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They say that when you live with a dog after a while your dog turns to look and behave like you. Are you nice and tidy? Your dog will be calm and obedient. Are you aggressive? Your dog will be a danger for the visitors.
I don’t know what they say about cats. A very dear person told me my cat looks tough and wild. I wonder if she started being like me or if I am the one who adopted her behavior. On the other hand I think I have a very beautiful cat while I know I am not that good-looking. However I know that I am not that unbiased.
I also know that my cat is restless. She likes running up and down the apartment. But when I come to her she calms down and she is very sweet. I hold her and I can listen to how she purrs. She is very happy at those moments. She likes talking to me all the time. She does what she wants to but she listens to me like an old dog. She stares to me and she approves or casts reflections on me, depending my actions.
I can’t decide how do I look like. But this cat is an unspoilt and frank part of my life. I wish I had more such parts.
This is a story which makes us feel ashamed for being Greeks and for developing web services.
Mr Antonis Tsipropoulos, a webmaster which runs an aggragating service got sued by a public greek persona because among the collected feeds there was one which (according to the suer) offended him.
So far we have no idea who is the suer or which blog/website caused all this issue.
The only thing we are pretty certain is that the service (http://www.blogme.gr/) has been suspended and mr Tsipropoulos was arrested. His personal and professional life have been already seriously damaged.
Of course we don’t know yet all the details of this story. However what we know so far seems to be enough to raise our voice and defend an innocent man.
I want to make this story known to everyone not only because it affects me (since I run a similar service: Mindblog) but also because it affects all of us. Do you get it? Instead of this man it could have been anyone else who works for the Web and publishes web content. It’s about democracy, privacy and human rights.
As a Greek citizen I am ashamed of what happens in my country. If anyone needs more details please contact me at: porcupine @ porcupine . gr
There has been a lot of buzz about the new kid in town. I have been using the new browser from Microsoft for a week or so and I have come to the following conclusions:
First of all a new tool is always welcomed. See it as a toy. Playing with it is certainly a new experience you always like.
Then it’s not a toy if you use every day and your customers will soon :(
It supports transparent .png files which is very good.
At last it handles RSS Feeds and it does it smoothly which is also very good.
I don’t like the way it renders text. I have used IE7 in two computers and I can clearly see that text is somewhat blurred. When I turn to Firefox or Opera I see the same text the way it is supposed to look: clear.
It complies to the Web Standards better than ever before but don’t get it wrong: it still loses when compared to Firefox and Opera.
Like always you have to wait until the whole page is loaded. In the meantime you still wait before an empty screen.
It is more secure.
It embraces the tabbed browsing technology.
It makes browsing easier thanks to the search toolbar, the (almost naked from menus) default appearence and the pleasant colors.
Internet Explorer 7 was an indispensable tool. I mean that Microsoft had to launch it. And as far as I can see it is a good tool and most probably will soon become even better. Thanks to Firefox and Opera we have learnt that browsers are alive. They breathe, play, expand and serve their users. They change according to their users preferences. Microsoft got the message.
On the other hand IE7 reminds me a runner who is meant to lose before the race starts. It looks like a cog-wheel in a huge machine which must work anyway. Nobody will pay attention to it unless it breaks down. Then I may be wrong. Future will tell.
I am using the same title with Eric Meyer since I need a common ground to start from and Meyer’s post is an excellent one.
Let me show you the flip side of the coin. Here in Greece people who care about being professionals in web design or sticking to web standards are a weak minority. As far as I know there hasn’t been even a conference about web design ever. And I am not very optimistic for the future.
We
feel
are isolated. Universities just don’t care. Companies mostly seek for flashing elements on the screen and people around you tend to believe that designing is something everyone could do. Jeff Croft wrote about it much better than me. When I read his post I had a bitter smile on my face. I couldn’t believe that same things happen elsewhere too.
The thing is that creating an organization for designers would be something we really need. However, even if I could join such a group I couldn’t afford participating in seminars, workshops etc around the world since noone would assist me. Even if I could prove my skills to the local web market noone from the market would invest some money on me to become better. Being a freelancer and covering your expenses is out of the question in Greece. We remain helpless and the only chance to become better is to find the gurus and follow them by visiting their blogs and listening to what they have to say.
This April Molly E. Holzschlag announced an analogous effort from the Web Standards Project talking about an International Liaison Group. To my surprise this endeavor stuck and I am wondering: if not WaSP then who?
I don’t question great designers’ intensions because these people are open minded and they show it every day. With this post I am asking them to keep trying closing the gap because this benefits all. Since they are more powerful than me they can use the relevant mechanisms which bring all of us closer to each other.
Try this question to a number of people. You ‘ll get the answer above.
So what is happening here? People do not like idiots. OK.
If you hate stupidity (or you claim so) means that you are not stupid. Right?
So everyone around us thinks he/she is not stupid. Right?
Indeed. Everyone thinks so including me. (However I keep a door open just in case I am an idiot and I don’t get it. Who does?)
What is stupidity?
- Stupidity is not the absence of intelligence - that’s clear to me.
- According to Wikipedia stupidity refers to the poor use of judgement, or insensitivity to nuances in a person who is otherwise intelligent. I couldn’t agree more.
Dear friends, dear people around me, dear world check it out. Are you sure you don’t suffer from poor use of judgement when it comes to me? Have you ever tried to think what is going on in my mind? Because if you do you will see that things are crystal clear. I defend you no matter what. I defend my choices even if you never cared about them.
I can’t help you. Sorry. In this case you are the stupid one.
Is it the sweetest voice of Hope? Is it the clear sound of the guitar? Or the tambourine that holds the rythm? I can’t choose. I ‘ve learnt this song more than a decade ago when I was a radio producer. Since then there isn’t any fall I don’t listen to it again and again. It is just one of my precious.
Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me - Smiths
The song begins with a sound of a dream. Do dreams have sounds? Sometimes they do. Among the heart-breaking voices emerges the amazing Morrissey’s voice. No hope, no harm, just another false alarm. This song is a diamond.
Where we would be - Porcupine Tree
The song begings with sound of birds singing happily somewhere. Things are not the way they seem. The story between a man and a woman does not have a happy end. You would paint - I would wrote my songs. But we don’t. Probably the best guitar solo of Steven Wilson. Magnificent.
Another day - This Mortal Coil
Violins and keyboards. And the voice of Elizabeth Fraser. A story with a cup of Tibetan tea, two speechless people, one wants to stay - the other to score. A fairy tale from nowhere for people like anyone. Difficult to describe the sounds, magical.
...It is a little awkward to write to you. After many years of devout but silent friendship I think it is about time to express why I have walked away from your neighbourhood.
First of all I doubt about your future after engaging the Adobe family. I like the way you interact with the user and I am afraid that your interface will become less simple in the future.
The main reason of our separation was the love for standards. You know, I know, everybody knows that your nature is contrary to the Web Standards. Some people do not realize that you go further than the Web. I however hang on it. This remarkable CSS technology is brilliantly clear and flexible. Put the blame on me, I am very attracted of it.
Lately, I ‘ve been developing a multimedia project. When I heard about it I ran to you, not to the chuby cousin Director. I had once more the opportunity to admire your smoothness and elegance. Until the main movie (.fla) exceeded the 100MB file size. You became slow, very slow. You engulfed my RAM. You refused to publish my files. Why?
Well that was a rhetorical question. I don’t mean to finish this letter in such an arrogant way. I know why you came to this life and how well you do what you do. I don’t forget that you were the spark for me in dark times and I bacame what I am because of you too.
That’s all from me dear friend. See you around the corner soon.
Yours
I want a new, real good blend which will be different than the others. A refreshing blend. A tasteful blend. A coffee which will covet to be drunk. Something like these:
I don’t know what they say about cats. A very dear person told me my cat looks tough and wild. I wonder if she started being like me or if I am the one who adopted her behavior. On the other hand I think I have a very beautiful cat while I know I am not that good-looking. However I know that I am not that unbiased.
