Wow!  This is unbelievable.  Check out the new preview of Google Maps - Street View.  Here is a picture of the old Koko Interactive offices.  This is where Katie and I lived when we first met.  It has El Camino Real.  I can’t believe they did this.  I believe that within 10 years, we will have high res graphics of most of the US from ground level.  Look Arinell’s Pizza, best in Berkeley!  Holy cow, this is awesome.

I thought that Microsoft Maps was cool, but this ups the ante. And having overlays where you can see traffic or home prices.  It’s just intense.  I am thoroughly impressed.

Every month there is some new awesome thing on the web.  We truly live in exciting times!

I have alot of my mind these days.  Lots of projects.  At work, there are lots of different things to occupy my mind.  But I have to admit, I love what I do.  I wouldn’t want to do anything else.  Being a UX Architect is the best job in the world to me. Marketo is an ideal environment for me.  I am lucky to have found such a good situation.  I hope that the market likes our products as much as I like designing them.  if they do, then we are in for a good time.

I skipped Memorial day festivities this weekend to focus on writing the book and preparing the presentation for AjaxExperience 2007.  I was pretty productive, but felt I could have been more so.  It was hard to maintain focus.  There was always the waiting distraction of food, break or sidetrack.  I felt like SpongeBob Squarepants when he had to write an essay for boating school.  Mrs. Puff canceled the assignment, but I won’t be so lucky.  Those of you without little kids may have no idea what I am talking about.

In the book, I finally got through the HTML/CSS review section and could start on the jQuery part.  When I got over that hump, things started going much faster.  jQuery just is so much fun.

Oh, also on the weekend, I helped a friend put together his portfolio site. (site link on request) The way I achieved the shadowing effects is particularly cool.  I even did a victory lap.  Check out the sructure.  It’s so simple and yet so powerful.  The reason I had to be so clever is that PNGs just have terrible IE support.  Why can’t Microsoft figure out how to fix this in IE6?  I would love a special .htx file from Microsoft which completely added png support to IE6.  It would change web development if they did.  Right now, I have to use hacks, none of which is perfect. There is a jQuery one, but it didn’t work right for me.  There are so many and they all act a little differently.  Which one is the best?

Requirements for the perfect PNG Fix:

1. PNGshave transparency
2. Transparency can be used as a background with REPEAT and position.
3. PNGs can be stretched 100% height or width
4. PNGs can be used as tiles for mouseover with transparency (background-position)
5. PNGs can added via AJAX

Anyone?

I am working now on my Ajax Experience 2007 presentation.  Title: jQuery for Designers.

You can see my bio and presentation abstract on their site:
http://ajaxexperience.techtarget.com/west/html/speakers.html#GLipka

The presentationis moving along, although I definetely feel nervous.  I haven’t spoken to an audience in a long, long time.  I feel passion for the subject, but it’s been a while.  My presentation skills are rusty.  Even practicing with myself and Powerpoint I find myself saying Ummmmm way too much.

The subject matter is the same as the book, however, I am unsure which one will be easier.  I work best with a team that I can bounce ideas off of.  A good portion of the book and presentation is about my time at Intuit with Florence and Sean.  I want to capture the energy and excitement that we felt when using jQuery to design a better experience.

On a positive note to Microsoft (since I just poo-poo’d their Windows 2008 plans), I love PowerPoint 2007.  This thing kicks ass.  So much flexibility.  Really works well with a design sensibility.  Making text reflections or rounded corners or drop shadows are a piece of cake.  For Marketo, I admit I used PowerPoint as my inspiration for the ultimate landing page editor.  (You gotta use the product to see what I mean).  Bravo PowerPoint team.

Information provided by Betanews.com.

I read the top ten new features of Windows Server 2008.  To sum them up:

• runs a little faster
• crashes a little less
• lots of enterprise benefits
• nice things for people who hate the mouse (a.k.a Linux people).

The runs a little faster ad crashes a little less sounds fine.  The enterprise benefits are not relevant to me.  (Hooray for people who run thousand+ person organizations.)  The Command Line Interface (a.k.a. Powershell) is nice for Linux people, but I don’t care.Overall, this release isn’t for me.  It’s clearly an attempt to compete directly against Linux and other Unix variants. This is probably good strategy.  In fact, it is probably great strategy.  However, it’s just not all that interesting to me.  Maybe I have finally shed my sys admin past.  I don’t run Windows/Exchange 2003 in the garage anymore.  In fact, when I signed up for LunarPages, I chose the linux box rather than the Windows box.  We run Windows/Exchange 2003 at work, but we have such a simple setup that I rarely ever touch the thing.  The best thing about the Server to me is SharePoint.

This release is the first time I have yawned at a Windows OS upgrade.  I think they have just outgrown me and my needs.  Hmm.  Interesting to think how much I have changed.  This is the first release of any Microsoft OS that I won’t bother beta testing. Times, they are a changin!

I have been working on some forms for Marketo. Mostly shopping cart stuff to get signed up. It’s been a while since I really dove into jQuery to do some deep interaction design.

Take a look at my prototype.

It uses the Masked Input Plugin.  I like this plugin alot and used to do something similar with my inlineError form.  However, I think I will switch to this new method.  It’s much stronger.  I tried to use the Validation plugin, but I just couldn’t get it to behave how I wanted.  The plugin author assures me that it is possible and might collaborate with me to come up with some more varied demos.   I am excited to contribute.

I didn’t use the ThickBox plugin to show the credit card security code.  (Click on it, its cool)  I used Highslide JS instead.  The interactivity of this script is so strong.  It’s flat out awesome.  I wish ThickBox worked like Highslide.  I would prefer to use an “all jQuery” solution.

I asked a bunch of questions to the jQuery community and they responded incredibly quickly.  They are the best.  I this form works reasonably well.

The kids sang to me this morning:

Happy Birthday to you.
You live in a zoo.
You smell like a monkey,
and you look like one too.

Good boys. Today is a beautiful day.

Predictions for Glen’s 35th year:

1. Blake wins American Idol.
2. Jets win Superbowl
3. Glen wins Pulitzer for best non-fiction book.

Some debugging complaints:

1. Safari sucks.  There is no Firebug or IE Developer for Safari.  There is this thing called Webkit, but I can’t figure out how it works.  What the hell Apple?  Why do you have to be difficult?  No one wants Safari.  Safari has nothing special over other browsers.  It’s a pain in the ass to debug, and as a developer, I just don’t want more work to do tweaking css instead of designing world-class experiences.  Please, for the love of Jobs, KILL SAFARI!  Use Firefox!  It’s open source!  Everyone loves it.  It’s a good browser.  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!  I am on my virtual knees begging you!  KILL SAFARI!
2. WordPress 2.2 does not suck.  Overall it’s good.  HOWEVER, since upgrading, I get a javascript error when trying to write a post.  Its in tiny_mce_gzip.js (return this.contentWindow.document;).  I have no idea.  What I do know is that I can’t write a post.  Even in firefox, I get these errors “inst has no properties”. (getCSSClasses)  Again, I have no idea.  But I don’t like it.  I am waiting for a jQuery plugin to replace the editor.  I am not pleased.
3. Additional Safari issue.  It’s very sensitive to well-formed HTML.  I had some bad nesting and it looked god-awful in Safari.  Everything else looked ok.  It means that, when dealing with a public site, you gotta validate your HTML.  One error I got in the validator was the”rel” wasn’t a valid attribute for a DIV.  This is a bummer.  Suggestion to the W3C.  Please make a couple of freeform attributes!  Like custom1, custom2, customer3.  It would solve so many problems to just have a couple of custom fields!  A little help over here, huh?
4. Firebug is great, I wish that Microsoft would improve their IE Dev Tool bar to keep up.

Marketo.com (The comapny I work for as UX Architect) is launching their flagship product and public site this week.  Uses a bunch of jQuery, Tabs Plugin, Validation Plugin and Scrolling Promo Effect.  Design was by (upon request).  HTML Production was done by NetKitchen and myself.  Overall, I think it’s a solid looking site.

One thing I have started doing is using more PNG files with transparency.  You have to be careful in terms of filesize, but the transparency effect is quite nice.

I feel good about it.  Specifically the black background which I think makes the whole page pop!

Exciting news:

1. The book publisher has green lit my book. I am starting to write it now. It is about jQuery and how it empowers designers. I will give a better summary after I work on it for a little while. I get an advance and everything. The book will be made of physical paper that you can touch and feel. Exciting!
2. AjaxExperience 2007 has accepted my proposal to be a speaker at the conference in July. The presentation will be about jQuery and how it empowers designers. (Sound familiar?) I will give a better summary after I work on it for a little while. The presentation will be in person, but I will heavily leverage PowerPoint 2007. Exciting! I haven’t spoken in front of a crowd in about 7 years. I wonder how many people will show up. A million? Maybe 3? Sean and Florence only? Maybe just me. Less pressure that way. Speaking also saves Marketo $1,300 in admission fees.
3. Ben and Darcie had their second baby. A boy named Henry. They don’t like any nicknames for Henry. Personally, I think Hank, Huck and Harry are all solid nicknames. Huckleberry is the best one though. Makes me think of Val Kilmer in Tombstone. “I’m your huckleberry.” He was awesome in that. Ok, off topic. Congratulations to Ben and Darcie!
4. Marketo is launching the website on Monday which I like alot. And the product is launching at the same time. So much is happening so fast over there. I am very happy there. Feeling very productive and effective. The app still needs alot of work but it is moving in the right direction every day. I am proud to be the UX Architect for it.
5. My 35th Birthday is coming up this week and I am playing some of the best tennis of my life and getting a new raquet (Wilson 6.1 Team) which I like alot. Where is it Bruce?? My hair is still sort of there. My body hasn’t completely fallen apart, knock on wood.
6. My transition to LunarPages is going smoothly.

All in all, it has been a great month. Thanks to everyone who cares.

I just finished moving my host from Powweb.  It went pretty smoothly, well, for the part that I did.  I still need to move all my other stuff.

I chose LunarPages.com.  Speed, my number 1 concern looks solid.  FTP is very fast.  Much faster than Powweb.  Support took a while to pick up the phone and their hours are limited, but they eventually got there.  It’s a big company, like 100 people or so.  West Coast based in Vegas and Los Angeles.

They have an affiliate program, so I will be posting a coupon here eventually to save others money and maybe make me money.  Man, I am so tired, I could fall asleep right now.  So much has happened this week.  I will have to post that separately.

For the move, I also upgraded to WordPress 2.2.  They are moving towards using jQuery for their internal stuff.  Great news.

There are still alot of details here.  I need to check everything.  Can’t sleep quite yet.  I will post the good news tomorrow.