Category Archives: webbie goodness - Page 2

What is Facebook doing??

Posted by puu on 28 November 2007 No comments

Is anyone else as concerned about Facebook infiltrating our every move on the Internet?? I only briefly glanced at some of these articles, but I’m already getting paranoid… check out what Unit Structures has to say about it. He quotes David Weinberger:

When Blockbuster gives you the popup asking if you want to let your Facebook friends know about your rental, if you do not respond in fifteen seconds, the popup goes away … and a “yes” is sent to Facebook. Wow, is that not what should happen! Not responding far more likely indicates confusion or dismissal-through-inaction than someone thinking “I’ll save myself the click.”

Further, we are not allowed to opt out of the system. At your Facebook profile, you can review a list of all the sites you’ve been to that have presented you with the Facebook spam-your-friends option, and you can opt out of the sites one at a time. But you cannot press a big red button that will take you out of the system entirely. So, if you’ve deselected Blockbuster and the Manly Sexual Inadequacy Clinic from the list, if you go to a new site that’s done the deal with Facebook, you’ll get the popup again there. We should be allowed to Just Say No, once and for all.

Or how about:

…regardless of your login state to Epicurious, any time you load (not just review) a recipe or any other Beacon-enabled page, Facebook knows exactly what you are looking at. In essence, this setup is sending your clickstream and path data to Facebook, precisely correlated to your Facebook identity. On Beacon-enabled pages, Facebook knows everything you do in Epicurious.

He goes on to say a lot of sites do the latter item, but other sites don’t usually broadcast what you do to all your contacts. I find this disturbing.

Web Interface Designer opening!

Posted by puu on 28 November 2007 No comments

With my move to Germany at the end of the year, my current position will is now available! It’s terrific, and I work with awesome people. I had a very hard time deciding to move to Germany, but living in another country is kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity. Check out the Web Interface Designer position at JoCoLibrary to see if you could be the next lucky person to work here!

Bringing the library to you

Posted by puu on 27 October 2007 3 comments

I have decided to finally look into adding the library to outside tools. The easiest and thus first on the list are the OpenSearch search engine option and an iGoogle gadget. They are still in beta, so please let me know if something doesn’t work right.

OpenSearch

OpenSearch is the search feature that was added directly to the browser, typically located in the top right corner right after the address bar. Google is the default search, but the drop down arrow will give you more options.

need either Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 2.0

go to http://www.jocolibrary.org/

You will notice a subtle difference in the background color of the search dropdown.

In IE7, JoCoLibrary will have a star next to it in your list now. To add, simply select it.
In Firefox, an “Add JoCoLibrary” engine message will appear at the bottom of the list. Simply select it.

and now you can search the library catalog whenever you want to!

iGoogle gadget

With Google one can create a customized homepage called iGoogle. Many people have created widgets you can add to your homepage, and now you can search the library’s resources from it!

need to have a Google account and be logged in.
click on the following link and click on the add button:

If anyone would like to beta test these two new features, I would greatly appreciate it! I have several more ideas to bring the library to you, but some feedback on their usefulness and overall appearance/functionality would be very helpful. Thank you!

Green Code

Posted by puu on 14 September 2007 2 comments

Here's an idea I've been thinking about.

Green Code logo.

What if we make a movement to save the world one byte at a time? Maybe this is a bit far-fetched, but I am notorious for pushing towards clean code. Well-formed code. Validating code. Unobtrusive code. And now? Green code.

What this means: take your Web design to the next level. Don't follow standards simply because it's the best way to write code. Do it because it's the best way to achieve less bloated code – green code. The less bloated and fat with code a Web site is, the lighter and easier to send it is.

Think of it this way. How much does it cost to send a one page paper letter? Compare that to a one page letter written in stone. How much do you think that would cost? Now let's transfer financial cost to energy cost. How much lighter would it be to send a one page piece of paper than one of stone? Energy and power is required to send data to computers from servers. The larger the file, the more energy, power, and time the page takes. Save energy. Write efficient code.

To learn how to write standards compliant code using XHTML, CSS, and DOM scripting, I recommend reading W3Schools.com for a primer, check out books from the library (if you must, purchase them, but reusing is always best), see the standards documents at W3C, check at the Web Standards group… reduce the noise, reduce the clutter. Let's start the green web.