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Hilarious 24 Apr, 2004

Apparently, web standards are “big, dumb.” They also don’t work. This is all according to a short piece by one David Emberton who touts himself as being a “professional web developer.” Well, I had to check the date of the article to make sure it wasn’t still April 1st:

According to the Web Standards Project, the world needs this stuff because it’s simpler, more affordable and available to all. Oh really? Could it be that they’re just ideas cooked up by a bunch of overpaid intellectuals?
[…]
I want the browser wars back. I want to use Flash and PDF (you know, technologies that work) without being accused of bourgeois elitism. Is it really so important to make our Web sites phone-compatible? PDA-compatible? Safe for the flat-footed? No.

Go on, go read the piece. You know you want to As an additional point of interest, the host site is done in Domino; looks quite nice too!

Via Jon Hicks.

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Comments

  1. Great article - especially loved the comments below. A real corker.Justin Freeman#
  2. the author is a flash developer, it's a shame really.Paul R#
  3. I wish the author would have elaborated on his problems with CSS. You certainly do not need a degree to figure out the basics, and even the worst web developer can see the advantages of separating style and content. But I admit that the positioning techniques are not the most intuitive.

    It sounds like the author does not have a well-rounded background in Computer Science, and therefor has little patience for the volatility of programming/markup/technology. Maybe this is not his fault. Maybe the rest of us need seriously address the question, "Why aren't more developers trying to adhere to standards?"Trent#
  4. if you liked the article you'll love the blog.

    http://www.emberton.com/dailydave/archives.html

    i especially like the "wouldn't it be cool if…" ramblePaul R#
  5. It seems someone read that one -- it pretty much describes the new Microsoft file system (expected in Longhorn/Win2K5).Stan Rogers#
  6. Heh heh, indeed! If I may digress for one moment — and I suppose I can here ;-) — the operating system that had the coolest file system to my mind was / is BeOS. Unlimited amounts of meta-data could be associated with files, and the Tracker (BeOS version of Windoze Explorer / the Finder) was a nice database system designed to — funnily enough — track all this stuff.

    In his review of an earlier version of Mac OS X, Ars Technica’s John Siracusa had lots of interesting stuff to say about “what might have been” with the OS X file system:

    Ars Technica: Metadata, The Mac, and You

    And who knows, perhaps it might still come to pass:

    http://www.pmbrowser.info/hublog/archives/000208.htmlBen Poole#
  7. Could it be maybe his tongue was in cheek? I think it must be, even more so after "reading the wouldn't it be cool" post…

    If not, wow!Christopher Byrne#

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I’m a developer / general IT wrangler, specialising in web apps, the mobile web, enterprise Java and the odd Domino system.

Best described as a simpleton, but kindly. Read more…