Hard packed fun: sIFR updated
I have been doing a little testing of the sIFR with Jaws to see if I could catch a bug that has been reported. The way it was reported is that Jaws says the headline twice – reading the text, then reading the flash replacement – but from what I read of the report it was reading the font type as well. Really annoying when you think about it.
So off I go to the ATC downstairs in the ODP in NH (Acronyms rule).. and guess what, it reads it twice but in different context and it does it on non-sIFR pages too. “That is silly” you say? Yup it is.
I need to look into in some more because 20 min on Jaws really isn’t ‘extensive’ testing now is it? Shall update this post when I do. UPDATE: I created two pages, one sIFR one not but identically simple in the content otherwise. No repeating of headers even with links. That was on win98, IE 6, and JAWS 5.0 in demo mode. For my next trick I am going to make a little more complex page and see… if I get the time.
The real reason for this post was a couple accessibility related links:
- Fangs: The Firefox Screen Reader Emulater Extension – wow, Firefox is becoming an essential tool for web developers.
- Rounded corners fun or you could get them made for you
- 3-column CSS holygrail? – perhaps.
..and why ‘hard packed?’ Well apparently you can’t call ice on a ski hill ice.. you have to call it ‘hard packed.’ Since it’s icey.. hrm.. hard packed around campus today I thought it was appropriate.
A note for the day: update phpBB and KISS’n a template
Two things: If you have phpBB installed on campus somewhere please update it to the most recent release. There are issues. Second is something that I am going to echo from an article on Digital Web that I noticed today, Keep it simple, stupid! On that note, since Google has already spewed it across it’s search of UW pages.. I would like to introduce a beta of a template for UW web pages. It is still being refined so no UWweb-creators email as yet. But once Web Steering gives it the ok, expect to hear more about it. So take a look at comment away.
CSS and breaking things
Two things have dominated this week: swearing at IE and CSS. As for IE, it is comical that MS folks think fixing it will break the web. Now IE caused me no end of grief but that is cause I didn’t check out the CSS crib sheet. What was getting me down was a silly little whitespace and unordered lists thing that IE does. Argh.
Oh and are you a developer, user, or consumer? Why aren’t you all?
About this blog
It has been a while testing out and developing this experiment. This site has evolved slightly but why does it exist?
My documentation
I have an RSS reader, I have 56 subscriptions as of today, but I have no place to collect the links. There are a couple sites online that would provide that service but I think it is important to share with the campus community in the context of campus university web development.
Plus this is a decent platform to share ideas and allow for feedback. If any of my ramblings inspire just one person, great.
Education
Universities are a place of learning. The majority of my day is spent reading stuff about web stuff so why not try and share my take with those who don’t have time? If you disagree there is a place to comment and have your opinion recorded. In fact I encourage disagreement… there is no way I am right all the time.
Through using this technology I learn more about PHP and the applications created for specific purposes. In this case it’s blogging software. It is my hope to open this up to a larger group of writers in the future.
Use of space
UW’s home of web development resources is web.uwaterloo.ca and for some time it was a place to store ideas. UW development page should be dedicated to tutorials, howto’s, and standards. This site is dedicated to collaboration, information sharing, and posting the more abstract issues surrounding web development at a university. Who knows, it could end up in a book some day 
I hope you enjoy this blog and participate in discussion. For the nit-pickers: this site does use the standard XHTML layout being proposed and utilizes a custom CSS to get this look. No real tricks as yet.
WatITis round-up
I have been blessed this term – two conferences! Although the second is in raining Waterloo and about 2min from my office but meh (first being MAX ). Today’s conference is the second annual Wat-IT-is conference put on by the campus IT community for the campus IT community. It is a great little get together for the day, a real chance to put faces with email adresses. Here is my take on things.
Keynote
Since I had two presentations it is hard for me to get a real take on what people got from this. But I did attend the keynote. The keynote featured both the VP Academic Provost (Amit Chakma) and the Provost of IST (Alan George). Amit was a great opener, thanked the IT folks on campus, and added a little humour for Alan to bring in the details.
Alan’s keynote focused largely on the web services but he touched on a number of important IT accomplishments this past year. One that stands out is the School of Architecture. It is located about 30min south in Cambridge yet they have a 1GB connection to campus and are hooked in to the UW phone system. The CAT6 cable put in that building is amazing as well. Overall a huge accomplishment considering it has been some time since IST has had to set up a building that wasn’t on campus.
On web things the Web Steering and Operations team’s got a mention as did the urge to move to more accessible design. Angel got a couple slides as well and it really looks like things are moving. I have likely forgotten some things so if you were at WatITis fill in the details below.
Presentations
The day had a good mix of projects. I can really only speak about my two presentations: LAMP Services and AIF online. I will say they went well, no one fell completely asleep. The PDF’s and PPT files are going to be available so check them for details but I will say the underlying theme of both is ‘effective and successful collaboration.’
I did go to the presentation on internet kiosks. What fun it is supporting a computer that is open to the public abuse that is afflicted upon the poor PC. There are some interesting things being done by Food Services, IST, and the Library. But not ‘web related’ so I will keep on topic.
Lunch
The most important part of a conference, lunch. What a great job by Food Services to provide the hungry IT folks with excellent food. Of course what is more important than food to an IT person? Coffee.. that was good too.
Overall
Great job done by the organization committee. Everything was on time and interesting. My one suggestion for next year would be maybe this should be two days – one day presentations, one day workshops. Looking forward to next year.. hopefully I won’t have 3 presentations
