Much like the iPhone epidemic of aught seven drove me beyond distraction, Twitter is doing the same.
I use Twitter. I like Twitter. I think it’s handy to have around. But lately it seems that it is the only thing anyone can talk about.
For example, the word Twitter appears over 20 times on the front page of Mashable. I have unsubscribed.
In the last 2 episodes of TWiT, more than 50% of the stories were about Twitter. I have unsubscribed for the time being. Hopefully normal tech talk will resume soon.
Even on Twitter there is getting to be too much talk about Twitter. I just finished unfollowing about 5 of the worst offenders there.
It’s time to realize that there are more important things to discuss than how many people follow you on Twitter or what’s the best Twitter app to use or, or, or.
You people are like Pitbulls. You find something you like, get it stuck in your jaws and wave it around until it’s a bloody, limp mess that nobody wants anything to do with anymore. Time to find something else to talk about.
I’ve been having issues with HTML forms ever since I switched to the Mac.
On Windows browsers (pretty much all of them), when you press the tab key (insert ridiculous apple symbol here), you go from field to field. This includes stops at drop downs, radio buttons and check boxes. Without doing anything, it just works.
But not so on the Mac. When I tab through a form invariably it skips drop downs and radio buttons and check boxes. This is terribly annoying. I would guess it is because browsers on the Mac more closely follow HTML standards, but I’m not sure.
I have some experience designing forms. Forms in Word, in Excel, in MS Access, even in HTML. I am of the belief that when it comes time to use a form, the user should not have to take their hands off of the keyboard to navigate. Only to check a box or click a button. Everything should be handled with the tab key (or shift-tab for backward navigation). Every form I’ve ever created does this.
The way to get HTML forms to properly navigation is by using the TABINDEX attibute. According to the W3:
The following elements support the tabindex attribute: A, AREA, BUTTON, INPUT, OBJECT, SELECT, and TEXTAREA.
Just about every form element in HTML supports the TABINDEX attribute as you can see above. I think it might be something that not everyone is familiar with. It’s as simple as adding
tabindex=1
to the form attribute. Using sequencial numbers will provide tab stops exactly where you want them. Especially handy if your form covers 2 columns or has many SELECT (drop down) boxes.
Forms are a big part of the user experience on the web. It’s a shame not all sites treat them as such and just cobble them together without fully checking how they navigate. Just a little something to think about.
We have covered this before, right? I am pretty sure that we have.
One of my biggest annoyances is getting asked for my opinion or assitance, only to have that opinion or assistance questioned or not taken. Made even more super-extra-hyper annoying when I invest a sizable chunk of my day to the endeavor. Sizeable chunk here would be 10 minutes or more.
Instead of laying down a huge rant this time, I thought instead of sharing a few suggestions to assist you in wasting less of my, or anyone else’, time.
- First check any owners manual or user guide or help file. Good chance the answer you are seeking might be found there
- Check any emails you might have. Do they answer your question?
- Perhaps you have heard of this really cool website called Google? It’s awesome! It will let you search for things on the internet.
- Run back through the procedure one more time.
- Find another refernce. Magazines, websites, message boards, yellow pages
If you have run through any of the options that do not require my interaction and are still stuck, then repeat steps 1-5 above one more time. Still stuck?
Whoa there turbo. Don’t go all question askin’ on me yet. Before you do, take a minute to think about the possible answer you are going to get from your askee. Do you think you will like the answer? Do you think you will take the advice? Or, will you ask the question, question the answer and do what you first thought you would anyway?
If you are 90% sure you will take the advice, then go ahead and ask.
If, however, your mission is to be a douche bag and ignore or question any advice given by your askee, then keep it to yourself.
Accountability. I think it’s very easy. But that’s where I am, yet again, wrong. It’s also the main topic of this weeks wtf video hour. Hidden after the jump for a reason, this one isn’t terribly safe for work.
I’m trying to get some work done. The last bit of a project that is turning out to be larger than I thought (again) and I’m doing for about 100% less than I should be (again). It’s cool, but I’m having to stop and tell you all something right now.
I am done with the iPhone.
Did you see the period? Did you see the word done? This is to serve as your official notice that I will not listen to anything anyone says about the iPhone. I will no longer read posts that contain the word iPhone in them. I will no longer listen to podcasts that spend too much time on the iPhone. I’m going to stop following people on twitter that talk about the iPhone too much. After this post, I will no longer use the term iPhone on my blog or any site I work on unless I am paid to do so.
If all I had to listen to or read about was how awesome the phone is, then I probably wouldn’t be too upset. But that’s not all.
It’s the people that complain about it. That jailbreak it. That, for all intensive purposes, hate it. Yet they still carry the damned thing even though they get bad signal or have to jailbreak it to work the way they need it to, or have more problems than should be allowed by law. I don’t care.
I’m done. You can comment here about iPhones one last time. Go ahead, get it out of your system. After that, I’m done.
I’m probably going to switch back to Windows too, but that’s for another post.
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