Download the demo file: fakeepub.epub

As a note, this does not include the picture book format recently produced by Apple. This seems to be a pdf wrapped in another delivery format, I’ll update this post as I find more information.

In brief, ePubs are used by just about every digital reader, and many quality desktop software (personal preference is for Stanza which runs on all desktops and iPhones, although their recent acquisition to Amazon might bury any future growth). It is a file type for Electronic PUBlications open in nature and convenient for development http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB. ePub’s weaknesses are quirks with different readers (iBook, for example, ignores embedded fonts), lack of the ability for precise layout (I consider this a strength, since a liquid layout is best for the reader, but generally sucks for graphic intensive designs), and a few others I don’t know about for sure. The DRM Apple and a few other folks use are outside the ePub standard, and something of their own agenda.

For the most part, the foundations of ePub are XML and it’s variant, XHTML – making it relatively easy for those of us who can code websites. What’s interesting is that a few core files are a necessity, and the method to compress a folder into an epub is rather fickle (and was the most confusing issue in it’s development). I’ll note these as I discuss it briefly below.

Make sure you validate all your code and avoid tables unless tabular. I find eReaders to not be as forgiving as browsers, time to improve your craft.

Online resources for your arsenal

• great online validator of your final epub http://www.threepress.org/document/epub-validate/
• if you run your own server, you can host your own validator http://code.google.com/p/epubcheck/
• an old school tutorial, but thorough http://www.hxa.name/articles/content/epub-guide_hxa7241_2007.html
• an updated brief based off that tutorial http://sites.google.com/site/spontaneousderivation/an-epub-tutorial
• The guy who wrote that tutorial @ArachneJericho
• A ruby script to compress your files http://code.google.com/p/ruby-epub/source/browse/trunk/lib/epub/project.rb#106
• an actionscript if you’d prefer a command line alternative http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55681

File Structure

Build your book in a folder, later it will be converted as the special ‘epub’ file (which is essentially a customized zip package). Here’s a screenshot of a complete ePub I’ve made, uncompressed, details below:

Content Folder

The Content Folder contains the various XHTML files I’ve made of each section of the book, my images inside an image folder, and my stylesheet. Although it’s important to put all these files in some folder, you do not need to name it content. Based off a few tutorials, I’ve chosen to do this for my own simplicity, you may see more complicated names or structures in other ePubs.

When writing an ePub, you could make one huge xhtml file with the whole book, but you’d limit your potential for the ePub reader to automatically number, link and find chapters– and you may overcomplicate your development. In the sample file, you’ll see I’ve made individual html files (that validate ala validator.w3.org of course) per chapter, as well as for sections such as the title page, intro page, copyright page, and anything else I deemed appropriate. You will organize this information in a separate file later on, simply know in this area is where you put the meat and potatoes, semantically rich as possible.

Organizing your images in a single image folder apparently will help keep things simple for some eReaders, and you may, of course, add a stylesheet as you would any other webpage. Adding fonts can be done by including the fonts file and using the standard CSS @font-face, although this is not fully supported by iBooks (and at the moment vaguely in mobile safari, although SVG is more stable, it’s there). I recommend using Font Squirrel if you want to test this road.

Regarding CSS in general, avoid a fixed layout with defined widths for the whole page, or you limit your users control, and reading is something personal, they will hate your draconian design obsession. If you’re trying to define a section with a smaller width, consider following liquid and flexible layout rules: use margins or paddings on the sides with percentages, or ems. Regardless, if you do use points or pixels, my poorly, unscientific testing shows eReaders will simply try to override it anyhow.

Here is a screenshot of a portion of the content folder (some tutorials referenced xhtml as the extension, but I see html working just fine, so not necessary from what I can tell at this juncture):

Pro Tip: if you don’t want to fret with validator.w3.org, don’t worry, you’re coding XML – open up any of those files in a Webkit or Gecko browser, and if you made a mistake, you should see the error listed front and center. As usual, Internet Explorer is an idiot, avoid.

META-INF Folder

A required folder, this guy should be in the root as shown. The file container.xml inside is also required. This file has only the following lines of code, and nothing more (I have yet to find clear information if there’s anything else that can be added later, will update if I do):

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<container version="1.0" xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:container">
   <rootfiles>
      <rootfile full-path="metadata.opf" media-type="application/oebps-package+xml"/>
   </rootfiles>
</container>

metadata.opf file

A required file with specialized ePub XML data (think similar to an atom or rss file), metadata.opf documents all the preferences and details needed for your eReader to render your books interior pages. Like all files XML, if created with errors, your ebook will fail to load: for exmaple, iTunes will accept the file, send it to your iPad… but it won’t show in iBook. No warning. Helpful.

Oddly, every demo I found excluded the xml doctype at the top of this document (although that is invalid), and I have not thoroughly tested if this is a point of error. For now, I’m excluding it to match existing ePubs.

The overall containing tag is package with various metadata:

<package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" version="2.0" unique-identifier="bookid">
</package>

Inside and at the top, you have metadata that calls out the title (required), the author (can also add illustrator and a slew of other options if you google), language, unique identifier (required, and really needs to be unique- consider adding your website and various characters if you need to make something up), and the legal rights:

<package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" version="2.0" unique-identifier="bookid">
	<metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:opf="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
		<dc:title>This is a fake ePub</dc:title>
		<dc:creator opf:file-as="Frey, Brady J." opf:role="aut">Brady J. Frey</dc:creator>
		<dc:language>en-US</dc:language>
		<dc:identifier id="bookid">ISBN: 11-11-11-11</dc:identifier>
		<dc:rights>Public Domain</dc:rights>
	</metadata>
</package>

After metadata, you have manifest which must list out every single xhtml, image, font, stylesheet you’re using in the book. Pay attention to the media-type, they should be relevant to the file, order is irrelevant. You’ll also notice there is a special ncx file type listed here too, that’s the table of contents, we’ll get to that in a moment. Unique ID’s are required for each entry, I’ve shortened the example here compared to the demo file:

<package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" version="2.0" unique-identifier="bookid">
	<metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:opf="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
		<dc:title>This is a fake ePub</dc:title>
		<dc:creator opf:file-as="Frey, Brady J." opf:role="aut">Brady J. Frey</dc:creator>
		<dc:language>en-US</dc:language>
		<dc:identifier id="bookid">ISBN: 11-11-11-11</dc:identifier>
		<dc:rights>Public Domain</dc:rights>
	</metadata>
	<manifest>
		<item id="ncx" href="toc.ncx" media-type="application/x-dtbncx+xml"/>
		<item id="style" href="content/stylesheet.css" media-type="text/css"/>
		<item id="intropage" href="content/intropage.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" />
		<item id="title_page" href="content/title_page.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" />
		<item id="image_1" href="content/images/1.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg" />
		<item id="image_2" href="content/images/2.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg" />
	</manifest>
</package>

Finally, we have the spine which defines the reading order of the files by ID and is a reference for that table of contents we’ll talk about later. Now, order matters, and you only list your xhtml documents here, after that, file done:

<package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" version="2.0" unique-identifier="bookid">
	<metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:opf="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
		<dc:title>This is a fake ePub</dc:title>
		<dc:creator opf:file-as="Frey, Brady J." opf:role="aut">Brady J. Frey</dc:creator>
		<dc:language>en-US</dc:language>
		<dc:identifier id="bookid">ISBN: 11-11-11-11</dc:identifier>
		<dc:rights>Public Domain</dc:rights>
	</metadata>
	<manifest>
		<item id="ncx" href="toc.ncx" media-type="application/x-dtbncx+xml"/>
		<item id="style" href="content/stylesheet.css" media-type="text/css"/>
		<item id="intropage" href="content/intropage.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" />
		<item id="title_page" href="content/title_page.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" />
		<item id="image_1" href="content/images/1.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg" />
		<item id="image_2" href="content/images/2.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg" />
	</manifest>
	<spine toc="ncx">
		<itemref idref="intropage" />
		<itemref idref="title_page" />
	</spine>
</package>

mimitype file

Required in the root with one simple line entry and no file extension:

application/epub+zip

toc.ncx file

Your required table of contents. This file has a specialized doctype, a uid number (required, and if it doesn’t match your metadata file identifier tag, it will fail in the reader), a depth listing (you can do sub chapters in chapters, for example), and a total/max page count (set to zero means as much as you want).

Similar to an xhtml document, the ncx is the containing tag like html, with a head tag. Oddly, compared to xhtml, the title of the book is outside the head. Various meta tags are available to allow extra features to your table of contents – Google each name for further details:

<ncx xmlns="http://www.daisy.org/z3986/2005/ncx/" version="2005-1">
<head>
	<meta name="dtb:uid" content="ISBN: 11-11-11-11"/>
	<meta name="dtb:depth" content="1"/>
	<meta name="dtb:totalPageCount" content="0"/>
	<meta name="dtb:maxPageNumber" content="0"/>
</head>
<docTitle>
		<text>This is a fake ePub</text>
</docTitle>
</ncx>

Beneath the docTitle you have the navMap which lists out each chapter by navPoint. navPoint’s require a unique ID and a numerical order for them to reference. Inside each navPoint is a navLabel with text you want to show up in your table of contents, and a content self closing tag that links to the subsequent chapter file. Various online references question if the content tag is needed if the ID matches the spine you created in the metadata.opf, but doesn’t hurt to have it:

<ncx xmlns="http://www.daisy.org/z3986/2005/ncx/" version="2005-1">
<head>
	<meta name="dtb:uid" content="ISBN: 11-11-11-11"/>
	<meta name="dtb:depth" content="1"/>
	<meta name="dtb:totalPageCount" content="0"/>
	<meta name="dtb:maxPageNumber" content="0"/>
</head>
<docTitle>
		<text>This is a fake ePub</text>
</docTitle>
<navMap>
	<navPoint id="intropage" playOrder="1">
		<navLabel>
			<text>Introduction</text>
		</navLabel>
		<content src="content/intropage.xhtml"/>
	</navPoint>
	<navPoint id="title_page" playOrder="2">
		<navLabel>
			<text>Title Page</text>
		</navLabel>
		<content src="content/title_page.xhtml"/>
	</navPoint>
</navMap>
</ncx>

And that’s it – if all your XML validates, you’ve completed your code… now it’s time to create an ePub.

Turning your folder into an ePub

The hard part is done, now you have to create your ePub self contained file but it can be tricky. An ePub is a zip file for the most part, but it requires a the metadata file to be without certain, well, metadata, and for portions inside the zip to be compressed before you do the whole zip! After a bit of head scratching, I found:

• http://code.google.com/p/ruby-epub/source/browse/trunk/lib/epub/project.rb#106 a ruby script
• But I would prefer to do this command line, so I also found this tutorial with an Actionscript for download: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55681

I would follow those directions to a T, and be sure for mac users to exclude the dreaded, hidden, .DS_Store file that will do more damage then good. Just zipping your folder and renaming it to epub will cause the book to fail. By now, if you’ve done everything right, go ahead and run that freshly compressed epub file here:

http://www.threepress.org/document/epub-validate/

For those of you who have downloaded the zip of the folder I included at the beginning of the email, go ahead and download it, uncompress it, and run that folder through any of the above scripts (or command line) to make your ePub file. Run it through the validator for a quick check!

How to convert a physical book into an ePub

It is, of course, illegal to convert a physical book into an ePub if it is copyrighted. However, you may find some older books not yet converted and outside of copyright, which is fair game (or like me, you do it for a test and for non-commercial use, although I’m still legally liable for such a creation, so not recommended), and lord knows those old ‘books’ are just taking space on your ‘book shelf’… why not convert them for kindle, sony ereader or iPad?

Doing so can be daunting, depending on your software, and gloriously destructive. Below I’ll list out my brief process:

1. Cut the spine off of my book
2. Scan all the pages as a pdf (may I recommend the awesome Fujitsu that feeds multiple pages like a fax machine, and scans front to back in real time)
3. Since Adobe Acrobat Pro has decent but largely inaccurate OCR, run it through ABBYY FineReader (Mac version is http://www.abbyy.com/finereader_for_mac/ the full version for Windows is considered an industry standard for archivist, though others I’ve known swear by http://www.nuance.com/) with OCR pdf output. You can, if you choose, output as rich text (no images though) or html, but I found it’s html so bad it wasn’t worth cleaning up. After your first scan, ABBYY will launch a window that allows you to mask out sections of a page as either an image, a table, or text – useful in my books case. When you’re done, you can export your optimized file.
4. If you’ve chosen pdf, open it back up in Acrobat, and export as HTML. It’s code sucks, but it’s more divs and a few misplaced spans, easier to clean up.
5. Use your editor to mass remove the junk and change it to standard, semantic code… not to mention style sheets or anything else you need.
6. Follow my directions above to code your book.

There is one program that does a good job converting your eBooks into various formats, including ePub, that maybe useful called Calibre:

http://calibre-ebook.com

My tests showed a bit of inconsistency with the output unless your html when added was pristine (cough, garbage in garbage out). Since that was the case, I figured it’d be faster to code everything by hand as I had to redo all the html pages anyhow. Your mileage may vary.

That’s it for now – I’m still experimenting with cover pages, they seem to be different per reader. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask!

Although most of us use electronic time keeping, there are still times when an easy, quality spreadsheet can fill a quick emergency or an immediate need. I’ve found most of them online to be 1) unattractive, 2) cumbersome, 3) designed without the user in mind, or 4) all of the above, so I made my own in house, and I’m hoping this article will help you as well.

You can download all three variations in Apple’s Numbers, iWork 09 format; please note that although Excel has much better equation management then numbers, it’s poor design functionality will not handle these graphics. If anyone wishes to translate the multiple spreadsheets into a single document, you’re welcome to so long as you share alike!

These equations are based off California Labor Laws, specifically in the city of San Francisco. The foundation rules were given to me by Erin Taylor, HR Manager, for me to stylize and rebuild into spreadsheet equations.

Brady J. Frey’s iWork Timesheet

Getting Started

Due to limitations of iWork, values for Time must be translated as decimal to be pliable. Therefore the first set of values are the Hour of the field + the minutes divided by 60. Since time in formulas are defaulted to the 24 hour clock, this creates a clean/easily manageable decimal value to play (2:15 am would be 2.25, 4:50pm would be 16.5, etc). For example, if I had a field named ‘D4′ with 7:15 pm inside it, the equation would be:

In traditional math you’d most likely write this:

Which is perfectly acceptable, but parenthesis in formulas can become cumbersome (as you’ll see very soon) and because the Order of Operations rule pins division before addition, we’re just fine simplifying it here.

Adding up a day of hours

After each field is translated to a decimal, it’s a cat and mouse game of finding the difference of an In/Out set from each other, then adding that numerical difference to get a total day, for example if we new:

• C4=8:00 am
• D4=12:00 pm
• E4=2:00 pm
• F4=7:15 pm

Then we know:

• 8.00=HOUR+(MINUTE/60)
• 12.00=HOUR+(MINUTE/60)
• 14.00=HOUR+(MINUTE/60)
• 19.25=HOUR+(MINUTE/60)

So our long drawn out equation would be D4 minus C4 (because D4 happened later than C4), and F4 minus E4:

Which is a completely annoying way of writing the way more simplified:

Round Me

Now since we’re annoying sticklers, we’re going to make sure our number rounds to the second decimal point by putting ‘ROUND’ in the back to say 2 decimal places and close off or request (those of you who are CSS/Python/PHP/Javascript/Etc coders may notice that these parenthesis act similar to other indents and { and the like):

Complicated Values

Now… things get more complex after this. What we have to do in our equations is make these following statements:

1. Salaried Employees: Add the total hours up into the Regular Hours column, round to 2 decimal places. Piece of cake.
2. Regular Hourly Employees: If the total hours are 8 or less, add them up in the regular hours column, round to 2 decimal places. If it’s over 8 but under 12, round to the 2 decimal places and put in the overtime column. If it’s over 12 hours, put 4 hours in the overtime column, shove the rest in the Double overtime column, round to 2 decimal places.
3. Union Hourly Employees: If the total hours are 8 or less, add them up in the regular hours column, round to 2 decimal places. If it’s over 8 but under 10, round to the 2 decimal places and put in the overtime column. If it’s over 10 hours, put 2 hours in the overtime column, shove the rest in the Double overtime column, round to 2 decimal places.

Salary Employees

Again, are the easy numbers to pull, since we’re simply adding 6 columns of in/out, and rounding that to 2 decimal places. The Equation looks significantly more intimidating than it is, but by using the layout in the primer above, you should be able to decipher what I’m working on here. More than anything, the overwhelming amount of parenthesis will pull your hair out… if you don’t shave your head.

For row 4, I would put the following equation into my Regular Hours column (all one line, it may get truncated in this web browser):

Remember that each new Row would require the fields to change, so D4 becomes D5, then D6, etc and so on per column/row combination (I’ll show everything at the end).

Regular Hourly Employees: Regular Hours field

This is when things get interesting. Your first set is to tell the Regular Hours column- if the hours are less than 8, round to 2 decimals… but if it’s greater than 8, just plop an 8 in the field:

Let's break that apart. So I'm saying 'if':

...the following numbers are less than 8 hours (AND means a MUST be true, there are a couple ways to write this statement, but we'll leave that for individual discussion)...

...then round those puppies to 2 decimal places with the sum of the values:

...or if it isn't less than 8 hours, just plop an 8 in there:

Regular Hourly Employees: Overtime field

I know you're excited, settle – it gets better. To do this wacky variation, you'll need to call multiple IF statements. The next field needs to say- if the hours add up to more than 8, but less than 12, place them here rounded to 2 decimal places (but make sure to subtract 8 from the total, we just want the overtime hours). If it's more than 12, don't fret, put a 4 in this spot. If this column doesn't matter, just put a zero:

Let's break it apart again, 'if':

The time is greater than 12, plop in a 4:

...else, if it's greater than 8, but less than 12:

Subtract 8 and round that number to 2 decimal places:

Anything else? Just make it zero and close the equation:

Regular Hourly Employees: Double Overtime field

Double overtime is a lot easier actually, all you have to do now is take the total hours, if it's less than 12, put a zero in it- greater than 12, put the total minus 12, and round to 2 decimal places:

Union Hourly Employees

Is actually exactly like the above, except their overtime starts at 10 hours. The Regular Hours column is still 8 hours like Regular employees:

The Overtime Column is over 8 hours too, but under 10 hours:

...and anything over 10 hours is Double OT, foshizzle:

And that's it, you're done! Now, there are 'shorter' ways of writing these equations (more so in Excel as iWork does not have every equation), some I'm noticing as I sit down and write this – but they are more complicated in deployment, and either way it works just the same long or short hand. Please feel free to write questions or post feedback – this is mostly for archival purposes.

Full notation of all columns for my reference, iWork 09 Equations, 6 columns of In/Out

iWork 09 Total Regular 8 Hours except overtime:

iWork 09 Overtime field for Regular staff: Count up the total hours, if less than 12 it's Total Hours minus 8 rounded 2 spaces, if over 12 just put 4 hours, otherwise zero:

iWork 09 Overtime field for Union staff: Count up the total hours, if less than 10 it's Total Hours minus 8 rounded 2 spaces, if over 10 just put 2 hours, otherwise zero:

iWork 09 Double Overtime field for Regular staff: Count up the total hours, if less than 12 it's zero, if over 12 count the total minus 12 rounded 2 spaces:

iWork 09 Double Overtime field for Union staff: Count up the total hours, if less than 10 it's zero, if over 10 count the total minus 10 rounded 2 spaces:

iWork 09 Full total of hours for employees without overtime:

Types & Trends

Historically, Piano purchases were largely limited to the the Acoustic variance, the complexity of which far outweighs this general posting. However, over the past 20 years (arguably more), Piano manufacturers have worked hard to create lower cost, digital variations that provide portability and extendability that mirrors the quality of it’s mechanical counterparts.

While most experts (albeit Professional Pianists, Manufacturers, and Technicians alike) readily admit that the digital piano, while close, has yet to mirror the exact nuances and realism of the mechanical piano… they’re fairly close to the untrained professional (even more so in the high end models). Often times only limited by the sheer lack of mechanical oddities that often make acoustic pianos uniquely human from device to device.

The question for me was: What is the best practice piano for a beginning player, with a small physical footprint, a realistic weighted keyboard, and at a decent, initial, investment?

Ask the professionals

My research began modestly: Google. Rightly so, everyone from home grown practitioners to Yamaha University certified technicians (very little info online, but suffice it to say that dealers & technicians must attend a Yamaha University course to be licensed as a representative- apparently requiring enough knowledge to assemble a mechanical piano) have used the web as a forum for the decision. Here are a handful of excellent resources that helped build my own decision to venture out and feel/hear the differences between a Digital & Acoustic Piano, I suggest to, at minimum, brush through them- you’ll find their theories are similar:

• onlypiano.com: Digital versus Acoustic Pianos
• Steve’s Piano Service: Buying a Piano
• Piano World Forums: A slew of posts, like this
• Chicago Piano: Digital Pianos vs Acoustic Pianos, Which is right for you?
• wikiHow: How to Choose Between Digital or Acoustic Piano
• Scott E. Thile: Traditional Acoustic Versus Digital Pianos, Which one is right for you?
• Keyboard Companion Magazine: DIGITAL vs. ACOUSTIC PIANO – WHICH IS BETTER FOR PRACTICE? by Dr. Virginia Houser, Kansas State University
• CONCERT PITCH PIANO SERVICES: Digital vs. Acoustic Pianos

Of course, while researching, I sent all this information to my prospective PIano Teacher, and described my expectations while asking her advice. Without divulging too much detail, suffice it to say she was sympathetic to my research, but clearly noted that digital pianos stay a keyboard: regardless of their technical prowess, there will be a limitation sometime in my studies. This weighed heavily on my final decision (rightly so, her interests are keeping me learning) not only based on the lifelong, professional knowledge she has, but also with the sincerity only a teacher can deliver. As a result, It was something I openly addressed to every prospective seller I met, and made it a point that any purchase must clearly make her not hate me.

Albeit generalized, the gist in all of this information is simple: understand that a digital piano provides many technical benefits, but differs greatly from a traditional piano, and at some level, that is a weakness. Be clear on what you’re looking to accomplish, and weigh those points accordingly.

The technicals of a Yamaha Digital Piano

But although I understood those differences, I’ve never really felt or heard a digital piano before. What processes did these companies employ to get as close as possible to the real thing? Surely, organizations such as Yamaha, founded by Torakusu Yamaha (son of a Samurai, watchmaker who taught himself the mechanics of organs and pianos only to become one of it’s greatest builders), would be hard bet that their digital pianos have to reflect the quality of their acoustic division?

I’d be right. Yamaha’s Musical division created the Yamaha Advanced Sound Technology: suffice it to say, they took high quality recordings of their prized pianos, weighted the keys of digital to match the variations of an acoustic, and mirrored the keys of a traditional piano. Yamaha’s Musical site provides a thorough video reference for each level of technology and piano, via it’s video technology guide. That, accompanied with it’s Digital Piano page, was enough to spark my interest in their competitors and finding myself some face to face time.

Hearing the difference

Now that I was strong on the technical concepts of why, I wanted to hear how it sounded compared to an acoustic piano and specifically I’d narrowed it down to an Upright Acoustic (rent or own) or a Digital (own). YouTube has their fair share of quality videos, most specifically Kraft Music, an online musical instrument dealer, has a slew of videos on their YouTube page for brief demonstration of the differences. Still, interesting, but not enough to make a final decision, I needed an in-store visit.

Here in downtown San Francisco, my choices for Piano vendors are: Sherman Clay, Music Exchange, Guitar Center… and whomever i find on CraigsList or Ebay.

CraigsList is well known in the Bay Area as the go-to place for second-hand business, and I started my efforts there while I contacted the retail stores. Unfortunately, every attempt at following up with a seller ended up in either a missed appointment, or a lack of follow-up, and although there seemed to be excellent options available, after 2 weeks of discussions, I lost faith in CraigsList. It could very well be the timing too: I’m purchasing right during the busy back-to-school season, and if anyone’s buying a beginning piano, adults, I’m guessing, are not the majority.

Ebay had an excellent selection of Digital Pianos, but Acoustic models were limited to local shipping only (probably for good reason), and since I wasn’t comfortable in that choice yet, I decided to pass for now.

Sherman Clay was first on my list for a drive-by, located only 2 blocks from my apartment and 4 blocks from my office, I assumed this place would be ripe for an ongoing business relationship. I brought my Senior Designer, Scott Shearer, along to give the impression of a Piano Technician. The sales representative was courteous and thoughtful- their new pianos beautiful Steinway’s and Boston’s, both Grand and Upright, but on the high end of the purchase spectrum, and not a smart first purchase for me. Their used piano’s, hunkered down in the basement, ranged from a $2000 1987 Yamaha Upright, complete with 8 keys with chunks missing from them (with what looked to be dirt or mold on the soundboard) to $5500 Boston’s with less than a year warranty. Their selection of rental pianos were even more lackluster, in far worse shape then many of the Piano’s I had seen in my High School years. I decided Steinway did not have the beginning pianist in their target demographic.

Guitar Center was the second visit, and my initial assumptions proved true: their vision of piano’s are digital studio tools rather than realistic recreations. No acoustics were on site, and the Yamaha Digital Piano they had available was the YDP 223: an excellent tool, but designed by the Keyboard division of Yamaha, and not in the far end grade of the Digital Pianos. They did have a set of Casio (which felt cheap and sounded as if they were in a metal box) and Roland (which felt very good, but because they don’t have an acoustic division, I was concerned about their sincerity in mimicking a realistic piano), but nothing more, and Sheryl & I left within 20 minutes of our visit.

Music Exchange was the final stop, and the shop I had the most hope. Throughout the week I had been emailing retailers, and only Music Exchange‘s Manager Alissa Gaerte responded to my inquiries… not once, but 5 times. She answered every question I had regarding quality of the devices, compared the sound on electronic and acoustic models, and provided honest, realistic advice that mirrored the other professionals I had spoken with throughout the week. It was the first time in the past two weeks, next to my instructor, I felt an honest response to my questions, and I took her advice that day. I purchased the Yamaha CLP 330, at what seems to be the fair negotiated price in the market with deals, including an offer to upgrade in the next year if I’m not satisfied (applying the cost accordingly). I purchased at noon on Friday, the Piano was put together, and delivered to my apartment 7am Saturday morning. I made a great contact with Alissa Gaerte, found a great piano, and she found a life long client that has an interest in upgrading his toys more often than he should.

CLP 330

Right off the bat, I can tell the physical keyboard different, but for now it’s excellent compared with other piano’s I’ve tested. The bass keys feel heavier than the treble keys, each kicking back accordingly and providing different variations of sensitivity to pressure (including the pedals). Lucky for Sheryl (and probably me), the headset adapter I picked up from Cole Hardware works perfectly with my iPhone earbuds (upgrading soon, I can notice the audible loss in them), allowing me to practice Hanon Exercises #1. The USB adapter allows me to brush up on my sheet music via GarageBand, as well as record myself should I want to torture my family with audible emails.

May it be the resurgence of music in my life, or the joy of a technological marvel to a geek, this piano has survived 6 hours of beating 30 hours, and it’s done so in stride. So far, it’s been a worthwhile first purchase, but I’ll post my progress as I continue to forge ahead. If you have questions, I welcome your comments and emails.

Further resources for questions & discussions:

1. James Woodcock: ask questions or read articles on his well known yamahapkowner.com or follow him on twitter
2. Yamaha Hub: ask questions to Yamaha themselves on twitter or watch videos on their hub

Side note

The iPosture is a handy tool to keep your posture sound while you play. I’ll admit the subtle vibration has thrown me off randomly, but it has improved my stature, and given me more comfort for longer play.

As a reminder folks, the training we went over is available online at bradyjfrey.com/ebmug/; please feel free to use and reference this as you’d like. If you have any specific questions, you can find me on twitter, Facebook and my additional contact information

Additional Information

The ending slides feature references to continue your training online, but I’m posting below some of the additional questions and answers from our meeting outside my documented scope:

Code Questions

codingforums.com is a fantastic place to collaborate with users like you, and other teachers of the industry. Although I’m happy to help you whenever I can, I do get stretched for time, and you will find codingforums.com is a faster way to get answers!

Blogs

should you not want to install your own wordpress, or don’t have the means, wordpress.com is an excellent resource.

Hosts

DreamHost was brought up as a host that does one click installations of WordPress. Historically, I had problems with them losing my sites, and toying with my server whenever they saw fit; I no longer use DreamHost. I switched to the arguably overpriced Media Temple, and I’ve had no issue, but I have had folks use the more cost affective lunarpages without problems.

Shopping Carts

I recommend avoiding Yahoo Store, and either using a simple addition to your site such as bigcartel, or a hosted service such as Shopify or Etsy, depending on what you’re selling. Also note GoodBarry is an up and coming winner that does it all.

Email

The best way to keep your email hidden from spammers, and Google, is to use a contact form, such as mine. If you don’t know how to code one, no worries, use WuFoo

Applications

I’m a big fan of BBEdit, but it’s not for the faint of heart. Panic’s Coda is an excellent alternative, dedicated to guiding you in how you code, and offering free Books with the program.

Best wishes to all of you as you continue to learn and expand your knowledge of the internet. Please do let me know if you have questions!

“XML-RPC Service for you blog cannot be found”

The Support Page alluded to a missing XML tag, but did little to answer how to fix your templates (and switching to a classic template allowed my blog to sync just fine), but didn’t offer a solution. It’s easier than you think, and there’s a couple ways to do this:

1. Edit any header files you use on your WordPress theme (could be the default header.php or multiple custom ones like me), and add the following above your closing head tag (the </head> tag): <?php wp_head(); ?>
2. Go to your Appearance page in your blogs Admin, (as of WordPress 2.7) and select one of the default themes. Activate that theme, then connect your iPhone. Once you’ve connected, you can switch right back.

Make sure that you have XML-RPC check boxed in your Settings > Writing Panel for XML-RPC to work! All the iPhone app needs is the ability to find, in your code, that unique XML ‘edituri’ address for it’s records. Once it’s there, it won’t check again. Enjoy!

Update: for those of you with continued issues (possibly from not using the wp head template tag by choice, where I use html instead of xhtml), make sure your rel=”EditURI” is spelled exactly that way. By exactly, I mean with that same capitalization, or else the app will not read it

“It is here the world’s largest annual dolphin kill takes place in a hidden bay that is watched over by armed guards and obscured behind blue tarpaulins. What occurs beyond the patrols and scrims is one of Japan’s darkest secrets: pods of dolphins are herded into the bay, where they are trapped behind a wall of nets and butchered by whalers with spears and knives.

“The goal of The Cove is to stop these barbaric acts by exposing them to the world. The filmmakers risk everything to capture this footage, and we vividly feel the danger they’re in – but as with any groundbreaking film that transcends its genre, there are elements humor, and the touching narrative of one man’s personal redemption.”

The Cove: Trailer

Articles & Links

1. Secret film will show slaughter to the world
2. The Official Movie Site
3. savejapandolphins.org
4. Sundance Film Festival 2009: The Cove
5. Louie Psihoyos, “The Cove”: An Ecological Crisis and Green Filmmaking

Unfortunately, everyone’s reign of cool hits a corporate wall when you’re in the publication world eventually; in the case of Thrillist.com, it’s an email featuring the coolness of Denny’s entitled ‘You are the Decider’:

Riddled with ‘hip’, you can feel the anguish of the writer as he’s forced to pit one of the cheapest restaurants on a site that features the elite:

… something good does happen after midnight. Something wonderful: Denny’s All Nighter menu.*

Not so bad, but wait, there’s more:

… The All Nighter offers a boundless variety of gut-busting options, whether you stroll in before sending a regrettable text message to your ex, or after remembering too late why you broke up in the first place. Feed your need with breakfast staples (like the bacon/sausage/diced ham/cheddar-packed Meat Lovers Scramble), lunch (say, the Philly Melt, or the Super Bird), or get ‘em both with the Slamburger — topped w/ cheesy hash-brown casserole, an egg, and cheese sauce, it’s like an entire buffet line in your trembling, appreciative hands. To truly go for 4am gusto, grab a steak (Country-Fried or T-bone), or one of Denny’s proud newcomers: 4-packs of mini-cheese-burgers w/ piles of onion rings, or Potachos — fried kettle chips with sausage, bacon, peppers, onions, cheese, proving once again that food’s always best when topped with other food.

Best of all, Denny’s also has an All-Nighter Value Menu starting at just $3.99 — lifesaving prices, because no matter what time of day it is, there’s no worse decision than fleeing in shame after realizing you can’t afford your meal

Personal Favorite:are ‘To truly go for 4am gusto’, but if that’s not too bad, Thrillist.com will gladly try to get you to buy the new Acura TSX.

Now that we have two advertisements, we’ve got the Thrillist.com equation for writing

1. Hip intro paragraph that ends with direct link and sales pitch for product
2. Mix second paragraph with forced, trendy terminology and client supplied details of product
3. Sprinkle viral photos within links for entertainment
4. End pitch with short and sweet sales links coupled by hip one liner to close

Enjoy!

On June 16th, 2008 I filed a small claims Case Number: CSM-08-825679 against Randy Vo and submitted certified paperwork to his last known address; this same address is listed for his current bills as up-to-date. The small claims summons was signed and returned with a signature of Randy Vo, and court date scheduled for July 17th, 2008. I prepared for the trial with full documentation of expense, medical issues, phone records and police record.

Kattya and Patrick of CheekoB submitted written documentation that they couriered money directly to Randy Vo, and, noting it was a personal not a business correspondence, asked that they not be involved in further communication. I have since removed their information from any publication that I have control over regarding the incident. Randy Vo has consistently said he is still in contact with their business, but due to his track record of consistently denying information that was eventually proven true, I can only assume they are victims of Randy Vo as well.

Randy Vo’s Judgement

Randy Vo was not present in court July 17th, 2008, although he signed and approved the visit. As he was not present to debate the case, the Judge ruled on my evidence and presentation. The total cost of Hanzo’s medical, begun within the first 4 days of purchase, is as follows:

1. Hanzo’s Purchase Price: $1200.00
2. 14 Day Medical Expense: $2,514.21

Pets Unlimited submitted a signed medical report concluding that Hanzo was not fit for sale and that Parvo must have been contracted prior to sale. I also noted much of the cryptic methods of communication and 52 attempts of phone and text messaging (he responded to 6), including: Randy does not have a voicemail on any phone, Randy uses various addresses to forward mail, Randy has consistently not answered phone calls unless from alternative numbers, Randy has consistently denied he is the person on the phone or at a specific location, although admitted to the contrary.

Citing Health and Safety Code 122160, Judgement was ruled in my favor:

Retain the dog, and reimbursement for reasonable veterinary fees for diagnosis and treating the dog in an amount not to exceed 150 percent of the original purchase price of the dog, plus sales tax on the original purchase price of the dog.

Judgement was submitted that Randy Vo owes Brady Frey $1,899.00 + $60 filing fees for a total judgement of $1,959.00. Randy Vo had 30 days to appeal the ruling, which he did not, judgement is deemed finalized. Per the the Judges request, I was not allowed to ask for payment until that 30 days had passed.

Attempts at Payment

After August 18th, I called Randy Vo and updated him on the judgement. He agreed to be co-operative and to begin payments immediately, citing past experiences with Judgements Made on Small Claims to Randy Kadee Vo.

On September 19th, 2008 Randy Vo delivered a $50 money order to my office. I explained to him he can submit a check, mail a check, or use something such as PayPal online to submit via a credit card or a bank account. He told me that he does not have a checking account- that his previous credit history has not allowed him an account. I asked him about his car and other assets, which he had no clear explanation. He said he would continue to make $50 payments weekly if that was acceptable.

The next week payment was missed due to a leg injury he sustained at work, including the following week. October 10th, 2008 he submitted $60 in cash to the security guard at my office building, and has since not submitted any further payments. Randy currently owes a balance of $1,849.00.

What happens next?

Payment has become increasingly defaulted, and soon to be over 30 days since his last payment. I will then submit a Writ of Execution submitting Randy’s personal information for a Law Enforcement agent to withhold the debtor’s assets. I will also submit this further information to Animal Care and Control to further help their support of the situation and any charges that are needed.

Legal Laws in California Protecting Consumers

The selling of pets in the State of California is governed under California Health and Safety Code 122125-122220 (and possibly 122350-122361 depending on interpretation of sale by a judge) also cited as the Lockyer-Polanco-Farr Pet Protection Act. Randy Vo is, specifically, in violation of the following codes, subject to $1000 fine for each violation listed below in this publication.

Health and Safety Code 122140

122140: Every pet dealer shall deliver to the purchaser of each dog and cat at the time of sale a written statement in a standardized form prescribed by the Department of Consumer Affairs containing the following information:

1. (1) The breeder’s name and address, if known, or if not known, the source of the dog. If the person from whom the dog was obtained is a dealer licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture, the person’s name, address, and federal dealer identification number.
2. (2) The date of the dog’s birth, and the date the dealer received the dog. If the dog is not advertised or sold as purebred, registered, or registerable, the date of birth may be approximated if not known by the seller.
3. (3) The breed, sex, color, and identifying marks at the time of sale, if any. If the dog is from a United States Department of Agriculture licensed source, the individual identifying tag, tattoo, or collar number for that animal. If the breed is unknown or mixed, the record shall so indicate.
4. (4) If the dog is being sold as being capable of registration, the names and registration numbers of the sire and dam, and the litter number, if known.
5. (5) A record of inoculations and worming treatments administered, if any, to the dog as of the time of sale, including dates of administration and the type of vaccine or worming treatment.
6. (6) A record of any veterinarian treatment or medication received by the dog while in the possession of the pet dealer and either of the following:
7. (A) A statement, signed by the pet dealer at the time of sale, containing all of the following:
8. (i) The dog has no known disease or illness.
9. (ii) The dog has no known congenital or hereditary condition that adversely affects the health of the dog at the time of the sale or that is likely to adversely affect the health of the dog in the future.
10. (B) A record of any known disease, illness, and any congenital or hereditary condition that adversely affects the health of the dog at the time of sale, or is likely to adversely affect the health of the dog in the future, along with a statement signed by a veterinarian licensed in the State of California that authorizes the sale of the dog, recommends necessary treatment, if any, and verifies that the disease, illness, or condition does not require hospitalization or nonelective surgical procedures, nor is it likely to require hospitalization or nonelective surgical procedures in the future. A veterinarian statement is, not required for intestinal or external parasites unless their presence makes the dog clinically ill or is likely to make the dog clinically ill. The statement shall be valid for seven days following examination of the dog by the veterinarian.
11. (c) For the purpose of this article, “nonelective surgical procedure” means a surgical procedure that is necessary to preserve or restore the health of the dog, to prevent the dog from experiencing pain or discomfort, or to correct a condition that would interfere with the dog’s ability to walk, run, jump, or otherwise function in a normal manner.
12. (d) For the purposes of this article, “clinically ill” means an illness that is apparent to a veterinarian based on observation, examination, or testing of the dog, or upon a review of the medical records relating to the dog.
13. (e) A disclosure made pursuant to subdivision
14. (b) shall be signed by both the pet dealer certifying the accuracy of the statement, and the purchaser of the dog acknowledging receipt of the statement. In addition, all medical information required to be disclosed pursuant to subdivision
15. (b) shall be made orally to the purchaser.
16. (f) For purposes of this article, a disease, illness, or congenital or hereditary condition that adversely affects the health of a dog at the time of sale or is likely to adversely affect the health of the dog in the future shall be one that is apparent at the time of sale or that should have been known by the pet dealer from the history of veterinary treatment disclosed pursuant to this section.

Health and Safety Code 122145

122145: A pet dealer shall maintain a written record on the health, status, and disposition of each dog and each cat for a period of not less than one year after disposition of the dog or cat. The record shall also contain all of the information required to be disclosed pursuant to Sections 122140 and 122220. Those records shall be available to humane officers, animal control officers, and law enforcement officers for inspection during normal business hours.

Health and Safety Code 122150

(a) Except as otherwise specified herein, any person violating any provision of this article other than Section 122205 shall be subject to a civil penalty of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000) per violation. The action may be prosecuted in the name of the people of the State of California by the district attorney for the county where the violation occurred in the appropriate court or by the city attorney in the city where the violation occurred.

(b) Nothing in this article limits or authorizes any act or omission that violates Section 597l of the Penal Code.

Further methods of judgement, penalties, and clarification are listed on the California Lemon Law Section.

What if this happens to you?

Please feel free to contact me, I’m more than happy to guide you, answer questions, or submit information that can further make sure the above does not happen to you.

Event Details

On Friday, October 24th, celebrate the fundamental freedom to marry by attending the fundraising wedding event Pursuit of Equality to defeat Proposition 8.

Guests will enjoy dinner-by-the-bite, an exclusive champagne lounge, dancing and toasts by San Francisco notables Rita Moreno and former Mayor Willie Brown. Inspired by the informative windows at Wilkes Bashford, models on wedding cake toppers will be exhibited throughout the Bently Reserve.

WHEN:

Friday, October 24th, 2008 – 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Where:

The Bently Reserve

Why:

To increase awareness of the civil rights issue of equality which protects the institution of marriage, and to raise $150,000 for “NO on 8 – Equality California.”

Who:

Current supporters, committee members, prominent San Francisco leaders, their friends and family. We expect 600 attendees at the event.

What:

With the support of Civil Rights Activist and Honorary Chair Gavin Newsom, and the Award winning Film Director Geoff Callan, Wilkes Bashford and Christopher Bently will chair the black tie fundraising event Pursuit of Equality. This evening of food, fashion and world-class entertainment will be held at the historic Bently Reserve, and will feature event design and production from renowned wedding planner Julie Nunn Martin. A portion of the proceeds from this fundraiser will go to NO on 8-Equality California.

Purchase Tickets

EQCA’s Pursuit of Equality Ticket Registration

Learn more about Proposition 8

On November 4th, Californians will have the historic opportunity to protect the foundations of marriage by voting no on Proposition 8. Every Californian should have the freedom to marry the one they love – it’s a right thats protected by our constitution.

• No on 8 – Equality California
• Make a Donation
• Register to Vote
• Equality California

Event Chairs

• Equality California
• The Bently Reserve
• Wilkes Bashford

As I wrote prior, our upcoming move was delayed by the existing tenant of our new apartment rescinding their 30 day notice. Although Sophie, General Manager of the South Market facility, said the existing tenants were personally sorry for the trouble they caused; come to find out from our sales rep it was actually a corporate rented apartment! Now, being in the business, I know it’s much easier to shift a business account than a personal account – though Archstone’s policy, regardless of tenant type, is to cater to the current tenant, I can’t help but feel walked over and misdirected.

Reluctantly, I accepted an additional apartment, and came down to their office with Sheryl for the paperwork. Sheryl, concerned about the situation, asked to see the location of the apartment again just in case (they don’t allow access to occupied apartments, which I think is as plus)… what we found out is that the previous rep, Wilson, showed me the wrong location! This apartment was in a ‘basement level’, with street view and minimal light. Distressed, we negotiated for a smaller place with a storage unit (even though that apartment is also corporate occupied), and signed the final paperwork July 19th to get the process moving.

The current tenant leaves July 30th, with our move in set for July 8th. The one we picked is in a higher, sunnier location with new fixtures that I hope will prove worthwhile. In the end, we’re more concerned than ever but our time is running short for options; if it happens a second time, it’ll be the last.

As an interesting side note, our Sales rep commented that 3 other potential tenants also lost their apartment that day (one moving out from Las Vegas). While that did little to calm my emotions, it is telling that many of the reviews I find regarding this location could be spot on, and I maybe walking into a time-bomb. Here’s to hope they just as much time marketing their corporate business, as they do taking care of their public tenants. After the 30th, I’ll be much more excited about my new place.

On the very day the tenants were to move out of #4301, they called the office administration to rescind their 30 day notice- effectively voting to stay on site. Although the building is not rent controlled, and it’s questionable if that’s legal, Archstone has agreed to keep their current tenants and avoid any potential issues that may ensue to enforce the 30 day notice. The result, of course, is that two weeks prior to us moving we’ve no place to go.

We’re sorry to inform you

The phone call was received by my girlfriend at her office, her to me, and me back to Archstone. The account rep, Wilson, was currently overwhelmed with requests and did not have any current information but the above, and offered me two other apartments in the building: one the same size, $100 more expensive, with upgraded utilities… but on the busy street corner and, due to the first floor location, without a balcony. The second 50 feet smaller all around, but with similar options to our original pick, and also $100 more expensive. I asked to stop by and take a peek at both to make a decision immediately.

I took the quick mile walk from my office, and met the busy Wilson (who called me Freddy). After showing me the options, I sat down with the Community Manager, Sophie, per my request. She apologized for the inconvenience, and noted that she could not offer any discounted cost on the new options or any offsets we may incur. She stated these fees are corporate mandated, and due to housing laws, it was not in her power. I thanked her for her time, and let her know I’d sleep on the decision tonight.

Resounding thoughts

As the Art & IT Director for a business that prides itself in Commercial and Residential Holdings, I found it a bit questionable that should could offer nothing in lieu of this amazing inconvenience. Not to mention that, although we paid a fee, our document was simply a ‘holding’ contract, not a Lease (in all manners, unreliable, invaluable, and flat made up specifically for their business needs); and the office lawyer confirms this, though agrees both sides carry so much potential issues due to the tenant wishing to stay, it is an irrelevant arguement.

Although I can understand things tend to happen, I find it ironic that this happened so close to our move in date. I’m reminded of a statement our initial sign-up representative, Melissa, made during the first walk through:

Wow, you got a good price! Must be because the apartment isn’t renovated yet – we typically try to renovate them prior to renting again so we can add improved features. Are you sure we can’t offer you one of our renovated options?

Those would be the same options I am offered now. The increased options are simply upgraded fixtures for an additional $200+ a month, not something I find valuable (my stove doesn’t need to be black, and my fridge doesn’t need to be chrome). I hope that twist is simply coincidence. Cheers to the mad rush of finding an apartment in under two weeks!

Building off the excellent, but extensively quiet plugin Clutter Free by Mark Jaquith and the globalized configuration by Achim Staebler (I can no longer find a link for him), I’ve branched off the code and renamed it ‘Cloak’ so I may gut and build as I see fit.

Download the Plugin

Installation

• Unzip the downloaded file
• Upload cloak.php to your wp-content/plugins folder
• (As an Administrator) Login to your WordPress site
• Navigate to the Plugins page
• Select Activate on the plugin line for Cloak
• You’re done!

Management & Configuration

Unlike the previous version of Clutter-Free, I’m assuming my users will most likely not take the initiative to clean up their own screen… and most importantly, they maybe entry-level users. The configuration is therefore a global structure to all users:

• (As Administrator) navigate to the Settings Page
• Navigate to the Cloak sub-page
• Uncheck what you wish to hide, check what you wish to show.

Each list element is titled by either ‘Post’ and ‘Page’ to signify the write area that it controls. By default, all areas are visible for all users.

I look forward to future updates that can allow me to define either ‘global’ or ‘individual’ management; I’ll also inquire with the new editor of Role Manager if there’s any possibility for future integration, as that would be helpful for my current projects.

It’s Yours

Edit it, destroy it, and do with it what you wish. Feel no need to give me credit, but you’re welcome to give the original author credit, I simply upgraded. WordPress, although a welcomed blogging system, limits me in regards to Content Management Systems, and as I lean towards other excellent engines, I may very well fade into WordPress oblivion. Feel free to ask for more, though. Thank you!

Now in normal grep, this would be a bit easier than expected by applying a Regular Expression Counter to your replacement:

e%0>

Would sequentially add a number greater to zero. Brilliant! Unsupported in BBEdit!

Now, again, you could code in a different language and accomplish this much easier if you have that experience, but for me, the trick was to step around BBEdit’s limitation with line number.

The Sequential Numbering Trick

1. Under Text, Select the Add/Remove Line Numbers…
2. In my case, I’ve chosen to start at 0 and then add a space (the space is just to give me more grep characters to call). I’ve removed Justified so it doesn’t add any space before my number, skewing my search to come. When you’re ready, go ahead and Number:
3. Now we’ll start a find/replace of our information under Search > Find…
4. In this case, I’m going to edit:

   
   0 <li>Brady</li>
   1 <li>Brady</li>
   2 <li>Brady</li>
   3 <li>Brady</li>
   

   So that the line numbers are remove from the left, and the text ’60′ is replaced by them using a specific grep pattern:
5. The final result is exactly what I needed:

   
   <li>Brady 0</li>
   <li>Brady 1</li>
   <li>Brady 2</li>
   <li>Brady 3</li>
   

What does that code mean?

As I noted before, Grep in BBEdit is limited, although there’s power to be had (and I recommend Cari D. Burstein’s overview). While I can’t call much in the replacement command, I can call data from the find portion and pass it along to the replacement area.

In the case of the find:

(\d*) <li>Brady</li>

I’ve used parenthesis to tell BBEdit these are ‘groups’ to be recognized later on; these groups are counted as group 1, then group 2, then group 3, and so on. Inside these parenthesis I use the \d command to mean ‘a numerical digit’ and the asterisk to mean ‘as many digits as I’d like’. I’ve now set myself up to search for the numerical line number as a group, and reuse it in my replace.

Now I’m ready to replace my content:

<li>Brady \1</li>

The \1 means ‘replace this area with content from the first group you called in the search’. The end result is that the search number is moved here, and since I didn’t add any command for the group to be repeated at the beginning of the line, the first line numbering is removed.

Using this in an advanced scenario

One of our entry, and rushed, business ventures under my scope is for my Boss’ beautiful new line of Jewelry, Amber Marie Bently Jewelry. She’s recently designed a new series of pieces, and I’d like those designs to be seated at the front of the web list. Since I’ve used a Javascript slider, I’ll have to put all the list content at the top, and then dynamically change the sequential order of each full size image and each Thumbnail… annoying by hand, less than a second with Grep replacement.

• Each line is out of order, and for example, is a long series of code: 0 <li><a href="#"><img id="thumb57" src="thumbnails/test1.jpg" width="60" height="42" alt="thumbnail 60"></a></li>
• I’m going to search for each line, making sure to call grep in areas where information is different so no line is left behind: (\d*) <li><a href="#"><img id="thumb(\d*)" src="(.*)" width="60" height="42" alt="thumbnail (\d*)"></a></li>
• Now, I’m going to call the first group into the thumb ID and into the alt thumbnail text, leaving the third group in the same spot so my URL isn’t altered: <li><a href="#"><img id="thumb\1" src="\3" width="60" height="42" alt="thumbnail \1"></a></li>

…and that’s it. 98 thumbnails and 98 full size images magically ordered on the fly in real time.

A helicopter was flying around above Seattle when an electrical malfunction disabled all of the aircraft’s electronic navigation and communications equipment.

Due to the clouds and haze, the pilot could not determine the helicopter’s position. The pilot saw a tall building, flew toward it, circled, and held up a handwritten sign that said “WHERE AM I?” in large letters.

People in the tall building quickly responded to the aircraft, drew a large sign, and held it in a building window. Their sign said: YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER

The pilot smiled, waved, looked at his map, determined the course to steer to SEATAC airport, and landed safely.

After they were on the ground, the copilot, still quite shaken by the experience, asked the pilot how he had done it.

The pilot said, “I knew it had to be the Microsoft Building, because they gave me a technically correct but completely useless answer.”

By May 23rd I had not heard a response from him, and sent him a text letting him know that I would be moving forward with my legal direction. He called late in the afternoon a few times while I was in a meeting, and I sent him a text notifying him that he can email or text me, or I will call him later.

At 4:29 pm, May 23rd, Randy called me and this time I picked up. He had heard about this website, and was extremely angry that I would make this information public. I noted I am attempting to document the factual information of the incident, and would be happy to take down any information he viewed as personal. He continued to press his distaste for this site, and I commented that he seemed more angry about this website than what he’s done to my family over the past few weeks; in fact, it was the first time he initiated a phone call to me without me first trying to contact him since May 13th. I reiterated that I am more than happy to work with him to mediate payment, but as I’ve said the past two weeks repeadetly, he needs to be in contact with me frequently that he is working on it and finalize some financial reimbursement plan in the near future. He finalized his conversation with the following quote:

“@$#% you, I’m threw with you, you don’t even know me, I don’t even know you. I wouldn’t make a threat and I don’t like to make threats or anything, but you should watch your back, you never know who you could be @$#% with and when you walk home, you could get @$#% hurt or something.”

I began to comment, when he hung up the phone.

By this time, Kattya and I spoke on the phone and agreed to meet this evening to settle our differences. Before we met, Randy Vo called back at 5:32 pm— this time I put it on speakerphone with an employee in earshot, and let Randy know he was on speakerphone. Randy expressed his financial status again, and I repeated the need for frequent communication to work out a plan, and expect him to plan a path in the near future. He noted that he can get emotional and that it “happens sometimes, I really shouldn’t have made a comment like that”. I told him I understood the emotional stress of the situation although it wasn’t appropriate at this time, and am happy to continue to mediate as much as possible and we should talk about it another time.

To document the incident, I’ve loaded up a personal page of Randy Vo and have submitted this story to Rip-off Report. If needed, I’ll be releasing a press note to editors and submitting documents to local retailers about this situation in the hopes no one else has to deal with it… and, of course, I’ll probably have to finalize my small claims later this evening.

Aside Apartment Ratings scathing review, one of the old tenants kept a detailed blog of his events at the location. This seems to be a large corporation, inflexible and unable to provide the home environment a quiet professional like myself would need… whoever wrote that blog, thank you for the log, you’ve cost them a potential renter.

Tracerhand in this forum post had a quick supported solution. Instead of calling the pseudo element on the class, call it on the subsequent tag while making sure to use first-child to isolate it as the first tag only:

and:

No longer paragraphs in the wrong places, no longer break tags wherever wordpress feels it needs one.

It was a long night with a spunky puppy; I’m slightly scared for my life with the next six months looking forward to staying at home babysitting and not being able to spend time with Sheryl… but he’s cute, and he’s here to stay.

So far, he’s been chipper and happily greeting anyone who comes our way. He doesn’t bark that much, and is quick to train: except for the cat, which he has an instant obsession with and she has no interest in him at all!

I continue to see a bit of mucous on his nose, but Kattya of CheekoB said that most puppies have a bit of this mucous when they’re babies. She noted that it’s a cold, but dogs don’t get colds, we’ll see how he holds up!

The evening will be spent at PetSmart picking up Puppy Supplies such as cleaning agents, food, toys, kennel, sleeping area, the works. CheekoB recommends the Pup Head, which he’s apparently been trained to use, so we’ll make a trip to her store tomorrow.

Photos courtesy of Russ Jang.

Once I saw it, I knew it was a puppy. I’ve been missing dog’s for quite some time, stuck with the typical apartment cat that is easily maintainable but not much for the social life of beaches and parks; though I don’t know how well I’ll do with a baby around the house. Kattya walked in with hello’s all around, and with a quick zipper escape, out pops a gentle 10 week old Brussels Griffon.

Kryptonite for Sheryl – the one dog she’s talked about wanting for years (more than just their association with ewoks). Sheryl picked up who they named ‘Hobo’ from Kattya’s arms, and she sat there cuddling it, staring at me the whole time. After some debate about the issue, I told her if she wanted it that she would have to take care of it and go ahead. We agreed to take the puppy for the evening, and pay them $1200 for the little guy with papers to come.

We packed him tight in the SleepyPod for the evening (we’ll return it in the morning) since he was shaking all over. I noticed a bit of mucous on the snout, but Kattya said most puppies have a little one and not to concern ourselves… and welcome to parenthood.

How about an award for the best of the Web, from a company that has a horrible website? A website with 58 validation errors, one that uses XHTML code sometimes but calls out HTML? Built in dreamweaver, broken in a few browsers, scrubbed together with code that hasn’t been in use since the late 90′s and dripping with empty table tags?

I know we’re in the generation of singular experts, built on 6 months of training and pronounced as soon as you can plop a blog on the internet, but it breaks the heart to see junk defining what is good and what is bad. I imagine all art takes this route over time, as trends move in and out of fashion, but have the merit to bury it; don’t flaunt it.

Case in point- Ever Broke an Aluminum Bat (which actually doesn’t show any breaking of an Aluminum Bat, sad to say) loads with a yellow divider icon on the time lapse bar:

As soon as your time hits that bar, an add will slide out from the bottom window ala slideshow pro style that has an x in the top right of the ad to close:

If you close the ad, it will leave an icon to expand the ad again:

Upon video completion, you’ll see options to view other YouTube videos of similar flavor, and the ad will return, without the option to close it this time:

Goodbye TV ads, hello YouTube and the next generation of marketing.

On April 19th, 2008, the pacific coastal winds burrowed through the avenues of San Francisco and up the hillsides peaked with houses. Very few people seemed out on the town, and the ones who braved the gusts held close to personal items darting abruptly against the 60mph bursts. Perfect day to be a moron.

Sheryl and I were in our Honda Element ZipCar, fresh out of Safeway, when she called out from the passenger seat a huge stairwell that zig-zagged up the hillside on the edge of the Sunset District. Merging abruptly, we drove around a few block till we hit 15th and Noriega, parked the car, and with a bit of obnoxious cheerleading dragged Sheryl from our warm confines up the paved street.

We chose the concrete stairwell over alternate paved loop (well, by chose I mean I just started walking there in determination), and ascended over tree limbs freshly thrown from the still bustling wind. My cheerleading continued, and I helped cold-Sheryl move further to the set of zig-zag stairs we saw from a distance prior- impressed that it was, indeed, as rickety as we originally assumed.

We pushed onward through six stairwells to the mound of the hilltop- our backs to the wind, holding onto the railing as the winds sometimes pushed us heavily to a side. The hilltop was lined with trees to the east and the west, but the north and south lay unexposed. The land was sunspot with grass and sand – dry, and exposed. On the east a graffiti tagged historical marker sited the history of Grand View Park, and the endangered vegitation it guards. The wind continued to fire rounds of sand in our face, but the open top felt eerily similar to the freefall of a skydive. After reading the marker, snapping photos (as best we can), and pausing for the amazing 360° view, we made a beeline for the exit.

Stairwell down was worse by far; the wind lifted more of the hill sand up the zig-zag into our faces as we stepped over branches and slowly inched blind down the rickety steps. We survived it and skipped the concrete stairs in favor of the split road (per Sheryl’s recommendation), back again in the safety of the warm Element.

Although Sheryl considered me nuts, I was rather pleased by my spontaneous adventure; certain I was the only moron who would scheme that on such a windy day.

We started the car, made the route home around the hill with our groceries and our hair full of sand. We stopped only briefly for a young couple exiting the back side of the hill from a second stairwell I hadn’t noticed- we probably missed each other at the top by barely a minute. I set home satisfied that there were others in this city dumb enough for the same small adventures.

After a bit of Googling, the WordPress forum linked me to the new documentation, noting that random posts are a lot simpler now with the MySQL RAND() function. Previous code for MacCentric was:

…and became:

Something to keep in mind for the designers rebuilding their templates;)

I’ll go more in detail in posts soon about the technical installation and management I oversaw with a fantastic crew at the Bently Reserve, but one thing that posed a more unique problem was a means of guiding potential customers to Conference locations without the traditional confusion of location memorization and without the waste of material.

Each room was given a name of a sunken ship beneath the foundation of the Bently Reserve in the 19th century (idea courtesy of Mark Mayfield, Chief Engineer to the Bently Reserve), with the remaining rooms deck terminology. Although it’s fairly easy to find the name of each room on a map or asking one of our staff, it seemed redundant to have to force people to memorize a spot with all the other experiences of a hurried conference. I also didn’t want a digital ‘mall’ experience with an interactive or stationary map at the front entrances- to me, it’s just another thing to have to find.

I can remember quite a few events where I struggled to find ‘Room 220E, around the corner, past the bathroom, you’ll see a easel out front…’, and assumed, wouldn’t it be easier to put the name of the room as the occupied company or group? Well, for the non-tech, that would require production of signage, even if they’re cheap prints- waste of ink/toner, paper, board material, time to print and cut, time to manage- there had to be a way of managing event signage digitally in a way that’s productive, green, and cost effective.

I sat out searching for ‘photo signs’, but most came up short with the typical kodak home based sign: cheap frame, USB loaded or Wifi loaded on proprietary software. After a bit of a run, I found the RedPost offered a unique sign based system with customized, open source, software that would allow remote management. Perfect, I thought, I want six now, and emailed the company… but unfortunately in the summer of 2007, they weren’t in production yet.

Months went by, I had my Graphic Designers and IT leads contact the company without success, and finally I called straight to the owner over a month to the end of the project, let him know exactly what it was for, and we were off purchasing, installing, and demoing cutting edge signs for the world to enjoy.

The end result is a beautiful, high tech fixture of the Bently Reserve Conference Center: customized by Eric Kanagy and his RedPost team by installing it on the spot with our support staff. I designed an animated fixture for each room name that showcases a personalized scene of the beautiful sunset through night time fog of San Francisco (yes, that’s photoshop and fake)- it’s running the javascript engine mootools as a slideshow in real time of graphics that I’ve created. I’ve scripted an engine on my Mac so that future images will be easily adjusted and updated in realtime to our servers for loading, allowing prompt and user friendly name changes as requested (logo changes as well).

Thanks to RedPost and Eric Kanagy for showcasing my beautiful art, Chris and Amber’s beautiful building, and supporting our staff as we managed the final pieces of the brand new Bently Reserve Conference Center. More to come soon on this beautiful, high tech buildout…

San Francisco, like most major cities, is a town built on a melting pot of cuisine. No where else can you find fresh sushi next door to a bistro serving the in season best of the Sonoma valley- but they can’t make a pizza, and breakfast tastes like a salad. When I first landed in this town, I made it a personal vendetta that if I had to let my Chicagoan obsession with pizza hibernate, breakfast needed to take on more of a staring role- but San Francisco holds breakfast with polarizing extremes: you either eat a $10 meal heavily microwaved ala-McDonald’s, or a $40 meal in a one egg omelet forked with seafood.

I persevered. I refused to be saddled by Lori’s Diner, and knew there had to be a real Breakfast joint in this town… someone had to understand what a decent square meal needed to be blessed with, and someone had to know how to make a decent man’s omelet or a pancake that wasn’t swedish! It’s Tops, tucked in the heart of San Francisco, hit the spot.

Of all the relics of San Francisco’s history, only It’s Tops holds the title for required pilgrimage. When my Mom comes to visit, my Sister, my Niece, my Father and his wife, my friends, Sheryl’s Parents, Sheryl’s Brother and Wife, co-workers, social events- all find their way to It’s Tops at least once in our travels.

On the Outside

Nestled on the South corner of Octavia and Market, near the recently developed highway entrance, the throwback diner sits itself between the famous Al’s Comics and the always colorful Grooves. The intriguing exterior placement, coupled with the opulent 1950′s signage and a classic color scheme, are a unique take on a diner scene soured by the hollywood and corporate visions of push-button eats. Not only do you find a family owned restaurant passed down through the generations at It’s Tops, but one ran by those very same owners and catered with the same sincerity.

On the Inside

The interior boasts vinyl red seats draped by dark wood walls, armored with retro-propaganda and numerous articles and awards from the restaurants vintage opening all the way to the present day. If you’re riding solo or just don’t see an open booth, the counter has a stool with your name on it; muck it up with local fanfare, talk with co-owner Sheila about the morning, or marvel at the great food… and it is great. You’re teased with everything from the best waffles and pancakes in the Bay Area (I’d argue, in my travels, most of Northern California), packed with blueberries or walnuts, or smothered with peanut butter or bananas, to french toast and cooked-just-right-hashbrowns, maybe omelets stuff fat with the local fixings, burgers by exquisite locally ranched meats; even beer battered mushrooms with an Elvis special.

Catch yourself in a dinner mood? Maybe you’ll be lucky and stop by on a Friday night before the crowd hits: you’ll run into one of the owners, Bruce, and he can tell you about the original cast iron he cooked that massive burger on, flavored for generations, over house tap. You can order breakfast if you want, sure, but sift through four pages of menu filled with hot off the grill Lamb Chops or perfectly marinated Steaks. Follow up with a traditionally home-made milk shake, maybe a banana split or Bruce’s very own mud pie.

Whatever you’ve come for, come prepared it eat a great meal around people that are happy to make that great meal. You’ll find real people who love San Francisco and want to keep making this town the beacon of the west. You may just find out you come so often you don’t have to even ask for the best- Sheila knows you’re going to order that perfect Carmel Mocha without whip cream while you stare at the menu for 15 minutes debating which combination you’ll gamble this go-around. San Francisco may never figure out how to make a Pizza, but It’s Tops shows San Francisco what a real diner is all about.

Ultimately, I found the Photoshop template to be a great help, and I recommend it for anyone. I didn’t care much to toy with the HTML, so I exported a transparent ping and dropped it on a div on top of my work while I coded (modern browsers can take an absolutely positioned div with a 0px point for all corners). Regardless, highly recommended for those in the know.

1. Login to PHPmyAdmin
2. Select the database you want in the left frame, if you have multiple
3. Choose the ‘SQL’ tab in the right frame
4. Add the following code and update

Replace table with the name of your table, the tablefield with the title of the tablefield you want to search, the first value (your mom) will be replaced by the second (my mom). In my case, I zapped gremlins for emdash in a standard wordpress 2.5 upgrade:

Todd’s article digs up the company response:

“MSN is being promoted because it provides an important layer of programmed, editorially selected content that helps ensure our readers stay in the know. Windows Live is a complementary brand to MSN that helps users stay connected with each other.”

Aside from the confusion of two brands in one, there’s obviously some digging for a meaning in that interpretation. Me, I think it’s a reverse attempt at their branding pitch, because even Microsoft wouldn’t want to look dumb.

Long story short: apparently Randy Howe purchased the type in June, 2007 and sent the font to a design firm farming work for him, which violated his agreement with LHF. Said design firm has an employee who decided to bittorent the font to the world, violating just about every digital purchase agreement that isn’t CC (and some that are). LHF asked Randy to cough up the culprit, Randy refuses and LHF has chosen to publish this nice notation.

Rock and a hard place for me; I’m annoyed on a few biased fronts that I’ll embellish. Randy probably shouldn’t have sent the font – though I have done this for my own design team on occasion and have helped out clutch production teams when it’s needed – I go out of my way to pay my share. Each situation is different, a black and white opinion of this scenario isn’t justifiable, and although I’m sure we can debate it, as adults we can see both ends.

LHF wants to understandably know who was the culprit that uploaded the font: but I wouldn’t feel the need to snitch either, and that is equally as debatable in the gray opinions of the world.

I sure wouldn’t want to call BS on Randy in a long winded email complete with charts, but that’s because I’d think I’d look pompous and out of touch with the industry concern on both sides. Nevertheless, if it was my business, I’d probably take the same route of publication.

I don’t agree, but I don’t disagree, and that’s the fundamental confusion I’m sure for both sides: as a once rogue libertarian, the argument of property loss isn’t, well, lost on me. The question I have is the value of calling it out on my person versus the value of that font… maybe in the end, I just would have wrote that article in a tone less attacking the world and more attacking the problem.

Criminal to remove any peaceful attendant to an event, regardless of it’s pay status, and an obvious blow to any open minded debate on the subject. I’d be more interested to know if it was a police officer or a rental cop that took orders; I’m hoping the latter, or we have a much bigger issue on our hands. I’ll have to see the movie and gauge if it’s worth taking Stein serious anymore…

- find courtesy of Douglas Hahn

Update: Aww, deleted, thanks YouTube.

Brady’s Jump

Sheryl’s Jump

Just for being you, we also offer new beacons of damnation in the form of economic injustices and drug trafficking. We’ve slashed the need for intermediary faith, and passed the savings through confession on to you. Act today, officials are standing by!

Regardless of the reasons to avoid this from a professional opinion, the generalization of that term has been debated too many times to profess in this post. What you make thing is pornographic may not be to another person; resulting in the cliche debate, what is porn?

Bush Senior led an aggressive and failed campaign to out the industry, Spitzer made a career busting a profession that hold a similar ideal. Pornography is too easily cried wolf, and the very nature of it’s definition is loosely based on another perception. I would have thought Uncle Steve would have been understanding of the moral dilemma he’s treading, but maybe he’s as fervent a democrat as others have said and he pelts anti-violent video game propaganda too.

Rogue Amoeba’s blog review is a detailed analysis of other restrictions in the iPhone SDK.

Their Paired Design meetings is an interesting strategy to not sacrifice design creativity and yet still enforce productivity… might be something worth exploring in my own design department, hmmm.

“No one has ever heard of another case of a six-legged octopus,” said display superviser Carey Duckhouse.

I’ve found myself frustrated with web developers who’ve over-sold dated, non-standard code, and horribly crafted designs often ignoring even the basic foundations of commercial art. Friends I’ve made in the business world typically get hooked by a big talk of marketing, and little delivery in design or development; only for these managers or owners finding themselves shafted by the web designer who hasn’t improved their skillset in over a decade while delivering a creation typical of a template driven design. The battle to teach what’s wrong has gone sour for me, but the benefit gives me the ambition to be an example.

So for now I choose to create whatever it is I feel the need to create. I’ve accepted client work for the problems that offer a new discovery in my art or prove as an example to others. When not in the mood, I’ll be creating art that serves my own expression or improving myself. I look forward to a new day.

Shipping Safari scores a 39/100 with some significant rendering errors. We’ve been working hard since the test surfaced and are pleased to report that we’ve entered the “A” range on the test with a score of 90/100.

Great to hear, and quite expected; during their Acid 2 testing Safari was one of the first to fix short standing bugs. Cheers to making web development easier to professionals, Webkit team.

Mark Pilgrim said it best:

Sigh. I used to have the strength to argue against such foolishness. Nowadays I’m reduced to nothing more than Grey’s-Anatomy-esque catchphrases. Seriously? Seriously? Do I really have to explain why this is a bad idea? Again?

Recently the company has come under fire for it’s supposed clinical study that ABC News discovered was without a clinic or a doctor or a scientist for, that matter… and as news of this spoof moved through the nation, a class-action lawsuit was sure to come quickly. Now Farhad Manjoo of salon.com’s Machinist reports Airborne will be offering a refund for anyone who’s purchased the product, even if they don’t have a receipt. You can find the form on their website.

As Farhad notes:

…that’s the bottom line. When you’re feeling down, you want to take stuff that feels good for you. Airborn feels good for you.

All well and true, but the deception of quality care hits home more than the placebo power of a vitamin shot. Jamba Juice offers me the same basic sensation of feeling good, without the sour marketing. I doubt Airborne is taking too much to ego for this issue, but I hope it teaches at best a handful of people to think twice. I am.

Original link courtesy of Eugene Santos.

While adults translate color information, for the most part, in the left hemisphere of the brain (right side vision), babies performed their tasks in their right hemisphere. The article notes:

Over the course of our lives, it appears that an unfiltered perception of color gives way to one mediated by the constructs of language.

The Acid3 Test is designed to test specifications for Web 2.0, and exposes potential flaws in implementations of the public ECMAScript 262 and W3C Document Object Model 2 standards.

Safari barely makes it halfway without errors, but with the history of webkit’s speedy updates, I look forward to seeing it validate years ahead of the oft delayed Internet Explorer.

Comcast Corp. admitted yesterday that it paid people to attend a government hearing. Company critics say the freelance attendees were there to crowd them out; Comcast says they were merely saving seats for employees.

Google is partnering with homeless shelters in San Francisco to distribute free phone numbers and voicemail accounts to those without homes, the company said Wednesday.

PHP 5

PHP was a relatively painless installation, thanks largely in part to Marc Liyanage’s Entropy:PHP Package InstallerFriends at Apple admit that even they forgo the stress of compiling PHP for Entropy’s installer. The upside is you get a DMG installation method that allows customization of packages on click – the downfall is that it’s missing a few beneficial extension of PHP that, like me, find a necessity (PSPell is the most obvious as I refuse to use Google’s Spelling system on a web app. Opening a hole through my secure application to google smells and feels like an unnecessary weakness. PSPell allows integration of dictionary/spelling services within your application in realtime; such as checking spelling for people automatically on submit, ajax spell checker, etc). Regardless, the ease of update and future benefits outweigh the negatives. Installation and/or update is as follows:

• Download the installer for your version of Apache - current OS X Tiger runs with 1.3 as it’s default, though 2 is a large improvement and I look forward to migrating in the near future (slated for leopard). You should NOT use a version of PHP lower than 5.1.4 because of significant bugs in 5.1.3 and down – the current version is 5.2.x so you should be just fine unless you specifically choose an older file for some reason that I couldn’t fathom. As a pre warning, some code may not run fine from 4 to 5 and you should be ready to adjust your code if needed (though if you were using good habits, it shouldn’t be a problem). Smart tag features are also off by default, but you can turn it on in the php.ini files later (why no smart tags? Since multiple languages use the same smart tags, you’re setting yourself up for future issues with script compatibility – besides, you’re not a lazy coder are you?).
• Stop the Web Server. Do a backup. While the PHP installation shouldn’t be an issue, this is always a good fail safe just in case, but do I even have to warn you server admins about that, now did I?
• Disable PHP 4. It’s simple to do this in the GUI; open Server Admin, select Services, Web, Settings, Modules – uncheck php4_module, save it. You can also do this in the Apache config files by commenting out the PHP 4 module. Go to Private/etc/httpd/, open up the httpd.conf file, comment out the PHP line:LoadModule php4_module libexec/httpd/libphp4.soYou comment these lines out using a #:#LoadModule php4_module libexec/httpd/libphp4.so You can also delete the line, but it’s good measure to keep it around just in case.
• Run the installer as you would any disk image, clicking options to check or uncheck any necessary packages to include in your version of PHP (if you don’t know, selecting them all is probably fine with the exception of ‘commercial’ labeled extensions). This will automatically create the new folder for PHP in usr/local/php5. Adjustments to your PHP preferences are then in usr/local/php5/lib/php.ini

You may now start the mail server if you want to verify and you’re done here. To test your version of PHP, add a test.php file to any website you have hosted and put in the following code:<?php php_info() ?>More on extras to that command here:http://us2.php.net/php_infoIf you have issues connecting to your MySQL system right off the bat, you may fall victim to missing location for your mysql.sock file. This install tutorial, though for 10.4.8, is exact to mine above but with a workaround for your mysql issues:Entropy User forum installation for 10.4You’ve got PHP 5. Let’s move on to MySQL where things are slightly more cryptic.

MySQL

In an effort to show their love for the community, MySQL has spent much of their time developing quality tutorials and installers for just about every flavor; but it’s definitely geek speak. You can download the installer for your version of OS at:MySQL packaged installers5.1 is in Beta, 6.0 is in Alpha. Not recommended for a production server. Directions provided by MySQL for OS X are available at:Mac OS X installation

• Download the installer for your OS and MySQL
• Stop the Web Server.
• Export all your MyQSL Databases in one full swoop (assuming you have databases, if not, skip these export/import steps)Log into terminal’s mysqldump and export all databases:mysqldump --all-databases > all_databases.sql change the ‘all_databases.sql’ to the location and file name you want, it could also be:mysqldump --all-databases > Users/bradyjfrey/Desktop/bradysmysqlfile.sqlIf you receive a rejection or general error… you’ve most likely password protected your MySQL like every good administrator should! Don’t worry, we’ll walk through defining a master password later, but for this tutorial on I assume you have password protected MySQL. The first command with request for user and password:mysqldump -u root -p --all-databases > all_databases.sql
• Stop Mac OS X’s default MySQL installation (if you don’t wish to use command line, use the Applications > Utilities > MySQL Manager). Do a backup if you already haven’t… and you’re paranoid. This is a good time to turn off the auto start for the OS X version of MySQL right in that manager too. You’ll not use this application again, so feel free to quit and undock if you prefer.
• Run the MySQL installer for your version and operating system previously downloaded.
• Start your new MySQL automatically from now on:/Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM/MySQLCOM start That is assuming you installed the startup item like they, and I, recommend in the System Preferences pane
• Turn on MySQL using the preference pane
• Give your root mysql user a secure password:mysqladmin -u root password "brady4ever"
• Import BACK all your databases in one full swoop:mysql -u root -p < Users/bradyjfrey/Desktop/bradysmysqlfile.sql
• Check your Databases for migration errors. Some old school MySQL 4 code won’t fly on MySQL 5 – luckily, there’s a command to both check everything and autorepair if need be. This is again assuming you’re logging into your mysql as root and you have a password. First, let’s check without repair:mysqlcheck --user=root --password --all-databases; It should run through all the databases and note any unusual errors or issues after prompting you for a password. If you feel comfortable that these are minor issues which don’t require personal care, you can have it repair itself:mysqlcheck --user=root --password --all-databases --auto-repair

Troubleshooting your databases

For the most part, everything is exported/imported back with your MySQLdump… except users and/or user preferences. MySQL does not offer a clean upgrade service, so every fresh installation of MySQL will require the above steps – if you can’t connect to your databases via ‘localhost’ or ’127.0.1.1′ or any other IP/DNS you use to connect to databases, it maybe that you didn’t add your users back to MySQL.Users for the most part can be added with limited access to specific databases per your choice during, or after the creation of a database. If I wanted to add ‘brady’ as a user to my database ‘maccentricsolutions’, I would:grant all privileges on maccentricsolutions.* to 'brady' identified by 'brady4ever' with grant option;It’s also just as acceptable for the average MySQL user addition via:grant all privileges on maccentricsolutions.* to 'brady' identified by 'brady4ever';Follow up any user command with:flush privileges;If, like me, you have many databases and don’t want to go through the task of defining a user for each one, feel free to apply a global application of the user privilege. This is done by replacing the database name and using an asterisk (similar to a wildcard DNS):grant all privileges on *.* to 'brady' identified by 'brady4ever' with grant option;For shortcut information in terminal, and other startup information, read:Mac OS X Installation via MySQLMySQL‘s done. Subversion is a cake walk.

Subversion (or commonly nicknamed SVN)

Subversionis a blessing for designers who know code or coders who know nothing of design. It allows development collaboration with easy tracking and migration of changes (and with Trac, it’s even easier). Installation can be done in a few ways, and you’ll need to install the current version of Xcode should you choose the terminal route ( Xcode is beneficial to install for other developments regardless of your installation method for Subversion). The current version is 1.4.3 – but a commonly used version is 1.3.x. It’s important to note that 1.3 DOES NOT work with 1.4, it’ll lock you into that version and future migration will be difficult, albeit it is still stable and very powerful. 1.4 provides back/forward compatibility, so it is recommended. Your options:

1. You can download an old 1.3.1 package installer from:http://metissian.com/projects/macosx/subversion/Similar to Entropy’s installers, but there’s no 1.4 version installer as of this writing
2. Use Fink:http://pdb.finkproject.org/pdb/package.php/svn
3. Command line, baby, via Hivelogic

And to tell you the truth, the command line is such an easy thing to do here, I’d suggest it for even entry level command line geeks:

• As Hivelogic easy peasy tutorial notes, define your installation path for the root user in the secure usr/local folder if you haven’t already. He notes you can use textmate for in command line via mate ~/.bash_login you can also use pico ~/.bash_login or vi ~/.bash_login or bbedit ~/.bash_login Web developers may also SFTP into their web server as root, and can open the file up in your favorite editor so long as you have invisibles, well, visible.
• add:export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:$PATH" to your .bash_login
• download Subversion:curl -O http://subversion.tigris.org/downloads/subversion-1.4.3.tar.gz
• download it’s extras:curl -O http://subversion.tigris.org/downloads/subversion-deps-1.4.3.tar.gz
• unpack (or ungzip tar) them:tar xzvf subversion-1.4.3.tar.gztar xzvf subversion-deps-1.4.3.tar.gz
• get in that subversion folder:cd subversion-1.4.3
• Configure the installation (here’s where you should have had xcode installed prior)./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-openssl --with-ssl --with-zlib
• Put it together:make
• Install it:sudo make install 
• get back to the root folder if you’d like:cd ..

You’re done, enjoy your update! If you have any questions, contact Brady at your convenience!

“Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.” -Pablo Picasso

…or any other quote that justifies the theft of experienced design, LogoMaid has apparently taken it as a professional business practice to lift it’s inspiration from well known artists. Then copyright. Then sell to unbeknownst company. Rinse. Repeat.

The obvious distaste by the professional industry is abundant, but even more so the outcry by clients will be heavy indeed. The brand of your business is the first thing potential and long term clients see; it is the face of your business. Will that face be a creation that embodies the professional values of your business, or theft of others? LogoMaid’s response has been unapologetic although overwhelmingly defensive and blatantly treacherous.

Others feel the same:

• GodBit
• 9rules.com
• Aetherworld.org
• Buzztracker.com
• Daringfireball.net
• Dbloomfield.org
• Digg.com
• Ekonoline.com
• Eloquation.com
• Fontblog.de
• Gracefulflavor.net
• Hivelogic.com
• Jhuskisson.com
• Jimwhimpey.com
• Macrabbit.com
• Mattheerema.com
• Matthom.com
• Mikel.org
• News.com
• Newsvine.com
• Nslog.com
• Perpetualbeta.com
• Pixelgraphix.de
• Red-sweater.com
• Redmonk.net
• Shauninman.com
• Solarfrog.com
• Sonspring.com
• Suburbia.org.uk
• Theleggett.com
• Theparkerproject.com
• Visualblog.de

Regardless of where you stand, if you want to create a wordpress driven theme, a designer should start any process from the ground up, as Gruber notes. To help you in that, I share my base theme via zip:

No Style WordPress Theme Zip

Each and every site I boast with wordpress, starts with that code. No redundant classes or ID’s, no container divs unless sworn in need – all ready to be cut apart and rebuilt without the strife of bloated code. My latest WordPress CMS, Kamalaspa, complete with custom Newsletter engine, started with that bare bones default, Photoshop files, mockup XHTML, and a couple weeks of tears.

Download and share how you will, commercial or otherwise; this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, all I ask is you share and help your fellow coder!

Recently, we launched the new main site for Kamalaspa, complete with a custom CMS system built on a blog/publication engine, and the end result has been a jump in user activity and cross referencing. An increase in traffic over 15% in little under half a week, simply by communicating via the Web 2.0 palate, is a priceless reward in marketing audience for a meager development cost. As a business owner, what is the potential value of adding these features to your site to gain easy PR in a short development time? Or, value aside, what is the cost worth investing in this new medium?

Dotfive caters to these emerging technologies – contact us, and ask how we can establish your marketing into this rapidly growing medium. You can also read more about our love for Technorati at our Technorati Profile.

I see it in no way possible given current technology.

This may seem like an paradox to most, but Donavon’s statement is in no way true. My frustration is in part of the fact that I’ve posted two detailed answers to his remarks regarding accessibility and further offering to help teach him how to code… neither were posted.

Whether this is an attempt at blog ratings or a move to play devil’s advocate – the answer is clear to those of us who hold ourselves as professionals in this industry that accessibility is relatively easy to accomplish to even the mildly experienced, and of course difficult to those of us without experience; so is everything else.

But that doesn’t justify a rant with ill-informed comments such as:

This is absolutely absurd!! When will the lawsuits stop! Maybe I’ll sue for being unable to read a book printed in braille!

That’s a poor comparison of the current issue and far from the truth. No one is stopping you from learning braille – however, the current Target website doesn’t allow it’s users to access medication regardless of their attempts at learning a new technique. Nevertheless, the subject of this lawsuit has been beat to death, and I am tired of teaching/debating with writers on subjects they know little about:

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2006/02/07/target-sued-by-national-federation-of-the-blind/

http://www.webstandards.org/2006/02/09/taking-aim-at-targetcom/

http://www.webstandards.org/2006/02/10/staying-on-target/

http://www.webstandards.org/2006/09/14/target-interim-ruling/

This post is far from able to breach the topic of coding with proper standards; but in general, coding right the first time is 99% of the way there. I’ll paraphrase tonight’s comments below for your review.

This is standard web 101 – and any professional in this industry is expected to know this code. Millions of sites are accessible; just cause Donovan doesn’t know it, doesn’t make it true. All of my sites I’ve created have a large focus on accessibility, and those that do not fully pass by way of error, will be easily fixed upon request. Donovan seems to think that we have to require recorded audio to make it accessible – actually, they have screen readers for those purposes that read standard code; you can even use CSS to style for aural readers:

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/aural.html

Here’s an interesting walk through about ‘Is Accessible Design a Myth’ by a master in our industry:

http://complexspiral.com/events/archive/2005/www2005/w4a-keynote.html

Remember, it’s about doing it right the first time – semantic, standard code is 99% of the way there. What are semantics? Learning how to code your so that it actually means something, here’s one of my references in regards to cubecart that discusses semantics:

http://www.dotfive.com/2006/08/26/design-theory/semantic-code-for-cubecart/

You can learn more about proper coding at:

http://htmldog.com/

Here’s a tutorial I wrote about the web in general:

http://dotfive.com/html/

Here’s a site for tutorials and tools about accessibility on the web, including a forum to post up and ask for help… for free:

http://accessify.com/

Here’s the initiative on web accessibility in standards:

http://www.w3.org/WAI/

Adobe/Macromedia on accessibility:

http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/index.html

Here are some great walk throughs that discuss handicap users and how by coding with standards you can help each scenario – Dive into Accessibility is a great introduction for newbies and the experienced:

http://diveintoaccessibility.org/

Jakob Nielsen is an excellent resource for tools of the trade:

http://www.useit.com/jakob/

Here are some more advanced level articles to discuss:

http://www.usability.com.au/resources/index.cfm

…and there are hundreds of little articles that teach simple newbie methods, this is just touching the iceberg of everything out there:

http://webaim.org/techniques/css/invisiblecontent/

So. If Donovan really wants to learn how to code a site properly, I’m happy to teach him and offer solutions as to why we’ve moved away from our old habits. His current site is a good start because the template designers built it off of a standard, tableless design with a focus on semantics. They could take it further, or Donovan, with a few extra lines of code or some sprucing. So how much did this darn close to accessible site cost Donovan? I think Donovan’s last debate was cost – when again, the cost is simply doing it right the first time, and is no extra expense to experienced coders. It could become an expense in a redesign, of course – however, redesigns are inevitable in our business as technology progresses – and the potential loss of a whole slew of target demographics simply because they don’t know what their doing, is poor business management.

Simplebits Web Standards Solutions is an excellent example of a quality book to get started with if need be.

In short – if you’re questioning how to make a site accessible (and not questioning to learn or expand your knowledge, but arguing against the premise or the validity of the methods) you are not a web professional. It’s a shame to see sites such as Out to Lunch arguing against a technology they have little understanding from – but I assume the title says it all.

My original censored post from Donovan’s site that was

This post was a response to him questioning the technology. He deleted this post, but added others’ followup

I’m not agreeing lawsuit is the only option here – but it is an option that they’ve felt is the only recourse for development. I sincerely agree they should have provided access to the site – thought the libertarian in me disagrees with an aggressive lawsuit. However, your statement comparing braille reading to blind access to a website in no way is a strong comparison.

In regard to making the site accessible to the blind – are you challenging the technology or seriously inquiring? If you’re inquiring, development of a site to be blind accessible is very easy – in all serious, it takes making the site developing properly the first time and that’s about the basics. By making a site either HTML or XHTML and properly validated with semantic code… how you should be building your sites now adays anyhow, and how we’ve been building sites for the past 5 years+, will be the base foundation for development. If you’d like to go a step further, you can actually code aural style sheets (just as I code print and handheld style sheets for most sites), and can post sites up for other users to demo.

Aural style sheets:

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/aural.html

Tutorials for proper coding for HTML/XHTML and CSS:

http://htmldog.com/

Alternative, advanced, accessibility information:

http://www.usability.com.au/

More usability information from the usability expert himself (also briefs accessibility reports):

http://www.useit.com/jakob/

Blog on accessibility, including tools:

http://accessify.com/

Forum for critique and questions:

http://www.accessifyforum.com/

Again, though, the development of Target’s site is dated and not professional. Web professionals know their tools, just like a carpenter knows his profession – and they don’t cheap out on the build. Had they built their site and simply followed the guidelines for a proper site:

http://validator.w3.org/

This lawsuit wouldn’t have been an issue. So it comes down to lack of experience, lack of ambition, or lack of admittance to inexperience – all irresponsible and a bad name to our profession.

The changes it would have taken to make Target’s site proper would take me a weekend with a bit of Pete’s coffee:). So the frustration can be a bit understood, both in our profession and from accessible users – because this is a simple and cost effective fix. The benefits of a properly accessible site don’t end with gravitaty a new demographic; they also lower bandwidth costs and improve search engine ranking. So even the tired arguement that this isn’t their target market (no pun intended) is irrelevant to the development of a site.

To paraphrase: Developing the site with modern standards, as professionals do, would have satisfied the need for accessibility. This type of development is the cornerstone to our profession, and easier too develop for. If they wanted to go a step further, they can test the site in a screen reader or inquire in the accessibility forums, as well as an alternate style sheet – but those are just icing, the base cake is plenty for most users. Their failure shows their lack of professionalism when the solution is common knowledge for all of us in the industry that don the titles of ‘web’ anything.

Simplebits is on the scene, and Airbag Industries has a much more detailed follow up.

Apparently the owner, Ray Falkner, is making claims that there is no comparison with Joyent or Corkd. Understandably difficult for someone with no expertise in this industry – however, it’s inappropriate to disregard the claim as irrelevant or unapparent… since he has no expertise in this industry, though I thought a company that delves into a form of art would be a bit more understanding. As a northern california wine drinker, I guess I’ll enjoy wine experimenting elsewhere.

The site was designed by Third & Grand, with side by side flickr comparisons of the work in question and the icons.

Update: The designer makes a very sincere apology – and to tell you the truth, I believe him. While I do not see any need for further retribution, the damage has been done.

Maybe in that respect, I view much of what I saw from the outside in – a business professional watching a niche industry spread it’s wings more and more onto the net. Though coming into your own can have it’s growing pains: poorly doctored marketing slogans, or click defined buzz words tend to be a repeated theme. Most of us have grown accustomed to it; but it’s slowly eating at my net enthusiasm.

This opinion is varied indeed, most certainly mine is biased, and can depend largely how or where you grew up. I had a large group of friends with varying ages, some of which I still talk with; but I was also taking the path of designer with writing tendencies, and I had little taste for segregated clicks that guarded inside jokes, member idolization, or the outsiders occasional snide glare.

While I sat within some of the speaking, and heard the occasional ‘Get your blog on’ or ‘Got blog’ cliché, I felt a slight reflection of high school days gone past. I understand the need to reflect a certain rapport with your target demographic, but huddling inside a maze of 2.0 jokes with lead developers self proclaiming themselves the new elite, only slightly nauseates me. We will always have our own inside remarks, it’s inevitable in that we do something others do not (just like lawyers or doctors or creative directors, we all have inside knowledge to our craft) – but when it feels like a poor attempt at elevating your social status, for reasons I won’t delve into armchair psychology, it almost always feels tacky. I would have thought that most of us, past school and onto our professions, would grow tired at building our own empire of cool – and learned long ago that it can make or break an image, depending on it’s market design.

The irony of the fact that I’m passing judgement on the industry terms in an event where I caught all of the jokes, is not lost on me indeed – nor the potential for feeling as if I’m outside a group that doesn’t regard me as a member. Regardless of the covert intentions, I’m bored of the slogans already, and this post has already run it’s quick course.

Side notation, Wordcamp’s first event was held on the weekend anniversary of the tragic hiroshima bomb. I just call them as I see them.

While its engine is enjoyable, one of the failures of this, and many of the new shopping cart systems, is the lack of clean, semantic code – as important as tableless designs.

What are tableless designs, and why are they important?

The table was originally invented to allow the control and placement of tabular content (content that a user navigate with the ‘tab’ button). Because of the infancy of the web, many designers were forced to utilize tables as a non-tabular content design method for the placement of advanced web designs. While it was almost a necessity for us 10 years ago, tables have not been needed for non-tabular data for the past 5 years – indeed, web professionals base the talent and experience of their peers on this as one of many factors. A web designer who tells you that tables are needed for design, or for the security of cross browser compatible designs, is not an experienced web professional with the knowledge needed to move your site into a modern marketing environment, and is inadvertently damaging your search engine ranking… as well as your prospects for clean future development or certain levels of accessibility (if it is created improperly).

CSS is the replacement, not the div

The replacement of the table was not a tag in html, but another language entirely: Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS for short. CSS allows a designer to call on html tags for position, background images & colors, borders, typography, and much more. By using this language, all the design elements were severed from the content – allowing site look-and-feel updates to be delivered quickly and uniformly across the site without having to touch the content, and vice versa. Although CSS has been around for about a decade, the past 5 years have shown the significant benefits of this language and the consistency it can create, as well as the low cost design benefits of managing a single page over numerous pages, with intertwined code.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer had been the only weak link in the chain for a long time, with it’s slow updates and unsolved bugs – most of which are easily overcome with advanced techniques, and the understanding that most Internet Explorer visitors are accustomed to an aged browser – that they’ll get everything they’re used too, and expert level features reserved for more advanced browsers such as the free Firefox, Opera, and Apple’s Safari browser, to name a few. More information is available at Browse Happy, though the site has not been updated for some time.

Nevertheless, CSS allowed us to create clean and easy to manage HTML (or XHTML) without the frustrated, bloated, meaningless structure that tables created…or web designers created with tables, I should say. Though at times, we’ve found the meaning of the new web lost by replacing tables with another useless tag: div.

What’s ‘the div’ & why has it been misused?

The div tag is really a divider tag – used to break up elements (like a book into chapters, or a document into contained design elements), and has no meaning in relevance to code. It does not tell Google that the content inside is the document title, or an important element of this page is here. It simply exist as a tag for designers and developers to manage their code – but it is meaningless, and that benefit is also it’s problem.

When designing or developing a web page, meaning is everything. The header of a website should be the title of that pages content, or the title of that pages owner, such as:

<h1>dotfive</h1>

Simple, elegant, small, and understandable to search engines or handicap devices the world over. However, designers have inadvertently jumped on the CSS bandwagon by claiming tables to all be evil, and tableless is all the rage. This black and white opinion has left most designers writing code as:

<div id=”mainheader”>dotfive</div>

But a div means nothing, so that the designer has lost all the benefit of using proper, semantic code – in this case, a header tag. They not only have an extra ID to manage in their CSS versus a styled h1 tag, but Google and screen readers do not notice that element as the main title to a web page. A simple line of code becomes dead weight to the benefit of a larger audience, and a higher search engine ranking.

In short, a div has been abused as a replacement for the table tag – CSS was always the replacement, the div was just a tool to support html content and css.

Semantic code

Semantic code can be defined as HTML (or XHTML) written in a manner where tags define the hierarchy of importance for the content. Dave Shea, a leader in modern web design, defines semantic code as:

Semantic Markup is the result of using (X)HTML elements for their proper, intended usage.

The term is frequently used loosely, and certain tags are open to debate regarding their semantic value in code – but the goal is nonetheless:

1. Easy Maintenance and Simple Redesigns (smaller, more defined code = cheaper building and rebuilding)
2. A step in the right direction in focusing on Accessibility
3. Faster download for smaller files
4. More intelligent interpretation of your content

I typically tell young designers to think of HTML or XHTML as a method to create an outline of content – wrap those words in tags that will structure the outline, just like you’d write a hierarchal outline for a school essay. The result is meaningful guides to a gold mine of information, all important to the growing company. It is therefore an important aspect of web design to avoid using redundant divs with meaningless classes or ID’s instead of the powerful (X)HTML tags that this content was originally defined to embody. Further, in depth, documentation on semantic code is available at Brainstorms & Raves thorough article.

The tableless template of Cube Cart

So when I first stepped into a development of a Cube Cart-driven site, I was excited about its quoted:

Valid XHTML & CSS Code

but was immediately let down by the current amount of templates without focus on semantics. Most were developed with div-riddled code that used multiple classes and ID’s as a replacement for proper document outline structure – which would have resulted in store designs devastating to our clients’ future growth and improved search engine ranking.

In the hopes of improving development, I’m giving these base codes back to the community for download. These are only the .tpl files, empty style sheets, and button folder (with the exception of the pop-up image template, as I find it a dead development tool) – the intention is for Cube Cart developers that want to have a base xhtml foundation. Some of the code maybe irrelevant for your usage, but it should be a means of avoiding hours of recoding. Much of this code was utilized for the clean development of Pink Pinstripes, and will be used for the upcoming redesign of Kamalaspa – without further ado:

Download a zip of the semantic base code

Legal Notations

It has been requested that any link to this article not be received on the official Cube Cart site; and all links to this said article have been removed. In appreciation, any code used in the prior mentioned attached files can (and is, in fact, warmly welcomed) be used by designers and developers utilizing Cube Cart’s engine, so long as any improvements they take the kindness to share alike. Releasing or duplication of this code by Cube Cart the company, in official release or download from their members site, is therefore strictly prohibited, and governed by a Creative Common’s license.

Please feel free to contact us with any suggestions or input!

/usr/lib/php4

Whoops – but easy fix. Log in as root, and open up /etc/php.ini – on line 428 (atleast for me) you’ll see:

extension_dir = /usr/lib/php4

Change that line to the new location of those PHP 5 modules, which is:

extension_dir = /usr/lib/php/modules

And viola, PHP 5 running nice and happy.

We strongly recommend that you create your website using html, and not a server side language such as php or asp. The reason for this is that Google will find your products on standard html pages, but is a lot less likely to if your site is dynamic in php, asp or any other server side language. As Google is driving most sales on e-commerce websites, this is an important consideration. Research has shown that you will make less sales if the area of your site listing your products is not in plain html. Plain html pages can be identified because their address will end in ‘.htm’ or ‘.html’. Please remember this if you are considering using any of our competitors offerings.

I’d REALLY love to see the research in that development – from what I know, that is contrary to much of the popular opinion now adays… especially considering dynamic code is parsed just like a browser when google comes by. Care to comment on that one Roman Cart? I’ve sent you an email.

Taming talent

More often than not, the intentions of a Design Manager is to pass on the training and skill that was, hopefully successfully, passed onto themselves. By building leaders in the war on ‘look’ we also build future allies and life long friends; a network of ambitious talent always looking for the next theme or the next technology or the next technique… that never ends. I mean it sincerely – the cliche of ‘life long learner’ is cliche because it’s deeply true. The talent you train today will someday train you on XHTML 3, lead you to greener pastures from your dated pdf-x standard, and above all, guide you into the new generation. That is your first warning in creative direction: clipping the wings of your talent will stale your career… and you would deserve it. The young artist who surpasses their teacher is an a-typical story for the commonplace the story has become in our culture.

Of course, it’s self righteous to assume mentoring is simply a pedestal for your own career aspirations – it’s barely a brick in the wall, and the point of this path is the next generation… but it’s hard to escape the fact that Creative Direction does indeed become a reflection of your own emotional development, artistic growth, and leadership skills. We are in a highly opinionated business, bound by years of theory and personal taste – Creative Direction is not immune.

It is important to understand, then, that your goal is not to clone yourself. It’s all you know, and we’ll forgive you, but the result of your guidance should never be an artist with talents that largely reflect your own. Sure… they’ll be influenced; so much as the idiosyncrasies of our friends and family wear on us. But mirror images of your art does not create an individual with individual ideas that grow individual designs.

So how do you tame talent? You don’t. You feed it. You may tame a career production artist into understanding the technical requirements of the job at hand, but the idea of controlling design in what you define as ‘design reason’ is egotistic and poorly grounded at best. You might as well start your own sales empowered evangelical following because you’re entertaining the same ideal: hard selling your beliefs on another persons beliefs. Besides, respect is a result of the influential, and we’re in the industry of showing face.

Building talent

So how do you influence talent? Do you pour the foundations of theory on them and suggest a roof to design their own? Can you build talent… sure you can, to an extent, and as long as there’s ambition behind the talent.

For every 40 designers or IT reps I interview, I usually find 15 with pure talent. I’m lucky if one of them has ambition. More times than not, I’ve chosen ambition over talent. You can never motivate another person is the heart of the problem. Money will ease their concerns but won’t end with more drive. Praise may get them through the hour but it won’t lead them when their left to manage themselves. Ambition, or the strong desire to better or achieve, is a human trait individual to… well… the individual. Anyone who’s ever told you that your job as a Director or a Manager is to motivate your team has never taken a course on supervision or lead a successful team. Your job is to create an environment that is ‘motivational’ and ‘healthy’, but it is not to motivate your members – that is their path to choose.

Now I’m not naive to assume that all talent can be built – but all talent can be built upon when given the will to succeed. The fine line is understanding the balance, again, of building in the image of your opinion versus building the individual before you. Your artist must define their own goals, and put in the leg work to achieve those goals – but you can be a guide, and you can help them cross the bridges that need attention.

So how do you build talent? Building talent is just common sense – providing your prospective talent with the tools and information to use those tools. Websites, books, demonstrations of techniques, thorough explanations of techniques. Recommended Do’s and Don’ts – followed with why and how. Writer’s block is simply a weaker vocabulary than needed to complete the article – it is the same for design. Most artists have the image in their head, the craft on how to create it is mote to pass.

Coaching talent

While there are many differing opinions of management models – I have almost always found ‘coaching’ to be more successful with creative orientated personalities. The Coach chooses talent, and guides that talent to their individual success. The talent looks to the coach for knowledge of the game and technique, the Coach looks to the talent to enact their master plan with success. Coaching, by model, favors self starters with self defined ambitions – and allows more room for creativity to flourish; typically because there are firm rules, but rules spaced widely enough to allow for individual expression and growth.

Allow your talent to reach your plan by coaching the direction, not firmly defining it. For example: A client’s logo design for us would begin with my explanation about the company inquiring about the logo (both historical and current information), their target market, the image they’re interested in conveying, and any budgeted rules that define the solution. I’d ask that each designer mockup their own vision over the next few hours, and meet later for either a group or one on one discussion about the successes and what to look for next round – where all of us would meet to merge or grow the idea or ideas we felt reflected the task.

Six years ago, I probably would have started that discussion with my own sketches on the board within a group, and most likely tainting the unique vision of the designers on my team with predefined conceptions of the creation I was after. I would not be coaching in that process, I’d be firmly defining the direction and leaving little wiggle room. Some projects may require this sort of discussion – but typically these are the projects that are forcefully art directed by clientele (which you should question accepting in the first place), production art, or art mirrored from a previously designed branding identity… but not when the very cost your client pays for is unique creation.

Individual Achievers and the Manager

It must also be understood that some people are not managers… they are individual achievers, and vice versa. Some Managers do not, or will not, have the level of skillset that their talent conveys – they may not even have the extensive experience. The talent of the manager is dealing with people, funneling requests, and bringing order to the daily chaos that is business. Individual achievers may not excel at managing or dealing with other people in this manner, and their talents are as a lead player – like a star running back with little interest to coach, but every interest to play and to play with their opinion. Understanding this will help you mentor your designer; not every one will become an entrepreneur or a Creative Director as you would… some will always be a high level designer by choice and by definition. Therefore, the status of a Manager is simply a parallel career path to the individual achiever – one is not ranked more successfully than the other.

Management Reflection

To go full circle, the lesson is always reflective of the teacher. What effort, heart, and will you put into supporting and leading your young, and old, students, will undoubtedly teach you to grow as a manager and as an artist yourself. Invite your designers to review and openly discuss how you’re helping them, and ask them what it is you can do to help them more. You may find that the daily grind of business can blind you to the needs of the talent around you, jeopardizing your business and your own outlets for supportive development. Above all, Creative Direction is counter productive when it stifles the talent around you; that talent includes you.

More specifics on Creative Direction and Management to come…

Much of the event was assembled in haste – reminding me of a fear and urgency I came to understand as a young writer, stage manager, and lead designer for a traveling stage production in my college years. I can sincerely empathize with the hurried, last minute eruptions that befall anything that requires corralling 300+ people into a single room. Considering this event was proposed only a short few weeks ago, and a finalized schedule was only announced at midnight the evening prior, I am impressed by Matt’s ambition. For most, this will be remembered as a resounding initial success for what’s become the new found niche of the internet community.

Starting out…

Nevertheless, we didn’t make it through much. Already running late, Doug and I grabbed coffee, grabbed a cab, and scurried into the Swedish American Hall at 9:30am, saddened by missing Matt’s speech regarding the future of WordPress… only to find out that the schedule had listed his speech at 11:00am. Neither of us had checked our emails for the last minute schedule in the morning, and we’d assumed that the “State of the Word” would be the first talk on the billing. We sat down to the opening events and quickly realized that many of the speakers had not really prepared their discussions (although many were there to lead rather than to teach). This was coupled with loose-knit marketing by some of the companies welcomed to the conference. We found ourselves conversing during the early speeches with other members while the overhead discussion turned into a round table debate rather than a training session. Realizing our rudeness, we decided to jump ship and return when Matt took center stage.

The future of wordpress

Matt opened by inviting a gentleman to sing a guitar rendition of some ‘blogging’ song, as well as various other medleys that peaked his interest. While on a personal note I felt his skillset was high, the artistic air was lost through fifteen minutes of music without the intended discussion. When the discussion did begin, Matt handled himself wonderfully on stage with intrigued developers – but I felt the conversation, again, became more a round table discussion and historical notation of WordPress, lacking any real substance to the future or direction of the application. I found this eerily familiar of daily mailing lists and IRC chats about what to do and what to talk of…and it didn’t interest me one bit.

At this point, I began to question my motives for attending the event, and what the event actually entailed: I came for a developer’s conference and to show improved, outside ideas of WordPress to dotfive employees. I found a fledgling group beginning to decide whether it was a blogging community application for fresh users, or a high level development tool for content management systems and expert level publication. For the most part, this is reminiscent of WordPress’s simple marketing: they’re shooting for the easy development – a step up from blogger, a step down from your own high-end custom system. What I wanted was specific demonstrations of the advanced applications I can create with my staff, and I found none of them.

WordPress & CMS

One of the sad comments I heard come from some users I spoke with after this event was that ‘WordPress can’t do CMS.’ I didn’t stay here for too long, so I’m not sure whether they demonstrated creating a site using WordPress as a CMS or spent most of the time just talking about the idea of it – or if their development was largely unsuccessful. A pity, as WordPress has been fantastic on many sites we’ve developed. I invite anyone with the desire to see a CMS system built using WordPress to feel free to ask us for further information, or a demonstration. WordPress has been instrumental in managing company sites for many of our portfolio examples, including this site.

The question is: how much customization do you need? When I first started using WordPress in this manner, I loved it… then hated it… then balanced myself squarely in the middle. It has its home as a publication system, but can be structured to handle many other aspects of a website. However, this is ‘hacking’ the original intent, and on many occasions, we’ve found ourselves creating a CMS from scratch, or using tools such as Ruby on Rails – we find that as we develop, each project has it’s own application and needs, and that they vary greatly from client to client.

Nevertheless, WordPress can easily become a strong CMS for many a site – if you think otherwise, I’m guessing you haven’t dove that deeply into the code, or just haven’t had the right person to show you how. If it’s the latter, this post is an open invitation for us to demonstrate – even for Matt and the WordPress crew if desired.

WordPress & growing pains

One topic that bobbed in the back of my head was brought up when a blogger noted some of his upgrade ‘fear’ is ‘what information will be lost in the update of files,’ if any. The topic grew into reassurances of the safety of the upgrade, and into a discussion of the interoperability of old and new data between some users around me. With goose bumps, I thought of the early internet, and the fears of breaking dated websites or dated applications – and while that mindset is deeply important as developers age, I wonder where the line will be drawn between leading WordPress forward, and halting it for the old experience base. I trust that developers won’t be afraid to break a few eggs, so long as what they create is a better application… though I think this is a question we all ask ourselves.

And so it goes

…and that’s about when we decided to leave, sad to say, near the end of Matt’s speech. I took with me the reminder that WordPress is an excellent tool – one that we’ve used to develop over 30 CMS systems for clients- ranging from online stores to customized log books for engineering and security companies. It’s a fantastic balance of refined control and advanced level development for dynamic sites… but in the end, maybe WordPress is what I was seeing, when systems like Ruby on Rails or Django are really what I’m wanting. Maybe WordPress needs to sever its development and, should it prove to do true marketing, target itself to the average blogger, and an advanced level version for the power user like dotfive. I don’t think we’re the only people creating sites for high-end clients with this software – but I didn’t find too much of that discussion (or see any other companies at this convention). Again, it’s possible that my needs are not in the realm of WordPress, and instead of using WordPress for certain sites and other technology for certain sites, we’ve simply outgrown it and should look for our own customized builds.

What I’d like to see next year

Specific examples, walk-throughs, demonstrations by those of us who get their hands dirty using this in the real world, with a budget and deadlines, every day. True blue methods to creating advanced WordPress sites: there’s enough documentation on the basics. A convention like this is a time to get some of us (self-proclaimed experts) together to pass our knowledge on to others, share in our challenges and successes, and drive new innovation into our technique. To push the application, together, and subsequently push each other into new design and development experiences. If there’s going to be companies marketing and plugging their products, leave it to a specific session or have them setup booths in the hall… we’d be happy to as well. As The Streets note, let’s push things forward. But if that’s not the intended direction of WordPress, if it’s really an application-lite, then all is well and my fears are my own.

When we work with young designers, we almost always have to retrain them. Not only from the questionable information that their schools prescribe (with every person fresh out of college we’ve had to spend significant amounts of time and resources to undo some out-dated training), but from some of the dated documentation that’s open on the web. Some of this can be chalked up to elder developers unwilling to listen or to learn new techniques in an industry that changes overnight, others who’ve given up to the pace, and still others who refuse to accept the change. However it’s viewed, it’s changed; and it will continue to do so at the same pace computers develop.

Recently, when training an intern, I invited some IT staff into a data-packed, one day seminar at dotfive-quarters to discuss the beginning and current state of the web, entry level. In the spirit of the web, it’s an HTML slide show, coupled with Javascript goodness to allow all users to enjoy with technology created by Eric Meyers (icon and leader in web development) – you’re welcome to read it: The world wide web they forget to teach you …that I keep complaining about

Questions or comments? Feel free to let us know, thank you!

And like these professions, there are specialists in every spectrum, as there are in every design corner – none so commonly confused as the general difference between ‘designing for the internet’ and ‘designing for print production’. Often times I find it the hardest to teach an experienced print designer the fact that while the majority of his/her theories and talents will be extremely useful; a large, commonly used chunk is not parallel to the ideas of web design.

Why is web design so different than print design?

The user experience. The technology. Much.

A print design is a physical thing – handed to a potential client, gazed by a family of 4 in a passing sedan, sitting on your desk next to your computer. In the print design world every design controls the dimensions of the page, and creates engaging elements to grab your attention. It can be argued that much of print design is given to an unsuspecting user rather than the user seeking out the print design (when was the last time you went looking for an advertisement?)

On the ironic contrary, visitors to your website actively seek you out. But in every sense, it’s not a physical element you can hand a person (and to some, it lacks that human texture because of it). While web designers control how the elements are displayed on the screen, we cannot control the dimensions of that screen (from your Mom’s 17″ monitor, to my dual 23″ monitors, the size of that browser is a significant difference). Our job is agreeably to grab your attention, but also to help guide you to find the information you need in a manner that doesn’t break that attention. Can’t grab your attention in 7 seconds or less? Users don’t even have to waste paper by throwing out your add, they just close the window.

For the most part, some of those century old print theories run smack into a decade of web development with only varying amounts of translation.

Web design for the client, a brief primer

If you’ve never built or worked with a successful website, the web can be a cold place for business. It’s filled with a terrifying amount of dated information (6 months is old in our industry), and home grown users who teach themselves on low level applications such as Microsoft’s Frontpage, and sad to say even high level apps such as the company previously known as Macromedia’s Dreamweaver, saturate the industry with misplaced and ill-informed information from years gone by. You can hardly blame anyone, the nature of the industry is built on varying and competing formats – all aggressively marketed as the #1 end all for your needs.

Suffice it to say, there are many differences in web design that you need to consider over print design when evaluating your business, though most common I find:

1. Content writing: Not only does your content reflect on the image of your business, but it can make or break your search engine ranking. Professional content writing is often overlooked in the print medium – but where that will simply look bad as a presentation, in the web world it will directly reflect how your clients can find your business.
2. The layout: You can control the choice of paper size in print, but you cannot control the size of your clients monitor. Designs must be flexible, or, if fixed, to account for the possibility of varying sized screens.
3. The technique: If a print design is laid out improperly, it’ll cost you money in production or lost time. If the code is not properly constructed in a web design, it could cost you search engine ranking, clients ability to view your website, and future expenses to update and manage the site. Websites should be built with proper, tableless, semantic code (and it should run through a validator clean); the fear is that these terms are sometimes confused and misinterpreted in the industry by designers who use them as marketing points rather than actual philosophies to design by – your designer and developer should be able to explain thoroughly the path they chose, how it will improve your business, and why.
4. The experience: Web design, simply put, is a means of delivery information to potential clients. Much like a brochure or catalog, it packages and controls the information you choose with the end goal of creating more business – but, as I said before, people don’t physically accept your marketing material, and if the information is a failure in delivery, is easily and quickly discarded by one or a few gestures. A website is one location in a large pool; it’ll sink if your visitors can’t find the information they need quickly, or you flood them with stale commercial marketing in a medium that does not enjoy commercials.
5. Accessibility: Professionals know that accessibility is a sincere focus in the print, as well as the design world. A poorly crafted product display can deter a potential buyer – the same can be said about an online buyer. The internet has allowed visitors to access stores and businesses that at one time may never have been possible. While this demographic may not be ‘assumed’ as your target market, you could never be sure of who your visitors are – and why would you ever want to run a business where you purposely block someone who wants to give you money? In the end, accessibility does not cost more, it simply requires doing the job right. Much less, building your sites this way means you’ve made semantic code and, thankfully, improved your search engine ranking at the same time.
6. The Players: Professional business that dominate the brick and mortar may very well not dominate the internet (or vice versa, as is the case of Amazon.com). Many businesses research their competition whether it be in a business plan, or in your weekly marketing meetings, but now that must include or be focused on those businesses that are internet related. Learn what they’re doing right, and learn what they’re doing wrong. Their failure can be your success.
7. The technology: Instead of debating paper types and print processes, you’ll now need a domain name, a server, and if you’re a store, a set of technologies to accept payments and prevent theft. A professional understands this concept and can lead you through the process with little to no loss of sanity. Print design rarely has to balance this level of technical requirements – at the most, their catalog must include methods for order or contacting people regarding purchases.

And still, it changes

Stack on top that the internet is in it’s infancy, and the ideas change within a few months, and you have an energetic, fast paced industry only slowed by corporations who can’t keep up. Firms that were at leaders in the 90′s may have little relevance now, and those of us in the now could be little more than a blogging memory in years to come – but what defines those of success is their ambition, and their adaptability. While your print designers can grow and change in a matter of years since the days of Rubilith to the modern desktop; a quality web designer digests daily improvements and dabbles from xhtml to PHP. Both industries impact each other, but web design moves at a speed print design will barely know.

What a professional can do for you

They ease your transition or growth into the web industry. Some companies will opt for home grown or friend/neighbor/cousin developed websites that can be had for cheap – but while they can give you a low end website with little to no cost, if the quality is not up to professional levels, the majority of these companies will be looking to redesign and redevelop within a short time.

Much of the frustration can come from the lack of regulations or guidelines in an industry that’s just setting foot into a solid future, bounced back from near death in a financial market built more on hype and less on policy; and that can be the biggest difference between an age old print industry and the web frontier. But this is changing: education and professional organization have planted the seed of structure from everything to web standardized coding methods to contractual agreements. The web is finding itself, and the benefit will be finding your niche in a limitless, expansive environment for business. Professionals list ourselves with supporting firm lists, pay membership dues and market ourselves as the industry leaders we hold ourselves too. They can increase your audience, your clientele, deliver your message, and sell your product online so long as you let them.

None of that could have happened had I not been given the proper foundation… so many schools forget the sincere importance of a technical background or, if anything, the origin of those programs and terms you’re using. Designers in print often can’t layout their brochures or catalogs properly and require hours of production artist redevelopment simply because no one taught, or stressed, the need to train that left side of your brain just as much as your right. Designers in web often rush themselves into dreamweaver lessons not even assuming that the same amount of time it’d take to learn a new programs icons and file menus, it would take to learn how to code it properly and intelligently in half the time… it intimidates you because they put that in your head, code is just like writing. It is art. When a painter is an expert in his craft, he knows the technical requirements that come with mixing his paint or the canvas that’s needed or the brush that’s right for the techniques.

I didn’t understand this at 16. Steve Bojesen understood this at 25; and as I gracefully snubbed the idea of making a silkscreen to improve my skills as a desktop artist, he walked me through the process of a basic 2 color Illustrator design – to film separation – to lining up those films and punching it – to processing and stripping those films onto a silkscreen. He spent numerous hours over the next few years explaining how wrong my horrendous Corel Draw separations were, and those changes guided me into masterful Adobe Illustrator layouts for production. He taught me about PMS colors, process colors, color science and the techniques used to mix colors for silk screens. He showed me how a silk screen is stretched and the frames built. He loaded those frames and pudding inks on presses and showed me how to make shirts that cook or are UV flashed, and how to print on other materials, or the occasional poster design. Most people would never take the time to teach a young artist, but Steve Bojesen taught me more in those few years with American Outfitters than any college professor I ever had.

It was an interesting time, he was one of many people around me every day of my life that offered advice into not only careers, but in life. I had the fortune of watching his impressive Illustration and Painting skills grow into the talents of a great fine artist, and the gift of trading the printing skills he gave me into training him on his first strong migration from fine artist with a pencil, to graphic designer with a mouse. Shortly thereafter, he told me how he was looking to work as a designer for Harley Davidson in the Milwaukee area, and spent hours over the weekend doing these beautiful illustrations and paintings representing changes in the Harley image; which landed him the job and onto a new career.

Before I moved to San Francisco he married his beautiful fiancee of the time, Tina (I knew no one but employees at that wedding, all 5+ years older than I was, and had little to do but joke around, see how happy Steve and Tina were, and try and slip the occasional beer) – he told me how he wanted to have children, but he was so afraid he couldn’t support them and that they and his wife deserved more. When Steve and Tina had their first little girl, I told him congratulations and asked him how he felt, he said:

I don’t know why I ever waited. Don’t ever wait.

Which to a young man debating on moving clear across the country to a place that he’d never been with no friends or family out there, was more than a little inspiring, and I never forgot it.

In the end, I didn’t know Steve well, nor his family, and I was no more an acquaintance than a friend. A co-worker that joked with you on breaks or took lunch on occasion or taught you a thing or two as you had one too many at the company golf outing. He was always full of energy and humor – or full of fire when he was angry with a job coming down the line. He’d talk about how he loved the Beastie Boys, and shared the dual disc greatest hits with us when it first hit CD.

Even though I wasn’t much in his life, he helped mold me into the person I am today. A resounding thank you would not do his sincerity and transparency justice, but I thank him nonetheless. When I heard that Steven C. Bojesen passed July 4th, 2006 in his prime at 34 with such abruptness, I regret I never thanked him when he was alive… and I don’t know why I ever waited. He seemed to be a good, decent person – and he was a mentor in my life.

My best wishes and genuine condolences to Steve’s parents, his siblings, his two little girls, his wife Tina, and his surviving relatives.

Sincerely,

Brady J. Frey

Donations

A college fund for Olivia and Annelise Bojesen is being setup by the surviving family, though it may take some time to finalize. For those of you wishing to donate now, check or money order is the preferred method. Please make all checks out to Tina Bojesen, and mail them to:
PIASECKI-ALTHAUS FUNERAL HOME
In care of Tina Bojesen
3720 39th Avenue
Kenosha, WI 53144

The phone number for PIASECKI-ALTHAUS FUNERAL HOME, is (262) 658-4101 if you have any questions.

Microsoft Word is not a friend

While it’s common in the industry to type up your content quick and easy in Microsoft Word, it’ll come back to haunt you as write for the web. Since the late 90′s, as some of us know, Microsoft has lagged in the web arena – most prominent being their web browser, Internet Explorer. Where the hobble of development and support of standards has cost clients an enormous financial expense; Microsoft’s dated frontpage output of unprofessional and nauseating code is also a worldwide frustration for developers. Vocally, we ask you to avoid these in your everyday needs, but we understand that Microsoft Office applications are a necessary tool for major companies (though we recommend the free and excellent Open Office wherever we can) – however, they tool fall far behind in understand what exactly is the modern web, and how to work effectively to use it in your business.

Most notable to our clients, is it’s lack of using valid web character entities. So what are character entities?

Logical, Mathematical, and other symbols

The web is still in it’s infancy, but to manage unique languages across quick, and invisible, barriers—guidelines had to be made to balance various characters needed to communicate with worldwide languages, and to communicate with computers.

As a default, we support http://www.unicode.org/, coded in all our clients pages, that references UTF-8. In short, this means we support the largest amount of special characters possible for Latin languages, and science languages.

To write these special characters and display them through a browser, you type them in code:
http://www.digitalmediaminute.com/reference/entity/
For example:
Ó Should produce an Ó

Most of this won’t be a huge concern for our clients— our content management systems attempt to read your print typed characters and translate them before it’s published to the web… but for the occasional Latin accent, soft returns, mathematical symbols, glyphs, and smart quotes, you’ll have a problem. As I do with almost every word document professionals send me.

So what do you do?

First off, it’s recommended to avoid building your web content in Microsoft word—using a program such as text editor (so long as you save as simple text, .txt, not rich text, .rtf), a web based editor (text wrangler or BBEdit from Bare Bones on the mac, for example) or our web based administration application provided by us or your developer of choice is always preferred. By default, Microsoft word does two things:

1. Much like all print layout applications, it turns regular straight quotes, ” and ’, into smart quotes ” and ’ without your intervention. This is desired in print, but not for web—certain browsers will only post a question mark—, an unusual box, or nothing at all
2. It adds unneeded space between characters and makes soft returns for reasons we can’t imagine—these also will show the noticeable and annoying question mark.

When these show up on websites, the industry term (I’m serious), is called ‘Gremlins’. You have gremlins in your text. Aside from avoiding bright light and water, not using MS Word is a good step to avoid gremlins in your text.

Double spaces for print and web

Arguably the definitive guide for typography, The Elements of Typographic Style
by Robert Bringhurst:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0881792063/clagnut-20/104-9605534-0735156

Can help you in your print and web content by pointing out specific guidelines to follow—it will help your clients read your content more efficiently, and more accurately.

One thing to point out is the use of double spaces after sentences, a scorn in print and web design—Robert Bringhurst knows best:

In the nineteenth century, which was a dark and inflationary age in typography and type design, many compositors were encouraged to stuff extra space between sentences. Generations of twentieth century typists were then taught to do the same, by hitting the spacebar twice after every period [full stop]. Your typing as well as your typesetting will benefit from unlearning this quaint Victorian habit. As a general rule, no more than a single space is required after a period, colon or any other mark of punctuation.

The mechanical typewriters of old did not understand kerning (the spacing between letters) and it was a necessity to double space after small punctuation to account for it’s mechanical weakness. This is not the case for modern software and modern computers, and by default, the web offsets this human trait in translating multiple spaces into a single space. If you actually need two spaces, it is recommended to use a space character entity to add multiple spaces in your content.

However, for print design, of course, your programs will not compensate for that, and it would do you justice to avoid the practice.

After thoughts…

MS Office programs are not the only culprit in writing for the web; for the most part, any print orientated application will fail under the needs of web typography (Quark and InDesign for example). We specifically target this application mostly because it’s the #1 writing app for businesses (professional writers excluded), and for the most part, parades a mistaken air of web readiness. We invite our clients to use the programs that best fit their productivity with the hope that this little bit of information helps increase that productivity.

Color we see vs. color we produce

The human eye can see 7,000,000 colors, or so the experts estimate. RGB, the reflection of Red Green and Blue light, shows only about 13% of what the human eye can see. CMYK, only 7%. In that estimation alone you can see why color is a significant frustration for an artist — with our current technology, we cannot reproduce the human eye.

Ever wondered why you make a beautiful, brilliant blue in photoshop, swing your color to CMYK from RGB, and it turns into a matte, dull blue? That’s because the color you created cannot be reproduced in CMYK… it’s too far out of the gamut.

Gamut?

Gamut, as described by Google via RockPrint Dictionary is:

Every color combination that is possible to produce with a given set of colorants on a given device or system.

So when we think of a color space, we think of a 3D glob or a 2D drawing that shows how much color we can produce within our device limitations. Adobe RGB has a ‘wider gamut’, so it can produce a larger percentage of colors compared to the human eye. sRGB has a slightly smaller gamut than Adobe RGB, so it produces a smaller amount of color compared to the human eye than Adobe RGB (however, it’s been largely adopted as the preferred color space in Monitors and certain RGB devices, so you will find that many professionals recommend sRGB if that is your target output — I have a tendency to prefer Adobe RGB, but I have varied outputs, as I’ll explain below). CMYK is, again, much smaller a color space compared to the various forms of RGB — print design is therefore an even more extreme frustration in color consistency to any designer. That’s the last time I write extreme, I promise.

So from the beginning of your design, to the ultimate end result, whether it’s a web application or a a hi-resolution screenprinted poster, your job is to control the translation of your color from one device to the next… let’s talk about each color technology specifically.

CMYK or CMYKcmOG or CMYKcm or Pantone…

The print world seems largely the most technical and most confusing in design — what you see on your monitor is NOT what you get on your printer, or your professional proofs, etc. However you calibrate your monitor (as we’ll discuss more later), you’re essentially translating an RGB screen to a CMYK print.

Cyan (pronounced ‘Sighanne’ not like the native american tribe), Magenta, Yellow, and Black come together in a series of dots to make the impression various colors when someone looks at a CMYK print. In theory, CMY should produce Black for you, but impurities of man made inks (namely, the materials we use to create them) required the early producers of color to a make a ‘Black’ ink. The rumor is, the acronym ‘K’ was used because ‘B’ was always mistaken as ‘Blue’ (and you’ll hear more than one comment in your lifetime from a client, client’s assistant, or young designer that your color could use more Blue… when they probably mean it could use a bit more Cyan) — rumors aside, most of us in the industry accept the term that K stands for the ‘Key Plate’, the area of detail an artist created, commonly designed in black.

As Digital Print has moved ahead in our industry as a strong leader for print methods, CMYK has grown into the more advanced CMYKcm (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Light Cyan, Light Magenta), allowing for more accurate printing in areas such as skin tone, and CMYKcmOG (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Light Cyan, Light Magenta, Orange, and Green), allowing for ‘Hi-Fi’ Printing, with an impressive color output offering a huge gamut of color compared to the original CMYK.

Wikipedia has an interesting, albeit brief discussion of the CMYK color model worth reading.

What’s coming next?

We’ll talk briefly about RGB, LAB, ICC profiles, mix them all together in Color Calibration, Color Theory, Color Psychology, Controlling color in your daily applications… and the growing frustration of Color in the Design industry.

First and foremost, it’s all flash. The entire store system is a full flash player — and while the novice will love the look and feel (it’s style is very high end designer, and screams print design over web design usability), they’ll immediately realize they cannot bookmark individual products, they can’t send their friends and family individual products, their back and forward buttons are broken… all because of a self contained flash system. These issues are enormous — they scream death to the average website, but are far worse for a product driven site that is all about user interaction. We can argue lack of search engine ranking, but converse’s brand should stand up to that need.

Next up to bat, that self contained flash system is disgustingly slow. I’m on a cable modem, highest speed in the area courtesy of Comcast — and I gave up making my own slip on chucks (I’m a sneaker fan). Waiting for transitions, selecting options or reverting options, waiting for preview rendering… a drag. Flash has it’s place in a dynamic display of customization like this, but it’s failure in a full system is readily apparent.

Ironically, it also suffers from Mystery Meat navigation… you can argue the user to this site would be more tech savvy, as their target audience denotes a youthful modernism — but symbolism takes a back door towards usability on the internet. Your design packaging can get away with this in the print world, but not on the web when symbols mean interaction.

Above all… where is the focus on accessibility and handheld devices? Doesn’t converse care for users of all backgrounds? Even if an online handicap audience of buyers is 1% of the worlds online population, and we estimate 6 million users connected to the internet (a low ballpark of an old guestimation), that’s 60,000 buyers online at any time; how can you call yourself a business professional if you’re willing to lose buyers simply because your developers lack modern skills considered standard issue in our profession?

It’s a shame to see a solid reverse in what standards were meant to improve. Converse, the design is beautiful on print; it technically fails on the web, even that simply html has 22 errors. Sad to say, I’ll be shopping with other sites, maybe I’ll find a new sneaker love?

Playing off this idea, I realized I still find an eccentric amount of misconceptions in not only proper (or recommended) print design methods, but also print production, color theory for both web and print, types of printers, tips and tricks for print production methods, and integrating workflows from your print to your web and vice versa.

I’ve been lucky to work from the bottom — in high school I was a young production artist for a Screen Print/Digital Print/Embroidery/Vinyl Graphics Firm considered top in the region; so my foundation was technical while I worked my way up the design industry to Art Director and my own freelance. As I developed my design skills in school and in work, I continued finding myself teaching management and fellow employees alike in things such as color calibration, how to properly build files to spend less time building and more time designing… and I still find it a never ending lesson.

More and more I’m unimpressed by the level of technical training colleges put out for their young designers, in both the web and in print. It’s a level of knowledge that needs to be stressed more assertively and openly — it will make you a better designer. No one’s telling you to become a master in this arena, but the basics are just that — painters know how to mix paint, web designers should know css, print designers should know how to build files. The arguement is a common one for each specialty of our industry, Quark not included.

Regardless, feel free to ask questions and dig for answers as we discuss building your files properly, controlling your file output, tips and tricks, types of printers and printing processes, file types for print and web — but we’ll begin with Color Science (including brief discussions of Color Theory and Color Psychology), in a 3 part series.

Lately, we’ve become overwhelmingly swamped — almost to a fault, where we notice that our projects are slipping out of our weak, keyboard ridden designer finger tips. Instead of becoming an assembly line filled with template’s and swoosh laden logos, we’ve opted for the latter; succumb to our innate perfectionism and produce less products with high focus quality.

Potential Clients Respond

For the most part, this went over extremely well — many of our potential projects we have been discussing with we posted noting that our workflow has become overwhelming, and that we cannot give them the direct attention that they and their product deserve – and for some we recommended designers and firms right away, others we noted we’ll keep an eye out, but above all we offered to leave them up on our management system so we can continue to answer questions and guide them as asked pro bono (we often add them to our project management list to help guide them — even if they don’t ultimately choose us for their needs, it’s a much better business decision to take a few minutes of your day and help guide people into the realm of the internet and marketing and branding than to throw them to the wolves of home dreamweaver users, and old school non-standard developers – you’re in the business of relationships, and someday, someone will return the favor to help you. Regardless, I consider it design humanity).

One potential client did not take this so well… in fact, I’d say irate was not the term for it. The project was a simple online store — and most of this the client wanted to learn on their own time — so it was free guidance in some sense. We’ve noted that we can no longer entertain the prospect of designing and coding the store for them (not ‘easy’ as they assumed) regardless of the cost, but that we’d be happy to continue to leave the project management site up to answer questions and offer guided input as inquired.

Not good enough.

The user was ‘highly disappointed’ in us, and felt that we had left him ‘high and dry’, ‘ruined’ his holiday weekend, and created ‘considerable stress’ in his overall life because of our notice… I’d like to note that this project was never agreed to be taken, no money was passed, no contract signed — and save one in house meeting (where the potential client was 3 hours late and threw a fit because I tried to reschedule to not shun another client), one post, and two emails — no other information was passed. The project had sat flat in our management system for almost 2 weeks without any response from the person or answers to the questions we inquired save one notice he posted about a site he thought looked nice.

Instead of me apologizing for the inconvenience, and wishing him all the best (which I did at the end of the email of course), I took the poor course of sparring with his extensive gripes defending our company and our person.

That has failure written all over it.

Business or Personal?

Because of this I’m riding an even more aggressive email — blatantly calling me reactive to his comments, and noting that they were means to guide and teach me about issues I need to potentially overcome in my person and profession – and going out of his way to slam dotfive to any and all potential clients. The assumption that you can offer this advice after brief contact is somewhat unfounded, but he is correct in issues I need to address: reactive responses.

For the most part, many of us can clearly sever business from personal — but when you’ve created the business, it can become understandably personal. This does not justify a personal response: it is simply business.

While on the one front, I should have understood that on the end of this impersonal email is a person stressed about the fact that their cold project just dropped ten degrees — on the other, I should have remembered that business is not meant to be an attack on who or what I am. This does not validate the persons need to chastise us for halting the project bid and offering continued free advice; but it clearly does not allow me the right to respond with ill tempered passion over my business. Because… it’s just business.

Your Reaction reflects your Professionalism

Failure keeps you fresh. A response and one angry client by no means equates to failure, but it does ground you in the fact that all your associates are not you nor will they do business in the way your previous clients respected. People are people, and you’re not anything different. Remember that in every client interaction is a lesson to be thwarted or accepted, and how you choose to enact on your thoughts is a direct reflection of your companies vision.

While I don’t agree with how this client viewed our notation for continued free advice over developing the project ourselves as a death blow to development, I’ve now gained a person not rooting for our vision, but blatantly contrasting that ideal.

Keep. Cool.

The irony here is that Host Rocket states ‘Power Backups’ on it’s Dedicated Host Plan; by that, they mean, they backup to the exact same drive just in a different folder.

So, you want external or tape backup? You had to request it from Host Rocket as an extra fee. You can imagine my surprise as our clients moved to them last year — of course, that’s the first time I’ve heard a host charge extra for backup service… as if anyone didn’t want it in the first place.

Now, after they lost all this client data, you’d think they’d be in a significant hurry to bring that server back up into prestine condition with record speeds? Not really. Here’s what we enjoyed:

• 3 days for the server to be rebuilt
• extra day for cpanel to be installed (the client digs it)
• Mail was back up on the 4th day, with apache rebuilt
• PHP and MySQL were compiled improperly, and a rebuild was necessary — though they specifically put on version 4 when we requested 5 for both, 2 days go by
• A call to support said they’d compile PHP 5.1.4… one day later without results, a call back denotes that this is not true, they will only compile 5.1.2 for me, and they said they would do it by the morning (even though we had 5.1.4 prior too)
• We wake up to find PHP is still at 4, root into the server, and compile it ourselves without troubles to 5.1.2 (5.1.4 was restricted)
• Day 8, we have a new build of apache, loaded with frontpage extensions and buggy with permissions — at the moment the server defaults to 0644 instead of atleast 0764 — as a result, our cache cannot be removed, and any content management updates don’t stick unless I manually remove those cache’s
• Day 9, Host Rocket asks that I chown -R to academys:nobody (though I’m accustomed to www) for all files to see if that cures the ills, of course not
• Day 10, the representative says I may need to look at my Ruby on Rails forums to see if there’s any information… trouble is, I’m not using Ruby on Rails, I’m just using PHP 5, MySQL 5 and XML!
• Day 11, they asked for the root password for the server because it’s not working — worked for me via ssh, ftp, and web login for safari, opera, and firefox
• Day 12, Suggest we change the unmask value for httpd, which we’ll go ahead and do later — but, as they said, they won’t do it for us!

And here we are, Academy Studios has a broken website because permissions won’t stick. All the files are loaded on a back end system — and even though Host Rocket worked perfectly fine before the crash, it doesn’t work now… and they don’t feel a need to help us.

While I’m unimpressed by their support, I’m more distraught by their level of appreciation for their services and customer consideration. Host Rocket can openly sell the standard pitch ‘we pride ourselves on our service and excellent customer support staff’; but cliche marketing salesmanship runs hollow when you don’t follow up with the sincerety that paying customers deserve.

If you’re in a bind and you need help for your online needs, Host Rocket won’t be there for you. If they lose all your data, don’t expect it to be returned to you. If you use them for multiple dedicated servers, expect the setups to be inconsistent.

Regardless, if you’re a paying customer in need of quality hosting for your sensitive email and website content, Host Rocket is not a secure solution.

Imagine my surprise as I wake up to find two design firms in a state I call home (well, home away from home for 5 years now as a San Francisco Creative Director, and yes I’m bias to Chicago over Sycamore anyday, I am a city kid) lobbying for the same design inspiration. Sad to say, Design Inspired seems to have been inspired by the layout, style, design, html (even commenting out the old links not relevant to the inspired site), css (hell even the dimensions of the container and names for the classes and id’s), the exact same images, and all around look and feel from Duo Consulting.

It’s difficult enough to make it in an industry full of freelancers and home grown developers, but we succeed by professionalism and support. If you don’t compare your profession to other high end trade services governed by peer rules, then I guess that’s the difference my clients get when they hire me over you.

If you’re a client or potential client of Design Inspired, I’d ask yourself this: If a company will rip it’s own designs from other designers, how unique will your product be from them? What exactly are you paying for then?

It’s a realistic question, and a common one indeed.

Side notation: When doing an angled corner on an organic shape, Design Inspired, It’s important to reference the flow of the organic line into a smooth transition. Don’t fret, we learn this the first go around in Illustrator – don’t angle the square to the exact mid point of the circle, it isn’t a perfect transition as you can see from the edges of your logo. Quark learned this (as I’m sure you’re inspired by) from their prior, and questionable logo design.

Hosting-Review.com Quotes their fantastic site as:

Hosting-Review is an independent provider of web hosting reviews. We base our reviews on knowledge, personal experience with webhosts and user feedback.

Even their about page lists their independent qualified reviews of hosting sources.

Keep clear kids, Hosting-Review.com cares more about their commission checks than your consumer experience — read Dreamhost’s “Web Hosting’s Dirty Laundry” for the goods.

Reference noted from my membership at Daring Fireball.

Topic Icons – So we have 150+ topic icons. Your design needs to incorporate our existing icons, and not require that we rebuild all of them. That means most likely that the icons sit on a white background. The icons themselves vary from around 50×100 to 100×50 but most float around 64×64. I’d strongly suggest that a winning entry is submitted using our existing topic icons as examples…

Well now, isn’t that your fault for not using icons in your CSS instead of your html? They serve no semantic meaning; your recent redesign should have included this.

Retains some sense of visual continuity with Today’s Slashdot – This one is the real challenge I think. From the Slashdot ‘Shade of Green’ (#006666) to the curve on the upper left hand corner of the page & article headers, to the use of the Coliseo font, I really think that many of these design elements need to persist. You are welcome to ignore me of course. But I’m being totally up front about this point: the winning entry ought to echo the current design. How loud of an echo is up to you.

Translation: I’d like you to redesign it… but keep the same design style.

Sure. If you’re a programmer, the term ‘garbage in, garbage out’ should take new meaning here. What Slashdot is known for is not design quality — and if you’re about to tap into the innards of a whole design community, your poorly sighted vision dressed up as a contest entry to ‘update’ rather than ‘overhaul’ is a shame.

I have to like it. Design something pretty. Design something high-tech. Design something minimal. Design something elaborate. I don’t know what the winner will look like. I’m excited to see what you guys come up with.

Good design does not always mean you’ll like it — but it can still reflect the content.

What I see here is a non-designer with little design experience spearheading a campaign to design. In our industry, it is understandable to appease our clients — this is common for many projects for young designers (though as we gain experience, we can pick and choose our clientele a bit more liberally to avoid disasters); but not at the expense of creating. Requesting a redesign but forcing old design elements means you are artificially stemming potential talent by nothing else than your limited vision. We tolerate this with some clientele who choose to ‘art direct’ our work if we are paid well for our talent, gain industry knowledge, or gain a quality portfolio piece… but in this case, where’s the pay off other than a diluted prize pot that judged by the same people who know nothing about design? No signature piece, no artistic merit, little pay. Sounds quality.

Some people write papers for their professor to appease them — others write for belief or potential or art.

While I think it’s an interesting take to bring a well known community into 2006, I find the belief that design management without design knowledge to be well beyond flawed.

That’s a sad thing for me, I’ve grown up in this industry for a fond love of all things Linux, Unix, Apple and Google (minus all that ‘beta’ false advertising). Though we can all appreciate Yahoo’s similar stance, and Microsoft’s invasive foreign actions — Google hits harder as it specifically boasted to our community it will ‘do no evil’.

Now, I know that Google publicly mentioned they weighed the balance of no search vs contained search — and on a scale of ‘evil’ discovered that it would be ‘less evil’ to corrupt the search results vs take a stand against censorship… was that a contradiction of terms in the truest sense? Sacrificing moral face in an effort to deliver a little information, however tainted?

I forget sometimes that these are corporations — their public marketing slogans arguing they stepped into this business on the basis of doing good in the world falls flat when they BS their lack of moral fiber with spin pitch to justify a decision to contradict the foundation they’ve built. Harsh, but scrape off the icing and use your common sense here: if you censor the content you control and deliver, how are you benefiting the world? Are you not a propaganda machine, or a utility for that machine?

The counter is that suppressing ALL content is worse — you’ve now created a void of information never to be accessed or hacked. So is google making the worlds largest political game where players volley for what’s true and what’s false?

All valid questions, but I don’t need either argued: Not standing up for what you believe in publicly, Google, makes you a coward. You can argue all day that you’ve balanced the powers in this painful decision, but it comes back to the fact that in your great company, with the potential to offer such sweeping changes, you chose to buckle on something most of us have grown up, American or not, believing to be a grave justice to humanity.

Sure, they’ll say it’s easy to sit here not running a corporation and pass judgement — and I’ll agree wholeheartedly. But I’ll sleep soundly knowing that life’s too short to sacrifice your beliefs, and I choose to never do so.

In the end, I don’t use Yahoo, I ignore Microsoft, I have my own Jabber server, I have my own webmail, I keep my own calendar system and project management. I use google for search when I need, and avoid their advertising. I’ve taken long strides to agree with what I find morally improper. I welcome your thoughts on this reflection as well.

Steve Smith’s Tiger Admin tackled this issue with advanced CSS:

#adminmenu li a {}
#adminmenu li a.current {}

#adminmenu li + li a {}
#adminmenu li + li a.current {}

#adminmenu li + li + li a {}
#adminmenu li + li + li a.current {}

Etc, etc, problem was with this… I was hacking WordPress to work as a Content Management System — and in doing so, blocking some of the ill needed links from my daily users. By doing that, background icons would shift down to the next available #adminmenu li — thus, shifting the placement of my icons.

Tweaking the menu-header.php

In your root folder, go to the folder named ‘wp-admin’ and open the file ‘menu-header.php’.

In that file, lines 16 to 18 currently read:

Since you already have a unique Item name, change those li’s to have an id and put the php item call in there:

And the output will be:

You now have unique id’s per menu item, that allows you to use Excellent Icons Mark James to style your admin section like:

We could have just as easily adjusted the menu.php to add unique id’s, but I did not feel the need into messing with that anymore than I have, which I’ll explain shortly…

When making the shopping cart system, there was no ‘continue shopping’ option. When I looked through the manual and documentation, it seems that there’s no option and it should be there by default. I assumed that it may have been:

1. An oversight on my part
2. An issue with my code customization

Apparently, it’s neither. After 3 failed support calls and emails, Kelly from Paypal made it clear:

Thank you for contacting PayPal. We apologize for the delay in responding to your service request.

In reviewing your site I see that the continue shopping button is working correctly. If you are continuing to have issues with this, please ensure you disable any pop up blockers, and make sure that you are not using a tabbed browser.

Thanks again for writing, and thank you for being part of the PayPal community.

Sincerely,

Kelly

PayPal Tech Support

PayPal, an eBay Company

Pop up blockers disabled, it still doesn’t work… tabbed browsing isn’t the issue here, Kelly has been misinformed. The issue is non-standard code development at play — so what does that mean for my client, and paypal’s financial future? It’s looking grim.

My client will have to jump away from Paypal and look to an alternative source to receive revenue — which means lost revenue for Paypal. As advanced browsers continue to develop and overtake the fall of aging, yet still dominant, IE, Paypal will continue to lose revenue; not only from owners looking for new solutions, but from visitors not able to purchase.

If the current standards are correct, 10% of the US audience is on a tabbed browser, 30% of Europe… how many potential buyers have they lost if 40% of a wordwide audience at any time is online looking to be the next consumer?

Trading tables for div’s is not professionalism

You’d think, by now, the idea of trading long, table driven sites for excessive div ridden sites would be taboo — it’s been ranted on from Dave to Jeffrey, and the majority of us have a sincere understanding that simplifying your html means clean structured semantic code. This simplification lends your design to even simpler css.

Regardless if you’ve focused on proper XHTML, without semantic, intelligent coding you’ve returned to the dark ages dragging a new premise with you.

What does that mean? Simply put, your tags are used to outline your content, disregard the style for now, it bears no meaning. I say this biting my tongue, as the subjects been beat to death with a big, slow, stick for years now.

Compare:

CubeCart’s code:

	

	
Latest Products

		


			

				
				
		           
				

				Test Product
				

				$10.00 $6.99
			

		

		
		



	

Inline styles, div’s in place of headers, break tags, clearing break tags? How about this:

Latest Products

	

		
	
Test Product/h3>
	$10.00 $6.99
	

Even simpler, their example:

Information

	
	Products: 1

	Categories: 1

	Prices: US Dollars

  

and my simplification:

	
Information
	
Products: 1
	
Categories: 1
	
Prices: US Dollars

Their code is a presentational driven method — mine is a semantic driven method, and I’ll style the exact same way if needed (though I won’t) if that’s the case.

So who cares?

Mobile users, handicap users… a large audience of potential buyers and visitors not worth losing simply because you don’t care or don’t know. When you’re willing to lose an audience simply because you choose to not do things properly the first time; you shouldn’t be in business, you’re making bad decisions.

The moral of the story is while I was extremely excited about a standards driven store — it took ALMOST the same amount of time to tear this apart, as it did a ZenCart demo yesterday as well… and that was a table driven mess. XHTML/CSS as a marketing slogan does not always equate to simplistic, quality design and development… but it should. It separates the hobbyists from the professionals in more ways than one.

Overall

CubeCart is a fantastic launching point for a standards driven shopping cart — but expect to spend some long hours tearing it down and building it with proper html… and unlike wordpress, it’s template tags you’ll have to deal with, that can easily give you a headache.

Now, my only gripe is I have to pay $70 to release the copyright, when I’ve pretty much rebuilt it from the neck up…

Edit: Looks like they tried to hide the crime and move the url. Looks like he’s also ripping off Simplebits Chameleon site design

http://www.folietto.com/admintmpl/

I see they moved the simplebits ripoff too:

He’s obviously taken all the graphics as well:

http://www.folietto.com/img/

and the contact page:

http://www.folietto.com/contact/

…had he been smart, he would have turned off the directory in apache:

http://www.folietto.com/

Edit x2: Looks like the whole site is down, we shall see…

The majority of my interviewees have come from Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and I’m sure this is more so regarding proximity than anything else. However, a brief look through Alumni Portfolios reveals the same dated methods:

• Splash page
• Full flash embedded websites (most also with a splash page)
• This site requires…
• Frames?!
• Imageready and Photoshop are not web development tools, regardless of what Adobe says

After time, like most users, right when I saw flash starting to load, I closed the screen.

Except these designers came close:

Wilson Gheur (no points gained for lack of semantics, audio loading and invalid pages)

Justin A. Metros (on the proper path, but a lot of divitis and break tags without semantics)

Juan Carlos Añorg (best of all, strong knowledge of html, in the right direction and only slightly shy of proper semantics and validation)

And that’s it, from atleast what their career center could send me. Examples of Professor websites and websites from current students were not much better.

Now I’m sure there’s a few diamonds in there that they just aren’t finding me, but it’s blatantly apparent that this school isn’t teaching modern web development in the true sense. What level of professionals are they preparing for the real world? The same dated designers running without a care for proper methods and costing their clients money? Caring nothing for Accessibility, market reach, and SEO?

Design is knowing your tools. These students pay good money for those lessons, they should be taught — my blame falls squarely on the establishment for their lack of experience and sincerity. Their own website validation with over 30 errors should be a message loud and clear that Academy of Arts University should be preparing students to be designers in the present sense.

What to do?

The question is how to further educate these schools that their mistakes are blatant (and if that’s in debate, I’ll take the pepsi challenge against you any day). This shouldn’t be a standards vs. everyone else camp — there’s no everyone else anymore that’s current and up to speed.

My advice to new students in this medium: test your professors and your school sites before hand. As a print designer turned web, I self taught with the help of HTML Dog tutorials, and asking questions left and right on Codingforums (users such as Brothercake and dotfive’s own Andrew Krespanis kept me inline and on the right path), read Simplebits Publications and Zeldman’s Designing with Standards. My web coding and development training was significantly cheaper and yet more advanced than anything I saw come out of a University so far… and that’s not right.

Anyone show me a school teaching it right that I can recommend?

This is an example of overhype — a poorly designed website, hush rumor spreading… and under delivering. When you design something without innovation, I have no desire to run out and spend money to purchase it.

Aesthetics aside, I’m stuck with the efficiency and real estate space I’ve grown accustomed too in Del.icio.us, and I’m sure I’m not alone. Case example, see the images below. Ma.gnolia = 6 lines per entry, Del.icio.us = 2.

Much of Ma.gnolia is impressive, and arguably well thought out — what I want in the end is not accomplished. I want streamlined bookmarks easily accessible just as if I were doing it in my native browser, but with the efficiency of being everywhere. If Ma.gnolia simplifies or offers me the option too, I may just jump ship… but until then, I’m sticking with what makes my life easiest, since isn’t that the new mantra of technology?

Social bookmarking is a bad example to play into this discussion, but the idea of improvement life quality with the help of technology has slipped the way of the dodo in various minds — where’s my washer and dryer of the computer world? In short, I want more time to myself doing the same things — and that means improve passive technology, streamline your toys, and give me breathing room. Speaking of, I want a Scooba for just that, more later…

http://roundcube.net/

Many of us are testing this application very aggressively — I’ve actually been using it in production for a few clients, 200+ users, and it’s worked great for them. The CSS customizing for us designers is a god send, and the functionality a clean improvement over squirrelmail.

As a notation — for those of you users weary of phpMyAdmin, or are hesitant of installing it on your OS X server — you may also use NaviCat, MacSQL, or Aqua Data Studio for free or donation.

For those of you, like me, who just don’t care for any of that and want to ARD or VPN into their server, just fly with terminal to add your mysql tables. Here’s how, briefly…

1. Log into mysql via terminal: mysql
2. Create your new database (end each element with a ; and a return) – I’m going to use roundc as my database, brady as my username, blah as my password:

   
   create database roundc;
   grant all on roundc.* to brady identified by 'blah';
   flush privileges;
   

   To verify, you can type in:

   
   show databases;
   

   And you’ll see that new database you created.
3. Now, let’s import that mysql file to get everything going.

   
   use roundc;
   

   Puts you in the roundc database, now:

   
   source [drag the file mysql.intial.sql located in the sql folder]
   

   For example, I dragged mine in and it says:

   
   source /Users/bradyjfrey/Desktop/roundcubemail-0.1beta/SQL/mysql.initial.sql
   

   Press return.
4. You can verify it created the tables by:

   
   show tables;
   

   make sure, just in case to follow up with:

   
   flush privileges;
   

You can do much more using terminal, as well as backing up your databases on the fly, and if your server let’s you, SSHing into it and running mysql commands right there. This is a quick way to install without having these 3rd party programs, and will help you improve your server skills.

Keep me posted if I have a syntax error!

The Video

Be sure to Digg this as well.

Edit: So it was Microsoft who made it themselves. Much more fitting that it comes straight from what I assumed – frustration by designers when middle management leads and ruins quality design.

One page. 14 errors. Flash scripted with not charcter type.

Aside from the black background, and a sad attempt at (not so sure?) ectched metal top/bottom headers with a 1988 audio dub — while it stinks of poorly thought out design, it’s coding is a disaster of long hand CSS without proper html standards and no care for handicap accessibility.

A fortune 500 company without the resources to build a proper site, from a design and development standpoint is a shame. Flash designs like this were passé in 1997, and that semi Mac OS X standard backdrop doesn’t invite anything innovative.

Design reflects your image, it’s importance should not be disregarded so easily. What buzz does it create when it looks less professional than most rookie design sites?

This message goes out to stopdesign’s creator and stopdesign’s viewers.

High5advertising is a business and we have several websites and webdesigners working for us. The person that made High5advertising.com is no longer with us. I do not know if he copied stopdesign.com or not. Our current webdesigner has been planning a new design of high5advertising.com for several weeks. I am not exactly sure when the new design will be ready but it will look a lot better then what we currently have. From my own personal business opinion there are tones of websites on the internet that have the same layouts. What makes a really good website is the color schemes, graphics and fonts. I compared the two websits and have found that there are no identical graphics, color schemes or fonts. I also have checked with my current webdesigner and was informed that we have all original copies of graphics and code that was used to design the website. I hope this puts everyone at ease.

Vadim Lisserman

Interesting, and my response:

Then you’re an idiot AND a liar. There’s nothing professional or dignified in ripping off a design — and your blatant response in the industry only puts me ten seconds more from going out of my way to make it a point of warning potential customers. I used to have an office right over by the Tribune building (when the design firm Taylor and Taylor cornered the advertising area there in the dotcom boom), I’ll be sure to make mention of your design tactics to clients as I fly back for business.

So http://high5advertising.com/ and http://stopdesign.com/portfolio/, and I see:

1) horizontal single backdrop repeat pattern coupled with

2) 3/4 pixel top bar before first level navigation

3) first level navigation almost the exact same dark inner shadow before solid color coupled with

4) Is that a standard issue photographic backdrop with blown out gaussian blur for halo effect on a header element with

5) even the right side of the second tier navigation having angled pinstripes over the photoshopped backdrop with a

6) 1 column – 2 column structure in an almost exact pixel width for a containing element

7) followed up with that same dark inner shadow before solid color

Look, we’re all privey to the idea in this industry that we borrow ideas and learn from those before us — when Pablo Picasso was roughly quoted ‘Bad artists copy, good artists steal’, it wasn’t a literal translation he was shooting for — bad artists, in your case, copy the look and feel of a design and change subtle elements to play it off as a mistake. Good artists take the theme of an idea, develop it, nurture it, and recreate it into something that leaped from the original design into something barely noticeable where the original could simply be called ‘inspiration’.

You stole the design, it’s a subtle change, but a blatant rip-off. Had you known Stop Design was considered a leader in this industry, you would have maybe thought about the fact that it is not so easy to play it off — this sites been around for quite sometime. Fonts cannot be copyrighted by designers, nor color schemes and patterns, but as the code for a list apart used to note in the css ‘the design, the look and feel, is copyrighted’.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if you have the original files or not — I’ve interviewed designers who have had original files of their portfolio, when you can tell it was a blatant disrespect for the original artists creation and a complete ripoff. Having parchement paper and a pencil sketch of the design you just traced over a mickey mouse cell, but you changed the color to pink and gave him bunny ears, doesn’t make it anymore original than if you just left it a ripoff; and sure doesn’t make you talented. I learned that going to design school at Columbia, as you know, in my hometown of Chicago.

You’ll have to excuse me as I find this amusing — I still consider myself a print designer and marketer, not so much a web designer. If you were to pull this in the print industry, clients would avoid you like the plague. It’s only a matter of time it happens in the web industry as word spreads.

I guess the only difference I see is you coded your site like trash http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fhigh5advertising.com%2F – so we’ll pin that on ignorance, but the look and feel, the ‘design’ of the site, is a rip off – as your ‘original copies of the graphics’ will show. I look forward to comparing the new site to other well known design firms for my own personal amusement.

Now Mike Rundle had already weighed in on the curiosities of this situation, as he puts so well in our emails, when Vadim notes:

I’m going to put this as simple as I can. I did not not make this website. I am not a webdesigner. I do networking and business management. I hire people to work for me. Some people work out some don’t. They make websites for us and I post them. I don’t know whats a copy or not. I cannot apologize for something I didn’t do. Its going to be changed.

Maybe it’s too late in the evening for me, but I’m happy to follow up:

You’re the captain of this ship — your employee screws up, it’s your *&#%. Fix it.

Next time your small brain thinks of passing off a belated sales pitch in the hopes of rendering all thoughts null and mute, maybe you should remind yourself again ‘I don’t know whats a copy or not.’ If you don’t know what’s a copy or not, then you should have never even posted a response like:

“I compared the two websits and have found that there are no identical graphics, color schemes or fonts.”

You cannot apologize for what your employee does — but since I’m guessing he was a freelancer, that binds your company legally to your mistake. Apologize for your company, as any experienced business manager would do, had he a pair. This maybe your first lesson in mopping up a PR mess, it goes like this:

“I was unaware of the mistakes one of my employees made, but as owner of this business I apologize and take full responsibility. Never was it the intent of a respectable company like ylunch and high5advertising to blatantly copy a talented and experienced company such as stopdesign. It will be fixed as soon as possible, please except our apology.”

That’s called having balls, and being a leader – don’t crawl away from the ‘i didn’t know so i can’t apologize for something I have no control over…’ angle; it’s never succeeded from Nero to Nixon. Show me leadership Vadim, I’ll be up for another half hour.

Then it follows up with Greg inquiring about our credentials — and not just to me, he CC’s everyone on the list, sending a personal note to each of them with their respective name, and CC’ing them too:

Brady,

My name is Greg I am the CEO of the company. Your input is greatly appreciated.

I was wondering if you can show me some of the websites you created. Then if they are good we can listen and implement your feedback.

I look forward to seeing links from you.

Have a great day

Greg

Feel free to call me to discuss further ideas.

847.721.7555 Direct Cell Phone number

Then Greg wants to throw down:

Brady…please call me: 847.721.7555

I would like to discuss some of your RUDE coments..

Thank you

GS

I did not offend anyone…I was NOT the designer of the site…

All you do is offend me and my webmaster….GROW up

Call me and we can discuss the appropriate actions to be taken

847.721.7555

And the next creation will be AWESOME, not some lame ripoff:

NEW DESIGHN WILL BE UNVALIED EBY ARTEMIS THE GREAT SOON…..THEN YOU WILL ALL SEE HIS POWER…AND BE IN AWW…HIS WORDS “THERE IS NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT STOP DESIGN I LIKED HIS SITE AND WAS MERELY GIVING HIM PUBLICITY”

A NEW SITE WILL BE UP SOON ONE THE IS A LITTLE BIT MORE ADVANCED THEN JUST PURE PLAIN CSS THAT IS GETING OVERDONE AND OVER COPIED….

STAY TUNED NEW SITE WILL BE UNVEILED WITHIN 6 MONTHS

But wait, all your questions are answered — Artemis speaks, and even admits to using StopDesign as a reference for the site… borrowing from my inspiration notation, and pointing out that I am an untalented designer:

Hello Brady

This is Artemis the designer for what you refer to as “on faking talent”.

Lets us be clear about this. None of the graphics, code nor the files have been copied stolen nor plagurized. We will take down the site and redisign it from scratch because I get annoyed by petty people that have nothing better to do with their time than moan and nitpick at other people work.

If someone would have made a search engine that is almost identical to Google, noone would have complain.

We told you three times we are taking it down when the site will be redesigned. Do you want me to repeat it again?

What I did was not copying the site, but I got inspiration from looking at it yes. I also got inspired by many other designers in the field. Stop Design thinks just a little bit highly of yourself. Stop Design did not invent the wheel nor did you invent the interrnet (i.e CSS based design with a plain look and feel). All my site is a bunch of text and images that I created. Prove me wrong!

I am sorry you feel like I copied over your friends site. In my view I combined the best elements of many designs and gave it my own touch. If the measurements of the links and borders closely resemble your site, it is because I have a good eye for design. I have all the original files if you would like copies of them. My eyes ability and its skill ( a coincidance if I may say ) I have the ability to create stunning work. I am sorry you do not have the same ability, as your friend at Stop Design. He is a good designer, but I do have to say that looking at his CSS sites, they all seem copies of one another. I have also seen many sites that are copies of sites within Stop Design portfolio, yet my time is valuable. I will not spend time nitpicking at them. I have better things to do. Lay this matter to rest . I am working on a redesign. Also tell your friend at Stop Design, “Thanks for the free publicity”.

And also, you Brady seem like a rude person. No client will ever work with a childish namecaller. I have many clients in Chicagoland area and close friends within Columbia College in Chicago. I know you moved away to California, and are hiding behind your computer screen. Get some balls. I don’t want to mention your name to some of the teachers and clients that I am in close contact with. Yes I went to Columbia as well. I know you would not want to become famous for some of these insults you are spirting out in your emails. Do not ever threaten me ever again or harass me or my company via email I have a team of lawyers that will eat you up.

Artemis Lisserman

Creative Director and Chief Design & Development Officer

Not knowing when to quit, I follow up:

Actually, none of the emails I posted noted any threats what so ever to your person, or your company — I clearly noted that you have violated the copyright of a designer, as you even denoted in the email you just sent me below and I have forwarded along to all in this list – inspire (as I noted in my first email you are referencing?) is different than what you did. I would also argue my responses have been well written compared to much of the poor written responses I’m getting from each and every employee of yLunch. Much less threatening me with lawsuit is inappropriate, and unfounded — call your lawyer for legal council if you must. But this email has been sent with no intention of threatening and harming your person, company, or business — but it is a point to note your blatant disregard of a created and credited design.

I’m going to rest easy with the notion that you consider your talents far superior than mine — and that your portfolio on high5advertising is beautiful. I am happy that you will be taking the site down as you noted for the 4th time, yet I have not seen an apology for your need to copy another persons site — even as you defend it, the look and feel is what is copyright in a design, and you have clearly mimicked it.

Thank you for the informative email Artemis, I look forward to future communication.

P.S. — did you just call me a ‘namecaller’… and then just call me names?

Ahh, then I get more emails telling them to call me or asking for my number — which I note has been on the footer of all my email correspondences up to that point. I remind him that because of newly raised legal concerns, I’ll be recording with my VoIP of choice for documentation purposes of course.

This pretty much leaves me out of the conversation for the rest of the time, leaving Mike Rundle and Benson Low to fair for themselves.

That intriguing 1 day conversation of mass email, questionably juvenile, ends with this:

High5advertising admitting they copied the site, or used it, as a plagiarist justifies, for ‘inspiration’ — while we can argue that any publicity is good publicity — how is the professionalism above reflective of your business practices and self worth?

This industry is still a professional one; wether your a home grown artist with your CS suite or an experienced and trained one — learning from us all is the right of passage in our craft. But it’s one thing to take to learn and grow, and another to take for simply your financial benefit. If you cannot design, hire a designer. If you want to learn from those before you, that is fine — give credit where credit is due, and improve as you go.

Designers who rip off other designers work ultimately hurt other designers and lower the quality their customers pay for. Now have fun, and let the world know about it.

Edit: They’ve taken to a horribly poor flash rendition, which is not a ripoff, but no where near the amazing talent that they boasted. I’ve uploaded the originals for record:

While most of us can cite page after google cache of complaints and downright spite of all things Internet Explorer; the new onslaught of Internet Explorer 7 has turned many naysayers into brown-nosers for the red headed step child of the web.

But let’s clarify — they care little for quality design.

Any experienced designer can smell Microsoft a mile away: wether it be blue gradients or two pounds of packaging for one dvd… it’s apparent that they have:

• Middle Management running the design decisions
• Sales division running the design decisions
• Production Artists masquerading as Graphic Designers
• All of the above

It’s hurting our industry.

When I commented on the initial design of Mix ’06, the intent was both to commend and condemn their half hearted attempt at sincere development and design. Mix ’06, after all, is supposed to be a power forum for web designers, developers, and anything under the sun selling web v1.0-3.0 with the intent on delivery quality to it’s clientele, not shafting it’s core audience with a cosmetic marketing approach… right? True to form, since then, they’ve updated Mix ’06 with an improved look suffering from almost-good-enough web development.

Tell you the truth, Mix ’06 was the farthest thing from my mind, and I would never have noticed it’s updated image, save a poor print ad in the most recent issue of Wired News, of which they seem to be a large sponsor.

…but in the same breath I admire their honeymoon with unordered lists, I’m appalled by a barrage of skittles hammered onto an actionscript commercial:

Who approved that? Inquiring Designers need to know.

I flash back to hours of looking at Entourage, seeing gradients in everything from calendar posts to contacts — and I it is easy to see that to Microsoft, sliding transparent, yet colorful gradients on a blue/yellow clouded background would be inviting to the visitor. It must have been apparent to middle management that free flowing keywords describing incredible features of ie7 gently gliding would, in a new york minute, end my dependence on alternative browsers and hail a new era of Web Design peace throughout the standards world.

Microsoft’s love affair with courting designers is cosmetic at best; Microsoft knows little of design, nor do they care. IE 7 is an update, indeed — but it’s not a leap forward. One year from now we’ll be in heated debate as we watch the other browsers sputter past with CSS 3 drop shadows and multiple backgrounds; and again, they’ll be hurting my design.

I’m a strong believer that limitations pose challenges for any artist to excel and develop. The occasional project with a print budget of only $5000 USD for an office crew in dire need of stationary will make you a magician of 2 color, recycled paper, unique designs. But those limitations come sporadically, and you WILL someday land a large print design that gives you room to excel and expand your talents. With the internet, however, I’ve been held back by a mediocre representation of my work, and the weight falls squarely the first decade in 2000 on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. I know, now I get position:fixed and alpha transparent png’s (though all those old Dell users will most likely be on their IE6 for some time), but my layout will still need forced ie hacks, and will be years behind what my potential, and the potential of my designers could be, because of their lackluster performance.

In the end, they’re not advancing the same industry their courting, which makes development more expensive, design less enthralling, and slows my progress. So what am I to do about this necessary evil?