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060728 10:31 Web development : accessibility

New accessibility book: Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance.

I'm not sure if it actually adds anything new to the range of books that are already out there but the chapter that is available online seems to give some good examples, such as how a screenreader deals with images with or without alt attributes. This is something that is missing from most books and would be really useful for designers who can't afford and don't have access to assistive technology.

060722 16:47 Culture

I'm getting re-aquatinted with my own culture thanks to a guide to Germany Business Etiquette. It's excellent. Succinct. Straight forward. Explains enough so that you don't feel bewildered. Obviously i know most of this but after having spent 14 years in anglo countries i must admit that i'm not totally certain about some customs and behaviours anymore.

This took me ages to get used to again:

Eye contact during the introduction is serious, direct, and should be maintained as long as the person is addressing you. Even in public between strangers, eye contact or out and out staring can be direct and not necessarily smiling. It would be wrong, however, to assume that all stares in public are meant to be threatening.

Here's an example of explanations for cultural differences:

"Small talk" with strangers does not have a significant social function in German culture as it does in very relationship-oriented cultures [e.g. Mediterranean, South American, African, Middle Eastern countries] or the large immigration countries. In especially the latter cases, small talk and the art of conversation with strangers evolved out of a need to bridge considerable physical, cultural, and therefore psychological distance between individuals. Communities therefore grew from relationships built on common interests and needs [i.e. "Settlement community"] rather than from established familial and friendship ties [i.e. "Village community"].

There are funny passages as well. And oh so true.

Although this is usually a very formal, law-obeying society, pushing, shoving, and other displays of impatience in lineups are not uncommon. Apologies are in such cases not necessarily the rule. Interestingly, despite the high value of rules and social order in most aspects of public life, queuing and waiting your turn are not strong traits in present day Germany. The bakery is a good showplace for this kind of behavior. Sales personnel themselves do not expect lines and will tend to aggravate the problem by typically asking "Wer is jetzt dran?" ["Whose turn is it now?"]. If you do not move fast and stick to your guns, expect someone brazenly to butt in right in front of you. Petty arguments are not uncommon at such venues, and don't expect the sales person to speak up for you!

And here is one that totally threw me when i was learning English:

Germans traditionally use "Wie geht es Ihnen?" ["How are you?"] as a literal question that expects a literal answer...

In the beginning i always answered How do you do's by telling people how i was. They didn't actually want to hear that.

060718 17:55 Language

The Oxford English Dictionary has some catching up to do. New words added in June: andropause, anoraky, bouncebackability, cybrarian (about time. although... i thought all cyber- word combinations were 'so last century'), distractability, halloumi (yum! has obviously gone international now.), pixie dust, pizza face and much much more.

060716 14:19 Environment

In the UK they're getting rid of the stand-by mode on electronics because it wastes more energy than it was originally meant to save. Some wonder, however, if that will really get people to turn off their devices or whether they'll just leave them on as they're used to, wasting even more electricity. The point the legislator is trying to make is clear. People just don't care. I am made aware of that dilemma every time i see my sister water her lawn for hours and hours every day in a middle of a worldwide drought.

060711 23:09 Personal

While egogoogling i came across this:

i'm for sale at ebay for 1 Euro!

Actually, it's a typo. They mean someone called 'Iris Mangold'. Still a bit weird to know there's someone out there with a name so close to mine.

060707 11:12 Windows

Why i hate Windows XP: it doesn't sort files logically.

fotos06winter.html
fotos0504.html
fotos0509.html
fotos050625.html
fotos060131.html

060624 17:28 Geeks

Best laugh of the day: For the geek who already has everything: Broken Image T-shirt. (via boingboing)

060621 23:32 Internet

Jakob Nielsen, in a brief WSJ interview, hits the nail on the head. When asked about bloggers who insist on the importance of maintaining a "conversation" with customers, he replies:

That will work only for the people who are most fanatic, who are engaged so much that they will go and check out these blogs all the time. There are definitely some people who do that -- they are a small fraction. A much larger part of the population is not into that so much. The Internet is not that important to them.

To some of us it does mean that much but we still have a life to live as well, a life outside of cyberspace. At around 1 am my cat usually returns from her midnight stroll and demands i come to bed because she wants to cuddle. Can't ignore that.

060605 11:24 Web development

Done. Slashdot in CSS. (The credit goes to...)

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