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The Best of the Beast in 2006

I noticed others have done a year-end recap of things done and things written and I thought that was neat. I decided to do the latter here with a list of some of my more decent articles of 2006. Hopefully the Best of the Beast! I hope you have enjoyed my efforts.

2006/01: Counting Clicks with PHP

A short tutorial about counting clicks to create a log. This is useful for counting downloads or even page views.

2006/02: The Alt & Accessibility

My views about how to use the alt attribute in an effective manner actually useful to blind users by using alt text that plays well with the text content. This often involves a null attribute believe it or not.

2006/03: Let’s Focus on Focus

Link or anchor focus is something often overlooked by developers. Focus helps keyboard users locate themselves on a page as they tab through and it’s so easy to implement even a caveman could do it.

2006/04: Experiments at MikeCherim.com

I announce my playground rules of my new MikeCherim.com site where I can let my imagination go free while I experiment with PHP, CSS, and even a little JavaScript. All sorts of goodies there, some are pretty decent.

2006/05: PHP/CSS Donations Thermometer

This was a cool experiment at my MikeCherim.com site previously mentioned. A few people have given this a shot to help them monitor their charity drives.

2006/06: Web 2.0h, that’s what it is

Here I discuss what “Web 2.0″ really is. I’ll tell you now, rounded corners do not make a site a web 2.0 site. It’s about active content, interactivity, and society.

2006/07: The Power of Natural SEO

This article extols the virtues of accessible, standards-complaint sites and the role they can play in search engine optimization or SEO. All natural! No artificial color, flavors, or preservatives.

2006/08: A CSS Starter File

Everyone that uses CSS generally begins with a given set of elements, IDs, and classes. This entry offers a starter file anyone can use that contains all of these page components that would typically be found on a starter style sheet.

2006/08: Offset Class Jump Links

Using absolute positioning you can make accessible jump links which remain out of view unless called for by a keyboard user. It’s not a perfect method but acceptable. This “class” is also useful in other page applications as well.

2006/08: Not Quite Black and White

Cries were heard in the dark as many site discussed the pros and cons of light text on a dark background and I decided to chime in with my gray-area views.

2006/08: Better SEO through Blog Post Titles

In a book or magazine, authors can get very creative with headings, titles, and chapter names, but on the web that just doesn’t pan out if you’re interested in being found by search engine spiders. Say what you mean, mean what you say!

2006/09: PHP Style Changer Experiment

I announce a PHP style changer that I made at the aforementioned Mike Cherim.com. it’s unique in that it first detects the acceptance of cookies so as to avoid offering a style changer feature someone can’t really use.

2006/09: Site Features Overload

Sometimes less is more when it comes to features on the web. When enough is enough and it’s time head back to basics in the name of usability. This is my take on the subject.

2006/09: Class & ID Naming Conventions

Class names and ID should support function but not describe. Choosing the proper class and ID names now can make dealing with the site later easier and more accurate.

2006/09: What, When, Who… Internet History Timeline

Learn about how the Internet came to be. One student earned an “A” using this article as a reference on the subject. Whether information was gleaned or the text copied isn’t clear to this day.

2006/10: Don’t be an Internet Fool

Making the Internet a safer place can be as simple as removing incentive. If people don’t fall for scams then scammers may loose interest. Ball’s in your court, just don’t be a fool.

2006/10: What Web Design Clients Need to Know

To get the best web site and best project, clients need to understand a few things. It’s in their best interest to understand these matters.

2006/10: Preparing a Website for SEO Success

Making a site number one involves more than what the developer or client can do on their own. The best results come from both sides working towards the same goal and paying attention to the details and requirements.

2006/10: WordPress-Ready Contact Form v.2.0WP

I announce that with the help of Mike Jolley I make my Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form available as a WordPress Plugin.

2006/11: WordPress Titles & Descriptions for SEO

Using the right titles and meta descriptions can help you get indexed. This bit of scripting helps WordPress users get the most out of their efforts.

2006/11: Directories Set to 777 are Safe/Unsafe?

Discussion pertaining to the perils and pitfalls of insecure directories or folders on a server. Are public writable directories safe? Hell no.

2006/11: Message Rules for a Cleaner Email Inbox

Spam sucks. This is a fact. However, setting up proper message rules can really make your life easier. This tutorial explains step-by-step how to establish and manage message rule for Windows Outlook Express. Suggestions are offered as well.

2006/11: Securing PHP Include Files

I discuss and offer some simple solutions for keeping parts of your domain private and out of the hands of those who really shouldn’t but may be creeping about. The comments on this article were great as more suggestions and options were detailed.

2006/12: Writing Dialogue/Dialog on the Web

Speech in books is styled in a way that’s been long accepted. This offers some instruction on how and why to properly carry this practice over onto a web page.

2006/12: Supporting Legacy Browsers, or Not

Sometimes it makes more sense to offer the users of older browsers no style sheets or very minimal ones. This entry offers a PHP solution of accomplishing this. This is a real time- and sanity-saver that will result in nothing more than less than 1% of your site’s visitors having access to an unstyled yet highly usable web site.

2006/12: Making Web Accessibility Accessible

If web accessibility is ever going to be a mainstream practice, web accessibility itself and the people involved in it require accessibility. Friendly rules being passed along by friendly people is how this can be so.

2006/12: The U.S. Needs Exemplary Accessibility

Web accessibility on US government and affiliated sites is sorely lacking in the accessibility they are supposed to be obligated by law to comply with. If they can’t do it, where is the motivation for US businesses and others?

Of these articles, which do you prefer? What would like to get more of? I write for myself, but I also write for others so they (you) may as well be included in the process of choosing articles. Thanks for reading. If you want to stay on top of my articles, establish a live bookmark to my feed and get everything hot off the presses.

Happy New Year to Everyone. All the best to you and yours in 2007!

Want more articles? If so you’ll want to check out some of my efforts at Mike Cherim.com and at Accessites.org. The latter also has some terrific articles written by some of the Team Access members.

Filed under Wicked Wild Web, Beast Ramblings —

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