Friday, March 29, 2024

January 7, 1999 – Newsletter #10


G O O D I E S T O G O ! ™

January 7, 1999 – Newsletter #10



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Please visit http://www.htmlgoodies.com.

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Greetings, Weekend Silicon Warriors


I had lunch with a colleague the other day. He’s like me in
that he tries to keep up with all of the new advancements
coming across the World Wide Web.


“So, are you keeping up with all of this stuff?” he asked.


“What stuff?”


“You know, all that DHTML, XML, Script stuff that people are
now running. I’m happy I got HTML down to a bit of an art.”
“I have to,” I replied.


“It’s getting away from me. I’ll tell you that,” he said
lifting his Biggie Coke to his mouth.


Do any of you feel that way? Do you feel that the Web is
getting away from you? Well, it isn’t.


I still remember sitting in my first “New Technologies” class
looking at this new thing called the WWW (it was still text-
based then). We used this program called LYNX to “surf,” if you
could call it that, and I thought it was the dumbest thing I
had ever tried. True story: I leaned over to the guy next to
me and said, “This thing would really take off if they could
get it to show pictures.” I really said that! No one ever
believes me. (I also once called out three numbers before the
nightly lotto drawing and they came up. I’m not lying! But you
probably don’t believe that one either.)


So then the images hit and boom! The World Wide Web exploded
into the hands of you and me, the Weekend Silicon Warriors.
HTML was a great language that the average Joe could
actually get his brain around, advancements were just a free
download away, anyone could write and post a Web page, major
sites were started in people’s basements!


Then the first kick in the pants came down the line: A major
computer company decided that the 16-bit PC operating system
was not good enough and that we needed to go to a 32-bit
system. What’s more, these new things called “Applets” were
available, but you had to have the 32-bit system to see them.


This, in my opinion, was the first dent in the Web armor. A
professor of mine, who still boggles my mind with his ability
to predict what’s next, said “The computer companies are
starting to take back the Web.”


You see, Java, the language used to write those Applets, is
rough. It’s not something a buddy can show you in an after-
noon. It’s as cryptic as you believed it would be. So, there
was the first Web element that stood up and out of the weekend
user’s grasp. Then came scripting language, then image
animation, then DHTML, XML, SGML… who gives an ML?


“Ugh! I can’t do all of this! I’ll never learn all of these
languages!”


You’re right, you probably won’t. The thing is, you don’t
have to. Stay with me here.


There was a great commercial that showed a young man (the
computer wizard) and an older man, sitting at a computer
screen looking at various home pages. The young man proclaimed
that their company logo could be on fire! He could make the
page dance around! He could perform even more phenomenal
visual tricks!


The older man said it would be great if they could just set up
the site so customers could find what they wanted easily and
quickly.


And that’s the heart of it all. That’s why the Web works. All
the bells and whistles are great. I love pages that jump,
dance, and spin around, but that’s not the point.


Above all, the Web is a form of communication. It is not
static, like a printed book, it is not a one-to-many form of
mass media like television and radio, and it is not even as
much the Information Super Highway as people would like it
to be. The Web is a computer-mediated form of human
communication. It’s people talking to people.


The Web allows us to keep the good stuff, like information
gathering and interaction, while losing some of the bad
stuff, like face-to-face confrontation. You don’t know the
other person as a set of stereotypes. You know them as another
voice. Now, some feel this type of communication is lacking
because it deletes the social interaction required of all of
us. I do agree there. The Web should just be part of your
human communication process, not the end-all.


So what is my point? My point is the same one I made to my
lunch partner: The Web will never get away from you because
the hardware, the colors, the animation, and the new languages
will never be the point of it all.


The Super Bowl is coming up and I don’t know why, but the big
thing to do is to watch the Super Bowl on a big-screen TV.
Why? Is the game going to be any more exciting because it’s
bigger? No. The big screen is simply the delivery device. If
the game is boring, it’s just going to be boring bigger. The
big screen doesn’t attract attention. It does attract your
friends. That’s the point.


You are listening to the radio and your favorite song comes
on. Does it matter whether you’re hearing it from a $5000
multi-speaker system or in your car? No. The song is great.
That’s the point.


You are surfing along looking for information regarding the
upcoming Grammy awards. One site has flying DHTML images,
multiple frame pages, new windows opening, color gradation,
and XML tricks to beat the band. Another is a simple text-
based site that lists the nominees as links to other text-
based pages with short histories. There are also text links
to short WAV format clips of the music. When all is said and
done, the pages that offer the best content will be the
winners. Yes, your page may have 20 animations, 15
JavaScripts, and whirling lights that practically blind the
reader. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think that’s really cool,
but if the flash is all there is to itthen I won’t be back.
That’s the point.


Content is king. It always will be. All the fancy stuff is
just support.


If you never learn anything past HTML version 3.2, you’re up
to speed. If your pages are text alone, but offer what people
want to read, success.


So, should you take the time to learn XML, DHTML, and all
that fancy stuff? Sure, if you have the time and feel it will
be useful to you. You’ll never do yourself wrong by learning
something new. Just don’t start to feel that if you don’t
learn it you’ll somehow be left behind. You won’t!


This past Christmas Eve, I spent the better part of an hour
searching the Web for a baklava recipe. The one I chose was
on a text page. It wasn’t even an HTML page.


Man, that was good baklava.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


That’s that. Thanks for reading. See you next week with an
idea that’ll help kill an afternoon.


Joe Burns, Ph.D.


And Remember: The reason there are no letters on the number 1
of a telephone key pad is because of a law (no longer in use),
that stated there could be no public telephone number that
started with 1. Thus the letters, used to help people remember
phone numbers, started on the number 2. Buttons 2 through 9,
with three letters apiece, add up to 24, yet there are 26
letters in the alphabet. Something had to go: Q and Z paid
the price.

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