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Tuesday 20 November 2007

Your Best Practices for Creating Great PNGs

I’ve been futzing with PNGs for years and still find myself thinking there has to be some better way to get the best compression and still retain the quality of the image. I notice that while I can create great PNGs in a variety of software such as Photoshop and Fireworks, I still can only manage to get acceptable results, I’ve seen others do a lot better.

So, I’m askin’ for your wisdom regarding best practices for creating great PNGs, especially now with alpha transparency support in IE7. What are your tools? Processes? Any special techniques you care to share?

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 12:24 | Comments (107)

Sunday 11 November 2007

Readership Survey 2007

I could really use readership input on a few items as I work toward re-architecting and improving this site over the following months. I’ve prepared a short survey which you can fill in at SurveyMonkey. Your answers can be anonymous.

I look forward to your thoughts!

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 04:23 | Comments (21)

Thursday 8 November 2007

mathematical integral equation for web versioning

humorous way of calculating web versioning

A bit of levity during the W3C TPAC from the wonderful T.V. Raman, presenting the closing panel of the day, Cracks & Mortars.

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 12:53 | Comments (13)

Thursday 1 November 2007

W3C TPAC Upcoming

The “all hands” meeting of the W3C, combining the Technical Plenary and Advisory Committee meetings commences next week in what is certain to be an historic event.

This is the first time we’ll see the HTML 5 Working Group Members and its many Invited Experts meet en masse and face to face. The CSS Working Group, the QA working group and the WAI working group meetings are all on my personal lists for participation, along with the most important aspect of any conference of this nature: Talking to and meeting as many folks as I can.

On Wednesday, November 7, I am beyond honored to host the opening panel presentation for the Technical Plenary itself. Joining me in “From the Outside, In” will be Aaron Gustafson, Patrick Haney, Matthew Oliphant and Stephanie Troeth whose individual experiences span many aspects of real-world issues as influenced by W3C policies and practices.

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the many people at the W3C and in the industry in general to have honored this group a unique opportunity to build bridges between the working communities of the Web and its most revered academic and scientific body, the World Wide Web Consortium.

From the Outside, In: Real World Perspectives on the W3C

Whether you’re a Web designer, developer, usability specialist or work in any one of the myriad jobs that go into making great Web sites, it’s clear that the W3C has significant influence on how you work. Whether it’s via the specifications that go into the software and agents that you use daily, or as the cornerstone of educational material, the W3C is involved somewhere in the process.

But it’s also clear that there’s been a gap between the real-world and the internal workings of the W3C. As Working Groups such as HTML 5 and CSS become more open, so must our conversations open. In this session, the W3C will have the opportunity to listen to real-world perspectives, respond to criticisms and praise and keep alive the ongoing commitment to authentic conversation and active community participation.

The panel:

  • Molly E. Holzschlag (Web Standards and Practices Education and Outreach, Molly.Com, Inc.)
  • Patrick Haney (Harvard)
  • Matthew Oliphant (MathWorks)
  • Stephanie Troeth (CloudRaker)
  • Aaron Gustafson (Easy! Designs, Inc.)

We will also have a post-session q&a in the hallway near the presentation room, as well as dedicated Birds of a Feather tables set aside for ongoing discussion at lunch that day.

Am I excited? You bet. Idealistic, well always. Optimistic? Verdict is still out. In the meantime, this feels like forward movement and I, for one, want to be part of that momentum.

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 17:49 | Comments (44)

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