option is only available in your Sent timeline.
The user details page contains links to followers and those following; HootSuite’s user details page doesn’t.
In HootSuite, the icons for users many times are broken; the images do not load correctly. This issue occurs on different browsers and has been for many months now.
When a modal window is opened in HootSuite from the right column, it throws off the horizontal display. (It can be fixed by clicking an obscure button on the bottom left.)
AT never messes with your page content without you approving. In HootSuite, how irritating: when I scroll down to read tweets, and there’s an auto-update, I lose my place. And then it’s difficult to relocate the tweet I was reading when interrupted.
The topic has resurfaced on blogs and Twitter recently: is code validation necessary? Well, yes and no.
Complete HTML (and CSS) validation is a great goal, but 100% validation is not crucial nor necessary. Browsers will usually correct and render markup that’s poor quality. This good because it give the user the best experience. But it’s bad in the long run because it encourages developers to not pay attention to code validation and web standards.
Web experts seem to agree that code validation is important and necessary to a certain extent, but for somewhat different reasons. In Nicholas Zakas’ article listed below, he states that correct syntax and nesting are most important aspects of valid code. Chris Heilmann points out that part of the issue is human error; people misinterpret the results. And Bruce Lawson summed it up 6 years ago by stating that validation is “a means” of proper web development rather than “an end”. These are all valid points.
Today, it seems the majority of web developers and designers still aren’t paying enough attention to valid code (as well as clean, progressively enhanced, semantic markup). And until they do (and realize this is the best practice), the community as a whole will continue to debate over this issue. My warning is this:
If developers continue to stray away from valid code, and browsers continue to support invalid code, we’ll eventually end up in the fragmented mess that existed before web standards and code validation became mainstream a few years ago.
Do you agree?
Here are the related articles:
The value of HTML validation by Nicholas C. Zakas (August 17, 2010)
I do believe that parts of the HTML validation service are incredibly useful, but I won’t be held hostage because I’m using custom attributes. [i.e. ARIA]
validate() || dont() by Chris Heilmann (August 17, 2010)
Most of the issues of validation are not about validating or the tools – it is about people misinterpreting the results. As there is such a gap between the standards and what browsers can do some errors being flagged up should be exceptions and not flagged up as show-stoppers.
CSS/ xhtml: does validation matter? by Bruce Lawson (November 21, 2004)
But no client has ever demanded that the pages validate – itself a sign that validation is a means rather than an end.
Last week (July 29 2010), I presented the session “Twitter and Web Accessibility” at the Assistive Technology Conference hosted by the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads at the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana.
It was my first time in Indy, strange since I grew up only a 5-hour drive away in the Detroit suburbs. Except the humid weather and lousy flight delays on the way home, it was a great experience! It was great meeting the organizer of the event, Sara Croft, and running into the keynote speaker, John Bramblitt, at the airport. In addition to the excellent keynote speech by John, a highlight of the conference was an accessible gaming arcade provided by the AbleGamers Foundation. My presentation went well, and had a great conversation with a few visually-impaired users afterwards. Oh, and I took some photos of downtown Indianapolis.
Here’s my presentation below, a SlideShare link and embedded SlideShare Flash version. Or, go to the (text-only) HTML version.
Congrats to Rafael Nadal (Spain) & Serena Williams (U.S.) for winning the Wimbledon singles titles. Too bad Andy Roddick (U.S.) lost prematurely in the fourth round. But he continues to be ranked in the world’s top 10, so can’t  complain. I’m glad Roger Federer didn’t win, or even make it to the finals, he’s won enough already!
Great to see the United States make it to the second round of the World Cup. The world-famous soccer tournament was more meaningful for me this year, not because of my country’s improved performance, but mostly because of so many international friends on Twitter! I watched a couple matches at home, and I also watched a game at lunch with some co-workers which was pretty fun. On a related note, here’s an article on use of the World Cup in the social media.
I was really hoping the Boston Celtics would beat the L.A. Lakers for the NBA championship. It was a good series, and the title came down to the end of game 7. I’m not a fan of Los Angeles, and the celebration riots sure didn’t change my opinion. Embarrassing for my state, as well as the country.
So the Chicago Blackhawks won the NHL title this year. The playoff series most interesting to me of course was the San Jose Sharks (where I live) versus the Detroit Red Wings (where I’m from). I was sticking to my hometown roots and rooted for Detroit, but they lost 4 games to 1 even though Detroit scores more goals over the series.
Not too much into baseball lately, but last I checked, my hometown Detroit Tigers are doing fairly well. I have seen one San Francisco Giants and one Oakland Athletics baseball game since I moved to the Bay area three years ago. I like the Detroit stadium best.
I play golf once every year or so with my brother, but I don’t follow the professionals. I find it quite boring on TV.
