Cre8ting Links
Finding someone who is close to you physically using the Internet is far from easy. If they’re close to you in their ideas then that becomes easier. However if they’re writing in a different language, then again it can be difficult. As it happens, Isabelle Hontebeyrie wrote an interesting item recently, Quand les médias francophones ne respectent pas les standards Web. In other words, the francophone media are not always respecting Web standards. It’s directly related to a posting of mine, Trial By Firefox. It could well be that the root of the problem in both cases is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and its historical attitude towards standards.
So ideas may be close but do we live in the same neck of the woods, that’s more difficult. You could use Chandu Thota’s BlogMap to check. However there’s no trace of Ms. Hontebeyrie there. Another mapping of bloggers is provided by the Amsterdam based A2B and there you’ll find her. Apparently only 13 miles away from my home base.
Finding kindred spirits with similar thoughts is much easier via the Internet, particularly if you’re talking in the same language. One such kindred spirit has just been honoured on the Cre8asite Forums. Send2Paul has been nominated as the Cre8asite Example of the Year. That’s an honour richly deserved. We share many ideas in common and it’s amazing the way coincidences can happen. It’s a small world as they say. He recently had laser eye surgery and in consequence has set up a Laser Eye Surgery web page to help others. In fact my wife had laser eye surgery just 3 years ago and she still raves about how great it has been for her. My daughter also works for Lasik MD, which is the biggest laser eye surgery group in Canada.
An even stronger coincidence is that he was born in Middlesbrough in the North-East of England. I was born in Hartlepool. The two are only 7 miles apart. It’s a very small world. However I could never have found that out on the Internet.
Tags: Cre8asite, forum, BlogMap, Laser eye surgery, Lasik.
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March 28th, 2005 at 11:19 am
Another useful website for Geo-coordinates is http://geourl.org.
March 28th, 2005 at 5:07 pm
Hi Barry!
Thanks for linking my post on francophone media. One small detail… I just picked up an analysis done by Benoit Bisson here: http://blog-cafe.com/index.php/2005/03/22/93-medias-francophones-design-web-ouch
It was actually just the first part. Here’s the second part: http://blog-cafe.com/index.php/2005/03/27/94-medias-francophones-et-standards-web-ouch … and it’s just as appalling!
March 30th, 2005 at 2:26 pm
Wow, a lot of ground to cover in this post….
When is comes to standards, the problem is a complicated one. Designing for W3 standards (be it HTML or XHTML) is something easy if you train yourself to follow guidelines.
Why does it seem so difficult to implement?
In my experience there are many reasons. You have so called web designers (basically a graphic artist) that are ignorant of the standards themselves. All their code is generated by Frontpage, Dreamweaver or some other WYSIWYG software. As long as the client accepts the final product they are happy.
Clients themselves are ignorant of the standards so you can’t really fault them. You do have certain clients that will insist that the site look good on their setup (usually a laptop with a high screen resolution), so they end up with a site catered to them, and no one elseÂ…. In the case of dynamic websites, you can often hand off W3 compliant templates to programmers. Now, many programmers don’t view HTML to be code, and,for lack of a better term, have no respect for the code. The programmer’s job is to get an application to work within their framework, as long as it displays okay, damn the standardsÂ…. Programmers have a way of over engineering applications and using a new technique because they want a challenge or be able to experiment. This is not to say that all web programmers are like that, just too manyÂ….
Finally you have the web browsers: they can have buggy implementations of the web standards or follow their own version. Now, even if you do follow proper HTML implementation, your displayed results can be different from browser to browser.
Another issue is one of design to sell a web site, you often have to wow your client with a look at it may mean that you have to forego some standards for the look. There is also a time factor involved in getting standards right. Ironically, Miss Hontebeyrie’s blog site has an error on the link you have given (IE 6.0 on XP). Where does the problem lie in her case? Most likely with the software she is using. But I’m sure that almost all web surfers can read her site, so where is the incentive to correct her blog?
Standards in web design is a subject I’m keenly interested in and I’m sure we could comment for many more posts.
March 30th, 2005 at 2:26 pm
You mention finding a kindred spirit with similar thoughts and that is one of the great things about the web and blogs. But there is a downside to all of this. Sites such as http://www.epinions.com are great in theory. You have consumers that are rating products and services based on real world experience. I used to have a look there myself for certain products but how to you distinguish between an earnest review written by a consumer and one written by salesmen? You can’t.
Now, by reading how great Lasik is one would be tempted to thing that it’s the greatest thing in the world if you need it. It may well be, but it’s a highly subjective opinion. I have read horror stories about Lasik (and similar surgeries), whom should I trust?
July 6th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Great site your friend Send2Paul, created for Lasik Eye Surgery. I am thinking of having it done myself. I hope your wife still is having good results , how is her vision these days ?
July 6th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Thank you, Lasik. Her vision is still excellent.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
That’s pretty interesting Barry, I was thinking that a I am a teenager will LASIK be a good option for me or not. I’ve heard that it should be done at a proper age, but your wife seems to be fine. This will surely give me an urge to go for a LASIK eye surgery as soon as possible. I’ll also create a blog so that I can share my ideas with others.
December 25th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Barry, do you know which clinic (and which city) your wife went to? The name of the surgeon, if she recommends him and maybe the price, would be awesome
December 25th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
It’s some years ago, James, in Montreal. The information would not be useful now, I believe.