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((((((((((((((((( WEBREFERENCE UPDATE NEWSLETTER ))))))))))))))))) March 6, 2000
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http://www.webreference.com http://www.webreference.com/new/ http://www.webreference.com/new/submit.html New this week on WebReference.com and the Web:
1. PRODUCTION GRAPHICS: Rough it Up 2. EXPLORING XML: RSS Viewer Applet 3. 3D ANIMATION WORKSHOP: More Cult 3D Interactivity 4. SITE UPDATE: WebRef Statistics Adds Top 100 5. INTERVIEW: A Brief Talk with Stewart Butterfield 6. NEW LINKS: Content Management Tools 7. OTHER VOICES: * Adobe LiveMotion First Look * Tim O'Reilly Talks with Jeff Bezos * 0 to 60 in Flash - Part 2: Tweening * Quick and Dirty File Uploads 8. NET NEWS: * AMD First to Hit 1GHz * AltaVista to Offer Unmetered Internet Access in U.K. * IBM Debuts developerWorks Japanese * How About a Degree in Quake?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. PRODUCTION GRAPHICS: Rough it Up
Sick of sleek soulless sites? Don't be a square - bust up those rectilinear rules with a few friendly rough edges. Wendy Peck shows you how.
http://webreference.com/graphics/column21/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2. EXPLORING XML: RSS Viewer Applet
Join our XML Xpert as he builds a window to the world of news. The intro to this handy Java applet peers into the parsing of RSS files, and pries open their content for all to see. By Michael ClaÃen.
http://webreference.com/xml/column7/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3. 3D ANIMATION WORKSHOP: More Cult 3D Interactivity
Our man of many dimensions continues his look under the hood at Cult 3D technology. Does its creative authoring environment deserve your blessing? By Rob Polevoi.
http://webreference.com/3d/lesson87/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4. SITE UPDATE: WebRef Statistics Adds Top 100
Peek behind the scenes, and discover the most popular pages on the site. Is there a gem you've missed?
http://webreference.com/stats/
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****************************************************************** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5. INTERVIEW: A Brief Talk with Stewart Butterfield
The few, the proud, the small. Stewart Butterfield, director of the design group at Communicate.com recently announced a Web design contest that has caught the eye of the development community like few others: make the best Web page under 5k. The prize? "5120 (5k) US cents. Fifty bucks. Do it for the honor," says Stuart on the contest's home page (http://www.sylloge.com/5k/).
The contest certainly caught our attention (as well as writers at ZDnet, Slashdot, and a host of other on-line publications), so we decided to investigate with an interview. Here's what Stewart had to say to WebRef's editor, Andy King:
WR: What prompted you to start this miniscule page contest?
Butterfield: Pure curiosity. I want to know what it is possible to do in under 5KB. I have had many discussions with different designers about file size limits for projects we were working on and have been involved in many interesting conversations about HTML and image optimization techniques. A lot is possible in 5KB (historically, many important pieces of software have been smaller than that) and forcing that limit makes people ignore options which they might employ by default (such as large images and rasterized text).
WR: What pushed you over the edge?
Butterfield: Nothing. I'm not really on a crusade for smaller Web pages (though I think that would be good). Design is more a process of identifying and prioritizing constraints than most people realize, and I'd like to call attention to that. This constraint (file size) has been important for the last few years, and it is becoming important again with the rise of mobile access devices.
WR: What's the response been so far?
Butterfield: Overwhelming. There have been several high-profile stories about it (Wired, Slashdot, ZDNN), and it has shown up on Russian, Brazilian, German and Japanese news services. Over 40,000 visitors from 95 countries have come to the site in the 5 days that the contest has been running.
WR: Do entry pages have to validate?
Butterfield: No, people are free to hack as they wish. There are certain judges who will frown on this, but most of them won't penalize. There are good reasons to write valid code, and validity increases the chances that the judges will not have a problem with your entry, but there are many standards-incompatible browser deficiencies that have to be worked around to accomplish some layouts and those are acceptable. Also, ALT tags and DOCTYPE declarations which are required for a valid HTML document can take up quite a few bytes are not necessary. However, this is just a contest. In a real world design I wouldn't recommend invalid HTML. Knowing (or at least guessing) where and when to trade off is part of the contest.
WR: Do the pages have to have legible HTML code?
Butterfield: No. You can often shave off several hundred bytes or more by stripping out unnecessary whitespace from an HTML document, leaving it difficult to read. When the entries go on display after the contest closes, they will likely be reformatted for ease of reading (to make it easy for people to learn from the neat tricks).
WR: On Slashdot's thread about your contest, I read a fair amount of discussion about using JavaScript to create pages that uncompress (or doc.write themselves fractal-like) upon loading. Is this legal?
Butterfield: There is no reason for this to be disallowed, but I did try decompressing some pages (on my older Mac, which is not yet a *really slow* machine) and I had to pick up a magazine while it decompressed. I don't know if that is just IE on the Mac, but if it takes a full minute for the page to render, I don't think that is going to win.
WR: Is 5K an absolute limit to qualify? Or can entrants submit larger pages?
Butterfield: It's the limit. I know the scoring formula doesn't prohibit larger pages, but that is what the contest is all about.
WR: What are some examples of sites that are bloated, and sites you like that aren't?
Butterfield: Bloat: www.icq.com, www.stockhouse.com, www.boo.com, www.revlon.com. Good: www.wired.com, www.google.com, www.metafilter.com, www.k10k.com
WR: Care to offer some tips to our readers?
Butterfield: Don't add anything to a design that isn't necessary. Stay focused on what you are trying to communicate or accomplish with a site or a page.
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Thanks Stewart, and good luck to everyone in the contest! For more information on the contest, head to http://www.sylloge.com/5k/ for all the details.
For more info on crunching your HTML, don't forget to check:
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/html/optimize/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 6. NEW LINKS:
>Content Management Tools
Don't get buried under a mountain of your own information - find the tools you need for managing, collaborating, editing and publishing content on the Web.
http://webreference.com/authoring/contentmanagement.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 7. OTHER VOICES: Adobe LiveMotion First Look, Tim O'Reilly Talks with Jeff Bezos, 0 to 60 in Flash - Part 2: Tweening, Quick and Dirty File Upload How To
>Adobe LiveMotion First Look
Adobe makes a big splash in streaming media as they unveil their latest Web-focused program: LiveMotion. It outputs Flash compatible files and a whole lot more. Has the ante been upped in the Web authoring wars? http://smw.internet.com/symm/voices/lmo/ StreamingMediaWorld.com, 000306
>Tim O'Reilly Talks with Jeff Bezos
The publisher of the popular programming books has taken Amazon's founder to task in recent weeks over trademark controversy, specifically Amazon's assertion that it has the rights to "One- click" shopping on the Internet. Bezos responded in depth, and O'Reilly reports back on their discussion. http://www.oreilly.com/ask_tim/bezos_0300.html OReilly.com, 000302
>0 to 60 in Flash - Part 2: Tweening
Now that you know the basics of Flash, explore composing images, touching on gradients and file-size. http://www.wdvl.com/Multimedia/Flash/tweening.html WDVL.com, 000301
>Quick and Dirty File Upload How To
Uploading files via forms is a semi-complex process involving the right incantations on both the client forms and the server - but it can be tamed. http://www.evolt.org/index.cfm?menu=8&cid=1238&catid=17 Evolt.org, 000301
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 8. NET NEWS: AMD First to Hit 1GHz, AltaVista to Offer Unmetered Internet Access in U.K., IBM Debuts developerWorks Japanese, How About a Degree in Quake?
>AMD First to Hit 1GHz
AMD beaten Intel to the punch by hitting the desktop 1GHz mark first with its new Athlon processor. The 1GHz Athlon will be available in systems from Compaq and Gateway, among others. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2456123,00.html ZDNet, 000306
>AltaVista to Offer Unmetered Internet Access in U.K.
Internet portal AltaVista announced this weekend that it will offer customers in the U.K. unmetered Internet access with no telephone charges, for a single upfront fee of around £30 ($48). A large response is expected, given that the average British Internet user spends around £126 ($200) per year in local call charges. http://www.internetnews.com/intl-news/article/0,1087,6_315351,00.html InternetNews.com, 000306
>IBM Debuts developerWorks Japanese
IBM Corp. has launched developerWorks Japanese, created to support the growing requirement for developer information and resources in Asia. IBM is billing developerWorks Japan as "the first developer portal to provide resources to Japanese developers in their own language." developerWorks Japanese will feature tips, tools, news, code and information covering Java, XML, Open Source, Unicode, Linux, Security and Web Architecture fields. http://www.internetnews.com/wd-news/article/0,1087,10_314231,00.html InternetNews.com, 000302
>How About a Degree in Quake?
No, it's not a degree in playing computer games, but rather one in developing them. Next fall, students at the University of California at Irvine can begin taking courses in the university's newly announced Interdisciplinary Gaming Studies Program. It's the first step toward a "major" in gaming, and should come as no surprise, given the demand for skilled workers in this $7 billion industry. http://www.msnbc.com/news/377616.asp MSNBC.com, 000303
That's it for this week, see you next time.
Andrew King Managing Editor, WebReference.com update@webreference.com
Eric Cook Assistant Editor, WebReference.com ecook@internet.com
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