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  The Business Value of Web Standards

  09.20.03 | Permalink | Comments Off on The Business Value of Web Standards

  Jeff Veen is a smart guy. His new essay makes some exellent arguments why web standard matter.

  • Speed of Development
  • Simplified Maintenance
  • Accesibility
  • Reduced Bandwith Costs
  • Increased User Expience

  To get the full scoop, read Jeffrey Zeldmans Designing With Web Standards. And after you’re done, pass it on to your graphic designers, engineers, web managers and user experience professionals.

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  Missing the pop-unders

  09.19.03 | Permalink | Comments Off on Missing the pop-unders

  I absolutely can’t stand most online advertising but I can relate to this article. I installed the Google toolbar which blocks all pop-ups and pop-unders. It works very nice and I love the other features as well. But without pop-unders, I feel that I’m missing out on the Orbitz ads. But now I have a link to oversized versions so I can still play when I choose to.

  Creative Director Mark Rattin of Otherwise Inc. makes some intelligent comments:

  I think the problem with the medium is not that there’s an oversaturation, but there’s a lot of real crap out there. If the advertising was a little bit more thoughtful, it wouldn’t be so annoying to encounter.

  So I did some Googling to find out more about Markieboy. Found some interesting metrics about the Orbitz ads and a weblog from Matthew Mercer, a designer who worked on the Orbitz ads. But I also found out that they’re responsible for the invention of the over-the-top intrusive “kick through” ads (where a rollover is enough to open up the website). And Mark defends the strategy as well. To bad, thumbs down for Mark after all.

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  Trouble for MS and Web authors

  09.15.03 | Permalink | Comments Off on Trouble for MS and Web authors

  Microsoft lost an appeal recently related to a patent-case that has a potential to impact on Web authors all over the world. It demonstrates how stupid the current patent system is.

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  A little colour

  09.05.03 | Permalink | Comments Off on A little colour

  So I started my “design live” project last night. I’ve modified some of the default template and started working on the stylesheet. I’ve removed the time a new entry was posted. I’ve kept the link to the archive for bookmarking (the four dots next to the headline). I also changed the default colours and fonts. I chose Verdana for my default font because it’s the most legible font for screen reading and it’s supported by most operating systems. I changed the default body color to a dark gray (#666) to create a more friendly appearance. The blue headlines are probably temporary. Hopefully I’ll have some time to do some major decorating soon.

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  A new beginning

  08.25.03 | Permalink | Comments Off on A new beginning

  Here I am again, with a fresh new beginning. WilliamsWeekly started almost 4 years ago with a newsletter for friends and family far away. Today I’m starting again with a fresh perspective. I have a habit of sharing pieces of information I find on the Internet with friends and co-workers by spamming them via email. What I really should be doing is post in on my site and open it up to anybody interested.

  I work as Webmaster for Tourism British Columbia. Webmaster here means currently “Strategist, Project Manager, Information Architect, Usability Engineer and Web Evangelist”. I used to be Engineer as well but since I moved from IT to Marketing, it’s scratched that off my job description. So I also need this website again to satisfy the need to code.

  I’ve decided to design this website en public. It will be standard compliant using XML, CSS and XHTML 1.0. I use MovableType as my CMS because it supports these standards, it’s created for personal publishing and creates a XML file for syndication.

  This post is the standard MovableType template, slightly modified (I took the calendar and “links” section off). There’s no Stylesheet yet. It might not be pretty, but it’s legible and accessible. That means that any user accessing this website with a device that follows web standards will be able the read it’s content. Time permitted, you’ll see changes to the visual design soon

  As I’m fully emerged in the Tourism Industry and managing websites, my postings will be focused around these topics. But I leave the option open for other observations, rants and comments. For questions or discussion, click the comments link below each entry.

  Oh, and…. The content of this site are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer’s view in any way.

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  01.21.01 | Permalink | Comment?

  Het sportnieuws hier is de terugkeer van Mario Lemieux.
  Mario was het grootste talent sinds Wayne Gretzky. Sommige dachten zelfs dat nummer 66 (Mario) wel eens alle records van nummer 99 (Wayne) zou kunnen verbeteren.
  Lemieux begon in 1984 en scoorde niet alleen in z’n allereerste wedstrijd maar deed dat in het eerste schot dat hij op doel gaf. Daarmee was meteen een legende geboren. Hij begon z’n carriere bij de Pitsburg Penguins en bleef daar z’n hele carriere. Hij had best alle records van Gretzky kunnen verbeteren maar blessures stonden hem steeds in de weg. Hij won wel de “Stanley Cup” met de Penguins.
  Drie jaar geleden was het gedaan met z’n carriere. Een rugblessure gaf zoveel pijn dat doorspelen onmogelijk was. Met de Penguins ging het financieel ook niet zo best en ze hadden meer dan 60 miljoen gulden aan hun ster Lemieux. Wat deed Lemieux dus? Het kocht het team. En als eigenaar doet hij het niet slecht.
  Wat gebeurde er een maand geleden? Mario Lemieux kondig een terugkeer aan. Hij ging weer trainen en een maand geleden maakte hij z’n debuut. 35 jaar oud en 3 jaar niet getraind. Het was live op alle zenders. Hoe deed Mario het? Een goal en een assist in z’n eerste wedstrijd. In z’n eerste “shift” (invalbeurt) gaf hij een assist en iedereen werd gek.
  De Penguins, die meer wedstrijden verliezen als winnen hebben nu 7 van hun 10 wedstrijden gewonnen sinds z’n terugkeer en Lemieux scoorde tot nu toe 9 keer en heeft 12 assists. In Hockey tellen ze doelpunten en assists bij elkaar op voor de topscoorderslijst. Hij heeft dus 21 punten in 10 wedstrijden (2.1 per wedstrijd). Ter vergelijking, de topscoorder in de league is Joe Sakic van de Colorado Avalanche met 70 punten in 49 wedstrijden (1.4 gemiddeld). Mario is dus nog steeds een topper. In zit nu al te wachten wanneer de film uitkomt.

William Bakker's Destination Marketing blog