матрациNot to be outdone by Apple’s recent launch of their HTML5 playground, Google has launched their own HTML5 Developer Resource site called HTML5Rocks.com.

The site has some useful tutorials and an interactive sandbox, but for the time-impaired, they also have an excellent presentation that shows you quickly what is new and different. As with most things Google, it’s not the prettiest site, but it gets the job done. Check it out.

If you’ve been considering buying a MapTechnica Tile Set (c’mon, you know I’m talking about you), you now have a risk-free way to try a sample tile set to see if it will work for your map project.

I created a special tile set that contains the Rhode Island tile set and supporting data, along with sample files that help you get going quickly. For more details, visit the Free 5-Digit ZIP Code Sample Set Information page over at MapTechnica.

Apple has just launched an effort to support more widespread adoption of HTML5 in the developer community. This page showcases a bunch of cutting-edge demos, and this page digs into the demos more deeply and provides more resources to learn how to develop features using HTML5.

Standards aren’t add-ons to the web. They are the web. And you can start using them today.

I try to use this site for positive tips, tricks & posts about web development. No, really. I do. But every now and then I come across a site so horrible, so incomprehensibly broken, that I just need to call them out by name: Dish Network.

Dish Network’s website is an unmitigated disaster of usability and UI. Clearly born out of some corporate design committee, this customer goodwill-burning, will-to-live-sapping site employs some of the worst design and UI practices out there. In the end, they violate the number one rule in business: Never make it hard for a customer to give you money. But along the way, they put up every conceivable obstacle to achieving even the most simple task possible.

For starters, they use Flash-based logins. I personally believe that Flash-based logins are evil and pointless. They block accessibility and prevent use of password managers like 1Password. But in this case, it’s especially bad because there is no fall-back if you don’t have Flash installed. No Flash? You’re screwed. iPhone/iPad users? Fuck you. Users who have plug-ins disabled? Bitez moi. ClickToFlash users? Sit on it.

Next up: Mac users, you must not exist. Inexplicably, the site is very broken in all three major browsers on the Mac. Images fail to load. Accessibility support is inconsistent or outright broken. Every Flash-based button is broken because the sans font is different on the Mac and nobody at Dish bothered to check. I’m sure it works in IE6, though.

But here’s the ultimate kicker: You cannot do anything on this piece of shit site with regard to your bill. After logging in, all your account options are locked out (you know this because the broken button labels are a slightly darker shade of gray than they normally are). So all roads lead to the account profile page. After some trial and error, you have to figure out on your own that you must scroll to the bottom and re-enter all your login credentials (keeping in mind that you’re *already* logged in). First they kick you in the left nut by making it look like you’re resetting your account with an entirely new password. Then they finish the job with a Flash-based form that uses a different password validator than the main Flash-based form. Even if you wanted to enter a new password, you can’t reset your account because the form won’t validate your existing password. This effectively locks you out of the account and prevents further changes, online bill pay, auto-payment setup or any other means of managing your account. So if you happened to, say, use an exclamation mark in your password, you’re done. Game over. Pack it up. Go home. Or should I say, “Go home!”

The site has been this way for the two+ years I’ve been a customer. It’s a good thing I enjoy their HD programming or I would have kicked them to the long ago. I won’t pretend that someone at Dish will read this post and suddenly make the necessary changes, but it sure does feel good to rant.