Iwein says

Architectural Wonders of 2006

Iwein — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 13:43:31 +0000

It seems that architects have caught on to environmentally friendly design.

There are some beauties there, like the Alpine House in Kew Gardens.

Just what does accessibility mean?

Iwein — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 08:46:13 +0000

Does “accessibility” mean “possible to access”? Or does it mean “possible to access for people with disabilities“?

Roger Johansson and Tommy Olsson explain in “Barrier-free Web design, a.k.a. Web accessibility 2.0” why the latter is a short-sighted approach for a variety of reasons.

It is occasionally argued that “universality” (Camp 2’s term for what we mean by “accessibility”) means you cannot use JavaScript, Flash, or anything but text marked up with HTML. That is completely wrong, and displays a fundamental misunderstanding of what Camp 1 means by accessibility.

How do you explain a complicated concept…

Iwein — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 10:17:42 +0000

… like for instance how does DNS work, what happens during a heart attack, what is a brand and how does Internet search work?

Why, with a concept map, of course!

Each map takes a difficult—almost mystical—subject and attempts to rigorously map out its many complexities and relationships.

Email is dead

Iwein — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 09:47:02 +0000

At least according to Dave Shea it is:too much spam, and no effective way to deal with it.

The spam has started to flood in recently for me too, and Dave’s post gave me the kick up the jacksy I needed. I’ve dediced to trial Google Hosted Services.

Unbelievable but true, I hadn’t actually used Googlemail before and needless to say I’m *very* impressed with the interface. Google calendar let’s me import my iCal calendars, brill. All I need to find out is if Googlemail will also let me download my email into Mail app, imap or pop, don’t really mind.

Find music you like

Iwein — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 08:57:56 +0000

Can you help me discover more music that I’ll like?

Yes, Pandora can, as it happens. You start by entering a favorite artist or song, then Pandora looks in it’s database for songs with similar musical qualities and starts suggesting them. You can tell it you like or dislike the song and it acts on that.

Funny thing is that in FireFox I didn’t have to register to start using it, but in IE I did?

It’s all wrapped into a pretty cool Flash interface as well.

Progress not always progress

Iwein — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 08:00:59 +0000

Chris Hoyland climbs to the top of Everest in period clothing, made of gabardine, wool, cotton and silk. He proves that the clothing is both lighter and more breathable while being as wind- and waterproof.

This brings him one step closer proving that maybe Mallory got to the top Everest before Norgay and Hillary did.

What a story…

Diet Coke and Mentos: scary

Iwein — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 09:52:43 +0000

Mad scientist emulates the Bellagio fountains with nothing but Diet Coke and Mentos.

The first part of this video demonstrates a simple geyser, and the second part shows just how extreme it can get. Over one hundred jets of soda fly into the air in less than three minutes.

Well done Demon

Iwein — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 10:51:10 +0000

Now that I’m working full time again (at 3sixty), there’s less time for Internet at home, and so less need for a fancy broadband connection. After a bit of looking into it I decided I wanted to stay with Demon, but downgrade the package. This would not be the cheapest option, but the one with the least disruption.
I must say, at first the experience wasn’t very good. I phoned them up and had to go through 3 different support phone numbers before I even got through to the right person. Of course he could only do this during their working hours, so I had to phone back again, to be put through 3 times again.

They then told me that downgrading the service would take 7 to 10 working days of downtime. WHAT? I told them that they had just taken away the reason to stay with Demon, and that I would go to another provider who could offer a faster service for less. The support person got a little irate with me when I said this and tried to save the situation. After I had explained to him for the second time that I appreciated his effort but really he couldn’t change my mind, he still wasn’t having any of it. So I hung up.

Well, I just got a phone call from Demon explaining that they didn’t want to loose my custom, and offered to give me my current package at the reduced price of the downgraded package. I get to keep the things I don’t need (static IP, email, web space etc) for the reduced price. But more importantly: no downtime. Result! And result for Demon too. I’m not in a hurry to change provider, au contraire!

DOM structure visualized

Iwein — Tue, 30 May 2006 08:49:30 +0000

Web pages are written in HTML. HTML consists of tags, arranged in a hierarchy. Therefore, they can be represented in a graph. Aharef shows a few examples of these graphs of well know sites.

This is what my blog’s DOM structure looks like.

Very pretty. You can do your own with Aharef’s visualizer applet.

Creating a colour scheme

Iwein — Mon, 29 May 2006 14:10:16 +0000

Natalie Jost writes about an interesting way to come up with a colour scheme.

The exercise is

Find a picture you like
Pixellate it in Photoshop
Pick out the main colours

And hey presto, there’s your palette