Descanso
~ 21 April 2005 ~
Updates around here will be rather infrequent over the next few weeks. I’ve got quite a bit in the cooker right now and need to spend my time elsewhere.
However, to keep things lively in the meantime, a few things to chew on:
- Say you were having a son sometime soon. What would you name him? I’m merely curious, of course.
- Let’s suppose you were attending a conference about, say, web development beyond the desktop, most notably for handheld devices. What topic(s) would be of interest to you? A beginner’s guide? Tricks, tips, and techniques? Etc.
Again, this is all purely hypothetical, of course.
108 Comments

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1…Peyton
1. Owen or Thor
2. Definitely a beginner’s guide - I haven’t seen any good resources online yet so I feel a bit in the dark about it. Tip and techniques from those with experience are always a plus too.
I am expecting my second child, hoping for a boy this time around, and have decided on Thomas Alexander Campbell.
Regarding handheld web dev, maybe some intro stuff, best practices etc.
J.
For ten generations the first born son in my family has been named John. If I don’t name my son John my father will beat me with a… well, what ever he has on hand I suppose.
Well, just so happens we recently had a son. We named him Talmage Clark.
Never really having programmed/designed for anything other than a normal browser environment, I would have to say I’d be interested in a newbie’s guide/tutorial type presentation.
Hypothetically, anyway.
1) Lance Christian
2)I would like to know what process they go through to devise interfaces suitable for novices and professionals alike.
Cameron, if hypothetical congratulations are in order, then I think that “Porter Rockwell Moll” has a nice hypothetical ring to it. :-)
Regarding handhelds, I’d say that I’m most interested in finding good emulators for testing purposes.
My wife and I are expecting our first child (a boy we just found out through the ultra sound), and are naming him Dylan Thomas Michaud… My wife continued a tradition in my family of putting the father’s name - for the first born - as the middle name (although she didn’t know it when she suggested the name)… Good thing she said “Thomas”, huh! :)
Funny you should ask about the baby name. My co-workers and I were talking about this yesterday.
My suggestion is Jar Jar Moll.
1) I would hypothetically check out a list like this one for ideas, making sure to avoid the pretentious ones like Sebastian and Nathaniel.
2) I’d be interested in some discussion about the tools are available for emulation, and where to access statistics on what attributes/selectors/whatever are most likely to be supported in the majority of devices.
We are having a baby this September, and if the baby is a boy, we will name him Quillian Lamoni.
I would love to see a comparisons of which devices support media handheld, which versions of CSS are supported and if any devices support JavaScript.
1) Shopping (nobody gives up baby names these days…has to be unique)
2) What golf courses are nearby?
1. Jakob Archie
2. Emulation tools and tips to get started
1: Hypothetical congratulations from my side firstly. Sorry for not knowing any nice names, most I can think of are way too silly.
2: What if, indeed :P Well, tips about how to make it a) look consistent, b) read well and c) size up and down…
I can’t believe that I’m the first one to say this…
Congratulations :-)
My wife and I have a little boy named Luke Matthew. We just found out yesterday that our second will be a little girl and her name is Anna Grace.
Good luck with your little guy.
1. Jeremy ;)
2. I’d have to go with a begginer’s guide/tips and tricks.
Assuming that either or both of the above are not purely hypothetical, Congrats Cameron!
When that time comes, I don’t know if my wife will let this slide, but I really like the name Ezekial (Zeke for short). I also think that Ping would make a great name, but that’s completely out of the question. Perhaps we can have a pet named Ping. :)
1) Chance
2) I would basically tell people that designing for handhelds, set-top boxes, and any other resolution markedly less than 800x600 is just not a very “fun” designer-like undertaking at this point. It may never be. But if you’re into pure information design and UI ease, you can do some decent stuff. It’s a good exercise in eliminating everything but the essentials.
Regarding naming a kid, if you go with a short name, 1 syllable pick the version of that name that is most convertible. Instead of Jack, go with John. Instead of Jim go with James. Not only does he get a healthy selection of nicknames to work on he can switch back when he’s older to the “more mature” John or James.
If you follow some tradition of naming children after some relative be sure the relative is someone the kid would actually like. Meaning, if you don’t like the realtive your kid probably won’t either and will hate being named for him.
I’d name him Span. Or Roderick.
1.I would avoid name lists. Who wants to name a child after everyone else. I’d go with something cutting-edge, or something old-timey like Rutherford.
2.I agree with Rebecca. Emulation tools would be very cool to know about when developing for low-resolution devices.
ps. I’ve noticed your commenting system (or at least the preview) strips out tags. Bummer.
Strange, shouldn’t be stripping out the tags. Which tags?
1) Sandra Bollock.
2) I’d like to know the best way to present a site to mobile users: either make a seperate version with leaner HTML and images, or just add a mobile stylesheet to the regular site?
1) Caleb Nason Herald, Although I do like my name: Nathan Andrew Herald…
2) I want to know two thing right now actually:
a) Typography and Legibility. What fonts do we have? What sizes look like trash?
b) Testing for consistency. I cannot afford every device. It’s not like a browser where I can download it and give it a go. Maybe it should be something I can download and give it a go. If the product manufacturers what people to develop for their device it would be wise to have testing materials available for download.
Names:
1. Campell
2. Baxter
3. Miles
4. Jackson
5. Ian
Alexander. Our choices for our first (and only - we’re too old) child were Alexander and Kathryn. Kathryn has _so_ changed my life. :)
1)Wilbaforce
2) Hit me with the basics and go over why I should be interested at the prospect in the first place.
1) Zebediah Fabuloso Moll. “Z” for short.
2) I second BigA.
1) maximus - my wife wouldn’t let me go with that so we ended up with maxwell. maximus so much more cool..
2) the basics and if how flash fits in.
1> Congrats! My wife an d I are expecting our first child this summer as well. For boys names we have sifted through I am partial to: Griffen, Bridger, and Asher.
2> I’d like some info on document types and diffrences when designing for WAP vs handheld vs. web.
1. I would name him “Yannick”.
2. I would definitely be interested in a beginners guide and then after that go and see a more advanced talk with tips and tricks.
jennybunny: “Zebediah Fabuloso Moll. ‘Z’ for short.”
Yeah, then you can say, “C’mon, Z!”
1. I’ve always liked “Michael Christopher,” but these days it’s a little too overused for my tastes. Probably something Celtic - I like Conner a lot.
2. Best practices.
Answer 1:
I have friends who just named their son Zion. I also like the name Drake. Another that’s always been unique and meaningful is Duran.
Answer 2:
I would find the session(s) on the basics and take the best notes, buy the books and learn as much as possible. The skills can be aquired, the THEORY is what’s I need.
Boy names are much harder than girls names for me. We’re expecting in August. If it’s a boy, all the names I like are east indian. Not being east indian, I can’t really use them.
Bt if I was, Suman would be at the top of my list. Or something else that has the ring of compassion, peace, or wisdom. Most western names seem to have something to do with goats or brutal warriors.
Thanks for this post, and congrats hypothetically. I’m soooo stealing all these names for my kid if it’s a boy.
I only have a suggestion for a name at the moment: Jacob Ryan.
Hypothetical congratulations!
If we would have one more boy, we would name him Tin (as Tean). We called our first (and only at the time of this writing) son Luka (like, but not after Dr. Luka Kovac from TV-series ‘ER’).
Regarding the handhelds, I’d really like to know more about information architecture for such devices. How much is too much…
1. Name him Zeus. It sounds powerful.
2. I’d go with the beginners guide & tips and tricks.
Hypothetical congratulations! My wife and I are expecting in September.
1. Marley Malachy.. We have spent the last 2.5 years living in the UK and are having our first child here so Marley is an old English name and Malachy is an old Irish name.
2. I would be interested in search applications for handhelds (along the lines of Copernic) and also basics of interface design for those small screens.
Just had a son. Named him Owen Samuel. You can borrow the name, but at least give me credits on the birth certificate.
As for the handheld dev conference, sounds very cool… being that I work for a major player in the PDA market… I’d be interested in a beginers guide, and maybe a high level overview of how handheld dev differs from normal web dev.
1. Hudson Terrance. Hudson after Hudson Taylor…Terrance for my Father.
2. Hacks & Tips, Typography
Names..
King LastName
Monkey LastName
1. James for formal situations, Jimbo for anything else.
2. Beginner stuff. Handhelds have been around, but I don’t think the design community as a whole gives it much thought at this point.
1. Wesley Nathaniel (and fie on whomever thinks Nate’s name would sound pretentious — I’d be the one giving birth and I like it).
2. Basics, as I haven’t given handhelds much thought.
What would I name the kid? No biblical names, no Book of Mormon names, no car names… How’s about Nacho?
As for web design beyond the desktop… I’d be most interested in what one could possibly do with it. That kind of thing sounds like web services/SOAP all over again: a solution looking desperately for a problem. If I am expected to take stuff like that seriously I want to know about the application of the technology before anyone utters word one about how to make the XML or whatever that drives it.
Just my opinion.
I’ll go back to shutting up now.
1. We recently had a son: Tobias(Toby) Daniel.
2. Standards.
My four boys are:
Gabriel, Jacob, Spencer and Benjamin. All of them have two things in common, they are the names of someone special to us (alive or dead) outside our family and everyone’s middle name comes from someone else in the family.
I’d pick names that have a meaning to you. It’s cool to tell our boys why we named them and who they are named after. I think it helps them to feel special.
Or you could be the first blogger on the block to name your son Zeldman.
1: As a man who had to grow up with the name Thaddeus, I would name any son of mine something obsessively normal, like Tom or Michael or something like that.
2: I would want developers to focus on ways to make portable web devices something that your average putz not only could use, but would have reason to use.
Some of the first names I like (which me and my brother narrowly escaped being named - much to our gurgling ambivalence) are a little out of fashion…
Archibald, Hugh, Hepp, Mildred, Carlisle, Jerimiah, etc
A few first names I like are a bit presumptuous…
Senator, His/Her Excellency, Cardinal, Kofi Annan, Pope, Bono, etc…
But in all truthfuness, if I had to name my boy and girl today (thanks beelzebub I don’t just yet), they would be:
BOY: Finn - strong, short, concise, very Irish…
…and for a GIRL: Madeline - my most favorite niece, and she completely embodies all of the niceness and precociousness the name may have to offer.
I only take a small fee if you choose to this first round of name design.
1. George Walker. Definitely.
Funny, I recently posted an entry just like this. Didn’t get nearly as many responses : (
Currenty runners for boy are William Thor (both family names) or Anderson Thor(?).
Boy names are really tough. Of course, we don’t know if we’re having a boy or girl so we’ve got to plan for both!
Cameron II, Electric Boogaloo
My wife and I are expecting our first child in July. We are told that it is a boy (I hope it wasn’t a toe). We decided on Liam Wood.
- Miles
- Definitely a beginner’s guide.
I love you link rollovers, man. Also, I might copy your date layout. “24 March 2005”-style is boss.
I always thought my brother’s name was pretty cool: Miles Malcolm (well maybe just jealous - Malcolm is our grandfather and Miles was his brother - making it a very cool name). Hmm, Miles Malcolm Moll. Say that ten times fast. Certainly better than mine: Waylan Hawkshaw Limberg. No that is not a typo. Yes, my father was probably smoking when he came up with that. Actually I always thought a name with an x or z in it (like Xavier or a few of the others mentioned here) would be cool. Problem is, I’ve yet to find one that works with my last name.
And as far a question two: I would simply echo many of the comments already mentioned here regarding emulators for testing and such. One thing I haven’t seen here is how to deal with devices that ignore the handheld media type for style sheets.
Colin (pronounced the Brit way, not like Powell).
Beginners guide, with emphasis on semantics.
1. Though the last name is spelled quite differently, I think Darth would be an amusing name.
2. I would like to hear about why emulators are not properly representative of the experiences you will see and get on the actual devices. Covering typography may not be a bad idea either. Perhaps even a review of interaction via these devices (not every device has a mouse).
When my wife wouldn’t go for Pabst, I pitched Quinan and hit a homer. Both names are Frederick Goudy Types and match our daughters, Kennerley and Berkeley.
Steven James
or
Dmitri Alexander
or
John Jacob
or….
“For ten generations the first born son in my family has been named John. If I don’t name my son John my father will beat me with a… well, what ever he has on hand I suppose.”
Me too. Only just four generations. My son got John Diego Rogers. The next one I think will be Arthur Gabriel. After Arthur Dent and the angel of death.
As for handhelds: Standards. The user shouldn’t be punished for a handheld browser’s poor interpretation of code. Obviously.
I like Aidan, Jackson, and Henry. My dad’s middle name is Gentry - which i think is Supercool. But that’s just me. Also - avoid anything like Zeus or Thor or Strider or any of those fantasy/mythology type names. Another good motivator for names is to think of childish ways to make fun of those names. i.e., Scotty Potty. The fewer ways to rhyme your sons name with another word associated with poop or pee, the better.
As for handheld, i would say Basics. If the attendees are mainly single, lonely guys - maybe focus on more efficient ways to access porn. =) j/k
Love your site.
It is your choice, but how about going for some non Anglo-American names, just for a change?
I like names like Ismar, Eldin or Elvedin, Mario, Igor, August(us), Damian, Dalibor…
For developing on handhelds, I would like to know (and currently wish to know):
- what are the most popular handheld browsers?
- do they support CSS?
- Javascript? DOM?
- what the resolutions for these handheld devices?
- What font sizes are readable on a handheld browswer?
- how to make the handheld version transparent to normal version? ie. Automatic detection of a handheld device
This would all be great as I am looking to develop a handheld version of a project i’m developing.
In order:
1.) Kabir or William (depending on who I have the kid with)
2.) Techniques for extending an existing website to handheld devices without much pain. The same content, the same ‘feel’ of the website, just in a format that works without hiccups across all such devices (cellphones, PDAs, you name it) and degrades really well just in case someone’s still using Windows CE. Maybe pure XML for the content and different ‘skins’ for different devices/browsers. I have a handheld version of my own site that looks like crap on a cellphone browser (but okay on a PDA that runs Pocket PC) and I don’t like it. If I were to attend such a conference, and since I’ve only recently been interested in mobile stuff, I’d prick up my ears to listen to what the ‘big’ sites (and/or the good minds) are doing w.r.t. providing their content on mobile devices.
1. Ossian
2. Dunno.
1) I just welcomed my first son into the world a couple months ago. He will be known to all as Alexandre Colin.
2) I’d like to see an intro tut to mobile development as well as some more meaty, best practices (game dev vs app dev).
You may use my son’s name - Dallas. My parents said “My God! Only con men and gamblers are named Dallas!”
It was his grandfather’s name and it has been great fun for all of us. PLUS, it is a name no one forgets; good for business.
www.dallasandshanna.com
I like the names Dallas, Owen, Luke (I like the Wilsons and I’m from Dallas, sue me)
I’d add to the list Copper, Magneto, and Walker.
We have two sons with a third on the way. Our first two are Hayden and Coleman. Not sure on the third yet. We are leaning towards Jacob (Jake) or Jackson (Jack). However, I think having a Zack (me) and a Jack might be confusing.
As for handhelds, definitely a beginner’s guide.
The conference: Not too high level, but I agree with some others; definitely discuss standards and styles. See you in pdx!
The boy: Samm Finnegan
1) (no opinion)
2) Setting up a development environment. When I developed two wirelessPDA sites, I had to wait until after 9pm on weekdays or work on weekends so I didn’t use my minutes while testing it. The emulators I did find were geared towards application developers so you had to go through lengthy registration and confirmation processes.
If possible, a way I can browse the web using a Palm but have it use my desktop’s internet connection (Palm Desktop Internet Conduit?)
Try using decoy names!
I wanted to call my earnestly sought and eagerly anticipated first son or daughter either Merlin or Meadow respectively.
In order to make them sound acceptable by comparison, I told my wife that my favourite names were Frizbie and Ribena hoping that my *real* favs would get into our shortlist.
Needless to say, my daughter is called Millie and if she had been a boy he would not have been Frizbie.
Mark
Mark@webprojects.co.uk
Spaulding
Cameron II, Electric Bugaloo
Classic. :)
I’d go for Ruprecht.
“Ruprecht, do you want me to get the genital cuff?”
“Mother? Not mother?”
“Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma!”
1) Um…William :)
2) Even though I am a web designer, I don’t know the first thing about handhelds. I would be interested in knowing how to get my website content to look good enough to browse on a handheld.
All hail the Duke boys!
Is this to say you would lean more towards, Bo or Luke?
Luke.
1) Stay. Away. From. Short. Names.
Having a first name that complements your last is invalueble. Something classic like Stewart, Malcolm or Thomas are nice, but Miles (not Niles, sounds like a butler) or Jacob*/James are nice too.
And for the love of Pete, don’t call him Descanso or give him a sci-fi name, he’s be doomed on the playground.
2) Stick to usefull basics, but assume that most people will know about html and regular css.
*Make sure you don’t spell Jacob with a K, it looks ugly typographicaly.
Jedidiah Moll sounds nice. Hope Episode 3 won’t suck too bad.
1) Paul
2) I’d like to know what web stuff people are actually *using* on handhelds. I’ve developed and am developing sites for use on handheld devices, but it’s all been client-driven rather than user-driven. Also, what portable devices are most used to access the web?
For someone elses child, I would be adamant that they name him Joshua. For my own however, I’d go with Dante.
Xavier Onassis - say it out loud…
It’s a good thing we only had one boy, ‘cause my husband and I used up the only two boy’s names we could agree on: Ian James. “Ian” because it means God’s gracious gift, and “James,” which is dad’s middle name. I think the name Ian would be a great fit for your family, as you have two A’s and one I; you need to balance things out!
OK Cameron, I have not taken the time to read all of the other numerous comments, but here goes:
1. For some reason Xavier and/or Bob come to mind. I know, I know, two totally different names, but I think I’ve attacked both sides of the spectrum.
2. Topics, I think would be web design and using dynamically generated CSS for mobility (much like MSN did with their redesign), which equates to bandwidth and file size being diminisied as much as possible allowing for faster downloads and less cost. Dealing with multiple platforms and browsing technologies that may or already have come out for different handheld devices.
All of course are merely suggestions. :)
Peace and web design grease!
Names: Abinadi, Heber, Parley, Wilford, Bo.
I like Julian, Jordan.
I could send you a long list of Greek names but I resisted the temptation. So two names from me that are used outside Greece:
Eros and Neo. Eros is the god of love and Neo means the new one but you know that.
1) I’m thinking a return to classic names like David and Scott and such would be cool. We named our son Jack. Jackson, but we call him Jack.
2) I’d like to hear more about using email as an interface, ala 37signals Backpack[1]. It just really sits well in my gut that people would embrace something like that. But, of course there’s a limit to what you can provide in that way.
[1]http://backpackit.com/
1) Linus or Kim
2) A beginner’s guide in form of a tutorial for a very basic but working example. Like “How to make this sample app in 10 steps” or so.
1.) For a girl: “Addie” or “Olive” and for a boy “Boyd” or “Bucky”.
2.) I would be interested in standards limitations.
Congratulations brother! Hope to see the new boy soon…
I like Peyton as well. If we have a boy any time soon I’m going to name him Tennison, but you could borrow the name for the time being!
1.) Ian Christian (I just had one)
2.) Compatibility and supported techniques classified by device (if I understand the question right)
1. Trip.
2. The future potential market of such development and marketing that type of development.
Tag, Filter, Hover or Gradient (Grady?)
You could name him Emerson or Emeril and then just call him “Em” for short.
or Cameron++
Re: the non-desktop development I’d like to know when the “worn” look is going to take off on small devices.
[Thanks for all the tips you give on your site!]
1. Avi, of course. Or perhaps Herman.
2. I’d love to hear something about interface design for handheld devices. With such a small screen realestate, how can forms be built for handheld devices? What menu layouts are most effecient? That sort of thing.
I would probably go with either Breckin, Patrick, or Nathan.
I’ve always liked initials for nicknames, especially J.T., so I’d probably name my son Jackson Tanner. I also like the name Kent, which is my brother’s middle name.
I also like it when people use their first initial then their middle name, like J. Tyler Boggs or something.
1) Cameron, Jr.
2) Why no media=”handheld”?
1. Danger, “Hi, i’m Danger Moll” (~mole)
2. Practical examples of sites and actual screenshots of how they behave on different handhelds.
1. aiden michael
Okay, I’ve come to the conclusion that people with normal/common names already, like matt, mike, jason, john, etc…name their children odd names, like oliver and brecken, or danger. Heh
I also don’t think that Cameron Jr/II, would be exactly appropriate, considering you’ve already had 2 boys. I could see many fights about that for many years.
But, I would suggest trying to use the same meaningful technique you used with your first two.
As you turned commenting off on your latest post - I’ll have to say it here. Many congratulations!
Well, my second son was born 2 May 2005 at 9.41pm weighing in at 8lb 5oz and fighting out of South London. We’ve named him Theo. No, not after Kojak, after Vincent Van Gogh’s brother. The middle name is proving a little trickier to nail. He joins 9 yo brother Thomas Frederick Jones. Congrats to you and yours sir to your latest addition.
For [1], I’d suggest “Gabriel” or “Paul”, if you don’t mind names with Christian origins. In case you do, there’s always “Alexander”, whose shortened form, “Alex”, is very international.

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1 Terry Tolleson ~ 21 April 2005 at 07:52 AM
1) Matthew Xavier
2) Likely techniques and tips would interest me the most about developing web pages for handhelds. I would be curious as to how they transfer. I don’t know enough about such things to think of anything unique to be curious about.
-t