Mar 02, 1999, 10:40pm

It's been a few days, as per usual. I'm thinking of changing this to the "weaklie ranties" and then I'll try to keep a schedule... maybe post something every Monday.

Weird stuff #1. Recently, the volume of mail generated from my feedback forms and questionnaire has jumped by leaps and bounds. I checked my logs and sure enough, I went from about 150 user sessions per day (to this page), all the way up to over 1,000 per day in some cases (Peak was 1,733 four days ago). But the kicker is, I can't tell who's doing it! When I look at the top referrers listing in my log, the number one sender of people to my site is listed as "No Referrer". I hate that damned thing! Number two on my list (ironically, Fray, with people linking in from a response I wrote) is around 250 or so for the month, but the dreaded No Referrer has over 6,000 tagged to last month. Grrr.

So, if you discovered my site listed on some popular web site recently, and popped over here from there, can you email me and give me the scoop? I did discover recently that this site, in it's previous design, got a tiny feature (and a screenshot) in a published book on HTML, but I doubt that's the reason for all the visits because the book was published a year ago.

And what have I been up to. Well, after a succession of rants about:

• Web elite
  
• Web lusers
  
• Usenet lusers
  
• Copyright cops
  
• Lazy ass types
  
  

I'm stressed to find something else controversial to write about. I have been busy as of late, with a lot of work in a short period (it's always that way, you know), and I've had tables and forms on the brain.

Lemme talk a bit about work. If you've visited my company site in the last few months, brotha, you don't know the whole scoop. I haven't had time to do an update on it, though a new design, in tune with mid-1999 look and feel, is in the works. There's also a shitload of new content, companies, and works I have to put up, including some pretty rad flash work I've been doing. In fact, I'm tempted to take this here personal site into the Flash world with the next revision. Not completely flash, but a lot of it flashed. Flash is the future of the Net, you know.

And I believe that more than ever. I dunno if Macromedia is a public company, but if it is, it's the stock to buy (after dumping Corel for a nice profit, I'm itchin' to invest again). Macromedia, which owns Flash technology, will rule the Internet for the next 2-4 years, mark my words.

Right now, Flash is standard inside of Netscape (4.5x and up) and is rumoured to be standard inside Microsoft Internet Exploder 5. I say rumoured, because Microsoft has a tendency to change their minds on things, and knowing Microsoft's history, I bet they will come to fear, loathe, and lust Flash.

Flash started as a little program called FutureSplash by some startup company who's name I forget. It's initial supporters were, guess who, Microsoft, who coded their entire front end of MSN in FutureSplash technology. That didn't last long, as the initial version was buggy as hell (talking the Microsoft MSN site, not the FutureSplash technology!). The program went through some minor revisions, and one day Macromedia, formerly producer of relatively obscure programs like Fontographer but lately producing things like Director, Shockwave, and various illustration and photo editing software packages.

I suspect that Macromedia bought out the FutureSplash technology because it did about 90% of what Director/Shockwave did, but didn't suffer from bloated downloads or bloated plugins (shockwave has gotten much better though). The FutureSplash plugin was miniscule by comparison, and with entire page downloads being as small as 30K or less, it was a real up and commer.

So Macromedia called the technology Flash and started merging it with shockwave. At least I think that was their plan - get rid of FutureSplash/Flash and merge the tech into a newer, more robust version of shockwave.

But along the way, something happened. Flash 2 came out, and people started doing some pretty darned cool things with it. Macromedia shifted gears a bit, and brought Flash back into the forefront. They made the sourcecode semi-public, hoping that the major browsers would incorporate the tech into their next versions.

First on board with this was Real Networks. Real Audio, version 5, and G2 both run flash movies. Then Netscape announced with 4.5, it would be native. Microsoft seemed to be on board too. And while all this was happening, Flash 3 was released, with cooler tools, user requested functionality, and a slightly easier to use interface when building flash movies.

If you've seen Flash at work, especially at work well, you'll know why I'm gaga over it. It's file sizes compete with download times for static pages (most flash pages are less than 100KB per page, and many are sub 50k), but you get so much more. Here's just a few benefits for web developers:

• Complete control over layout
  
• Complete control over fonts
  
• Vector artwork is scalable without loss of detail and is smaller to download
  
• True web based multimedia with instant effects, animation, sound tie ins and more
  
• Easy to maintain and update - changing content is just a matter of opening the .fla file on your hard drive and changing the text, then generating the movie
  
• No layout worries once the page is built initially. And much much more.
  
  

Screw programming for CSS. Doubly screw the failed DHTML. Triple screw nasty javascript headaches. Flash does all the above, and much more. It's what the web really should be - especially when it comes to the "design" aspect of the web. If Flash was released around the time of Netscape 1.2, I wonder at the type of web we'd be seeing today.

I have these theories about the Web, you see. Most mass media stages have their "rules". These rules are the way information is presented. How things get laid out. How photos, video or illustrations merge with text. Print media has it's own design rules. Video, film and television have their sets of design rules. Audio and radio has it's own set of rules. But at the very moment, today, the Web doesn't have it's own rules. It does have design and content rules, but they are borrowed from the other mass media forms. The web has very few if any rules that are unique to it's medium.

I think this is going to change very soon. In fact I think it's changing now as I type. The thing is, the Web is a non-linear dream come true. Think about this for a second. Most mass media is the linear streaming of information, images or other associated "content". When you read a book, it has a start, a middle and an end. Sure, some books are non-linear (like the dictionary), but most of those don't qualify as "books" but are instead called "reference books". TV is also very linear. When you sit down to watch an episode of "Friends", you are watching it from start, to middle, to finish, as the director intended. Radio is possibly the most linear of all of these things. Everything is in a selected order, and you have no choice in the matter, unless you switch frequencies or turn it off.

I've heard it argued that any book with an index is "non-linear" because the index lets you, the reader, jump to whatever you want. That may be true, but the nature of a book is very linear. Information is presented in sections or chapters. Each chapter has a series of paragraphs. Each paragraph has a series of sentences. Each sentence has a series of words. They all follow the same essential formula, and in a very linear format.

The Web is really the first "mass media" we have that allows true non-linear design. But don't fool yourself. The Web right now is very linear still. Developers code their sites with specific pathways in mind for you, the visitor, to follow. To get to parts of a site, you often must route through other parts the developer wants you to check. But this is not the real reason why I think the Web is still essentially a linear design.

I believe it's this way because most designers (myself included), can't yet envision true non-linear design and process. It's something I'm working on myself, and I think when this does become the norm, the Web will truly be a media form with it's own set of rules.

Which brings me back to Flash. I really believe this program/interface has the means to create really non-linear websites... if I only knew what that means! :-)

Because of all this, I'm hedging my personal bets that Flash is going to be the next "killer app" for the Net. In fact, I think flash is going to take the Web fully into it's own media realm. One that doesn't follow print media rules. One that doesn't follow televised media rules. One that doesn't follow audio or oral media rules. Something completely new.

So why hasn't Flash exploded yet? One reason is that it is still a plugin (Active X component in IE), and not natively supported on most browsers in use today. Second reason is that like most Macromedia products, it has a high learning curve. Doing simple crap in Flash is easy. Doing wondrous stuff is nearly as difficult as using Director, one of the most difficult non-CAD software programs on the market. But that's a good thing.

After all, everyone and their dog can fire up Front Page or Publisher and whip out a simple web page or newsletter. It takes a professional using professional tools (in this case, say HomeSite or Pagemaker) to produce a professional web page or a commercial newsletter. Homesite has a medium learning curve. Pagemaker, to get the most out of it, has a steep one. Flash does too, and that's good. Should keep me in work for years on end.

Because I think Flash is the future of the web, short to medium term. And you know what? I bet Microsoft will fear that one day.

But that's the topic of my next rant, so stay tuned. It could be up in a matter of days.

0 comments | reply

Mixelania

Photos from Algonquin Park
Photos from my trip to Algonquin Park this fall with my Mom and two brothers.

War Stories

Making Snow for the Fortress
One of the worst jobs I ever had... till I got out.

Webiffied

Tools I Use
The tools I use to build websites and lead a tech life.

iPod and iTunes Offline

iMark's iTunes and iPod isn't iPlaying anything right iNow.

Most Recent Songs

Fiddlers Green by The Tragically Hip

Around The Bend by Pearl Jam

Here With Me (Rollo's Chillin' With the Family Mix) by Dido

With arms open wide by Creed

truffle pigs by Matthew Good Band

In the News

Burundi and Beyond - NY Times
Great article by Peter Meehan - provided some background.

St. Petersburg Times
Side mention in an article about good machines

AP Story on Espresso
Background and information provided

NY Times - Grinders Article
Especially proud of this one - got the reporter to focus on grinders

Globe and Mail
LOL - showing bad reporting, dude says I'm an American-based site!

The Olympian, WA
Talks about my love for the El Sal Siberia Pacamara

Seattle Times - Clover
Interviewed for comments on the Clover brewer

NY Times - How it Works
Background and information for various espresso machines

Time Mag Article
Just a brief mention, article about roasting beans.

NY Times
Front page article about consumers getting into specialty coffee.

Washington Monthly
Quoted reference to what I wrote in an article at CoffeeGeek.

USA Today - Barista Jam
Intereviewed for my thoughts on what the epitome of espresso is.

WSJ Article
The Wall Street Journal has interviewed me 3 times. This is the first time my name got in a story.

Reuters Interview
Interview with Reuters, Jan 2 - this is the USA Today version.

My Other Stuff

CoffeeGeek
Launched Dec 22, 2001, this is THE online community for espresso and coffee fanatics.

CoffeeKid Website
It's all new, as of March, 2002. My personal coffee obsession site.

WebMotif Services
My company's site - needs an update!

Amazon WishList
Hey, if you feel the need to buy me something, check here!

Daily Visits

enGadget
Great gadget site run by the guy who used to do Gizmodo.

Google News
This is how I get my daily news fix.

DPReview Forums`
The most active forums for digital photography online today.

Daily Zen
Need my Daily Zen fix!

Jalopnik
A blog about car stuff. Vroom Vroom.

MoCo Loco
An industrial design blog. Very cool stuff.

Friends and Family Plan

Beata Blog
Beata's got her own blog! She updates it most days.

Riddla on Flickr
Matt Riddle's flickr account, updated regularly

Irdy Photos
Irdy, my friend from Jakharta, on Flickr

Recent Acquisitions

Canon EF 24-105 f4 L Lens
The best lens I've ever owned. Super sharp and quick.

Canon 5D
A full frame dSLR, with luscious colour reproduction.

Alzo Digital Lights
Some amazing florescent cold lights for product photography

Canon Xsi dSLR
Amazing technology and image quality in a tiny package.

Canon 40D
Latest prosumer camera from Canon - a much better upgrade than the 30D

Fujitsu P1610
Great 2.2lb computer that does most of my travel / writing needs

28mm f1.8 Lens
A great lens for closeup work and full picture photography

Foodsaver Advanced
Finally got the right tools for freezing green coffee.

Canon 50mm 1.4
Most amazing lens I've ever owned. Produces stellar photos.

Canon 10-22mm
Super wide angle (full frame fisheye) zoom for my Canon 20D