Web Standards, Accessibility & More

Social Media Idiot (video)

Dennis — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:41:40 +0000

This video about a “social media expert” by zetainteractive on YouTube is pretty funny. I’ve provided a transcription below. The service used to create the video, xtranormal, is even more impressive. It’s a web site that allows the user to create video from text. Very ingenious. I’ve attempted to create a similar video about web accessibility which I’ll post later.

Transcription

Man1: Acme corporation is finally getting into the social media game.

Man2: Have you thought about how you’re going to engage with individuals and provide value to the community?

Man 1: Hell not. We’re just going to build a bunch of fancy social media web assets and then spend a bunch of money on a big media push. We’re going to be rich.

Man2: What’s social about that?

Man 1: Nothing. But it’s going to look super cool, and we’ll have the mainstream media tell everybody that Acme is now engaged in social media. It’s going to be sweet.

Man2: You’re an idiot. No wonder your Twitter account got suspended.

80s Metal Bands: Sound Good, Look Bad!

Dennis — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:15:00 +0000

I grew up in the conservative 1980s; the Reagan years. It seems like such as repressive time. From the AIDS scare, to the War on Drugs, to cops watching a teenager’s every move, it was hard to have fun. But we sure did anyway.

Part of that fun was the classic ’80s “hairbands”. Or the guys with make-up, some call it glam rock. Yes, looking back, they do look pretty silly. But a lot of the music was great, and that’s what counts!

Judas Priest (Birmingham, England)

Leather all the way, man. Hits such as “Breaking the Law” (Beavis and Butthead’s signature jingle), “Living After Midnight”, and “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’”. More about Judas Priest on Wikipedia.

Judas Priest. Lookin' bad ass, or not.

Iron Maiden (London, England)

I’d have to say the ugliest ’80s rock band. But with kick ass songs and even famously demonic album covers, these guys were pioneers for several years. Never was huge on the charts in the U.S. (I think “Run to the Hills” may be their most popular tune), but Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast made it to #1 in the UK! More about Iron Maiden on Wikipedia.

Iron Maiden. Very ugly mugs.

Twisted Sister (New York, New York)

Hilarious rockers who made it big (briefly, that is) with entertaining videos for hit singles “We’re Not Gonna Take It” (a #21 hit in the U.S.) and “I Wanna Rock”. More about Twisted Sister on Wikipedia.

Twisted Sister. What is that?!

Motley Crue (Los Angeles, California)

Famous band known for hard drinking, tattoos, and womanizing. Hits included “Shout at the Devil”, “Girls, Girls, Girls”, and “Dr. Feelgood”. I always liked the “Looks That Kill” song and video! (I was about 13 when it came out.) More about Motley Crue on Wikipedia.

Motley Crue. Glam rock studs.

Scorpions (Hanover, Germany)

Second for ugliest behind Iron Maiden, but totally awesome tunes like “Rock You Like a Hurricane”, “No One Like You”, and “Still Loving You”. More about the Scorpions on Wikipedia.

Scorpions. Don't look; just listen.

Def Leppard (Sheffield, England)

I saw these guys in concert around 1985 during the Pyromania tour, by far their best album. Included hits “Photograph”, “Rock of Ages” and “Foolin’”. In the late ’80s, hits continued with “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and “Love Bites”. Def Leppard was huge in the U.S., but not nearly as admired in their native UK. More about Def Leppard on Wikipedia.

Def Leppard. Talk about curly hair.

Van Halen (Pasadena, California)

Arguably the most successful rock/metal bands of all time, and the best lead guitarist of all time, Eddie Van Halen. Hits include “Runnin’ with the Devil”, “Aint Talkin bout love”, “Unchained”, “Panama”, “Hot for Teacher“, “Jump”, and many more. Unfortunately, the band started to suck bad when David Lee Roth left and the Sammy Hagar joined (thus becoming “Van Hagar”, ha ha). More about Van Halen on Wikipedia.

Van Halen. Yikes, this must be an early photo.

Ratt (San Diego, California)

Lesser-known, but solid ’80s rock. Most popular tunes include “Back for More” and “Round and Round” (great video, and with Milton Berle!). More about Ratt on Wikipedia.

Ratt. You may fill in this caption, ha ha.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratt

Attended “Open Web Camp” at Stanford University

Dennis — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:46:43 +0000

Last Saturday (Sept 26), I attended the OpenWebCamp at Stanford University. Much thanks goes to John Foliot for organizing the event and to Opera which was the main sponsor. It was a really nice time (except the hot weather). Learned a few things and met some great people, and the food and drink was great, too! Guy Kawasaki and Molly Holzschlag were the featured speakers. I spoke on Accessible Twitter which went pretty well. There was some excellent discussion on HTML5, open source software, usability, and the browser wars.

For more information, you may:

View the presentation on slideshare: Accessible Twitter at Open Web Camp presentation.
Learn more about the event with the Twitter hash tag: #openWebCamp.

After-party gathering outside on Stanford campus during OpenWebCamp.

Photo from OpenWebCamp album on Flickr from Barbara Haven.

Accessible Twitter at Open Web Camp

Access IT Award and Presentation – Accessible Twitter

Dennis — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:32:58 +0000

I’m proud to announce that my project Accessible Twitter has been honored with the the 2009 Access IT @web2.0 Award! The award is in recognition of a project, product or service that advances accessibility on web 2.0. It is endorsed by the International Webmasters Association (IWA). The selection process assesses the relevance for the award, its impact, its affordability and openness, and its validation level. The awards event was held in central London.

My Twitter friend Meera Tank was kind enough to represent me and Accessible Twitter at the award event. A nice, heavy, glass trophy was given, which currently resides with Meera in London. She accepted the award and gave the presentation that I wrote a couple days prior. You can view the presentation on SlideShare (or view the fully accessible HTML version). The day after it was posted, SlideShare chose this to be a Featured Presentation on their home page!

The other categories and winners are:

ACCESS-IT@Web2.0: project, product or service that advances accessibility on web 2.0.
- Winner: Accessible Twitter
ACCESS-IT@Home: project, product or service that advances independent living for people with disabilities or elderly.
- Winner: BBC iPlayer
ACCESS-IT @Work: project, product or service that facilitates persons with disability to work independently.
- Winner: ECDL Hallas
ACCESS-IT@Learning: project, product or service that facilitates persons with disability or elderly to get educated in an affordable, accessible, usable and efficient manner.
- Winner: RoboBraille

PS:
You may also read about this subject on Web Axe, my podcast/blog on web accessibility: Accessible Twitter Wins Award, Slidedeck

Open Web/Tech Jobs in Bay Area

Dennis — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:03:31 +0000

Contact me if you’re interested in a great techie job in the Bay Area (Silicon Valley, California). Most open positions are in San Jose. I’ll send you more information and details if I find that you qualify for the position (smiley). Most require 3-5+ years experience.

TCL Test Automation Engineer
Senior Quality Assurance Engineer
PHP Developer
Senior Visual Designer
Linux Systems Administrator
Senior Technical Security Project Manager
Senior Product Development Engineer with prior search engine experience

When KISS Ruled The World (video)

Dennis — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:19:43 +0000

If you like the rock band KISS, or not, their story is very interesting, and inspiring. And you gotta admit, then put on a concert like no one else!

When I was a kid, we were really into KISS. Funny things I remember are:

Imitating the song “Hotter Than Hell” in my band of 3 9-year-olds (including putting on makeup and lighting fireworks “on stage”).
My mom taking away my KISS albums because she heard us swearing with the song lyrics.
Staring at the crazy album covers and drawing some of them.
Not know what “Love Gun” meant.

When KISS Ruled The World Part 1 of 5

Here are the rest of the episodes:

Awful Truth About Most Web Sites

Dennis — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:51:22 +0000

I was asked to write an article for Even Grounds, so I did! It’s called Accessible Experts: Dennis Lembree Talks About Accessible Twitter. Thought it’s valuable to note that the working title of the article was “The Awful Truth About Most Web Sites”. The main idea is to connect the perception of “wrong vs right”, Twitter and web accessibility, and modern coding practices.

Please give me a Digg if you have an account. My Digg description is as follows:

The first in a series of articles from Even Grounds featuring accessibility experts. In this article, guest author Dennis Lembree links “wrong vs right’, Twitter and web accessibility, and modern coding practices.

Even Grounds logo