Zepfanman.com (Stylesheets Off Version)

INXS is back

I wasn't very impressed with any of the singers on Rock Star: INXS when I saw one show earlier this season. After seeing the finale last Tuesday, though, it looks like they at least picked the best out of the bunch. J.D. Fortune sounds a lot like Michael Hutchence, the original frontman. I really liked INXS back in its heyday, but the new band is like Led Zeppelin without Bonzo! Hopefully Fortune, a Canadian, will be able to handle the fame and put on a good show during this Australian band's world tour starting in January.

Wiki of web dev professionals needed

I'm starting to see more and more discussion about expanding the web standards community. It's got me thinking about creating a wiki/database website where both clients and developers can come to see other people interested in web standards. The site would be based around user/company profile pages with objective information about their services and contributions. I think that including as many attributes as possible would cut down on the amount of entries like ( Custom Websites ……… COOL LOW PRICES!! ). Name, website, locale, sex (we need more women!), MIME type(s) on their page(s), frequency of posts (if it's a blog), a short summary, user ratings, and clientele are just a few categorization ideas. A community/discussion section seems to be an essential aspect of any good site these days, too.

Web content media switching

It's sometimes hard for designers who come to the Web from other media to understand that that not only is their work not viewed “pixel perfect” by everyone, but that people access Web content through different media. Sometimes that media is our good friend the computer monitor; sometimes it is an Internet kiosk at the airport; sometimes a handheld computer, a projected image, or even a mobile phone. Some people find it more difficult to read from a screen and like to print out pages.

In the past, preparing for all these different media types would have been cost-prohibitive, if not impossible, as it required making different versions for different viewing devices. But, with the advent of technologies that support common standards, we can create content that can be written once only, and then styled for different media output, all through the magic of CSS.

» Quoted from: Andy Clarke in Stuff and Nonsense: Strategies for CSS Switching, Chapter 8 of Professional CSS released July 2005.

Feeling the world

I've been touched by a few links of stories and photos abroad. Like the message from Hotel Rwanda, it's sad that the people who can help the most are the ones that ignore inhumanity.

Star Wars III has arrived

Tonight is the night. Just in case you forgot about Revenge of the Sith opening at midnight, be forewarned that there are going to be a lot of people lining up at the theaters. Egotastic! has had some great updates about Episode III this month, including lots of photos of Natalie Portman's shaved head! See also Washington Post's Sith Sense blog. FYI, this Last Supper photo is on par with the Vanity Fair cover in January which highlighted all of the major cast members from all six episodes.

Microsoft development gone overboard

I was perusing some of the Google News tech articles when I ran across mention of Microsoft developing a new antivirus software, called OneCare. Then I noticed an article about Eiger (Windows XP Starter), XBox 360, MSN Search Toolbar, Office 2006, Security Advisories (à la Secunia), Mobile 5, Sun collaboration… and several other MS news items from the past few days. Seems that MS has been busy with a lot of new developments! I've since discovered InsideMicrosoft and WinInsider: two great MS news sources for this kind of thing.

BusinessWeek starts blogging

It's exciting to see big businesses take blogging seriously - maybe web standards will hit the front pages of magazines in 2006. Blogs Will Change Your Business will be on the cover of the May 2nd issue of BusinessWeek Magazine. It seems to be a kickoff for their new Blogspotting weblog, authored by Stephen Baker and Heather Green. One of the comments on their first post seems to sum up the cover article the best: The beauty of the blog is that you have interested parties doing investigative research constantly--often turning up info before companies would have it be public knowledge.

Anyone know of any other major magazines with blog in the cover article?

[Via Furrygoat.]

Next goal: friendly URLs

• '05Aug5 update: W3C tip link added.
• '05Jun14 update: Cruft-Free link added.
• '05May16 update: Zvon tool added.

I wish I had the know-how to redesign Zepfanman.com in one big shot, but I've still got a lot to learn before attempting that. The Z: Blog has been around for a little over a year, and I've definitely learned a lot about building accessible websites in that time. It's kind of funny that MT and Gallery, the tools that make blogging and posting pictures easier, are actually what make standardizing my site the hardest (especially Gallery). With all that said, my highest priority now is trying to make my internal links easy to remember and more permanent. Basically, this entails using Apache's mod_rewrite to remove file extensions (php, html, etc.) and create more descriptive URLs. I'll probably be updating this post with other random links related to advanced web design practices.

MT SpamLookup beta

Go figure, a month after I finally get on the ball with my MTB upgrade, I discover that Six Apart's Brad Choate has released SpamLookup. This is apparently the Swiss Army (à la Jay Allen) of MovableType spam tools. Apparently, using this with MT-Moderate (and MT-Blacklist if you want) is the latest and greatest technique for combatting blog spam. Free tools rule.

Baby Got Book video

Pretty creative rap video, but clearly a questionable cover mainly because of the original. Check out Southpaw (aka Dan Smith from Cleveland's Momentum Christian Church). Lyrics are posted on the video page, e.g. I keep those chicks that do devos.. [Link via OPOS.]

Ebla Forum projects

I'd first like to mention the new Biblical Studies Carnival (closing Apr3) in which you might consider participating. This is part of The Ebla Forum community, fast becoming a great resource for those interested in religious and cultural studies. There are several projects going on within this young internet group (started in December 2003 by Joel Ng and Peter Kirby). I discovered the website this December when I was looking for help with a possible Scripture Database. I've dipped my toes in a few of the Ebla projects, but I thought it would make more sense to highlight some of the major areas that make this scholarly set of resources so great!

Star Wars III trailer (March)

Hopefully we won't overrun Rian's bandwidth with this 50 MB avi file, but he's willing. Kottke has wisely linked to some torrent files, although I'm not sure how big those ones are.

Anyway, about the trailer for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. First of all, let me say that I'm ashamed it aired during The O.C. last night; I guess it's a popular show.