After attending Web Essentials 04 a few weeks ago I thought it best I translated my scrawled notes into something a little more legible.

And then my notes started looking a bit like an article.

And then I tweaked it a bit and sent it off to Sitepoint.

And then they published it!

I guess that makes me semi-famous in a geeky sort of way. Or maybe infamous…

This morning we all stood outside and watched the rain fall like starry-eyed kids. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen it fall like that!

For the record, Rockhampton had 40mm in the 24 hours until 9am today, and 5.8mm in the 24 hours preceeding that. Yaamba, a short drive north, enjoyed 70mm in same period.

Unfortunately, the Bureau of Meteorology thinks that’s it for now. It was nice while it lasted!

Firstly, let me say I don’t normally comment on things political. My typical response is “whatever!”

However, John Allsopp has written a piece on the impact our recent Free Trade Agreement with the US has on our IP laws. Or, if he’s right, they’re not our laws anymore.

What he’s basically saying is that we’re handing over our right to make our own laws regarding copyright, patents and trademarks over to the US. We adopt US law in these areas.

If he is right - it’s a bit concerning that we would hand over a sovereign right to make our own laws to be at the mercy of US corporations who (apparently) influence congress.

I can’t think of anything about the US legal system that I’d like to see reproduced here, much less having them make our own laws for us!

If it’s true: Not happy, Jan!

We all hate spam.

We all love spam filters.

But…

Check what they filter!

A client recently had an email addressed to them go missing, and after investigating we found it in their spam filter. Sure they save a lot of junk mail from clogging up your mailbox, but the flipside is they also grab emails they shouldn’t from time to time.

It’s probably a good idea to check the folder where your spam goes once a day, and just make sure that nothing is in there that shouldn’t be. Once you’ve checked it, empty the folder so that next time you won’t be sorting though the same things again.

Spam filters are pretty handy, and mostly they get it right, but just be aware that they’re not infallible.

Almost everything built has to comply with some for of standards. Would you buy a car if it didn’t comply with design standards? Or a house? Or even a toaster?

There are standards for web sites as well. As it turns out, most sites don’t comply.

“Well, they all look okay” you might say. And it’s mostly true. Nobody is going to arrest you for having a website not built to standards.

Or are they?

The Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG)

Search Google for SOCOG. You’ll get this:

The first 3 results are about a legal battle regarding the SOCOG website - specifically it’s inaccessibility to a blind gentleman names Bruce Macguire. I won’t go into details here (you can read all about it elsewhere) but the point is this: Would you like your name to appear this way if someone was searching for you?

True, accessibility and web standards are not the same thing; but they are closely related.

Thus ends my first post about Web Essentials 04. When I translate the rest of my notes I might have some more! (Which is quite a feat if you’ve ever seen my handwriting.)

Postscript: There is at the very least one blind user you should worry about. His name is Google. Can’t see a thing, but he needs to access your website properly!