Tuesday 13 October 2009

Czech Interview Published as I Journey to Prague

I’ve just finished a visit with the wonderful Paris-Web group. What a fun time! I’ll be making my way from Paris to Prague, and wanted to share an interview done back in March and just now published on a Czech magazine site.

The interview provides some insights into education and evangelism as a career, as well as describing my journey from wee Web person in 1993 to my current work as a Web Evangelist for Opera Software.

There is a Czech version and an English version too. I hope you enjoy the interview, and if you’ll be in Prague for Web Expo, please come see me and say hello!

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 03:33 | Comments (4)

Thursday 23 October 2008

Ouch

I mean, like, ouch.

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 10:16 | Comments (15)

Molly.Com, Inc. No More?

Today I learned that my company, Molly.Com, Inc. goes the way of poor banks and bad stocks.

People forget to pay, I forget to ask, and I’ve never been audacious enough to ask for donations for I have no idea what I can return.

Molly.Com won’t be going anywhere, but the company itself as a U.S. incorporation is no more. I’ve now returned to the life of a sole proprieter.

It was a grand few decades.

Filed under:   announcement, general
Posted by:   Molly | 09:01 | Comments (22)

Sunday 31 August 2008

Flashback Post: Web Design and Development Personality Indicators

From 2005, for your amusement.

(original post here: Web Design and Development personality indicators)

-=-

I’VE HAD ENOUGH! Frustrated with the range of attitudes and opinions I deal with as a standards-oriented educator, I’ve decided to begin a project (very) loosely based on the Meyers-Briggs personality indicators. So, dear readers, I’m hoping you’ll help me add and refine my categories, but I’m off to a start with the following:

• OFAD. Old Fart Anti-Design. These are the guys (and I mean guys) that were on the Web as early as 1991. Almost all physicists at major research institutions, they’re the ones who helped Tim Berners-Lee refine the Web and were the first adopters. Mostly long in the tooth now, some are still kicking and they can be described as the anti-designers. These aren’t even purists – today’s approaches seem foreign and sometimes frightening to them. They long for the days of Lynx, really, but barring glowing text on a terminal and HTML authored in Vi or Emacs, their idea of Web design is default gray backgrounds, default text, maybe a list, and the apex of old fart visual design: a horizontal rule. Fortunately, this is a very rare breed and usually they can be ignored because unless they’ve progressed somewhat, they have precious little to offer the contemporary, standards-oriented Web designer or developer.
• OSVD. Old Skool Visual Designer. These are the folks that refuse to see beyond their nested-tables-spacer-GIF design. In fact, you can find them at a variety of ad agencies and teaching at conferences all over the world, still excited when they create a design in Photoshop and use the so-called HTML export utility. These designers are often extremely hostile toward standardistas largely because the idea of change or looking at code is so traumatic that they hold on to the Old Skool methodology as if it were a lifeboat on a stormy sea. Unfortunately, this breed isn’t rare enough.
• TTLM. Trying To Learn More. In this category are the good men and women who might still be serving it up Old Skool but are open to learning, open to growth yet struggling with standards related concepts and the snakepit of browser challenges of contemporary Web design and development. These brave souls are not in the majority, but they are to be lauded and assisted for their willingness to venture forth and expand their horizons.
• SAVD. Standards Aware Visual Designer. These people are designing with standards in mind – creating beautiful sites for the screen, working toward achieving accessible sites, examining usability and human factors, and very possibly beginning or already designing for alternative devices and media types. A very rare breed, and if you are reading this post it’s very highly likely you’re either one your own fine self, know all their names or have Zeldman’s personal phone number memorized.
• SASS. Standards Aware Structural Semanticist. These personalities are very code-centric, with little interest (or more often, skill) in presentation but lots of interest in the proper structuring of documents, use of meaningful markup, microformats, Semantic Web and the like. At their most compulsive, they can become purists to the point of having unrealistic expectations of the more worldly Web worker. Also a rare breed, SASS personalities are extremely important to the good of the Web but sometimes need to be reminded that smart structure and semantics can happily co-exist with visual design.
• SACE. Standards Aware Cutting Edge. Whether visual designers or code-centric or both, these are the folks that design first for Firefox, Safari and Opera and work around IE 6.0 only because they have to. Given their druthers, sites would be built using practically no markup and lots of attribute selectors, just because they like the idea. A rare breed worth watching, but also in need of reminders that the rest of the world just ain’t there yet, and in fact, really are lagging behind.

Hybrids are not unusual, either. I sort of live between the SASS and the SAVD personalities, with not enough real design skill to execute great visual designs, but enough savvy to appreciate beautiful, standards-based Web sites. There’s probably a personality type for people like me, but it’s very difficult to assess my own character, so I’ll leave it there for now.

As I’m typing this, I’m on a ship in the Eastern Caribbean teaching CSS on a Geek Cruise. The ship, the MS Zuiderdam, is just in the process of docking at Road Town, Tortola, in the British Virgin Isles. I’m sure you all feel really sorry for me right now.

It’s just past dawn and I’m up at the very top of the ship where there happens to be WiFi at the going rate of 40 cents USD per minute, so you’ll forgive me if I leave you now with the following questions: Are you one of these personality types, and if so, which? Do you have a personality type you’d like to add to my little list?

Filed under:   blogging, flashback, general, how we will be, humor, just fun, molly asks you, pop culture, revolution, society, web design and development
Posted by:   Molly | 01:37 | Comments (31)

Saturday 23 August 2008

Web Standards is a Goal

Interview with me about Web standards and design at Design Interviews in which I mete out advice I should apply to myself (isn’t it easier to give it?)

“Embrace change, value life-long learning, allow your passions to show and if at any moment you are no longer having fun or gaining something personally important from doing this important work, step back for a bit and re-evaluate.”

There’s some other interesting material up on the growing site that is really useful for Web designers and developers, too.

Filed under:   community, creativity, general, professional, standards, web design and development
Posted by:   Molly | 14:17 | Comments (24)

Wednesday 5 March 2008

IE8 Beta and Readiness Toolkit

Here it is folks, an actual IE8 beta, overview of features, changes and enhancements, and a readiness toolkit for developers.

Check it out, now, my web soul brothers and sisters!

Filed under:   MIX08, WaSP, ajax, announcement, browsers, conferences, general, ie7, ie8, javascript, microsoft, software, standards, w3c, web design and development
Posted by:   Molly | 12:08 | Comments (61)

Monday 6 August 2007

The Best Thrill of Your Life

Some people want to go faster than light. Others just want to drop from 1,000 feet and live because hell, it makes them feel immortal.

Me, I’m still looking for the best thrill of my life.

Filed under:   creativity, faith(less), general
Posted by:   Molly | 17:55 | Comments (21)

Tuesday 24 July 2007

CSS 2.1 Finally Moves to Candidate Recommendation

While my real wet dream is seeing this darn spec made a recommendation already, this is at least a very overdue crawl in the right direction.

From the W3C:

“W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of “Cascading Style
Sheets (CSS) 2.1″ to Candidate Recommendation. Implementation
feedback is welcome through 20 December. CSS is one of the Web’s
most widely implemented languages. By separating the presentation of
style from the content of documents, CSS simplifies Web authoring
and site maintenance. CSS 2.1 is derived from and is intended to
replace CSS Level 2. A snapshot of usage, the specification brings
the language in line with implementations, fixes errata and adds a
few highly requested features including the inline-block value for
the display property, the color orange and the values pre-wrap and
pre-line for the white-space property. Visit the CSS home page.”

You can read about the move to CR and keep up with CSS news and advancements, too.

Filed under:   announcement, community, general, professional, standards, w3c, web design and development
Posted by:   Molly | 02:31 | Comments (26)

Monday 2 April 2007

Moving Ahead at Microsoft

I’ve posted an overview of what we worked on last week at Microsoft main campus in Redmond. I hope you’ll be as excited as I am to see some of the things we’ve got in the plans for the road ahead.

You can visit the post and comment directly, I really look forward to your thoughts!

Filed under:   announcement, browsers, general, microsoft, standards, w3c, web design and development
Posted by:   Molly | 16:23 | Comments Off

Thursday 22 March 2007

Happy Birthday Molly’s Mom

Today is my mother’s 74th birthday. I love my mother, oh yes I do. Happy Birthday Mom!

Filed under:   family, general
Posted by:   Molly | 12:52 | Comments (30)

Friday 1 September 2006

No Labor This Weekend

Due to the short notice and the fact that I’m really feeling poorly, I think we’ll have to aim for another time. How does November strike people? Maybe second week. This way we could actually plan out the work/study/hang out time in advance.

Let’s think about it, and thanks!

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 01:29 | Comments (8)

Saturday 31 December 2005

Your Three Web Standards Wishes for 2006

WEB STANDARDS WISHES can come true. At least in my little fantasy they do!

Put aside all thoughts of possible or impossible and dream up the three most desired improvements, changes, or new perspectives that you would like to see in the Web standards design and development arena.

I have so many it’s difficult to ask for three, but here goes:

• CSS 2.1 formally becomes a recommendation
• WCAG 2.0 gets sorted out
• More companies, organizations, and agencies get into best practices

Then, let’s choose the top three and see if we can’t make them happen for real. Let’s have your best, and a very happy 2006 to all.

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 11:51 | Comments (30)

Wednesday 6 April 2005

Munged DB at Molly’s

YES MY DB IS MUNGED for the moment. Thanks everyone for sending in emails that say “your comment and recent post links don’t work.”

I appreciate the heads up and have one of the greatest minds behind WordPress trying to figure out WTF is going on – thank you Chris!

Patience is a virtue they say, and I’ve often been accused of having a lack of virtue. But just a little patience is in due order while this problem is being worked on. I promise to keep you . . . posted.

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 12:14 | Comments (6)

Saturday 5 March 2005

the end of the free press?

THE END OF the free press? As Apple wages a court battle against bloggers, the question of “what makes a journalist?” is raised yet again to divided sectors.

Apple is in the process of suing three California-based blogs for reporting on trade secrets. They are asking that the bloggers reveal their sources – thought to be Apple insiders. The EFF is arguing that web publishers are in fact journalists and that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – as well as California law – protect the bloggers from having to disclose any sources.

Let’s review the amendment here, just for clarity:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Apple’s attorney George “please get a clue” Riley says that free speech only pertains to “legitimate” members of the press and not to web site publishers. Freedom of the press is for the press, meaning the traditional media only, claims Riley.

Now wait a minute! What is traditional media anyway? And how is a “legitimate” member of the press made legit? Historically, the First Amendment in part grew out of the trial of John Peter Zenger, a newspaper publisher sued for libel in New York in 1735. Zenger, a German immigrant, had no press credentials, and yet is essentially the father of the First Amendment as it applies to the press.

When the First Amendment was ratified – it might interest Riley – there was no telegraph, no radio, no television, no recording device, no satellite, no ditto machine, no copier, no electronic press, no photo reproduction or photography, no film, no AP newsire, no FOX or CNN or MSNBC. Not even a ballpoint pen.

So, what’s left other than what comes off an old printing press as the definition of “traditional” media?

Information gatherers working in any medium, including the web, are by that reasoning non-traditional. This puts bloggers in grave danger: The very institutions that we are reporting on have the power to stifle our First Amendment rights.

The suggestion that one needs to have some stamp of approval from a governing authority in order to have First Amendment protection, at least in this journalist-slash-blogger’s opinion, turns the First Amendment on its head. Doing so would require us to obtain permission for First Amendment protection when the First Amendment is already our right as citizens of the U.S.

Hat tip and help: Linus

Filed under:   blogging, general, policies
Posted by:   Molly | 15:29 | Comments (17)

Monday 28 February 2005

goodbye, marqui paid to post

GOODBYE MARQUI PROGRAM. It’s been three months of an adventure that not only shook up the web world with controversy, but shook up my personal world, too.

Sometimes things happen for a reason, and I am confident that Marqui’s paid-to-post blogger program has taught me lessons that needed to be taught. Primarily, I learned that I can’t blog naturally if I feel forced to do it, and that’s intriguing because I can write in just about any style. But, it turns out my blog is really personal, I take it personally, and I need it to be that way.

This process really helped me clarify my own thoughts about marketing and promotion. In fact, at the end of my time with Marqui, I do have to say I think that there’s still a lack of clarity about the product. In the next months, the bloggers going forward with the program will be writing a lot more in depth about the actual product, so there will be less hype about the hype and more focus on what Marqui really does.

I wish my fellow paid-to-blog bloggers all the best and a special thanks to the good folks at Marqui for providing such a compelling, growth-oriented experience for me.

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 23:55 | Comments (20)