Inspired-Evolution.com

when is Flash not Flash?

when it's done as SVG and XML!

check this out

http://www.inspired-evolution.com/animated_square.svg

here is the code behind the magic

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd"><svg width="100%" height="100%" version="1.1"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><rect id="rec" x="300" y="100" width="300"
height="100" style="fill:#d3d3d3"> 
<animate attributeName="x" attributeType="XML"
begin="0s" dur="6s" fill="freeze" from="300" to="0"/> 
<animate attributeName="y" attributeType="XML"
begin="0s" dur="6s" fill="freeze" from="100" to="0"/> 
<animate attributeName="width" attributeType="XML"
begin="0s" dur="6s" fill="freeze" from="300" to="800"/> 
<animate attributeName="height" attributeType="XML"
begin="0s" dur="6s" fill="freeze" from="100" to="600"/> 
<animateColor attributeName="fill" attributeType="CSS"
from="#cccccc" to="#333333" begin="2s" dur="4s" fill="freeze"/>
</rect></svg>

decisions...decisions

I recently had a situation in my life that required a lot of thought and a tough decision. You are constantly worried if you made the right decision, and there is a lot of going back and forth in your mind.

It reminds me of the old game show where you had to choose what was behind door number two and then if you want to keep the prize that is behind door number two or if you want to try and see what is behind door number 3. Sometimes door number 2 offered a much better prize than door number 3 and other times door number three was the better choice.

I have chosen door number 3 and I hope it is the right choice.

I am digging Digg.com

I just recently discovered this great website Digg.com, which is all about technology related artcles found on the web and allows members to vote on the popularity of an article. The most popular will be displayed first. Great way to try and keep up with all of the changes in technology these days!

get your CSS ready for IE 7

great artiicle about IE and what it will understand with regards to CSS syntax can be found here. Seems there will be some adjusting needed if you have been using the child selector hack like I have...

the big cities get it, at least

I subscribe to an RSS newsfeed that list web jobs in various cities across the country. I noticed that a lot of the jobs coming from NYC, SF, LA and Chicago are wanting designers who understand XHTML, and CSS, code validation, proper code structure, information architecture, and 508 compliant accessibility guidelines.

Horray! Hopefully this will trickle down to the smaller markets like where I live in the Triangle of NC. Here it seems that only the Universities put any credence into those types of skills and most everyone else wants to see a lovely looking, completely inaccessible site using photoshop slices, tables, and tons of javascript.

Can't wait until everyone else "catches on" around here...

marketing to an increasingly broadening audience

I read an interesting article recently about how advertisers and manufacturers are gearing their products and campaigns towards an increasingly expanding audience. I don't mean growing in numbers either, unless it's the number in our waist lines. First there was marketing to generation X and then generation Y, I guess this is marketing to generation XL :-)

Guidelines for a semantic web

The W3C has adobted an outline for what they hope the web will eventually become...Semantic.

The definition of semantic is: Of or relating to meaning, especially meaning in language.

What the W3C is proposing for a semantc web is this:

An extension of the current Web that provides an easier way to find, share, reuse and combine information more easily. It is based on machine-readable information and builds on XML technology's capability to define customized tagging schemes and RDF's (Resource Description Framework) flexible approach to representing data. The Semantic Web provides common formats for interchange of data (where on the Web there is only had interchange of documents). It also provides a common language for recording how the data relates to real world objects, allowing a person, or a machine, to start off in one database, and then move through an unending set of databases which are connected not by wires but by being about the same thing.

This is a great idea, that may one day come to fruition. Probably not in the near future, but it gives us something to aim for.

Read more about the semantic web at the W3C web site.

advertising in the 2st century

Static billboards, and blimps, your time has passed you buy.

I was in the Buckhead area of Atlanta recently and noticed something I personally hadn't seen before. A video billboard which displayed various advertising messages in full LED display. It was impossible to take your eye off of it and that is exactly what they were trying to accomplish I am sure. Static billboards are just that static. Often times they are not all that pleasing to the eye either. They just seem to take up space. Now video billboards are a terrific idea, probably terribly expensive and not every city can afford to have them displayed, but I hope to see more of them in the future.

Another brand new development I was reading about in Tech Journal South is video advertising 1,000 feet in the air courtesy of your friendly neighborhood blimp.

An Orlando based blimp company called The Lightship Group has come up with a blimp with it's own 70-by-30 LED screen which can play the latest Coca Cola commercials, NFL highlights, movie trailers or any other advertising a company would be willing to pay for.

These are exciting times for the mariage of video and advertising. Video may have killed the radio star, but is giving birth to a whole new and exciting entity.

online communities - the way of the future

I really like the idea of online communites such as Yahoo Answers , where you can ask and answer questions posed by others and receive a response very quickly.

Another on-line community I visit often is Craigslist. Great for just about anything such as looking for a job, furniture, date, used car, etc.

The internet is serving to make everyone closer together, and in a world where there is a lot of division and tumoil right now, togetherness is very much needed.

I forsee the online communites, getting larger, and more prevalent in the future and soon offering sound and video. You will be able to "see" the person who is answering your question if you wish to do so.

Pepsi not interested in Cokes formula

Pepsi Inc recently cooperated with the FBI to turn in an executive secretary at Coca Cola Inc. who was trying to get them to buy the secret formula for coke. Pepsi smartly turned them down. After all Pepsi tries really hard to make themselves different from coke so that they will stand out more.

Sure Coke is great, but if wvery softdrink tasted just like Coke, wouldn't that be boring?

Coke has a very succesfull business, and is the number one soft drink in the world, and that should be admired and respected....but does not need to be replicated.