January 2009
7 posts
6 tags
Privacy and the Anti-Cookie Monsters
During my Web Analytics studies at UBC, an interesting topic arose that was the centre of some lively discussion: Is the use of cookies to track online behaviour an invasion of privacy? If you were watching the news lately, you’d think they probably were. Last week, the White House caught quite a bit of flack about using web beacons (a.k.a., web bugs) and persistent cookies on their...
3 tags
The realities of a B.Web
The latest issue of A List Apart centres around advancing and promoting the field of web. Specifically, the article titled, “Elevate Web Design at the University Level” discusses having web education at the university level. The author, Leslie Jensen-Inman, mentions the web is a very fast-paced field, and teachers should believe and preach a culture of constant skills-updating....
2 tags
Essential CSS: The Reset
One of the most essential tools I have when I build a web site is the CSS reset. What the reset does is basically strip some or all the default styling (like padding, margins, font-sizes, etc) applied to HTML elements by different web browsers. The reason we want to do this is that each browser has its own default set of styles, and guess what - they differ from browser to browser. Starting from a...
4 tags
Essential CSS: Relative font-sizing and IE6's Text...
By no means am I a CSS ninja, I’m not even a CSS guru, but what I am is a guy with a few years under my belt spent designing, developing and analyzing web sites. While working at Concordia University, I’ve had the… “privilege” of seeing a wide variety (X)HTML and CSS bugs. Here’s one bug that stole a day’s worth of work from me that I wanted to share: In...
5 tags
The newspaper saga: A possible solution?
CNN recently hosted a debate over the ailing newspaper industry, touching on topics like newspaper publisher complacency, newspaper readership, and budget cutbacks. Whatever stance you take on the subject, one thing is clear, ad revenue for newspapers is drastically low this year. This shortage has forced some newspapers to go completely online, others to reduce home deliveries, and the rest to...
4 tags
Fortune Cookie Bloggers
I’ve noticed a rise in what I call “Fortune Cookie Bloggers”, essentially so-called Social Media Experts whose blogs read more like fortune cookies rather than anything with any real insight. Their posts tend to all share the same qualities - they’re vague, safe and forgettable. These bloggers never say anything concrete, don’t take sides, and they start artificial...
6 tags
Job tip: Think twice before proclaiming yourself a...
Call me old-school, but I find the whole “web ninja” moniker ridiculous. I guess when someone calls himself a ninja, he’s trying to imply that he has mastered a wide array of skills that he uses when he wages war against websites. Wonderful imagery. Honestly - moving. But I just can’t take people that refer to themselves as ninjas seriously, sorry. I recently had to wade...