It’s Ketchup Week! Please help me spread the word.

A year is always full of decisions and changes. What is one change you made in your business, or life, that dramatically improved results?

I saw this story on Digg this morning but as it was a bit too early in the morning I didn't check it out. However after some hours a friend of mine sent me the link again and I saw the video. I have to say it's awesome, a very catchy song indeed.

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I published a "Best of" list like this last year, too, so this will likely become an annual undertaking. Some of the articles were chosen because I really liked them, others because you really liked them. If you want more of the latter let me know what you'd like to see. Sometimes I get stuck for ideas -- though I usually think of something -- but requests help.

[Disclaimer : This post isn't intended to provide legal guidance or advice of any sort and should not be taken as such.]

See the thing with dictators is they can appear to be really good people. They can do good things that help their subjects. Yeh, the elections are rigged, but so what? They give everyone jobs and prosperity. They speak with clear direction and unbounded confidence. The masses need someone to lead them. Hell, many societies don't even have a value system. Yet things don't get out of hand because their Dear Leader will get out the big stick if he needs to and they know it. And that's ok. Because he knows best.

A couple of months ago, I blogged here that Apple knows best. I was primarily talking about design in that post. I noted that Apple doesn't do things like beta programs or illicit feedback. They just put stuff out. For the most part, the stuff is good...really good. So we blindly follow.

The blogging community does its part and then some. We spread gossip. We talk about their products. We point to their patent filings. We do our part to contribute to the Apple mystique. We create buzz. And Apple has slyly used the viral aspects of the Web and blogging in particular to spread their religion.

Well now the dictator's cleaning house. The thing with dictators is there actually doesn't need to be a real threat, just a perceived one. A few days ago Think Secret, a popular Apple gossip blog, shut down in compliance with an agreement they reached with Apple.

Now, Fake Steve Jobs has been visited by Apple's goon lawyers. He's been notified that a few of his posts are "actionable" (legal-speak for "we can sue you"). The letter politely ends with a list of Fake Steve Jobs' personal assets.

Fake Steve Jobs is Fake Steve Jobs. Not real Steve Jobs. Fortune magazine and the Wall Street Journal haven't once confused the two. He is a commentator commenting on a public figure. It is a parody blog. What that means is that Daniel Lyons, the author behind the site, knows he's not the real Steve Jobs (unless of course, he's suffering from delusions of grandeur). He isn't attempting to spread false truths. The entire premise of the site is grounded in parody.

Twenty years ago, Hustler magazine put out an especially nasty parody where it portrayed Jerry Falwell, a popular Protestant minister, having sex with his mother in an outhouse. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Hustler magazine prevailed. In essence, the case clarified the right to parody, make fun of, mock, deride, imitate and crudely insult public figures.

Apple is picking off the easy targets. Fake Steve Jobs is not Time Warner or the New York Times. He's a blogger that can more easily be bullied by dipshit lawyers that can threaten his livelihood. Also, regardless of the merits of their assertions, they can drag Lyons into a protracted, costly, ugly fight that would most likely lead to him backing down.

What the blogging community needs is clear precedent that extends the free speech protections outlined in the Hustler v. Falwell case to include bloggers. I'm a blogger myself that has criticized behemoths like Microsoft, Google and Apple. I don't want to think twice before I blog.

Apple is setting a frightening precedent. It's signaling to other companies that with the right amount of bullying, you can shut down the bloggers you don't like. It's ironic considering that the blogging community is generally extremely supportive of Apple. Microsoft takes beatings on a daily basis yet we don't see this kind of nonsense from them.

One thing the blogging community can do is stop hyping and spreading the buzz about Apple's products. Popular sites like Gizmodo and The Unofficial Apple Weblog can help signal to Apple that they need to back off or the free ride is over.

Apple needs to know that the same makeshift PR machine that helps hype its products isn't actually its own PR machine. Putting out shiny new products doesn't afford you license to selectively muzzle certain voices.

From the Falwell v. Hustler Magazine opinion:

At the heart of the First Amendment is the recognition of the fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas and opinions on matters of public interest and concern. The freedom to speak one's mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty -- and thus a good unto itself -- but also is essential to the common quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole.

BJ Mace (a BrainFuel reader) sent in a link to their new project called Secret Santa Holiday Greeting. It’s a way for you to send holiday greeting emails.

My only complaint is that there isn’t a way to see what the recipient will see.

Time for the annual look back at what I've written here during the year that is almost at an end. I've been doing this recap since 2004, and it's always interesting to browse through my archives looking for articles that received many comments, were linked to a lot, or caused a bit of discussion. I always run into one or two that I had almost forgotten about.

This year I haven't posted quite as many articles as the previous couple of years. I simply haven't had the time to write. It is partly due to the size of my family being increased in June – having a baby to take care of consumes a lot of time and energy, though it's also a lot of fun. I have also been very busy building websites at my dayjob. So busy that when I get home I don't feel particularly excited about spending another couple of hours in front of the computer.

Anyway, I have managed to write a few articles that I think are worth reminding regular readers about and pointing new readers to. Not as many as some years, but enough to keep you occupied for a little while if you read them all, including the comments.

Thanks for reading, everybody! Here's the list:

• Learn JavaScript before tasting the library kool-aid: Learn how to code JavaScript instead of how to use library/framework X to create cool animations and other visual effects. Then evaluate whether you should use a library.
• Styling form controls with CSS, revisited: Screenshots from 8 browsers on 4 operating systems showing the effects of CSS applied to form controls.
• Poll: Do you maximise your browser window?: Looking for answers to three questions: 1. Do you maximise your browser window? 2. What is the resolution of your screen? 3. Which OS do you use?
• Lame excuses for not being a Web professional: Excuses that may be valid in some circumstances are too often used to cover up somebody’s lack of knowledge about modern Web design or development.
• Creating bulletproof graphic link buttons with CSS: How to use CSS and two images to create flexible, shrinkwrapping, image based link buttons.
• Are we designers or developers?: If you do not do graphic design, but work with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and accessibility, are you a designer or a developer?
• JavaScript interaction must be input device independent: Make your JavaScript device-independent and accessible to all by assigning user interaction event handlers such as onclick to links instead of non-keyboard focusable elements.
• 10 colour contrast checking tools to improve the accessibility of your design: A list of tools that help make your design readable to all users by checking if text has sufficient contrast against its background.
• How to create an unobtrusive print this page link with JavaScript: How to create an unobtrusive print this page link that does not confuse users whose browsers do not support JavaScript.
• Scrap text resize widgets and teach people how to resize text: Instead of wasting time and resources on building JavaScript widgets that resize the text on your site, teach people how to resize text in their browser.
• Autopopulating text input fields with JavaScript: When you cannot display a label for a text input field, use placeholder text in an unobtrusive way. This article explains how.
• Mac OS X Web browser rundown 2007: A rundown of the Mac OS X Web browsers that occupy space on my hard drive in late 2007.
• Keep browser lock-out a thing of the past: Browser sniffing and deliberately preventing people using a so-called unsupported browser from entering a site is a thing from the past that we do not need these days.
• Use the label element to make your HTML forms accessible: By using the label element to associate form controls with their label text, you improve the accessibility of HTML forms and make styling and scripting them easier.
• Choose an accessible image replacement method: When you have to use image replacement for text, choose a method that causes as few problems as possible for as few people as possible.
• Choosing a JavaScript framework: There is a large number of JavaScript libraries or frameworks available. But how do you choose which one to use?

And while you read those articles I'll be taking a couple of weeks off from working, blogging, and responding to email. Instead I will be spending some time with my family and my game consoles.

See you next year!

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