Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Nov
16
2007
at 1:31pm
I’ve had about 4 posts in a row now with no comments. No, I’m not really counting but it does tend to get discouraging. If I’m writing this blog, and nobody reads it, does it matter? Should I even bother writing it?
Sure, getting comments isn’t a true sign of readership, but I think it’s at least an indication that people are finding my posts to be interesting. But I don’t know if it’s really about that for me. If nobody was reading, would I still write?
To be honest, that’s not the main reason why I started this blog. Sure, its nice to share knowledge and insight with others. But it’s also good to get things off my chest. Sometimes I tend to over think things and can’t get them out of my mind. Writing them down, even if nobody is reading it, gets it out of my head. And then I don’t have to think about it anymore.
But don’t get me wrong, I do really appreciate and value any participation I get here. It’s amazing to think that there are people out there who are interested in what I have to say. And I do really want to engage with you, if you’re reading. Thank you for being here 
I could take a different approach with this blog, and write more linkbaity type stuff, although I tend to save that sort of content for A Padded Cell. I don’t really want this to be a place where I’m just trying to get more traffic or more readers or more comments. I want it to be authentic. I know I need to try to draw out the readers more than I do. I also should be linking out and participating in discussions more than I do now. Maybe those can be my goals for 2008.
So that’s why I blog. For any bloggers who happen to be reading, why do you blog?
Posted in General, Personal | 5 Comments »
Nov
13
2007
at 2:03pm
Today I stopped by Amazon.com to do some pre-Chirstmas shopping and was greeted with this graphic:
Front and centre, just under the search box. Now, I don’t know if this is always there… for some reason I think it might be a standard, but the recent rise in the value of the Canadian dollar changes everything. As of this morning, the Canadian dollar is valued at almost $1.04 US ($1.0382 to be more precise). This means that online shopping is a lot more attractive than it used to be when our dollar was worth 80¢. We don’t want to go to Amazon.ca where our dollar is worth $1, we want to shop at Amazon.com where it’s worth $1.04 (or $1.06 as it was last week).
To add to that, book prices are stuck where they were months ago when the books were printed. This means that the price for most books is $2-$4 higher on the Canadian site, if not more (I think Amazon may have adjusted these prices for the dollar value already). Buy a few books and you’ve covered the $5 + tax Canada Customs charges at the border (don’t get me started on that!). Oh, and I think the limit to qualify for free shipping is lower on the US site.
Another problem, which always applies to Amazon, is that the US site has a much broader product range than the Canadian version does, plus all those affiliated sellers. I can get a lot of stuff on Amazon.com that isn’t available in Canada at all. That’s why I want to shop there now.
For anyone running a US eCommerce site, now is the time to optimize your site for Canadian shoppers. Do you ship to Canada? Are the rates reasonable? You could even put up a little Canadian flag to welcome your neighbours from the North
Posted in General, Web Culture | 7 Comments »
Aug
09
2007
at 9:44pm
Has anyone tried StumbleUpon yet? I decided to check it out last week partly because we were getting a bit of traffic to our sites from it and I wanted to see what it was like. What fun! I can’t say that I’ve actually surfed like this in years. Probably not since the 90′s. Seriously.
Who just surfs the web anymore anyway? There’s so much crap out there, I can’t be bothered to sort through it. But I still like the web. I want to look at websites. I see a lot of websites and subscribe to a lot of feeds, but it’s just boring somehow. What sets StumbleUpon apart from other aggregation sites is that it’s just more fun! The randomness makes it entertaining, and you can pick from a wide range of topics. I don’t have to look at just tech news and even on that topic I’ve come across a ton of neat stuff I never would have found elsehwere.
That’s my 2 thumbs up for StumbleUpon What about you? Have you tried it or are you more into a different bookmarking site?
Posted in General, Web Culture | 10 Comments »
Jul
19
2007
at 10:26am
Finally, we got our photos from the photographer last week – all in digtal form, of course! I’m really happy with how they turned out. Getting a good photographer is so important.
Here they are!
BTW, I will post something interesting soon, I promise
Posted in General | 1 Comment »
Jun
21
2007
at 7:09pm
The worst part about going on vacation is all the work you have to come home to! Work-work has been crazy, and there’s still a ton to do around the house. It doesn’t help that we just moved in a little over a month ago and things still aren’t cleaned up from that. And the cat left her hair everywhere 
Luckily Liam has been taking care of the forums.
Did I tell you I was getting married? I must have mentioned it at some point (for those handful of loyal readers 
) Liam and I got married on June 9th. I meant to post something before we left but things were similarly busy at that time too 
We’ll be posting photos in the photos area when we get them from the photographer. It was a beautiful, perfect, amazing, wonderful day! There’s nothing like your own wedding
Now that all this craziness is (almost) over, I hope to get back to writing regularly again. There have been a few interesting things on other blogs lately – hopefully I’ll have time to write about them soon!
Oh, and I need to take that “soon to be” out of the header graphic
Posted in General | 4 Comments »
Apr
26
2007
at 10:20am
I’ve got two new articles up on A Padded Cell:
Creating a semantic FAQ page with definition lists and advanced CSS, Part 1
and
Creating a semantic FAQ page with definition lists and advanced CSS, Part 2
The first part goes over the structuring and presentation of a long Frequently Asked Questions page. The second part demonstrates two ways of creating navigation for the page. I hope you find them useful, and do let me know if you have any comments or questions.
Liam has also been releasing a lot of articles about standards, including What’s the Difference Between Usability and Accessibility? and Future Proofing Using Standards.
Posted in Accessibility, General, Web Standards | No Comments »
