Papaya Pariah

Cross-browser issues

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:48:34 -0400

“Cross-browser issues” is an oxymoron because the adjective cross-browser commonly refers to code or markup which works in all browsers. Having it describe the word “issues” would mean that, in fact, the code doesn’t work and thus is no longer cross-browser.

–Timothy Christensen

At Microsoft, open source means technology lock-in

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:54:00 -0400

Microsoft doesn’t really understand the open-source movement because they don’t empower the end-user. The open-source technology they produce requires certain platforms or licenses to function properly and the data that software generates isn’t portable. Ideally, open-source software could go on any system and function long after Microsoft has stopped providing support because developers are free to reuse, recycle and maintain it. Also, the content generated from that software would be in the format of an open-standard so that users could take it with them after they are done using the software.

via Open Source Initiative

Technologies I'll be researching this week

Mon, 17 May 2010 12:33:48 -0400

OpenID
oAuth
Activity Strea.ms
Webfinger
Salmon
PuSH
PoCo
oStatus

Photo

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:07:39 -0400

Cpedia is a piece of crap

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:42:25 -0400

Cpedia is a piece of crap:

… check out the results for my name. (Who is that girl and why is she the top result for ‘Timmy Christensen’?)

Here’s a Photoshop feature that, as a web developer, I’d never...

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:20:02 -0400

Here’s a Photoshop feature that, as a web developer, I’d never use but is really slick.

Content-Aware Fill Sneak Peek (via YouTube)

todo.txt

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:56:43 -0400

Lately I’ve been working on this project for a guy. It’s mostly just me working on it and I was using a todo.txt file to list things that needed to get done. One day I wanted to clean off my desktop a bit and I thought that this file could easily be trashed if I just put all my todo’s in a bug tracking system. It was easy to do and on top of that it gave me sorting and prioritization features that you don’t get with a plain text file. Also, the guy running the project feels more in the loop about my progress and time spent.

So, the PRO-tip here is: use a bug tracking system like you would use a todo list. You could use a traditional todo list application but bug tracking systems let others see your progress and that level of transparency keeps you accountable.

Google suggestions A to Z

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:01:12 -0400

This is an old blog post that I wrote a few months back. I didn’t think it was very good so I didn’t post it. But today I’m cleaning off my desktop and I felt bad just throwing it away.

-Timmy Christensen

I typed in one letter into the Google search box and grabbed the first suggestion and these were the results.

Some of the suggestions are pretty obvious but if they are based on user trends, it’s interesting to see that all 26 are names of websites. None are questions, statements or names of people, places or events.

A
Amazon.com
www.amazon.com/

B
Best Buy
www.bestbuy.com/

C
Craigslist.org
www.craigslist.org/

D
Dictionary.com
www.dictionary.com/

E
eBay
www.ebay.com/

F
Facebook
www.facebook.com/

G
Gmail
mail.google.com/

H
Hotmail (Windows Live)
www.hotmail.com/

I
IMDb
www.imdb.com/

J
JCPenny
www.jcpenney.com/

K
Kohl’s
www.kohls.com/

L
Lowes
www.lowes.com/

M
MySpace
www.myspace.com/

N
Netflix
www.netflix.com/

O
Office Depot
www.officedepot.com/

P
Pandora
www.pandora.com/

Q
QVC
www.qvc.com/

R
Realtor.com
www.realtor.com/

S
Southwest Airlines
www.southwest.com/

T
Target
www.target.com/

U
USPS
www.usps.com/

V
Verizon Wireless
www.verizonwireless.com/

W
Walmart
www.walmart.com/

X
Xbox
www.xbox.com/

Y
YouTube
www.youtube.com/

Z
Zillow
www.zillow.com/

Breaking it down: 8 of the 26 are retailers, 2 are realtors, 3 are social networks, 2 are webmail sites and only 2 are strictly informational.

Hosting Node Apps

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:38:53 -0400

Hosting Node Apps:

I really want to learn how to get rolling with Node. I think it will be fun and interesting to see where this develops.

I think Techdirt got it right on the issue of ad blockers

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:32:53 -0500

If you are running a media site, if you’re having trouble making money, it’s your fault. Don’t blame your readers. Don’t blame your community by telling them they’re “devastating” a site by blocking ads or failing to pay for a paywall. As the producers of that site, it’s your responsibility to do things to get that site paid for.

via Techdirt

How to alienate your friends and block off yourself from the outside world

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:01:49 -0500

Aaron Swartz wrote a little blog post entitled HOWTO: Read More Books. Sounds great, right?

Wrong!

The basics of reading more books include such steps as “alienate everyone close to you”, “block your favorite blogs” (where he suggests that you unplug your TV and literally block your favorite websites at the router level) and “keep the temperature low”. Sounds fine if you’re a monk whose committed himself to a life a solitude.

I like watching TV and what’s the benefit of reading more books if it kills my social life and makes me miserable. I’d like reading as an alternative to TV and blogs, not a replacement. I’d love to see a list of tips on how to read more books that include small and practical steps that anybody can do without reorienting their life around reading.

In Aaron’s defense, he did deliver what he said he would. The post is a list of ways to read more books. And you will read more books since that’s all that will be left. But the post totally misses on the point of self-improvement. If you’re going to suggest a strategy or set of rules to improve your life, they’d better outweigh their cost.

That’s all.

Remember when I wrote this post?

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:35:11 -0500

Remember when I wrote this post? (1 year ago)

Well … it came true!

Organization

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:25:06 -0500

A Muslim, a Christian, and a crazy guy walk into a room. The one thing you can know for sure is that at least two out of three of them organize their lives around things that aren’t real.

via Scott Adams Blog

I organize myself around my TV schedule. I should probably change that.

Law of Two Feet or “The Law of Mobility”

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:29:00 -0500

If at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet. Go to some other place where you may learn and contribute.

via Wikipedia

Basically, you’re only as good to me as what I can contribute or get out of you. It’s a pretty businesslike perspective but I think it applies really well to websites we visit or any place we spend a lot of time.

It shouldn’t be applied to relationships though. Selflessness is a virtue.

Commet about comments

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:13:32 -0500

Comments can be beneficial, but usually aren’t. For the vast majority of comment-enabled blogs, the comments are a net loss for the author with very high rates of ad-hominem attacks, nastiness, nonsensical responses, and spam.

via 37signals

It’s kinda ironic since the quote itself comes from a comment.

One third of the traffic on this blog is to this post:

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:02:53 -0500

One third of the traffic on this blog is to this post::

It’s crazy to see that a little SEO actually works. I wrote a post that would be useful to web developers, I put some keywords in the title and headers, and then I got a couple of links to it from other websites. That’s kind of a simplified version of things but it’s a repeatable process that has proven to generate (a little) traffic.

Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:15:46 -0500

Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation:

via Harvard Business School

If some day I ever become a manager I hope that I excel at these things.

What restaurant websites say to web developers

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:35:34 -0500

“Take a look at our menu! It’s a PDF of a screenshot of a scan of a Word document printed on a dishtowel.”

– Restaurant website

There are too many restaurants with websites for all of them to be good. It’s especially difficult with tiny marketing budgets and short timelines.

These guys really know how to do “experience design”

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:46:30 -0500

These guys really know how to do “experience design”

This headline should be “20 Percent Of TechCrunch Readers Browse With Chrome”

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:34:00 -0500

This headline should be “20 Percent Of TechCrunch Readers Browse With Chrome”:

… instead of “20 Percent Of TechCrunch Readers Are Already Browsing With Chrome.” They say that as if it’s inevitable that everyone will eventually browse with Google Chrome.