I personally like fixed width web pages - specifically ones that fit in a 800px screen without horizontal scroll, but according to Jakob Nielsen’s readers it’s the number 9 on the Top Ten Web Mistakes of 2005.

Last time I really paid attention, this was all the rage in web design, and I did the same thing with my site back in the spring when I updated it. So I just went out to do a survey, determined to get examples from the top web designers to refute this. Unfortunately, I came back a bit empty handed. There are still a few hold-outs - Zeldman, Todd Dominey, and Mike Davidson among others. There was an argument (sorry, I forget where it was posted) that users have difficulty focusing on text contained in too wide an area, that it’s hard to visually scroll to the next line, or get back to your spot if you’re momentarily distracted. The traditional layout of newsprint was cited as an example. But I noticed that in the last round of redesigns, most people are adopting designs that flow into the window size. Most of these are still optimized, or at least still fairly readable, at 800px wide, but gratiously widen in a larger window.

I personally like 800px width because I have my window resolution set at 1600×1200, and it allows me to have the web browser open in exactly half the window while I do what-ever else it is I’m working on in the other half of the window. Surely buying another monitor could resolve this, but I’ve got enough desk clutter to deal with.

One of the primary points that Nielsen points out in this piece recurs from a web design mistake much higher in the list… fixed text sizes. Given my resolution preferences, sites that have fonts fixed down to 8pts are painfully hard to read. I have to use the old firefox ctrl++ trick to bump up the font to a readable size. And this is where a flowing layout is really important. If you have your layout firmly strapped down and then someone blows up the font, they are going to see some strange issues where the text no longer fits inside it’s container. For an example, just blow up the font (either using browser default, or by hitting ctrl++) on this site and see what happens to some of the headings to the right. Yech… that’s ugly.

So rest assured, in my next re-design I will be addressing this issue. The site will still be created so that it is perfectly viewable with a decent font size in an 800px window, but it will flow gratiously if you have a nice wide screen monitor.

Aside from the fixed vs. flowing debate, there is one thing that really aggravates me and that I think is almost a laughable oversite by many designers. They’ll build a site intending there to be no horizontal scroll at 800px, but they forget to take into account that the veritcal scrollbar takes up a small amount of space. The result is usally 1-2 characters cut off on the right of the screen, and the tiniest bit of horizontal scroll. You really need to make your site a little narrower than that. I generally use 770px. And when designing sites to be easily printed, or designing your print.css, be sure to be kind to the rest of the world that uses A4 instead of letter sized paper.

All Good Things Must Come to an End
It’s our last full day of our vacation in Maui. It’s been a lot of fun, but we are both pretty tired and I think ready to come home. We spent our first 3 nights at the Diamond Resort and Spa in Wailea. It was very spacious, very quiet, and very relaxing. It was up on the hillside, and although it wasn’t on the beach, a very quick drive to a public beach with plenty of parking was all we really needed. We took some time to relax… especially my wife, who had been traveling on business and had a very long flight to get there. I made a panoramic image of the view from the sitting room at Diamond. Click thumbnail to enlarge… but be warned that the main image is over 3 MB.

From the Diamond, we moved to the Westin in LaHaina. It’s not quite as nice. It’s definitely not relaxing. It’s more like DisneyLand. There is definitely plenty to do here… there’s like 4 pools, 2 waterslides, 3 restaurants, and a million other things to do. But the hotel is full, the rooms are small, there are 1000s of people milling around, and it’s complete chaos. I’m sure others would like it here a lot. I hear people commenting that they absolutely love the place. But it’s just not our speed. The other thing I think that’s bothering me… I don’t care where you are… it’s fundamentally wrong to charge more than $5 for any drink that comes in a plastic cup. The poolside drinks here are like $8.50. That’s pretty extreme for 12 ounces of watered-down pina colada.

Beer Brewing Continues
In my March 29th post, I mentioned that the home brewing bug had bitten me big time. A lot has happened since then. I purchased a Deluxe Starter kit, and also an All-Grain kit from Northern Brewer. I had the All-Grain kit shipped directly to my brothers place, and on the last weekend of April, we made our first all-grain batch. We decided to do a simpler recipe, since it was our first time with this brewing method. We also wanted something that would ferment pretty fast so we could check our results. We made a clone of Bass Ale.

Three weeks later, we got together to check our work and brew another batch. This time my friend Jason Crook came along to lend a hand. The Bass clone came out really good. My brother had recently gotten a kegging system, so we put it to the task. I think between Jason and Jake and I, we drank most of that entire batch. We proceeded to make our Black Thunder Wheat - a blackberry wheat beer. It was a lot of fun and we all had a good time. My brother tells me that the beer is happily fermenting away.

We will try to get together early in June to make another batch of beer. We’re going to focus for a while on creating an easy-to-make, easy-to-drink, all-purpose Brown Ale that we can keep in supply as our regular house brew. The goal of the whole thing is, afterall, to keep us both steady in beer supply.

Kitchen Continues
Two and a half years running, and I’m still working on upgrading my kitchen. This was a three week project that really got the run on me. But I’m happy to say that I’ve finally finished stripping all the lacquer off of all the cabinet doors. That’s 3 coats of lacquer on two sides of 24 cabinet doors. It’s been a real pain. But I feel I’m finally in the home stretch. I have to paint the doors, re-paint some of the kitchen, and then hang the doors. My goal is to have the finishing touches put on the weekend of June 18th.

It’ll be great putting an end to a long and painful project. But in reality, it’s only closing one chapter. After the kitchen, I will move straight to the master bedroom, then the bathroom, and finally the hall/living room. After that, the whole place will have been repainted. But of course, by that time I will probably need to start the whole process over again.

Another Certification
In the end of April, I received another certification - the Certified Project Manager from the Project Management Leadership Group. This was part of a project management boot camp that was paid for by my company and held by the PMLG. It was a great program, and I would recommend it to anyone who does project management but does not have formal training. Like the PMP, it is based on the PMBOK, but unlike the PMP, the CPM is based on “immersion” training. It is applied learning, and through the entire boot camp you will not only learn, but also use newly learned skills in practical exercises. The Project Management Boot Camp was a lot of hard work, with lots of long hours, but it was also very fun. We all had a great time while learning great new skills. Check out the PMLG (link above) for more information.

I’m a bit depressed about the economy right now.

I’ve been hearing lately in the news and on NPR that companies were doing better and making money, higher revenues, etc, but that they just weren’t hiring new employees. At the same time, I’ve been reading articles in magazines like ComputerWorld that employees in the IT sector are overworked, understaffed, and underpaid. Why the discrepancy. If the companies can afford it, they should relieve their workers a bit… you’d think that increased job satisfaction and lower stress would lead to greater levels of accomplishment and achievement within your organization. Instead, companies are hoarding their dollars to look favorable in the eyes of investors and shareholders. Senior level management is more focused on what’s better for them personally than what’s good for the company.

The latest round of news is truly disturbing. There have been a spate of large mergers and aquisitions about. You have the P&G| Gillette deal, and the SBC | AT&T deal to name a few. Why all these large mergers right now? According to the news, this is because interest rates are low and companies have capital on hand due to the recovering economy. But what does this really mean? Only 1/3 of mergers and acquisitions can be measured as successful. So who really wins? It’s usually the senior management and the heads of these companies, who can pocket 100s of millions of dollars. Also, shareholders of companies that are purchased see instant payouts. At the same time, these mergers inevitably result in the layoff of thousands of employees.

So what are we doing here. We’re basically reorganizing our corporate structure so that 1 person pockets $100 million, and 1000 people are out of job. We are redistributing the wealth in the wrong direction. What would happen if we took that $100 million and used it to keep those folks on for an additional year? That’s $100,000 per employee. After taxes and benefits, that’s the equivelant of a $40-50k salary for each of them.

How can we prevent the few from pocketing all this money and instead redestribute that wealth to the lower and middle class?

Bruce Schneier’s latest opinion piece in ComputerWorld entitled Make Vendors Pay For Security Flaws is correct on premise but flawed on proposed solutions. We should make vendors pay for security flaws, but increased liability law is not the asnwer. IT managers need to learn to vote with their feet.

Mr. Schneier argues several good points. He first points out that it is mostly the consumer or the IT department that shoulders that burden of security, and the consequences of bad software security. He illustrates that software vendors have no financial incentive to make more secure products. But there are two points that I’m sure he is wrong about. I don’t believe that the end consumer should burden the cost, and I don’t believe that security liability laws are an effective solution.

[edit]Bruce has posted his article on his Schneier on Security blog, and was kind enough to link back to this rebuttal. Please click here for more discussion on the topic.[/edit]
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I recently returned from a trip to Japan. I thought one of the more challenging parts of the trip was going to be getting there. Instead, it was more of a challenge getting home.

In the past, I traveled to Japan with my wife, who is Japanese and speaks fluently (it’s her first language). This trip was different. She was already in the country on business, and I had to find my way off the plane, through customs, onto a bus, and checked into the Hotel. I was a bit nervous, but I was confident that I would be okay. There are an abundance of signs and such in alternative languages in Japan. In general, one could almost say the entire country comes subtitled in English. It turns out I was right… the trouble came on the way home. (more…)