31st january 2006

getting the horn in public

this site isn't the place for me to get on my soapbox about blood sports, or have a debate about animal rights, but i have to say that i was filled with joy while watching a story on the bbc over breakfast this morning. during a bullfight in mexico city - in a ring with a capacity of nearly 50,000 - a bull leapt the safety barrier and into the crowd, and embarked on, what the reporters called, a rampage. even better, the bull had jumped into the stadium's most expensive seats. alas, the bull didn't get to do much damage, with the bbc site later reporting only that "one woman spectator received a six-inch gash in her chest". the bull? well, he received a little more than that. a sword. repeatedly, until he was dead. i can only hope that those people involved will never visit a bullfight again and, for at least a few seconds, that they were as scared as the bull.

read the bcc report.

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30th january 2006

well i never

some great 'web authoring statistics' over on code.google.com. in google's quest to know everything in the universe that there is to know, they've studied over a billion html documents to find out what we developers are getting up to when no one is looking. for example, everyone knows that the average age of a combat soldier in vietnam was 19 (often pronounced ninininininininini nineteen), but did you know that it's also the average number of different element types found on a web page? you did? oh.

my favourite is the attributes found on our friend the "script" tag. as we all know, the "language" attribute has been deprecated since... well... ages, but how about the following attributes: "langauge", "langugage" and "languaje"? makes you wonder whether the w3c got rid of it simply because no one could spell it.

take a look at google's stats.

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web dev

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27th january 2006

:-o and :o !!

cingular, the states' largest mobile phone network, have to be applauded for their balls this week. they have only gone and applied to patent smileys (or emoticons as they're known on phones)! how on earth can they do this? of course, stupid thing is, they'll probably be successful.

i remember first reading that now infamous joke thread from the early 80's where, The Register now reminds me, Scott Fahlman innocently wrote the line "I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers: :-)", not knowing that he had invented a language that would be used - incessantly - in decades time by giggling office workers and pubescent instant messenger users. if only he had applied for a patent then! (of course there are now claims that they - smilies - were around a lot longer than that).

whenever they were 'invented', i think it's ridiculous that cingular are doing this, but you've got to admire them for trying.

source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/...

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laugh,

web

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26th january 2006

ouch

apologies if you've already seen this, but web 2.0 folk look away now: http://www.parm.net/web2.0/

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laugh,

web

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http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/01/26/ouch/...

25th january 2006

the bad news that we knew was coming

so, surprise, surprise, it looks like we won't be seeing a ps3 in our living rooms until 2007. unless you live in japan of course. or the states. an analyst (i love that) claims that japan will see this thing in the summer, the us in november, and we (europe) will have to wait until march 2007.

i've got a bit of a suggestion for next generation console manufacturers (as i'm sure they all regularly visit my site): immediately fire everyone in your company who is involved in setting out the schedule and timetable for your new console's design, development and release. you won't miss them as there isn't a single one who has given an accurate forecast yet. you can then plough the money that you have saved from their salary, pensions, hr costs, etc into the development team, thus increasing the budget and, as a result, creating better consoles in a shorter period of time. i await your emails inviting me to your respective offices so that i may expound on this ingenious strategy further.

in the meantime, read about your slackness: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/...

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24th january 2006

ricky gervais podcast

i'll be honest, i haven't really fallen in love with the whole podcast thing. maybe it's because there is so much rubbish out there that i can't be bothered to take the time to find the stuff that i might like. i also don't like the way that itunes organises their podcasts - you can only drill down as far as 'music'. not really useful if the only music you like is 18th century chamber music. i would imagine.

however, and this is a big 'however', the ricky gervais podcast has me in stitches every week. for some reason, his 'monkey news' jingle - when he really goes for it - kills me, and this week's episode's (episode 8) jingle very nearly did. i honestly couldn't breathe. i'm lauging now, thinking about it again. just hilarious. if you haven't already, you can read about it and subscribe to it on his site.

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23rd january 2006

"you still going on about that google earth game thing!?"

following on from my post about the great google earth game thing on flickr last week, i've gone and 'had a go'. they're not the greatest, but i've done a few from my trips to the states. you can see them here if you really want to. incidentally, i do have many other pics on my flickr 'area', but i like to keep them for friends and family only. if you ask nicely, you can be a 'friend'.

as for the christmas tree, don't ask.

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blog,

web

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20th january 2006

what usb was invented for? yep

the amazing people who invent things - inventors? - have hit the jackpot with this thing. answer me this: is there anything more frustrating that sitting at your desk at home - pretending to be working - and, reaching for your beer, you find that it's been heated by all the technology that surrounds you, and is no longer the ice cold beverage that you crave? i can't hear you, but i'm assuming you just answered "no, danny, there isn't". well, fear not. in future, simply use your usb beverage chiller! this thing will keep your beer at a very pleasant 7?C. i can see me buying one of these very soon, so i'll let you know all about it.

source: http://uk.gizmodo.com/...

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19th january 2006

"standards - schmandards! we have sport!"

you know what makes me angry? no? ill tell you... espn - the worldwide leader in sports - have just relaunched their new home page, "streamlining (their) navigation to better organise the most comprehensive sports content on the Web". now you would think that such a major site, with so much money behind them, and the site that gives the most "comprehensive sports content on the Web" would have heard - and have the quality of developers, or at the very least the budget to hire them - about such crazy ideas as standards compliance and accessibility. but no.

i just can't understand how a site as big as this can be happy with producing over 1900 - yes, i said 1900 - errors when their homepage code is passed through the w3 markup validator. why use an xhtml 1.0 transitional doctype if you're gonna completely ignore it's rules? turning the css off produces a list of almost 350 links - and nothing else - before we get to anything that even resembles 'content'. and you've then got a good few full turns on your scroll wheel before we get to the day's 'main story'. so they must have various 'skip' links then? nope.

it just amazes me that, in 2006, such large, popular, important sites can still get away with this. espn, if you're reading this (yeah, right), you need to hire me. espn developers, using "div" instead of "table" does not a quality-built site make.

if you like, you can take a look at this crap.

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sites,

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18th january 2006

developing for the psp

found a nice little - yes, it is little - guide about developing your website for the psp today. it's all pretty much common sense, but worth a look anyway. although, until we can do something like it's a bit pointless i guess. unless you're creating a psp-only site of course.

if you fancy, you can see it here.

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web dev

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http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/01/18/devel...

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