It was inevitable but Barbie and her friends now have their very own Web log. I know that many people are upset that now “blogs” have been thoroughly commercialized, but if anything, these new sites point out the design and communications potential and pitfalls of daily public diaries. (The writing is poor on the Barbie sites but they are thoughtfully constructed, unlike most blogs.) In fact, I’ve become quite tired of folks who are somehow persuaded that the Internet was created under the sign of liberty and individual speech … partly because I used to be one in 1996.

This is tough.

I’ve been a big fan of a small, Toronto-based firm that sells — and is called — Fonts for Flash. I purchased a few of their fonts today, which are both inexpensive and highly usable for Flash and any Web design work that one might undertake. I always think that the folks who create these fonts, which appear very small though legibly on websites, are a bit like those that can write a paragraph of Biblical text on a grain of rice. These fonts are miracles of microscopic ingenuity.

I recently put down my $30.00 to subscribe to Salon Premium and so far so good. I wanted to see if it was worth paying actual money for actual content — and it is quite refreshing to get full articles, no advertisements, and faster connectivity to prime pulp for a (small amount of) change. No flash banner ads means 10 seconds more time for me. I found this article there, on Saddam’s love for suicide bombers comprehensive.

There is much more important news happening right now, but I am utterly astounded and tickled sick that Congress voted to call french fries “freedom fries”. As the world’s largest military power about to flex its muscle, this is so pathetic and full of bad symbolism that I’m embarrassed to even post this.

The whole U.N./U.S./U.K. war fiasco is looking increasingly like a U-circus — which is somehow alluded to in this week’s New Yorker. No, not in the actual content of the magazine but in the first 10 pages of ads by clothiers like Banana Republic, Prada, and Armani. I’m sure it’s not my imagination getting the better of me — in the ads, tents and clowns and colorful text and fanciful textures are all a play on the carnivalesque that is our daily political and economic environs.

I must state for the record that my ol’ alma mater, Brown University, now has one of the finest university Web sites I’ve seen, perhaps the finest. The new redesign (probably launched only days ago) allows for much better navigation, cleaner access to many sub-sites, and nicely featured, large images on the home page.

Our friend Susan, from TO, is in town this weekend. In her honor, take a look at this cool blooper on last week’s Star’s Business page.

I do a lot of writing for documentation, proposals, and Web content and for five years, I have consulted numerous style guides about the spelling of all things Internet. How do you spell “Web,: for instance? Is it like “TV” or is it like “radio”? I’m pretty particular about spelling and grammar and scouring the Web, I’ve found little consistency or advice.
For my birthday this week, a friend gave me The Web Content Style Guide: An Essential Reference for Online Writers, Editors and Managers, a product of the reputable Financial Times. Here are the definitive spellings:
– “Web” is the abbreviation of “World Wide Web”; a.k.a. “the Web”
– a “Web browser” is a program that views a “Webpage”
– a “website” is a publication that is “online”
– a “homepage” is the first page of a “website design”
– the “Internet” or “Net” is the so-called networks of networks
– however, an “intranet” is an organization’s internal online publication
– one uses an “email address” to send “email”
So, in sum: no more “E-mail,” “e-mail,” “Email,” “web,” “internet,” “web page,” “Web page,” or “Home page.” Whew. Have a good weekend.

There are a number of rumors that President Bush will announce at this press conference tonight that Osama Bin Laden has been captured….I won’t speak to this but I do know that I really like the new Honda Element, which I’ve seen on the road for a few weeks now. A combination of little-hummer and tiny-Land Cruiser mixed with odd, expressionist styling, I find the vehicle somewhat intriguing. It’s not the Aztec that people are comparing it with, and though I loathe SUVs, this one actually seems safe and fuel-efficent.