WEB DESIGN: Adam Polselli's 2005 Color Forecast. That's right, what the well-dressed website will be wearing this year...

WEB: Meta tags - Do not forsake them oh my web designers... appalling I know, but the BBC columnist's point here, is that simple methods of web production (adding description and keyword meta tags for instance) can help people to find and thus use the information created for the purpose it was intended. BBC NEWS | Technology | Why the web is often woeful

ASIAN EARTHQUAKE: Why would you do this? Obviously it seemeed funny (its not, at all) or the person who did it is mentally unstable. BBC NEWS | UK | Hoaxer sends 'quake dead' e-mails

BUILDINGS: Probably the tallest building in the world. All right, it is the tallest building in the world. BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Taipei 101: A view from the top

INTERNET: Get Acrobat Reader 7 for viewing PDFs. adot's notblog*: get acrobat reader 7

HELP: Links to donate and help the survivors of the Tsunami disaster. Asian Earthquake Relief

NOT WEB DESIGN: The funniest most hideous thing I've seen in a long while. css Zen Garden: The Beauty in CSS Design by Bruce Lawson

INTERNET SEARCH: What people have mostly been looking for this year. Google Press Center: Zeitgeist 2004. The usual suspects mostly, but still interesting to see some more lists! Oh and Merry Christmas if i don't see ya!

CHRISTMAS: Photos from around the world. Guardian Unlimited | Gallery | In pictures: Christmas 2004

TELEVISION: MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | Mr Benn returns to TV after 35 years: "52 Festive Road" there's probably a couple such addresses in the country. Do they fully appreciate what those addresses mean to eighties kids?

WEB STANDARDS: Molly cuts to the chase, and sets the record straight. Well worth reading to clear our heads as web standards starts to get noticed. It's always good to know exactly what it is we are trying to promote, along the way some terms have got a little fuzzy in some heads...molly.com � web design world cool-down: "Concerns with Terminology"

INTERNET: Firefox making an impact in the browser universe, at least in web developer usage communities. Digital Web Magazine - News - Browser Stats Reloaded

POLITICS: This whole story just makes me think the government has no idea about utilising modern technology wisely.
And
"According to a report in the Times, the deleted e-mails will be stored on back-up systems which are beyond the reach of the Freedom of Information Act because of the cost of accessing them."
How difficult will it be to access them exactly, and how are they going to get them onto these magic and mysterious systems in the first place?
It all sounds like political smoke-screens and not the whole story.
Freedom of information is a strange idea anyway, we, the public will always be relying on someone or some department to be honest about what is known and what is fact etc.
Call me an old cynic, go on...
"BBC NEWS | Politics | Howard condemns e-mail deletion

POLITICS: All's fair in Eastern European politics. And the fact that Viktor Yushchenko appears to have been poisoned during the Ukrainian election is a coincidence of course. BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Deadly dioxin used on Yushchenko

BUSH: Can't spell, won't spell. Yahoo! News - Top Stories Photos - Reuters

WEB SEARCH: It's google Jim but not as we know it?... Google (Suggest - Beta) Could it be the future? Give it a try, it may be the answer to all our web searching prayers.

A prediction for your enjoyment and possible disagreement... Forty Media - Phoenix Web Design - Web Design in 2005

ENTERTAINMENT: Well technically, but I hope she/he's alright. BBC NEWS | Scotland | Krankie hurt in beanstalk tumble
"A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "Wee Jimmy Krankie fell out of the beanstalk on to the stage and was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary." "

HEALTH: Big supermarkets not looking after our health interests, but only their own profits... sort it out retail industry! BBC NEWS | Business | Supermarkets 'fail' health test

WEB DESIGN: A very nice little site, smallTransport: Web Standards and Print Design. Good colours and imagery.

ONLINE SHOPPING: Not always as simple as you'd think
A comment: "Just give me a working serial number and I’ll download the software from someone more reliable, like a Bittorrent site"
mezzoblue - e-commerce Hall of Shame I ordered a product for download from the Adobe Store last week, for the first and last time."

WEB DESIGN: Alt tags and title tags, we're all using them now, but here's a primer on exactly what they're for. The alt and title attributes | 456 Berea Street

WEB STANDARDS: Discussions on web standards and whether Internet Explorer will make any positive moves to update its compliance. Internet Explorer is already breaking the web | 456 Berea Street

DESIGN: RIP Web Page Design For Designers, and thanks Joe Gillespie. Your retirement is well deserved.

INTERNET: The future of online publishing
MediaGuardian.co.uk | Media | New media

Accessible Forms: Guidelines & Manipulation - webSemantics

NOVELTY: Get yourself a 12 sided calendar.
Yes, that's right a calendar, with, count em, 12 sides! One for each month of the year, genius.

ZIMBABWE: Another sickening tale of racist injustice by Mugabe's evil regime
Guardian Unlimited Sport | Cricket | Political happenings in Zimbabwe: "Bennett was imprisoned at the end of October after he was found guilty of assaulting the justice minister Patrick Chinamasa during a debate in parliament. Bennett had reacted with fury and pushed Chinamasa to the ground after being taunted by him about his farm and his parents called 'murderers and thieves'. The parliament, with an almost two-thirds majority held by Mugabe's party, sentenced Bennett to 12 months in prison with hard labour; usually a fine is levied in assault cases where there is no serious injury."

CRICKET: Andrew Flintoff, coming of age for Engalnd
The Observer | Sport | Great bails of fire: "A month later, in the sixth and last one-day international, with India requiring 11 to win in the cauldron of Mumbai, Flintoff bowled the nerve-tingling final over. He knocked over Srinath's stumps to tie the series. In relief and jubilation, he tore his shirt off and careered around the stadium. 'It was a massive release of tension,' he says. 'But after about 10 seconds running round waving my shirt I asked myself, 'What are you doing?' I had the whitest, palest body in the world and there were about 60,000 Indians there.'"

BBC: Public service broadcasting
"Details of the proposed losses come as Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell told a private meeting of MPs this weekend that the BBC's commitment to impartiality 'needed to be strengthened'.

Jowell...said it was 'highly likely' that a green paper, to be published in the new year, would emphasise the importance of 'freedom from bias' in BBC journalism. It will also attempt to steer reporting further away from comment and analysis, underlining factual accuracy as the BBC's top priority."

Well excuse me, but impartiality is a great ideal, but there is no such thing as impartial, there is always a point of view. The BBC seems the closest organisation, respected across the globe (except for countries where the truth is not welcome), that sets it sights on impartial, unbiased, quality news reporting.
But every news story is biased in some way, as humans, we all have our opinions and beliefs, the BBC is no different. As long as their underlying editorial policy is strongly outlined, then we need not tamper with that area of their output.
The Observer | UK News | BBC news in crisis as axe hits 350 staff

Play this nifty rugby game, its flash based, but it all happens pretty quick, so get your boots on and your mouth-gaurd in... Game of 3 Halves

MUSIC: My mother's got a what?! PIXELSURGEON | Interviews | Music | Goldie Lookin Chain

Many newspapers now live online, but can they survive simultaneaously in print? Wired News: Newspapers Should Really Worry: "Don't think for a minute that young people don't read. On the contrary, they do, many of them voraciously. But having grown up under the credo that information should be free, they see no reason to pay for news... And their hands never get dirty from newsprint."

OK, we may not all be happy with his main business interests, but you can't say he hasn't made an effort to improve life for those who can't even afford a PC with his software on it! About Us - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

This Ukrainian election just gets crazier and crazier. BBC NEWS | Health | Was election candidate poisoned?

ZIMBABWE CRICKET: Mugabe is getting away with murder, in more ways than one.
BBC SPORT | Cricket | England | Olonga predicts England isolation: "England batsman Graham Thorpe, who is not part of the touring party, described the situation as 'farcical'."
When will the ICC wake up and take a firm stand on this issue, Zimbabwe have been left to get away with 'murder' in cricket terms and on the human rights issue.
It is sad and pathetic that crickets governing body are willing to keep their blinkers on over the issue, leaving the indivdual criketing nations to look like fools, and the players to be torn between a blatantly clear moral stance and their duties as employees of their cricketing board.

[information leafblower]: The Top 40 Bands In America Today - 2004 Edition: Good to see some discussion about what's hot in the U.S. today, and I'm not talking about the obvious pop/r'n'b stuff thats in the media, what is really good and big news...TED LEO + PHARMACISTS? New to me, but I'll check them out, in the spirit of John Peel!! Good to see Wilco and David Byrne not far down the list.

Guide to Ease � A research agenda for information architecture

www.KMWorld.com Special Publications: "Faceted Navigation and Guided Navigation anyone?"

Digital Web Magazine - Home Alone? How Content Aggregators Change Navigation and Control of Content: "Every time someone makes a list, be it on a blog like Kottke’s or a list of groceries, content is aggregated. The act of aggregating content (usually content that is alike in some way) makes it more understandable. Instead of looking at a whole field of information, you choose smaller, more logical subsets of it in the hopes of understanding those."

An aged but worthy and thought-provoking article from A List Apart on the meaning and understanding of web design. A Dao of Web Design: A List Apart

Digital Web Magazine - The End of Usability Culture, Redux "I value usability as much as any component of the design process. As a designer, while I strive to get the most out of form and function, I insist on function, even if to the slight detriment of form. I am not for flashy, style-for-style’s-sake aesthetic design. Usability is a critical component of design. But, as so many have pointed out, it is only a component."

Jeffrey Zeldman speaks to iStockphoto.com - royalty free stock photography community

Since when did Spain become so racist? All this cowardly chanting from the anonymity of the terraces towards coloured England footballers? I thought they were a developed and advanced country living in the 21st century? Comments please. BBC SPORT | Football | Internationals | FA to complain over racist chants

How does Web Credibility Relate to Web Design? : Bokardo.com

Steve (Stephen) Coogan and Jack White (Stripes) 'meet' via exchanging questions and answers whilst appearing in the same film... cool... Guardian Unlimited Film | Interviews | 'Can I have coffee & cigarettes with you in New York?'

London Training - HTML Dog Blog - HTML Dog - On 18th January, I'll be teaching the "XHTML and CSS" course...The next week, on the 25th January, I'll be teaching the "Accessibility" course...

London Training - HTML Dog Blog - HTML Dog - On 18th January, I'll be teaching the "XHTML and CSS" course...The next week, on the 25th January, I'll be teaching the "Accessibility" course...

London Training - HTML Dog Blog - HTML Dog - On 18th January, I'll be teaching the "XHTML and CSS" course...The next week, on the 25th January, I'll be teaching the "Accessibility" course...

BBC NEWS | Technology | Election apology starts net feud: "Sorryeverybody.com started the duel the day after the polls closed,
with a picture of its creator holding up a 'Sorry World' message."

Trying to find a cheap/decent hotel in New York for our January sales related trip early next year. Teletext - Cheap Hotels In New York

Consumer WebWatch: How Consumers and Experts Rate Credibility on the Web

Firefox has genuinely arrived on the browser scene. This Digital Web Mag article shows just how big an impact it may well have. Obviously the more web savvy people are amongst the audience for this sort of site, and the average user may be less inclined to discard IE for Firefox's superior skills, but it may well be an indication of things to come, congratulations Mozilla/Firefox! Digital Web Magazine - News - Firefox takes first place

Drew Curtis' FARK.com: "VP Cheney rushed to hospital. Bush notified, ready to assume power if necessary" The real story - Cheney heads to hospital after noticing shortness of breath

The future battle for newspapers is the balance between print and online media and how to make both viable whilst supportive of the other. The Daily Standards � Archives � How Many Editors Does It Take to Save Their Jobs? "For years, newspapers have been trying to fight off declining readers, declining subscribers, declining market share … and the thing is, they truly have no idea how to right the ship. None. Whatsoever."

New Scientist - interview with Benoit Mandelbrot: "Few people would recognise Benoit Mandelbrot in the street, but the intricate pattern of blobs, swirls and spikes that bears his name - the Mandelbrot set - is an icon of science."

Read this helpful book online for free, as if life ain't sweet enough already...Building accessible websites - Joe Clark

I don't want a to sound a sap, but reading this made me well up a little:
""I adored John and can't believe how much it hurts to have lost him. He was a one-off who inspired me greatly in the ways of music and family. I miss him now and always will." Said BBC Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley, who was at the service."
RIP John Peel, a truly memorable human being: BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Thousands mourn Peel at funeral

Digital Web Magazine - CSS Cookbook Another self-help book for CSS people

Protein Feed - Protein� Calendar Blueprint Remix: "Blueprint are *giving* away 14k of these puppies in their December/January issue. You heard it here first."

Protein Feed - Music, Sex, Chocolate and Cocaine: "What is the secret of music's strange power? Seeking an answer, scientists are piecing together a picture of what happens in the brains of listeners and musicians."

Wikipedia tells all about Cascading Style Sheets, and the difficulty with adoption. The fight continues... Cascading Style Sheets - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RSS readers and news aggregators are feeding our need for news and subject specific content. Digital Web Mag reports on the growth in this area. I recommend Sage extension for your Firefox browser. Digital Web Magazine - Home Alone? How Content Aggregators Change Navigation and Control of Content

President George W. Bush cares about money, and his financial backers.
He thinks the environment can wait, well I'm afraid George, you can't mess with nature, because it is far more powerful than all your army of bank-rollers and big businesses being pandered to by your short-sighted and immoral ignorance of the world's environment.
Chances are in decades to come, his name will go down as the one that cost us dear in terms of our planet's ability to sustain all our lives.
Protein Feed - Bush Snubs Kyoto ... Again: "'President Bush strongly opposes any treaty or policy that would cause the loss of a single American job, let alone the nearly 5 million jobs Kyoto would have cost,' said James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality."
If you voted for him, I hope you can handle that on your conscience above all the other lies and dirty deals he has done.

Students unite to get real about the copyright law, and not before time. It could be the most important thing they learn in higher education. Wired News: Students Fight Copyright Hoarders

The Invisibility Game! Move your mouse around the maze, with an invisible cursor, genius

IQ and Politics or How come all Bush's voters in the recent election (listed by state) have an average lower IQ than those that voted for Kerry. Are we surprised? Looking at the facts of Bush's time 'in charge' how can you really have wanted him in charge for another term?

The Observer | Sport | Triumph and despair - Heath Streak interview: "Can a white person live in Africa? I think that depends on how you are as a person. There is still much bitterness about the colonial past. Too many of the colonisers were very arrogant: they didn't respect local cultures and didn't bother to learn local languages. But the majority now are a lot more aware of other people's cultures and are prepared to learn the differences between the two."
Cricket and the people of Zimbabwe are the losers. Let's hope things improve, and all parties can find some common ground, amidst Mugabe's racist regime.

Cats and George W. Bush, a seamlessly tenuous blog rant.
Allerca | The Hypo-Allergenic Cat: "hypoallergenic cats" please save us, "lifestyle pets" I mean I know the world has clearly gone mad today, as 50% of US voters think John Kerry would be a worse president than George W. But specially produced cats.
A fake war on 'terror', a ropey economy and plenty of job losses, that John Kerry, you people had a lucky escape, he would have sunk the whole continent into the sea, it's about the only thing worse than having George in charge again.
Can you all not see the man's a fat-cat pleaser, pandering to the wants of big business, they fund his campaign, he lets them do what they want, thus the lack of environmental and healthcare, wake up, oh its too late, we're all in trouble now, who knows what he'll do next...

A different, more web standardised approach to image-maps, looks good in the examples too...

As Michael Moore points out: "First of all, let’s just acknowledge what you already know: America is a country which still has a race problem, to put it nicely. Al Gore would be president today had thousands of African Americans not had their right to vote stolen from them in Florida in 2000."
Do you need to go any further down the long list of reasons to get that damn fool Bush out of the most important political and big business position in the world!!!!
Vote Kerry, if nothing else he can't be as dumb and dishonest as George W. Bush....

The The Man in Blue > Writing > Perspective Archives " There's so many things you have to worry about when you're making a table-free web site: box models, 3-pixel mystery whitespace, relative font sizes, cascading rules, floats ... but really, none of it matters. When you're designing a web site you shouldn't think about them." Pertinent article on web standards.

More css layout tips The Man in Blue > Writing > Perspective Archives An example of resizing content to fit the browser window, very neat.

Max Design - CSS Page Layouts A variety of step by step css layouts, the correct way! to bring you into the 21st century of web design.

Wired News: Saving the Artistic Orphans Copyright laws and the red tape surrounding them are depriving we, the citizens of valuable information and written resources.

Another web standards example for all those web workers struggling within companies who don't quite get it...graphicPUSH: Why Clients Care About Web Standards

A work of great effort and of great use to all css users in their hour of need... CSS Properties - HTML Dog

Amazon.co.uk: Unfortunatley named authors Childish but funny, if only it was my job to do this all day...

Get this... and I'll have one for Christmas while you're at it! PIXELSURGEON | Reviews | Movies | The Shawshank Redemption
“Since I am innocent of this crime, sir, I find it decidedly inconvenient that the gun was never found.”

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Top 10 Reasons to Get Out of Iraq
Are you listening Mr Bush? No, I didn't think so, but then you never were...

Let's not make it to easy to make a song form other people's work... Protein Feed - Sampling Law Changed

DonnaM: Usability testing for findability: "Rarely have I heard about a test that explores whether people can understand the content once they have found it, whether they can use it to make good decisions or gain meaning from it."

Molly Holzschlag serves up Integrated Web Design: Strategies for Long-Term CSS Hack Management

All the 'ingredients' for the ideal web site, listed by Keith Robinson...My Recipe For Web Design

If you're into logo design, then this is a good example of the process...Design by Fire: Rebranding the W3C

Wise words which I hope to make use of...Design by Fire: When I grow up, I want to be an interface designer

Another css layout technique to keep you in touch with your stylesheet abilities, hopefully I'll get around to trying it myself...[ws] 2-col tableless layout | Dvousloupcov? beztabulkov? layout

Super levels of storage means an entire film library could be held in a single cd jewel case... BBC NEWS | Technology | DVDs could hold '100 times more'

Super storage possibility, carry your film library in one cd case??!! BBC NEWS | Technology | DVDs could hold '100 times more'

Escher for Real

Saturday night, I spent mostly at my mate Dan's party, with Becx and some good friends, nice... danhodgett | ::MY::PARTY:: photo gallery

Review: Salford Quays, Manchester

Barely 15 minutes by tram or road from the centre of Manchester (which itself is barely 3 hours from Peterborough), the Salford Quays have seen a huge transition in keeping with the massive reconstruction of Manchester’s cityscape in the past decade. Originally the Manchester Ship Canal was a hive of activity with boats in and out…

The waterside location is becoming a cultural magnet for the Northwest, boasting two modern architectural masterpieces, both enigmatic metallic structures rising from the water’s edge.

The stunning Lowry, all nautical themed stainless steel angles outside, and bright curvaceous colours inside, houses two impressive theatres - including The Lyric which boasts the largest stage outside of London - offering high class ballet and theatre productions.

With numerous bars and a chic modern restaurant, you almost forget that the Michael Willford designed building is home to the biggest public collection of L S Lowry’s work.

A short walk across the Lowry Footbridge and no less stunning is the Imperial War Museum North, designed by Daniel Liebeskind who will re-design the Ground Zero site in New York. A combined theme of architecture and entertaining exhibitions, the displays are modern and emotive, including a vast multimedia display every hour, well worth seeing (maybe a little too loud for smaller children). Well worth the entrance fee, which being a museum is free.

After some culture, retail junkies can check out The Lowry Outlet Mall for a few big name bargains from Marks & Spencer, Whistles, Nike Factory Outlet and Karen Millen among others.

Then you could visit Manchester United's Red Cinema or can eat at Pizza Express (always good value) before chilling out in the cool retro Lime bar.

Well worth a visit, even for non-serious football fans, is the Manchester United tour. While the museum may only be for serious fans, the hour-long tour of the famous ground takes you behind the scenes, into the dressing rooms and boardrooms of the renowned sporting institution, finishing up with a trot down the players tunnel.

Literally down the road Lancashire County Cricket Club offers summer sport fans the chance to watch top-class county and international cricket from the comfort of your own hotel room balcony at the 68-room Old Trafford Lodge hotel, plus in recent summers they have had big name live music on show, this summer R.E.M. and Feeder are amongst the performers.

Across the road from Manchester United’s ground (it is that close) The Golden Tulip hotel offers a good standard of comfort and the excellent Watersreach Restaurant, with its stylish décor and a menu to match.

Impressively all the main attractions and hotels mentioned are situated within one square mile, so you may forget Manchester city centre is only a short Metro ride away. This could be the perfect base to explore the North-west, but there’s plenty of exploring to be done amongst this cultural goldmine.

Hotels

• 3* The Golden Tulip; from £49.50 per room, web: goldentulipmanchester.goldentulip.com


• 3* Old Trafford Lodge; from £49 per room, web: www.lccc.co.uk


• 4* Copthorne Hotel; from £65 per room, web: www.copthorne.com/manchester


• More information and web links for the Salford Quays area can be found at: www.thequays.org.uk

Great design work from Cameron Moll... Archives ~ 08 September 2004 ~ Authentic Boredom

Get these... 5 Free Windows Web Design Apps You Can't Live Without! [Software Tutorials]

Keep the web standards flag flying people... Digital Web Magazine - News - Adopting Web Standards at Work

Been there, done all that, had a really good time thanks... Salford Quays

Douglas Bowman teaches a lesson in liquid css page design... Stopdesign | Liquid Bleach

For those interested in design and user issues in web design... Digital Web Magazine - Forging a partnership between designer and user

Web design theft, please ask when using designed work, most people would be more than happy to let someone share some layout or css knowledge or ideas, but stealing a design, no no sir... Andy Budd::Blogography: BAFTA Award Winning Design Thieves

A story of our times, and what might lie ahead, once all the fossil fuels run out. And by the way, it will happen, and those who prefer to ignore this or use what we have left for their own gain, ie Bush, etc, shame on you forever... Cold Turkey -- In These Times