big dark media » webstandards

Pros and Cons of Unobtrusive JavaScript?

Scott — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:56:57 +0000

Web developer Steve Stringer contacted me last week, and was interested in a point-counterpoint discussion on the merits of unobtrusive JavaScript (or lack thereof), and both myself and author Dave McFarland (Dreamweaver MX – The Missing Manual) took him up on it. You can read the results at Steve’s StringFoo blog here – and by all means please jump into the comments if you have strong opinions one way or the other. (I’ll refrain from further commentary here, as I pretty much summed my opinions up in the article, and would prefer to channel followup conversation to the article itself, too.)

Thanks for the opportunity, Steve!

Update: Sorry for the broken link, folks- fixed now. Thanks for the heads-up!

WaSP Bike-Hugger BBQ at SXSW 08

Scott — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:59:54 +0000

Headed to SXSW ‘08 this year? I know I am, and I generally try to hit any/all WaSP-related events open to the public as I’m a bit obsessed with standards, personally speaking. Fortunately this year there’s more than just the annual meeting, the Web Standards Project are also hosting a barbecue event right across from the main event hall.

Because there’s so much going on in the world wide web today (IE8, HTML5), this year we’re doing an additional event: the Bike Hugger Beer & BBQ. It’s open to all SXSW interactive attendees, with free beer, free food and free (?) WaSP members present to discuss the state of the browser landscape.

This will be similar to the WaSP Cafés which, by the by, have been held in Tokyo, France and Spain over the last year, with 2008’s first WaSP Café (held in Paris) having a grand total of 70 people attending!

The core topic for the WaSP discussion will be the IE8 versioning proposal, which clearly has been a hot topic since the very moment it was announced on A List Apart. All the WaSPs that will be at SXSW will be present, so we hope to see you there as well!

More details on the event can be found on the WaSP site, of course.

Only downer for me is that I won’t be flying in until Saturday afternoon due to another speaking gig back in the Bay Area, but I’ll be trying to go straight here from the airport. Hope to see you there!

24ways.org Launches (Again)

Scott — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:59:33 +0000

WaSP group lead Drew McLellan has launched his annual Yule calendar of tasty web development tips as of this evening – 24ways.org- and kicked it off with a brilliant tip for supporting transparent PNG files in IE 6. Bookmark the main 24ways.org homepage for a new tip each day until Christmas. I must admit, 24ways is becoming one of my favorite annual holiday web-haunts, much more fun (and useful) than your run of the mill Yule calendar. Kudos, Drew!