Jim Barter : Digital Imagination

Roger Johansson, of 456 Bereta St writes about different peoples level of HTML knowledge…

Most standards aware web professionals can be found here. These people tend to think about structure and semantics first and presentation later. Strict doctypes are generally used at this level to encourage the separation of semantic and presentational markup.

That’d be me then…
…No need to goto level 6…

following on from the previous post about WCAG2, I thought I’d mention this…

PAS78 ‘Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites’ published by the BSI in march this year is exactly what it says on the tin.

Commisioned by the Disability Rights Commison from the British Standards Institute and primarily authored by the likes of Julie Howell (RNIB) and representitives from organisations like Abilitynet, The BBC, IBM, The Cabinet Office and others.

Aimed at the people who pay for websites rather than the people that build them it draws heavily from WCAG 1 and no mention at all is made of WCAG 2.

If (as is hoped) this document is successful and organisations in the UK pick up on it and use it as the basis for there future stance on accessibility then WCAG 2 may not be needed.

I hope.

PAS78s language is clear and consise and combined with WCAG1 covers any accessibility requirement that any website may have.

Yes, WCAG 1 has its flaws and needs updating, lets wait and see what the Samuri offer

PAS78 is available from http://www.bsi-global.com/ICT/PAS78/index.xalter

Joe Clark writes a Hell of a Piece on why WCAG2 is a very poor upgrade to WCAG1…

…to summarise, it’s impenetrable, and full of holes.

Work in progress, unfinished, unoptimised, untested…

…but it looks nice - Initial Redesign

Nice Einstein image generator…

I wrote this for someone at work, and felt it also may be useful here.

Iframes can be perceived to have some advantages and modern browsers can at first glance, appear to have no problems with them, however, there are four major issues that people need to be aware of if Iframes are used on a site.

1. Bookmarking.
On a site built with Iframes it is usually impossible for a user to bookmark a page in the normal manner, unless extra time is taken to create a ‘bookmark this page’ script driven link, this in itself, causes extra work and maintenance issues, which leads into:-

2. Coding.
Iframes (if used correctly) need more code and therefore more maintenance.
Every link in an Iframe needs a target, if the site is changed these targets may need to be changed as well, this can double the time needed to apply site-wide changes. Also, every iframe needs a hidden ‘noframes’ type link, so that robots and users who’s browsers cannot understand iframes can find the content, this leads into:-

3. Search Engines
If Iframes are coded correctly Search Engines can traverse the site with little or no problems, however to do this requires an alternative link to the content in the iframe, again - this causes maintenance issues, these links are often missed or ignored when a site update occurs, thus rendering content invisible to search engines. Finally, a major legal concern for any business is:-

4. Accessibility
To ensure the site meets the requirements of the DDA any use of iframes of frames MUST have a full and complete noframes navigation system, else users of accessibility solutions may not be able to navigate the site. Apart from being illegal this is also a business risk as there is a substantial market from this sector. A full noframes navigation system carries all the same issues as the above, it takes extra time to build & it runs risk of not being maintained - thus rendering the site inaccessible and its owners liable for prosecution.

However, it ought to be said, all of these issues ARE surpassable, given that it may well add 30% to the time and therefore the budget needed to build and maintain the site.

Play games?

Play any of these?

* 7 Sins
* American Conquest: Divided Nation
* Anstoss 4
* Bandits: Phoenix Rising
* Bet on Soldier
* Beyond Divinity
* Black Mirror
* Blitzkrieg 2
* Blitzkrieg: Rolling Thunder
* Breed
* Brian Lara International Cricket 2005
* Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon
* Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood
* Castle Strike
* Chaos League
* Chaos League: Sudden Death
* Codename: Outbreak
* Codename: Panzers - Phase One
* Codename: Panzers - Phase Two
* Cold War
* Colin McRae Rally 2005
* Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars
* Cross Racing Championship 2005
* Curse: The Eye of Isis
* Cycling Manager 3
* Cycling Manager 3
* Cycling Manager 4
* D-Day
* Dead to Rights
* Demonic Speedway
* Desert Rats vs Afrika Korps
* Domination
* Emergency Fire Response
* Enigma: Rising Tide
* Etherlords II
* Fire Chief
* Fire Department
* Freedom Force vs The Third Reich
* Gangland
* Garfield
* Gooka: The Mystery of Janatris
* GT Legends
* GTR: FIA GT Racing Game
* Heroes of Might and Magic V
* Horse Race Manager
* Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter
* Keepsake
* Kicker Manager 2004
* Kill Switch
* King Kong
* Knights of the Temple 2
* Korea: Forgotten Conflict
* LMA Professional Manager 2005
* Lock On: Flaming Cliffs
* Medieval Lords
* Namco Museum 50th Anniversary
* Neuro Hunter
* Nibiru
* Obscure
* Pac Man World 2
* Pac Man World 3
* Pariah
* Pax Romana
* Perimeter
* Perimeter: Emperor’s Testament
* Pferdehof - Pferd und Pony
* Pop Star Academy
* Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend
* Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
* Pro Rugby Manager
* Psi-Ops
* Pure Pinball
* Rally Championship Xtreme
* Restaurant Empire
* Restricted Area
* Revolution
* Runaway: A Road Adventure
* Scrapland
* Second Sight
* Silent Hunter 3
* Silent Storm
* Silkolene Honda Motocross GP
* Singles 2: Triple Trouble
* Singles: Flirt Up Your Life
* Sniper Elite
* Soldiers Heroes of World War 2
* Sommerspiele 2004
* Space Rangers 2
* Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory
* Star Wolves
* Steel Saviour
* Still Life
* Street Racing Syndicate
* Sudeki
* SuperPower 2
* Syberia II
* The Fall: Last Days of Gaia
* The Moment of Silence
* The Suffering: Ties That Bind
* The Westerner
* TOCA 2
* TrackMania
* TrackMania Nations
* TrackMania Sunrise
* Traitors Gate 2: Cypher
* UFO: Aftershock
* V8 Supercars 2
* Virtual Skipper 3
* Virtual Skipper 4
* Vivisector
* Wildlife Park
* Wintersport Pro 2006
* World Racing 2
* World War II: Frontline Command
* Worms 4: Mayhem
* X3: Reunion
* XIII
* Xpand Rally
* Xuan-Yuan Sword 4

If so it’s entirely likely that your PC has been compromised, each of the above titles (and possibly more) installs “Star-force” copy protection software without telling you.

This software has been rumored to kill DVD drives & RAID systems, and also open up your PC to attack from trojans and virii - it is the very worst kind of malware.

More info available here.

Of course the makers of starforce insist that there is nothing wrong with their creation*, well they would. They have also been known to threaten to take to court anyone who ’slanders’ them or their product.

Well here I am, lets have some.

*I’m thinking “Frankenstien’s Monster”

BOYCOTT STARFORCE

edit: link to removal tool**

**may well stop games from working, better that than your PC

Client. “Hello, we’d like you to build us a House.”
Builder. “Do you have any plans.”
Client. “No, we’ll leave that to you, but we want all the usual stuff you get in houses, and it’s got to built of brick.”
Builder. “OK, well i’ll get my Architect to draw up some plans…”
Client. “That sounds expensive, can’t we skip that…”
Builder. “Well if you’re sure…”
Client. “And we need it by the end of the month…”
Builder. “…”

A couple of weeks later…

Client. “How’s it going?”
Builder. “Well, we’ve laid the foundations…”
Client. “Do we need those?”
Builder. “Yes, I’m afraid you do.”
Client. “Well, OK… …But we need to speed things up, my mother-in-law is coming to stay next week.”
Builder. “We can do that, but i’ll have to hire extra bodies.”
Client. “I’m not paying for them!”
Builder. “…”

A week later…

Client. “Well?”
Builder. “Here are the keys…”
Client. “Thanks, Whats that bit?”
Builder. “Thats the roof, you need that…”
Client. “I don’t like it, can it be smaller?”
Builder. “Yesss….”
Client. “And are those real bricks?”
Builder. “…”

Another week goes by…

Client. “My mother in law is unhappy, the room is too small.”
Builder. “But what did you expect?”
Client. “A palace…”

Is here, go get it.
Many subtle improvements, but also one slightly anoying bug.

Bookmark Flicker.
When I drag my mouse up and down the bookmark list sometimes flickers…

…damn weird.

It only happens intermitantly, and I can’t seem to re-create it.

Just thought, It could be my eyes - I do have a really bad cold ATM. (sniff…)

The observant among my readers may notice a subtle addition to this site.

But for those of you (like me) with failing eye site due to the onset of middle age and too long spent squinting at design layouts or peering of code - here it is.

Huh? some of you may say, what the heck is that?

Well its my new favicon.

Wha…?

A favicon is the little picture (16×16) you will see at the side of the URL in the address bar on most professional websites, “but this is just a blog!” you say. Yah I know but without one every time a browser visits my site it generates a ‘file not found’ message in my log files, and I was fed up of seeing it (or not - as the case may be), so I decided to do something about it.

To make one of your own you can use a free on-line tool - there are a few about - I used this one.

Then include this code in the <head> of your pages.

<link rel="icon" href="http://example.com/favicon.ico" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://example.com/favicon.ico" />

Like most things - I may change it in the future - I’m not to sure I like mini-me staring me in the face every time I check the site, and there are certain narcissistic implications of sticking pictures of yourself all over the interweb, we shall see…