update your feeds - new address for the blog

This is a reminder that the blog has moved to http://www.theelusivefish.com/articles/.

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These pages will remain online for archival purposes, but save for a reminder or two to update your feeds/bookmarks, there will be no new posts.

Fun with browser compatibility

There's an old vaudeville skit where a patient's leg is sticking up in the air. The doctor pushes it down only to find the arm is now sticking up. The doctor pushes the arm down only to find both legs up in the air. This is not entirely unlike getting CSS to render properly across different platforms.

Having coded the redesign using Firefox, I cracked open my copy of the Internet Explorer 7 beta to see how things looked.

All in all, not too bad. There are a few positioning problems with the margins but nothing a little tweaking and a conditional couldn't take care of. So how did it look in IE 6... ?

Great Ceasar's ghost.

Much of the weekend has been spent pushing down legs and arms. But I think we're getting good to go. Much still needs tweaking, but the blog is now online and the rest will be soon be ready for prime time.

Those of you subscribed by feed will want to update to http://www.theelusivefish.com/articles/feed

website redesign - um, yeah, I was going to blog about this, wasn't I?

Well, originally the plan for the redesign was to blog each step of the way. That way everyone can see the steps involved in a project of this size and scope and be privy to the details that normally stay between myself and the client. You'd all get to see my plans, my compromises, the final results and all the decisions that led me there.

At least - that was the plan.

Unfortunately what's happened is that as an off-hours project. Much of the thinking, planning and deliberating about the site has been done when I have been away from a computer. Jotted notes on a napkin from the Tim Hortons. Thinking through site architecture whilst riding the train into Toronto. Thinking through options for the backend whilst brushing my teeth. The few free moments I've had at my computer I've had to choose between talking about the site and actually building it.

Really I should have found the time to do both - but the iron was hot and one has no idea what time devouring project lurks around the corner so I've been madly striking away. So whenever it came down to a choice between talking about the work and actually doing the work, 'doing' took precedence.

Sorry about that, folks. I'm just in the process of testing the backend of things and polishing off the CSS to work between the various browsers. Figure another few days of work left. As I start uploading the bits and pieces I'll try to do better at blogging while working.

Apple customer service - whose hard drive is it?

Heidi Miller's hard drive went kerflooey. Hey, it happens. But what followed is a little surprising.

After bringing her ibook in to her local Apple store for repair, the hard drive was proclaimed to be dead and a new drive would be $300. She had anticipated that such would be the verdict and had a specialist standing by to do data recovery on the dead drive. But when she asked for her old drive, she was informed that it now belonged to Apple. She could have it back temporarily, but if she didn't return it in 30 days her credit card would be charged an additional $300.

Heidi was put in contact via email with Robin Roberts, a media relations person for Apple, and asked some reasonable questions. Such as:

• Does Apple get a rebate on returned hard drives?
• If so, how much is that rebate?
• If not, why is the customer charged $300 to maintain ownership of her own hard drive?
• What is done with the hard drives that Apple retains? Are they returned for the rebate?
• Are they refurbished and resold?

Robin responded that she would be happy to talk with Heidi over the phone but would not answer the questions as they 'relate to internal data that we will not discuss'.

Over in the comments section of For Immediate Release (where Lee Hopkins' report brought the story to my attention), Macfan has provided the relevant paragraph from the work authorization form.

“4. If repairing your product under warranty or extended service contract, Apple may use new, used or reconditioned parts, if permitted by the terms. If repairing parts outside of warranty or extended service contract, Apple may use new, used or reconditioned parts. Apple will retain the replaced part that is exchanged under repair service as its property, and the replacement part will become your property. Replaced parts are generally repairable and are exchanged or repaired by Apple for value. If applicable law requires Apple to return a replaced part to you, you agree to pay Apple the additional cost of the replacement items.”

This, to my mind, still doesn't explain why Heidi was to be charged $300 - full retail - for her original drive which was still just as broken as when she brought it in. And I'm left wondering how a company as savvy and slick as Apple can be so clumsy in its customer relations.

Blogging Dinner in Toronto

Just returned from a blogger dinner to welcome Shel Israel (co-author of Naked Conversations) to Toronto. The beer was a buck fifty more than advertised and the chicken wings disappeared faster than a termite at an anteater convention, but it was all good. To Alec Saunders, Dave Forde and Pete Dawson, who organized the event, a huge thanks.

I'm in the process of sifting through the business cards I collected to see who I need to add to my feeds. I always feel that an event like this demands that people should have a URL or net name or something floating over their head (akin to in a MMORPG). That way you know just who you're dealing with.

"Jeremy, well it's a pleasure to have met you. G'bye. ...wait a minute. Jeremy Wright. That was Jeremy Wright. That was b5media President Jeremy Wright. Oh krunk - I hope I wasn't a total putz when talking to him."

One of the great things about an event like this is you get to hear a lot of interesting conversations. I spent a good deal mixing my way through the crowd and listening in on the discussion. Met a lot of new folks whom I hope to meet again.

I also learned that my doppelganger is also a fan of Shel's work. Seems my like-a-look was in the crowd at the AIMS session on Blogging for Executives and apparently was one of the few there who seemed to 'get it'. Just not a lot of enthusiasm directed Shel's way at that talk. Always comforting to know my like-a-look knows what's what when it comes to the importance of social media. I discover all this as Shel initially took me to be my like-a-look and seemed so happy to see me again. I felt bad that I wasn't, but assured him if I had been there I'd of been nodding right along with my like-a-look.

After clearing that up, I did get the chance to chat with Shel briefly and get a copy of the book signed. The Halton Peel Communications Association is having an evening devoted towards the discussion of blogging and I intend on giving this copy of Naked Conversations to someone there.

I'll have to keep my eyes open for future Toronto blogging events.

The great gray beast strikes again.

Well, once again the great gray beast known as February has come and gone leaving me with nary a post behind.

February has been a busy month for me. I've been working on not one, but two projects of comics as communication. Hopefully I'll be able to post samples of those in the near future. Another project has had me busy adapting WordPress into a content management tool. I'm looking forward to that one launching. As well, I've begun work on a website for Girls Incorporated of Halton. This one will involve a lot of custom PHP and MySQL work. It's been a while since I've done anything beyond minor tweaks so I've been boning up on that.

Of course, with paid work on the table, the first thing to be shelved are my own projects, meaning little movement in my site redesign, a complete lack of new comics over in TragicLad Theatre and, as mentioned, no posts to the blog.

Time to correct all that.