I’ll admit it. I hate Flash. That’s not right. Let’s rephrase. I dislike improper use of Flash. And it’s not Adobe’s fault. Flash is definitely a great tool for the web. It’s just not used properly and most of the time quite overused. I have seen some really terrific websites using Flash, but at the same time, I’ve seen at least twice as many making terrible use of it. Here’s some advice regarding your use of Flash.
Recently, there’s been quite an up stir on commenting systems. And rightfully so, as comments are very important to bloggers. Since we’re in the times of “following” others online in any social network available, it only seemed inevitable that social commenting systems would come. Welcome Disqus and IntenseDebate.
What they provide:
Having been in Web Design for such a long time, I frequently get asked “Where/How do I start?” After thinking about it. It’s a pretty hard question to answer. I needed to probe further and ask follow-up questions to fully understand what they were asking. It’s easy to just point someone to Google and tell them to search for Web Design. They’ll get a lot of information that way. Unfortunately, there’s way too much information out there. Books, websites, magazines, blogs. It’s very easy to get information overload and confused. It’s also very easy to start off and go completely the wrong way and get discouraged. So I’ve compiled a small list of books and websites to help get you started. The vast majority of these did not exist when I started and I wish they had been.
Once upon a time (1994), free web hosting was available with no advertisements. Your web host limited you to a size of 2 MB. And URLs were even more obscure. These were the days of GeoCities, Tripod, and Angelfire. It was hard to tell someone to visit your website when your URL was in the form of http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/temple/4460. Enter the social web of the 90s, Web Rings. The SEO technique of submitting your website to a circular network of similar subject websites that required a small badge on your website.
This was were my adventures in web design started. I began with GeoCities in 1996. Having to own an entire block of a neighborhood to host images due to the 2MB limit, which was later raised to 5MB then 10MB, etc. Joined Web Rings to promote my websites. Stuffing as much keyword meta tags as possible. And submiting them of the search engines of the world. Search Engines before Google exists. AltaVista, Excite, Lycos, DogPile, MetaCrawler, InfoSeek, Northen Light, WebCrawler, HotBot, and Yahoo.
Back then, there was no CSS to style your site. People had to used HTML Tables instead of Divs. Animated Gifs and background Midi music ruled the web. These were the days of Netscape Navigator, where you needed to use a text editor or Dreamweaver to code a website.
Enter the era of Microsoft FrontPage, HomeSite, and Adobe Go-Live. Now anyone can create a website if they know how to use Microsoft Word. And everyone did just that. WYSIWYG allowed anyone to put up a website. Failure to have valid code never mattered. W3C had no impact on anyone. And FrontPage extensions to boot.
The new century quickly brought us the world of blogging through Blogger, MovableType and LiveJournal. I first started a LiveJournal blog thanks to TechTV‘s Megan Morrone providing me an invite. It was the beginning of many things to come. In a world now dominated by WordPress, TypePad, MovableType, and Blogger.
Not much later, in 2002, Friendster came out. The beginning of Social Networks. Quickly following suit were MySpace, Bebo and Facebook. The current state of the web now dominated by Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed and many other Social Networks. Web 2.0 has taken the world by storm and it’s showing no signs of letting go.
Care to share you history of web design? How did you get started in this business?
I have been riding the Dahon Speed D7 folding bike for a little over a month now. In that time, I have put in just shy of 130 miles on it. Dahon has been in the business of folding bikes for 25 years now. And the Speed D7 model is their best-selling folding bike. It was also awarded BusinessWeek’s Best Value Folder Award.
The Bike Specs:
Weight: 25.74 lbs.
Speeds: 7
Folded Size: 33 x 64 x 81 cm (13″ x 25″ x 32″)
Tire Size: 20″
I have been commuting about 3 miles during weekdays. I have taken the bike out for a longer run of 8 miles and the ride was still quite comfortable. It is a bit challenging on the steep hills when compared to a standard 26″ mountain bike.
In the past month, I have run into a few problems with the bike.
All said, there is quite a list of great things to say about the bike.
Dahon has a Flickr group where you can meet other Dahon bike owners and also see various pictures. On their own website, Dahon has a forum and picture gallery which you can contribute to.
This is a wonderful bike to start commuting to work and zipping around town. There are special baskets that fit perfectly on the front of the bike for going to a farmer’s market. I highly reccommend this bike. If you’re looking for something a little lighter, I would take a look at the Mariner. It’s essentially the same bike as the Speed D7, but comes with a tire pump built into the seat and is made of Aluminum (making the bike rust-resistant NOT rust-proof!!!)
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