The type
This site is set in Helvetica. It was developed in 1957, and I find it a flexible, scalable face with many useful variations. If you are seeing Arial it is because you don't have Helvetica available. There was a recent feature film about the typeface that was reasonably well received (believe it or not). Make up your own mind!
Browser compatibility
This website is designed in valid xhtml 1.0 (strict) markup (check here). It is standards compliant, and as a result, renders properly in all XHTML 1.0 conformant browsers. It has been tested in Firefox 3, Firefox 2, Safari 4, Safari 3, and IE8. It has also been tested in IE6; it renders incorrectly but not illegibly, and (quite honestly) it is time to leave IE6 behind; rather than make allowances, I am going to permit the slightly odd rendering for the time being.
Support web standards; upgrade to the modern browser of your choice today.
Tools
TextWrangler is a lightweight, modern text editor for OS X. It features syntax coloring for multiple languages, full-text regular expression modification, and an attractive, reasonably compliant UI. It is also free from Bare Bones, and I recommend it highly. (Get it.)
Pixelmator is a well-written, relatively lightweight image editor for OS X released after Core Image was implemented. It has 75% of the featureset I used in Photoshop, 10% of the bloat, and a much lower cost. It is developed by a two-man independent software company, and I'm a fan. (Get it.)
Firefox is an open source, multiplatform web browser; if you haven't heard of it, you haven't been thinking about web browsers! It is very standards-compliant, portable, and free. It isn't perfect, but it is robust and the best of the current options. (Get it.)
Cyberduck is a free, open source SFTP client for OS X. It is a little strange in its UI conventions, honestly, but it is free and it works (and is under active development). I recommend it, though perhaps not as highly as some of my other tools. It works! (Get it.)
Dropbox is a multi-platform file synchronization service. Think of it as an absolutely bulletproof folder that automagically appears on every computer you own, and can be accessed on the web in a pinch. First two gigs of space are free. Highly recommended. (Get it.)
Slicehost is a server virtualization company. I run a completely virtualized Ubuntu instance that I get complete control over and which has been rock solid for a price that is only marginally higher than I previously paid for shared hosting. The company is owned by Rackspace, but don't hold that against them; they deliver a great product. (Get it.)
Copyright
All original text and images are copyright 2001-2009 Joe Pierce, with one exception: the lovely background used throughout is adapted under a creative commons license from a photo of the Willamette river in Portland, Ore. created by "kworth30." The original file can be found here. (Product and institutional images are, of course, copyright their respective owners.)
Generally speaking, I reserve my rights, but I'm a pleasant fellow; ask and you shall most likely receive. I am interested in the creative commons (click here for more information) and I am sympathetic to the problem of a dissapearing public domain.