nota-bene.org - blogroll

Web applications: Why is there Air?

Stéphane — 2008-08-20T09:01:06Z

Air, Flex and Silverlight are "back to the future" approaches for Rich Internet Applications that would have us believe that the future of the web lies in a proprietary animation engine (Flash) or an ancient and proprietary fat client architecture (Silverlight).

I couldn't agree more: these solutions are not the solution. We'll see how it all turns out, but like Christopher Keene, my religion goes to Ajax and an evolution of HTML to accommodate applications needs while still retaining the original openness that made the Web a success.

Paris Web 2008 : j'adore votre 404

Stéphane — 2008-08-19T12:51:21Z

La page que vous recherchez n'existe pas. Ou alors Stéphane est parti avec. C'est pas impossible. Bref, dans le jargon, on appelle ça une 404, et il va bien vous falloir vous diriger vers une autre partie du site.

Un gros bisou aux gens de Paris Web qui doivent un peu plus travailler que moi le soir, et vivement Novembre. (l'emphase dans la citation est de mon fait)

Derek Powazek on Permanence and Scars of Choice

Stéphane — 2008-07-11T08:45:33Z

We all have tattoos already, of course. They're our stories, our mental scars. The things we carry around with us, just under the surface. Your first breakup is always there, just around the corner in every relationship that comes after. Tattoos like this may not be seen, but they're just as permanent.

True. Derek ponders about getting a tatoo. (then gets one)

On “antiquated” WCAG rules

Stéphane — 2008-07-10T08:00:03Z

[O]ne more reason for being judicious in the use of JavaScript - I am predicting that within 3 years 35%+ of all "web" traffic here on campus will be consumed by mobile/hand-held devices, so I for one am watching this issue carefully.

John Foliot wrote a very thorough email to the W3C-WAI-IG ML (Web Accessiblity Initiative Interest Group mailing list) a few months ago, and I should have pointed to it here much earlier. His point is that while from a desktop browser point of view the problem of Javascript looks like it's kind of solved, the can of worms is reopening again with the emergence of the mobile web.

Ma devise

Stéphane — 2008-07-08T11:59:24Z

« Il y a dans le mot, dans le verbe, quelque chose de sacré qui nous défend d'en faire un jeu de hasard. Manier savamment une langue, c'est pratiquer une espèce de sorcellerie évocatoire » (Baudelaire)

C'est dommage de ne pas lire plus souvent la Grande Rousse.

Openweb.eu.org sous SPIP

Stéphane — 2008-07-07T15:20:45Z

Openweb.eu.org est passé aujourd'hui sous SPIP.

C'est la réconciliation du feu et de la glace, preuve que d'un côté les discours standardisants ont su arrondir les angles, et que les core developers de SPIP ont bien compris les enjeux.

Ce n'était pas gagné, il y a quelques années.

Je ne sais pas vous, mais je trouve le monde un peu plus souriant, cet après-midi.

Le grand filtrage des internautes français va bientôt commencer

Stéphane — 2008-07-04T12:43:15Z

Sur le plan technique, ce texte prévoirait également que les fournisseurs d'accès aient la possibilité d'intervenir directement sur les équipements installés chez les abonnés afin de fermer certains ports pour empêcher des utilisations frauduleuses.

Le Monde parle d'un projet de loi et moi je dis que HTTP et SMTP son bien suffisants.

Vous n'allez pas commencer à utiliser les ports supérieurs à 1024, non plus, quand même ?

Dis donc, et toi qui fais de l'IRC, là-bas dans le fond, tu es sûr que tu n'es pas un dangereux pirate ?

(Via François)

Why I Still Use Windows Despite the Peer Pressure

Stéphane — 2008-07-01T09:19:21Z

I just read this “I still use Windows” statement.

It hasn't always been pretty (see: Windows ME), but through it all I've figured out every little trick there is to know about running Windows. I'm a monster on Windows.

Many times in the last ten years I've been told to switch to either Mac or Linux, and look!, I'm still using Windows.

One day I'll do a list of my grudges, one of which is why on earth does Ubuntu run so nicely on my laptops from a live CD and fails miserably to do the same when installed (special keyboard keys, anyone?).

And every time I get a “Did you download the latest and greatest version?” from one of my geeky friends or the other.

And every time I get grumpy: I did download and burn a lot of distros in the last ten years, none of which did the trick. I gave away 25 distros on CDs a few months ago. That's right, twenty-five! And I tested them all in all those years!

And I know all the ethical DRM problems with Windows etc., and I do agree with open-source people that the Windows way is not the right way.

(By the way I'm all for open-source, basically the only main non-open-source software I'm using is my OS.)

Don't bother replying if it's just to flame me or tell me how much better those other OS's are. Ten yeas ago I would have listened, because I wanted to learn and hack things together, now I don't have the time and energy for it. I want things to work for me, and Windows does the trick. I want to do web stuff and listen to my legal MP3s and view my photos and answer my email. And I want to be able to use all the Windows shortcuts that are now second nature to me.

We'll see, one day. When Vista is the only breed of Windows available, I may reconsider.

(Via the Standblog)

BBC Rejects hCalendar Microformat Because Of Accessibility Concerns

Stéphane — 2008-06-25T08:24:14Z

The BBC have announced that they'll be removing hCalendar microformats from their online programme listings, because of the accessibility issues with the ABBR design pattern.

Oh how I've longed for such news. I love the idea of microformats, although in the long run code is machine-made and machine-readable, so RDFa will be a hit later, I'm sure.

But I love the idea that those of us who work on smaller projects can include a dose of semanticism into our HTML without all the fuss of alternate resources etc., which is admittedly difficult for many of us mere mortals.

Yet I belong to those who think the use of abbr is A Bad Idea, as I said back in 2007 on the WaSP's hAccessibility article.

Here's to hoping the BBC will shake a few resolutions in the microformats community.

Coin coin (ou les aventures de Daniel)

Stéphane — 2008-06-24T07:23:57Z

Hier deux personnes m'ont appelé « mon canard ». Deux personnes impliquées dans les standards, la qualité, Openweb et tout le bataclan. (faut-il que je les nomme ? oh et puis non, la licence poétique nous en dispense)

Le même jour. Deux personnes différentes. C'était un signe. L'ombre de Daniel Glazman et de son canard sans tête pesait encore et toujours sur nous tous : son interview était publiée sur Openweb.

Je ne peux que vous inviter à la lire, notamment si vous ne connaissez pas le fonctionnement d'un groupe de travail au W3C. C'est toujours un plaisir de voir la passion qui anime Daniel.