So today's post will be about Web Site Accessibility. I don't know what this is. As a usability professional, I feel as though I really should. Every conference seems to have a theme or track about Web Site Accessibility. I am reviewing papers for UPA (Usability Professional's Association) again this year, and I have already had to choke down one paper on Accessibility. As far as I can ascertain, it deals with making your site accessible for those with disabilities. That is great. I have no problems with helping the disabled, and they should be able to enjoy the web just as much as I and other non-disabled people do. However, why should 60% of the presentations I go to be about this? Are 60% of web users disabled?
posted by Rich at 6:19 PM Comments

 
Read something funny in the news. This story pretty much confirms my opinion that President Bush and Mr. Hussein never graduated kindergarten. Don't you remember this storyline from the Pee-Wee Herman show? I think it went something like "I know you are but what am I?"...
posted by Rich at 6:04 PM Comments

 
Michelle, as most of you know, is an accountant for Ernst and Young. Some of my friends from school made up a joke that I only rented Michelle to pose as my girlfriend at our infamous house parties, because they never saw her any other time. Well, now I might begin to believe it. She is on a client this week out in Fox Chapel, and she has been leaving the house at 7AM and getting back at 11PM. Two of the nights I've already been asleep, so I didn't even get to see her. I think its pretty damn inhumane, but thats why she makes the big bucks. Oh wait, she doesn't make the big bucks.
posted by Rich at 2:26 PM Comments

 
So the laundry is almost done, but the code I have to write is not. I spent six hours today trying to write a function to remove a comma from the end of a string (I know this means nothing to the non-techies of you, but trust me, it shouldn't have taken six hours). In other news, the Steelers managed to pull one out, just in time to go and get beaten by the Titans next week. Woo hoo!

Carnegie Mellon has stayed true to character again. I asked what the policy was for reimbursement for this conference we all get to go to in April. Its called the Conference of the ACM Special Interest Group on Human-Computer Interaction, and it is in Fort Lauderdale this year. It happens to fall during a huge Spring Break week, which of course Fort Lauderdale is a popular location for. Thus, plane tickets ain't cheap. Plus the hotels are 150 bucks a night. Plus the conference registration is a couple hundred bucks. Carnegie Mellon reimburses...wait for it....500 dollars. So here's the deal: I give them 40 grand. They don't have a graduation ceremony for us. They don't give us enough to attend the conference where most of us can find jobs. I could go on.
posted by Rich at 6:31 PM Comments