Sketone’s a seriously cool toy designer and we helped him make a new Web site. Check it out at http://sket-one.com.

We also completed a project at the end of 2007 for America’s Second Harvest. We worked with their stellar Web team to create a mini-app that delivers child food insecurity statistics for the United States. Check it out, and give if you can, it’s one of those truly worthy causes.

A current project has us doing quite a bit of 3rd party service integration and we noticed a pattern among the service providers. None of them seem to offer the ability to use a remote CSS file to change the presentation of their markup.

Noozletr.com

Take, for example, an email newsletter service. We’ll call them Noozletr.com. They have a really easy to use and slick system that includes a remote sign-up page that you can link to from your site. Now, the simple solution would be to allow the client to specify a URL to a remote CSS file (on the actual client’s site) to use to style the sign-up page. That way we could simply embed the sign-up page in our site using an IFrame, match the styles to the site in the linked CSS file and be done with it.

We don’t really care that much what their HTML looks like, as long as it’s relatively semantic and we can style it to meet our client’s needs, it’s not our problem. Instead of offering this very easy solution Noozletr.com has gone to the trouble of creating a fairly complex Web Service API. Granted this API allows you to do some pretty fancy stuff…stuff we don’t need.

Now, instead of taking a couple of minutes using the CSS+IFrame approach, we have to spend hours implementing and debugging the complex Web Service version.

It should also be mentioned there is a setup fee for Noozletr.com to “turn on” the Web Service API for you. Our client is paying for the service already and they let you style the heck out of the actual newsletter, all we want to do is style the sign-up form. Should that really cost more?

Ogglez.net

An enormous search engine company — let’s call them Ogglez.net — does virtually the same thing with their cooperative search service. Instead of just letting you use your own CSS file they let you change the hex colors of some (like 6) of the elements on the page.

Now, we understand they have some branding they wish to retain on the results pages that you could potentially hide with CSS, that’s fine. Our problem is that the only alternative is to pay (yearly and somewhat dearly) for the ability to get raw XML results of searches. Again, having access to raw XML feeds would allow you to do all kinds of fancy stuff…that we don’t need.

It would be nice if they would offer the simple CSS-based solution along with the fancy-pants XML hocus-pocus. We’d still pay for it because we want our client’s sites to retain some kind of consistency in their design and presentation. We just want options. The simpler the better.

The Rest

We have plenty of other examples but they all boil down to the same thing: just let us use our own CSS. It seems so silly and simple. Are we all just dear in the headlights of the Web 2.0 party van? Most of these service providers could probably implement this in a matter of minutes.

We understand that using CSS in this manner might seem rather pedestrian in the shiny, reflective Web 2.0 world we live in and it just doesn’t sound as cool as marketing some kind of all-singing, all-dancing, whiz-bang, AJAX blasting Web Service. By all means, go crazy with your customization options but please, please offer a simple low-tech solution that gets the job done. You don’t have to market it, just tell us about it…secretly if you wish.

The idea doesn’t have to stop at CSS files either. Javascript files would be very useful as well. The combination of external CSS and Javascript would be an extremely flexible and simple solution to a myriad of needs.

This is all kind of like ordering a very simple birthday cake but instead of using a trusty frosting bag the baker builds a complex Rube Goldberg like apparatus controlled by programmable robots that he then makes you use to decorate your cake. Oh, and you’ll pay for the opportunity — no problem — because it’s so much cooler.

To the service providers already offering these kinds of solutions: thank you very, very much (call me).

The project involved a major overhaul of the SecondHarvest.org home page and some minor changes to the interior pages to bring them in line with the new look-and-feel of the home page. They also requested a new, more user friendly, back-end CMS interface for managing the home page content which we implemented using the OpenCms structured XML content mechanisms.

America’s Second Harvest supplied the designs and layouts and we handled the CSS/HTML and OpenCms back-end development.

It was a joy working with the team at America’s Second Harvest and a great pleasure to be involved in such an awesome cause.

Check out the site at http://www.secondharvest.org and don’t be shy, get involved!

The site was built to provide retailers and consumers with access to the entire River North product catalog, information about the various brands they carry, general information about River North, company news, a schedule of sponsored events, and more.

From the River North Sales & Service Web site:

River North Sales & Service LLC was formed on December 1, 1998. We are committed to a culture of quality in our people, products and systems, providing unmatched customer service and delivery of the freshest product available to the retailers we supply. As an exclusive Anheuser-Busch wholesaler, River North Sales & Service LLC is part of the foremost malt beverage production and distribution system in the world.

You can find the site here: http://www.budchicago.com and read more about the project in our portfolio.

Dirk Wales, an artist and author, has worked with us to design a site to promote his line of hand-crafted greeting cards. More art than greeting card these gorgeous works of collage, assemblage, and photography represent a lifetime of wonder, travel, and discovery.

From the PrivatPoste Web site:

My name is Dirk Wales. I am an artist who loves to make greeting cards. I work in collage and assemblage, and it’s great fun. I have an obsession with stamps so many of my cards are using foreign stamps and paper paraphernalia. Plus photography, which is what the Time cards are about. Hope you enjoy my work.

We love Dirk’s work and hope you do too.

See it for yourself here: http://www.privatposte.com and read more about the project in our portfolio.

Pushing IE7 out as an automatic, high priority update should all but guarantee a quick roll-out — much of which should occur almost overnight. Marking it as a “high priority” update (undoubtedly due to IE6’s well publicized security hole bonanza) should also help push corporate IT departments to deploy the update to their desktops and workstations as quickly as possible.

As amazing as it might sound this will be the first major update to IE since it’s release in late 2001.

What’s All The Hubbub?

What’s so great about IE7? Well, aside from the incredibly important security fixes, IE7 adds support for the latest web standards as well is three or four important features (in our opinion at least):

• True PNG graphics support with full alpha channel transparency.
• Built in RSS feed handling capabilities.
• Improved CSS level 2 support (and fixes to erroneous CSS handling in general).
• The XMLHTTP object (think AJAX) is now a native scripting object which makes it available even if users have ActiveX support disabled, effectively decoupling IE’s ActiveX requirement for AJAX interfaces. This should have never been an ActiveX control to begin with.

That’s pretty much it.

The MSDN site lists a few other things but they aren’t of any real relevance (tabbed browsing is cool but not nearly as important as proper CSS2 support). All of this could have been addressed with a point release 2 years ago, but I digress.

IE6’s PNG support (or lack thereof) has been the bane of many a web developer’s existence. Having true alpha transparency support will create some really interesting design opportunities. Soft layered shadows and composited/layered transparent images without cludgy ActiveX hacks…finally! The same goes for CSS level 2 support. It was a long time coming.

It’s our opinion that the built-in RSS support cannot be underestimated. Like it or not, RSS is extremely handy for keeping up with your favorite websites, news, and blogs but it still has its feet firmly planted in the geek and blogging realm. Adding RSS support to IE7 should certainly help nudge it into the Web’s mainstream user base.

Intended Consequences

It’s important to realize that all of these “great” things are really just great because of IE’s ubiquity. Mozilla, Firefox, and Opera have had all these features for years now along with timely and relevant security updates and additions to functionality (functionality we didn’t have to wait 5 years for). It’s pretty obvious that IE’s ubiquity can be traced back to the fact that it’s bundled with every Windows operating system under the sun, making IE’s dominance something that will most likely continue well into the future. Love it or hate it.

Not So Fast!

There have been a couple of articles recently about the pitfalls of pushing a browser out so fast and furious. Things like “what if there are bugs in our web applications or bugs in IE7 that stop our application from functioning properly?” The answer is that IE7 has been available in beta form for several months and you should be testing your software against it. I know that’s easier said than done but replacing a broken and insecure browser that’s built on 5 year-old technology, as quickly as possible, has to be more important. It just has to be.

Back To Reality

We understand, realistically, it will still take some time to flush the last vestiges of IE6 out of the cluttered back-allies and clogged tubes of the Interweb but Microsoft has made the right call on this one.

The sooner we get to a point that we, as developers and designers, can look back and laugh at all this the better.

We just finished up a little one pager for people who might be interested in the service.

We think it’s a pretty darn cool idea and should simplify the grant application process immensely for many nonprofit organizations.

Here’s a snippet from the site:

Universal Grants’ patent-pending common grant application enables nonprofits to complete and submit a single application and final report to multiple funders at once.

Check it out at www.commongrants.com and, if you’re interested in the service, be sure to sign-up to stay informed.

Why would you want to bring the “magic” of something else to something that’s already as magical as the Web? What exactly is the content you’re delivering and how is it presented? That’s the real question. Is it compelling? Is it presented in the best light considering your target audience and the medium?

You can think of the magazine reader as a bit of a captive audience, essentially their eyes are going to be on your magazine and your magazine alone for a particular amount of time (sitting in an airport waiting on a plane, on bus or train, etc.). They sit down get comfortable and give your publication their undivided attention. Longer, less tightly focused, and targeted articles work when your audience is captive, or semi-captive.

Online periodicals are a totally different ball game. If your articles are too long or meandering or your design and layout is annoying, cryptic, or difficult to navigate the user is one click away from going somewhere else or doing something else, playing a game, checking their email, chatting on IM, or even getting up and reading a magazine.

It’s a sad state of affairs but the average Internet user is 1000 places at once, that’s just a simple fact and it’s not going to change any time soon, if anything, it will only get worse.

Trying to force the the online experience to be more like a print magazine seems sort of unrealistic. The online experience already has so much to offer. Why try to work against it when working with it makes more sense?

The solution isn’t going to be technology or delivery method, it’s the substance in the content and the way that content is presented that will captivate audiences. Shifting the focus back on to the content puts the responsibility squarely on the authors and editors, where it should be, not the technology. The technology isn’t broken but the understanding of how the technology changes the audience may be.

Just because Internet users aren’t reacting to your content the way you think they should doesn’t mean the technology or the audience is at fault. Take a look at how your site is organized, is your layout sensible, is your content geared toward the medium or are you trying to gear the medium towards your content?

In much the same way we love Basecamp we also have strong emotions for this little number.

2ndSite handles some of the gorier business details like invoicing and recurring payments as well as giving your clients the ability to pay their invoices online without ever putting pen to paper.

While not quite as simplistic as Basecamp, 2ndSite is extremely usable. Save for some rather funky input forms, everything you need to make a proper invoice is readily available. The best part is it handles all the nitty-gritty tracking of invoice payments and recurring invoicing for you (think monthly Web hosting services). We love that, we really do.

2ndSite offers some minimal project management services like time-tracking and support tickets (bug tracking). While bug-tracking is something Basecamp lacks, we won’t be jumping ship just yet (we kid, we love you Basecamp).

Coupled with Basecamp, 2ndSite makes running a business almost too easy. Seriously, you should try it sometime.

As I write this I have 3 email clients open (Gmail, Squirrel Mail, and Thunderbird), four IM windows open, six tabs in my browser open (low for me), I have two monitors plastered with Web browsers and other applications, with 24 applications open in my taskbar (Flash, FTP, Email, Browsers, IM, Photoshop, etc.), I’m messing around with Winamp playing some music, there’s an MP3 player beside my PSP, I have 2 phones on my desk (mobile and a business line), etc. etc. I’m writing this article while sending the link to umpteen people over 3-4 different IM networks (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.). How do we manage? I mean, I know I’m nowhere near the worst when it comes to this kind of thing but when I consider all the things that are dividing my attention — at this very moment — I can hardly believe I can get any one thing done. But I can, and do.

On top of this I keep coveting new gadgets. I’ve been seriously considering getting a Blackberry for business use and I’ve been thinking about buying a Sidekick to replace my aging mobile phone. For some reason, even though I have a perfectly good MP3 player (more than one if you count the PSP), I’ve been desiring an Ipod lately. Why? I have no idea.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, CPA. Is it a syndrome or just a side-effect of our technological progress? Is it fundamentally changing the way in which our brains work and how we function and respond in social situations? I don’t know, I’d say so.

I’ve been traveling down this road for the last decade or two and I have a feeling that once you’ve entered this world and stayed around long enough it’s very difficult to reform. I can still manage to remember to turn off my mobile phone when I go to a movie. But I don’t turn it OFF, I just turn it to “vibrate” thinking I might miss something really important if I don’t.

I’d say I was going to make a conscious effort to reform, at least part of the time, but I know at this point it would be nearly impossible so I won’t bother.

Think I’ll just chalk this up as one more thing to forget to worry about. Yeah, that sounds good…oh look I got an email!