Blogging and all that Malarkey

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.

Today it came to light in a blog post on Microsoft’s IE Blog that the company intends to include a new ‘compatibility feature’ and black/white list that it hopes will help users if sites break in the up-and-coming release of Internet Explorer 8.

As the title suggests, we’re spreading our wings and taking our For A Beautiful Web Visual Web Design Masterclass to Australia this April, with dates in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.

I’m really pleased that I can announce that, along with a formidable cast of old pros, I’ll be speaking at @media2009 in London on 25th and 26th of June. This will, incredibly, be the sixth time that I’ve spoken at @media (2005, 2006, 2007 (twice), 2008 and now 2009) and this year I’ll be talking about something a little different.

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).

Last year, Leslie Jensen-Inman was working on her graduate thesis and interviewed a cast of shady characters including Andy Budd, (Gentleman) Jon Hicks, Jeremy Keith and yours truly on the subject of web design and development education.

At the moment I’m writing a script for a DVD tutorial on microformats that I will be recording for New Riders at the end of February. While designing some shiny new examples for the hCalendar event microformat, I’ve been revisiting the problems and discussions of accessibility that surround the date design pattern and thinking about possible design solutions.

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).

Let’s be fair, few customers are professional writers and few hire one when making a web site. That is why I now include professional copywriting into every estimate as a non-removable item. When customers are adding their own copy to a site, I give them ten simple tips to follow.

The United States’ soon to President Barack Obama’s choice of Tobias Frere-Jones’ Gotham typeface has been well documented.