Elly Williams’ Weblog

Meri’s just upgraded. Lucy and Jo have just moved to it. Dave upgraded a while back and Ben’s moving sometime soonish. Not to mention many thousands of others.

And here’s the question…. because Wordpress removes punctuation in post-slugs, are we going to confuse Google into thinking there’s a Wordpress 15?

Not only is it the longest place name in Britain (with its 58/51 letters – depending which alphabet you use), but it’s also the longest registered domain name.

www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.co.uk

I’m so glad I spent time learning to pronounce it

How does flickr know what camera I have?

So, I finally got around to upgrade to WordPress 1.5 (can you tell?) and installing a couple of plugins and figuring out how this whole templating thing works (thanks to a handy tutorial and to Dave for being on the other end of MSN when I thought I’d messed it up)

So now I can get on with blogging SXSW, right? Well, kinda.

Meri, Simon and I all decided we were going to take business cards with us to SXSW, prompted by a combination of The unofficial geek guide to getting over yourself at SxSW Interactive 2005, and the OK/CancelTrading Cards from last year. After their adventures in Newport at the passport office, Meri and Simon used a machine at Bristol Station to make some. And I decided to put my hibernating printer to good use and make my own.

So I did. And I printed them on 5″x3″ index cards, because that’s what was available at 10pm the night before a 5am start to a 21hour journey. Which meant they’re a little on the oversized side.

Uncyclopedia

Uncyclopedia is an encyclopedia full of misinformation and utter lies. It’s sort of like Congress or Parliament. Unlike Congress or Parliament, however, we do have a sense of humor. Nonetheless, this one of the only factual pages, before everything turns into a puddle of utter confusion and disarray. Savor it. And for the love of Sophia, we know you like disarray, but stop adding confusion to this page to spite the disclaimer.

Molly posed the following questions the other day, and seeing as I’m planning on going into some of these things in a bit more detail at some point, I figured I’d put some brief answers up here for the time being…

• Which was the most memorable panel you attended?

  I enjoyed “Does Design Matter?” It got me thinking a lot about the similarities between web & software design and architectural design. I think they’re closer than a lot of people realise. It was also the first panel I attended after recovering from jet lag.

• The most memorable keynote?

  Alex Steffan and Bruce Sterling. Most of the topic was reminiscent of my dissertation project and we got to play with printed objects.

• Do you think that SXSW is more a social or content-oriented event?

  I think it’s a healthy mix of both. It’s also quite personality driven. There were a number of panels I attended because of who was on that panel.

• What would you like to see more of at SXSW?

  Better room scheduling. There were too many overflowing panels in small rooms clashing with empty panels in the large room.

• What would you like to see less of at SXSW?

  Reliance on technology. I didn’t have a laptop with me and felt left out when IRC or iChat or blogging was made into an integral part of the conference. It’s one of the few times we’re all in the same building. There are much more inclusive ways of communicating in that environment. Writing questions on index cards was used in “How to be Beautiful” for example.

• How would you describe your experience overall?

  Fantabulous

• What will you remember about the food and drink you had while in Austin?

  So. Much. Food.

• Do you have a “best moment” or two (or ten) that will stay with you forever?

  in chronological order

  1. Contemplating “hipster backchat” (not to mention “hipster man-in-the-middle-attacks”) with Meri, Simon, Yvonne and Michael over BBQ on Saturday.
  2. Lunch with Molly, KC and Lyman before the “Women of Web Design” panel
  3. Vox Nox
  4. Being woken up by a large dog sticking her nose in my ear on Tuesday Morning

There are a growing number of things which we don’t refer to in full. From everyday things like TV and PC to shortened expressions like LOL and (the infuriating)IMHO. And that’s before we start on the multitude of web based acronyms (CSS, XHTML, DOM, etc, etc)

What’s my point? Well other than I’ve just proved that I can write a post which contains more markup than content, in order to not confuse too many people I may have to learn to spell “acronym”

About 20hours after leaving Austin at 1pm yesterday, we finally got home. Given tiredness and jetlag and general annoyance at the British public, weather and transport systems, I had planned to upgrade to Wordpress 1.5 this afternoon, and then spend some time playing with it and possibly getting around to writing about SXSW (maybe).

Except that some combination of :

• My Computer
• My Internet Connection (it’s so good to have broadband back!!)
• My FTP Client
• My Site Hosting
• The Intarweb as a whole
• The Leprachauns who are still annoyed at me for not wearing green on St Patrick’s Day

have decided that uploading and downloading are both out for the moment.

So instead I’m going to read my copy of The ZEN of CSS Design which came in the post while I was away.

You scored as Visual/Spatial. You probably feel at home with the visual arts, maps, charts, and diagrams. You tend to think in images and pictures. You learn best by looking at pictures and slides, watching videos or movies, and visualizing. People like you include sculptors, painters, surgeons and engineers.

The Rogers Indicator of Multiple Intelligencescreated with QuizFarm.com

Amazon.co.uk is recommending that I buy World of Warcraft. It is also recommending that I buy it with EverQuest II. Because if your life has already been eaten by one MMORPG (incidentally, mine’s been eaten by this one for the last few months) what you really need is another one.

I don’t think I’ll be taking up that particular recommendation. There aren’t enough hours in a lifetime.