Why it’s so bad

First it disables your middle mouse button; second it disables your right mouse button, if that’s not bad usability I don’t know what is. Now you can no longer open links in new windows via middle click or right click. You can’t access your right click menu, which also means you can’t use the built in spell check some browsers have when filling out the websites contact form to complain about this terrible script they are running. The only thing you can do is left click your away around the site and if you cease this behavior you will get a punch in the face message that basically tells you not to steal their content. Thanks for assuming the worst and insulting me at the same time.

Who are you fooling?

So you have thoroughly annoyed any power user by now, but not only have you annoyed some of your visitors you aren’t protecting anything. Anyone who is even remotely computer savvy can take a screen capture of any page on your site or even save the page. A slightly more savvy user will just use the only remaining left button and drag the image to the address bar and bang, the image is loaded all by it’s lonesome ready for the taking. An even more technically minded person can just view your source via the view source menu and take your code, content or images and do as they please with them.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Chances are your site has been indexed by hundreds of crawlers many of which are the ones most likely to steal your content in the first place. Your copyrighted images are probably showing up in paces like Google images too, so do us all a favour and get rid of the ridiculously annoying script. If you happen to be the victim of one these sites take two minutes and find the contact form and fire off an email informing them of their ill ways, or better yet, send them this article.

Moving day was coming fast

It started with my recent move. This was also not my first bad experience with Bell. When you have a problem with this company, there is no phone support that I’ve ever dealt with that approaches the depths of uselessness that Bell displays on a regular basis. Yes, I’ve dealt with Rogers support in the past and yes you may be put on hold for 40 minutes, but that’s a cake walk next to Bell support.

So two weeks later from my first phone call to bell and I still had no Internet. Before I moved a thought popped into my head and I wish that thought had of been stuck. There’s a thing called intuition folks, and I think I’ll start listening to it. A voice in my head told me not to transfer Bell, but to sever the ties all together. Canceling my phone line when I got an iPhone was quite an ordeal, and trying to get my TV to work a few years before that was also a challenging. Bell had failed me twice already, why bother with them this time around, this was a chance to start a clean slate, but no, the only efficient part of Bell’s support got to me, customer retention. If the rest of Bell’s many call centers came even close to their customer retention center quality they would probably still have me and many others as happy customers.

It all sounded so simple

Support told me a service transfer to my new place would be seamless. I give them my new address, move in, receive a modem in the mail with cables and instructions and plug it in. I would also be receiving a box and shipping label to return my then current bulky VDSL modem in exchange for a tiny DSL modem. So I figured why not just stay with Bell, it would be less work for me right? Wrong, oh how I was so very wrong.

At the beginning of the week there was a package for me, it was from Bell, how wonderful; I was glad I stayed with Bell. I opened the box, and this is where things started to go wrong. Inside was a small modem with no cables or instructions other than a single sheet of paper. It apologized for a defective modem and any inconvenience it had caused and hoped that the new modem would satisfy me and for me to return my old modem. I started scratching my head thinking “what modem?, I don’t have a defective modem and there’s no way the VDSL modem will fit in this box”. Oh well, there was obviously some kind of mix up, I had my own cables and how hard could it be to set up. Grab an Ethernet cable and a phone cord and we’ll be in business. Plug everything in and what do you get? A blank DSL connectivity light. Plug in the computer and no, there’s no connection. I run to the other phone socket, plug it in and still no good. Then I do all the typical refresh, recycle, power off, plug in, stand on one’s head etc, but still no good.

Now the rest is a bit fuzzy, because I figure I have spent well over 4 hours on the phone with Bell over the next week. First, when you call bell you are faced with the most idiotic voice and touch tone system you may ever come across. The voice activated menu system doesn’t work half the time and Bell human support never seemed to know who I was. I think the only thing working at Bell is the billing system. The voice system constantly said my number was not on file even though I had to provide it on every call I made over the next week.

Day one, mistakes happen, we are human

The first day the entire support system was down and no one could help me, I can understand this, I’m a web designer and developer, systems go down. The second day they would not help me when I was at work because they wanted me to do the plug in unplug ritual at home even though I had told them it had already been done several times. That evening I got home to find another package form Bell. Possibly a return box for the VDSL modem? No, another DSL modem apologizing for my broken modem. What is wrong with this company? At least now I could rule out defect modems, neither worked.

After a few days of calling and going through the whole ridiculous plug in your modem unplug it routine I got frustrated and said I want to cancel the service. It was obvious to me that there was no dry loop setup, especially considering I received a replacement modem, not a setup modem. I was redirected to someone who knew what he was talking about and was very polite. He said this was a very unusual situation and that they would rectify everything in no time. I believed him, heck I’m sure he believed himself. I was quickly connected to top level support and they spent several hours trouble shooting the problem and calling me back with questions. Eventually they said it was the phone number and that my account was linked to my new address but they didn’t know where the phone number for my dry loop was linked, possibly my old address? They fixed all my contact information and said Monday a tech support person would call me once they had moved the line.

Sorry doesn’t cut it – the last straw

The phone call never came, so that evening I called back. They sounded confused like usual and again I said I’m canceling. Again I was sent to top level support. Apparently my phone jacks had the wrong voltage and a tech support person would come to my apartment and rectify the situation. I told them I could not be home until 6:30, which was fine, the tech person would be there between 6:30 and 9:00. At 5:00pm that day the tech guy called to say he was at my place. I told him that I was at work and he was not supposed to be there until 6:30. I rushed home to be on time and called Bell to confirm it was still on since I was called at 5:00. They said yes it was still in the records. I waited all evening hoping I could leave eventually to grab a bite to eat. 9:30 rolled around and I called back, spent another 20 minutes on the phone while the tech guy told me how sorry they were. Bell support is always sorry, but you can only say you are sorry so many times before it becomes meanings. I was told there were no techs in the area and that I would have to rebook for the next day. I had plans for the next day and enough was enough. I said no re-booking, I’m canceling the service. I would have to wait until the next day since the business office was closed. When I called they tried again to retain me, but I said no, I’m so through with this company.

My question is how does a place run like this? Every time I call this joke of a company they acted like they have no idea who I was. I constantly had to tell them my address, phone number, and situation. Is there no record? No red flags? Like “hey we are about to loose this customer, make sure the tech guy shows up!” I was even told I would not have to pay for my down time? Wow, how nice, you mean I don’t have to pay for service I was not receiving. Then I was told I could have a month free, and that I could cancel without a 30 day notice if I gave them another chance. Yes thank you bell, thank you for letting me leave your disorganized disaster of an organization. Thank you for wasting several hours and two nights of my time, I have nothing better to do than hear how sorry you are.

Avoid Bell like you would avoid a sharp and prickly object

My suggestion to anyone thinking of Bell as their next service provider is to think long and hard, there are alternatives. My suggestion to Bell is to get organized, empower your employees, stop making them act like machines and let them make some decisions on their own. Don’t treat customers like morons, some of us do know what we are talking about. Keep a record of your customers complaints and don’t ask them the same thing every single time they call.

Who do you use?

I really wanted to go with TekSavvy as my next provider. They have incredible service from what I have read on DSL Reports, are proponents of network neutrality and every time I called them I got a real person and no automated service. Unfortunately TekSavvy is a reseller and uses Bell’s lines. They said a Bell technician might have to come into my place and that I would have to be around between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm. Most of us are working during those hours and that’s a huge time frame. In the end I grudgingly called Rogers. There are many many things I don’t like about Rogers, but too their credit they had me up and running in less than 24 hours and it took less than 10 minutes to set up.

I of course jumped on the iPhone bandwagon, but before I did I spent a lot of time researching many of the smartphones out there. At the time just before the second iPhone was launched there were a lot of great smartphones on the way, but none were out yet. Now that the iPhone has been out for a few months a lot of new devices have emerged. One of the reasons I bought the iPhone was because Apple was ahead of the curve, now a lot of the other manufacturers have similar offerings, but are any of them really iPhone killers? I decided to do a quick smartphone round up to see what’s currently out there.

Android is the newest cool kid in town

Of course you can’t talk about smartphones without talking about Android and their new G1 offered by T-Mobile in the US. This phone by HTC came out a couple of weeks ago, but even before a phone was announced, the Android platform had huge buzz in the blogsphere and tech news sites. I wrote about it several times and was pretty hyped about it myself when I wrote Android Android Android! everyone’s talking about Android and I still am pretty buzzed about it.

Android promises a lot of innovation and is really shaking up the industry. First it’s open source, which means anyone can play with the innards of the code. Up until now this was practically unheard of, and this could be the end of locked down phones, which I think is great. I can do what I want with my computer, I should be able to do the same with my smartphone, which is basically a portable mini computer. This is one flaw with Apple’s phone, without special applications I can’t even treat this phone as a storage device or copy my music on to different computers. The Open Handset Alliance is another great by product of Google Android.

Everything I have read about the G1 says that it is no iPhone killer, but there is massive potential and that this is just the start. Google is on to something here, and one of these days there may be a Google phone that is an iPhone killer. Remember this is Googles first phone.

See Engadget’s review on the G1

Blackberry Bold and Storm

Research In Motion is one of the big players and has been around for a long time. The big toys from RIM this year are the Bold and the Storm. If any phone could have swayed me from my iPhone purchase it would have been one of these. In the end I’m glad I went for the iPhone because the Bold does lean towards business users, and the Storm is taking forever to come out.

The Bold is the newest and greatest Blackberry in town, with a higher resolution than the iPhone but smaller screen this thing is crystal sharp. I have played with it once and it is pretty clear, but you have to wonder what the point of such high resolution is with such a small screen? It’s a nice phone, but it still feels a bit flimsy, I’m not a fan of how easily the Blackberries tend to scratch, but with that said if I had to pick a second best phone, I would probably go with a Blackberry.

The Blackberry Storm may be a different story, this is RIM’s attempt at the consumer market and is a direct competitor to the iPhone. It has what RIM calls “tactile-touch” which is basically a spring loaded screen. You basically have to push all the way down to hit a key, which sounds pretty cool. I’m used to not having to push down, so it might be hard to get used too. So far I have read that the new touch screen is awesome, to not so great, so only time will tell. I think what you are used to will have a lot to do with how much you like the screen. Blackberry is late to the game and a lot of people who use touch screens have gotten used to how they work now, but this may appeal to the users who have not switched to a touchscreen yet.

You can find first impression reviews at Gizmodo and Engadget along with a gallery of PowerPoint slides on The Boy Genius Report.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1

Sony’s EXPERIA X1 has been rumoured and talked about so long that I almost forgot about it. Its already available in some places, but still pretty hard to find.

This is a pretty sweet looking phone, but I’ve read a lot of good and bad about it. First it’s Windows Mobile, so depending on how you feel about Windows Mobile, your decision may be already made. There have also been claims of slow response on the touch screen and that the keyboard keys do not provide enough tactile feedback. Either way, I don’t think this phone will be viable until it’s on major carriers. Rumours are that it will be available on AT&T at some point.

Unboxing of XPERIA X1 and some nice high resolution shots and a very early review at The Boy Genuis Report.

HTC and a world of cool smartphones

HTC has so many cool phones it’s hard to mention them all. They build the G1 Android phone and had a hand in the XPERIA X1. They also released the Touch Diamond this year, and the Touch Pro will be out soon. There is also the really cool HTC Touch HD which unfortunately will not be showing up in North America, but it has been called an iPhone killer.

HTC definitely makes a whole lot of cool phones, and I’m sure we will be seeing Google’s Android on a lot more HTC phones.

Nokia

Nokia is huge in a lot of the world, but not so much here in North America. That may all change if they start bringing out slick phones like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. It comes with a stylus so you can write out your messages, so if a stylus is your thing, then the XpressMusic might be for you.

Engadget has a hands on review.

Samsung instinct

Samsung has also jumped onto the touch screen smart phone bandwagon, the big one this year was the Samsung Instinct. I’m a huge fan of Samsung products, especially their LCD displays, but for some reason their phones just don’t do it for me. The instinct did perk my interest, but then the reviews came out and laid my anticipation to rest. The Omnia on the other hand seems to score a bit higher, but it’s a windows mobile device and it doesn’t have the prettiest interface. Samsung is also a member of the Open Handset Alliance, so we may see a Google Android phone from them in the future; fingers crossed.

Openmoko, truly open

Although a much smaller player in the smartphone field we cannot forget Openmoko, the truly open source smartphone platform and the device it runs on, Neo FreeRunner. I have been keeping an eye on Openmoko for many of the same reasons I watch Google’s Android platform. I believe in the concept behind these platforms, but Openmoko steps it up a notch, this is a truly open source project, everything from the OS to the phone itself; even the CAD files can be downloaded so you can modify the actual phone itself. Openmoko is definitely a hardcore computer geeks dream.

More information can be found on the wiki entry for Openmoko. The phone can be purchased at the official Openmoko website, and you can also visit the Openmoko wiki website which has much more information.

Apple iPhone, the darling of touch smartphones

And of course this roundup wouldn’t be complete without the iPhone. Apple has lead the way here the same way they lead the way for mp3 players. Whether you love or hate Apple there is no denying that they are market leaders in innovation and have consistently upped the bar delivering a compelling product that’s hard to beat. Almost every review I have read on smartphones uses the iPhone as a measure of quality. You always hear references to Apple’s iPhone or “the iPhone Killer” catch phrase.

That doesn’t mean the iPhone has no flaws, one of the most mentioned features that is missing is “copy and paste” functionality. I don’t know if Apple will ever add this, but it’s a much needed and requested feature, especially for sending web addresses to people in applications such as Twitterific. There is an option to email someone a link from Safari, but copy and paste would be a lot more useful. Another thing that needs fixing is the browser, although it’s a fantastic mini browser, possibly even the best, it does tend to crash an awful lot, at least for me. That said, I am more than happy with my iPhone and it really is the best device I have bought in years. Many of the games are simple but very addictive, just what you want on a small device like this and there is a constant stream of new applications every day. When I was showing my phone to someone once they asked “is there anything it can’t do?”, well yes, it won’t do your laundry yet.

An amazing year for gadgets

It really has been a great year for great gadgets and smartphones in particular. I can’t help but get excited about 2009′s lineup. Where will Apple be this time next year, and the one I’m really keeping an eye on is Google’s Android. It will also be interesting to see how the Blackberry vs Apple battle turns out, I personally think Android is more of a threat than the Blackberry. The Blackberry has a strong loyal consumer base and owns the business sector. They are also making their phones pretty, because lets face it, even business men and women want to have a cool cell phone.

For the third iPhone next year I’m predicting a higher resolution, better GPS and a better camera as obvious places to work on. I hope all the other smartphones have surprises up their sleeves also. 2008 was an amazing year, lets hope 2009 is even more ground breaking.

Yes, there’s a lot of crap in the Blogsphere, a lot of scams, a lot of spam, and “paid bilge”. Am I missing something here? Aren’t forums, email, IM chat, feedback forms, and even Twitter and other social media platforms plagued by this parasitic garbage everyday? Aren’t we constantly hearing about how the newest CAPTCHAs have been cracked? Nothing on the web is immune from the darker side of human nature, just as real life is not either. The scams, the spam, and the get rich quick schemes are everywhere, so really I see no reason to single out blogs.

The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.

Why would my time be better spent on any of these services? Flickr is a social photography site and has nothing to do with what I am generally writing about. Facebook is a collection of friends and family, people who may have no interest in what I am talking about and a very small audience compared to what I can garner from a blog. Twitter is something I do understand and use daily. It is one of my favourite social media platforms, but it is an augmentation to my blog and a place where I can share quick short ideas with like minds. As much as I like twitter it has no where near the quality of the blog sphere and there is only so much you can express with 140 characters.

Where is the fun and satisfaction in posting to a select few on a social media platform?

I think where Boutin really misses the point is what fun is writing stuff that hardly anyone will see? A lot of bloggers write because we want too, not because we want to be the next Engadget. He further goes on to point out that other prominent figures are quitting the blog scene, so I guess that means we all should too; total rubbish.

Impersonal is correct: Scroll down Technorati’s list of the top 100 blogs and you’ll find personal sites have been shoved aside by professional ones. Most are essentially online magazines: The Huffington Post. Engadget. TreeHugger. A stand-alone commentator can’t keep up with a team of pro writers cranking out up to 30 posts a day.

He’s right, an independent blogger probably can’t crank out 30 posts a day, but who cares, that’s not the point. Are you looking for quantity or quality. I follow many of the large tech blogs like Engadget, and they are fantastic resources, but they are also open flood gates. Smaller Bloggers like me sift through the deluge of information and break it down into smaller more focused bits of information. There is also a lot of specialization and niche topics in many smaller blogs that you just won’t find with the larger ones.

As for how personal a blog is, that’s really up to the writer. I’m not writing my blog for the personal interaction, that’s what social media platforms are for. I’m writing it because I like sharing issues I have solved with other people, expressing myself and occasionally ranting about an issue I feel passionate about. The social aspects which do come from blogging are just an added bonus, and I have met some cool fellow Bloggers during the life of my blog.

If we applied this negative attitude to everything then we wouldn’t have independent music, or small startup companies, because really, we are just being shoved aside by the big labels and corporations so why bother?

It always comes back to the dark corner of the web

That said, your blog will still draw the Net’s lowest form of life: The insult commenter. Pour your heart out in a post, and some anonymous troll named r0rschach or foohack is sure to scribble beneath it, “Lame.

First I will say that I have received far more positive posts than negative. Everything from thank you to contributing more information to a topic. This is typical of big media villianizing the Internet in general. Everyone is evil, everyone is bad, there’s nothing good on the Internet. This kind of thinking is typical of media outlets like CNN and it’s just not true. There is so much quality on the Internet, and the good far outweighs the bad. The only reason spam can flood our inboxes is because it’s automated. When it comes to real people posting on the web, there is no other testament to the good outweighing the bad than Wikipedia. If the trolls really outnumbered us, we would not have the great many resources that exist online today.

The little guy has a voice

Right now my blog is averaging 200 unique hits per day and growing; that is far more than I could do on any of the services Boutin mentioned. I love writing, and watching my traffic slowly grow has been very rewarding. I don’t think the Blogsphere is going anywhere, and I think mainstream media and big business are afraid of independent voices. If you live in Canada and followed the Rogers and iPhone pricing schemes you would know first hand that blogs have an effect, especially thousands of Bloggers uniting all chanting the same thing. We can create change, and it’s happening every day.

Keep writing and don’t let anyone tell you to stop, especially Big Media

Boutin has missed the real point of blogging. It’s not about beating the huge corporate blogs (although being the next super blog is always a nice thought), it’s about being an independent voice. It’s about saying a product sucks, or talking about what the mainstream isn’t talking about. I have several posts that appear on the front page of Google when searching, so the little guy can still be found.

Never let Big Media scare you away, mainstream television news is still talking about the horrors of the Internet daily. The web is a great place where everyone can express themselves. If Twitter or Facebook are your thing, than use those too, but if you like Blogging, never stop writing.

Why Flash sucks — most of the time

Flash usually sucks because it is used in places where it’s not needed, breaks usability basics, or tries to deliver a rich media experience to people who don’t care. Lets face it, most of us are not coming to a site to see Flash animations, flashy enter pages and load dialogues; sure this was impressive 5 to 8 years ago, but most of us are over it now. I remember animating menus, playing with collision and elastic algorithms I found on the web and drooling at the newest Flash in the Can awards which are still pretty impressive. It was really cool and fun, and there are a lot of places where this will still fly if done right, your website may not be one of them.

Flash sites have to be better than awesome

The only flash sites that will ever hold my attention are ones that are unbelievably clever or awesome on a huge scale, and even if you qualify in both these areas you have to get your users to stay at your site long enough for it to load and initialize. The point I’m trying to make is if you are going to use flash, you better have a good reason for it, you need to be a fantastic flash guru, and it better be freaken phenomenal.

Information, content is still king on the web

People like cool screen savers, even little visual touchy feely apps are getting very popular on handhelds like the iPhone, but when people are searching the web they usually are looking for information. That information is best found in plain text. Google and most of the other search engines index plain text on your site, if it’s content people want they will most likely find your site via Google or some other search engine. Yes Adobe is working hard with search engine providers to make Flash more search engine friendly, but we are not there yet, and even when we are a lot of my reasons for not using flash will still be valid.

I remember several years ago people were talking about high speed bandwidth and how we would be able to use as many graphics and as much Flash and rich multimedia as we craved. Yet here we are and the web is more text heavy than ever. RSS feeds are gaining popularity daily, and in some cases you are seeing less graphics, not more. Why? Because content is king, and so is searchability. There is a whole package to developing a fantastic website and Geeks In Training has a great article called Developing websites — structure, content, and design that delves into this deeper, but we are going to limit ourselves to Flash here.

Flash has changed the web

There is no doubt, Flash has changed the web, and mostly for the better, but it has done it in ways no one could have imagined several years ago. It hasn’t changed how we navigate the web, it hasn’t changed the fundamental structure, or usability, although I would say it has hurt usability when used poorly.

Flash has obviously changed how most of us view video online. It’s also added rich content in what I like to call Flash modules. I define a Flash module as a tiny piece of a website that is Flash based. This could be an advertisement, a video, interactive graphs, a game or application. This is where flash really shines.

Where Flash fails

Full on Flash websites are where things get ugly. I remember visiting a then famous Flash site called Gabocorp in 1997. It blew us all away, us being any web designer / student I knew at the time. I have found an archived version of the original Gabocorp website. I remember this thing took forever to load on my Pentium 133 and chugged and stuttered away as I watched the animation in awe at 3 frames per second. It even held this bold statement:

You are about to enter a new era in website design. This is the new standard for all things to come.

Welcome to the new Gabocorp.

Go

What we have here is a splash / enter page and a Go button, both considered bad by today’s standards. I don’t want to bash this site though, at the time it was jaw dropping and completely innovative, but the web was mostly geeks back then and there was nothing on this site that came anywhere close to what we see today, it was just cool because it was a new technology used in a way we had never seen before and for no other reason. The time when things are cool just because they are Flash is long gone. Yes people are still doing amazing things with it, but for mainstream sites Flash is usually an add-on component.

This brings me back to Flash portfolios, when we look for new web developers and designers we want to see great usability, standards compliant code and an engaging site that we don’t have to sit there and figure out. As soon as you have to explain what a button does (click the cool little animated thingy and drag it to the box) you fail. You have lost me and you have definitely lost Google and the majority of search engines indexing your site. You’ve probably lost all of your less tech savvy users too.

So let get back to basics, the web is not TV, although we may watch TV on it, we expect the containing site to be usable in all the ways that we are used to. I think the topic of usability can scare off some designers, but usability in some ways is easier than design. Design is an art and it’s subjective. Having your site practice good SEO and accessibility for everyone is not subjective, it either works or does not, and you can measure this through your website analytics software.

Usability, usability, usability

Right now Flash sites do not work on iPhones and other handheld devices, if a fraction of your visitors could be coming from these devices than you effectively have zero usability on these platforms. When these devices do support flash there will still be major limitations like file size, download speeds, tiny screens and limited processor power to deal with. Good usability is also even more important on a small screen, so use Flash wisely; impress without sending all your search engine traffic away and give people the great content, applications and experience they came for. Make that experience last past the load screen.

Lately E Ink has been getting a lot of press. Earlier this month Esquire showed off the worlds first ever E Ink magazine cover. This brought visions of the science fiction film Minority Report to many people and an environmental disaster in the making for others. There are also many e-readers being released with iRex to introduce a 10.2-inch E Ink reader next week. Although I love the technology, I think the current vision of E Ink by the press and blog sphere is somewhat flawed.

Minority report animated paper

Every where I read about E Ink I hear things like “Will this replace paper” and “This will allow for a more print / newspaper friendly layout”. These are all flawed concepts to me. It reminds me of other great technological advances like “Will the TV replace radio” or “Will the Internet replace TV”. Yes some of these technologies merged and can be used over the Internet, but no technology replaced the other. We still listen to the radio, whether it is satalite radio in our car, FM, or streaming radio, and we all certainly still watch television. We also use the web in the way it was envisioned also.

The grid

My art teacher would shoot me for saying this as she felt that the failure to adhere to a print like grid was a major failing of the web. I on the other hand believe it is a major advancement, I really hope that we don’t resort back to old fashioned print style layouts. This was done on paper because there was a finite amount of space and paper costs money so you have to use it all up. Writing content to fit little boxes isn’t fun. Anyone who has had to create print style web layouts knows this, it usually doesn’t work. The wonderful thing about a digital display is that you have a liquid medium and unlimited paper. The text can be as long as you want and flow around images and boxes according to font size or display type. With CSS you even have the power to display the content in different formats, independent from the layout. This allows web designers to support many different platforms, and make sites usable for the visually impaired.

If e-readers do take off, and I think they will, I really hope that print changes to be more like the web, and not the other way around, it’s a far more flexable approch. It’s also only a matter of time before touch sensitive E Ink displays will be the norm, why lock it down to old fashioned design principals. Will I even have to click/touch my way to page 5 to continue the story? Maybe we can even add E Mess to the reader itself so that when you hold your reader for a long time your fingers become all soiled just like with a real newspaper.

A land fill nightmare, why?

While everyone was praising Esquire for bringing magazines into the 21st century did anyone stop to think of the environmental implications? This is a little more serious than my first grip; why do we have this disposable attitude towards everything? Here we have this fantastic reusable technology, but we want to turn it into a throw away medium? Don’t we have enough garbage clogging the landfills already. I know we can recycle newspapers, but I’m not so sure about E Ink, and recycling costs a lot of money. Why bother when we can just re-use the technology. Once everyone has an e-reader they can just wirelessly download their favourite newspaper.

If papers had to stay old fashioned with their multi-columned mess, companies could even deliver content in multiple formats. Lets hope that every time we read a newpaper or magazine in the future we are not dropping batteries by the boatload into our garbage cans as we step off the subway for work. It should be about reusability, not a throw away technology.

Cost

The cost is the last major hurdle. Right now really popular readers cost anywhere from 300 to 1000 dollars. This is just too much for the average Joe. The new 10.2 inch iRex reader to be released next week clocks in at $850 for the high end model with Wi-fi, Bluetooth and 3G. Couple that with the fact that a lot of people don’t even get through a book a month and the cost of buying physical books is still a lot cheaper.

E-readers will have to get a lot more competitive or offer features that we can’t live without. Right now the average smartphone / laptop can do everything an e-reader can do, and in colour. The only real advantages an e-reader has is a screen that can be seen in bright daylight and long battery life, not enough for a lot of people, but if you read lots of books it can be worth it. I think back to breaking my back with college and university books; an e-reader would have come in handy back then.

The future is electronic paper

That said I do think the future is in electronic paper. Like any technology it is still in its infancy. Some day in the near future refresh rates which are pretty slow right now will be faster and the technology will be available in colour as E Ink has already demonstrated. I could even see monitors switching to this technology someday.

A 404 error message means that the server was successfully contacted but could not retrieve the file requested by the client (browser). This can happen because of an outdated or expired link, a linking error on the site itself, or a user typo.

Dealing with a 404 the wrong way

I can’t believe how many sites throw up cryptic nonsense that the vast majority of people will have no clue as to what it means and even for the people who do, why do we need all the gritty details? One of the worst things you can do is post a 404 Error and call it a day. What the heck does that mean? For the majority of us, (even the ones who know what a 404 is) that is when we close the tab or return to Google to find what we need.

Here is an example of a horrible 404 I saw recently on a large well known corporate site.

This error message is wrong on so many levels that I don’t know where to begin. It’s so comical that it was the inspiration for this article. Why does this 404 suck?

1. It breaks out of the site losing all navigation.
2. Not one single link back to the actual site.
3. Main title is Error 404–Not Found (useless).
4. Spews out some silly nonsense about status codes and we all know that 410 SHOULD be used if blah blah blah.
5. Absolutely way too much detail that no one other than the developer needs to know and they should be able to get this from their logs.
6. It’s super ugly and scary.
7. I’m sure there’s more bad things to say about this message.

Other mistakes to avoid

Another bad thing to do is pop up a 404 message telling the user that the page was not found and then asking them to email the web master telling them about the error. Don’t you think your visitors and clients have better things to do with their time then testing your site and reporting back to you when it blows up in their face? You have log files, look for your own 404 errors and if you see a lot cropping up either find the error or redirect that traffic somewhere useful.

Good 404 practices

Don’t break the user out of your site. Load the 404 error message into the body of the page leaving all of your site navigation as it would be on any other page. This gives the user the option of quickly returning to other parts of your site instead of leaving it for good. Don’t make your visitors work harder than they have too. Offer up an alternative link or even a search box.

Have a good message and if you really want to have 404 in your message make it the smallest text on the screen, not the largest as so many 404′s do and don’t make it the first thing that greets your visitor. The wording should vary depending on your demographic and target audience. Some sites use a funny 404 messages, I use the one below on this blog.

Oh No! Something has gone horribly wrong!

This page has probably been the victim of foul play at some point — the Internet can be a rough place sometimes. We will miss this page, but it is time to move on. Try visiting the leader of these pages, it may know what to do next.

I love funny 404 messages, they grab your attention and make you forget the fact that you can’t find what you came for and just maybe you will continue browsing the site. Have fun with your error messages and always give the user a way of getting back into the site, even if it’s just a link to the main page.

If you would like to see my real 404 message type some junk after www.ianhoar.com/. I have not linked a broken page directly because I don’t want 404 errors showing up in my logs and stats unless they are real.

Feel free to post any good or bad 404 messages you have found in the comments section.

The industry now has an unprecedented opportunity — thanks to the government’s Advanced Wireless Services policy and auction — to develop products and services that offer choice to Canadian consumers and businesses. We think consumers will be the big winners in this auction.

The big winner of the action is a company called Globalive. They will most likely be a national carrier with the possibility of one other national carrier. We will also have a few regional carriers too. The CEO of Globalive told CBC News,

Our current customers are enjoying simple offerings that have no surprise fees. We’re going to continue that track record in the wireless world, Canadians are unhappy about the costs, the complexity of the billing. I can speak for myself as a consumer. I’m confused by my bill.

It’s time for change

The big three have welded monopolistic control of the Canadian wireless market for far too long. Our prices are not competitive with the rest of the world and the services we get compared to other countries are also deemed to be of poor quality by many. This may be the kick that the big three need. Wake up and give Canadians what they want. The great news is that some of the new providers may be up and running as soon as the first quarter of next year. They are also expected to offer GSM technology.

Rogers, Telus and Bell also did a lot of bidding with Rogers being the biggest bidder at almost one billion. I didn’t quite understand why they were able to bid if the point was to make a more competitive landscape. The new players are also going to have to negotiate for rights to transmission towers which are usually owned by the big three. This is also being regulated by the government, so lets hope in the end it will be fair and we see some competitive pricing, otherwise this will all be for nothing.

Competition drives innovation

In other industries especially electronics competition drives not only lower prices, but quality and innovation. You have companies that will compete by offering cheaper prices and other companies that will compete by offering higher quality or new and innovative technology. With the Canadian wireless sector none of this holds true. The big three do not engage in price wars, the only thing they offer up are confusing pricing schemes, convoluted websites with horrible usability and a lack of a coherent product offering. We are also usually years behind other countries. Look at the hugely popular iPhone which is a high demand product and only appeared officially in Canada a few weeks ago and only from one company with hefty prices. This is after being on the market for over a year in other parts of the world.

Actions speak louder than words

Now is the time for everyone to sit back and take a mental note of just how much these big three have used confusion to over charge us. It may be time to jump ship and punish past bad deeds with your wallet. Things may not change and that will be very disappointing, but the action went better than anyone planned and their are more players than expected. This leads me to hope that competition will be a factor in the future of Canadian wireless offerings. I know that if one of the new players does offer good prices, even if Rogers, Telus or Bell offer copy cat pricing at the last minute, I will still sign up with a new carrier out of principal.

More on the spectrum auction:

• CBC News: Cellphone market poised for shakeup as spectrum auction ends
• Globe & Mail: Telco newcomers poised to storm market

The other great news is that if you have been posting to a lot of blogs with the same email address and they have Gravatar functionality set up, all your old posts will be updated with your personal Gravatar when you sign up for one. Also, if you have posted to a blog without Gravatars and they add the that functionality in the future, your old posts will then show up with your Gravatar.

How does it work?

Gravatars work by passing a few parameters through the URL to the Gravatar website. You tell the site what you are looking for, send an encrypted email address via MD5 hash along with size, default icon location and border colour. Some of these parameters are optional.

Example Gravatar URL

http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=b205b058e095597f982a65a1134a89cc&rating=R&size=40&default=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ianhoar.com%2Fwp-content%2Fthemes%2Fian_v2%2Fimages%2Fgravatar_default.gif

For people wanting to add Gravatars to their own blog it’s extremely easy with WordPress. There are several ways you can do this. WordPress 2.5 has Gravatar functionality built in by default. You can find out more about this on the WordPress Codex. There are also several plugins that will accomplish this including the official Gravatar WordPress plugin, which is the method I prefer over the built in WordPress functionality and will discuss below.

The reason I like the Gravatar plugin over the default WordPress support is that I find it more flexible. I can use my own image html and use my own CSS class and alt tag right in the HTML theme template. The WordPress Gravatar support generates the image HTML for you automatically and you can use the included class to style it.

Using the WordPress Gravatar Plugin

<img src="<?php gravatar("R", 40, "http://www.ianhoar.com/gravatar_default.gif"); ?>" class="gravatar" alt="<?php comment_author(); ?>" />

• The first parameter in the gravatar() function sets your rating. Gravatars have G, PG, R and X ratings. This setting allows you to set what kind of avatars you want to allow on your blog.
• The second parameter sets your size. In this case 40 x 40 pixels (the default is 80 x 80 pixels).
• The third sets the path for a default avatar if a user does not have a Gravatar.
• There is also a fourth parameter that allows you to set a 1px colour boarder. I prefer to use a custom class for this within the image markup itself.
• I’ve also set the users name as the alt tag for each Gravatar with the comment_author() function.

What if I don’t have WordPress?

You are probably in luck, the Gravatar website has detailed instructions on the Gravatar URL and other plugins for several blogging platforms. You can find a complete list in the Gravatar implementor’s guide.

Scroll down to see my first comment on this article and you will see my Gravatar in action. If you are a blog reader and you post a lot, why not get your own Gravatar today? Feel free to come back here and try it out in the comments section below.

So many advertisements fail to engage a user, you finally get someone to click your ad only to lose them five seconds later. The method MeeMix has used is to give you a taste of the application and then ask you to sign up after you have invested time and effort into the site. A list apart has a great article on this technique called Sign Up Forms Must Die.

The great thing about MeeMix is how the site finds music you like. This is supposedly what separates it from other online music sites, but to be honest I haven’t really tried many other services.

I still haven’t fully figured out all the ins and outs of MeeMix, but since I’ve started using it I now have some Mee Stations on the left hand side. These play different genres of music. Below that I have some little icons that allow me to get information on the song, share what I’m listening to with friends and embed the tunes on a web site. Then there is the Mood Control. This is one of the coolest features I think. There are three sliders, Surprize me, Pulse, and Atmosphere.

• The Surprize me slider will give you different music then you may be expecting from your current settings or favourites. As you slide it further, the music will become more and more different from what you are currently listening too.
• Pulse is how fast or heavy the music is, when slide to the left it’s more relaxing, while the right is more party time as they put it.
• Atmosphere sets how light or dark the music is. Dark = sweet and melancholy, while light = cheerful weather.

MeeMix has a main window the album cover of what you are currently listening too with other options. You can skip back over the list of songs you have listened to also. You can also watch video here which is taken from YouTube. Game mode takes random songs and gives you 30 seconds to guess what it is.

You will find more controls at the bottom of the main window. The most important one is do you like this tune? If you slide the slider all the way to the Not section it will automatically skip that song. Slide it all the way to the Hot section and it will remember that you like this song. Supposedly as you do this MeeMix will learn the kind of music you like and don’t like.

Based on sophisticated statistical analyses, we have built an algorithm that mimics the way neurons work in the human brain, when it comes to preference and taste.

The only real flaw I can see with MeeMix that can be annoying and confusing is its use of pop-ups. First you must allow the popup to be initiated, at least in Firefox and then it will open in another tab. This behaviour will vary depending on the browser. You will then find yourself clicking on things in the player that might target the other window. At first I thought some links and buttons just weren’t working, but they were actually targeting my other window. I hope they will refine the interface with time and leave the pop-ups behind. For the most part you only really need the player window open anyway.

MeeMix also has links to some of the major social media sites out there, so you can share and post to your friends. So far I like the site, and in a web with a new social site every week that’s saying a lot. Will it catch on or even hold my attention? Will it hold yours? Only time will tell.