Archive for July, 2003
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Thursday, July 17th, 2003
In a move which brings a whole new meaning to the “Blue Screen of Death”, the Department of Homeland Security has awarded a $90 Million contract to Microsoft to provide the desktop and server software for about 140,000 computers inside the organization.
I would normally use profanity here, but I think I’m too stunned by the complete ignorance this decision displays.
Tom Ridge and Co. certainly had other options, and I think we all know that bad things are likely to happen because of this.
Others have mentioned moving to another country as a safety measure — I vote for Northern Ireland, at least it’s safe there…
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Wednesday, July 16th, 2003
I’m lucky enough to be a second-round beta tester for SixApart’s upcoming TypePad service, and I’ve just been having a blast posting via email (“Moblogging”).
My test site is Superfluous Life, and is light on content, and even lighter on design (for more on why I’m not messing with the code/layout/design, read this post).
Check it out, give me some traffic so I can test out the stats feature, and as an added bonus, you get to see my photo in the sidebar :-)
Although I’m not allowed to discuss details about TypePad and my experiences with it during the beta, I will say this: you or someone you know will want to use TypePad. I’m strongly considering keeping one active site running on TypePad once the service goes live.
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Wednesday, July 16th, 2003
AOL has finally axed Netscape. Luckily, Mozilla development will continue, at least for the time being.
Unfortunately, this only weakens the browser market by leaving IE/Windows and Safari as the only fully-supported browsers under development (if you can still refer to IE as “under development”). Yes, there are still other browsers around (Opera fans UNITE!), and yes, AOL will be giving the Mozilla Foundation $2 Million to start them off (“here you go kiddies, a little play money for the rest of your summer vacation”), but for Netscape to cease to exist is a rather important milestone in the evolution of the web, and considering the level of standards compliance Netscape has provided in a mainstream browser, it’s death is not what I’d call a good sign.
Will Mozilla (and all its offshoots — I love using Firebird on my PC, and Camino still gets use whenever I tire of Safari’s quirks) be able to stick it out and find/create a source of funding for continued development? I hope so — I would hate to see the browser market shrink to Safari and IE.
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Wednesday, July 9th, 2003
The story is the same everywhere you look: Designers are struggling to make ends meet, especially freelancers, independent consultants, and small firms like mine (we have two employees: my younger and oh-so-talented brother, Alex, and me).
We’ve been trying desperately to make a living for quite some time now, without much success — perhaps we charge too little, maybe we’re just not salesmen, or it could even be that we don’t like working with clients who don’t appreciate good work when we give it to them, no matter what they pay us — we spend so much time on projects (again, probably not making enough money on them…) that we don’t leave ourselves with enough time to produce any self promotional materials (one day, I will write a book about being a web development firm without a web site: see the Webgraph, Inc. Corporate Website for more informa…oh wait, there’s nothing there). We would really like to be able to put some money in our pockets, fix our car (that’s correct, “car” as in “singular”) or maybe even get one each. Heck, we’d love to collaborate remotely on projects with other designers/programmers (we have a few projects we’re trying to get funding for just so we can work with the likes of waferbaby, IconFactory, and perhaps even Zeldman himself, budget permitting) for the experience, the extra name recognition, and the money, of course.
A problem I’ve run into over and over is that of having standards which seem to be too high, yet I can’t bring myself to compromise those standards just to make a buck. A few years ago, I freelanced for a local company for a few weeks, and was even offered a job (their clients liked my work better than any of their full-time employees’ :-) but I couldn’t take it because they insisted on allowing sub-standard work to pass for “completed” and I just wasn’t up to the task of putting half-assed work out in public (I turned down a very decent salary too). I still see a lot of their work on a regular basis, and it’s so bad I want to tell them where they can put it… But they’re making millions a year, and we can’t scrape together enough to fix the windshield wiper motor on the car, so who am I to judge?
To get to the point (finally), if anyone out there needs work, or help on a project, at any level, please drop us a line — we’re very reliable (how can you beat two Eagle Scouts?) and we’re always willing to learn new skills and work with new people. But hey, if you’d rather keep the work for yourself, we understand :-)
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Monday, July 7th, 2003
At least, that’s what Zeldman says today about my CSS Zen Garden submission, Not So Minimal. It’s nice to know smart people think highly of my work…
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