SiteCrafting

Normally government websites tend to be pretty dry and information-oriented, so I was expecting more of the same when I checked the Snoqualmie Pass traffic cameras from the WSDOT this morning. All the standard stuff that I've come to expect from years of checking the site before driving across the pass was there. However, there was one part of the site that gave me a good laugh this morning. Camera 2 was wiped out in an avalanche over the winter, but rather than a simple "Camera Unavailable" message that I've seen in the past, I saw this:

Comments (3) | Posted in Deep Thoughts, Odds 'n Ends by Mike Ash

Oct. 8, 2007 at 9:52am

Pirates != Web Developers

Unless they work here

Unless there's a Seahawks, Huskies, or Mariners game going on, it's pretty rare that I listen to the radio in my car, let alone anything on the AM band. Saturday was the exception as I was driving toward Seattle right after the Atlas Foundry explosion. I kept flipping between the local AM news stations, hoping to hear of any updates as I was just down the street visiting some friends about 10 minutes before the explosion. Hearing any updates required sitting through weather and traffic reports, as well as what seemed like an endless parade of commercials. One of those commercials hit upon one of my pet peeves.

Comments (4) | Posted in Odds 'n Ends by Mike Ash

Mar. 20, 2007 at 4:55pm

Character Set Troubleshooting

Over the past few weeks, Reena has been building a new website off and on for a local Jesuit parish. Everything was going along smoothly until we hit a bump in the road when dealing with a particular page with some Vietnamese text. After some small (but not obvious) changes in configuration and more research than I cared to do on the subject of character sets, it's all working properly.

Comments (1) | Posted in PHP by Mike Ash

Jan. 18, 2007 at 12:03pm

Email newsletters in Outlook 2007

One thing that we frequently build in conjunction with new websites is a tool for sending out email newsletters. For the most part, we stick to XHTML/CSS and try to stay away from using "old" layout techniques (i.e. tables) for the newsletters. This allows the greatest flexibility between the large number of email clients (e.g. Outlook, AOL, Yahoo!, Eudora, Thunderbird, Pine, etc.). Businesses love being able to quickly communicate with their customers, and email newsletters are a great way to do this. But things are changing, and if you use HTML newsletters, you'll need to make some changes too.

Comments (0) | Posted in CSS, Marketing, XHTML by Mike Ash

Nov. 30, 2006 at 9:52am

Going Old School

As with most people with an email account, I receive a fair amount of spam each day. Most of it is caught by our spam filters and sent to Never-Never-Land where I won't see it. One piece of spam managed to sneak its way through last week that was just too good to ignore. With all the advancements in technology to filter out spam, how do you get your message out to thousands of email accounts? You go old school.

Comments (1) | Posted in Critiques by Mike Ash

Oct. 17, 2006 at 11:33am

Smart Keyword Searching

Earlier this week the brand new Pierce County Library website officially launched. It was a pretty complex build that took a lot of effort between ourselves and the library's staff to make sure that everything worked right for the site's users. One of the more important features on any website with a large amount of content is a solid search function, and this site was no different. With over 300 pages (and still growing), a user could easily have some difficulty tracking down the information that they are looking for. So what can you do to make finding information easier? Read more

Comments (2) | Posted in Coding Techniques, From the Workbench by Mike Ash