Darice de Cuba

One would think that in the 21 century people have learned that everything changes through the years. Technology gets better, data handling is becoming more and more important. Hospitals, schools, government, even your auto repair shop is storing all our info in computers. In 10 years archives store room will be replaced by data centers that keeps all our records. And still some people are asking ëwhy web standard?í Just like it is annoying to have a pass for the bank, one for the video store, one for airmiles, one for the credit card, one for discount, one for id, etc it is annoying to have to have date for each output device. With web standard we have one date for all output devices. So here follows my remark on the article World Wide Web is not enough by David Emberton.

Web standards. Theyíre big, dumb, and they donít work. Yet, they persist. Why?

Is there a proof web standards doesnít work? Are they really big? I thought our pages loaded faster because we got rid of all the tables and font tags. And that people where able to view our websites on a regular browser, their PDA, on IE, and on a GPRS enabled phone.

CSS are public, free and future-proof. Sounds great until you realise that: a) you need a degree to understand them; b) Microsoft doesnít care about them; and c) they suck. Whatís more, CSS have been promoted as ìthe futureî since the mid-90s, and by now the only thing keeping them alive is a steady stream of guilt and the occasional Movable Type installation.

a)Well if you need a degree to understand CSS behold what is happening to the human IQ evolution. We might end living in caves again. b) Why does Microsoft has to care about them, we have freedom of choice and yes unbelievable but true, there is another world full of software developers outside the Microsoft world. And better yet, they are cheaper and some even open source. c) Last time I looked Movable Type was getting less and less in the minority of CSS driven website. Wasnít ESPN last that switched to a CSS based design, and they are not really a Movable Type website huh?

Is it really so important to make our Web sites phone-compatible? PDA-compatible? Safe for the flat-footed?

Last time I checked hell yes it is important, with every new generation phone being able to surf the internet one would think everyone with a website want it to be as much accessible as possible. Unless you decide only people on a Windows computer, with fast internet and IE browser are able to view your website. If you as web designer/developer tell your client sorry sir/miss we only code for Windows/broadband/IE/and not visually impaired people, I wonder how much client will be left after some time.

Just remember when Pythagoras said that the earth is round and everyone thought he was crazy. It took 150 years for people to believe it was actually round, thanks to Aristotle. I hope it wonít take 150 years for people to get that standards are neccesary in a data driven world.

Last Friday there was a nice summer like weather, around 20 degree celsius with a nice sun. Around noon we went to Scheveningen in The Hague. The Hague is to Netherlands what Washington D.C. is to the U.S. Scheveningen lies by the beach on the west coast, it is a very popular place. I would never go there to play on the beach or swim, the water is dark brown and cold. I’m spoiled concerning to beaches, until now Aruba’s beach is still the best that I’ve been to.

But that afternoon we walked on the boulevard taking the scenery, and just enjoying the warm day. We paid 1 euro to walk on the boardwalk to have a better view. I took my camera with me but only took a couple of photo’s. I take better photo’s when I’m alone, so next time better. I used a filter on these photo’s to get a lomo effect.

It is amazing how many people laid on the beach to get some sun. It was warm but not that warm. For my feeling it has to be 30 degrees before I go sun bathing. But that’s the difference between Europe and the Caribbean. Still Scheveningen is one of the best places to spent time during nice weather. In the summer there are a lot of activities on the boardwalk, even some firework shows.

I have to start taking more photo’s, since back in Holland I’ve neglected my camera and left it to gather dust. Next time that there is some good weather I’ll go to the park and outlive myself with my camera.