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Year: 2004

By Posted on Posted in W3C No Comments

So tomorrow I’m off to Boston for the W3C10 Symposium (which will be good fun) and the W3C Advisory Committee meeting (actual work). I’ve been doing Web (and before then publishing by email and FTP) since before there was a W3C — when an address with a “.com” was a rarity because most people connected to the Internet were at Universities or in the Military. But beyond all the old fogies recounting their Web war stories, I actually think this symposium is a good idea. Every so often, it’s important to look back at where you’ve been and how you got there, and I’m hoping W3C10 will be such an opportunity.

By Posted on Posted in Travel 3 Comments

They’re not only the best long-haul airline flying. They’re also really unfathomably cool and they have great customer service. As evidence, I submit the fact that even though my “gold” frequent flyer status had expired because I haven’t flown enough segments this year, they re-upped it anyway after I wrote them a very nice letter. Wow! But the real differentiator is Virgin’s new upper class seat, which just runs circles around anyone else’s business class. And Virgin’s “Upper Class” is business class — they don’t have a “first class” — which is another benefit because when you fly Upper Class on Virgin, you are top dog. When you fly business class on some other airlines, there is a whole group of people on the airplane that is more elite than you are, and that’s no good. This seat, though, is like a mini cabin — it’s a completely personal space. The design is great — everything is highly usable and comfortable — as are the materials and build construction. I’ve been flying Virgin since 1997 — when they were the first airline to include seat-back video screens, even in Economy — and they consistently manage to raise the bar each year, throughout the airplane. Another recent innovation is a video-on-demand service (again, available in every class) that’s invaluable when you’re traveling with a toddler.

By Posted on Posted in Mobile Web, W3C No Comments

So last week, I co-chaired a W3C workshop on the “Mobile Web.” It was really challenging bringing such a diverse group of companies together for this, but in the end it was a great success. Read the paper I wrote for Vodafone and see what I had to say about this, and read the papers from the other participants. Also, read the C-Net coverage! (Although, C-Net got the category wrong — it’s not “Web Services,” that’s something different. Sigh…) An aspect of my job that I really enjoy is that I am actually passionate about these issues. I believe that working for a better mobile web would be a good thing not just because it serves the commercial interests of my company, but because I think it would be a good thing overall. I hate broken things, and the Mobile Web is broken right now. The industry collectively has a chance to fix things, but only if it comes together. I’ll be working hard over the coming months to make that happen — leave a comment here if you have any ideas.

By Posted on Posted in Politics No Comments

So every American should read this OSCE news releases. International observers (from the OSCE — Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) were monitoring our elections (invited by the U.S. State Department). This is a really good thing, because it helps to ensure transparency and fairness in the electoral process and it also sends a good message to the rest of the world. The news is actually pretty good, but the issues raised in their more detailed report are important ones to consider — especially allowing for greater access for international observers.

By Posted on Posted in Web No Comments

I have to say — it’s better. I’ve been using it for a few months now in different incarnations and I’m impressed. It’s so fast that it makes this dinosaur of a laptop at work seem fast. It may be sacrilege to say so, but it’s even better than Safari — for one, it works with many sites that break under Safari (such as my online bank).

By Posted on Posted in Mobile Web, W3C No Comments

So I’m here in Sophia Antipolis at this W3C working group meeting for XML Compound Documents. It doesn’t sound very sexy, but actually… well OK it isn’t very sexy. But it’s potentially important for the development of the Mobile Web — in particular how XHTML and SVG can be combined to produce better user experiences on mobile devices. Better in what sense? A well defined language profile for combining XHTML and SVG means that content producers (“Web Sites”) can have more confidence that markup will work across a range of devices and therefore more confidence that people will be able to use their services.

By Posted on Posted in Politics No Comments

So if W wins the day, which looks inevitable at this point, what then? My worry is that the coalition of organizations that have come together in opposition of Bush in this last year have essentially “shot their wad.” What we will need is further organized resistance to Bush and his policies. I have been voting with my dollars and giving to Amnesty International since this summer and just now I became a member of the ACLU as well. Amnesty works around the world to oppose torture and human rights abuses and the ACLU works fights in the U.S. to preserve rights and liberties. Supporting the ACLU is especially important right now as they have recently withdrawn from a federal grant program because they refused to screen their current employees against a terrorist “watch list.” The strategy must be to marginalize and immobilize Bush and his cronies wherever possible – to oppose them at every turn. Otherwise, I worry very much that the America of four years hence will be quite unrecognizable. Looks like we’re in for a “long, hard slog.”

By Posted on Posted in London 1 Comment

So yesterday we (the family) went to Highgate — which has a reputation of being a really nice and historical part of London that we’ve been living near but have never been to. Highgate itself was beautiful — village atmosphere with Georgian architecture, etc… but we were a bit disappointed by the proliferation of chain restaurants. In particular, were refused a table at Strada, which is a mediocre pizza chain anyway but we had stopped out of desperation. Getting hungrier and hungrier, we finally tripped across a fantastic pub called The Flask. They had an amazing beer collection* and good food — and they were very friendly, even though the place was crowded beyond belief. So the day was at least partially redeemed. * It’s actually very difficult to find a pub in London that has a good selection of beers. This is because most pubs are chains that are owned by brewers, and because most people (yes, even here) settle for whatever — usually Carling for some inexplicable reason. Locally owned pubs usually offer a better selection, or at least offer some good hand-drawn ales, but they’re few and far between.