Dan’s Blog (2.0)

So I actually think Microsoft might be doing the right thing by pushing people to deploy SPF records. (See this news.com article.) SPF records aren’t going to eliminate Spam, but they could be an important tool in verifying email origin. I deployed SPF on my torgo.com domain earlier this year — it was pretty easy and I think it’s been effective judging from the drastic reduction in the number of bounced-back messages caught in my spam filter presumably from spam senders spoofing a torgo.com address. Microsoft shouldn’t claim that SPF is going to end spam — it isn’t — but it’s a good step forward. Interesting to note that W3C is also endorsing SPF, albeit with some caveats.

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 23:56 under Technology

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One of the key issues that I think is going to come up in the context of the Mobile Web Best Practices working group that I’m going to chair is that of Accessibility. To put it simply, what is the intersection of Web “accessibility” and Web “mobility?” To be sure, a lot of what makes a Web content accessible can also aid it in being Mobile browser friendly. Some times I hear people say that a user of a browser on mobile is “disabled” in a way because of the limitations of the mobile device. I disagree with this notion. I think — and forgive me for this — that users of mobile browsers are actually “differently-abled” in the truest sense. There are both advantages and disadvantages to mobile browsing. For example, you have the disadvantage of the smaller screen but the (at least potential) advantage of mobility and location awareness. But there is definitely an intersection. The Mobile Web Best Practices group will have to develop a set of guidelines and a checklist, akin to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines checklist, and in reviewing the WCAG checklist, it seems like much of it could be imported or referenced (subject, of course, to the consensus of the working group). The trick will be determining the intersection of mobility and accessibility. Surely, some of the WCAG guidelines will directly map on to Mobility requirements whereas some won’t. For example, careful use of color, or providing alternate visual cues when color is used as an interface element is important because of the huge number of red-green or otherwise color-blind people out there (a common rant subject for my friend Eric Snider — and by the way I’m glad to see there’s someone than I am about updating their blog). But is this strictly speaking a mobility requirement as well? I’m tempted to say “no,” whereas use of CSS as opposed to tables to support content layout is certainly applicable to Mobility as well as Accessibility. Tricky stuff.

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 15:13 under Mobile Web, W3C

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I give up. I just don’t understand the kids these days.

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 11:00 under Web

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So here at the W3C Advisory Committee meeting, there has been a lot of discussion on spam, and phishing and malware and viruses and lions and tigers, etc… and whether W3C ought to be doing anything in these areas. I think this is worthy discussion, but my personal Web Pet Peeve is actually much (I think) more straight forward to address. It’s sites that have a complicated start page which takes a little time to load, with a log-in form on the page. Either because of a script in the page or because of the browser’s own “smart” features, when you click in this form (usually a username and password box) to log in to go to the next page, you get half-way done and then poof! either what you’ve been typing disappears or is replaced with something else or is mangled in some way. FOR GOD SAKE, can’t the browser understand it’s not supposed to muck around in a text input field that I’m in the middle of typing into? Sheesh!

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 17:02 under W3C, Web

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So here I am in beautiful Cannes, at the W3C Advisory Committee meeting and W3C 10 Europe event (where I had the honor of speaking along side Tim Berners-Lee and other notables). I find it slighly ironic that I’m unable to get a 3G signal here, in the location of the 3GSM world congress for the past few years (although the next one will be in Barcelona).

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 13:42 under Mobility

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