I am a Rochester-based web programmer/UI designer. This is my personal and professional blog.
Posted on June 30, 2011
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The desktop publishing movement set back web development by at least ten years. My esteemed colleague Robert Kostin has recently quoted this mantra in a Facebook group, adding “I think I’m … Read More »
Posted on December 30, 2010
Recent discussions, both in Tweetspace and the Real World, have caused me to think carefully about what behaving “professionally” means when it comes to the industry of web development. Here is a summary. Lovable developer Andy Rutledge has been tweeting … Read More »
Posted on October 13, 2010
After four months of waffling, I’ve finally launched the rebuild of my personal blog site using WordPress. I do realize that I’m a little late to the party, but better late than never. The Technology For the last several years … Read More »
Posted on June 14, 2010
In the past I’ve tended to follow up one big life change with another. In 2007 I got married and then got a new job. In 2010 I had a baby, and now I’ve gotten a new job again. So … Read More »
Posted on December 22, 2009
A lesson well-learned from the Game That Never Was. I just read this great article on Wired about the legendary vaporware Duke Nukem Forever. The author is clear that much of his story is conjecture, however it makes a lot … Read More »
Posted on June 30, 2009
Back in our early college days, around the year 1997, my friend Mike had a vision: give everyone on the internet a chance to poke me in the eye. Thus began an adventure from which my reputation has never recovered. … Read More »
Posted on April 24, 2009
My website has been getting old and crusty. After several months of false starts and half-developed ideas, I finally hit upon a new layout I can be comfortable with. Friends and family (and any other improbable return visitors) will notice … Read More »
Posted on October 31, 2008
Recently I have created rochesterlindyhop.com, a small website featuring a Google calendar and Vanilla forum. I’m hoping to provide a central location for Rochester Lindy Hop and swing dancing discussion and announcements. Historically, Lindy Hop dancers in Rochester have communicated … Read More »
Posted on August 21, 2008
For anyone that reads my web blog via syndication, the URL of my RSS feed has changed. Please redirect your reader to: http://www.alexburr.com/feeds/rss/ In order to spit out thoughts more frequently, I’ve added a Snips section to my website. The … Read More »
Posted on April 9, 2008
It’s April, and that means that once again, it’s time for “CSS Naked Day!” I participated in Naked Day last year and it kind of snuck up on me this time. I decided to go ahead with it anyway, mostly … Read More »
Posted on January 3, 2008
The new year is here, and to celebrate I’ve launched the redesign of my website that I’ve been working on. This site has been a long time in development, longer than any other design I’ve done in the past ten … Read More »
Posted on December 7, 2007
Tomorrow will be exactly thirty days since my last blog entry. How disappointed I am in myself! But I can’t really blame myself, since everything has been pretty much work work work. In addition to URMC, there are some outside … Read More »
Posted on November 8, 2007
Yes, I am bad. I started blogging in the hope of providing insightful, informative commentary to the world at large. Instead, I shirk and procrastinate and lose focus and just plain forget. I feel slightly vindicated, though, in knowing I’m … Read More »
Posted on September 27, 2007
There’s a couple of tiny edits I’ve made to my website: A bigger change is that the “Projects” section has been removed. I don’t really feel the collection is indicative of my current skill set, plus the Cazbah section should … Read More »
Posted on September 7, 2007
There’s been a big gap since my most recent blog post, and I apologize to all my friends. I do plan to continue blogging our honeymoon adventures, but my energy has been diverted for the past couple of weeks. And … Read More »
Posted on April 27, 2007
So AOL has a new homepage for their website. If you’ve read this story you’ll know that it’s identical to the Yahoo homepage. Come on, guys. I mean, I know web portals are going to look similar in many cases… … Read More »
Posted on April 5, 2007
It’s time for another “CSS Naked Day!” What is it, and what’s the point? CSS Naked Day was created by a fellow named Dustin Diaz, a web guy with an interest in standards, semantics and accessibility. The idea is that … Read More »
Posted on December 27, 2006
Well my last blog post, Widescreen vs. Fullscreen, got a few comments on it from various friends. This is by far the most successful blog post I’ve had to date. Some digging through my Textpattern Visitor Logs showed that the … Read More »
Posted on May 16, 2006
Well, in lieu of actually participating in the CSS Reboot this May 1, I did a little realign of my site to be a little more straightforward. In general I’m happy with it, with some small issues. I may decrease … Read More »
Posted on April 17, 2006
Well, I’ve finally found an RSS feed reader that I like: A Firefox extension called Wizz RSS. It solves a lot of the annoyances that come from using an external application (until recently I was using Feedreader), and it is … Read More »
Posted on April 5, 2006
Today is CSS Naked Day, when web designers strip their CSS styles from websites for one day. Visitors will see only a basic HTML file with whatever structure the author has given it via true document semantics. I’ve decided to … Read More »
Posted on March 28, 2006
This past weekend I made a small shift in the layout of my website. I’ve attempted to move it from a fixed width to something slightly more fluid, but I’m not sure if I really am pleased with the results … Read More »
Posted on February 14, 2006
Some interesting things happening lately. To start, there were two deaths recently at the Seneca Park Zoo: first the baby elephant that had been due for two years now died in delivery. Then the adult male orangutan mysteriously dropped dead. … Read More »
Posted on February 3, 2006
I haven’t had a blog post in a while. It’s been a long and very busy week on more than one front. I’m looking forward to it being Saturday. …
Posted on September 29, 2005
I know this is a couple of weeks old, but I keep coming back to this story and laughing. So I had to share it with my friends. Quark recently paid a lot of money to a design firm called … Read More »