Blogging and all that malarkey

When I set out to design the site to launch For A Beautiful Web I knew that I wanted to set a new tone and arrive at something a little unexpected. One of the ways that (I hope) I have achieved that level of unexpectedness was to turn to a classically trained artist, rather than a web designer for creative direction.

Back in April, I was booked by Carsonified to present a half-day workshop on Microformats as part of their Future Of Web Design London spectacular. So what have Microformats got to do with death rays?

Having been booked by Carsonified to host a full-day workshop on advanced CSS back in May, in the weeks leading up to the show I had a flash of inspiration. Why not combine one of my favourite topics with one of my favourite musicians?

Peachpit Web Design Reference have published the first in a series of my articles on Microformats, Microformats: The Fine Art of Markup. In this series instead of focussing on the technical aspects that so many people have done far better, I will be combining talk of Microformats with the wider issue of the importance of writing meaningful mark-up. I’ll be finishing up each of the subsequent articles with what are hope are cool new ways to style Microformat rich mark-up using CSS.

My entry of last week, where I called for the current W3C CSS Working Group to be immediately disbanded, has generated some serious debate, and a few raised voices. I’m glad that is happening. Now, after a little more consideration, I thought I would outline some concrete proposals for how the CSS Working Group could change for the better.

Following Opera’s action, today I am calling on Bert Bos, chairman of the CSS Working Group, and those higher up within the W3C including Sir Tim Berners Lee, to immediately disband the CSS Working Group in its current form. I am asking for immediate action to be taken on the formulation of a replacement CSS Working Group that will include new members who are not the representatives of browser vendors.

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.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been bombarded (in e-mail, in person, and over IM) with questions about instant cake mixes. It’s completely understandable people would come to me with these questions.

Tomorrow will see me making the long journey south to Sydney, Australia to speak at what will be my third Web Directions conference. Although the prospect of so many hours confined to an aircraft seat is again a little daunting, I’m looking forward to what (if previous years are anything to go by) will be an amazing event.

If your Internet connection happens to lose a bit of CSS data, you get a mess on your screen.

This is the all new Stuff and Nonsense web site. Things have changed a great deal around here since the last time you may have stopped by. This site is a merger of two domains, the Stuff and Nonsense company portfolio plus the archives from And All That Malarkey.

To my complete and utter amazement, Jon Burgerman has agreed to create something truly, but unsurprisingly unique for this site. In doing so he has made me realise just how different a feel a new illustration can create, even when nothing else on a page changes.