I hate the idea of New Year’s resolutions. And yet, I think I have to make one.

I rarely (if ever) talk about work on this blog. And that’s by design. But I want to talk about what I do rather than just where I work. For years, I’ve hidden behind the adage that I’m a “generalist” as far as working the web goes. In fact, I’m pretty much a generalist at everything. I’m curious about everything and very easily distracted. I have a million hobbies and interests, and my spare time is very easily filled up.

But this year, I want to focus a bit more on my work as a web designer. I’m not a designer, or a programmer. I often just call myself a “web guy” and that’s true. But the truth is that most web guys know much more about the web than I do. I recently read Jeff Croft’s entry on being a professional web designer and it really struck home. I’m one of those guys who learned HTML in the 90s. I’ve kept up, barely, with most new developments as far as markup (ie. not programming) and the general “zeitgeist” of the web. I know the right buzzwords, and am genuinely interested in where the web is headed. But my technical skills and knowledge have lagged.

My current job started in 2003 when I had to build a site from the ground up for a wine-importing agency. It’s gone through a few cosmetic changes since then, but nothing serious, and it is crying out for a proper database back end and a CMS. These are at present beyond the scope of my abililities. I’ve bought the right books, and bookmarked the right sites. But my current responsibilities have gradually expanded to the point where I can’t immerse myself enough to learn how to do these things.

Each year I come back from SXSW inspired and motivated to make the necessary changes, and each year, I fail to make them. I’m frustrated. Part of the problem is the fact that I do much more than just maintain the web site now. And part of it is just inertia. No one complains about the site, but I know what’s wrong with it. As the only web guy in a small company, I’m also very isolated from the web design community. Though I know several people and get together pretty regularly for drinks with them, I’ve assumed they’re too busy to help with my questions. I’ve wanted to get more involved in the local web design community, but have lost the confidence that I’ll be able to contribute anything of worth to the discussion. Same goes for SXSW, where I hang out with bloggers and journalists and other “content” types instead of trying to learn from people whose work I admire online.

It may be true that in the long run, I’ll always be more comfortable as a content guy. My real passion is for writing and for using the web in innovative ways. But that doesn’t mean I’m incapable of learning a few new tricks. In 2007, I’m going to try very hard to make space for that to happen.

from Consolation Champs

My New Year’s Resolution

I’ve been back from SXSW Interactive for more than two weeks and yet I still haven’t posted my thoughts. The reason? Well, I wrote something that was very negative and I’ve been sitting on it. I’m going to post it now, unchanged, but I will add that my malaise seems to have been shared by a number of people. And it appears to be affecting a number of conferences, not just SXSW. I heard a lot of complaints that ETech wasn’t so great this year, for instance. And tech conferences seem to be sprouting up all over the place like weeds. All part of the new “Web 2.0″ bubble, I suppose.

But before I post my depressing screed, I will say that I managed to have a pretty good time nonetheless. It’s just too bad that I only get to see some of these amazing people just once a year. For evidence of my merrymaking, check out my photos on Flickr. I’ve posted my photos from 2001 and 2002 on there as well. Ah, nostalgia!

Read on if you dare…

SXSW 2006: Blog Bubble Bursts

I’m not quite sure how to preface my remarks about SXSW this year. I certainly didn’t start out writing something so negative. As always, I had a great time, but there was a vague sense of disappointment in the air this year among my friends. Although blogging has been growing for a few years now, this was the year I felt it fully entered the mainstream. Just as Toyota Prius owners no longer honk at each other, or iPod owners no longer nod at strangers with the same white earbuds, bloggers no longer seem connected just by virtue of being bloggers, and this saddens me.

SXSW 2000 has been described as the bloggers’ “coming out party” and since I started attending in 2001, it’s always felt like a blogger’s conference more than anything else. I loved that at Break Bread with Brad, everyone wore badges with their URL on them. Not what they did, or how much money they made, or even where they lived. I loved the egalitarian spirit of that. Even though a mythical “A-List” soon appeared, along with a backlash, that seemed more like a junior-high expression of cliquishness and jealousy than a serious social disruption. But of course, money changes everything, and SXSW is no different.

It’s strange. Some of the internet nerds I met five years ago are now running technology companies, some are millionaires. And I’m pretty much the same person I was then. It seems like it’s become necessary again to ask someone what they do, or where they work, as if that were more important than who they were.

We’ve stratified to the point where the web designers and the bloggers and the user experience designers and the technologists and the journalists and the venture capitalists don’t even know who each other are. The designers come to discuss design with other designers, the technologists come to present panels and then party with the other technologists. A few years ago, people primarily identified themselves as bloggers, and their jobs came next. I’m not sure if anyone else felt strange that one of the keynotes this year featured two famous bloggers, who were trying to make it their occupation.

All the talk this year was about the new Internet bubble. There was lots of free beer and a closing night party that featured music so loud that no one could talk to each other. There were lots of panels that featured titles like “Does Your Blog Have A Business?” and “How to Blog for Money by Learning from Comics” and “Sink or Swim: The Five Most Important Startup Decisions”. In fact, I haven’t heard the term “monetizing” for many years, but it poppped up again and again this year.

Before the conference, I decided to upload my photos from my first year to Flickr. After I came home, I compared them to my 2006 photos and there is a definite difference. I’m now in the process of uploading photos from other years and I find it amazing that just a few years ago, in the lobby bar of the Omni Hotel, you could find a group of about 30 people who were behind some of the most interesting web sites around. Now many of them are too busy working at their internet companies to attend, or if they do come, are busy with other “business” people or preparing for their panels on monetizing the blogosphere with Ajax or some other Web 2.0 twaddle.

I’m not opposed to advances in technology in themselves. It’s just that I think we’ve lost quite a bit of the spirit that made the original emergence of weblogs so exhilarating. In many ways it was unavoidable, and I’m sure that I sound like a typical crank, longing for the old days. But it hurts me on a personal level when some of the people in my photos from 2001 or 2002 don’t even acknowledge me anymore.

I was joking before the conference that I found many of the web designers in attendance intimidating. They weren’t much of a presence in 2001, and I definitely began attending the conference as what I described as a “scruffy blogger” rather than as an internet professional. The people I still hang around with most would probably fit that description as well, although many are brilliant writers, journalists, web designers or technologists. Back then, though, self-applying the label “blogger” to oneself was enough to gather a similar crowd of early adopters around. I used to proudly claim that I’d found my “tribe,” but this year, for the first time, I felt in danger of losing it.

No doubt, I’ll be back in 2007, but a few of us have begun discussing some of these disturbing changes and what we can do about them. If anything, there will be even more people there next year, and by most measures, this would be considered success: for SXSW, for the internet businesses, even for blogging. And many of the effects I’m describing are the natural outcomes of that success, and are probably unavoidable. But I’m not ready to give up something I love this much, and I’m curious to see if anyone else felt the same way as I did about this year’s conference. David Pescovitz of BoingBoing quoted Timothy Leary at the Bloggies this year, concerning feeling like an outsider: “Find the others.” Others, are you out there?

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2006: Blog Bubble Bursts

My review of Andy Budd’s new book, CSS Mastery, has been posted over at Digital Web. Enjoy!

from Consolation Champs

CSS Mastery Review

Yorkminster Park Baptist Church is the church Brooke and I attended for about four years. We were married there in 2002, and even though we’ve been going somewhere else lately, I still serve on a board there and until recently, had been their webmaster.

One of the first things I did upon agreeing to update their web site was bring in my friend (and one-time boss) Jay Kerr to undertake a badly-needed redesign. Ten months later, I’m happy to say that the site looks fantastic, navigates well, and validates. Jay used Movable Type as a lightweight content-management system so that church staff and volunteers can make their own updates and have a proper archive of past events.

The redesign even got a mention from Anil Dash on the SixApart Professional Network. Bravo!

from Consolation Champs

New Yorkminster Park Baptist Church Site

In the course of my research for work, I’ve visited a lot of web sites of winemakers and importers. Quite a few of them really stink. Lots of them are ugly, and some of them just don’t work well, especially if you use a Mac.

On the site for Michele Chiarlo, who make very fine wines, the left navigation menu is built with Java (no, not Javascript, but Java). Though it works in Windows, on a Mac using Safari it shows up with a large red X.

Elena Walch, another great winemaker, has a system of Javascript menus that wreak havoc. Again using Safari (and Firebird), I can roll over the menus, but as soon as the submenus appear (under Wines, for instance), they disappear if you try to select something. I was able to use Opera to navigate to them, but it was still awkward (I had to click on Wines, which seemed to make the menus remain on screen long enough to be clicked).

What gives, webfolk? The site I’m designing will not work this way. I was actually intending to avoid Javascript entirely, but it is in use for the tasting notes (which are pop-ups). I almost don’t care if the site is ugly, as long as it works correctly in every browser.

from Consolation Champs

Wine Site Whines

I’m ready to unleash my next contest on all of you. In my capacity as Book Reviews Editor for Digital Web, I’ve amassed a quantity of books that I either can’t read (no time) or can’t use (no ability) or have already read or used. I’m eager to give them away and Brooke is eager to pitch them out one way or another, so here’s what I’m going to do. I’m hoping to redesign this site in the near future, and I’m calling on all of your design and coding skills. Submissions can be anything, small or large, from logos to illustrations to Movable Type templates. Even colour suggestions wouldn’t be unwelcome.

Here are the official rules:

1. All entries become the property of Consolation Champs and may be used by me now or in the future in any way I see fit.
2. Having said that, I’ll endeavour to reward (and attribute) all those whose entries I use.
3. If you have a web site, you must link to my contest entry. The more the merrier, I say! You should send me your link URL along with your submission(s).
4. Enter as many times as you like, but each person will only be eligible for one of the prizes. Your accumulated contributions will be taken into consideration.
5. The number of Honorable Mention prizes will depend on the number of entries.
6. The Honorable Mentionees will choose their books in the order determined by me. This may be a random order or in order of submission, or some other order which I’ve not yet determined.
7. Honorable Mention winners may be asked to help with postage charges (hey, I’m unemployed right now, sorry!)
8. The contest will go on long enough for me to be able to get lots of entries. I will announce a deadline at least two weeks in advance.

And here’s what you’re playing for:

1. Grand Prize Winner: Your choice of three books from the following list, shipped to you at no charge.
2. Honorable Mentions: Your choice of one book from the following list (after the Grand Prize Winner has made his/her choices).

Here is the list of prizes:

1. Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web, by Christina Wodtke (New Riders, 2002)
2. Integrated Web Design, by Molly Holzschlag (New Riders, 2002)
3. Design Whys: Designing Web Sites That Sell, by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis (Peachpit, 2002)
4. How To Use Flash MX and ActionScript, by Denise Tyler (Que, 2002)
5. Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative, by Mark Meadows (New Riders, 2002)
6. JavaScript + CSS + DOM Magic, by Makiko Itoh (New Riders, 2002)
7. Usability: The Site Speaks For Itself, ed. by Molly Holzschlag and Bruce Lawson (glasshaus, 2002)
8. Web Site Design Goodies, by Joe Burns (Que, 2001)
9. Special Edition: Using Flash MX, by Michael Hurwicz and Laura McCabe (Que, 2002)
10. Back To The User: Creating User-Focused Web Sites, by Tammy Sachs and Gary McClain (New Riders, 2002)
11. Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content From Presentation, by Owen Briggs, Steven Champeon, Eric Costello and Matt Patterson (glasshaus, 2002)
12. Special Edition: Using HTML and XHTML, by Molly Holzschlag (Que, 2002)
13. ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide (2nd Edition), by Colin Moock (O’Reilly, 2002)
14. The Little Red Book of Adobe LiveMotion, by Derek Pell (No Starch, 2001)
15. Macintosh…The Naked Truth, by Scott Kelby (New Riders, 2002)
16. HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide (4th Edition), by Chuck Musciano and Bill Kennedy (O’Reilly, 2000)
17. Web Design Essentials, Second Edition, by Maria Giudice and Anita Dennis (Adobe Press, 2001)

All entries should be sent directly to me via email. I hope to feature some of your ideas as the contest goes on, and I look forward to seeing how I can freshen things up around here!

from Consolation Champs

Redesign Contest!

Last night I attended the book launch of Building Accessible Websites (New Riders, 2002), authored by my friend Joe Clark. The book is, as Joe declares, “a beautiful object you will love to read.” As far as I’m aware, it is the first web design book to sport ligatures, and the voice is unmistakably Joe’s. Yes, that’s a good thing. I’m looking forward to reading the whole thing, and then posting my thoughts over at Digital Web.

from Consolation Champs

Book Launch

Dori’s chart shows just how bad web coding software still is. I’ve used Dreamweaver (very briefly) but still don’t know why companies and individuals want to spend hundreds of dollars to produce bloated non-compliant code instead of learning how to hand-code for next to nothing.

from Consolation Champs

Why WYSIWYG HTML Editors (Still) Suck

Now that I’m using Chimera Navigator almost full time as my browser, I’m noticing that lots of sites have a neat little icon that shows up in the location field just before the http://. I’m wondering how to design my own for CC and get it to show up for people using Mozilla-based browsers. Anyone have any ideas?

from Consolation Champs

Icon Thingies

As promised, and only marginally late, I’m pleased to announce that the winner of the Eric Meyer on CSS Haiku Contest is Joshua Kaufman, of Columbus, Ohio. His entry captured the essence of CSS in its simplicity:

simple web design:
html for structure
css for style

Out of almost 300 entries, there were bound to be a lot of other good ones, too. If you’re interested, here are 15 Honourable Mentions, the main criterion being that they made me laugh:

I’ll read eric’s words
in my bed or at my desk
but not on tables
–Anil Dash

I’m just a student
I’ve no money, not a cent!
Knowledge equals rent
–Jacob Wolfsheimer

p {font-size: 2em;}
it was all so simple once
help me, eric m!
–Jeffrey Zeldman

Lo! The book of hope!
Client asks for sun and moon:
Compliant porn site.
–John Winkelman

CSS Layouts:
Because I want MY weblog
Looking like Kottke’s
–Ernie Hsiung

Web Team that I lead:
You said you know CSS!
<FONT FACE> does not count.
–Colin S

I like web design
I also like chocolate
will settle for book
–Lea Alcantara

My HTML
Has halved in its download time
And that is a fact
–Pete Hall

without good structure
even the truth is hollow;
please! tidy your code!
–the pork master

leaves tumble from trees —
#000000
is the new black
–Robert Kirkpatrick

mention on zeldman
garners many responses
good luck judging, james!
–Ari Brown

Working on my site
Have no content to include
Can CSS help?
–Steve Wheeler

CSS is cool,
You can format a font size,
And name it “Penis”
–Sam Rhee

Already have book.
Can I have a short phone call
With guru instead?
–Mary Anne Shew

Rich, smart and pretty,
But happiness eludes me.
I need that book NOW!
–Carole Pivarnik

I want to thank everyone who entered, and especially Eric Meyer himself, for being such a good sport. If anyone has any other ideas for a book contest, definitely let me know. I tend to have lots of computer books sent to me, and I know how expensive they are…

from Consolation Champs

Finally…Haiku Contest Winner(s)!

Well, I’m at work and can’t actually post the winner yet, but a winner has been determined, along with 15 (yes, 15!) Honourable Mentions. Look for a full posting before the weekend is out. I’ll need to notify the lucky one first…

from Consolation Champs

Haiku Contest Winner

Just a reminder that the Eric Meyer on CSS Haiku Contest will end at midnight Eastern time tonight. Not that I want to encourage many more entries (I think I have close to 300 haiku to wade through), but if you think you’ve got the right stuff, click the link above, hit comment and immortalize yourself!

from Consolation Champs

Haiku Contest Ending

Thanks to the generosity of New Riders, I have a duplicate copy of Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design to give away. If you’ve been reading CC for a while, you know what’s coming, don’t you? A contest! Previous contests have been quite popular, and I’ve managed to give away a couple of fine books by Messrs. Zeldman and Powazek.

Here are the rules for the Eric Meyer on CSS Haiku Contest:

1. Readers will submit a genuine haiku (using the comments link below), consisting of three lines. 5 syllables in each of the first and third lines, and 7 syllables in the second line.

2. There is a limit of 3 entries from each person, and at least 10 entries must be received for the prize to be awarded.

3. The contest will run from today until August 15, or until it gets boring.

4. Entrants need not post their entry on their own site, but must post a link to this entry to be eligible. Those without web sites are obviously exempt from this requirement.

5. Anyone in the world may enter and win, but those outside of North America might need to help with shipping costs if they are prohibitive.

Good luck, everyone, and please help spread the word! Oh, and yes, it’s a good book. You can read my review at Digital Web.

from Consolation Champs

Eric Meyer on CSS Contest

Dear Blogger,

This is a hard letter for me to write. For the past two years, we’ve spent a lot of time together. You’ve helped me out a lot, and asked for nothing in return. Sure, you weren’t always dependable, but your heart was in the right place. You were my first love, and you’ll always hold a special place in my heart. Now comes the hard part…

I’ve met someone new. And I’m caught up in the throes of a new passion. It’s someone we both know, and I have to admit I’ve been flirting for a while. There’s no longer any way to keep my feelings a secret. So, I think it’s best if we stop seeing each other. I want you to know I’ll always love you. Thank you for teaching me so much. And I know you’ll find someone new, too.

Love always,

James

As you can see, I’ve made the switch. All 617 entries made it over intact, though there will be tons of work to do on archives, etc. Please let me know if you experience any strange behaviour. And of course, all my previous comments are gone, so if any of you have ever made a comment here on Consolation Champs, would you mind going back into the archives (when they’re working, that is), and re-entering your thoughts, whenever they might have been? Thanks. I knew I could count on you…

from Consolation Champs

Dear Blogger…

Leslie Harpold and Michael Sippey face off in a PowerPoint duel. It’s too bad that nobody picked up on my idea a few months ago. Contributions are still welcome, though!

from Consolation Champs

PowerPoint Tennis

Well, I’ve successfully installed Movable Type 2.11 on my server. Hurrah! But that’s only the first step. Before I go importing my hundreds of entries, I need to tweak the templates so that my site looks like, well, my site. And that’s where I’m having trouble. No matter what I do to the templates, they seem to be styled from somewhere else. I hope this doesn’t mean that all MT blogs are being styled from MT Headquarters in San Francisco. Not that that would be a bad thing…(I’m feeling a little guilty posting this in Blogger, actually. It’s like using the pen your wife gave you as a gift to write a love letter to your mistress.)

from Consolation Champs

Movable Type Baby Steps

Matt notes that even though Netscape 4 is approaching its FIFTH birthday, clients still complain if a site breaks using it. I work in the computer retail business, and I’m still dealing with many many people using Windows 95. That one is SEVEN years old. Even though the computer and internet industries change rapidly, the people who use these products resist change to the point of lunacy. They think every new “upgrade” is some sort of trick to get them to spend more money. Sure, they’re partially right, but sometimes I just want to shake them anyway.

from Consolation Champs

Old Tech

The new issue of Digital Web is available online. The theme for this issue is “Content is King,” and evidence is provided in the introduction of a new book review section, edited by yours truly. Check it out!

from Consolation Champs

Digital Web Has A New Voice

Hey, you know something? I forgot to mention something good that’s happened to me recently. In addition to my writing for CanadaComputes.com, I’ll be writing the monthly book review for a brand new section at Digital Web, an excellent online magazine for web designers. I’m actually a little intimidated. After all, I was just looking for a place to submit my reviews once in a while, and now I’m the voice of the entire, created-just-for-me section. And I’m in the company of some incredibly smart and talented people. Wish me luck!

from Consolation Champs

I’m Writing More!

The Best Designed Blogs: Submit yours…

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Best Blogs?

I just bought what looks to be a very interesting book. Nathan Shedroff‘s Experience Design 1 is not only an incredibly beautiful book, but it also promises to be very useful in my “designer’s education.” Derek Powazek is featured twice, both for The Fray and for Kvetch. Anyone else read this book or have any comments on it?

from Consolation Champs

Experience Design

For some unknown reason, the following code on my SxSW pages no longer parses and so had to be removed:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

If you were trying to look at that section and got errors, it’s fixed now. But why would code like that work and then suddenly stop working?

from Consolation Champs

Geek Speak

Yes, yes, hire us generalists!! I’m piggybacking on Anil again, but he’s piggybacking on Peter.

from Consolation Champs

Yes, Yes!

Jack of all trades for hire. I was already thinking about this in January.

from Consolation Champs

Jack Of All Trades

OK, I’m biting the bullet and learning PHP. Does anyone know if there is something similar to GreyMatter written in PHP? My hosting plan lets me use PHP but not full CGI, so to avoid paying double what I’m paying now, I’d like to implement something in PHP. I may try rolling my own comments system, but it would be nice to see what else is out there.

from Consolation Champs

PHP

I’m thinking of trying to learn PHP. Does anyone know any good sites/books/whatever that would help me get started? What are some of the more useful capabilities of PHP for a site like this one, for instance? Let me know.

from Consolation Champs

PHP

Just testing out the new section on the PC and realized how crap everything looks (including this page) in Netscape 4. If you’re one of the 15% or so accessing these pages with Netscape, and they don’t look right, please please please go and download Netscape 6. Or, of course, Internet Explorer. Or Opera. Anything but Netscape 4. I’m exhausted trying to make that &^%&%$* browser work.

from Consolation Champs

NN4 = Suck

Caterina praises the use of ugly fonts and overlooks my redesign. Really, I’m not hurt. I can’t even remember the name of the ugly font I used, and won’t be able to remember it until I’m back at work on Tuesday (Canadian Thanksgiving, you know…). But rest assured, it is an ugly stepchild of a font, not even worthy for barber signs or diner menus.

from Consolation Champs

Ugly Fonts

CodeWarriorU.com offers free online courses in programming, XML, even an introduction to Photoshop. I’m taking the XML course right now.

From yesterday, I’ve decided that I need one more disc, so I’m changing my mind about counting Stevie Wonder as two discs. After all, it was all written, composed, and released as one work, right?? I’m desperate to add one more disc (even though the whole list will probably change next week!). The addition is:

• PJ Harvey-Dry

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CodeWarriorU

So is 35 too old to be in the web design business? I’ve been doing it part-time for the past 3 years, and fulltime only since March. I’m a junior designer/programmer at a tiny but mighty company, and my girlfriend (34 and just graduated from journalism school) wants us to move to England in two years and work there. Do you think at 37 and 36 we’ll be completely unemployable? This scares me sometimes. My only hope is to move quickly out of design and production altogether and become boring “Web Producer” or “Project Manager” man, simply because of my age. What if I don’t want to become that person? Opinions?

from Consolation Champs

35: Too Old?