If you missed the Google I/O conference last week, here is the video of Google’s largest announcement, Google Wave, which in short aims to replace the 40 year old email standard and become a new open standard for electronic communication and real-time collaboration. It’s a whole new way of thinking about online communication and there are a number of components to the system so if you work in tech it’s worth watching the video from beginning to end. Google Wave is a major power play by Google, and the biggest question is how Microsoft will embrace or deflect HTML5 in it’s browsers, a requirement for Wave, and the new Wave protocol itself.

As a side note, I was hoping Google would talk about how the new Wave system potentially ends the largest current issue with email — SPAM. It’s implied by the architecture of the system but I’m not sure everyone will grasp this and in my mind is a huge selling point for any protocol, as least in-part, aiming to replace email.

For the techies in the crowd, I have been playing with glTail.rb for the past few days, a new ruby-based log file visualization script. Installed locally on a PC or laptop, glTail.rb SSH connects to and tails multiple Apache, Rails, or IIS web server log files and provides realtime site traffic visualization. (Instead of trying to explain the interface, see the movie above or demo on the glTail site.) Installation and setup is easy. I use Locomotive as my local ruby environment so I opened an existing Rails project, launched the Locomotive terminal and completed the required gem installs which added the gems the Locomotive library.

Watching glTail is incredibly addictive. Most interesting is seeing the single requests for email forms and single site images, such as the Linux and Apache icons on the lower right of my blog, from places in the Netherlands and South America, and from various web forum sites. Needless to say I’ve been having fun with these would be spammers and bandwidth thieves. More on that in another post. In the meantime, give glTail a try.

Learn more about the Guide Dog’s web project on Brian McNitt’s Blog — Guide Dogs, TrendMedia, Accessibility in News.

Today I discovered Riddle’s Em Calculator which makes calculating relative font sizes a breeze. Start by defining a parent node with a pixel-size equivalent, then add child or sibling nodes; EMS values are dynamically calculated and updated for each element. Awesome. The current web application uses cookies to store session information which turns out to be a bit buggy (a user registration system would be nice) but this tool is a great start. Give it a try.

[tags]accessibility,css,web,design,trendmedia,mcnitt[/tags]

Doug Geoffray: From the Mouth of a Screenreader – Part 1

Doug Geoffray: From the Mouth of a Screenreader – Part 2

More videos available at Yahoo’s YUI Theater.

[tags]accessibility,window-eyes,jaws,screenreader,freedom scientific,gw micro,apple,lighthouse,guide dogs,trendmedia,mcnitt[/tags]

My favorite quote is about creating sites that are “technically” accessible (i.e. – pass W3C WCAG checkpoints and Section 508 standards) verses sites that are actually usable and easy to navigate for the blind and visually impaired, especially users who rely on screen reader software such as JAWS, Window-Eyes, or Apple VoiceOver.

“Most websites designed to get NFB certification pay little or no attention to usability,” said McNitt. “Accessibility and usability are two different things. Put it this way: you can technically make a building accessible by putting in a water fountain that’s the right height and restrooms that are wide enough for someone using a wheelchair. But if you put those things on the 10th floor, the building isn’t really usable.”

Of course, it’s good to know that we have a happy client as well…

“The team that built this site went out of their way to ensure that the end product was superior to our expectations, and we’re thrilled with the results.” (Bob Phillips, Guide Dogs, CEO) And, according to the site’s immediate increase of traffic, so is everyone else.

[tags]accessability,blind,guide dogs,trendmedia,mcnitt,web standards,web development,jaws,window-eyes,voiceover[/tags]

I laughed and thought, ain’t that the truth? We’re all too busy to take care of our own marketing. Clients beware: never hire a web developer with an up to date website — it means that they are not working! Harmen: I hope your coming soon page never changes; I’ll know you’re doing well. Now on to answering your email…

All the best.
Brian

[tags]railsconf,Harmen Steele,web development,busy,mcnitt[/tags]

[tags]google code search,google,krugle,trendmedia,mcnitt,koders[/tags]