CSS Archives

"Your client satisfied like they eatin' on a Snicker"

Modern life may be rubbish but...

...the website of the same name is actually quite good. I am rather enjoying reading Modern Life is Rubbish. Their Web Typography Cheat Sheet and a rundown on current trends in blog technology and more style are great. and I just like the way the site looks (well except for the huge Google ad in the middle of the page). The site offers some fresh takes on stuff we have been posting about for years with many new insights. Bloody good show, Stuart!

Maintenance note.

Nobody has taken me up on the offer of an "Alt Text Prize Pack"* and helped me to fix the dis-play of the accordion menu on the home page among others. I mentioned it in this post. Basically, the post explorer menu, is using part of the Script.acul.us/Prototype javascript library and should work just fine - I just can't figure it out why it isn't. Anyone see anything glaring in my CSS or the source of the page (that last link is Firefox only; IE users should just view source via normal methods) that I should fix?

Also I hope you have noticed less spelling errors lately as I have taken to using the built-in spellcheck that comes with the Google toolbar.

* Contents of the prize pack have not yet been determined but there will at least be an Alt Text t-shirt and a few other things.

IE7 to be fully standards compliant?

An old post at Slashdot resurfaced, for whatever reason, and caused quite a stir about how non-compliant (with CSS standards) Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 browser will be. People can split hairs about this or that relating to IE7's standards compliance but when it comes down to it, it either will be or won't be.

In a good conversation with Chris Wilson, Group Program Manager of the Internet Explorer Platform team at Microsoft, Richard MacManus at ZDNet asks some pointed questions about IE7's plans for CSS compliance and gets some honest answers.

The bits about standards compliance versus backward compatibility were interested, and there are suggestions that the IE7 team is prioritizing standards compliance ahead of backwards compatibility. I also thought Wilson's characterization of many (most) of IE's user base as 'non-enthusiast users' was dead on (and funny).

I think backwards compatibility has always been a big challenge for us and certainly today it's a huge challenge. Particularly for IE, as we have a lot of what I'd term 'non-enthusiast users' - my mother is always my canonical example here. And for my mother, if I automatically upgrade her machine [its IE browser] and suddenly one of her sites breaks or looks a little funny, she's going to be upset about that. On the other hand if she were to install an alternative browser, and it looks different in that browser - she could probably understand why that would happen, because it's a completely different product.

More at Chris Wilson's blog.

[Source: Slashdot]

Last post before the weekend

If I can't have this at least let me get this.
Life imitates The Onion
Many seem to think that the U.S. give aid to the world but receives no love back. Those people are wrong. Unfortunately, our lack of organization in these times of disaster is causing millions of dollars of aid to be turned away.
Tiny micro-robot.
10 more CSS tricks you should know.
New MS Office screenshots are weird looking.
Conservative criticism of Bush stepping up.
Google does blogs
Writely looks promising as a collaborative writing tool. Remote saving of files such as word processor documents and spreadsheets will become more common and just begs for what some are calling the web OS - but because that is really a huge misnomer I prefer something like web application and storage technologies esuite or WASTE.

WWKCD - What would Kirk Cameron do?

Patent Room is a very neat site showcasing drawings submitted with patent applications of the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.
I really need very little reason to post a link about Daniel Quinn's novel Ishmael Jason's post/mini review of it seems like reason enough. I have been thinking more and more about these issues lately. These things go in cycles.
Flash + Evangelical Christianity + Kirk Cameron = A maddening desire to kill
Nice CSS dropshadow technique that doesn't use CSS hacks or javascript.
If you saw any of the following: Hollow Man, Vertical Limit, A Knight's Tale, The Animal, or The Patriot in a theater you may be entitled to your money back (pdf). Looks as though Sony used a made-up film critic named: David Manning to hype those films. God, if I could just get the same deal for: American Psycho, Blade, Congo, The Haunting, Malibu's Most Wanted, and Mr. Deeds.
Snopes' list of unanswerable questions they have received that have a sense of urgency to them. Some favorites include mention of: Cat's eating a dead person's face off, hickies, penguin eggs, bananas, witches, and Corona among many other bizarre requests. Some of the requests however really give Snopes a lot of credit. Here is my favorite:
if anyone understands what im (sic). saying please e-mail me at this e-mail adress (sic).

does anyone here bilieve (sic) that there are aliens in other planets? who really made us is there really a god? im not saying there isnt (sic). but who made god? seriously please answer back at me
Ever wanted to compare Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth side-by-side?
~~Atheist~~. ~~Agnostic~~. Thanks to the writings of Kurt Vonnegut, I now have a new label to use when describing my views: Humanist

Links for a busy Thursday

Really? You're not going to mention anything about your name in your bio? Hmmm.
The best thing about this publicity stunt is the reaction the unknowing star had to it.
Andy Dick stars is Harlan McCraney: Presidential Speechalist
I'll add Mike Whitney to the list of housing bubble doomsdayers that dates back over 20 years. I'll look over that list while I am sitting in my nicely, mortgaged home.
Sometimes it might be nice to be a wooden rocking horse.
Hillary should stop trying to make political hay and start grooming her image to be something other than an also-ran. I would like to see her pick up the baton on other children's issues like stopping companies from targeting them with ANY ads.
Try not to spread the santorum around too much.
I really want this planetarium thing. Its filled with stars.
Keep that footer at the bottom of the page where it belongs.
I am looking forward to Chris Rock's new show (on the UPN of all places), Everybody Hates Chris. Is he?

CSS & Financial Tips & Tricks

10 CSS tricks you may not know
Get rich slowly - A great review of personal finance books at foldedspace.org with condensed bullet-point lists from some major ones.
Many analysts are increasing their projections for Google's stock price.
The DOM Scripting Task Force aims to bring standards to the scripting world. I fear they may not have the success they have had with HTML and CSS, but wish them luck.

...america for which it stands....

...america for which it stands.... What does America stand for to you ? (note: requires participation, please post your thoughts)

--- --- ---

I think CamWorld is my single source of inspiration these days. If I wasn't so lazy, Alt Text would uncover the same quantity and quality links and info that Cameron does. Whenever I get down on the web these days, salvation is just a single click away.

But it isn't just praise Cam day, I actually wanted to post about some links that he has posted lately:

adherents.com

WCCO News

dirty legal practices

Apple's new iPod

more info