October 2004 – Vinko’s Thoughts On…

October 31, 2004

Compatibility

It has been just over a year (1 year plus 1 day) since I modified my whole web site to be “World Wide Web Consortium” (a.k.a. W3C) compliant.

For those of you who do not know what W3C is, you can read all about it at their web site. Here is a paragraph from the W3C web site.

The World Wide Web Consortium was created in October 1994 to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability. W3C has over 350 Member organizations from all over the world and has earned international recognition for its contributions to the growth of the Web.

What does all this mean? My site is now mostly Standards complaint. When I say “Standard” I am referring to the only justified set of standards on the Internet, which are those from the W3C. Some browser manufactures may claim “standard” compliant, but they are not referring to the same thing. They are talking about what users are “forced into accepting”, where certain manufactures made available only their technologies to users to define its own “standards” within their respective platforms. This to me is not “standard” to the true meaning of the word and spirit. A proper Standard must be accepted and agreed upon by a body of industry members, and made available to anyone who asked. That is the bases of the W3C Standards.

Since my pages are Standard compliant, they will behave and work the way the technologies were specified. Functions like Navigation Menus work the way they suppose to, all compliant pages passes the W3C validators, and most importantly these pages will work with all past, current and future versions of Standard complaint browsers.

Some of you may have noticed the paragraph of small print I have at the bottom of many of my pages.

This site is best viewed with a W3C compliant web browsers like “Mozilla”, “FireFox”, “Opera”, “OmniWeb” and “Safari”. To enjoy all the functionalities of this site you will also need to have the “Flash” and “QuickTime” browser plug-ins installed.

So if you’re using one of the non-Standard compliant browsers to view my site. You are not only missing features but much of the content I have.

Photos Menu Miscellaneous Menu My Stuff Menu

To make the lives of those visitors who are insistent of using non-Standard compliant browsers I have added a new menu item “Site Map“, so at least they can see and find what they are missing unlike the many visitors already visit my site with Standard complaint browsers.

If you like to one of those Standard compliant browsers yourself, here is a list:
1. “Mozilla” (Mac OS or Windows OS)
2. “FireFox” (Mac OS or Windows OS)
3. “Opera” (Mac OS or Windows OS)
4. “OmniWeb” (Mac OS or Windows OS)
5. “Safari” (Mac OS)

So go ahead and download one or more of these browsers and enjoy my site like many of my other visitors.

October 28, 2004

Vinko’s Treasures

Vinko's Treasures

You now have yet another place to purchase products from me.

It has been 3 weeks since I launched my online eBusiness. I am happy to announce that a second milestone have been achieved.

I had gain enough sale on eBay® to open up an eBay Store. It is called “Vinko’s Treasures“.

At the moment you can find iPod Accessories for the “Apple® iPod”, “Apple® iPod Photo”, “Apple® iPod Photo”, “Apple® iPod Limited Editions: U2”, “Apple® iPod Mini” and “Apple® iPod by HP”. I will be adding more products in the near future. So please bookmark it and keep checking.

If you’re looking for the actual MP3 players by Apple®: “Apple® iPod”, “Apple® iPod Photo” or “Apple® iPod Mini”, you can still find them here at Vinko. (“The Shop” section of my site).

Chirstmas is just around the corner, don’t forget me at Christmas!

October 25, 2004

Audio Blogging

Most of you by now have heard of blogs & weblogs; the one you’re reading is my own “Blog”.

Now Adam Curry had created “audio blogging”. From his web site iPodder.org you can find numerous feeds. Curry has now coin the word “Podcasting” for this new form of blog feeds. Podcasting is based on the RSS 2.0 and enclosures technologies.

Imagine getting your daily dose of BBC on your iPod downloaded automatically. That can be the case if BBC catch on about Podcasting. So if any of you readers are affiliated with either BBC, CBC, CNN, CNBC or Bloomberg, may be you should take note and be the first among these competitors to announce your support for Podcasting.

You can find software on Curry’s site, but locating this link may be difficult, so just click on hyperlink I’ve provided.

October 9, 2004

Movie Review: The Stepford Wives (2004)

Poster

My Rating:

This afternoon I went to see the movie “The Stepford Wives ” at Broadway Cinema, Olympian City. Another one of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

I don’t know about you but I personally still cannot comfortably accept Matthew Broderick in any mature adult character. If you’re as old as I am, you will remember Broderick in his most famous role “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off“. In Stepford Wives Broderick plays Nicole Kidman’s character’s husband.

Stepford Wives is a movie with a subject matter that not many other movies had ever touched on. That is “the man behind the woman” idea. I do enjoy Ira Levin’s idea. Although I have not seen the 1975 version of the movie I do enjoy Paul Rudnick’s version of it for the screen.

The casting for this movie was perfect. Kidman had always been seen as a powerful woman (“Eyes Wide Shut“, “Birthday Girl“). I guess may be the casting director also have the same stereotyping for Broderick, in that case may be Broderick is the perfect cast for the role of “Walter Kresby”.

This is also one of the few movies with the most name-brand-dropping. Rudnick plays on the stereotypes of these brand names to enhance the characters they represents. One questionable mention was Microsoft. I wonder whether Apple Computers paid for the brand placement or was it done free by the studio.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

October 7, 2004

Launch of Vinko’s Treasures

Shop

Announcing the launch of my brand new Online Shop.

If you already own an “Apple® iPod®, an “Apple® iPod® Mini” or an “Apple® iPod® by HP” you will be interested in the accessories I have to offer.

If you need an Apple® iPod® or and Apple® iPod® Mini then it is also a place for you to save a few bucks from the “brick-and-mortar” stores.

For those of you who lives in Hong Kong you can save the cost of shipping by sending me a note to arrange delivery.