Ultranormal

  • My Favorite AIM Pages Feature

    Since it launched yesterday, I can talk about it now. With the whole microformat thing, we’ve started thinking about the pages created in AIM Pages as mini web services, and the first step to doing really cool things with that is being able to pull out modules from the page so you can use them in other modules. You don’t want to have to grab the whole page just to get a piece, so today, you can request a particular module on the page and get back an XML document that contains just that piece. You could also request it with all the scripts it needs to run so you could embed your Buddy Gallery on your own web page if you wanted.\
    How do you do it? If you wanted to get my buddy gallery, you’d grab:

    <code>http://www.aimpages.com/kplawver/profile.html?moduleid=buddy-gallery-0</code>

    If you wanted to get it with all its scripts and CSS, you’d grab:

    <code>http://www.aimpages.com/kplawver/profile.html?moduleid=buddy-gallery-0&aspage</code>

    Now, this opens up all kinds of possibilities for new modules that I can’t wait to start playing with. I hope you’ll beat me to it…\
    update: There are a couple “quirks” with it at the moment. When you use aspage, the module’s onload isn’t being called, and there’s a lonely little double-quote in the body element. Not sure what’s up, but we’ll get it fixed. Getting just the module’s markup works fine (which is really the important bit, right?).

  • Quiz time

    Is anyone else sad that the “bleebleeblahblahboo” went away?

  • AOL Is Fun Again!

    Things at AOL are changing, and it feels great to be in the middle of it. Every day, it becomes more and more clear that a small number of people are driving gigantic changes all throughout the company, and I’m both honored and a little nervous to be considered part of that group. It makes me a little self-conscious, to be honest.\
    It just feels like everything is coming toether. Last week, I was asked to speak at a conference for the first time (thanks, Tantek), which is a huge honor for me, especially considering who asked and who is on the panel. This week, I did training on semantic markup and CSS to a handful of designers, with the goal being to get the rest of the designers through the course by the end of the summer. I also found out that I’ll be speaking at Mashup U in July. And just today, I was asked to join a small group doing something extremely cool that I don’t think I can talk about publicly yet (maybe never, I’m not sure yet). This is all on top of the privelage I have to work on AIM Pages.\
    I’m extremely lucky to be in the position I’m in. I’m not quite sure how it happened, or really where it will lead, but I love it. I work with the best people, get to play with and develop the coolest stuff (cool to me, and that’s really all the matters), get to share what I’m passionate, and feel like what I do affects and influences other people.\
    I’ve been at AOL for eleven years, and this is the most fun I’ve ever had. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

  • How I Write Presentations

    I do a lot of presentations now, and because I’m the “web standards guy” I can’t go around doing them in Powerpoint or Keynote (I’ve tried using both and yuck, they’re not made for writing). Over the past year or so, I’ve tried a couple different things, but here’s the system I’ve got down, and the technology pieces that make it happen:

    # Movable Type – I love MT’s template system. I don’t have to write code, and I can make them do pretty much whatever I want. And, if I run into something they can’t, there’s either a plugin to do it, or I can write a teeny bit of PHP glue to fill the gaps.

    # Textile – I love it. It’s the easiest of the pseudo-markup languages out there (Markdown is the other well-known one).

    # S5 – Eric Meyer is a genius. It’s got everything I need from Powerpoint or Keynote in an HTML page.

    # MarsEdit – Best blog editor ever, does what I need without getting in the way with things that I don’t. The preview is nice too.\
    I created a Movable Type archive template out of S5 (which you’re free to use if you want), a lot like I did for Instiki a while ago, and now all my presentations go up on my little presentations site. Now, I can get to them from anywhere, they’re publicly available and stored somewhere other than my laptop (the problem with doing them all in my locally hosted copy of Instiki).\
    I start with all the slide titles as an outline, move them around, tweak, etc, and then go back and add the bullet points, most of which end up being removed. Then I publish and run through it quickly to make sure it all makes sense. Then I’m done! With Textile, there’s no real markup to write except to go back and wrap things up in the slide divs. If I know exactly what I want to say, I can go from idea to completed presentation in about 10 minutes.\
    Here’s what a typical slide looks like:

    <code><div class="slide">
h1. My Slide Title
* This point is spectacular
* Can I get an "Ooooh" from the audience?
* Give yourselves a round of applause!
</div></code>

    And the best part is, they all come out as standards-compliant, semantic little presentations without me having to write all the markup (which as fun as it is, takes time to get right, time that I’d rather spend thinking about what I’m going to say).\
    You’re free to use the archive template and make your own little presentations site. If you do, send me a link!

  • Virginia Democratic Party Primary Tomorrow

    In case you didn’t know (and I didn’t until I got e-mail this morning), there is a Democratic Primary tomorrow (6/13) in Virginia where you get to pick who runs against George Allen in November. So, if you care about such things, and you probably should, show up at your normal polling place and vote!

  • Supernova 2006, AIM Pages and Microformats

    It looks like I’ll be presenting a short overview of AIM Pages and our use of microformats at Supernova. That means I’ll be in San Francisco from probably June 20th-24th. Who wants to do dinner?

  • Zero 7 – The Garden

    The Garden by Zero 7 came out this week, and I’ve had it on repeat in iTunes all week. If you’ve listened to Simple Things or When It Falls, you have some idea of how amazing this group is. Their third album isn’t quite as serene, but it’s just as good. It has some faster moving songs on it, but the quality and atmospherics are still there. If you like Massive Attack’s songs like Teardrop or Morcheeba, you’ll love this album. If you need to chill out, forget about your worries and space out for a while, this is the CD for you. It’s a solid 4.5 out of 5.

  • Brian’s 2 year old check up

    Height- 37 1/4 inches, 97%\
    Weight- 36.1 lbs, 100%\
    Head circ- 20 1/2 inches, 100%\
    Brian is a little shorter than Max was at this age. If we estimate their heights according to the old wives’ tale of doubling their height when they are 2, Max will be 6’4 and Brian will be over 6’2.\
    Brian is healthy- yay. He is behind in his speech development, however. Brian was nervous and wouldn’t talk to the doctor at all, answer any of her questions, or follow any of her directions. She said he should be talking more, putting together word combinations, and using personal pronouns. If he isn’t doing this by the end of the summer, we should have him reevaluated for speech therapy. Also I was scolded for him not knowing his animal sounds. Right now my mom is thinking, “those damn animal sounds again!” I still have the animal toy, so I don’t know what Brian’s problem is. Heh.\
    No shots this time. And he still isn’t allowed to have peanut products. (Hear that, Babba?)\
    Ha, I kind of want to tag this as “development” but I don’t think that is how Kevin uses the development tag.

  • Random

    Brian fell in love with a grandma he met at the playground the other day. He literally followed her around and kept wanting to be picked up by her. They sat on the park bench together and he looked at her adoringly. Then they would go play for awhile. It was the cutest thing ever.\
    Kevin made brownies for a work thing and actually took them to work. :(\
    Seeing toddlers at church is amusing. The boys wear sandals, pants or shorts, and a collared shirt, while the girls wear fancy dresses with the prettiest little shoes and tights. What’s up with that? It’s like the kids aren’t even at the same place. It starts a trend that continues through adulthood where you’ll see a couple on a date at the movies and the girl is dressed like she’s going somewhere else and the guy looks like he just rolled out of bed.\
    Apparently today is the Scooperbowl and I don’t have any good ice cream with which to celebrate.\
    I was slightly sheepish while walking to the bus stop this morning in my new capri jammy pants until I saw a woman hoing in her jammies, then I didn’t feel so sheepish anymore. (She was not doing the wrong kind of hoing, she was hoing her yard. At 7:30 in the morning. In her jammies. Yea.)

  • Cletus’ Revenge

    What's Up?

    What’s Up?\
    I went to Target this morning and got some clippers, because after two weeks of growth, I wasn’t using disposable razors to take care of it again. Cletus, among others, made an appearance. You’ve got the Porter, the Beefeater and of course, a couple Cletus.\
    And when that was done and I properly shaved, I gave myself a haircut! I grabbed the number 3 guard and did the whole thing. Why? First, it’s summer. Second, I just didn’t want to have to deal with making an appointment and going to get it cut. The real reason? Simplicity. No more brushing, simple wash, dry and go. Simple is good.