Comments for David Herrold

Comment on Responsive web design resources by Dave

Dave — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 01:14:59 +0000

Hey Gary, thanks for the link to the Yoko WordPress theme. I’ve been poking around for a minimalist responsive design WordPress theme and haven’t seen that one. I think you’re totally right about the size/complexity of sites using that design style. I am impressed at how well the Boston Globe site turned out, but I doubt the RD techniques are carried throughout the entire site. Newspapers use far too many vendors to make that work in every nook and cranny of their site. However, with each progression of HTML and CSS I think that will become easier. If I were a mobile platform provider, I’d be nervous at the implications of this type of design. For the right kind (size/complexity) of site, it makes mobile platform providers irrelevant.

Comment on Responsive web design resources by G Love

G Love — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:32:53 +0000

Nice. I’m also a bit enchanted with responsive design right now. I had the chance to put together a blog using those techniques, using the excellent Yoko templates as a starting point (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/06/07/free-html5-css3-wordpress-3-1-theme-with-responsive-layout-yoko/).

Overall, the easy part was the overall design. The devil was in the details…for instance, although some images scale well, others had to be switched out entirely for different sizes. It isn’t a huge deal for template-wide items, but if you have something unusual in the content area it can get tricky quick.

It reminds me of the old days with the flexible width, vs. fixed width debates. Either one is easy to build a small website with…but oftentimes the more elegant/flexible design fall apart when coming up against business requirements like ad size and placement.

With all that said, if you have a small to medium sized site to work with, I highly recommend playing with responsive design. It feels like magic to build a page that auto-magically looks great on desktop, tablet, and smartphones.

Comment on Candid accessibility post from Google engineer Steve Yegge by Dave

Dave — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:58:40 +0000

Cool, thanks for the link, Bill. I’ll check it out.

Comment on Blue apps by Dave

Dave — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:57:14 +0000

From a usability standpoint, it’s really difficult to quickly look at a screen and open an app when all of them are blue. I am forced to remember the position of apps on a page now instead of quickly glancing at the color. I love app icons that are orange or red because they are easy to see and tap quickly with a mere glance.

Comment on Blue apps by Bill Shirley

Bill Shirley — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:54:30 +0000

A few years ago at one of the Apple Conferences (i want to say WWDC 2008 or earlier) they announced they were changing their application icons to all be blue. Though a few have remained the brush-metal aluminum look, most have gone blue.

I always just suspected 3rd party developers were trying to fit in to that mold.

Comment on Candid accessibility post from Google engineer Steve Yegge by Bill Shirley

Bill Shirley — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:51:21 +0000

I recently listened to a MacWorld podcast discussing accessibility. It was quite informative to a general well-abled person. And interesting.

Comment on Amazon One-Click Kindle book purchases by Dave

Dave — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:04:53 +0000

Tim, I didn’t see any mention of removing the book if I didn’t pay for it, but it’s entirely possible. They have the technical capability to do that.

Comment on Amazon One-Click Kindle book purchases by Tim in Denver

Tim in Denver — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:51:31 +0000

I wonder if they ever choose to erase the book from someone’s kindle if the person doesn’t pony up payment by a given deadline. They proved they can delete books already purchased by doing so with Animal Farm when they learned they were selling it without license.

Is there any fine print that indicates what will happen if payment isn’t covered in 5 days?

Comment on Some thoughts on the Netflix changes by Chaz

Chaz — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 04:18:33 +0000

For the record, I dumped both DVD and streaming when they jacked up the price. It was not just the case of there was hardly anything on streaming I wanted to watch ( or that when I found something one week it was there the next…poof gone with the promise of more of that to come in the future). Nor was it the occasional missing/scratched or in one case totally shattered dvd. It wasn’t having the cash in my wallet compared to a latte or two by someone whose monthly salary out strips my yearly one (I love being told how little I can live on by people whom earn like that). It was a matter of principle. To me, it wasn’t right raising my rate after years of purchasing a brand by the amount and the manner it was done. So, I returned to mama cable and HBO (and HBOGO). Yes I pay more for my services now, yes I am happy ( and no doing something on a matter of principle does not mean the end result has to be logical after all, many wars have started over a matter of principle)

Comment on Some thoughts on the Netflix changes by Dave

Dave — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:37:17 +0000

Jake, I’m hovering between dropping the DVDs or not. The streaming selection stinks for movies within he last 5 years or so (which is why I’ve kept the DVDs this long).