Everything In Between

• I’ve been in the office for less than fifteen minutes and I’ve already heard my name mentioned in THREE (3!) conversations around me. Hmm…. #
• A great example why I am continually shocked at how much money big companies waste: http://fluidapp.com/ Turn any web page into a Mac app. #
• My head hurts and my eyes are heavy and I totally can’t be bothered to care about the only BDSM event that doesn’t have a $20+ price tag … #
• Haha! Someone made a http://OrgasmLogger.com -esque webapp for general sexual encounters. I KNEW I wasn’t the only one. http://bedposted.com #

• @ProblmLikeMaria Actually I think you’ll find my book is likely right where you’re at. Check out the free Table of Contents if you’re unsure #
• Things I hate: 1) closed, proprietary systems 2) poor, undocumented custom code. Things I HATEHATEHATE: closed systems w/poor custom code. #
• Going to get brunch outside with @BloodyLaughter to escape rising frustrations with badly architected, undocumented systems at work. #
• @essinem CRT=Cathode Ray Tube, original TV technology. CRT displays cause interference that block Wi-Fi signals. Might be something else tho #
• @SERAPHIN13 That’s not a bad guess, but I think the equation is more likely to be something like: more free time = more blogging. #
• The sun is doing this thing where it’s bouncing off other panes and shining into my back-facing apt. It’s beautiful and reminds me of NYC. #
• @unspeakableaxe That should prove it’s not the penis that does it. #
• I wish Basecamp would let free accounts archive projects. It doesn’t really make sense to me to force people to delete their own stuff. #
• @sanbeiji Now’s my turn to say ‘Ditto.’ On the up side, I now own ‘3:10 to Yuma’ on DVD which is AWESOME. Oh wait, that’s totally unrelated. #
• I’m finding the sudden proliferation of mistaken tweets in my timeline from Twitter Tools and the WordPress for iPhone combos amusing. #
• Late again, and I’m not sleepy. Spent a good portion of the evening preparing for http://ConversioVirium.org/ discussion list announcement. #

• My tummy feels funny…. :( #
• Wondering how to make the best use of my time today. Perhaps I need fuel; almost lunch time anyway. So best use is really “tastiest option.” #
• @essinem If your TV is CRT you’ll have major interference issues with a Wi-Fi router. Move the router far away from CRT, radio phones, etc. #
• I just got a call from an “executive search firm based in Sydney.” That means time from resume update to recruiter call clocks in at 1 week. #
• @lanej0 Apps like Versions and Cornerstone are good for some, but they’re too little too late, IMHO. Now’s time to get on the git bandwagon. #
• Just finished climbing out of the neck-deep hole of MySQL character set issues invalid country data forced me to dig up. Now THAT’S fun…. #
• I am definitely having one of those slow days. My brain is all foggy and it’s difficult to change gears from one thing to another. Booses. #
• I wrote a book, Foundation Website Creation with @sanbeiji and @lanej0, a promotional post: http://tinyurl.com/5ekqy8 Great for starting out #

Last month, 37signals published a short but sweet post about why web designers should do the HTML/CSS implementations for their own designs. The bottom line is, as we’ve all been saying for a long time now, that the Web is not the same kind of medium as other mediums like print. It is a fundamentally different kind of canvas than most web designers are used to using. As a result, if you as a web designer are not intimately familiar with it, you’re not going to do great work.

designing for the web is a lot less about making something dazzle and a lot more about making it work. The design decisions that matter pertain directly to the constraints of the materials. What form elements to use. What font sizes. What composition. What flow. Those decisions are poorly made at an arm’s length.

I’ve worked with many web designers in the past who only did abstractions and then handed over pictures to be chopped and implemented by “HTML monkeys”. It never really gelled well. The things that got strong attention were all the things that Photoshop did well. Imagery, curvy lines, and the frame. All the around stuff, never the it stuff.

In other words, to do great web design you have to design in the Web, not in some other medium for the Web. I mean, serious magazine firm employs designers who don’t understand how to work with page layout programs like InDesign. Why, then, do so many web design agencies employ designers who don’t know how to work with web technologies, or even how to use programs like Dreamweaver? It doesn’t really make any sense, and it’s no wonder that the resulting implementation is rarely top-notch work.

But if you’re a graphic designer who doesn’t know much about Web technologies, what are you to do? Well, as a first step, I think you should pick up my new book, Foundation Website Creation. It’s available from all good booksellers (and probably some crappy ones) as of today. The book is targeted towards all manner of web professionals, including graphic designers and website producers, who want to learn more about what it takes to actually implement a site.

If I do say so myself, the chapters on XHTML and CSS are exceptionally thorough. The book doesn’t try to turn you into an exceptional programmer. Instead, it will explain the foundational concepts you need to know to understand how XHTML and CSS actually work, and in so doing will enable you to use the tools you already know to solve problems and get things done.

I think this book will be an excellent starting point for lots of designers and other web professionals. However, it is not going to take you from zero to hero—no book can. That’s why I recommend that, after you read Foundation Website Creation and have a solid grasp of what the technology can do for you and how it actually does it, you next take a look at these excellent books:

• DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith — if you’re a designer that needs to add a behavioral layer with JavaScript and Ajax to your pages, you need to read this book next.
• Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS3 - if you’re familiar with Dreamweaver and want to keep using it to create standards-based web sites, then I recommend you follow Foundation Website Creation with this book by Stephanie Sullivan and Greg Rewis to take your Dreamweaver skills to the next level.

As always, most of all, have fun. Because if you’re not having fun, you’re not going to make good web sites no matter what you know.

Note: As of this writing, the book listing on Amazon still publishes the wrong author list, which is very frustrating but out of my hands. At least the image of our book’s front cover lists the correct authors.

• Bad morning: My writer’s contract, SSN and bank info are “lost in the mail,” and I’m STILL not listed as an author of my book on Amazon. Gr! #
• Kind of an ups-and-downs sort of day. Went shopping and walking, then tasted a martini with vodka I actually didn’t dislike. And got movies. #
• @sanbeiji I know that feeling, usually when my brain won’t stop thinking. To solve add 1 ounce coding with 2 cups problem, stir ’til zonked. #
• Post Stardust and nachos, watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (which was hilarious). Now in bed, sleepy but not at all wanting to sleep. #
• Some hours later, post sleep and dreams of some kind, am still in bed and sleepy but so do not want to wake up. Life is so unfair like that. #

• Went hiking today at the Royal National Park with coworkers. Just finishing dinner at an Indian restaurant. Gettin’ sleepy. #
• If coworkers ask why I’m walking funny on Mon I’ll just say that my gf beat me up. In other news, I am having a hard time w/the local scene. #

• Finished polishing v0.1.1 of my insanely portable, sans-version control deployment script. Now, Batman: Dark Knight with @BloodyLaughter. #
• Dark Knight=Compelling! Also, I find it funny that I got a postcard from the Australian e-tax ppl instead of an email; I got my TFN online. #
• @sanbeiji Welcome back to the US of A! How was the vacation? #

• Why do recruiters keep asking me about NYC-based jobs? Why do people still send me help requests via strange channels? Is context that hard? #
• I just wrote some PHP code to fix a data integrity issue that executes straight SQL on the database. I feel dirty…but they were dirtier. #
• At Drupal Australia mtg. Learning about FeedAPI modules. Chuckling at note to do RSS as application/xml+rss, a point I made at work today. #
• Re-tweet: Oops, sorry folks. That was an old post that I fixed a typo on. An oldie, but a goody if you like source code management tools. #
• @JohnBaku Better than TextExpander for Mail.app is MailTemplate by MacTank. http://mailtemplate.mactank.com/ Check it out. Night, tweets. #
• @unspeakableaxe I love IT double entendres. There are just so many “hard” things and “micro” wares that the jokes never end. #

• Woke up after a weird dream involving underground labyrinths and bugs. Eww. In other news, ConversioVirium.org had over 5500 hits in June! #
• @BloodyLaughter That dream sounds weirder than mine. Mine was a bit more on the decidedly creepy side. Smallville and cuddles tonight, pls? #
• @BloodyLaughter High-corporate start ups don’t have start up culture, they have high-corporate culture. That’s the difference between them. #
• Huh. Sometime btw Mac OS X 10.5.2 & 10.5.4 Apple enabled connections to localhost from “Connect to Server” item. SSH tunnel, here I come. #

• @BloodyLaughter Didn’t you already make a writing group online? I can’t keep up with all of the writing groups you’re involved with anymore. #
• My head feels utterly foggy & cloudy today. I suspect the cause is either the world’s worst case of bed head or a serious lack of caffeine. #
• My Blog Posts I Should Totally Write Soon list is piling up. Newest addition is “Benefits of a SCM for Change Management in the Enterprise.” #
• @viviane212 Happy birthday, Viv! :) #
• @echomikeromeo My general theory is that it’s more interesting to try to make my professional idols friend me instead. ;) #
• WordPress 2.6 is out. Compelling feature: Post Revisions. Does anyone know how this will obsolete the Audit Trail plugin, if it will at all? #
• @essinem We both blog with WordPress so every category, tag, month, post and more all have feeds you can subscribe to. Email me for details. #
• Update to WP2.6 smooth save for one REALLY annoying issue. Any WP/PHP wizards want to crack this? http://wordpress.org/support/topic/189007 #