I was asked in an email recently what my feelings were regarding the placement of a navigation menu on a web site. The person asking wanted to know the latest scoop on the advantages or disadvantages of various menu placements. Is a right-hand vertical menu better somehow than a left-hand vertical menu? How about a horizontal navigation menu at the top of the page? Over the years I've made them all at one time or another, though lately most have been vertical right-hand menus. I responded with all I knew about the subject, then admitted the info may be dated. Here's basically what I offered:

I recently had a conversation with my son about the subject of this post. We wondered if we had street smarts (wisdom), book smarts (intelligence), both, or none of the above. And we also explored our preferences to these qualities in those we associate with. It turned out to be an interesting subject for us. My son says that I have both street smarts and book smarts. I won't argue with him. I've had a wild past and street smarts have kept me out of trouble on many occasions. But I do grasp things academically and have always had a solid understanding of the sciences and other subjects. My varied past had a hand in that, too. I also read a lot and that helps. My son is street smart...

It took almost a year, but I got the required number of downloads (250), and exceeded the minimum 50% acceptance rate -- I am at about 74% -- to become an "Exclusive Photographer" at iStockphoto.com -- w00t! I can't say it was easy all the time. There was a lot of learning going on, and I have to admit it was a bit frustrating at times, but the ride was still enjoyable. 250 downloads isn't a lot, and I didn't have a rich year, not monetarily speaking, but it's a beginning. The important thing is this a fit for me and I'm enjoying the journey. I feel very positive about the destination.

All the rage nowadays is using your high speed Internet connection for telecommunications purposes, instead of using the good old phone company and their possibly overpriced services. There are even devices out there that you can plug one end of into your computer's USB port and the other end becomes a common phone jack. It's all pretty cool, except for one major downside -- the latest new threat. Here's what it is...

The doomsayer said the end of XP is near and the doomsayer foretold correctly. On April 14th, 2009, Microsoft plans to end mainstream support for the Windows XP operating system (OS). Even though critical support -- whatever that means -- will still be offered until 2014. This leaves me with some choices, none of which may be as good for me, or Microsoft, as just continuing the needed free mainstream support would be. Here are my options:

On Sunday, March 8th, I asked my white German shepherd dog, Salty, if he wanted to go for a walk. He seemed depressed so I thought it would cheer him up. He didn't really seem up to it, but would follow me to the ends of the earth so away we went. He didn't run ahead as he usually does, he barely kept pace with me, and he actually stopped once as if he was tired. I got very concerned so we turned around and went home. I called the veterinarian.

More than any other factor, it is the understanding of web accessibility obstacles that has best assisted me in the pursuit of making my sites and those of my clients as accessible as possible. But isn't that always the way? We cannot avoid danger if we cannot recognize it. That's what I tell my son. I stress that he can do anything he wants to in life, but before jumping in with both feet he would be smart to first identify the risks so that he may avoid them. As this pertains to web accessibility the risks are, of course, a lack of access to those who need it. And to succeed, we are smart to first identify those risks so that we, too, may avoid them. On behalf of our sites' users.

If you need support for my version 2.0, 2.0WP, or GBCF-v3 contact form scripts, this is the place to get it. The new place. I've used the same blog posts for contact form support comments and questions for such a long time, their pages have gotten long. Really long! I decided to start a new one and just close those. That said, those old posts have not stopped living their useful lives. Many of your questions may already be answered there, read them first. Support Update: Header not recognized with the WordPress plugin? Did you unzip the zip file first?

Many web developers who blog at some point share a little code or scripting. We do this to give away a hard-earned/hard-learned tip or trick, or in some cases to offer a whole script or code solution. We try to make the Internet a better place. This is a great thing about the web, all this openness and sharing over the years. I've observed over those years, though, that some post code more effectively than others. I've seen code posted on the web that was hard to read, difficult to access, and sometimes nearly impossible to use. Based on these observations, and based on my own personal preferences in some instances, I have come up with the following tips for posting code online.

I've been at a little while now. I've got some calluses. I've been a member of iStockphoto since February of 2008, but I didn't start contributing until April. You do the math. During these months I've been hard at work basically re-learning the craft. Photography has been a hobby since I was a kid -- I grew up with an SLR camera given to me by my dad -- but this whole stock photo thing and using a digital SLR (DSLR) have been a new and exciting adventure. This is my progress report.

Gas prices are high. Driving my Jeep creates pollution. That contributes to global warming. Driving is also known to be dangerous. I avoided all these negatives this year by doing all of my holiday shopping online. It's fast, convenient, saves time, and hopefully with the precautions I take and knowledge I posses, safe. I didn't have to spend hours driving all over creation finding the items I wanted.

As I did in 2006 and in 2007, I have created a "best of" post highlighting certain articles that I published in 2008. As I mentioned last year, some of the articles were chosen because I really liked them, others because you really liked them. If you want more of the latter let me know what you'd like to see. Sometimes I get stuck for ideas -- though I usually think of something -- but requests help.

Local brick-n-mortar businesses, those who rely on walk-in, on-location commerce, will often have a web site to promote their business. It's a good idea. The cost of having a web site is next to nothing, maintenance is easy if the site was built with updating in mind, and it can be a great service to existing and potential customers, depending on how it's used. One such service would be helping the potential client find the business's physical location. This can be easily facilitated by adding a location map to the site. How one should do this is the subject of this article.

A while back I mentioned I made a AAA web site that conformed to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0. The site was for California disability rights attorney, Lainey Feingold, who works primarily with the blind and visually impaired community on technology and information access issues. She is nationally recognized for negotiating accessibility agreements and for pioneering the collaborative advocacy and dispute resolution method known as Structured Negotiations. That's from her site -- a site which is one of just two AAA implementations (the other being Vision Australia).

The past 100 years have brought about enormous change. Not the shallow electoral kind of change. I'm referring to much more potent changes, like those in communications, medicine, aerospace, manufacturing, and transportation. And more. A lot has changed in that time. And with all that change has come a not always flattering public opinion about it. Take Rock 'n' Roll, for instance, my parents didn't go for it, they pretty much hated it. Not me, though.

That question is hot on the mailing list run by the Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS) right now. Specifically Accessites has been called on to explain why it is has one submission criterion demanding support for an 800x600 monitor resolution -- meaning that it must be viewable without side-scrolling. Apparently more than a handful of developers at GAWDS feel that 800x600 support is a bit out-dated and no longer needed as it once was. I'll answer this, not for Accessites, but rather for myself. I'll explain why I feel it's important to support that smaller resolution -- or maybe I should say window size, since not everyone computes or browses with their windows maximized.

As you may or may not know, dear reader, I've divided my time between my usual role as a web developer and my newer passion for photography. If not, I've recently explained it. Being so divided and all, I've somewhat neglected reading other people's blogs, now only spending a fraction of the time doing so. I'm still out there, though. Just recently, in fact, I was checking out that A List Apart (ALA) article by Dave Shea: CSS Sprites2 - It's JavaScript Time.

When I made my How to Build a CSS Web Site tutorial I purposely started with a valid and well-formed, but unstyled HTML page -- within the tutorial's styled page (tricky). I then applied styling gradually, seen as the tutorial runs. The Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) additions are marked on the example text "File" for each page. By the time one gets to page twenty the template is done, hack-free, and the style sheet is complete. I didn't use universal resets in this build, so I really just whipped a couple of elements into shape with as little styling help as possible. I let the browsers do their thing instead of butting heads with them. During this element whipping I also "tweaked" list types in this template (on page 18). It's this I want to point out because I think its works well, especially for the minimalist.

This article is about the pros and cons of writing a script, then freely sharing it with others via distribution on the web. Specifically I'm focusing on a script, but believe me when I tell you the points raised in this article are equally applicable to open source templates, themes, widgets, and more. I'm writing this so that you, as a script author to be, will be better informed and prepared for what's involved if you want to do it right. The information herein is based on my own experiences as a script writer, both good and bad.