PAX Prime 2011.

I had a blast at PAX again this year. Compared with previous years, I spent more time watching rounds of the Omegathon (the Portal 2 round was a little disappointing), concerts, and hanging out and playing games with friends.

Of the video game demos I played, there were several standouts: Mario Kart 7 (for the 3DS), Super Mario 3DS, and Word Fighter for mobile devices (this was excellent, but it's not out yet). We also played quite a few table top demos: Monkeys with Knives and Guns, Nanuk, Sentinels of the Multiverse. We also checked out a copy of Ticket to Ride from the PAX Tabletop library; it was fun and pretty simple.

A final thought about PAX: as a Seattle local, I generally carpool with some friends and park downtown. But it can be challenging to find cheap parking, which is also open late, downtown. My new favorite option is at Pacific Place around 7th and Pine - they're open until 2pm because of their theater. Parking at Pacific Place is $10 all day on weekends, and $13 all day on weekdays if you're in by 9:30 am.

PAX Fuds.

During PAX, we eat a lot of meals downtown. But it's important to avoid close (and hence crowded) options like The Cheesecake Factory or (the delicious) La Creperie Voila. Here are some good alternatives:

• Jimmy Johns: Fast, cheap and tasty sandwiches. 6th and Union, inside City Center.
• The Pike Pub: It's all the way down on 1st and Pike, but it's nice to get out of the crowds and has great happy hour deals.
• Blue Water Taco Grill: Coastal Mexican Food at 6th and Union.
• Specialties: Fabulous sandwiches and salads, and the best cookies you can buy in Seattle. 5th and Union.
• Dragonfish: Nice cocktails and tasty sushi, but a tad spendy. 8th and Pine.
• Von's RoastHouse: Tasty roasted meats, and reasonably priced. 7th and Pine.

Pro tip: It looks like this year's "Main Theater" will be the Paramount (Scroll down to "Sunday, August 28th") on 9th and Pine. The Paramount Theater's seating capacity is 2,807, which is a little bigger than the 2,500 available at 2010's Benaroya Hall.

Things I Bought Because of PAX.

Because PAX is just a few weeks away, I thought I'd take this moment to reflect on the commercial aspect of PAX. Here is a list of things that I have bought as a direct result of attending PAX:

• Munchkin, as well as numerous expansion packs and spin-offs: Technically, Munchkin was a present, but it was bought for me.
• Comic Jumper T-Shirt: As a glassblower, I need more long-sleeved t-shirts (are you listening, Woot?). So I snapped this up when I saw it.
• Zombie Dice, Cthulu Dice, Revolution: After playing these in the demo area, we purchased each of them by the end of the year.
• Bomberman Blast (Wiiware): The nostalgia is strong with this one. This is all the multi-player Bomberman you need for any party fun times.

Title Vs. Alt.

Here are my tips to understanding the intentions and key differences between the alt and title attributes for <img /> tags.

Alt:

The alt attribute is intended to be used instead of the image, rather than in addition to the image. It should describe all of the objects in the image. (Though technically incorrect, alt attributes are sometimes known as alt tags.)

The alt attribute is the text that should appear if the image doesn't load, or if visitor can't see image. The alt text may also appear in the image's place while the image is loading.

Include alt attributes for all images. For decorative images such as bullets or spacers, use an empty alt attribute (alt=""). (Of course, decorative images really ought to be part of styling, not content.) Don't use alt attributes for keyword stuffing.

IE6 will show the alt attribute when a visitor hovers over an image. Google uses an image's alt attribute when indexing images.

Title:

An image's title attribute should be used for additional, non-essential information.

In most browsers (IE7 and above, Firefox, Safari, et cetera), the title attribute will appear when the visitor hovers over the image.

Note that the title attribute can be used on many tags, not just images. For example, one good use of the title attribute is to add descriptive text about the destination on anchors / links.