I bought my first mechanical watch back when we were living in Australia for those couple of years. It was a Flieger 47 from the Australian brand Panzera, and it sparked my love of pilot watches.

I’m not entirely sure how it happened, but it was yours truly’s 60th last week. I spent it in Germany with Sue and Alex and one of the highlights of the trip was buying a watch to celebrate that big birthday.

I’ve brought back my Code ♠︎ Shirts ♠︎ Rock tee designs which bring together, err, code and rock. If you didn’t get Oasis tickets, you’ll definitely, maybe, look like supersonic wearing this outline tee.

“Seasons in the Sun” was weirdly played at a wedding reception I was at last weekend. I don’t think I’ve ever intentionally listened to it, but I remember it being one of those songs my mum warbled along to on long car journeys. It was probably on one of her then husband’s eight-track cartridges along with Billy Gentry’s Ode to Billie Joe.

I don’t check my analytics terribly often, but I did this week, and there was something strange in there: referrals from a domain I didn’t recognise that was using my website’s favicon. Curious, I went to the URL and saw something familiar—my design.

While debating the greatest guitar solos ever with Alex and Sue last week, I suggested that the absolute best is Prince’s one-off live performance of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Prince played alongside George Harrison’s son Dhani, ELO’s Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, and more. This set me down a rabbit hole to find the best-ever version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

The General Election might be over, but Count Binface hasn’t abandoned us earthlings. Instead, he’s embarking on a comedy tour and this week invaded Sky News’ Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge.

From the front cover of the Daily Star newspaper: “ Count Binface launches manifesto promising national service for ex-prime ministers.”

I don’t remember exactly when—but it was around 20 years ago— Back in 2005, * Rob Weychert turned his (and our) pal Jason Santa Maria into a talking head of Jason’s alter-ego, Virtual Stan. Stan had a backstory, which I don’t fully remember, plus a robot pal called Zorthron.

We stopped at a motorway services to buy baguettes for lunch yesterday, on our way down through France. I left my wallet behind and I didn’t notice until we were an hour further down the road.

I received my Apple MacBook Pro 14" laptop (maxed out with M1 Max silicon, all the cores, and 32Gb RAM) just before Christmas. During the break, I asked on Twitter which apps people had bought most recently and—following those suggestions—here are five menu bar apps I installed on my new Mac.

This year has been a hard one for a lot of people—just like last year, and maybe next year too. To help you make a designer or developer you know smile, I’ve put together my Christmas gift guide 2021.

After rearranging my studio and reorganising my bookcases, I have a few design and development books for sale at bargain prices. They’re all in very good condition and would be a great gift for a new or junior web designer or developer.

On several of the podcasts I listen to regularly, there’s been some discussion about the best speakers for a home office setup. So here’s my take.

When I started travelling regularly to Switzerland for work, I put together my go bag of accessories. What’s in the bag has changed over past few years, so here’s an update on what I’m packing.

Sue gets up earlier than I do. Every morning she leaves me in bed, walks down the stairs and towards our kitchen, and opens curtains along the way without thinking. That morning, a beautiful bright blue and green peacock stared back at her through our dining room window.

I bought a four-pack of Apple’s new AirTags, two for me and one each for the family. To make them more useful, I needed ways to attach them to my keys and backpack. I think AirTags themselves are reasonably priced, but Apple’s own-brand accessories definitely aren’t.

Rooting around in boxes in our storage unit, I came across the Nintendo Game Boy I bought new in 1990. The plastic covering the green LCD was missing, but it was otherwise intact. The box even contained a few game cartridges. I popped it in my pocket and took it home.

Ekster sent me their iPhone 12 MagSafe wallet for review. The short version? I like it. But, I probably wouldn’t buy it.

Earlier this year, New Riders gave me back the publishing rights to my first book, Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design. I’d originally intended to post a PDF of the original book online, but the terms of my contract meant that I couldn’t simply give away a copy of the book New Riders had produced. I needed a new plan.

I love rock music and I also love writing HTML and CSS code, so what better way to bring my two loves together than a set of shirt designs which celebrate both? Code ♠ Shirts ♠ Rock designs are inspired by classic rock band logos. Wear them at home or at work, to a gig, or your next tech conference. They’re ideal gifts for the code loving rocker, or rock loving coder you know. The shop is now open.

To celebrate the launch of my Code ♠ Shirts ♠ Rock tees tomorrow, here are my top five rock albums of all time.

I love rock music and during the 1980s I saw AC/DC on their Back In Black tour, Girlschool, Iron Maiden (before Bruce Dickinson,) Judas Priest, Saxon, Thin Lizzy, and of course Motorhead with their classic line up of Lemmy, Fast Eddie and Philthy Phil. Motorhead were always my favourite, and when my son was old enough to have his own ear drums damaged, we went to see them together.

These days, most of my travel is to my biggest clients in France and Switzerland, but there’s also travel to speak at the occasional conference, and the odd business trip. Every time I travel, I take with me the same set of cables and chargers.

It’s taken much, much longer to produce, and is itself much, much longer than I’d planned, but my fourth book, Art Direction for the Web, will, at last, be published on on Tuesday 26th March by my friends at Smashing Magazine. Here’s the story behind how it happened.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been writing about the books on my studio bookcase, why I bought them and how they inspire me. (Catch up on parts one and two.) Here’s part three.

After I posted a photograph of my updated shelves on Twitter, several people asked about the books I’ve collected. Last week I started writing about them ( catch up on part one ) and here’s part two.

Our shipment arrived home from Australia last week, and I had the chance to choose which of my design books and magazines to keep in my studio. After I posted a photograph of my updated shelves on Twitter, several people asked about the books I’ve collected, so over the next few weeks, I’m going to write about them.

Maybe, calling my open source web designer and developer contract a “Killer” wasn’t such a smart idea?

When illustrator Josh Cleland and I were designing our “It’s the taste” home page header, we were of course paying homage to the classic PG Tips TV commercials from the 1970s. In particular, the ad that’s been my favourite, Mr. Shifter. Yesterday, Choppers, the last surviving chimpanzee from that 1971 commercial died.

Sue and I were driving home last Sunday when I realised that on Tuesday this week we would’ve seen Motörhead live at the Manchester Apollo.

This week at Smashing Conference in New York, I had the very great pleasure of meeting Chris Lilley. I recognised Chris’ name, but it took me a day to remember that he had been the chairman of the ‘Style and Formatting Properties Working Group’ at the W3C, a precursor to the CSS Working Group. Chris is a hugely important person in the history of the web.

It’s amazing to think that John Allsopp’s oft-quoted article, A Dao of Web Design was published fifteen years ago today. A List Apart asked me what John’s article means to me now, but rather than focus on Dao’s flexible design principles, I wanted to talk about a passage that never seems to get a mention.

Ten years ago, in 2005, my friend Drew MacLellan asked if I would contribute a short article to the then new 24ways, “advent calendar for web geeks” and “a daily dose of web design and development goodness” throughout December.

I’m researching advertising successes for a new talk that I’m writing and of course that means PG Tips and their famous chimpanzees campaign that ran for 32 years from 1956 and within two years made PG the number one tea brand in Britain and kept them there for decades.

We’re half-way through a project, designing a web ‘application’ for a client. This means writing lots of HTML and making plenty of template pages.

My blog is ten years old today. Of course Stuff and Nonsense as a company is older than that by a few years, but today, ten years ago, on May 13 th *, I rolled out the welcome mat on the new site.

I’d been in Nottingham for the day, catching up with friends including Owen Gregory. Driving home, an idea started to develop. Owen and I worked together on client projects at the time and I trust him to give me an honest opinion, so I pulled the car over, called him and explained the idea. A book called ‘Hardboiled Web Design.’

What can I say? Thank-you. So very much. From all of us. You voted and Stuff and Nonsense has been shortlisted, in the top five, for Agency Of The Year at the Net Magazine awards 2014. I can’t tell you how much that means to us. Whatever happens during the next phase, the judges’ voting stage, you made us feel special and we’re starting the week with the biggest smiles on our faces.

The first half of the final series of Mad Men is just over a month away and today AMC released a new poster, designed by none other than Milton Glaser.

I’m putting my stake in the ground. If and when Apple releases what all the pundits keep calling an ‘iWatch,’ the tagline on their invitation to the press event will read: It’s about time.

Some of the most treasured comics in my collection—alongside first prints of Watchmen signed by Alan Moore—are early Dark Horse Presents including the first Sin City stories.

Well, not quite yet, but later this month. They’ve been going from strength to strength and while there hasn’t been a blockbuster book since Hicks’ Icon Handbook, their Pocket Guides series contains some real gems. They’ve updated their site ready for the birthday celebrations and a little bird tells me they’ll soon be celebrating with a sale, starting next week. That will be a great time to pick up that copy of Hardboiled Web Design you haven’t got around to buying.

Year Of Code Director Lottie Dexter, talking on Newsnight. (Skip to 5:30. I was going to add my own commentary, but to be honest what Lottie said is funnier without it.)

Eclipsed by most of the nonsense going on at the Grammys—Honestly, people actually like Daft Punk?—were two good country music wins.

Zeldman in fine form: Never fear, web design generalists: many companies and organizations require your services and always will — from universities still seeking webmasters, to startups seeking seasoned folks with multiple areas of understanding to direct and coordinate the activities of younger specialists. But if jack-of-all web work is feeling stale, now may be the time to up your game as a graphic designer, or experience designer, or front end developer. “Diversify or die” is overstating things when the world needs generalists, too. But “follow the path you love” will always be good advice.

Talking with Dan on this week’s Unfinished Business got me thinking about photography and workshops and wanting to learn to make better photographs.

Two weeks before Christmas I took a train to Birmingham to meet a new client. After our meeting I wandered to the Bull Ring and went into the Dr. Martens shop there to buy a new pair of boots.

The Net Awards returns for 2014, but unlike previous years, this time I’d actually appreciate your vote.

Bob Asbille asked me this week if my Hardboiled Web Design book is worth buying by someone who’s looking to learn about responsive web design.

Talking to Dan Cederholm on Unfinished Business this coming week, our conversation to book writing, in particular working on second, maybe even third editions of books we wrote years ago.

It seemed apt to post these lyrics today. My person favourite version of this song is on Billy Bragg’s Tooth & Nail album. Listen on Spotify.

I’ve lived with the new video feature in Instagram for about a week and while I was originally sceptical about whether video and Instagram would be a good match, I thought it best to wait a while before forming an expressing an opinion.

Cute. Very cute.

I like to think that at Stuff and Nonsense, our house isn’t so much a place to work as it is a house of fun and although we take the work we do very seriously, we don’t take ourselves too seriously at all. We hope that sense of fun comes across on our site and today we’re putting aside our embarrassment, putting on our baggy trousers and unveiling a new header on our home page.

Cennydd Bowles thinks: Users used to tap phones and click mice. But the latest high-end devices combine the two, and it’s now highly likely your interface needs to be designed with both touch and mouse/trackpad in mind. So, unless I’m sure only one applies, I’ve stopped saying “click” and “tap”. Instead, I say “select.’ That’s smart thinking, but I’m not convinced “select.’ is the right word either. I can’t imagine talking an ‘average“ person through an interface and saying “Now ‘select’ the Submit button to buy (those ape action figures).’” That’s why I’m going with “press.’ because whether on an input type is physical or virtual, keyboard, d-pad button, trackpad or mouse, that’s what people do.

In no particular order:

I can remember the first cigarette I ever smoked. It was 1983 and on my way to art foundation one day, I stopped my car at Kettering railway station and bought a packet of ten Benson & Hedges and a box of Swan matches. I pulled on the cellophane band, tore off the top and flipped open the golden box. I’ll never forget the smell of tobacco that rises from a freshly opened pack or the bitter smell of a match. I slipped a cigarette between my lips, struck a match and lit it.

After last week’s episode of Unfinished Business, Laura Kalbag wrote two good posts on mentoring.

Yesterday, when I appeared on The Web Ahead, I issued this challenge to anyone who complains about hearing familiar faces speak at web conferences:

I spent last week in Geneva. Nothing out of the ordinary about that as I’ve been working there fairly regularly over the last couple of years. But last week was my birthday week — Tuesday. 47. A new wallet. Thanks for asking — so they had to be very special people to persuade me to spend the week with them. They were. Good honest folk.

After I posted my review of Hammer – the simple to use, GUI app that helps me design with HTML – this week, several people tweeted a few alternatives. Oooh, oooh, let’s go look!

Although Adobe have said nothing officially, their silence says it all. Unofficially my little birdies tell me that Fireworks is not being updated for retina displays so the tool I’ve used and loved for a decade or more is effectively dead.

Something strange happened to me on Twitter today.

With the help of Tapbots’Netbot client, it looks like App.net might be gathering steam. If App.net’s your thing, you’ll now find me there too although I guess I’m not alone in being unsure when I’ll use App.net instead of Twitter. Follow me on App.net. (Damn that name isn’t getting any easier to say.)

The responsive pattern library is meant to be a comprehensive collection of responsive interface patterns created by and collected for the community. Here’s more from Brad Frost. I want his dog. So badly.

Adobe announced yesterday that Creative Cloud customers (like me) will receive an upgrade to HiDPI and Retina Display Support. This sounds like great news if you’re a Photoshop or Lightroom user — two apps that will receive the update first — but not if your everyday design app is Fireworks, not Photoshop. There was no mention of when (or more likely if) Fireworks will be upgraded.

It’s been a mad couple of weeks since I came back from holiday. This week onsite with my friends at STV and the first spent head down on another project. But before I could get back to work, I had to set up our new studio.

Making screenshots for the some portfolio panels for my new site design — It’s out on Wednesday kids — I came across a problem. I couldn’t get screenshots sharp enough for a retina display because I’m snapping on a plain ol’ Macbook Air. Damn.

I haven’t posted lyrics for a while, but it seemed appropriate this week, both with the news (no pun intended) this week that Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson face charges relating to phone hacking and the fact that I put the final, final, final touches to my design for the upcoming Hillsborough Independent Panel’s report into the Hillsborough Disaster that will be launched in September.

My beloved Fireworks, now in CS6, encountered an error yesterday and refused to save. My only option was to Force Quit the app and lose half an hour’s work. Hey ho. Then I found out that auto-save might have helped me, maybe lose less work. Here’s what I did.

My contribution to The Pastry Box Project this month: There’s no reason why anyone should have to wait more than 24 hours for the money you owe them, especially people you work with. So the next time you receive an invoice from a contractor or supplier, pay it right away. Don’t wait a month, a week, a day or even an hour longer than you have to. Better still, find out how to pay them before they start any work. That way you can pay them immediately when you receive their invoice. They’ll feel good and so will you. (This post was inspired by the experience of someone I know.)

This morning I picked up the phone to (just) Holly, a chirpy sounding lady who asked if we played music ‘within our business.’ If we did, we’d need a license. I told her we didn’t (yeah, shoot first and ask questions later) and she said we’d be removed from their list (whatever that is.)

This post from Jolly Bureau ties in very nicely with what I wrote for The Pastry Box Project this month. So I thought I’d elaborate on: About a year ago, I left day rates and job rates behind and started estimating, billing and working on projects on a weekly basis. A year on and I’m better organised, more productive and less stressed than ever before. Our accounts are in better shape and no one owes us money for longer than a week. It was one of the best business moves I’ve made.

When I set up my home/office wireless after switching broadband providers, I called the downstairs router’s network ‘Planet Of The Apes.’ And why not? ‘Andy Clarke’s Network’ is a boring name. (And Planet Of The Apes is a better movie than Star Wars.) Then I called the Airport Extreme extended upstairs network ‘Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes’ and the Airport Express I keep under my desk ‘Beneath The Planet Of The Apes.’ I bought a mifi today because I’m working in London a fair bit over the next few months and the client site doesn’t have open wifi. I could stick with the network’s given name, 3MobileWiFi-c602, but ‘Escape From The Planet Of The Apes’ seems much, much more appropriate.

I’ve worked for myself for the last fourteen years and for most of that I’ve worked in my office at home.

If you’ve been using Twitter and the Twitter app for iPhone for a while, you’ll probably miss having access to your direct messages in the toolbar since Twitter replaced it with the ‘discover’ button (whatever that does.) Don’t worry, because some friends of mine who work at Twitter in San Francisco showed me a way to unlock a hidden power user mode that puts DMs back in the toolbar.

When I upgraded my phone to an iPhone 4S it instantly took over as my main camera. I use Camera+ and ProHDR, olloclip lens attachments and POPA and I couldn’t be happier with the results I get.

This week I was sat in a hotel in London and uploaded at photo to Instagram. It was a kangaroo I met a couple of weeks ago at a sanctuary near Brisbane. It’s a half decent photo. OMG! KANGAROOS ARE SOOO CUUUTE! But posting the photo felt wrong. I know plenty of people who post Instagram photos from weeks or even months back. But Instagram isn’t Flickr and photos on Instagram should be from today, or at a push from yesterday. You know. Like insta(nt). Anything else is a Delayagram ™.

So I’m sitting in the studio, alone, this morning, listening to The Talk Show while I get my head clear for a day’s work, when the Mac behind me starts to talk (video below. How can this even happen?

My Last.fm favourites I don’t use Last.fm socially, but I left it scrobbling so it could compile the soundtrack to my 2011.

Some quotes from the HP MacBook Pro Envy’s design video (Hat tip to Matt Legend Gemmell ):

Bruce Lawson asked: If I buy a Galaxy Tab 10.1 today, do I get a *timely* over-the-air upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich for free? Samsung UK replied: This is not guaranteed. Honeycomb was made specifically for the 10.1, so there are no plans for release at present. I guess that I just expected, when I bought my Galaxy Tab 10.1 this summer, that I’d get software updates from Samsung the same way I get them for my iOS devices. Sure enough I did get one — one that replaced stock Honeycomb with Samsung’s own TouchWiz variant — an update I didn’t want but was told that if I didn’t update, I wouldn’t get any upgrades in future. Now it looks like my Galaxy Tab 10.1 — already the most expensive shaving mirror I’ve ever bought — is going to stay stuck in 2011. Does the same go for Tabs still on the shelves of your favourite big box retailer? What about the 10.1N variant I saw in Germany two weeks ago? Samsung doesn’t get software.

I doubt it’ll come as much of a surprise to learn that I love my iPhone 4S. It was a major upgrade from the 3G I swapped my original iPhone for last September, but I’ve been less impressed with its battery life. Now I think I’ve found the culprit. Foursquare

.Net magazine published its The top 25 books for web designers and developers after asking a few contributors and yours truly for our recommendations.

Joshua Topolsky We think of The Verge (and its underlying CMS) as something akin to an app. A piece of software that is being constantly developed and updated. Today we’re launching with The Verge 1.0, but 1.1 and 1.2 are just around the corner. This Is My Next — my favourite tech, gadget site over the last few months — has (right on cue) become The Verge. If you’ve been reading This Is My Next, you’ll know there’s been a lot to like about the quality of its journalism. There’s a lot to like about the new site’s design too, from the strong layout of its review pages to many of the design details. I can see myself spending a lot of time on the Apple hub. I love the category/brand tabs in the review sidebar navigation. They’re not unique, they’re not new, but here they just ‘work’. The ‘jump to’ overlay on product review pages, like this one for the iPhone 4S, just works too. It’s obvious that everyone involved in The Verge cares about the details. Compared to Engadget, Gizmodo or the recent TechCrunch redesign disaster, The Verge’s design is a treat and it looks like a worthy successor to This Is My Next. So far, I love it.

Friday night is Geek Ninja Battle Night in Brighton and the topic that Aral “Ken” Balkan, Sarah “Cammy” Parmenter, Remy “Cyclops” Sharp and me (Andy “M(alarkey) Bison” Clarke) are fighting over is Mobile – Web vs. Native! I’m taking the unusual step (for me) of speaking without a slide-deck to back me up, but I’ve prepared an outline for my short talk which might be interesting if you’re not attending.

From time to time, I get asked, “Why no index in Hardboiled Web Design?” My usual flippant answer being, “What? You want it even thicker?” Still, I know some people like indexes and the Hardboiled paperback doesn’t have one, (unless you count searching in the PDF version). Steven Milne has taken matters into his own hands with his unofficial Hardboiled Index.

I got different two scarves last Christmas, from two different people. But the difference wasn’t the colour, or the fabric, it was the giving.

It’s a?????????????????, this web design design lark. Who’d have thought that learning a bit of code would’ve meant I got travel around the world and to places I never thought I’d see?

I’ve always believed that content on the web should be free (from presentation).

My new Macbook Air arrived this evening and it’s the best laptop I’ve ever owned. Less than an hour after unpacking it, it’s already the travelling production powerhouse I wanted.

I’m tired. Really tired. Not just the tiredness that comes from back-to-back transatlantic flights crammed into airline seats (although I have another one of those to look forward to today), but the kind of tiredness that goes deep into my bones.

After several years of presenting my workshop materials on behalf of other people, on the 1st of September 2008 I announced that I’d be striking out to present my content in my own series of workshop events. I called this aspect of my business For A Beautiful Web.

If you own anything made by Apple, you possibly already know about Hard Graft. I’ve been a huge fan of them, their cases and sleeves since a friend introduced me to them a year or so ago. So when Apple announced the iPad, I knew I wanted a Hard Graft case for it. Hell, I wanted a Hard Graft iPad case even before there was an iPad. And now I have one.

If you are one of those people who love to complain about old browsers, it’s important to remember just how far browsers have come.

Do you occasionally have to explain to a client why the site you made for them using CSS looks different for people who use very old browsing software? You should thank your lucky stars.

A simple game time waster (and an old school blog meme). Go to the address bar in your browser and type a letter. Start with “a”, end with “z”. Here is what I found.

Some things are best expressed without words.

Ambling around a five storey bookstore in the Jinbocho area of Tokyo today, in the computer section I stumbled across a Japanese translation of my Transcending CSS and CSS Best Practice by Miki Ofuji.

First a disclaimer. I smoke cigarettes. I know that they are bad for me will probably kill me early or make me ill, but I for now at least I choose to smoke because I like something they give me physiologically.

Ooops! The Stuff and Nonsense Theatre Company have printed 20,000 flyers with my URL on them by mistake.

As true now as it was in 1986.

Yesterday I took a call (and received an email) from a long-standing client. I designed for them in 2001/2. Over the last year, the staff responsible for updating their site had changed, they had mislaid their passwords and they needed help. So help was what they got.

A little over a week ago, but what seems like much, much, longer, my wife and I made the long trip from home to Australia to host three Visual Web Design Masterclasses in partnership with our good friends at Web Directions. It proved to be quite a week.

I’m currently spending my time writing and preparing content for a new DVD title, Designing Accessibility (For A Beautiful Web), part of a series of DVDs that I am making for New Riders, that will be published sometime in 2009.

Running a small business means that I divide my time between the things that I love doing (project planning, designing and dealing with people) and the things that I don’t enjoy so much (business planning, accounting and dealing with (some) people).

Nothing drives me crazy like TV ads for insurance comparison web sites (if I hear once more that you don’t have to be a computer wizard to use confused.com, I might just drive over the edge).

I promise. In the run up to the opening of the Watchmen movie next year, I will resist the urge to write about or link to every piece of Watchmen trivia.

In what I hope will not be a series about the stupid things that clients complain about.

Some of you might know that I’ve been passionate about learning to ride large motorcycles for a while and have been taking a DAS course at Pro Bike. While I’ve not yet managed to pass my test (that’s another story), I am determined and today more inspired than ever by an email from my friend Pascal who has just completed a ride from southern France to Beijing and back.

I haven’t watched television on a regular basis for a year now, preferring instead to watch TV series on DVD on my Mac at the end of the day. Over recent months I’ve been going to bed with Jack Bauer, watching 24 from seasons one to four.

I joined Amazon’s DVD Rental service recently, which so far has turned out to be (not unexpectedly) brilliant. I’ve been filling up my rental list with half-forgotten classics as well as the occassional bustblocker and along the way have developed a penchant…

I am the one, orgasmatron, the outstretched grasping hand My image is of agony, my servants rape the land Obsequious and arrogant, clandestine and vain Two thousand years of misery, of torture in my name Hypocrisy made paramount, paranoia the law My name is…

So Web Directions North has wrapped and tomorrow we head to the mountains for a spot of cold weather sports activity (or probably in my case, my lips around a nice hot chocolate). But first, other news.

I have been meaning to establish a new backup regime at Stuff for months. But unlike some of the other things I’ve been doing, sorting out backup isn’t sexy, isn’t exciting: so it lay whimpering for attention on my to-do list.

Plastered all around the walls on London Underground are Apple ads for Apple ads. Specifically ads for the new UK versions of Apple’s I’m a Mac, I’m a PC ads.

So I’m sat infront of my Mac yesterday and at about 4.30, the phone rang. Now I’ve written before about telephone salesmen, but this was a call with a difference. Caller: Hi, my name is Roger Daltrey from Who’s Better Software.

Despite owning several iPods including a 60Gb that contains my entire music collection, all six Star Wars movies and a multitude of other files, the new iPod Shuffle is such a thing of beauty that I just had to have one.

As I’ve just been invited to speak at a web conference in Canada next year, I thought that it was about time that I updated my biography. Looking back at what I have written before, it all seemed a little bland; designer this, accessibility that.

40 years of hope, 120 minutes and 2 geeks biting their nails in Brown’s in Hockley, Nottingham

Driving around Engerlaaand, it’s hard to miss the flags of Saint George flying from buildings and cars. Every second person is sporting a replica shirt and petrol stations are doing a roaring trade in everything from Ferdinand fragrance air-fresheners to…

It’s time to tell the remaining untold stories from Arno Zimmerman. Unfortunately not all of Arno’s attempts at domain name acquisition were successful, but thanks to everyone concerned for being great fun to play with.

My good friend Arno Zimmerman has been busy this Easter weekend, attempting to procure domain names for his nefarious purposes clients. In today’s episode, Jeremy Keith smells a rat (rather than the sweet smell of money) in Adactio Pour Domme.

I often feel blue wishing I was old enough to have seen the blues greats play. Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson II, T. Bone Walker and BB King are rarely far away from iTunes for more than a few days.

Somehow, in Malarkey world conversations often take an unexpected turn down memory lane. Yesterday I was trying to explain to (a slightly bewildered) person about one of my favourite animated cartoon classics, Mr. Benn.

In the news this week, three times winner of the Tour De France and occassional web designer Jeffrey Veen announced that MeasureMap has been acquired by Yahoo, AltaVista, Starbucks, Google.

In the news this week, three times winner of the Tour De France and occassional web designer Jeffrey Veen announced that MeasureMap has been aquired by Yahoo, AltaVista, Starbucks, Google.

Explaining about the difference in northern British accents, a conversation metaphorically headed up the M6 motorway, through the inevitable roadworks to Manchester.

MJ is taking a road trip (you can see her images on Flickr ). After 13 hours of driving, she’s covered just over 1000 miles from San Francisco to Tuscon in Arizona via Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix, on her way to Dallas.

Way back when, I listed my favourite top ten phrases that people search for to find my site. Now thanks to the wonders of MeasureMap, it’s time for ten more.

Although it comes as no surprise following his string of alcohol related illnesses, the news that British footballing legend George Best has died is no less very sad.

Released today, Paul Weller’s new album As Is Now isn’t the return to form which I expected. It’s better. A tour-de-force! Weller at his most spectacular for almost ten years.

Come you masters of war You that build all the guns You that build the death planes You that build the big bombs You that hide behind walls You that hide behind desks I just want you to know I can see through your masks You that never done nothin’ But build…

Malarkey: I’m trying to decide between an iPod and a nano. Do you have a 4Gb nano in stock? Apple Eddie: No way. Sorry man, they’re like, hot right now. We could be waiting like days for those.

I’m sorry to all my overseas friends (and possibly those of you under 30) who probably won’t have the faintest clue what I’m talking about, but the BBC Doctor Who web site last week announced the return of the Doctor’s once faithful dog, K9.

Anyone’round here not realise I’m a big fan of Paul Weller? Thought not. Well, the Modfather has a new single released today and without so much as a pre-listen, it’s arrived by vintage Lambretta and straight into iTunes.

Scribbling furiously away during @media (Ed says: What? You weren’t listening to the wise words? ), the highly talented Kevin Mears made drawings of the speakers. […] those famous ears was just too good to miss.

Remember Dealing with telephone salesmen, Dealing with window salesmen or Dealing with kitchen salesmen? Well, the phone gags live on. Here was a recent one. You probably know how it is, this time you’re at work and the phone rings.

School music teacher: (To class) Who would like to learn a musical instrument? Teacher: What instrument would you like to learn?

It’s amazing what people buy and sell on eBay. A quick Google reveals some crazy fools, with some of my favourites including someone selling (and bidding on) a Russian military patrol boat (No sale though, the highest bid of $85,100 did not meet minimum…

A little WordPl@y Bujumbura Prestidigitation Raconteur Superannuation Perinaeum Beefcake Phalangist Anthrompomorphize Didactic

Don MacLean may have sung it before in American Pie, but today surely must be the day the music died. Well perhaps died is too severe, but today for me must be the day that popular music reached an all time low.

When I reached the studio this morning, (Ed says: Malarkey is always grumpy before 11am. ) there was a mysterious box sitting on my desk. Open the box! shouted the voices in my head, so guess what? I opened the box!

I’ve been passed the baton by John Oxton in a new musical pass the parcel, so I thought I’d use this to explore the depths of my record collection. 9.65Gb on my PC laptop. (Oh how I’m looking forward transfering it to my (soon to be arriving) iBook.)

Whereas many have already publicly switched from MovableType to other brands of blogging software, some for technical and others for economic reasons, I am sticking to MT.

Summer, Buddy Holly, the working folly Good golly Miss Molly and boats Hammersmith Palais, the Bolshoi Ballet Jump back in the alley and nanny goats 18-wheeler Scammels, Domenecker camels All other mammals plus equal votes Seeing Piccadilly, Fanny Smith and…

As some of you might know, I like to work on e-commerce store designs. Part of what fascinates me about making sites designed to do business is the psychology of designing for e-commerce.

Spending five minutes exploring Google Labs today, I came across Mr. Google’s Site-Flavored Google Search, not by any means a new Lab experiment (6/17/04) but one which was tantalisingly labelled Improved!. To quote Mr.

If I banked with Barclays, I might have been caught out by this email I received this morning. No word of a lie, this is the real deal! Tsih emlia was setn by the Barclays serevr to veirfy yoru emial aerddss.

If you’re here in Austin, let me know and I’ll add yours to the list.

This coming Thursday I’m taking a plane from Manchester to Austin Texas (via Chicago) bound for SXSW. It’s my first time in Texas so I’m looking forward to bumping into some famous Texans.

This coming Thursday I’m taking a plane from Manchester to Austin Texas (via Chicago) bound for SXSW. It’s my first time in Texas so I’m looking forward to bumping into some famous Texans.

Yes, it’s true. Today I met the President. No, not George Dubya, but Rhodri Morgan, the President of Wales! Well actually that’s not quite true either.

An open apology to all sales-people adversely affected by recent columns. Please accept my heart-felt apologies for potentially causing you so many wasted sales calls.

OK, I can’t resist it. If you enjoyed Dealing with telephone salesmen, Dealing with window salesmen or Dealing with kitchen salesmen (and I hope you did) here is one last bash at cold callers.

OK, if you enjoyed Dealing with telephone salesmen and Dealing with window salesmen (and I hope you did) here is another. I’m not going to flog a dead horse, so this will be the last for a while.

You probably know how it is, you’re just sitting down to dinner (perhaps in front of your favourite TV show) when the phone rings. Salesman Hello, can I speak to the person responsible for your gas/electricity/telephone/bills, please?

OK, if you enjoyed the last one (and I hope you did) here is another. In case you missed it, you probably know how it is, you’re just sitting down to dinner (perhaps in front of your favourite TV show) when the phone rings, Hello, can I speak to the person…

I love this!;) More about it another day…

Andy Budd has announced BlogAid, asking you to pledge the earnings from advertising, affiliate programs or site sponsorship made from your site during January to your countries local Earthquake and Tsunami appeal.

I’d just finished reading Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s Long Way Round book (kindly given by Sue’s Mum for my birthday at the end of November) when the DVD pops into my Christmas stocking (this time, nicely gift wrapped for my brother by Amazon (lazy…

Well, it’s time for me to head off to the Stuff and Nonsense office Christmas party. It’s the same every year… I have too many drinks, then chat up the gorgeous girl from accounts, before heading off to her place for…;) Thing is, I never regret it in the…

When I didn’t know what colour to put down, I put down black. Black is a force: I depend on black to simplify the construction.

It’s funny how you build up a mental people before you meet them. So this weekend was going to be interesting as a band of Brit Pack bloggers, accompanied by their roadies and groupies, met up in London for art, beer and a bit of a chin wag.

As Colly referred to earlier, a wild bunch of bad-ass Brit bloggers are meeting up in London this weekend. Now I know what a few of the guys (and gal) look like from occasional blog pictures, but you know how photos can deceive.

Introducing Donny, six days old when this picture was taken and coming to live with us sometime during Christmas.

I’m damn sure that like coffee and cigarettes, blogs contain some chemical that makes them addictive. Just because I felt like it, I’ve been tinkering again with And All That Malarkey, although this time the changes are mostly’under the duvet’.

Referrer logs, we pretend to ignore them but let’s be honest, we take a peek in there once in a while. Personally I love’em, and having a quick rummage has become a bit of a habit.

I’m not going to be blogging now for the next two weeks as I have a few projects which need my undivided attention. But rather than let rumours of my untimely death circulate, I thought that I would let you know and leave you with a wee competition, just for…

I’ve just awarded my first Silver Star over at the Web Standards Awards. My award goes to the edgy and unconventional Red Labor. Now I’m not going to make a habit of posting awarded sites both here and on WSA. This is the first time and definately the last.

Forget Superman or the Hulk, the Fantastic Four or (God forbid) Captain America! When I was a kid there was only one comic book hero, the mighty Judge Dredd.

We’re packed and ready to go. The South of France is calling and I’m looking forward to two weeks of quality time away from the phone, emails and MSN.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about fluid layout design over recent weeks and have made it my goal to attempt fluid (or fluid/elastic hybrid) layouts with each new design. And you know what? It’s a damn site harder than I thought it would be.

J’ai’t’ tr’s’tonn’ et satisfait par les nombres de liens ’, et des commentaires au sujet et sur de cet emplacement par des visiteurs de l’ext’rieur du monde d’expression anglaise.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, bloody, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Swiss, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,…

Cum on Eng-er-laaand! It’s only five days until our boys take on France in Euro 2004. So to get us in the mood for some superb footy action, here is my Web Imitates Football Quiz. Can you guess which European team strips inspired these colour palettes?

As the world’s attention is focussed on northern France and the commemorations marking the 60th anniversary of D-Day, I am reflecting more than I have ever done before on the events of sixty years ago.

More than 100 artworks from the famous Charles Saatchi’s collection have been destroyed in a warehouse fire. Among the many pieces of contemporary artists’ work destroyed were works by Tim Noble and Sue Webster, who I had the pleasure of knowing at art school…

This is And All That Malarkey, where I write about stuff that takes my fancy. I hope you like what you read.

(In a change from the advertised programming,) I’m appealing for Fine Art painters to contribute to an up-and-coming project.

It is the first new month after the relaunch of And All That Malarkey and for the redesign I introduced a new Editorials category. As a single author site, you might be wondering why there is a need for such a category.

I’m working on a special little something and with my begging cap firmly pressed on my head, I’m asking for your help. This little something involves me looking at newspaper typography from around the world.

Yes it’s another Transcending CSS, book related grovel. If you or anyone you know owns a vintage (or semi-vintage) Lambretta or Vespa scooter and you live in or close to Manchester (UK), please read on.

Along with so many others, And All That Malarkey has gone naked today, swept away on a tide of mass hypnosis. How did this happen to me?

A comparison table of fourty web site’s naming conventions

My small contribution to 24ways, Z’s not dead baby, Z’s not dead blinks sleepily into the daylight today. The use of positioning together with z-index has been a little out of favour recently.