Web design

Web standards primer for the non-techie

When a web designer says he "designs to standards," what does he mean? If he's talking about designing to the W3C way of coding web pages, he means writing semantic (X)HTML code while performing the site's styling and layout in valid CSS...

And at this point non-designers hear the voice of Charlie Brown's teacher. Read more...

Web 2.0: The Dark Side

Unless you've been sitting in a cave on Mars with your hands over your ears while shouting, you've probably heard of "Web 2.0." Read more...

The promise of Web 3D

Patrick Cox writes in TCS Daily that Netscape is about to revolutionize the web again. Read more...

Worst. Political. Web sites. EVER.

Most politicians have pretty decent web sites that tell you a little about themselves and the issues they stand for. Some, worse yet, have web sites that make them look sillier than if they had no site at all. Read more...

Innovate, deploy, repeat

MySpace is so, like, 2005. Read more...

Secret wiki

Isn't a "secret wiki" kind of an oxymoron? The US government doesn't think so. Read more...

Could that post cost you your dream job?

Confirmation that "knowing your audience" is even more important when you post content on the web. Read more...

Writing

Effective web content in ten easy steps

How is writing for the web different from writing for print? How can I make my web content more effective?

I answered those questions for a client a couple of years ago in a brief guide called "Writing for the Web: Ten Steps to Writing Effective Web Conent." Read more...

The ideal user's guide is no user's guide

What makes a good software user's guide? Read more...

Back in the fiction saddle

I've recently gone back to my fiction writing after almost ignoring it for the last six months. I never really stopped writing (worked on stories here and there), but family demands didn't leave much time for anything other than family demands. Read more...

Is the keyboard killing the handwriting star?

The Washington Post reports that cursive writing is a dying art among US students. Read more...

Business

Five "Bright Sides" to a five-hour flight delay

My flight from O'Hare to Detroit was delayed five hours last week when the plane we were supposed to take got stuck on the ground in Philadelphia because of severe thunderstorms. So rather than weep openly after each delay announcement, I tried focusing on the bright side of my situation. Read more...

How to (almost) lose a customer

Last August I went to a local baby furniture store to buy a crib for my 3-month old daughter. The one I wanted was out of stock, so they had to order it. Fair enough. Read more...

Book Review: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

I must be one of the last people in America to read Stephen Covey's classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People because I saw echoes of the book in every business book I've read and corporate training session I've taken during my short, 11-year professional career. Read more...

Building a good reputation

My current employer asks all of its corporate headquarters employees to spend a day in one of its stores at least once per quarter. Helps us stay connected to the business. Read more...