The Wait Is Over
Finally, I have broadband access. Don't things seem so much faster after you've lived with dial-up for so long. Hopefully I can return to some kind of normality now, as it's easier to get time online and there's no need to worry about the pennies all adding up while I'm doing it.
There's a lot going on chez Jake at the moment, with 12 hour days being the norm. Every waking moment seems to be taken up with DIY. Still, I'll try and post here at least two or three times a week until I get back in to the swing of it and get some work started again.
Yesterday I got back from a fruitless trip to try and find some 9" skirting board to find a call-back request for Jake Howlett of Rockall Design. At first I thought it might be some work so I called back and put on my best phone-voice. I was disappointed to find it was merely a lady who wanted to "ask" me to remove the link to their company website from this post of two years ago. Apparently it's "not appropriate". Can I find the time to remove it? Maybe. But should I? If I want to link to their website what can they do to stop me?
It took me a while to work out what she was talking about, then I remembered their website - 100% Flash. I pointed out what the point of my comment had been and she assured me they'd done lots to their site since then. So I took another look only to find it has changed but is still all in Flash. My question still stands - what would Mr Nielsen say?
If she calls again I might try and convince her of the merits of moving away from Flash and get my feet in the door ;o)
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Hmmm! The web is a public place and unless you are damaging someones reputation/income or causing them embarrassment/expense or inaccurately misrepresenting them, then it is just a matter of preference. Unless some libel or copyright infringement or trademark issue is at stake, ther is nothing they (or anyone) can do. If someone asked me nicely and gave me a reason, I would tend to cooperate, but at the end of the day it is up to you.
As for FLASH sites, the site in question isn't too bad. The best thing about it is the automatic 'size to screen' capability. I have spent ages (weeks/months) trying to achieve less satisfactory results with CSS trying to master this simple requirement. Even if you hate the animations/web menus etc, I would just love to build a site that fits any screen while retaining the presentation. The only downside, (as far as I can see) is the inability to set the font-size, but I guess you could figure a way to do it!
+T+
Tim,
I'd be carefull with statements regarding what is and what is not legal when refering to other websites. If my memory serves me right, any kind of deep linking might already be considered a copyright infringement, if explicitely prohibited by the domain owner. Of course, this is not the case with Jake's two year old posting and as always, he's not the guy to give up for no real reason.
The automatic resizeing of that page does look cool at a first glance, but even within it's limitations, it looks more like a gimmick to me after playing around with it for more than 30 seconds.
(Still using a lowly dial-up connection)
Follow the example set in their very own disclaimer {Link} !
I quote: "Penrose shall not be obliged to remove any outdated information from the Penrose website or to expressly mark it as outdated."
Seems like a good policy to me.
As for deep linking, I can't speak to the legalities in your jurisdiction, but my understanding is that here in the USA deep linking has been upheld as being legal -- at least as long as there is no deception of users into thinking that the content belongs to the linker rather than the linkee.
-rich
Maybe you should mention the whole search engine placement thing to them as well. In my opinion a site like this should not be done in flash. Sure, include some whizzy flash banner if it attracts and helps pull you in, but having flash displaying the content is just not right for a site like this.
That bloody Nielsen, than man thinks he's god! He's made so many mistakes that I believe most things he blurts out should be taken with a pinch of salt!
Hi Harkpabst, whatever the link 'depth' what grounds are there for copyright? If this was illegal, are you saying that all search engines should be banned? c'mon, a link is a link, unless its 'passing-off' as ones own work, as richard pointed out or directly damaging to a site (as I pointed out). If anyone can go to a site and click the link, its public! If you can add it to favorites, whats the big deal? I just don't see the problem. It may be inadvisable to deep link due to page persistence, (moves/deletes, etc) but to cry 'copyright infringement' is just rubbish! If the domain owner doesn't like it they should password protect their site or remove it from the net.
I accept that the this particular flash site is a bit gimmicky, but it does solve a basic limitation of HTML/CSS, namely the inability to easily 'fit to screen' whatever the screen size, while preserving proportion. You just can't do this smooth scaling using HTML/CSS without some hideous side-effects and the odd discrepancy, unless you are very meticulous! No wonder sites are either fixed point/pixel perfect (and unreadable) or inconsistently scaled - just try changing 'View/Text-Size' on MSN or somewhere and you will see what I mean!
Chrz +T+
without wishing to preach to the converted (as a demographic, the average netizen is white, male, middle class, liberal and overly-educated ;*) there are precious few laws in cyberspace -- they have enough trouble stopping spammers! -- I concur with the above, as long as you ain't damaging the linkee, tell 'em they should be glad for the extra publicity. (The original post points out YOU were SPAMMED by them, FIRST.)
Definitely get in there -- convert this opporunity to your (business) advantage -- if they want a reference, I'll provide one, just as half the internet will!
Nice to have you back Jake. Be careful of the DIY. Houses have a horrible tendency to absorb all the effort, money and time you can provide AND STILL WANT MORE. Your very own li'l shop o'Horrors.
Just for the record, I wasn't spammed by this company. I knew a girl who worked there and she sent me an email. I looked at the site merely out of professional curiosity/interest.
Oh, okay.
(Maybe adopt a slightly less agressive posture than perhaps might have been assumed by some of the above comments ;-)
.*.
I did up a late Georgian terrace, and the thing that really baked my noodle was how a seemingly square room could turn out to be a quadrilateral (i.e. not even a parallelogram) with NO RIGHT ANGLES. And in three dimensions.
Conclusion: in an old house everything is "bespoke".
Good luck, and my thoughts are with you.
Thats quadrilateral thing is called 'charm' ;-)
Here's what Mr. Nielsen says:
{Link}
:-)