johnbowman.net

I wrote a few weeks ago about how hard it is to get to the Web sites of specfic CBC radio shows. Well, getting to the As It Happens and Quirks and Quarks Web sites is now a lot easier.

You can now go to cbc.ca/asithappens and cbc.ca/quirks and you’ll be redirected to their respective sites. These addresses are lot easier to say on the radio — and a lot easier to remember — than the vague instructions on how to get there from the cbc.ca homepage.

Unfortunately, there’s been another change on the AIH site that just makes no sense at all.

There’s now a Flash menu bar down the left-hand side of the screen to take you to the various sections of the site. They’ve also included the same menu underneath the Flash, done in plain-vanilla HTML, presumably for those who don’t have the Flash plug-in.

So, the same menu appears twice. What I want to know is: What’s the purpose of the Flash menu? It’s completely redundant.

Not only that, but the font used in the Flash menu is barely legible. Meanwhile, the HTML menu is perfectly easy to read.

The Flash menu is also difficult to use. Try clicking on the words “Our lastest show.” You can’t. You have to click on the smaller text beneath. Similarly, try clicking on the first or last letter of any of the links. You can’t. You have to hit the link right in the middle. The HTML links, on the other hand, are very easy to use.

And as far as file size goes, the Flash menu weighs in at over 9 kilobytes. That might not seem like much, but consider that the same menu in HTML can be built with just a few hundred bytes. On the Net, every K counts, and including the Flash menu just increases the page’s download time for no real purpose.

So, why did the site designer include the Flash menu? Well, there’s the “Gee whiz” factor. The designer showed the menu, with its “funky” fonts and expand-and-fade-out mouseover effect, to the AIH staff and got many oohs and aahs for it.

But I think the main reason is that AIH bought the full Macromedia suite of Web tools and the designer got tired of using just the Dreamweaver for layout and Fireworks for graphics and really wanted to break out the Flash.

The result, unfortunately, is a completely gratuitous use of Flash that decreases the usability of an otherwise excellent AIH site.

(No wonder Jakob Neilsen doesn’t much like Flash.)

OK, so this is the third post in a row where I mention Patricia O’Callaghan and link to her messed up site. But I do have a reason. I just bought her CD and I’m going to see her at Massey Hall tonight.

And I must admit I’ve never heard “Like a Rolling Stone” sung so beautifully. Y’know, with a tune and lyrics you can understand. Seriously, though, Phil Dwyer’s arrangement, combining her soprano with the cello, violin and piano, brings new life to what is arguably the best rock and roll song ever. O’Callaghan does make it sound like a Kurt Weill number, which is to her credit. Now, she’ll just have to translate it into French and German…

Speaking of which, the album’s liner notes are multilingual, just like Ms. O’Callaghan herself. Nice touch, I think.

Now, I am disappointed that the CD isn’t all new material. Many of the tracks have appeared on her previous two albums. But there’s a new version of “Mon manège à moi” and there’s a enough new material to make it worth the price.

I can’t wait to see her tonight.

I just heard Patricia O’Callaghan’s version of Pearl Jam’s “Better Man” on DNTO. It’s from her new album, Real Emotional Girl.

I had the similar reaction to this cabaret-pop fusion as I did to her Leonard Cohen remakes on her second album, Slow Fox. There’s a palpable conflict between O’Callaghan’s crystal-clear, tonally perfect, Julie-Andrews-like voice and the rhythms of a contemporary pop song. I remember reading a review of Slow Fox that said these songs need a bit more raunch than O’Callaghan is capable of.

But that’s what’s so interesting about her versions of these songs. The conflict, here, makes you listen to the songs in a totally new way. Patricia O’Callaghan doesn’t sound like Eddie Vedder. Not even close.

I can’t wait to get this album and hear what she does with Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.”

I think I’m getting a bit Web-weary. Here’s how I can tell.

I finally got my DSL hooked up on Monday. And when everything was working and I fired up my browser, I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted to do with my new fat pipe.

I went over to adcritic.com, but then the idea of willingly watching ads, no matter how entertaining, just started to bug me.

I opened up Napster, but there wasn’t anything I felt like listening to (besides the new Patricia O’Callaghan disc, but I knew that wouldn’t be on there).

And Flash cartoons? I just wasn’t in the mood.

So, I ended up just clicking thru all the sites I normally click thru and going to bed.

I’m in the ironic situation of wanting to take a break from the Web just when my access to it is best.