Episode 04: Paul Boag Interview
In this episode Dustin Diaz interviews Paul Boag with ten questions. Despite some of the technical problems and frequent internet noise
it was definitely a pleasure having him on the show. Paul runs his own Web Design Company along with a quite a few others. Their main focus is on accessibility and building great looking, usable websites.
Ten Questions for Paul
- Do you ever get bored of talking about Web Standards?
- Why is accessibility personally important to you? What does it mean?
- Do you do web design or development? Which do you prefer?
- IE7 is right around the corner. How is the Headscape (Paul’s Web Design company) team preparing for its release?
- What is your favorite American food?
- What version of html do you prefer?
- What does your book collection look like? Recommendations? Which ones would you throw out?
- What are your thoughts on browser support when developing web sites? NS4, IE5 etc…
- What got you podcasting in the first place? When did you know you’d become a success?
- Do you have any future plans for boagworld.com and the boagworld podcast?
In the News
The first piece of news we covered is Jonathan Snook’s attempt at dissecting Prototype which is a very handy reference for those developing with Prototype or just wanting to learn more about it.
The second piece proves to be a useful illustration on how CSS websites are developed on a step by step basis through a CSS live redesign. Very cool indeed.
The last news bit can be found on this very website where I covered the fundamentals of writing JavaScript using the Object literal. No more than a few hours later Ryan from ParticleTree later gives more love to JSON however a day before my entry was posted to this site, Chris Heilmann writes some practical advice on even more love on the object literal.
Notables from this Episode
- SxSW which Dustin will be attending
- @Media 2006 which Paul will be attending
- d.Construct was also mentioned as a premeir web conference
- Paul and Dustin also like Pizza Hut
- Lastly Mike Papageorge gives a good tutorial on gZipping your CSS with PHP which can be applied to JavaScript as well
Books Mentioned
The Recommended ones…
- Designing with Web Standards
- DHTML Utopia: Modern Web Design with JavaScript and DOM
- DOM Scripting
- The Zen of CSS Design
- Web Standards Solutions
And the not so recommended ones…
- Dreamweaver Ultra Dev4
- Flash 5 Dynamic Content Studio
- Active Server
Download this Episode
This podcast one hour and nine minutes. Enjoy!
Download Episode 04: WSwI Podcast: Paul Boag Interview
Question, Comments, Feedback?
We’d love to hear your voice on the show. Voice your questions to the WSwI Podcast hotline at (408) 916 - 1046.
February 23rd, 2006 at 1:17 pm
I saw an animated demo of the process of building a website once, it was like the one which you linked, except an animated GIF. I liked it. Listening to podcast…
February 23rd, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Paul: I think that the grass is greener because we’re intrigued by what we don’t have. For instance, I dig your British accent, and I mean that in the most straight way possible! :) Great podcast guys.
February 23rd, 2006 at 5:26 pm
Well done. I commend you on taking on a project like this. It takes a whole other skillset to pull something like this off.
Great job man - I’ll be looking forward to catching your future episodes.
February 23rd, 2006 at 5:29 pm
Yikes! I need to catch up–been so busy lately I haven’t been able to listen to the 3rd one yet.
February 23rd, 2006 at 5:40 pm
how the heck can you write “weblog focusing on usability and accessibility” and only provide at the same time only a mp3 ? Is that’s accessibility for foreigner speaker ? I dont understand anything of this english thing. You could say you are focusing on accessibility if at least you provided a textual version of your content. This mp3 stuff is in opposite of accessibility spirit.
Sounds interesting content, but only accessible to english speakers, what a shame for someone “focusing on usability and accessibility”
February 23rd, 2006 at 6:34 pm
Laurent, I would normally refuse to answer such an ignorant response but since your name is unfamiliar I’ll assume you’re new to this website.
The podcast that I provide may only speak to some people because it is indeed in English only. It is in fact an “added bonus” to this website. It seems to me that you can write english well, so I’m not sure why this is bothering you.
Not to mention, I think you’re missing the idea behind a podcast. The whole point is that it IS audio. It’s a show. It’s supposed to be fun. We talk about accessibility and usability type stuff in the podcast. If you’re expecting me to translate every episode into a foreign language and transcript them onto the website, you’re out of your mind.
Do I have thousands of dollars to throw at this? No.
Do I have three months to prepare every single episode for accuracy? No.
This “mp3 stuff” is what a podcast is. If anything, it provides people an alternate way to get content that interests them. How many other websites can you think of that provide “audio” on “accessibility.”
Needless to say, I resent what you say claiming that it’s a shame for someone who “focuses on usability and accessibility” goes against the spirit of accessibility.
Come to think of it, I think Molly talked about your kind today ;)
February 24th, 2006 at 9:43 am
I am in the middle of listening to your podcast right now and have decided to pause it to put in this comment. You are talking about learning JavaScript out of anger and frustration and that many developers just copy / paste JavaScript code. I think this is because there is not a great documentation site for the language. One reason that PHP is common (in my opinion) is because php.net and zend.com are incredible reference sites when you are just learning or you are more advanced.
I would be interested to know what sites those of you use for JavaScript documentation. I am not a JavaScript expert at all but the majority of my knowledge came from forums like webdevelopers.com.
February 24th, 2006 at 11:13 am
What’s the matter with you Dustin? Don’t you know that to have a podcast of any sort, you have to be fluent in at least 10 other obscure, rarely-spoken languages, in addition to your own? Spanish / English doesn’t cut it, my friend. I’m going to boycott your site until you at least learn German, sheesh. ;)
On a serious note, this is something I’ve thought about quite a bit: The fact that HTML (and just about every markup / programming language) is English-based. Not only that, but Western English based (border-color, not border-colour). I think we need to count our blessings sometimes, that we happened to grow up with the necessary predisposition to “learning the web.”
February 24th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
> I think we need to count our blessings sometimes, that we happened to grow up with the necessary predisposition to “learning the web.”
Not to sounds pompous, but that’s probably due in a large part to where *it* began, wouldn’t you say? Localization (language accessibility) was not exactly a driving force when programming was coming to age, though I think it is now.
In defense of LAURENT, I don’t think they were arguing that podcasts should be transposed foreign languages at all. The arguement (though lost in the translation) was that a second language is easier to read than it is to listen to. Just transribe your discussion in English, and it can then be translated by those in the field who can do so.
If I’m listenting to spanish podcasts (I don’t), forget it, I’m lost. But if I’m *reading* spanish, well, I stand a chance of actually understanding at least the main idea.
Please understand that I’m not saying podcasts should be transcribed, that’s completely ridiculous and saps the joy of creating a podcast. I’m just defending the point that it is easier to read a foreign language (or get somebody to translate it for you) than it is to listen to.
February 27th, 2006 at 8:47 am
Any chance you could explain how you include the prototype library on you’re site. You mentioned a little bit about this on the pod cast. I’m interesting in you explain this method in more detail.
thanks, cody lindley
February 27th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Can’t wait for the braille transcript of your hour long podcasts!
Don’t let the negativity grind you down, I happen to think your podcast and the info you offer us on your site rocks!
Respec’
March 10th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Hey, comments like Laurent’s just make me laugh. It is a lot easier to critize than it is to create. Keep up the good work.
I ran across a funny sign at the lodge while I was snowboarding last weekend that made me think about what Paul Boag said about dinner portions in the U.S.