What’s up with me?
I recently published a great new podcast on Web Axe, HTML5 and John Foliot (a transcript is also provided). I interview John Foliot, a professional peer whom I also consider a friend. John shares he extensive knowledge in HTML5, the W3C, and web accessibility. He works at Stanford University and is an active member of the W3C.
Lists functionality is completed on AccessibleTwitter.com, finally. It’s been in progress for like half a year! Just need to add some Ajax to enhance the experience now. But for the next month, I’ll be busy working on converting the Basic Authentication to Open Auth. Fun. By the way, Accessible Twitter experienced some site outages a few weeks ago, but it seems to be resolved. Remember that unsetting your PHP variables is always a good idea! Ugh.
So I’ve become a pretty regular FourSquare user. I’m proud to be the “mayor” of the Starbucks close to my day job, in Redwood Shores, California. No biggie, although I do get $1 off a frappaccino at any time. Although I’m not big on frappaccinos; too bad it’s not a discount on espressos con panna!
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.
So I’ve been in the Bay area (south of San Francisco, California, a.k.a. Silicon Valley) for almost two weeks now. It’s pretty awesome, and I’m discovering some interesting things about the difference between living here and in the midwest–some bad, some good.
- Motorcycles can legally ride between lanes/cars in California. Personally, I think this is pretty stupid.
- To rent a house in this area, move fast! Use Craig’s List. And be ready to get a cashier’s check. And it’s very expensive of course.
- Garbage/recycling pickup is treated as an extra utility, you pay monthly to the city. This is pretty silly; it should just be included with property taxes like other places.
- Wireless internet at Starbucks in Mountain View is free–because wireless internet is free in the whole city! Thanks to Google.
- The cost of living is obviously higher here than most American cities, but gasoline prices are relatively not too bad.
- The weather’s real nice as expected. Temperatures are not too hot in the day; pretty cool at night. But the sun is much stronger than I thought. I’ll have to get my car windows tinted, man.
- There’s no White Castle!
- Cruising along the coast is as fun and beautiful as I’d hoped. Santa Cruz is especially cool.
Went to Chicago over the weekend. The trip was half business, half pleasure. It was good to visit the windy city again; it’s been about a decade since I’ve last been there. You can view pictures of my Chicago trip on Flickr. Here’s a summary of the trip:
- Went to a cool jazz/blues club called Andy’s Jazz Club.
- Ate at a trendy Thai/French restaurant called VTK (Vong’s Thai Kitchen). Also drank a Tiger and a Sapporo!
- Saw some of the financial district which was pretty neat.
- Paid a whopping flat parking fee of $22 at the Navy Pier, ugh!
- There are Starbucks everywhere which is great, but can get expensive!
- Went to the Apple store on Michigan Ave.
- Watched the Michigan-Ohio State football game at the ESPN Zone sports bar.
- Traffic wasn’t bad except a major detour for some construction on I-94 on the way there.
- The Sears Tower is 1,450 feet (443 meters) high–1,730 feet (520 meters) including twin antenna towers.
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