I've been thinking about Dublin Core quite a bit lately. Dublin Core is a set of metadata descriptors, including a core element set that can be implemented in any number of ways, including RDF or HTML. For example, in HTML it could like like this:
<meta name="DC.Title" content="Title of the Document">
Although reading the information on the Dublin Core home page is valuable, it can be a little overwhelming to the uninitiated due to the circular, self- and interreferential nature of the data. Fortunately, Bridges: Minnesota's Gateway to Environmental Information, has a number of useful Dublin Core resources, including a handy user guide (PDF).
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For those of you using at least a version 5 browser, the checkbox on the left will let you open links in a new window, assuming that you have JavaScript enabled. Jim and I were talking a few months back about how annoying it is when a web page automatically opens all external links in new windows. We want to be the ones who make that decision. So this is for you, Jim.
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I've added a bit of primitive browser detection, feeding you different style sheets accordingly. I got tired of this looking like crap in Netscape 4.x. Plus, it's one step toward a customizable interface (skins). And toward my using XSLT. Yippee!
Of course, it still looks like crap in Netscape 4.x, but at a more tolerable level. And if you're using Opera...well, I'll check for that later.
Everyone's linking to it, and I am, too: Modifying Styles on the fly.
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Heh, weird problem solved, almost. I've been getting a lot of email at work looking for information on 401K plans, profit-sharing, etc. All things that have nothing to do with a state agency, but that are clearly coming to me because of the MnSCU Human Resources web site. I finally convinced someone to tell me how they arrived at a MnSCU site, and it looked like just what you're probably suspecting: hosed links on a private company's site.
But that's not the interesting bit. Looking at our referrer stats, I noticed that the search string in the referrer was often the very URL that all these 401K people were trying to get to. Rather than entering the URL in the browser's location bar (or equivalent), these people are going to sites like Yahoo!, entering the URL into the search box, then going to the first site that came up in the search results--very often the MnSCU HR site. Whoa.
Now, how do I tell people (already enraged at not finding the content that they want) that the problem is that they don't know how to use their damn browsers?
But it does point to an interesting usability concern (yeah, yeah, the usability problem is the user, I know). Knowing that this is a problem, what can browser UI designers do to prevent it? Do we need a "Go" button in the toolbar that opens up a dialog box where users can enter a URL? Most browsers have an "open location" option in the menus somewhere...and I suspect that novice users are as ignorant of the toolbar in web browsers as they are in other desktop applications. Hmm, have to dig into this, although I'm not sure why I care. I'm sure that Jakob Nielsen has some data somewhere.
O'Reilly's launched a new web site, openp2p.com, focusing on peer-to-peer technologies. I've been intrigued by P2P for a while now without really diving in, but the more I work with XML, the more I'm drawn to P2P.
This site has been getting a lot of hits from a Google search for "crack Dreamweaver 4". From a lot of different places all over the world, so far as I can tell. Weird.
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I saw a squirrel hit by a car today. It happened too fast for me to see exactly where on the car the collision occurred, but I did hear the thump and see the squirrel roll away. It then scrambled, dazed and visibly agitated, over a snow bank, ran not more than two feet in front of me, climbed a fence and was gone. I stopped and stood there, shocked. I can still hear the thump.
A couple years ago, my brother was dozing at a bus stop and awoke to the sound of someone being run over by a car. There's a memory that'll stick with ya. It still bothers me, and I didn't actually hear it.
So then for some reason I came home and watched Armageddon (the Hong Kong movie). If you've seen it, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't...well, you should.
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I've just discovered that Fatbrain.com is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of BarnesAndNoble.com. That's too bad, because it was my favorite place online to buy technical books, and now I have to find somewhere new. Probably Bookpool.com.
Ah, the anguish of the American consumer.
Why look for a new online bookstore? My major quibble with Barnes & Noble is the way they move their brick-and-mortar stores into a community and effectively put the local, independent bookstores right out of business. I've seen it time and again, and it disturbs me. But business is business, you say, neh? If people stop supporting the local stores, then that's the way it goes. Too bad for mom and pop. That may be, but the acquisition by Barnes & Noble still irks me and is enough to make me stop buying at Fatbrain.com.
You might notice a peculiar irony here. If the plight of the local merchants concerns me so terribly much, then why do I shop online? Doesn't Amazon.com pose just as big a threat to local independent booksellers as brick-and-mortar book superstores?
Yeah. But I still buy from online bookstores. Go figure. I readily admit that it's the convenience that draws me, and to a lesser degree the price. When I need a technical book, I usually need it right away and can't wait the couple weeks that it'll take my local bookstore to order it for me, although they are improving on that time frame. I still buy a lot of books from local, independent stores. Science fiction and comics from Dreamhaven, others from Ruminator (formerly Hungry Mind, but they sold their name :-). Where my book-reading habits have changed, though, I've moved my buying online.
Oh. And Half Price Books. Yes, a national chain, but of a very different nature.
Interestingly, it looks like the American Booksellers Association is doing good things to help local booksellers compete in an online world. They've set up a service so that members can set up an online store. For example, take a look at Ruminator's online store. I can order books and either have them shipped or pick them up at the store myself. Very, very cool.
This is hilarious: The Story About Ping. "Using deft allegory, the authors have provided an insightful and intuitive explanation of one of Unix's most venerable networking utilities." Read the reader reviews.
Okay, I've been neglecting afongen. I think that my little vacation is over, and once I've completed my renovation of the CUPA-HR Midwest Region web site, I'll once again turn my attention here. I need to point out that to date I have had nothing to do with that site.
In this week's A List Apart, an article discussing implications of the new Federal guidelines for web site accessibility: Accessibility: the Politics of Design. "Building valid websites is easy. Building compliant websites is hard."
Agreed. Although considering my comments a couple days ago, this comment amused me: "If you build websites for the goverment, you will probably get a big manual with chapter and verse." Heh, I just don't see that happening in the State of Minnesota, although it probably should. My inquiries about State standards have so far received no response.
Mozilla 0.7 has been released.
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I spent a fair amount of time this afternoon looking for accessibility guidelines for State of Minnesota web sites. I'm no stranger to accessibility concepts--can't tell you how often I've read and explained the Web Accessibility Initiative's work. But spurred by the announcement of a web accessibility training session, I went looking for standards that had been officially adopted by the State.
(I should say that I develop and manage a government agency web site for a living.)
There ain't a whole lot out there. I have detected in recent months a willingness (or perhaps a requirement?) to adopt the Federal standards, as reflected in the ADA and the more recently updated Section 508, so I dug around for those. Found 'em in the Federal Register (that's no treat!), pored over pages and pages of commentary, only to arrive at a scant few lines of real content. I felt like I was reading Talmud, but without the satisfaction of arriving at anything worthwhile. Section 508's web accessibility standards are little more than a diluted summary of the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. So my advice: go to the WAI site, read and understand what they're talking about, do as much as you can do on your site to improve accessibility, then read the WACG again and do a little more. Rinse, repeat.
However, a few places to go if you're curious:
Oh sure. No sooner do I subscribe to the Perl Journal than its future is in doubt.
Unable to get Meerkat feed.
