David Emery Online

Go javascript, go!

Don’t use Javascript to hide bad markup (from the Muffin Research Labs)

The article above raises some interesting points, some of which I agree with and some I don’t. I wholeheartedly agree that using javascript to insert invalid markup just so your site validates is fools work; just because the validator says it’s ok, doesn’t mean it actually is. If you go to the trouble of trying to conform to a specific doctype, then you should be using the mark-up it supports, and not hacking around aspects it doesn’t (normally for a very good reason).

However, I’m not sure about not using javascript to insert valid html. The example used is one of the many javascript libraries that turn a normal div into one that has rounded corners – these normal work by adding – via javascript – extra divs/other tags to the html code. I don’t really have a problem with this – the reasons for not adding extra divs and elements are mostly with regards to separating content and presentation, making the code easier maintain and also to help with accessibility (so screen readers and the like don’t choke on your pages).

Now, firstly; who’s to say that the presentation...

Sharp

The Young Knives are not going to take over the world.

They’re too nice.

They also rock; I just came back from seeing them at the Garage, London and they were very good – not only were the songs good, but they really know how to bond with an audience:

At one point, they break-danced.

If you would like to check out the photos on their website you may begin to realise why this was slightly amusing.

Free is much better

Check out that chart over on the right. That’s iTunes’s UK album chart for the last week. Notice anything odd? Anything in particular dominating the chart?

Yes, that’s right – pretty much the first paid podcast, The Ricky Gervais’ Show, is currently occupying half of the iTunes top 10.

We’re doomed

We had one chance: If the Ricky Gervais Show – which in its first season was massively popular, and also free – had tanked when it transitioned to a paid for model, that would pretty much be the end of it; podcasts would be free forever (probably using a advertising based model, like radio).

We’ve blown that chance.

Now everyone and their dog will jump on the paid-podcast bandwagon – we’ll no doubt get some stellar content out of it, and quite probably we’ll get things we’re wouldn’t have done using an advertising based model…

... but free is much better.

A person who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way

Another day, another Raconteurs gig…

This one was a bit more interesting the last Friday’s though; it was an “Industry” gig, so was invite only and in a very small venue (The Vinyl Factory in Soho, London). Much to my surprise The Raconteurs were really good – better then on Thursday – I had assumed that they really wouldn’t try too hard for an industry gig, but I was wrong.

Feed you

I’ve now hit 400 feeds in my feed reader.

400

Today I’m going to share some choice highlights. Some you may read already, but hopefully there will be some new ones for you!

• Hicksdesign – Great design from the creator of the Firefox logo
• 456 Berea Street – A must for any web developer
• And all that Malarkey – More CSS goodness
• Call Me Fishmeal. – Wil Shipley, head honcho at Delicious Monster, is not only a great mac programmer, but a writer too.
• Daring Fireball – Brilliant Mac punditry by John Gruber
• GigaOM – Om is right on the forefront of the latest tech trends.
• Random Acts of Reality – A must read; get to read what paramedics really get up to (hint: saving lives etc).
• Seth’s Blog – Seth Godin teaches you the new way to be a marketer.
• The Unofficial Apple Weblog – probably the best mac news blog.

Wow

I just saw The Raconteurs – Jack White of White Stripes fame’s new band/side project – at the Astoria, London.

They were very, very good.

If you can get to see them live, I would really recommend it.

Shock and Awe

Pardon?

Say that again?

Windows Vista is delayed. Again.

Oh. How surprising.

Feed

RSS* is now almost completely pervasive in the online world; I utilise it everyday, and everyone I socialise with does to.

Except no-one else does.

It’s not pervasive at all outside my social sphere.

So why the disconnect? It’s a great technology, allowing the user a lot more flexibility in there use of a sites content; and it vastly speeds up the time it takes to keep check on even a small number of sites. Obviously, one of the main reasons is simply one of time – it’s a new technology, and most people are way behind the curve. RSS uptake is growing all the time, but as it stands right now I’m not sure if it’s really going to become “mainstream”.

One of the key issues with RSS is usability. It’s currently far too hard to discover and subscribe to feeds. The big browsers are slowly but surely integrating feed reading, and with that comes many improvements including badging and other interface elements. The user interface in these cases have really got a lot better.

However, there are still a few things that the browser makers can’t fix, but lay on our shoulders instead. These things...

REM to DRM

An interesting link for you all to read this slightly chilly Monday morning: blackrimglasses.com: Lecture on REM to DRM

Obviously the most interesting part are the informal statistics:

• About 1/3 had a MySpace profile.
• Roughly 90% had FaceBook profiles.
• Five people, all guys had heard of digg
• No one had heard of BoingBoing, Delcious, memorandum or NewsVine.
• About 15 had the Arctic Monkeys CD. None had paid for it
• Only a few had actually bought music in the last month
• About 20 had heard about the Sony DRM scandal
  

I’m interested that while MySpace is huge it’s still not got complete coverage in its target demographic (although, these are college students, and hence maybe a little old). Also interesting is the complete lack of knowledge of both BoingBoing or de.li.cious – both Memeorandom and NewsVine are very new, and very business orientated (and also not very good); BoingBoing however, gets a lot of traffic, and mainly from a college age demographic – obviously again it still doesn’t have the pervasiveness I would have expected in such a group.

Of course, you can draw your own conclusions over whether the last three points are related in some fashion…

Twins

At work we’ve just launched a mini site for the Cocteau Twins.

Other then looking pretty, it features both a nifty ajaxy (although no XMLHttpRequest here – it uses a hidden iFrame…) question submitting process and a javascript audio jukebox. Who needs flash when you can do feature rich content like this?

Hopefully I’ll manage to post some actual words on Monday, as opposed to just pretty pictures – in my defence, I have been rather busy…