As if the world needed one more reason to appreciate NPR, I found one more. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Vivian Schiller, president and CEO of NPR, had this to say about the design of their iPad application:

Wow! I wish more executives took the time to learn and understand core principals of design and function as it relates to the experience. Sadly, the reality is that every year there will be at least one time that you and I will have to fight the good fight because a client or in-house executive thinks their ten-second intuition knows best.

As part of LA Times weak pre-event coverage of Comic-Con, they had Seth Rogen and some other dude provide tips on attending the event. Among other worthless points Seth could have provided, this one stands out:

Screw you Seth and your stupid curly head. Take your Hollywood crap and invade some other large gathering of people. Oh, I hear the unemployment lines are really popular right now.

This afternoon will be spent preparing the office for next weeks move into the city. Anyone who has ever come by to visit my office could not help but notice the Airbag Published Materials Collection that started more than fifteen years ago. From time-to-time I have weeded the library of titles that either ended up being completely useless or I had somehow gained a duplicate copy. Samples from the collection include DHTML and CSS for the World Wide Web by Jason Cranford Teague, Hot Wired Style by Jeffrey Veen, and Lynda Weinman's web designer staple Designing with Web Graphics.2 (I gave away the first one to a college who wanted to learn how to become a designer).

Years ago I had a discussion with a person who had a lot of passion for libraries and collections. She was very happy to know that I was hanging on to such tomes in hopes that one day it would be handed over to someone as a matter of keeping all of it for historical record. And so I have continued to provide care for these books in effort to help preserve them as close to the condition as they were when I bought them.

Books like those written by Weinman and Veen are definitely keepers because they were more than a vocational how-to and provided invaluable information and insight on how to be creative despite the constraints of the web at the time. It is these volumes which I believe will be valuable--not in the monetary way mind you--to future generations of researchers and hobbyist who are curious about the different phases in the our creative evolution. Those books get to stay and will be cared for until it is time to hand them off to a library or collection somewhere.

I'm not so certain that I should continue to provide care for books that provide how-to information for things like DHTML, Flash MX, or old versions, think very old, of Photoshop. I have brought them along with the assumption that they might have the same curiosity value as an old Chilton's manual from decades ago but now I'm not so sure. Maybe it's time to thin the heard and recycle these things into something more useful.

When I consulted the Rocket Scientist on his matter she made the Are You Kidding Me?™ face, waved her hand, and with a "Pfffft" to dismiss me and my First World quandary away. Perhaps deservingly so, but if you share the same passion for the web that I have then hopefully you'll understand and provide more than one syllable suggestion.

Facebook, the global leader in online privacy protection, is working on an upgrade to their privacy options that will require the new Facebook Privacy Control Center® to be installed in every user's home. At this time the planned array of privacy options will require approximately 5000 sq. ft. of controls, dials, notebooks, drink holders, and several monitors. Facebook is working around the clock to integrate the use of microchip technology which should reduce the footprint to the size of a Buick Electra by late fall of 2014.

If you are a web designer/developer who burned their copy of Frontpage 98, delighted in replacing an awful Flash site with a standards-based design and have watched as HTML, CSS, and Javascript combine to form the best Three's Company ever made then your world is about to get rocked.

The very language we use day in and day out is being branded as the solution for the future—the smart choice for companies to reach their intended audiences. So much so that you have two giants of the web/publishing/design industry going toe-to-toe in a very public debate over whose vision and platform will dominate.

I could be wrong, but I don't ever recall a global icon being quoted as saying the future is HTML. Nor do I ever recall a CEO saying they were betting their company on HTML (Okay, maybe there's a quote from some random issue of GOPHER magazine during the late 80's).

There should be celebrating in the streets, dancing on the ceiling, Ewoks, and the firing pistolas in the air. For years we've had to preach and defend the gospel of web standards to the mouth-breathing masses who have been drawn to twinkle lights and really bad house background tracks. No more will we have to spend precious time debating the merits of presentation layers being divorced from markup, usability, and every day common sense to a communications major who would really rather be producing ads for television.

Steve Jobs' flag planting doesn't mean an instant win for any of us. But with a guy like that in your corner, how can HTML not be the sought after method for publishing content via hypertext? We still have an uphill battle before us but HTML5 and the growing support from outside our vocation are strong allies. It's simple, elegant, and the first spec to make the most sense. I know this to be true after taking a few hours to read through an advance copy of Jeremy's book on the subject.

Back in my day, books on HTML came in the form of "bibles" and they weighed as much as a NYC telephone directory from 1978. I don't recall if the writers were more verbose than necessary, or it just took that many more pages to document how frames and tables worked, but I love that in eighty-seven pages HTML5 for Web Designers provides a very robust and complete guide for this new version of our foundation.

If you earn your living in any way related to the web then I strongly suggest coughing up a Jackson and waking up in a HTML dominated world—what many would call their Happy Place. As an added extra bonus, Keith's book is also a great way to learn all the right talking points for schmoozing a Cougar into buying you a round of mojitos.

UPDATE: This article has been translated into Belorussian by Patricia Clausnitzer

This morning I decided to browse the Internet. I came across an article on motivation and self promotion. In it was this quote that hits a little too close to home right now:

As I finished reading, the Angelic-Me appeared on my right shoulder, took a strum on a harp and said, "Nice idea. Let's get started right now!" To which the real Mini-Me—dressed in a fine red velvet smoking jacket—appeared to my left, took an angry puff on a cigar and yelled, "Fine John, just...dammit...just get off my back. I'm doing it already. See?! Ok?! Good, now just leave me alone and go motivate Haiti or something. Damn."

I blame El Niño.

In 2009 I bought a Kindle mostly out of curiosity. I thought for sure I'd turn it one, flip around the store, download a book, read a few pages, and put it up for sale on Craigslist the next day. Instead, I downloaded a book and promptly read for four hours straight. Short of a full year later I ended up reading more books than I had in the last decade. It's a great device, something I can't imagine living without now, but it has always had one short coming: no comics, no trades, or graphic novels.

Long time readers will know that I normally don't gush about products in this space but my bet is that you're going to want to know about Panelfly. It's Kindle for comics and it's off to a great start. This is the kind of app that I'm hoping everyone will download, use, and support because I'd like to see it succeed (rather than have Marvel, DC., Darkhorse, etc., create their own reader). Ever since using the Kindle 2 I've wanted a comic shop in a box and that's exactly what Panelfly delivers. It's already getting more use than any other leisure app on my iPhone right now and I can't imagine how much better it's going to be on the iPad with it's faster processor and larger screen.

As a bonus Panelfly happens to be well designed and a pleasure to use. Upon opening the main menu sits on top of cover art from one of the issues in your library. This type of treatment continues throughout the Library where all of your issues are stored and initially listed by title (the list can also be sorted by publisher, author, artist, and genre). The store will be familiar territory though it should be noted that it's not a knock-off of iTunes Store but just as easy to use. Users are able to browse issues just as you would in a comic shop, by opening the book and taking a look inside. Purchasing requires setup of an account but after that it's as simple as Amazon's One-Click. The hardest part of this application will be to resist buying almost everything that comes out on a weekly basis. Thankfully issue prices are not as expensive as printed issues and there are a number of free books available. A practice I presume will keep going as publishers continue to seek new readers.

Ok, that's it. Now it's all on you. After you've downloaded Panelfly check out Robot 13, a title that will remind you of the artistic and storytelling quality of early Hellboy.