Ok, this one is really a tip for any website. Do not duplicate browser functions.

Have you seen sites that have a link, and maybe even an icon of a little printer, with a ‘Print this page’ function? I have… I’m also pretty sure that almost every single browser I’ve used in the past 11 years has had a print function, just like 99% of the applications I use everyday. So why? Now, if your print function actually does something besides just bring up the print dialog, perhaps there is a case for it (though with CSS and print style sheets this is less relevant nowadays.)

Still, we continue to see things like Javascript powered links to “Bookmark this page” or go “Back” even though these functions have been built into browsers for over a decade. Why clutter up the valuable real estate of your page with things that every browser can do? Wouldn’t you prefer people focus on your message rather than on how they can print your page, bookmark it, send it to a friend, etc.?

It’s like a newspaper printing dotted lines around every article, just in case you wanted to clip it out and save it. Really. It is. one more time folks, Do not duplicate browser functions!

Ripped from the local news, 10-foot inflatable penguin mascot plucked from store:

“It’s our mascot. It’s one of kind. It seems kind of stupid for someone to steal,” said Rob Wallace.

Has anyone checked the local Linux Users Group Headquarters?

Les of decafbad (and many other things) is headed to Yahoo!

The Midwest will miss you Les! Sure, we’ve still got 37signals and I’m sure there are a few other highlights, but as I recently mentioned, while my network appears to be out west, I alas, am here in Wisconsin… Still looking for a company that at least somewhat gets how the web works… :/

Hey, at least I can do a +1 on the number of people I know that work at Yahoo!, that must be worth something, right?

Despite my complaining about Windows, I just installed Windows XP on my Mac. Have I totally lost my mind? Almost…

I’ve been doing a lot more work that requires testing sites in Internet Explorer 6, which of course, is only available for Windows. I contemplated getting a cheap PC, maybe spending a few hundred on a low-end model from Tiger Direct or finding a friend with an old cast off machine, but I finally realized the insanity of that, and decided adding a Windows PC to my network/desk/life would be a bad idea. So Virtual PC it is!

I had an older copy of Virtual PC, but it seems to have broken under Mac OS X 10.4, so it was time to upgrade. Installation took way to long, and there were way too many hiccups along the way, but eventually (3 hours later, right after midnight) I got it all working. I can now test things properly, and see what the world looks like using Internet Explorer on Windows XP. I’ll try to keep the swearing to a minimum.

You might know that I am not a fan of Microsoft, but I do try to give them a chance now and then. My latest attempt was the use of Live.com, a search engine. I’m not even here to complain about the search results (though I did find it amusing the third result was a link to Google with my site’s url in it’s query string.) My complain is all in the UI and usability.

Live.com uses some crazy scrollbar that doesn’t work like the standard scrollbar that millions of sites I’ve used does. Nope, they decided to implement their own damn scrollbar. Someone decided that instead of working like 99.5% of the other web sites out there, that creating a custom scrollbar, that probably requires Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP with a top-of-the-line Dell, would be sheer genius. Maybe it’s just because I’m a Firefox user with a Mac, I don’t know. It seems that Microsoft still doesn’t get the web, and believe me, I’m getting sick of saying that. I no longer get pleasure from it, and I hope someday I can say that Microsoft does get the web. Will that day ever come?

I do not remember where I first heard about the “ringtone that adults can’t hear” but I figured I’d look it up, as my hearing is pretty poor (what?) and I wanted to test this whole thing out.

Luckily it didn’t take much to find someone with a recipe, in this case, it was JimXugle’s comment on Digg which goes like this:

open Audacity…

Generate > Tone

Waveform: Sine
Frequency: 18000.00
Amplitude: 1.00

*generate tone*

So I fired up Audacity and started to experiment.

I started with 18000 Hertz, and I could not hear anything. I then started at the low-end instead, and I could hear 12000 Hertz, and 13000 Hertz, but 14000 Hertz? No good…

Fascinating!

I’ve been using LinkedIn a bit lately, and this is what I discovered.

Obviously I am living in the wrong place…

If you need me this weekend, you might not find me, as I’m going camping.

I just have to finish printing out some maps, and putting coordinates into the Garmin eTrex, and charging the video iPod, and syncing my Nokia 7610, and clearing the SD cards so I can shoot video, and find my iRiver so I can record audio, and…

From Yahoo! Local & Maps Blog: We Now Support Microformats… Hooray! (Thanks Niall!)

Flickr and Upcoming.org have been kicking the out the Microformats jam for a while now, so it’s good to see more of Yahoo! follow suit. In their own words:

We believe in giving you more control over your data and the user experience on Yahoo! Local.

That’s more “Web 2.0″ than anything I’ve seen from Google lately… (Spreadsheets? Give me a break…)

How not to welcome potential customers to your site:

Accessibility be damned! In other words: If you haven’t updated Flash (which needs be done roughly every 45 days) then we don’t want you getting any information from us. Go away.

Is this the way to greet potential customers, the people who might consider hiring your company?

Potential customers might want to know what you’re up to. Do you have a special event planned? A big sale? A special guest at your store? A booth at the local festival? Let them know!

But…

When the event is over, do not leave it listed on the front of your site with “Join us this weekend!” in huge type. People want to get timely information from your web site. When an event is passed, make sure this is clear to visitors. In fact, if you had a blog or even a “what’s new” section of your site, you might go as far as writing about the event, what happened, who was there… include some photos. Heck, you can use Flickr if you want, they make photo sharing pretty easy.

And as for the events themselves, if you are going to list them on your site, you might want to check into using software to handle displaying them, so once they are past, they are not sitting at the top of the “Upcoming Events” list. Heck, you could easily use something like Upcoming.org for your event listings.

One more thing, please use the full date of the event like so: Saturday June 24th, 2006 rather than June 24th because in a year when someone follows a search engine to your site and there is no year listed, they won’t know if they event is coming up or if it happened in the past.

I’ve decided I need a new marketing manifesto… So it’s Pinko Marketing for me!

Pinko Marketing seems close to what I would come up with when it comes to marketing on the web, so wish me luck.

I went on a 43* kick (that would be 43places, 43things, 43people) recently. These are just fun sites to browse through, and while I use the web for a million things each day, just browsing around for fun is usually at the bottom of my list…

Anyway, under “43 Places News and Announcements” they mention the Where 2.0 Conference and how someone asked how they were going to get as big as MySpace.com? Josh Peterson said that they had no interest in doing so, and commented “Who wants to create a new form of cancer?” Nice… :)

I used to be the guy who maintained the Wisconsin branch of the iPodder.org directory. (I might still be, but haven’t gotten any requests for additions in months.) Is iPodder.org still being used today? I’m not even sure…

Anyway, Sara Oceguera from mkeonline sent out an email asking for Milwaukee area podcasts to list themselves in the mkeonline.com podcast directory. So, you know, if you’re in the area (Milwaukee, that is) and do a podcast, here’s one more outlet for you… Enjoy!

Remember my post titled Job via Blog? If not, it’s the post where I pretty much said I am looking for a job.

Just to clarify, I am (still) looking for a full-time job. Of course I don’t live in San Francisco, which seems to be a limiting factor… I’m located near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and plan on staying here.

Why would you hire me? Because I am passionate about the web, and how it can be used to further communication and collaboration. I think that most organizations are only using a fraction of the power of the web to get things done, and I’d like to see that change.

Got something to offer? Contact me…

(Was Scoble involved in the birth of blogging or podcasting like I was? Hmmmm? Besides, I’m probably a lot cheaper than Scoble…)