After another week of hard training and sprinkling in a few 5:00 am rides, my fitness finally feels like it is getting somewhere. While there have been a few rides that have revealed some glimmer of my old form, not until today did I realize the benefit of my training. And today I saw the benefits in a huge way.

Today I showed up at the 7:30 ride and there was a fairly large crowd. Larger than previous Saturdays I have seen. While the group was not full of Category 1’s and 2’s, I respect the fitness level of the group. For nearly the entire ride I hovered near what I felt was the safest spot in the pack. Some of these riders I do not know, therefore I am apprehensive about overlapping wheels or putting myself in situations where I put trust in too many others. From previous experience, I realize that the wrong move can send me to the ground. With the way our business is going, I simply ride far more conservative. While I was not in the front driving the pace, I was purposely not sheltered much by the wind allowing me to find safety by always staying in a position that would give adequate escape in the event of a crash (more…)

• Design Melt Down
  Design elements, trends, and problems in web design
  (tags: design web reference inspiration webdesign tips)
• Advertising/Design Goodness
  Blog featuring unique advertising (typically print) from around the world.
  (tags: blog design inspiration advertising print)

Recently, Microsoft changed the way Flash and anything else that uses <object>, <embed>, or the <applet> method of accessing ActiveX controls. This is a result of the Eolas versus Microsoft patent case regarding the way Microsoft was accessing the ActiveX controls to handle those tags. On February 28th, Microsoft released a patch which changed the way Internet Explorer works with ActiveX.

I paid attention to this case closely. I don’t do the Flash work around here, but I do implement it on many of our sites, so I wanted to be sure we had our bases covered.

Last year, RD2 Best Practices called for the use of the Satay Method for including valid Flash objects in a web site. Unfortunately, using this method triggers the patch and the new “click or hit spacebar for activation” comes up.

In a recent update to our Best Practices, we switched to the use of Unobtrusive Flash Objects, or “UFO”, as our method of implementing Flash.

How exactly does using UFO solve this wonderful problem? Through plain old trickery, my friends.

UFO swaps content through Javascript dynamically. The page has normal searchable text inside of an element with a specific ID. That element is then swapped for the Flash content when the page is loaded. The cool thing is that the text content is still searchable and valid and shows up even if Javascript is turned off. You can have cool Flash content without sacrificing your SEO or site accessibility.

Since UFO works dynamically, it falls under Microsoft’s preferred method for fixing your ActiveX controls, which basically says that any ActiveX controls dynamically written to the screen are automatically activated for user interaction.

No grey borders, no “click or hit spacebar for activation” — just Flash working properly.

• Pageflakes - The whole Web at your Fingertips!
  Really cool Web 2.0 site that Andy posted about. I have experimented with this an totally DIGG it. These Flakes are de.licio.us
  (tags: web 2.0 portal)

RSS (which stands for “Really Simple Syndication�) is a way of syndicating content that is in a news-like form. Virtually any information that can be divided into distinct articles can be syndicated through RSS.

Feeds can then be read through “news aggregators”, software programs that retrieve syndicated content. RSS is becoming more and more prevalent as a way for Bloggers to release syndicated content. A news aggregator allows users to see recent content (articles, news, Blog entries, etc.) from their selected feeds.

These feeds can be accessed online and offline, allowing customers to read a website’s content without even seeing its design. Content is a primary driver of RD2 design; it is imperative that the content be able to stand alone in such an environment.

The typical RSS user profile is a college-educated male, age 18-34, with an above-average household income. In August of 2005 11% of all people reading weblogs were using RSS to manage content. Now, almost 10 months later, the number is presumably much higher.

What does it mean for web design?

RSS makes us think about design differently. Many people reading updated content on a site will never see the design, only content. Thus, the content must become an integral component of design. It must be able to stand alone and make meaningful sense to the RSS feed viewer.

We had a discussion recently about how a designer’s problem is not “How do we make it look good?� but “How do we communicate the message in a clever way?� At RD2, we strive to maximize a site’s audience: whether its content is accessed by RSS feeds, on a handheld device, a text reader, or a traditional web browser, the message needs to prevail.

A quick snapshot of Whiting Ranch Park. This was taken from the entry point to the park. The hill in the background with the light green patches is the hill that the NationPoint‘ers aggressively hike a couple of times per week. They are a competitive bunch. When they go out it is more like a race than a simple hike. Next time we are in Irvine, we RD2′ers will be joining our NationPoint friends on this little adventure. This is the general scenery I was running through after all of the meetings yesterday.

I’m out in Irvine, California for a couple of days working on a few projects with NationPoint. Yesterday, I overheard a comment and it made me feel all warm inside: “Awesome picture of you on The Point”.

We designed and built “The Point“, NationPoint’s intranet almost a year ago. To hear that 1) people are using the site and 2) people are having fun with it is just about the best compliment RD2 could receive.

There were no posts from me this weekend. I could not bear to write about it. Yes, this is another cycling post. In my quest to become more balanced in my life, I find it almost therapeutic to write about my experiences in getting back to a desirable level of fitness. So far, it seems the bad days outnumber the good days ten to one. Am I seeing a difference yet? For two days, last weekend, I felt great. I did not mind the extra weight and I was effortlessly achieving 30+ mph for fairly long stretches (more…)

• Chipotle Nutrition Facts Calculator - How healthy is your Chipotle?
  (tags: culture)

My name is Caitlin Kaluza. I am a senior Marketing major at Texas A&M University, and a current RD2 intern.

I’ll never forget my first first day at RD2 last winter. Here I was, a scared intern who only half knew what she was getting herself into. The people seemed nice enough, and I seemed to know what I was doing enough to convince them I was worth paying more than minimum wage.

My first assignment came because, as is often the case, everyone else was busy. They needed a voice to read a script for a flash piece for a client. It was simply to gauge timing, nothing intense. So, after a brief round of introductions and about 20 minutes at my desk, I was handed a laptop and a typed script and told “It doesn’t really matter if you jumble the words… just keep going so we can get the general gist.�

I was also instructed that the best acoustics were under the massive conference room table.

I was more than a little uncomfortable, and hoped that crawling under the structure and closing the door would leave me unheard and unseen from the rest of the office. Crouched under the table and thanking God that I had not worn a skirt that day, I started work at the most enjoyable job I have ever held.

My first last day came at the end of the 2006 winter break. I was presented a cookie cake with a very formal icing graphic of a foot kicking a soccer ball and the word “GOOOOOOOOOOAL!!� across the top. It seems this is the design that provided the most icing surface area, and I more than appreciated the gesture. A quick hug from a few team members (and some mockery from others for said hugs) later and I was out the door.

Now I’m back, interning for the summer and ready for a new set of challenges and odd stories to share.