These are older articles. Please bear in mind the further back you go, the more dated the material may be — in some cases.
Mike Cherim’s Blogging Past
New Tech Goes Too Far!
The latest music device, the Sony “iMind System,” invented by Sony with the assistance of German neurologist and technologist, Hans Frieh, goes above and beyond what I consider acceptable tech. I think this new tech is invasive and irresponsible. I don’t know what they could’ve been thinking when they decided to move forward with this project but I urge you all to blog about this in hopes of putting a stop to it before things get completely out of hand. Already there have been isolated incidents worth worrying about.
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My Responses to Spam — Literally
Ever get one of those spam comments held in moderation that you’d love to respond to? I do. It’s tempting sometimes. Obviously approving the comment is something that simply isn’t advisable, even if you were to remove the links. Well, what I have decided to do is post some of those comments here followed by my responses, similar to Jack Pickard’s Spam Smörgåsbord. I have to warn you, though, some of their “names” are about really whacked stuff. Any way here’s a few:
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Replicating Browser Behavior: The Top Link
With interest I watched an exchange on the Web Standards Group discussion list as to whether developers should bother replicating browser behavior such as keyboard shortcuts. I didn’t weigh in with my thoughts at the time. I was too busy to join the fray, plus I wanted to first consider all the possibilities and read everyone else’s comments. The result was I didn’t change my position. Since it’s sort of after the fact on the list I figured I’d discuss it here. My quick conclusion is yes and no; it depends on the behavior being replicated, the ease of making the provision, its perceived usefulness, and really the content itself.
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Using Compound Words on the Web
Within every industry compound words are created, then used extensively, often without a second thought once they enter that industry’s mainstream lexicon. The same is true of acronyms, abbreviations, and buzzwords. For instance, look at the web development industry. We use all sorts of verbal shortcuts to convey information that our core readers will have no problems with. Eventually many enter the public mainstream and end up in the dictionary.
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My WebAxe Accessibility Podcast
When they “axed” if I wanted to be interviewed for WebAxe I was delighted. This was about a month ago. Finally, the damage has now been done and I have spoken on the web. I have to laugh. I think I sound like a war correspondent on the front lines, reporting in. Here’s the WebAxe post or you can jump straight to podcast number 44. This interview was hosted by both Dennis Lembree and Ross Johnson. Thanks fellas, it was a pleasure. This is Mike Cherim, signing out. Roger-wilco, over and out.
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Introducing PHP AutoRun and a CSS Tutorial
I’m making two announcements for the price of one today: One is the completion of my PHP AutoRun System; The second is my first use of the AutoRun system in the making of this “How to Make a CSS Web Site” tutorial. The idea for this goes back at least six months. It took me a while to make it happen because it’s, well, pretty involved, and I’m a busy guy. Finally, though, I have completed this project. I’ll explain here what these two things are all about and maybe get some [hopefully positive] comments and feedback.
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Email’s Out of Control
I recently read an Information Week print article by John Soat called “E-Mail: A Plague of Biblical Proportions” (view online version) and it hit home. The article had some interesting numbers such as 200 billion being the number of emails sent every day — which translates to 30 messages per person daily — 70% of which represents the conservative estimated percentage of that mail which is spam. The print title noted it was “A Plague of Biblical Proportions” and, man, there’s some truth in that little nugget.
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Failed? Fundamentally Flawed?
In a news item that I first saw at Accessify.com there is a quote taken from the original “BarCamp London 2: Accessibility Panel Thoughts” post at Mike Davies’ Isolani site. It’s a quote I don’t necessarily agree with. Before I provide it here I want to say I’m not trying to stir anything up or cause trouble, and I’m not commenting on the rest of the article (which, aside from the alleged damage caused by “universalists,” I mostly agree with), but I do want to say remarks like this bother me a bit. First I’ll provide the quotation, then I’ll explain what it is I don’t agree with and why.
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Enhancing Accessibility with Offsets, Cautiously
The “offset” class is a name I give to any element hidden off-screen using the Cascading Style Sheet, CSS, and every style sheet I make contains this class. You may call it “offscreen,” “offleft,” “offpage,” or whatever works for you, but regardless of what you call it, how it works and what it offers users remains the same: on-demand accessibility. But I discovered a downside recently.
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