There & Back Again

Yesterday’s presentation went very well. Many seemed very interested in how easy it is to publish through blogging, and I think some were intrigued by all the possibilities it allowed. I spoke about blogging, creating web pages, and CSS while Angela demonstrated everything on the large video monitor. Our presentation ended up being about an hour and a half — which, for me, is normally about six months worth of talking. :-)

Both before and after we had some people coming up to ask us questions, which was pretty cool. I hope we were helpful. With such a diverse group, it’s so hard to know how deeply to go into these topics. Based on the questions, I have updated the hand out with some web books I recommend.

Other things I keep forgetting to mention:

• We met with one of our potential clients again on Tuesday. Looks like everything is a go, we just have to sign the contract. I wish I could give more information, but the client is very secretive. I can tell you that it is a web site 15 years in the making. Think about that for a while. I really think it’s a good idea, and has a lot of growth potential. We’re trying to plan scalability from the very beginning.
• Other leads are in the works. Our goal is to have more work than we can do.
• I will finish writing about our trip. Really, I will.
• Netscape is dead. Not all that surprising, but still sad. I was a Netscape user from the very beginning, and stuck with it until Mozilla reached 1.0. Netscape is synonymous with the history of the Internet, and now it’s gone. Worse still, 50 people lost their jobs, and it’s obvious now that their fate was sealed the moment AOL purchased their company.
• Blind Kiss — An online audio show about what it’s really like being blind. I haven’t spent much time there yet, but it should be interesting for those of us trying to make our websites more accessible.
• Also for those interested in accessibility: Joe Clark’s book, Building Accessible Websites, is now available online, for free.
• Nation Master — Interesting, although 9 out of 10 people agree that statistics don’t prove anything.
• Isolani points to articles here and there about procrastinating. These insights definitely apply to me, as anyone who reads this site has probably figured out. Writing helps… at least, it does when I don’t put off writing.
• Most Drivable Cities — The complete study is also available. Oklahoma City comes in 6^th. St. Louis comes in at 50^th, and I think that’s about right, based on our recent experience. I also noticed that Honolulu came in at 57^th — probably because no one from the continental U.S. can drive there.
• Science Toys — If a site like this had been around when I was a kid… well, I probably wouldn’t have made it to adulthood. You gotta love things that ‘splode.

Well, that turned out to be a big huge plate of stuff. Thankfully, my bucket is now empty, and I can start filling it again.