A few years ago, I came across a couple of sites on Web Pages That Suck. (Both of which, I’m delighted to say, are still in more or less their original states five years after that post was published.)

HRODC postgraduate training courses

ACCEPT JESUS, FOREVER FORGIVEN!

While both are, of course, fine examples of important web design maxims, surely their impact would be much greater if they could be finessed into one great web page? After all, who could resist combining the eloquent brevity of a 1.2MB page full of tables with the understated finesse of animated rainbow gifs and autoplaying music?

Turns out I couldn’t. And, having just rediscovered the result, I thought I’d stick it up here.

Aaarg!

To enjoy the full experience, including the music and a bird that follows your cursor around, please view in an old version of IE.

Marco Arment on fanboy theory

Why is it that your choice of smartphone platform incites so much irrational anger and so many accusations of being a “fanboy” from people who use a different one? [...]

When people get defensive over their choices that you inadvertently cast doubt upon, and they don’t want to admit (to themselves or anyone else) that they made the wrong decisions, they will often attempt to convince themselves (and possibly everyone else) that your opinions are invalid by discrediting you.

Hence, fanboy: a derogatory term that means someone who is blindly and irrationally devoted to a product that I believe is inferior to what I bought when faced with a similar choice, and whose opinions and arguments can therefore be completely disregarded.

There’s certainly truth to this, but the thing that bugs me about the whole fanboy thing really comes from the definition given in The Loop that Marco linked to a few days ago.

Apple fanboy: Someone who is tired of technology being difficult and knows there is something better; someone that loves to get the job done instead of working on their machine; a person that isn’t afraid of breaking the status quo; someone that appreciates quality design and workmanship; a person that realizes cheapest isn’t always best.

Apple fanboys are commonly confused with the sensible people of society.

The problem with fanboys – and often Apple fanboys in particular – is not that they think their choice of gadget is better than yours, it’s that they think owning that gadget makes them better than you. Keep reading >