bigflannel

Jeremy Keith's 'HTML5 For Web Designers' is a great book. I can see that A List Apart's series will be a fixture in my studio, great design, great voice, bite size. Can't wait for No.2 whatever it might be.

But reading through the book a few things immediately became apparent. Web designers are already being told off for creating apps using the Canvas tag that will not be indexed as they do not follow the DOM model. Sounds like the same things we heard as Flash developers. Now why the design of a website should be defined by the capacities of search bots I don't know. I design sites for users with eyes: search bots don't have eyes so Google tells us. People need to find stuff sure, but why should we limit ourselves to designing for a robotic code reader?

Then I learn't that the HTML5 tag to rival to Flash is called Canvas ... and it was introduced by Apple, who are spearheading the fight against Flash. Ewwww Apple, you look worse and worse. What's more, Canvas is really just an API for running Javascript as an engine on a page. None of the content in the Canvas tag can be indexed and animation and effects are accomplished with complex code (as in Apple's HTML5 demo). Wait a minute I said to myself, this feels like Flash 10 years ago. You know what, it is Flash 10 years ago.

My warning, you will hate complex multi media sites coded in HTML5, CSS and Javascript more than you already hate Flash websites (Javascript was once considered a darker art than Flash).

In the meantime, bigflannel will keep producing fantastic sites that engage human users, can be found in the search engines, and are not limited by what a robot can decipher. Be it in Flash, HTML5 or whatever the next powerful tech company figures is its means to world domination.

P.S. It took the powers at be a pretty long time to even agree whether to call the new standard HTML5 or HTML 5, the difference being the space. Standards are great but I'm relieved Adobe chose to produce proprietary software, which they can develop and control as they deem fit, as it has enabled me to produce useful websites despite the lack of standards. Thank you Adobe.

Steve Jobs Thoughts on Flash

'Sixth, the most important reason ... We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers ... Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X ...'.

But hey, it's OK for us all to be at the mercy of Apple right?

My colleague, Martin, said he had read recent reflections on political campaigning that stated 'if you're explaining you're losing'. I come from the school that imagines politics is actually about explaining, so this depresses me, until I think about Steve Jobs explaining his decision and posting pages about which websites you can actually see on the iPad.

Whilst I think tablets will be incredibly important devices in our future, I hope the iPad is an iFad, because if not, we're all going to be beholden to Apple and have to pay the 40% Apple tax on all things digital (ads, apps, magazines, music ...).

Reading Gawker this morning I noticed a post about emailing Steve Jobs, which was handy, because right now, that is exactly what I want to do.

So I did, and have copied it below (and will post any response):

Hi Steve

I am a long time Apple user and fan. I am also a long-time Adobe user and fan. My web design and development work has been recognized with Webby awards and other accolades.

Regards Flash, how can you partner with ATT and call Flash buggy? ATT are one of the worst cell providers there is. 75% of my calls in NYC are dropped. Flash is a useful web plugin (not perfect admittedly) that is optional. Users can choose to install it or not. Why am I forced to use ATT and yet don't have the option to use Flash on an iPhone or iPad?

You look silly right now and the attack on Flash looks like that, an attack, a format war, an iPad and iPhone revenue stream issue. I am forced to use ATT, I have no option, and they are terrible. Users can choose to use Flash or not, and although not perfect, it is an extremely useful technology for certain purposes.

You are simply wrong and I hope you either willingly change this silly position or are forced to do so for some reason.

Regards
Mike Hartley

Julie (aCurator) and I met with Mark Katzman yesterday. It was an opportunity to catch up after launching his new site, www.markkatzman.com, and the blog on which he and Julie are collaborating markkazman.com/blog. I really enjoy working with Mark. He collects photogravures, he inspires with his passion, he educates drawing on his vast knowledge, and he is an accomplished artist, creative and business man.

The photogravure opposite was printed by Stieglitz for Camera Work, from a sketch by Rodin, brought to the USA by Steichen after his travels to Europe. It was gift from Mark. Thank you.

Ted Morrison, photographer extraordinaire sent me this print. I received it yesterday. Thank you so much Ted.

The award for the best Holiday card 2009 to arrive in the bigflannel office ... Beardwood&Co.

The card is printed on wood! Top notch stuff from one of bigflannel's 2009 clients.

Anybody fancy a solid gold chair? This is the Ventury Millesime 2010 Limited Edition Solid Gold Chair. There are other finishes too, if gold is not your style. I like the way the woman is pretending it's a secret, that her chair is solid gold. I'm not sure if you had one, you would really keep it a secret.