Sure they taste good, but are they good for you?

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 website, http://www.whiteHouse.gov. Interestingly enough, the use of web beacons (in a nut shell, JavaScript that calls a tiny image while transmitting some data about a web site’s visitors) was not the problem. The problem was the existence of persistent cookies. I won’t go into detail about how the cookies got there, or if they were actually set by the White House website, but basically these little text files that are stored on your computer are quite controversial to some. I’ll just offer this:

Relax. What’s the big deal? Read more…

Critical eye, New Media, Rant Cookies, Privacy, Web Analytics

A university degree in web? Eventually. Until then, let's do something practical.

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. Furthermore, she states that universities have to be less strict about the educational requirements of professors. While I’m not against most of these concepts, I think we’re quite a ways off from that reality. In fact, I feel we’re at least five to ten years from away, and I think that’s just fine.

Read more…

Critical eye B.Web, Education

Resetting CSS styles will save you a lot of time

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 fresh slate is often the easiest way to shorten development time and get the most predictable cross-browser results (though some designers, like Jonathan Snook, @snookca, don’t personally see a strong need for resets). If you see the benefit of using CSS resets, creating your own reset is very doable, and honestly not super difficult, but why re-invent the wheel? Read more…

CSS/Design Reset