I actually remember when Hewlett-Packard had some decent products. My dad used to have an old inkjet printer that would churn out pages – I think it printed somewhere around 250 pages per cartridge. It was black and white, and by the time it was on its last legs, I had to hand feed it paper, but it was a true workhorse.
These days, HP seems to hold its customers in the same regard one might hold a cockroach they’ve just discovered crawling through their silverware drawer. That is to say, with surprise, horror and disdain. Here’s why: keep reading »

It’s with a heavy heart that I draft this blog entry. I don’t like spending a lot of time or energy thinking about or researching the various members of the IE family. Their sordid history usually leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. With the latest release of IE9 beta, we are treated to some big claims from Microsoft. Among them:

1. “…we are actively helping set the standards for the modern web.”
2. “Through our investments in standards and interoperability, we hope to help bring predictability to web programming.”
3. “Because when you can spend less time rewriting your sites to work across browsers, you can spend more time creating amazing experiences.”
Source: www.beautyoftheweb.com

What irks me about all of this isn’t that IE9 is clearly trying. What bothers me is that Microsoft is making some bold claims and delicately skating over the fact that keep reading »

With Microsoft’s new browser, IE9, set to release in two days, there’s a lot of hype and speculation surrounding it. Google IE9 and you’ll find a ton of op-ed pieces about why it’s great, or why it’s not as great as it should be, and all manner of bullshit. For the uninitiated, Internet Explorer is a huge deal in the web design/development community. For over a decade, we’ve been saddled with IE6 as the primary browser used by the vast majority of users. It isn’t that there aren’t better browsers out there, it’s that when IE6 dominates the vast majority of user share, responsible designers and developers have to cater to audiences locked into outmoded browsers. They are forced to rely on code that may not be as correct or efficient as it otherwise could be, and they can’t evolve their designs to embrace modern browser technologies. keep reading »

AT&T
This one is just charmingly funny. Someone made a serious booboo at AT&T recently which resulted in every customer getting an email announcing new store openings in the midwest. It’s nice and all that there’s a new store opening in Michigan, but I live in Philadelphia. Oh, okay, wait, there’s another store opening somewhere else I can’t easily get to? La de fuckin’ da. Twitter is abuzz about this snafu. Will AT&T send yet another email apologizing or come up with a more creative way of harassing their customers to apologize for harassing them? keep reading »

It’s everything I’d hoped and more. That is all. Also, I’m typing this from my phone.