2009
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Electronic Media
Sept 28
A Boston prep school gave away its 20,000-volume library for a digital learning center. The techie in me is intrigued; the romantic in me calls it theft. You can’t scribble in an ebook’s margins. Paper and ebooks should be both-and, not either-or.
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Smart Web Design
Sept 23
You can’t dictate how customers browse the web. Smart web design avoids Flash, which the iPhone won’t run, degrades gracefully without JavaScript, and never lets a fancy layout get in the way of the message.
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WordCamp Portland
Sept 19
Live from the second annual WordCamp Portland: notes through the day on gzip compression, a disappointing podcasting session, a Q&A with Matt Mullenweg, and just how many people own iPhones now.
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The 10 Commandments of Web Design
Aug 5
Don’t abuse Flash. Don’t scroll sideways. Respect the click-count. Ten commandments of web design for building a better business site — and an eleventh reminder that there are no rules.
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Security
Apr 3
Nothing can ever be truly secure. Think of your website as a building with a locked back door: window security lets people look through the glass, brickwall security hides everything. Each has its trade-offs.
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Speaking in Code
Mar 11
I wrote my first program in BASIC at 10. Learning Visual Basic 2008 for a client, I found the code familiar — it was the fancy new .NET names that nearly scared me off. A lesson in renaming old products.
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Bloatware
Mar 4
WordPress Weekly asked whether WordPress is becoming bloatware. With importers, galleries and threaded comments landing in core, I’m building a client a custom CMS instead. If I can’t recommend WordPress, I’ll be scouting a new platform.