It wasn’t long ago that web developers obsessed about page weight (the total file size of a web page’s HTML, images, scripts, CSS, etc..). The “lighter” a page, the faster it would download, and presumably offer the user a more enjoyable browsing experience.

With everyone on lighting-fast Internet connections, optimizing page weight has fallen by the wayside. When I was developing content heavy sites for publishers in 1999 we would typically keep pages at 50k or less. At that size even modems users would find the site usable.

Today I did a quick survey to find that many popular sites are over 300k (3x the size recommended by HCI).
www.cnn.com: 631k
www.abcnews.com: 331k
www.cnet.com: 533k

This, of course, is no problem for users on dual-core machines connected to DSL. But many people now surf the web from mobile devices, with much slower processors and Internet connections. With the popularity of these devices, it’s almost as if we have been hurled back in time to the days of modems.

The solution may be to re-visit these optimization techniques from days of old, or to operative twin sites, one being specific to mobile devices. Whatever the answer may be, I beg you, as a mobile surfer, please put your sites on a diet.

A new format war is upon us. I speak of course of the HD video war. In one corner is the storage heavyweight Blue-ray, and in the other the slightly familiar HD-DVD. To the naked eye both look identical, shiny and round, just like a regular DVD. But beneath the surface of each lie different technologies, and a whole lot of politics.

Before consumers were in this mess it was DVD Vs DIVX. We all know how that panned out. Even before the optical disc wars Betamax and VHS were slugging it out over which format would dominate tape. However, this time it’s different. This time there is a third contender, and it’s not a format at all, it’s a delivery method.

With the advent of affordable high speed Internet, content can be delivered right to the consumer, cutting out the need for optical discs entirely. Apple, Amazon, TiVo, and others have launched services where users can purchase and download content online. No trips to the store, no discs to get scratched, no problem.

I believe when the dust settles on this war neither Blue-ray or HD-DVD will be standing. Hopefully, when a victor does emerge, there will be something decent to watch.

Many have suggested, and I agree, the iPhone is bad for web developers. Travel back in time with me to 1997. Microsoft releases a relatively competitive browser, for free, that can render standards based websites well.

With the help of Microsoft’s excellent marketing, the new browser quickly became a hot platform to develop for. However, some features developers were utilizing were specific to IE, and broke compatibility with other browsers.

Today a similar situation is brewing with Safari 3 and the iPhone. Although the iPhone is supposed to render standard sites well, many iPhone-only sites are popping up.

Thus, the suffering of web developers everywhere continues…

It’s now official, Apple will be releasing a SDK (software development kit) for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It will be dropping in February, I assume to coincide with Valentines day, as this announcement amounts to a love letter from Steve to Apple fanboys everywhere.

There has already been some interesting software developed without Apple’s blessing or official SDK. However, with the support of Apple, developers will no doubt produce better applications, and be able to access some of the iPhone’s advanced hardware. Also, users needn’t fear turning their phone into a $400 paper weight just so they can play Tetris.

Not every Mom and Pop shop will get their wares into the phone though. In order to keep out the wrong element, Apple is planning on implementing digital signatures for third party software. Although this is standard practice in the handset industry, I am curious to see Apple’s spin on it.

Remember two or three years ago? Before Britney got fat, the dollar tanked, and the iPhone was only an Apple fanboy’s wildest dream? Back then urban computer nerds were promised fast, cheap, wireless Internet access courtesy of their good friends at the government.

I am, of course, talking about municipal Wi-Fi. In my fair city of Minneapolis things are under way with US Internet. Although I can’t sign up for it yet, the fledgling networking proved critical in the bridge disaster response.

Other cities are not having as much luck. Various explanations exists for the failure of municipal Wi-Fi, and even Google seems to be unable to pull of this feat. I believe the final nail in Wi-Fi’s coffin will be driven by 3G.

I have a Treo 700p on Sprints 3G network, and enjoy DSL like speeds throughout the city, and even in Wisconsin Dells. Why would I bother with Wi-Fi, when my phone gives me lighting fast access to email, and can even be used to connect my laptop to the Internet?

As cell speeds increase, and cities struggle with Wi-Fi, more and more people will discover they don’t need municipal Wi-Fi. Poor Wi-Fi (sniff), we hardly knew ye.

This weekend I spent some quality time in front of a scanner archiving important documents (yes, in Wonderfile). Our office scanner rarely gets any use these days. With PDFs, vector art, high quality stock art, and the growth of digital photography, using a scanner is becoming a dying art.

A few people however, have found new uses for these once proud members of a digital artists arsenal. After all, a scanner is essentially a giant digital camera with a ridiculously slow shutter.

Check out Mike Golembewski’s website for some really cool scanner based photography. The motion of the environment coupled with the scanners movement creates truly unique and incredible imagery, and at very high resolutions.

If you are like me and have built a multitude of computers over the years, you surely have a box or two of spare parts lying around. I call mine “Nick’s Box Of Wonders.” When desperate enough I reach into this treasure trove of outdated RAM and ZIP disks to bring a sickly machine back to life, upgrade an old clunker, or even build a Frankenputer.

Some parts however, I find myself passing up each time I dip into the collection. I eventually give up on these unique items, and they get squired away forever or tossed. One such item is a really cool XEON heat sink. I couldn’t imagine just throwing it out, so instead I found three new uses for it:

A Business Card Holder - very classy

An iPod Dock - just add any sync cable

An Inbox - No one else in my office sorts mail like this

If you have been following the console wars you are surly aware of Nintendo’s success with the uniquely named, and marketed Wii. Although I don’t own one yet, my son and I stop at our local GameStop every chance we get to play.

Before we started doing these freeloading recreational excursions, my son had never played a video game. He immediately picked up the Wii, and was able to play games without instruction or frustration.

This got me thinking about how the Wii was different from other gaming systems. By making the game controls a natural extension of the user, Nintendo has tapped into a very powerful control mechanism: the human body.

Although my son had not yet mastered a mouse, keyboard, or complicated button combinations, he had already mastered his body, and therefore the Wii.

Here is a video of my four year old playing a racing game on the Wii:

There has been a lot of talk about Wonderfile lately. For those of you in the dark, Wonderfile is our answer to the problem of organizing, sharing, searching, filtering, archiving, and distributing digital information.

To accomplish all the amazing things you can do with Wonderfile, we give you three tools: Libraries, Categories, and Tags. This trio of tools allows for unparalleled flexibility, organization, and searching capabilities.

To further illustrate how these tools can be put to use I have prepared a list of my top 10 ways to use Wonderfile:

Keep Track of all the PDFs I Download
Library: PDF Stash - Tags: Documentation, White Paper, How-To

Organize My Source Code
Library: Secret Sauces - Tags: Open Source, PHP, Security

Store Scans of Take Out Menus
Library: Munchies - Tags: Chinese, Free Delivery, Fast

Archive My Digital Artwork
Library: My Artwork - Tags: Anime, Flash, Black and White

Share Photos of the Kids
Library: My Two Sons - Tags: Candid, Halloween, Sports

Backup My Important Software
Library: Tools Of The Trade - Tags: Utilities, Drivers, Shareware

Capture Important Emails
Library: Transmissions - Tags: From Me, Receipts, See Attachment

Store Bookmarks
Library: World Wide Wonders - Tags: Funny, Useful, Blog

Play Photoshop Tennis
Library: 40 Love - Tags: My Serve, Completed, Draw

Sort Candid Celebrity Photos
Library: Celebrity Snaps - Tags: Vacation, Britney, Red Carpet

My Home Away From Home

Flickr has a great feature that lets you annotate your pictures by drawing little boxes right over the image and adding text. You don’t have to browse Flickr long to find some incredible photos enhanced with this fun feature.

I find exploring someones photo annotations much like embarking on a treasure hunt. You never know what you’ll find.

I recently took advantage of this feature to document the typical developers work environment (mine).

Click the photo or here to view the annotated version.