May 14th, 2008
How many times have you thought, “Wow… what a great idea, I must put that on my to-do list?” but have never followed through? I wrote a while back about maintaining focus and I guess this ties in a little bit and definitely follows on, this is the topic of “Pulling the trigger”.
After putting on The Highland Fling 2008 - The browser and beyond, I knew that I had to write a post about how wonderful the day was and how much it meant to me but I also knew I wanted to write something other than a carbon copy of what people were expecting.
Back in 2006 when I had the concept for doing the conference it scared the crap out of me, it was something that I had never done before, it was outside fo my comfort zone but I still went ahead and did it. I pulled the trigger!
Many times since I started working for myself I have had ideas rush past me and I have never acted upon them, I didn’t pull the trigger, I didn’t reap the benefits from pulling the trigger either. Although I don’t regret much in my life I do regret not having acted on a lot that has been on my mind, that said there is still a lot there which I do plan on acting on.
I was once told that an idea means nothing unless it has been put on paper, recorded in some shape or form otherwise it will be forgotten. Very wise words indeed. I envy designers and their fascinating mood boards, I miss the frenzy of a brainstorm in an agency environment and I wish I kept a digital scrap book to act as my idea sponge. I think it is really important to find a way of storing these waves of ideas that rush over us, a net for catching all the cool thoughts we have. I’d maintain a wiki but they bore me and to be honest I find them confusing as they grow arms and legs and then before you know it they have turned into a monster.
The Highland Fling was set up to help inspire people, to bring together like minded people and help them forge new ideas, relationships and plans for moving forward in what they do every day. I have encountered a wide variety of hurdles in doing the event but I have always done my best to get over them and move on. To do this I had to decide on what I wanted to do about it and pull the trigger!
Pulling the trigger is a final act, once you’ve done it you have commited (hopefully not an act of homicide), you’ve made a final decision, you’ve said to yourself that you are going to do something and you’ve crossed the line, there should be no turning back.
Perhaps this article is not really my follow up to the conference, I’ve been a very busy man over the past three years and I’m wondering if this is an introspective look at where and when I pull the trigger.
To be honest I think I have using a sub machine gun of late, I organised The Highland Fling whilst working on contract and dealing with my own clients at night, having house rennovations done and to top it all off I got married 3 weeks ago on Friday and I’m now down in London contracting.
Pulling the trigger? I think I just fired a cannon!
One thing that I’ve realised of late is one of the reasons I haven’t been blogging much, I fell into a trap where I felt I should be writing about certain things instead of just being myself. I presented myself with a mental hurdle which prevented me from writing about whatever came into my mind, free thoughts for the public.
I’m glad I’m over that hurdle now and look forward to pulling the trigger on a more regular basis.
Take care folks…
February 19th, 2008
The time has come again for another day of some learning and entertainment at The Highland Fling 2008 - Web Standards in Scotland. After such a fantastic day last year it was always going to be hard to not follow through with another event, the hard part for me was coming up with a suitable topic but my trip to dConstruct last year was all that it took for some inspiration from Tom Coates’s session.
Tom blew me away talking about things like recombination of information in his talk “Designing for a Web of Data”. I think a good way of highlighting his track of conversation is to paraphrase his session blurb from dConstruct.
But what happens when you’re pushing into web apps or social media? What happens when an absence of heirarchy makes left-hand navigation redundant? What do you do when design practice blurs into URLs and data structures, and where your service breaks the frame of the browser and starts appearing in hardware, in desktop applications or on other people’s sites?
Very potent words and an even more potent presentation, he left my mind in a spin and I knew right away on what and why I wanted to do The Highland Fling 2008. I could have walked away saying to myself what an awesome show but I really wanted to explore the topic and find out more about it, to spread the word about stuff that really inspired me and made me think, to pay homage to our future online (or not in some cases) and to allow others to think outside the box a little.
So, there lies the why of the conference, perhaps I should tell you more about the day. The theme for the conference is “The browser and beyond”, I did consider going purely with “Outside the browser” but I figure that we are gonna still be building in our beloved browsers for a while yet. Last year Drew McLellan talked at the conference about preparing the content on your website so that it can act as it’s own API, providing meta data that can be used by people for other services, in a lot of respects The Highland Fling 2008 is an extension of that topic.
It worried me initially about stepping away from talking about XHTML and CSS but I know for a fact this is going to be a very interesting day, I have also mixed up the format a little to encourage more open discussion about what the future may hold.
The details
In the world or modern web development we can no longer consider the browser as the end point of our product which is our content. More and more devices and applications are being released that can access our information and more importantly do not even require a browser to do so.
For The Highland Fling 2008 we’re bringing into focus how the landscape is changing. API’s, desktop apps, ambient devices, mobile and much more are helping us break out of the browser and potentially reaching an entire new audience as a result.
How do we embrace this, how do we take our existing skill set and transpose it into new mediums? How do we expand our skill set? What is our skill set going to be? Where is it all going?
The Highland Fling 2007 focused on the topic of progressive enhancement which is not only at the very essence of best practice web development but also at the heart of bleeding edge web development. This year I want to focus on where we are going and what the future holds for us all and the information we care so much about.
The Speakers and Sessions
Tickets
- Early Bird - £99.00
- Standard - £125.00
A limited number of tickets have been allocated for early bird prices, be sure and register quickly if you want to get one.
Visit The Highland Fling - Web Standards in Scotland for more information or you can register for the event here.
October 20th, 2007
This morning I sat down to answer some comments on the site and ended up having quite an amusing conversation with my friend Nick. To give you some background he was tossing a coin at his end of MSN a while ago and saying heads or tails, needless to say I whipped him at a game of Scissors, Paper, Stone… Check it out:
the fox says: rock paper scissors
the fox says: ready
the fox says: paper
Alan says: i won the coin toss so you sure you want to play me
the fox says: yes
the fox says: that was one test of skill
the fox says: there are many
the fox says: you say go
Alan says:go
the fox says: or 3 2 1?
the fox says: rock
Alan says: paper
the fox says: see
Alan says: I win
Alan says: go
the fox says: that’s why the internet
the fox says: go
Alan says: go
the fox says: scissors
Alan says: stone
Alan says: I win
the fox says: this proves my argument
Alan says: go
the fox says: life/time/any delay in communication involves an answer and a reply
Alan says: go ffs or are you scared
the fox says: you have to beat me, if I let you
the fox says: scared? I could kill you with an axe, IM not scared
the fox says: paper
Alan says: scissors
Alan says: ha you suck
the fox says: hhahahhahhaha
October 19th, 2007
So, I got an email from a client today shitting themselves because Fasthosts have had a serious security breach, low and behold I just got one too…
We are writing to inform you that we have recently discovered evidence of a network intrusion involving a Fasthosts server. We have reason to believe that the intruder has gained access to our internal systems, and that this may have in turn given them access to your username and some service passwords.
We have since closed the vulnerability through which access was gained, and have taken steps to ensure that this cannot happen again.
We therefore recommend, as a precaution, that you now change the control panel login password on your account.
I have tried to avoid Fasthosts for hosting for about 4 years as they were really bad for hammering bandwidth costs on you etc, I used to run a dedicated server from them and to be honest I was never that happy with the way they dealt with me let alone the extra charges. Some might say it was my own fault for not picking a larger package but there you go, we live and learn but did I really?
Maybe I have been negligent in my activities but somehow they slipped back into my life in the form of UKreg and domain registration, today I too am having to deal with the fact that my details have been compromised on the servers of who claim to be the number 1 hosting company in the UK and what can I do? I am going to have to dig into the coffers and move my domains to someone else to deal with because apparently my data is not safe (I doubt it is truely safe anywhere) and now someone potentially has potentially had access to sensitive info.
I feel sorry for those of you out there that have Fasthost reseller accounts, make sure you bill Fasthosts for any time you spend cleaning up their mistake. They claim in their email to me that they have cleaned up and that it will never happen again… it shouldn’t have happened in the first place!
So how safe is your data? I hope this little wake up call for me can in some way help you avoid getting into a similar situation which brings me to another point… Beta trial accounts.
How many of you out there have been sucked into the Web 2.0 phenomena? How many of you have a beta account for 1 new wizz bang web application? How many of you have 2? I’m going to put my money on you all having more than 2 and that you only ever use a handful of passwords for them or heaven forbid even just one, and I would pose the question how many of those do you actually use?
Scary to think of your identity being sprinkled across the web in many shapes and forms for some nefarious character to tamper with or even worse steal, I know I am going to set aside some time and cull my inactive accounts and take a close look at what I use on a day to day basis and what I really need to be using.
Boom is over… time to get sensible… I kinda stopped reading Tech Crunch a while ago as buzzwords piss me off and thr wr too many app names ending in “r”.
Oh well, rant over, I hope Fasthosts really do lose a good market share and that some smaller better web hosting companies get a look in and I hope you guys get a fright from my fright and take an introspective look at what you do with your data and who holds onto it.
Take care and don’t sign up to anything I wouldn’t 
April 7th, 2007
Well that is me home now after 2 amazing days through in Edinburgh, I am not going to write much as I am just about to sit down, have a beer and contemplate what just happened. Yesterday was very very important to me and I want to thank eveyone that attended The Highland Fling - Web Standards in Scotland conference (sponsors, speakers and delegates), you made my day! The event has been very close to my heart over these last few months and the topic of conversation is something that I care lots about, to hear so many people happy that this has taken place has made all the blood sweat and tears worth it… but what comes next???
I am already hearing people talking about The Highland Fling II, which will happen, I am over the moon that the event was welcomed so warmly and I am looking forward to the year to come. The Refresh Edinburgh that happened today just spurred things on further and some really good talks were done, thanks for keeping the vibe going guys!
It is time for me to go to bed and have some sweet dreams (I was having nightmares the night before), I have had a great time, met new people, made some new friends and hopefully done my bit to help raise the profile of what we all do in our day jobs. I take my hat off to you all (now that I have it back) and am looking forward to seeing what comes next… The Highland Fling is done but not by any means dusted! The fun has just begun!
Take care everyone, enjoy your weekend, have a few beers for me and I will make sure I am there to drink them next time…
Night folks, and happy easter!
P.S. Go and see the Pixar Exhibition at The Royal Museum on Chambers Street as it is frickin’ awesome!
March 15th, 2007
Now that I have a little break in my schedule I think it is important that I state my reasons for putting on The Highland Fling - Web Standards in Scotland conference as it is more than just getting kick ass speakers up to Scotland. I am very passionate about what I do for a living, I love building websites, I love talking about websites, I love meeting other people that build websites and what’s more is that I care deeply about the future of the industry.
We as web developers have a duty to do a good job and ensure that we are doing things right, I do not beleive for a long shot that the “standards war” has been won and I know for a fact that there is still a lot of work to be done. So long as your nephew, son, second cousin or even your mother are capable of churning out a website, the very value and stability of the web development industry is undermined and devaluated, I think it is imperritive to raise awareness of how things should be done properly.
Now I don’t want to slate the bedroom developer… heck… I even started as a bedroom developer but there is a difference in quality from what I did back then and what I do now. Over the years I have done one hell of a lot of reading and done my best to stay on top of emerging trends and techniques and pride myself on trying to do the very best I can but now I want to help others do the same.
Scotland isn’t a big place, in fact the UK isn’t a big place and it is invaluable to meet your peers and commrades in arms. By getting together and talking, you begin to build new horizons, relationships are formed, businesses are built, ideas are born and common goals become rife.
By putting on the conference I want to bring together the community in Scotland (and indeed anyone else who wants to come) and help beginning to build a united future of web development in Scotland. I want to help raise the bar of what we are doing day to day though education and help proliferate best practise so that the people doing things right will benefit from doing things right.
The reason I chose the subject of progressive enhancement for the conference is that it is at the very essence of best practice web development. Build for the lowest common denominator and then layer additional functionality / enhancements on top. This philosophy allows you to not only ensure that your websites will work on the widest possible selection of platforms, it will also enable you to add all of the bells and whistles you want to and be able to sleep easy knowing that the site will still degrade gracefully. What more could you ask for?
I read a wonderful article by Andy Rutledge about web standards and how it should be about quality and not standards. I agree, standards should just be how it is done, it should not be the selling point, reaching as many people and devices as possible should be the selling point.
I am really looking forward to the day now, the content of the sessions and the quality of the speakers will be fantastic so I really hope you will take the time to stand up and be counted. At the end of the day it is you that stands to benefit from it if you do…
Roll on April 5th!
February 14th, 2007
Ever found yourself on the verge of meltdown? Holy cow! I have been a busy man of late and life is good, as some of you might know I have been busy organising a web standards conference in Edinburgh but on top of that I have been working my day job and freelancing at night. OUCH!
Well I am quite happy, I just launched phase #1 of quite a big site I have been working on which is a relief. Now onto phase 2 I guess but for now I am enjoying half a night off and figured it was time to say hello. So what have I been up to other than that?
- I read “The Taking” by Dean Koontz on the train to work which was awesome
- I have engaged in 4 wars in EVE Online
- I’ve formed a hatred for commuting during rush hour
- Made lots of new friends and contacts in the web development industry
- I have played a major part in 4 different web projects outside of work
- Avoided Twitter
- Missed writing on here on a regular basis
- Managed to preach web standards at work to a certain degree of success
- I’ve written several partial posts that haven’t made it to the site yet.
- I’ve not managed to get to bed before 1am since the new year due to work and the likes
- Almost learned to multitask (not good though as Caz says I am now half woman)
- I’ve enjoyed life to the full
- Oh yeah… Elsie has successfully poo’d on her own for the first time so I guess I have played my part in potty training too
What have you been up to? How do you unwind? I think my eyes have gone square and fuzzy since the beginning of the year, I don’t mind because I am doing something that I believe in and hopefully not just myself will benefit. The good news is that the conference is being well received and all of the early bird tickets are now sold so onto the next batch…
January 19th, 2007
Well, the cat’s out of the bag, over the last few months I have been a busy little bee trying to bring some of the best minds in web development to Scotland and low and behold I present to you The Highland Fling - Web Standards in Scotland.
The conference is aimed at bringing together the Scottish web development community so that we can all meet each other and have some fun whilst learning from the best in the industry. I’d like to take this opportunity to invite you all along, the tickets are not on sale quite yet but if you would like to register your interest then I will be back in touch as soon as they go on sale. So, on to the details.
The Event
This inaugural Highland Fling conference will cover the topic of progressive enhancement and is designed to make developers aware of both the benefits and pitfalls involved of using such technologies, how to use them, when not to use them, and what the future holds.
The event will be held at the Symposium Hall in Edinburgh on the 5th of April 2007, if you are interested you can track the event over at Upcoming.
The Speakers & Sessions
- Jeremy Keith - What is progressive enhancement?
- Norm - Graded Browser Support
- Andy Budd - Progressive enhancement using CSS
- Christian Heilmann - Progressive enhancement using JavaScript / AJAX
- James Edwards - What has AJAX done for us anyway?
- Drew McLellan - Microformats
- Andy Clarke - Beyond progressive enhancement
Tickets
Early Bird - £99
Full Price - £125
Tickets will be on sale in the very near future, if you want to register your interest you can do so over at the The Highland Fling web site.
December 11th, 2006
This is just a quick post but on making a new acquaintance today I figured I would share a stroke of genius that you all will benefit from. Say goodbye to office fighting on the “who makes the coffee” front and sign yourselves up for an account at Milk & Two.
Welcome to MILK&TWO, a site designed to take the hassle out of making tea for your workmates and buddies.
The idea is that you sign-up (creating a group as you go) and invite people around you. When someone wants a drink they put in a request and drinks are made once the number of requests hits a “critical mass”. Someone is chosen at random to make the requested drinks.
Go on… sign up for Milk & Two, you know you want to…
December 10th, 2006
There have been many famous great words said in our time and I bet there are far more great unfinished words to be read or not as the case may be. I thought it might be fun to show you some of mine that are sitting about, let me know if there are any you would like me to finish…
- Windows is utter bollocks! Random freezes suck too
- Why is nothing ever straight forward when it comes to computers?
- Dirty Pixels
- Must See TV
- Puns are funny… here is a testament to that
- Boxing Cats
- Why colour contrast is important…
- Call of Duty 2
- I’ve S-ATA nuff of that!!!
I plan to finish some of them but figured I would ask you guys what you would like for once…