Community MX Blog

When the Legend Won't Wrap - Revisited for Firefox 3

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:59:17 GMT

Back in November, I wrote a blog post explaining a fix for the poor and varied rendering you will get with a wordy legend that forces its containing fieldset to be wider than you've specified. You can read more details in the previous post. In a nutshell, it involves placing a span within the legend. Since a span (and a legend) are inline, the span won't render the width until you change its display to block. The styling is then applied using a descendent selector - legend span. (The span within the legend technique is demonstrated here.)

And all was well in the world of cross browser fixes -- until the birth of Firefox 3. The changes made to FFOX 3 mean the span technique now fails in that browser. (Thanks to Atus for the heads up.) The behavior of FFOX 3 continues to be a legend that doesn't wrap. However, instead of making the fieldset wider, the legend now protrudes out the right side of the fieldset. (If you view the file linked above with FFOX3, you'll see that the span does render at the width specified in the selector - but the content within continues and protrudes to the right, until it ends. Unsightly to say the least.)

Just one more declaration

After filing a bug at Bugzilla, I was told that the changes made were to keep the original rendering for those that prefer it, but to now offer a fix (without the span technique) for those that desire more control. Certainly progress is a good thing. Using the white-space:normal declaration within the legend rule causes FFOX3 to actually wrap the text. So YAY for that! (Thanks a bunch, Philippe.) However, this of course, does nothing to FFOX2 or any other browser with the non-wrapping issue. So BOO for that.

If you want to support browsers with the non-wrapping issue, you'll still need to add the span within the legend. However, to support FFOX3, you'll need to add the white-space property to either the legend or legend span selector. In my testing, both will work. This fix for FFOX3 does not affect any other browser negatively - but it doesn't fix any of them either. (View the page with the white-space in the span selector. View the page with the white-space in the legend selector.)

To me, the bigger conversation is, why the blank can't we get some form rendering that actually makes it easier to more consistently mark up and render forms? I'm sure someone can tell me where my thinking is going wrong -- but a legend is an inline element. An inline element doesn't accept a width. I'm good with that. But when paired with the fieldset, it's parent that does have a width, why is it not contained? Why in some browsers does it force the fieldset wider than we've specified. I don't think inline elements should have that much power (especially since it must not be white-space:nowrap declaration causing the increased width for the other browsers since the FFOX3 white-space: normal fix doesn't work for them)! And why, in FFOX3, does the content in the span (contained in the legend) not react to the styling given to the legend span selector? The span itself does, but the text within runs out the right side of it. I know someone will say because in the Moz style sheet, the legend is set to white-space:nowrap. I see that, but WHY was that the fix/change given when none of the other browsers seem to be handling it in that way? Inquiring minds want to know! (I mean, when exactly would you want the legend to overrun the fieldset and not wrap? And couldn't you just add white-space:nowrap when you did?)

(Update) Philippe and Boris essentially explain it this way: A legend is not actually an inline element. A fieldset/legend pair are treated as replaced elements. Just like the form controls they contain (Boris explained that the reason has to do with the way borders have to work). Thus, they can't really be described with CSS. Philippe pointed out that in the conformance section of the specs, it says, "CSS 2.1 does not define which properties apply to form controls and frames, or how CSS can be used to style them. User agents may apply CSS properties to these elements. Authors are recommended to treat such support as experimental. A future level of CSS may specify this further." So I suppose what it boils down to is - this is what we've got for now. :)

For those wondering and dreaming of the great beyond - thinking about what's on the horizon with Internet Explorer 8 (currently in the beta), it's fine with the "span technique" and it's not bothered by the added declaration of white-space:normal. However, unlike IE6 and IE7, it's placing the legend down, below the top border of the fieldset - instead of halfway over it like the other browsers do. But it's still in beta. I'll worry about that little issue, if it still remains, later.

Designers AND Developers...

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:26:26 GMT

So there's been a pretty decent sized debate going on through the webosphere. Designers should know how to code. Developers should know how to design (or shouldn't need to design). I considered weighing in on the 37 Signals blog -- but the comments were already closed. Call me slow (yes, I've been on the road, had a birthday, and had my mom visiting with her birthday. ;). You'd be right. Oh well.

I do have one thing to say. Well, I probably have more than one, but I'll start with that. I recently did a couple sessions at the HOW design conference. One was on "Mistakes Print Designers Make on the Web." Yes, I definitely agree there are common mistakes from the print paradigm. Many times I can tell how people's brains work when they ask for help on lists. I can tell they don't understand the web or come from a print background. However, that does NOT mean I think they are useless. Do I think they should know how the web works? That the web is a fluid, not static medium? Am I willing to help them learn (if they're going to be in my "designer stable")? He77s yea. I am willing. Because I think they are very important to our industry.

Do I think that coders should not use a graphic medium. Lord no. "Designing" (or so they call it) using the constraints of "what's easy to do with code" is really a sad, and less attractive, way to work. I say bring on the tough comps -- we'll work it out, or we'll ask for a small revision. We'll come up with a way to make it work accessibly. A way you might not have thought of before -- but a way that is equally lovely. But lord knows I think you design types are valuable. I quit designing years ago. Why? I'm a tweakaholic. I make more money hiring people that are more creative, better trained and faster. My clients save money with those same people. The designers are freed to be their creative selves -- but yes, it's nice for me if they understand the web. It's nice if I don't have to lead, guide, explain. That said, because I know my craft, I'm willing to help them at the beginning. And no, I don't expect them to know how to code. Just to have an overall understanding that the web is not print. Everything will not have line breaks where they want it to. It won't be glued down. But I, with my experience, will guide them through what can and can't be done. In time, they will be one of my favorite designers. They will understand, but they will send it to me to code. Because that's what I do best.

Do you create the site with HTML? Do you create it without a graphic program? Well, gawd bless you. But I'd venture to say your designs are likely boring. I think 37 signals rawks in usability. I have no bad words to say about them. But what I'm seeing from their recent blog posts in this area is just silly. And no, I've never seen a super creative design come out of that group (at least that I KNEW was from them. I'm certainly not barring it).

Personally, I welcome the challenge of the design minds. I find that if I create the site IN HTML, I do what's easiest to do with HTML/CSS. I don't challenge my abilities. I don't push the envelope.

Yes, the site is about the content -- the message. People are generally looking for information on the web. I teach that all the time all over the world. But there's another side of it. There's the package that same content comes in. Is it readable and usable? Good. That's important. Does it work when the text size is large. Does it work with assistive technology. Excellent. Accessibility is even more important. But goodness knows that a majority of your readers are going to be influenced by what it looks like. Yes, even the colors. Study color psychology. Look at eye patterns. Immerse yourself in usability and interaction. Heck, watch your mom try to navigate things -- I just did. It's eye opening. How it looks is important. Sorry, that's just the facts. Why do you think company's spend so much on their Superbowl commercials?

And let's not leave out how you interact with the database -- how well that content dynamically appears. How much sense it makes. How usable the interface is. There are many things to think about. The root of my story and my point is -- it's the rare individual that has all the strengths needed for one web site. It's the team that matters. Should everyone have a basic understanding of the other member's jobs? How they work? What they can accomplish. Oh yes. Absolutely. Should they be able to do them? That's just ludicrous. Absolutely not. Surround yourself with people more brilliant than yourself. Always learn. Work hard. You, and those around you, will be enormously successful.

Ciao.

Orphaned copyright bill in the USA

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:41:37 GMT

There is a bill which passed in the US congress which is H.R. 5889, the Orphan Works Act of 2008. I'd contacted my congressman about the bill and my concerns over the bill. I've received a reply which I would like to pass on here:

Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding H.R. 5889, the Orphan Works Act of 2008. I appreciate knowing your thoughts on this important issue.

In January 2006, the U.S. Copyright Office issued their Report on Orphan Works. Orphan works are copyrighted works whose owners are difficult or impossible to identify and/or locate. The goal of the report was to elicit public comment and evaluate the extent of real or perceived problems that content users encounter in their efforts to use these works. Orphan works are perceived to be inaccessible because of the risk of infringement liability that a user might incur if and when a copyright owner subsequently appears. Consequently, many works that are, in fact, abandoned by owners are withheld from public view and circulation because of uncertainty about the owner and the risk of liability.

In response to the report's findings and conclusions, legislation was introduced to address the problem. Rep. Howard Berman [D-CA] introduced the Orphan Works Act on April 24, 2008. The bill would limit the remedies in a civil action brought for infringement of copyright in an orphan work if the infringer proves that: (1) the infringer performed and documented a reasonably diligent search in good faith to locate the copyright owner before using the work, but was unable to locate the owner; (2) a "Notice of Use" was filed with the Register of Copyrights before the work was used; and (3) the infringing use of the work provided attribution to the author and owner of the copyright, if known. H.R. 5889 would also permit an award of reasonable compensation for the use of the infringed work, except if: (1) the infringement is performed without any commercial advantage and for primarily a charitable, religious, scholarly, or educational purpose; and (2) the infringer ceases the infringement expeditiously after receiving notice of the claim for infringement.

The bill would additionally direct the Register of Copyrights to: (1) undertake a certification process for the establishment of an electronic database to facilitate the search for pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works that are subject to copyright protection; and (2) study and report to Congress on remedies for copyright infringement claims by an individual copyright owner or a related group of copyright owners seeking small amounts of monetary relief. H.R. 5889 would direct the Comptroller General to study and report to Congress on the function of the deposit requirement in the copyright registration system.

The Orphan Works Act was considered by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property on May 7, 2008. After approving a manager's amendment, the bill was approved by voice vote. The manager's amendment would require a court, before granting injunctive relief, to consider a user's interest in the copyrighted work. It also includes a "best practices" provision for the Copyright Office to create guidance on what constitutes a "qualified search" for such a work.

H.R. 5889 now awaits consideration by the full House Judiciary Committee. Please rest assured I will keep your views in mind if the full House considers H.R. 5889 or similar legislation in the 110th Congress. Thank you again for contacting me. I hope you will continue to keep in touch and please feel free to let me know whenever I may be of assistance.

So ... I suggest people start getting familiar with the copyright office...

TODCon '08

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:42:51 GMT

WOW - TODCon slipped by so fast ... it is over too quickly...

Anyways, this year we had an incredible line up of speakers, a bunch of wonderful attenders and the usual great time at the after events (i.e. dinner!). Florida is still hot, wouldn't mind it being a lot cooler, but that just isn't in the cards in June when you're in Orlando FL.

Some of the regulars didn't make it this year and they all were missed. We also had some new speakers who were standing up getting it done. Got to chat with a couple of the new speakers (Denise and Estell) and they are really cool people, hope you get a chance to meet them!

Best session (I went to...) was Derek's - he dressed up in a "Jedi" outfit (ok, it was a brown robe, but in context, he was a Jedi!) and I also picked up info from the other sessions I attended. The conference was great - you should plan to go to it next year - start saving today!

Can Kuler get any cooler? It just did!

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:25:04 GMT

Having a great time here at TODCon, but I wanted to take a minute to tell everyone that there's yet another new feature to kuler. You can now pull color schemes from flickr! I'll be posting an article about his new enhancement in the next few days, but if you can't wait, head on over to kuler and check it out.

I've got a secret to share

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:29:01 GMT

TODCon will be here very soon. Yep, I'm counting the days. OK that's not the secret.

It'll be great to hook up with some CMX friends and regular TODCon attendees and speakers. Well, that's no secret either.

I've written the last three CMXtraneous blog posts! That's more of a shock than a surprise, though.

I'm pretty stoked about the Fireworks public beta. The Fireworks engineering team has done a phenominal job. It's to the point now where I don't like going back to CS3. Yeah, not really a secret there either, the way I've been blabbing all week long about it.

The secret is my second TODCon session. It will be a live demo of the new features in the Fireworks Public beta! We'll look at some of the cool features you've read about in my recent articles as well as Kim Cavanaugh's piece on the Path panel. Based on what you've read and heard this week, I hope you pull up a chair for my session.

Alan Musselman from Adobe will also be presenting a session on Fireworks. He'll no doubt have some very awesome and cool stuff to share as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. I'll be the guy with the loud shirt and - new this year - a limp (sprained my ankle and pulled a tendon a couple weeks ago YEOUCH). Feel free to have pity on me and buy me a martini or at least help me to the gift shop for a new fashion statement. ;-)

The Fire has been lit!

Mon, 26 May 2008 16:18:20 GMT

Today is a great day! At 12:01 am this morning, Adobe made available public betas for both Dreamweaver and Fireworks.

Not only that, but we've got brand spanking new content for both Fireworks and Dreamweaver public betas, starting today.

Walk, run, fly, teleport on over to Adobe labs and get your own beta copies while supplies last. The public beta software will be available for download for the duration of the beta program and will run for 2 days as a demo before requiring unlocking. Unlocking the public beta for the remainder of the beta period requires an active CS3 serial number.

I've been nosing through both applications and the updates are quite impressive. Stay tuned here at CMX for a variety of sneak-peaks into both applications.

And if you are a Fireworks Junkie, you can learn even more in the coming days at the Adobe Dev Center, Peach Pit Press and Lynda.com. Yep, I've been a busy boy. ;-)

Countdown to TODCon

Fri, 16 May 2008 20:00:18 GMT

In less than one month, geeks will gather in Sunny Florida to catch some rays, share some laughs and learn a whole whack of geek stuff. Yep, TODCon is coming. I can't say enough positive things about this event. It's certainly opened up opportunities for me in my business, and the size of the event means you've got a great chance of hanging with your favorite authors or speakers, or making new connections to help you in your business.

There are some pretty interesting topics on the agenda as well (and I'm sure there will be a few surprises.) I'll be doing two sessions on Fireworks (Ok, that's no surprise).

The Wyndham Resort is a very nice place to spend a few days as well. You walk into the grounds area and forget how close you are to the hustle and bustle of Orlando.

So if you're in the mood for a break, and want to justify it as a business expense, TODCon may be just right for you. You get it all, sun, fun, education and networking in a nice little package.

The New, Confusing, Online Social World

Tue, 13 May 2008 03:36:14 GMT

I'm not one to put a lot of personal information on my blog. I don't have problem with people that do it, it's just not my personal style. When I was first on the web, it took about 3 or 4 years before you could find a picture of me anywhere (as a woman, I needed brain respect first). I was one of the last people I know to join Facebook (never have had a Myspace page). Don't get me wrong, I love the web, but I've just never found the need to expose a lot of personal information there.

Enter our new, confusing age

I've posted here about Twitter. And I do love it for a variety of reasons. I post more information there than I do in other places. Oddly, it feels like I'm talking to my friends--in some giant, controlled IM. Of course, I know that since I don't protect my tweets, anyone that follows me, google, and the world can read them. Still...

Facebook however, has turned out to be another animal entirely. After joining for an orchestrated birthday prank on a friend, I stayed and connected with a lot of folks--from real life friends to web friends I've not yet met in real life (IRL). In the past few months in fact, I've connected with several old friends, from grade school to college. It's fun to see what they're doing now.

Facebook is a Tattler!

What I and others seem to forget though, is that when you change anything on Facebook, it is broadcast to all your friends. Relationship status is a perfect example. When Greg and I got engaged via Twitter in March, most of my online friends knew what was going on. But my real life friends, the ones that I see at volleyball or on the weekends (as if I had weekends) are also connected to me on Facebook. Since I was headed out of town, I didn't have time to let most of them know, but intended to when I returned. Unthinkingly, I changed my Facebook relationship status to engaged instead of, in a relationship. Duh. Instantly, I started getting wall posts and emails -- Why didn't you TELL me!!? Ooops.

I'd say, in fact, that I know more about some of my friends from Facebook than I do from real life. Casual acquaintances, that I connect to there, show things like their new tattoo. They probably wouldn't have displayed it to me if we met on the street. Maybe they post pictures of their wild beer pong bachelor party. Who knew? People obviously feel safer in online social networks than they do in personal interaction.

Tonight I was reminded of just how far reaching this phenomenon is. I went to Facebook to join a group I was invited to by email. Somehow I followed a rabbit path ending at my younger son's girlfriend's page. I noticed she is now listed as single. Not surprisingly, so is he. We live in the same house. We talk a lot. I even knew he had told her we were moving at the end of the summer. But he omitted this one small detail about the outcome. Weird world where you learn of things in your own house through Facebook, eh? Maybe that's why my nineteen year old refuses to be my friend there, eh?

So how do you know WHO to friend?

This question has arisen in my own mind several times recently. I used to have much stricter rules for who I'd friend (though admittedly, not as strict as those that will only friend someone they've met IRL). On Twitter, if someone's witty or relevant, or knows lots of my friends, I'll follow for a while. But I try to keep the numbers I follow within reason so that I can actually pay attention. About 250 is the max I can comprehend. On Facebook, I tend to want to actually know the person somehow. I think it's because Facebook "feels more locked." I actually put my real email address there (though I don't list my phone number like some do).

But now there's BrightKite. BrightKite tells people your exact location (or a close proximity if you don't mark them as a trusted friend). So now I'm rather befuddled as to who to accept as a friend or not. When people ask to be friends, I (probably just me) feel bad to decline their friendship. I mean how do you meet new people if you decline anyone you don't know. But again, as a woman, how do you know if there are any "unsafe" people you're connecting with. This new, online community is a new and different place to navigate--that much is certain. What do you think?

Web Design World

Mon, 05 May 2008 07:55:12 GMT

Tomorrow, I get on a plane to Web Design World Chicago. It looks like it's going to be a great conference. If you're in the area, come on over and join in the geek fun. Jeff Veen, Jared Spool, Dan Rubin, Joe Marini, Greg Rewis and more!

Then it's on to HOW Design in Boston followed by Multi-Mania in Brussels, Belgium, TODCon in Orlando and finally Web Down Under in Sydney. The organizers have worked hard, and done a great job on all these conferences so be sure to come to the one closest to you. You will not regret it. Promise! Grab me in the hall if you're there. I love to meet people. :)

Copyright Owners: 2, Content Thieves:0

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:20:11 GMT

Just a little update to Ray's article today. After receiving many negative comments on his blog, emails from CMX and a not-so-subtle email from me, my article has finally been removed from the offending blogger's site.

Thank you to the CMX subscribers - and partners - who helped in this matter by posting comments on the blogger's site. You guys are great!

In an email response from the blogger, he stated, "...i had already your name in the end of this article..."

Yet again, this individual completely missed the point. Attribution is not a replacement for permission. Copying is not a form of flattery.

And hey, if you've ever seen my loud shirt collection, you'd know I wasn't that much into flattery, anyway.

Why the score of 2 - 0, you ask? Well, at the same time I found this blog site, I also discovered a commercial software site which had not only republished another of my articles, but had edited the article in such a way that it seemed I was endorsing the product. One email to them and the article came down. Ironically, at THAT point they asked how much it would cost to reproduce the article.

Fat chance.

</soapbox>

Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS3

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:10:57 GMT

Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS3, the book I co-wrote with Greg Rewis, is finally out. Yes, I know, it was long overdue. I took a picture of it when I finally got to see it at Greg's house (no, my copies haven't arrived yet), so if you'll excuse the exhausted, traipsing around Phoenix all day look on my face, you can see me with the book on Flickr.

Greg and I didn't want to create the same CSS or Dreamweaver book that others have written. Those books are published, are very useful, and if that's what you need buy the appropriate book. Our goal instead was to show how to create standards-based, accessible web layouts using Dreamweaver. It's a myth that you have to hand code to be a real web developer. Is it best to know how to semantically mark up your page? Yes, absolutely. This is a craft and you should know as much as you can about it. Can you hand code within the Dreamweaver environment? Of course you can -- I do it all the time. Do you have to? Absolutely not. There are tools within Dreamweaver that make your work faster, and more effective whether you're working in code or design view. If you haven't looked at Dreamweaver since about MX or so, it's come a long way baby!

Chapter 1 is an overall review of important CSS principles that you must understand to create sturdy CSS-based layouts. The project in chapter 3 takes a lovely, nested table-based layout and transforms it to a CSS layout. Each of the remaining four chapters are a full project based on the CSS layouts I wrote for Dreamweaver CS3 - Fixed, Liquid, Elastic and Hybrid. Chapter 6 also uses Spry 1.6 (an upgrade from Adobe Labs for the Spry 1.4 version that ships with Dreamweaver CS3) and takes you through the process of using HTML data sets to create an accessible Ajax gallery -- unobtrusive javascript and all. We hope the projects will feel like we're working with you as your personal trainer.

The book is full of CSS tips and techniques. It also teaches a variety of ways to use Dreamweaver CS3. Both Fireworks and Photoshop comps are used and the integration of those programs with Dreamweaver is illustrated.

Our hope is that the techniques taught in the book will make your beautiful designs more solid as well as making you more comfortable with the program used by so many web departments. I use Dreamweaver every day and even I learned some new Dreamweaver tips from Greg! Here's what one reader had to say:

"The first chapter alone was worth it to me. I have a lot of CSS books, tutorial sites, etc. Maybe I'm more familiar after working with it for a while, but for me, this book is as clear as a bell, informative as a book ought to be, and motivational as a hand grenade... made me want to jump up and run like hell... to Dreamweaver to try stuff out."
C. Lindauer

Some of you may have also heard a rumor about the other partnership that came out of writing this book. And to that I say, yes, it's true. Greg and I were engaged (via Twitter) in early March. You can think of the book as our baby. ;)

Living on the Edge

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:03:06 GMT

As the title indicates, my Fireworks article is now live on Adobe Edge. Feel free to check it out. I'm quite happy with the end result and I hope you gain some insights on the Fireworks work flow as well.

I have covered this topic in both written and video form here on CMX, but in this article, I atcually take someone else's single page design and build it out into a series of interconnected pages.

Enjoy!

Adobe + Apple != 64-bit PS

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 03:03:20 GMT

John Nack has a lengthy post about why you won't see 64-bit Photoshop goodness on Mac for CS4.

There is a lot of good information there about what 64-bit does and doesn't mean, both in general and for running Photoshop. In the end, it's about market, and Apple has decided to leave Carbon-64 in the trash heap. So, Adobe will be focusing on moving to the Cocoa way of doing things.

John brings up some good information for Mac folks, and also tries to head off any media-baited flame wars. However, I am willing to bet this will just spark a frenzy of armchair developers wagging fingers and charry-picking lame arguments. It's business, folks... take an objective step back and see what makes sense to all parties involved. Pay special attention to the 3 points made near the end of his blog entry.

Lightroom 2.0 Public Beta Announced

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:34:02 GMT

Adobe Lightroom 2.0 is available for download on Adobe labs. Touted as the "photographer's software" Lightroom has made great strides since version 1. V 2 integrates nicely with Photoshop CS3, sports new editing tools, and much more. for all the details, check out John Nack's Blog or just head on over to Adobe Labs

Wow! Five Years!!

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:06:15 GMT

Happy Anniversary to CMX and my fellow CMX'ers!!

Thanks to everyone who has worked so hard to make this site the success it is. And of course a huge thank you to all of our loyal subscribers, we wouldn't be here without you. :-)

Wow...hard to believe it's been 5 years! I have to say it's been a hell of a ride, and one I've thouroughly enjoyed and been proud to be a part of.

Something Old is New Again

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:43:57 GMT

Some months ago, I wrote about my interest in a new audio book category, the podcast novel. These novels are similar to those movie serials of old (Flash Gordon, Lone Ranger), radio serials of not so old (The Shadow, Green Hornet) and TV mini-series of today. Their popularity has grown and many of the authors have earned a certain amount of fame (if not fortune) by writing and narrating their own books in serial form.

Some of these podcast novel authors are now going from cyberspace to the printed page! Yep, they're signing book deals for the novels they used to narrate for free. I think this is pretty cool.

Scott Sigler's sci-fi (and ultra violent) podcast novels can be subscribed to for free on iTunes, but he now has a book deal for the print release of his novel, Infected, coming out in April.

Seth Harwood's film noire private detective podcast novel, Jack Wakes Up is also now in print.

J.C. Hutchins, author of the Seventh Son Trilogy will see the first of the trilogy, Descent, hit the printed page this summer.

What I love about all this is how things got started; online, free, serialized but complete, versions of the books. These authors, and others, I am sure (I'm a sci-fi geek so my interest only extends so far, I admit), gained a following, a fan-base online and their hard work has paid off. It's a geat example of how new media is affecting the way things are done.

Check out iTunes or Podiobooks.com for a long list of podcast novels in a variety of genre's. Give yourself a break from the same old, same old on your iPod.

Personally, I'm hoping to dump a bunch of these onto Tom Green's iPod before our camping trip this August, and delete his Abba collection in the process . . .

Perfect example of BAD customer service and BAD technology systems

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:22:55 GMT

Ok, I'm in Kansas and I thought we're pretty good with online business tech stuff - I have to file, monthly, on my income, etc. I can do this online which is quick, convenient and saved me a stamp and a check (EFT payment). Now, I'm no fan of taxes, but it is the law and not paying is more painful than paying, so I've been faithful to make the payments every month before the due date (errr.... on the due date) and get the yearly required paperwork in too. Each transaction has a confirmation ID and each monthly form is stored, electronically, on their site. I can see that I've paid for the entire 2007 year, have everything filed, etc...

However, today I get a call from the Kansas Department of Revenue - I wasn't there, so I call back when I get in. It is a long distance call and they are only open from 9am to 5pm. I have voip service, so I dial away. I'm put on hold. (insert elevator music here with brief interruptions telling me how important my call is to them...)

Mike answers the phone, I chat a little letting him know why I'm calling, give the case number and wait. He asks some questions to make sure I'm the right guy (you know, that hard to get information, like the address of my business...) - after he's certain I'm not some stranger calling to make good on a government debt for someone else, we proceed to figure out why they called....

"Sir, we don't have your filing for all of last quarter no the payment for the last quarter either"

I'm a little shocked, I know I paid, I saw the money leave my account, all he can tell me is I need to get the right paper work in. They do have my yearly, which has the exact details for my monthly, but we won't go there - having the government actually make the connection between the yearly and monthly reports is asking too much. I mutter something and then get off the phone. By this time, I've loaded up the Kansas on-line payment system and just got to the section about my payments. I call back.

May answers the phone. I give her the details like I did Mike. As we progress, I tell her I've got the electronic confirmation numbers for the payments. I give those to her. She says she sees them, but she can't open them (huh?) and tells me I'm late and fees are assessed , which I suspected, and that, if those were the reports, I'd need to call someone else to get it figured out. Oddly enough, they know I did make a payment and they know that the payment made matches the figure they said I didn't pay in December. Again, this is a leap they cannot grasp. I'm given another long distance number to call.

Kevin answers the phone. I tell him the issue and he's able to figure out that, yes, I did make the payments and yes, the confirmation numbers are for the transactions I said they were for and, yes I filed on time. However, he can't do anything about it. The money was credited to the first quarter 2008, mind you, we're not allowed to file for the first quarter until it is over which is in two weeks. I need to call someone else and, yes, it is a long distance number again. I need to call accounting and tell them that Kevin in the electronics division said it was OK and verified the payments (and since there is only one Kevin, I think they may check on that). See, someone in accounting mis-keyed the information in to the wrong area. Several thoughts went through my mind, but the ones I can print involve:

Why am I fixing this problem? I did what I was supposed to do.
Why can't the revenue department open the confirmed electronic transactions?
Why can't Kevin call accounting himself and fix the issue?
Why can't Kevin just fix it himself?
Why couldn't May or Mike have called Kevin and then accounting to fix the issue?
Why couldn't May or Mike have fixed this themselves?
By the time this is done, I'll have spent more time resolving their foul up than the entire bill is worth
When I screw up, as they thought and billed me for, I'm charged, who pays me for their screw ups?

In any case, I had to leave for an appointment before I could call accounting, something I'm "looking forward to" the same was you look forward to a root canal. Luckily, they will find in my favor and reverse the charges and all, but, man what a waste of time...

Coming to an email near you

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:03:35 GMT

Keep your eyes peeled for the April issue of Adobe Edge because yours truly is making a guest appearance.

Here at CMX as well as in my teaching, I've been focusing recently on using Fireworks to create click-through prototypes, and establishing best practices for one's FW workflow. With the evolution of Fireworks, it's much easier to create these interactive mock ups quickly, allowing more immediate client feedback/approval of a site's design and flow. The beauty of this process is many changes are made early in the design stage, rather than during the coding process.

As designs get more complex, it becomes even more important to set up some best practices for workflow. This helps in case you have to revisit the design weeks or months down the road. It is also very helpful if you have to pass on the design to someone else.

My article on Adobe Edge will focus on the creation of a click-through mock up from a finalized multi-page Fireworks PNG file.

If you've not heard of Adobe Edge before, here's the low-down:

Adobe Edge is a free electronic newsletter that comes out every couple months. It features content for web designers and developers, covering stuff going on at Adobe and the web in general. While the focus is about Adobe and what it's doing to make web-life easier, the magazine also covers things happening outside "the mothership."

For example, February 2008's issues has this list of contents:

Adobe Media Player: Understanding the structure of the RSS feed
BlazeDS and what it means for the developer community
The edge of Flash
Comparing Adobe Flex and Ajax development models
Project profile: Virtual life on the International Space Station
Quick tips for integrating Adobe Creative Suite 3 products
Open source at Adobe

You can either check out the Edge every couple months, or subscribe to it online. I hope you get a chance to read the article and find it useful.

An Event Apart, SXSWi, NAB, Web Design World, HOW Design, and more...

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:28:28 GMT

Coming up in the next couple months, I'll be at several conferences where I'd love to meet you! This week, Austin beckons! At South by Southwest Interactive, I'll be doing three panels. On Saturday, What Women Need to Succeed will explore women in technology--what it takes to make your mark and succeed in the tech world we love. Are women really different? On Sunday, I'll do a panel with Greg Rewis of Adobe on Responsible Web Design. And finally, on Monday afternoon, we'll discuss where WaSP has been and where it's going in Don't Break the Web.

On April 14th, I'll be presenting a three hour session at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in Las Vegas, In-Depth: Using New Media with Adobe Dreamweaver.

On April 25th, In the great city of New Orleans (right before the first weekend of the Jazz Fest!), An Event Apart will take place. Jeffery Zeldman and Eric Meyer invite you to come join us. I'll be presenting Design Challenges, Standards Solutions. Practical, real-world solutions to common problems. If you mention my code -AEASULL- you'll get a $50 discount. Go for it, it will be a great conference! And plan to stay for JazzFest on the weekend.

On May 5-7, Web Design World Chicago will be in the Windy city. I'm presenting two CSS/Dreamweaver session there: CSS-Based Layouts with Dreamweaver CS3 and CSS Problem Solving with Dreamweaver CS3. You can receive $300 off the price by using the code - SPSUL - when you register!

May 18 & 19, I'll present two sessions at HOW Design Conference. A three hour session, Styling With CSS in DW CS3 will be on Sunday. And Common Mistakes Print Designers Make on the Web will be on Monday followed by a book signing. Yes, Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS3 will be released -- finally -- on April 11th! w00t! (Be sure to sign up soon since the early bird discount only lasts till March 28th!)

In Orlando in June, TODCon returns, but we'll talk about that more soon. Come see me, introduce yourself, enjoy all the speakers at the above conferences. Meet you there!

Twitter - A New User's Guide

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:59:23 GMT

So maybe you've never heard of twitter, or maybe it's old news but you thought it seemed silly. That's what happened to me at first as well. A friend told me to check it out (with no instructions), I took a look at the home page, wondered why I cared what all those people I didn't know were doing right now, and closed it. For those that haven't heard of it, twitter is a social networking tool that requires you to answer one simple question - "What are you doing?" - in 140 characters or less. And I agree, it does sound rather silly every time I try to explain it. However, I've found Twitter to be my favorite social tool. I've basically turned off IM (which can be an extreme time sink for me when friends need CSS help!), but I can still keep up with people I care about.

In light of the confusion of new people looking at the app, I thought I'd write a few tips I've found along the way that make it work for me.

A Quick Twitter Primer

Your initial job is to find people you want to follow. You follow them by viewing their profile page and clicking "Follow" under their main icon. These are your friends. (They're called "Following" in your Stats sidebar and their icon will now appear in your sidebar.) There are a variety of ways to do this. Most obviously, start with the people you know. Then, check their friends and see who you know, or know of. Don't worry about whether they know you, it doesn't matter. They may not follow you back for now. Just find interesting people you'd like to know about, know better, or simply eavesdrop on. Heh. Once you've pillaged and plundered your friend's lists, use the search feature for other people you know. If you're really outgoing, you can search for people in your geographical area and start getting to know people you can actually get to know in real life! Wow. This is where twitter can become a great local networking tool. You can even watch the main twitter page for random people you might want to follow. I don't personally find this to be very useful with all the various languages represented.
After adding some friends, you'll likely end up with a few that add you as well. Those people will actually "hear" what you tweet (a tweet is slang for your 140 character post--though you'll hear it called many different things). The tweets of the people you follow will be on your home page when you're logged in. Your tweets will be mixed in chronological order among them. If you're on someone else's profile page, you'll see everything they've written. If you'd like to see the interaction with their friends, click on their With Others tab.
The people that don't follow you will not see what you tweet. But there's a workaround if you'd really like to interact with them (that is, if they're paying attention). Using the @ symbol and their username (for me, that would start with @stefsull), your tweet to them will show up in their Replies tab. But though it once worked in a different way, currently, the @stefsull must be the first thing in your tweet. Putting it somewhere in the message will not make it show up in their Replies pane. I try to check my Replies pane at least once a day to see what I might have missed (since I don't sit and read twitter all day). Even if I don't know someone, intelligent or witty comments may cause me to add them. :)
Once you're set up in this way, just start twittering. Periodically through the day, leave a tweet. Doesn't matter if you only have a couple followers to start with--having a higher number of updates will likely get more people that find you in some way. And the numbers grow over time.
When you follow people and they follow you, you have the ability to send Direct Messages (DM). These are messages that no one else sees and can be set to be sent to your email.
Unless you set your tweets to private, anyone can read them, including googlebots which will kindly add you to the index. If you choose private tweeting, you will have to allow people to follow you. I don't do this, but I know some people, especially those who work at larger companies, enjoy that privacy.
Be sure to check out your settings. You can customize your profile page, add your icon, set privacy, add twitter to your mobile device or IM client, choose how you're notified of DMs, etc.
And if you're an organized person, you can click the little star icon at the end of any post and add it to your favorites. So if someone posts a URL you don't want to forget, or simply says something that makes you giggle uncontrollably, click the star so you can find it again.

What's the Point Really?

Well, maybe there's not one for you. But for me, a person who works from a home office, travels all over the world meeting people, works remotely with a variety of people and companies, it's an amazing tool. I began by adding anyone I knew of in the industry. Many of them I'd never met and perhaps hadn't even conversed with by email. But reading my page periodically, I began to feel I knew something of these people. I learned who had wicked wit, who had spouses and kids, when they were sick, when they had great accomplishments, when something traumatic happened. Yes, you can argue I don't really know them. And you're right. We haven't sat over coffee and shared our deepest feelings. But I certainly know them more than I did, or could have. When I do get an opportunity to meet them later, at a conference, there isn't that uncomfortable feeling of meeting a person you've only heard of. For me, feeling like I know them allows me to be immediately comfortable, relax, discuss, hang out. For those I have met, I don't lose track. I can keep up with their life until I see them again in the future.

There are companies and organizations using twitter to send out news and notifications. You can even keep up with politics, weather, news feeds, etc. Twitter is a tool. Use it as you will. But for me, the part that matters is it keeps me nicely connected with the little people inside my computer--my virtual, and sometimes real, internet buds.

Scaling Fonts using em units

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:05:33 GMT

As I train all over the world, one of the issues I try to spend a good deal of time on is helping people to understand the malleable em unit. And how to utilize it for good and not evil. :)

Anyone who knows me knows my burden for accessibility and the em unit is one of the most accessible ways to design. In fact, Greg and I spend a chapter on it in our upcoming book, so I won't go into a lot of detail here. But today, I stumbled upon a really great font-size calculator created by James Whittaker. If you'd rather keep it handy on your desktop, he also created it as an Adobe AIR application.

In reading the comments of his blog post, I saw a couple people questioning the reasoning behind decreasing the default text size of a user at all. And I began to answer those questions with my own opinions. About three paragraphs into my reply, it occurred to me that I was monopolizing James' comments and it was best done as a blog post of my own (please read James' post for the full story).

For the quick back story - the default text size of modern browsers is 16px (that would equal 1em). It's quite common to choose a 12px font-size which is 75% of the default sizing (.75em), as the base font size for elements on your page. (I'm not going to address here whether that should be placed on the body, or on individual elements.) The people responding in the comments were questioning whether we should adjust the base font size (something I've heard for years) since we're taking away "the experience the user expected." My reasoning follows...

The Three Groups of Users

I likely don't have to remind you that back in the days of tag soup, 12px was a very common size to set type to on the web. In fact, even after many developers started controlling their typography with CSS, 12px was probably the most common size to set type to. So saying that people who leave their browser set to the default 16px size want that size is simply not true. They hardly know what it looks like since more often than not, it's overridden by other font sizing and styling anyway. And if they're like the average user, they don't have the inclination to change it either. They can see just fine, thank you. And they use most of their apps with the defaults they ship with (which explains why most of those same people use Internet Explorer -- since it ships with their operating system). They're not upset that you changed their text size since they get what they have always seen and have come to expect.

Now, in the case of a low-vision user, this is not the case. If someone struggles with the issue of low vision and surfs the web regularly, they've probably developed a method of dealing with it. Users with aging eyes, many times instead of changing the base font size of their browser, have simply learned to use menus or key commands to bump the text size up. They change to a more comfortable size when necessary, but sometimes are limited by the fact that the site breaks in some way as they increase their font size. With this 75%/.75em font calculation, they get what they expect because they surf at default sizes to begin with and they still have control as well as a usable site at any size they settle on.

There are the more extreme vision-impaired that change their default browser text to 32px, 45px, or whatever size works for them. If they've changed their default to 32px, using the 75%/.75em size puts them at 24px. They can still use a key command to increase the text size if necessary. They're probably the users that know the most about making your site work for them because they need it the most. I'm guessing a great deal of the web is difficult for them to use (with columns that have one or two words per line, overlapping, elements getting cut off, etc). So though they don't get their initial optimum size (which is, most probably a common occurrence for them since many sites still use pixel sizing), they have the tools to increase the size a bit more if it's necessary.

Now, do not misunderstand me and think that I'm saying that since the very low vision user is the only one that doesn't get what they initially expect, that they're not important. They are and all users and user agents should have access to the content. I'm simply saying that the first two groups, and even part of the third (for the not uncommon pixel-based sites) see what they expect to see. And with em-based layouts, they have the tools to change them--very smoothly giving them a great experience. That's all.

The irony of open source software

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:05:50 GMT

Free, I like free. I use free stuff all the time. Firefox, Filezilla, 7zip, and Thunderbird every day, for example. My server is on some flavor of GNU/Linux with Apache, phpmyadmin, Horde, mySQL and PHP (which also includes, I’m sure, TONs more software). I have a Yahoo, Hotmail, Myway, Gmail, and AOL free email address. All of those have a variety of free to them, some are open source free (GPL, for example), some are closed source free, some are just used for free (like Google, for example) where there is no source to see. Now, with open source, it is more than mere “free” software – it carries a philosophy with it, that software should be free. The preamble to the license includes:

The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a program--to make sure it remains free software for all its users.

Now, where this all gets ironic is the drumbeat for donations. I have several extensions I use in Firefox and a couple of them make heartfelt, earnest pleas for money, after all, they spend considerable time creating the software. If I visit open source software sites that aren’t currently backed by a commercial company, 90% of the time they are asking/accepting donations (if the product is any good and widely used).

So … which is it? Is it free or do you want money for it? I find it odd they would choose an open source license and then cite their time, effort and hard work that goes in to making the software work for reasons people should donate. If they want money for it, they should simply charge for it; if they want it to be free, really free – including “guilt free” then they should list it under an open source license.

Here is what I think has happened. They started a project as they though “hey, such-and-such application does that, it shouldn’t be that hard, I can do it” and then they wrote a proof of concept and it wasn’t that hard – maybe a month or even a few months of dedicated work on it. They are still in the excitement phase of a new project; the buzz from making something work is fresh in their minds. So they see all of the open source applications and how everyone just gets all giddy over them and elect to release the code in open source format. They have something that works and they release it at sourceforge and, then, someone else starts using it – but they find it doesn’t work right. So some bug fixes come in. The programmer, who has a family, life and such, continues to take time to make the fixes work. Some one else adds code to make it do something else, so the programmer adds it to the application and this keeps up for a little while. The novelty of the project is wearing off, it is becoming WORK. Bugs keep coming in, new feature requests and someone slams the project because their entire system crashed because of it (even if it is impossible, it just happened at the same time …) They don’t see a lot of help coming in, if any at all, and they see hundreds, if not millions, using their software and making money off of it – while the author is stuck making the changes and adjustments so the consumer can continue to make money off of it and the author gets??? They start to see the project as a time hole that sucks all of their free time making, fixing, updating and maintaining the application all without any compensation and decide that, maybe, someone will chip in some money to cover what they could be making if they were working on a commercial application or contracting.

The irony – they believe in free software as a philosophy, so strongly that anything that “touches” the software becomes free as well – but, not strongly enough not to ask for donations because they actually created the software.

So, for those open source author’s – put up and shut up or write commercial software, but don’t think using guilt, pity or such to garner donations is in the spirit of the open source philosophy. At a bare minimum, setup a license for those who want to contribute so that the viral nature of the GPL doesn’t apply to them and then, maybe you’ll get something for your hard work. When you give something away for free, people will value your work in to it as much as you’ve placed the value on the work (i.e. free). I know several projects I’d love to contribute to if they had an alternate license for those contributing – and several that I’ve actually given to, some from the value of the work to my business and others because it was way cool or had an alternate license.

IE8 meta tag and backward compatibility

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:18:55 GMT

OK, so I'm reading ALA (A list apart) on the latest new thing to come out of the web standards group, something Microsoft intends to implement in IEv8. One of the biggest issues we web developers face in developing web pages is the varied version of browsers and code compatibility. If you look at the offerings here at CMX, you will find, from time to time, articles that address this in some manner (as in, for IEv6, you need to include; for Firefox, include; for IEv7 do this and for IEv5.x, try this - oh and Safari v1, just give it up). The proposed idea is to implement a meta tag which allows you to specify the browser engine to render the page with - for example, if you specify IEv8, when IEv9+ comes out, it is rendered with the same, prior, version of IE, v8. The goal of the standard would also to be allow multiple browsers to utilize this same functionality so that Firefox, Safari and the rest could also use this to render pages in prior engines for their product line (so I could specify IEv8, FFv2 and Safari v3, for example). The implementation will look like:

The articles went on to talk about the prior attempt to have web pages rendered differently using the doctype declarations. Both articles are a good read (not so much on the comments to the articles). It is my opinion that this is a good thing. I believe it will allow us to create a work on the web and not have to freak out when the next version of whatever comes out, worried our sites will break. I also believe it will aid us in transition from one browser to the next. Likewise, I have a couple concerns as well - how well will the future browsers render prior versions? and if I have a site created for IEv9 and you have IEv8, what happens? The articles from ALA are:

Beyond DOCTYPE: Web Standards, Forward Compatibility, and IE8
From Switches to Targets: A Standardista's Journey

mySQL to be aquired by SUN

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:49:12 GMT

Well, it continues to happen and I'm not surprised. This time an open source company, mySQL, is bought by another company, SUN. I am curious, given the open source product development, as to the profits. See, a long time ago I heard a proprietary software developer laugh at the open source movement, something like "Someone is going to make a lot of money off of that and it won't be the contributors". Well it seems those words came to pass. The owners of mySQL are raking in a fortune while those who made it happen (the little people) got to participate.

Compound that with companies, like facebook, which use open source tools, like mySQL and who sell parts of their company for millions - you've just got to wonder - how can I get a staff of people working for an open source project I own for free so that I can sell the company, who owns the main copyright of the open source project, years later for millions?

To the point of the purchase, I do wonder what this will hold for mySQL? What will SUN do with the project? Will it become like Red Hat's distro for Linux - all for profit entries with the source files for the distro off somewhere else? Will the pre-install licensing change? One thing is for sure, the mySQL is open source, so they can't change that - and it will still be widely used and installed for some time to come. I would love to see the database make it to the next level of maturity and include enterprise level functionality (beyond what it has now) that will make it a slam dunk decision for most applications. What I think would also be really awesome would be an application distribution, like MS Access, to bring it to the desktop or to be married to Java somehow and made inter-operable with the language! Now that would be cool!

Dynamic TextField Interfering with Button Click in AS3.0

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:27:58 GMT

Something that had me quite frustrated for some time was a dynamic textfield in a button interfering with a mouse click. The buttons were added to the application dynamically when needed and the dynamic textfield was populated with the name for the button when added. Yes, I had the textfield's selectable property set to false but it was still a problem if the button's buttonMode and useHandCursor properties were set to true. The text field blocked any kind of mouse event through to the button. The solution was simple but poorly documented. I did not see this property in the help menu so here you go:

textfieldName.mouseEnabled = false;

Set this property before setting the selectable property to false and away you go. I hope this saves you some hair-pulling and you found this easy enough if you've been searching for a solution to this problem.

The Year that was, the Year that Will Be

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:44:40 GMT

As I sit in my sun room, looking out a a thin blanket of fresh snow in the back yard on this last day of 2007, I find myself getting a bit reflective.

Like any year, 2007 had its ups and its downs. Attending and speaking at TODCON is always one of the ups for me, but this year I received a special treat; I was invited to speak at Adobe MAX. I am hoping to be invited back to both again in 2008. They are two completely different types of conferences, both a lot of fun and hard worked combined.

2007 also saw me teaching more than I ever thought I would. I held down two courses at Centennial and 2 - 3 courses at Humber. The total number of students ranged between 130 - 150 each week. I was relieved when the winter break set in but also proud of myself for making it through the semester without a nervous breakdown!

In early 2007, we lost my brother-in-law to a terrible brain disease. He was only a year older than me, and it certainly gave me a far too keen sense of my own mortality. But his loss was traumatic on many more levels other than my own selfish ones. My wife lost her "baby brother," my niece and nephew lost their father and my sister-in-law (who exhibited phenomenol strength and determination, taking care of David at home) lost her husband and love of over 20 years. Many, many others lost a dear friend. The neighbourhood lost a kind-hearted man who always had a smile and a positive thing to say.

Family and friends grew closer through this ordeal, however, and those bonds are continually strengthened. We spent many a happy moment with Sharon, Lindsay and Myles over the holidays. It seems to be true that some good can come from bad.

Every year my house gets the royal treatment for Christmas. We have a crawlspace on one side of the house that contains nothing but Christmas decorations. Santas, snowmen, all manner of glittery objects get pulled out, unpacked and set up for the month of December and early January. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a process that occurs over days, not hours.

One of my personal joys is setting up my Christmas village. Miniature houses, people, animals and even a functional trolley get laid out - usually in a different location each year. This year it was the fireplace mantle. This 10 inch deep slab of maple gave me over 8 feet of length to set up the scene this year. And while somewhat limiting, I like the challenge of making the town work.

In the basement/rec room, I commandeer two book shelves and set up a winter wilderness scene with a (not functional) waterfall, river, mountains and a couple cabins, surrounded in a heavy blanket of polyester snow.

I also set up a model train which runs around the tree. Well, it runs if the cats haven't derailed a boxcar at some point in the night.

Both the train and the trolley were gifts from my Dad, from his own collection. Even some of the houses were left to me. He had his very own room at home where it was nothing but trains. I have a bit of the bug, but not so much that I've blockaded a room yet.

So it's kind of bittersweet when I bring the town to life each year; makes me feel closer to him and at the same point, makes me miss him all the more. He was a bigger kid at Christmas than me and that's saying a lot.

2008 brings with it a whole new semester with new students. I won't be teaching as much as in the fall, but I'll be busy nonetheless, including an exciting project with Peach Pit Press, presenting at a local camera club and of course, writing for Community MX.

I hope 2008 brings other things, too. I hope it safely brings back home our friends and family serving overseas.

I hope it brings a calmer climate, both politically and geophysically.

I hope it brings the Canadian dollar down just a bit, so my CMX cheques pack more punch and I can yet again offer web design deals to my American cousins!

I hope you have all had a wonderful, safe and happy holiday so far. If you're out celebrating tonight, make sure to bring change for a cab - or a sleeping bag - so you can enter the new year safe and sound as well.

Thank you to all my friends here on CMX, partners and subscribers alike, for making it once again an honor and a pleasure to be part of this team.

See ya next year!

Christmas Traditions

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 08:45:24 GMT

My Dad is a kid at heart. A big, six foot, three inch kid. At Christmas time it just gets worse, and my family loves him for it. When we were kids, my siblings and I would be awakened by our father by 5:30am at the latest. He'd be shouting "Ho Ho Ho!" walking up and down the hallways, making sure that everyone knew that he was awake and wanted to get to the festivities. He hasn't changed a bit in the last 40 years. I typically stay at Mom and Dad's place on Christmas eve, like I'll be doing again this year. My brother and my sisters arrive on Christmas morning, since they live close by. But even though we're all adults now, my Dad makes sure we get the same treatment we got as children. He'll wake me up with his bellowing "Ho Ho Ho!" after making sure that he's got some coffee apologetically brewing. After making fun of how hilariously groggy I look at 5:30 in the morning, he proceeds to call everyone in the family that hasn't arrived yet - which is pretty much everyone, since no one in my family sets their alarm on Christmas morning. Thanks to Dad, they don't need to. Everyone gets the familiar "Ho Ho Ho!" followed by something like "Santa Claus came and brought you presents, now get your butt out of bed and get over here!"

My sister Sherry will arrive first, usually still in her pajamas. She's 47 now, so I'm not sure what the pajamas are about, but to each their own. Then my brother Joe shows up, and he's already wide awake because he has the same "get up early" illness that our Dad has. The last of the siblings to show up is my other sister Terry, because she has to grab a cup of Starbucks on the way. As soon as we're situated, our Dad, who is usually adorned with a Santa Claus hat, hands out the Christmas stockings. My parents watch us empty our stockings, and refuse to touch theirs until we're all done. My family was poor growing up, so we used to use my Dad's socks as stockings. It's amazing how much those things can stretch when you really try. You'd be able to tell that you got an apple, a banana and some candy in your stocking just by looking at the outside of it. Now that they're well-off, we get actual Christmas stockings, but I kind of miss those mis-shapen socks.

Now it's time to hand out gifts. My Dad does the honors, of course. This is not as straightforward as it sounds. My Dad does not like anything mundane. Even the tags on Christmas gifts have to be different. They can't say "To Bill from Dad" or anything so simple as that. No, he prefers to label them "To Billy Bob Boy From Sandy Claws" and things like that. Oh- that's another thing. Everyone in my family gets a nickname. No one but my Dad actually uses these names, and that's probably for the best, as not all of them are complimentary. Ask my sister Sherry, also known as "The Nose."

About ten years ago, my sisters decided that they couldn't afford to get everyone a gift, so we should just draw names from a hat and just buy for whoever we drew. My parents don't participate in that. They want to be free to purchase a wholly unnecessary number of gifts for everyone in the family, and spoil them as rotten as they always have. We tell them that buying each person one gift would be just fine, but they actually look offended and hurt by the very idea, so we let it go.

My Mom has always been the head of our family - the person who steered the family ship in whatever direction it needed to go. But on Christmas, she knows my Dad is going to revert to being a five year old again, so she just lets it happen. I think it's one of the things that she loves about him, even though she usually just rolls her eyes and says "Steven Douglas!" whenever he gets carried away.

For many reasons, I'm looking forward to this Christmas more than I have others in the past. Tradition is a good thing, and my family holds on tight to this one.

Merry Christmas, folks!

11%+4.99%+$1.25 on top of how much a month???

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:04:44 GMT

Ok, so I'm curious about all the data services available for wireless internet access over cellular providers. I go looking around and, having worked with a telecom, I look for the "hidden" charges as I know it is their favorite thing to do, sucker you in with a "low" price and then - BAM - your bill is not what you expected. I was shocked at how brazen and, in my opinion, fraudulent these charges have become. In no particular order:

AT&T
- Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge $1.25
- Federal Universal Service Fund 11.0%
- State Universal Service Fund 4.99%
On a $59.99 plan, you pay AT&T - $70.83
Verizon
- Tolls, taxes, surcharges and other fees up to 34%
- Monthly Federal Universal Service Charge is 11%
- Wireless monthly Regulatory Charge - $0.07/line
- Monthly Administrative Charge - $0.70/line
On a $59.99 plan, you pay Verizon up to $87.76
Sprint
- One mention of an 11% "fee" charge was seen
- $1.55 in line fees
Sprint hides their charges extremely well, so this number is probably lower than it should be - $59.99 plan, you pay Sprint $68.14
T-Mobile
- Regulatory Programs Fee of $0.86 per line
- Taxes, tolls, roaming, and other charges (including Universal Service charges) additional. Not specified, but when I looked at an example bill (for $39.95), I found:
  - Federal Excise Tax - $1.25
  - Federal Universal Service fund - $0.62
  - State Sales Tax - $2.60
  - City Utility Users tax - $2.55
  - Local Sales Tax - $0.56
  - State 911 - $0.20
  - County 911 - $0.50
  - Regulatory Programs fees - 0.86
T-Mobile - best I can figure - $59.99, you pay $60.85
Alltel - they won't even give you a clue what they charge, but someone who posted a complaint said (on a $39.95 bill):
- Federal USF - $1.79
- Regulatory & Admin Fee - $1.15
So, $59.99, pay Alltel a minimum of $62.93

I find it astonishing that the businesses are allowed to setup a binding contract (usually for two years) based upon a figure you pay per month plus an undisclosed figure that they change change without consideration to you at any time for whatever reason and, if you don't like it, they can stick you with a disconnect fee. This is a classic bait and switch tactic - and it is difficult to actually figure out what a plan will end up costing - all of the above are based upon estimates and vague legalese wording.

And the real irony of this all, cell phone providers are considered to be among the worst customer service providers in business, give consumers the worst contract deals and have less the stellar product offerings (dropped calls anyone)... amazing

IRS Section 179

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:44:53 GMT

As reported in the CMX Newsletter, an article about the IRS tax code delves in to the Section 179 deduction for office equipment. Reviewing the article, I found it to be a little simplistic and, perhaps, only accurate should you find yourself in the highest tax bracket - and a s-corp like you should be :). It also works for sole props and partnerships, but those are BAD business setups anyway. C-corps don't get the same complete benefits as an s-corp (due to pass through profiting), but they still benefit.

The basics of it is the government, in their infinite wisdom, decided that computers have a FIVE YEAR business life... FIVE YEARS (I had to repeat that because it is so ridiculous - the average machine from five years ago used 256 Megs of RAM, had under 100 gigs of HD space, was the first releases of the Althon XP or Pentium 4 series processors and ran windows 98, 2000 or the brand new XP (or NT, I suppose - we've had therapy to block out all references to WinME). The Mac's where still using Mac Classic 9.2 and OS X was released as OS 10.1). Personally, I upgrade every other year or about 18 months at the shortest. So I have a series of mothballed PCs that, if I sell or dispose of, I have to do some accounting voo-doo on to account for the Section 179 deducation. Having said all of that (after climbing down from the soapbox), the section 179 is a quick way to deduct what you spend this year on what you bought. While I don't grasp why the government does depreciation (I bought it, why do I have to deduct the cost over five years ... why can't I do the same with income...) - we really don't have much of a say on the matter. So, here is what you need to know:

Deduct up to $25,000 in capital equipment purchases as section 179 deductions.
Forecast your upcoming income verse your income this year - if you will be in a higher tax bracket (say you just started and you're in the 10% bracket and next year you'll be in the 29% bracket as you'll kick butt because you're a CMX subscriber and can get work done quicker and make more money) it may benefit you in the long run to deduct the income off of the 29% tax rate instead of the 10%. Simpler, if you have $1000 to deduct at 10%, you've saved $800 worth of income at 10% taxing or $80 worth of taxes; if you deduct $200/yr for 5 years, you pay that $80 the first year, but the next year you write off $200*.29 or $58 and again for the next three years ($58*4) in tax savings (so it comes to $232 in overall tax savings verse $80)
Predict who will be the president in the upcoming election and their position on business and taxes, getting the money now may be the only time you can get it - or getting the deduction over the years should tax rates spike may have a better payoff.
Check with your accountant on the ramifications of selling or disposing of any equipment purchased under the Section 179 category.
Keep in mind, other equipment, like furniture, have longer depreciation times, some, like software, have shorter (although check to make sure you can deduct software under 179 codes, it seems to go off and on as to if you can or can't) when making your decision on if to use the depreciation or not.

The depreciation tax laws where originally developed in the 1950's, tweaked a few times here and there - clearly the manufacturing and technology systems have changed - no longer is everything built rock solid nor moves as slow as it was in the 1950's. However, the government remains the same, slowly changing. Perhaps the best thing, as a small business, you could do would be to lobby your federal representatives to change the laws to exempt small businesses (under $10M) from all depreciation and/or, just eliminate it all together.