Just to reiterate for those who seem to think I'm some moron.....
First off, I'm still running on the standard system of if I don't see it straight away, the site's broken. I'm on a decent speed connection, and the average joe on a browser isn't.
Second off, if you're older, your visual response time isn't the same as someone younger, varying on levels of tiredness. It takes more brainpower for an older person to see such things. So, for an older user, they wouldn't notice it right away, get annoyed, and leave.
Third, I'm not colourblind, but for those who are or have difficulties distinguishing near hues, that sight can be a nightmare. It doesn't matter if I can change the style later, I won't necessarily see that the first time.
Lastly, looking at the tags that come up when I mouseover, that sight would be really obnoxious using a text-to-speech browser. Yuck.
It depends on what you need. CMS is a very, very broad term, and most people are looking for a WCMS (Web Content Management System) when they say it, even though their true needs may be different.
I would recommend getting the Content Management Bible, which you can learn more about here. It covers the various systems out there. One company I worked for realised they needed a Digital Asset Management system, like Artesia, and not something like Interwoven.
Good luck! And remember that O'Reilly isn't the only reasonable tech publisher out there.
I like standards. I like accessibility and usability. I hate Zeldman's site. It's like hypocrisy in motion. If I lectured on web design and make sites usable, I might improve my site from where it is.
Zeldman makes life tough on older viewers, disabled, and newbies. His labels are quippish and arrogant, his colours too similar, fonts too small and not resizeable in the most prominent browser out there.
Take a look around and you'll probably find better books on standards. Or, if you must, take the gospel of Zeldman and water it down with a little Jakob Nielsen.
Just to rant the same rant about education I'm always doing:
Washington should not set education policy in my humble opinion. Adequate funding to make sure that schools across the nation have access to equal resources based on numerous factors, including COLA (cost of living adjustment), would be nice.
Sad fact is that in Washington you constantly have pseudo-liberal intellectual elitists mixing with self-serving retro-societal big-money crooks and coming up with solutions that serve them best, particularly in areas where funding may come from Congress, but they are in the executive branch and more/less ignored, like the Department of Education.
I am very much for NGO certification of standards and for states' rights and state/local determination of what gets taught and how it gets taught.
The only issues I see as requiring federal funding are those that are essential to the infrastructure of a modern society.
Granted, though, Greenspan played a hand in creating the bubble in the first place. When you see high purchase levels of stock with P/E ratios of 200+, it's time to bump UP the interest rate.
Tax cuts now will not solve the problem, except to create a larger debt burden. This country, both government and populace, is debt-strapped. Also tax-cuts at the federal level often affect more directly porrer states, since federal aid tends to drop and either services drop, local taxes go up, or both. Look at how well Alabama's educational system is faring under the current federal schema. That's selling the future short, and education is a key infrastructure for a functioning capitalist society that is orienting itself more around knowledge workers than manufacturing.
While the author may have political motivation, the premise that helping small business is good is still true. If we had more small businesses, we might have a more stable economy in the long run, with people less tied to major corporations in dependency.
Despite what many seem to think here, most people do have brainpower beyond that of the average monkey. In fact, a lot of them can make very rational decisions when they aren't bogged down in trying to find all the information.
It galls me, despite years of working in IT with developers and sysadmins, how awfully elitist most American IT people are. I've dealt with my share of clueless users, but it seems that a large vocal number of IT professionals would rather turn up their noses than educate people.
Having worked overseas, I've found that there are some great IT professionals from many so-called second and third world nations. They're truly professional, working with people to solve problems and smooth along the process, highlighting potential risks along the way, but not in an arrogant manner.
Developing programs and systems that really let users gather information quickly would result in a lot of things going well, from managers making better-informed decisions, to people being able to solve basic helpdesk issues themselves. Never mind being better able to see potnential partnerships, pending budget crises, or maybe even being able to have enough time to really think rather than work around bugs and perhaps come up with some great ideas.
Wouldn't this, in a reasonable world, suddenly come under the same purview as when a company fails to defend a trademark. Unless ISO has been hiding under a rock for the past 10 years, they would be clearly aware of the widespread adoption of these standards, and the adoption does not reference ISO as holding copyright, etc. It could be considered defensible to make such a decision were it simply to have been used in a small program, but when implemented by just about every browser and published by another standards group, it becomes impossible to defend such a decision.
Simply put, somewhere in this world I'm sure is a country that will recognise that ISO's failure to react earlier has effectively allowed the standard into public domain.
Hey, were these guys the same ones that said 4 hours on the phone was addictive?
I work as an admin, and of course, I spend WELL over 4 hours a day on the net. I'm doing research, writing e-mail, reading e-mail, configuring things, etc.
I know managers who use their phone for up to and over 8 hours a day doing things that take me half the time on the net. Isn't that addictive?
Oh well, these guys probably pay exorbitant rates for the Internet, so maybe there's a price ratio. Perhaps X number of Belgian Francs = addiction.
Slashdot Mirror
Just to reiterate for those who seem to think I'm some moron.....
First off, I'm still running on the standard system of if I don't see it straight away, the site's broken. I'm on a decent speed connection, and the average joe on a browser isn't.
Second off, if you're older, your visual response time isn't the same as someone younger, varying on levels of tiredness. It takes more brainpower for an older person to see such things. So, for an older user, they wouldn't notice it right away, get annoyed, and leave.
Third, I'm not colourblind, but for those who are or have difficulties distinguishing near hues, that sight can be a nightmare. It doesn't matter if I can change the style later, I won't necessarily see that the first time.
Lastly, looking at the tags that come up when I mouseover, that sight would be really obnoxious using a text-to-speech browser. Yuck.
Obviously if I didn't notice it right away, it's pretty damn poor usability.
It depends on what you need. CMS is a very, very broad term, and most people are looking for a WCMS (Web Content Management System) when they say it, even though their true needs may be different.
I would recommend getting the Content Management Bible, which you can learn more about here. It covers the various systems out there. One company I worked for realised they needed a Digital Asset Management system, like Artesia, and not something like Interwoven.
Good luck! And remember that O'Reilly isn't the only reasonable tech publisher out there.
I like standards. I like accessibility and usability. I hate Zeldman's site. It's like hypocrisy in motion. If I lectured on web design and make sites usable, I might improve my site from where it is.
Zeldman makes life tough on older viewers, disabled, and newbies. His labels are quippish and arrogant, his colours too similar, fonts too small and not resizeable in the most prominent browser out there.
Take a look around and you'll probably find better books on standards. Or, if you must, take the gospel of Zeldman and water it down with a little Jakob Nielsen.
Just to rant the same rant about education I'm always doing:
Washington should not set education policy in my humble opinion. Adequate funding to make sure that schools across the nation have access to equal resources based on numerous factors, including COLA (cost of living adjustment), would be nice.
Sad fact is that in Washington you constantly have pseudo-liberal intellectual elitists mixing with self-serving retro-societal big-money crooks and coming up with solutions that serve them best, particularly in areas where funding may come from Congress, but they are in the executive branch and more/less ignored, like the Department of Education.
I am very much for NGO certification of standards and for states' rights and state/local determination of what gets taught and how it gets taught.
The only issues I see as requiring federal funding are those that are essential to the infrastructure of a modern society.
Granted, though, Greenspan played a hand in creating the bubble in the first place. When you see high purchase levels of stock with P/E ratios of 200+, it's time to bump UP the interest rate.
Tax cuts now will not solve the problem, except to create a larger debt burden. This country, both government and populace, is debt-strapped. Also tax-cuts at the federal level often affect more directly porrer states, since federal aid tends to drop and either services drop, local taxes go up, or both. Look at how well Alabama's educational system is faring under the current federal schema. That's selling the future short, and education is a key infrastructure for a functioning capitalist society that is orienting itself more around knowledge workers than manufacturing.
While the author may have political motivation, the premise that helping small business is good is still true. If we had more small businesses, we might have a more stable economy in the long run, with people less tied to major corporations in dependency.
Despite what many seem to think here, most people do have brainpower beyond that of the average monkey. In fact, a lot of them can make very rational decisions when they aren't bogged down in trying to find all the information.
It galls me, despite years of working in IT with developers and sysadmins, how awfully elitist most American IT people are. I've dealt with my share of clueless users, but it seems that a large vocal number of IT professionals would rather turn up their noses than educate people.
Having worked overseas, I've found that there are some great IT professionals from many so-called second and third world nations. They're truly professional, working with people to solve problems and smooth along the process, highlighting potential risks along the way, but not in an arrogant manner.
Developing programs and systems that really let users gather information quickly would result in a lot of things going well, from managers making better-informed decisions, to people being able to solve basic helpdesk issues themselves. Never mind being better able to see potnential partnerships, pending budget crises, or maybe even being able to have enough time to really think rather than work around bugs and perhaps come up with some great ideas.
Wouldn't this, in a reasonable world, suddenly come under the same purview as when a company fails to defend a trademark. Unless ISO has been hiding under a rock for the past 10 years, they would be clearly aware of the widespread adoption of these standards, and the adoption does not reference ISO as holding copyright, etc. It could be considered defensible to make such a decision were it simply to have been used in a small program, but when implemented by just about every browser and published by another standards group, it becomes impossible to defend such a decision.
Simply put, somewhere in this world I'm sure is a country that will recognise that ISO's failure to react earlier has effectively allowed the standard into public domain.
Hey, were these guys the same ones that said 4 hours on the phone was addictive?
I work as an admin, and of course, I spend WELL over 4 hours a day on the net. I'm doing research, writing e-mail, reading e-mail, configuring things, etc.
I know managers who use their phone for up to and over 8 hours a day doing things that take me half the time on the net. Isn't that addictive?
Oh well, these guys probably pay exorbitant rates for the Internet, so maybe there's a price ratio. Perhaps X number of Belgian Francs = addiction.