“Metropolis” nail sculpture, City Hall.

When did it become OK for consumer-grade pharmaceuticals like moisturizers to list the ingredient water (eau) bilingually, monolingually, or interlingually as aqua?

Presumably rather a long time after this grating was forged.

You need that much visibility when dappled with slush.

By the way, I know an Australian who almost walked right into a lake of slush in Boston, so unaccustomed to the substance was he.

This was going to be an entire new section of Webstandards.TO, but it threatened to become an ongoing Sisyphean burden of the sort I am now trying to avoid. So here is a simple list of candidates for a new concept I hope to spread throughout our little industry: FAILED REDESIGNS.

A failed redesign is a Web page created from scratch, or substantially updated, during the era of Web standards that nonetheless ignores or misuses those standards. A failed redesign pretends that valid code and accessibility guidelines do not exist; it pretends that the 21st century is frozen in the amber of the year 1999. It indicates not merely unprofessional Web-development practices but outright incompetence. For if you are producing tag-soup code and using tables for layout in the 21st century, that’s what you are: Incompetent.

When teenagers’ hobbyist blogs (short for “Web logs”) have better code than brand-new Web sites, somebody’s doing something wrong. And that somebody is you, the developer. In a just society you would simply be fired; in an Orwellian society you would be sent to a reëducation camp. Failing either of those, you could at least read a book and upgrade your skills to a point where you are no longer a total laughingstock.

And yes, if you are the developer of any of these sites and we should ever meet, I will tell all of this to your face, and I certainly reserve the right to publicly ridicule your site onstage in the future. Because you’re worth it. [continue with: Failed Redesigns →]

Yes, that is indeed Insignia by Neville Brody (q.v.) debossed on a Chinese-made chocolate tin.

Mounted police in this city nearly always simply amble along like Amish with Glocks. I should have plenty of time to snap their pictures. Nope.

Whilst riding home from the Beach this morning along the slushy, wet, icy Martin Goodman Trail right next to the lake (one of many unique Toronto features), I was shocked to see two mounted policewomen – both in chartreuse POLICE jackets, one with scarf covering her face just like a chador – clumping toward me. Shocked. First thing I thought of was get the camera, but that would require a full stop and various unzippings.

The police were bored and chatting away as I interrupted them to exclaim “Wow! What an amazing thing to bump into!” “Hi,” said one policewoman blankly, and they clumped away.

I pressed on and then stopped. To go back and snap a photo, with those bright-green jackets and the icy pavement and the boardwalk and the lake (really, it’s perfect!), would have meant riding back over the trickiest section and bothering them again and asking questions. So I didn’t.

And I shoulda.

Did you know that I can tell you all about every photo I ever missed?

Stop the presses: Word finally emerges of a writer from Toronto with a Weblog and a freelance technical job. Glad to see that EuroCory blazes yet another trail for the rest of us. Who will scare up the gumption to walk in his hallowed shoes? Whoever could be so brave?

I’m aware that the one thing many of you love more than EuroCory is indulging the adorable little scamp, but can we get real? The year’s a day old and already this is the biggest non-event, non-story, and non-announcement. A post about getting his hair cut or, if he had one, about his pet kitty would carry greater news value.

The line between the right and wrong kinds of tacky is too easily crossed with everyone’s favourite novelty font, Cooper Black.

But if it’s a “novelty” font, why does it continue to be used decades later, sometimes well? I actually like this sign.

Using the German long s ſ to label dealcoholized wine is like using a yogh ȝ or a thorn þ to label an iPod.

Great to look at nonetheless. I wonder what font they use for the barcode?