flickerbulb

soho zombie, slave to the man, code monkey, lover & hater, and, one downright good looking bastard.

Mar 2, 20090

Object Oriented CSS, Grids on Github

Current methods for writing CSS require expert level ability just to get started. To become a CSS expert, you need to spend couple years coding away in your basement by yourself before you are remotely useful. Front-end engineering needs to accomodate entry level, mid level, and architect level developers, but our sites are too brittle. You may have a perfectly accessible or high performance website, and then the first newbie to touch it, ruins it. Our code should be robust enough that newbies can contribute while maintaining the standards we’ve set.

Stubbornella » Blog Archive » Object Oriented CSS, Grids on Github

Nov 21, 20080

vyvanse

so about six weeks ago (so early pxt 2008) I started a new ADHD med, after having gone off of sytattera in about April on an experiment in treating my symptoms with diet and exercise.

vyvanse is a stimulant, but has 24 hour coverage (ish) and less pronounced side effects than previous stim-based ADHD meds, in the sleep and appetite loss areas.

it also, I am pleased to report at the six week mark, kicks ass.

I have been more productive in the last six weeks than in my entire life to this point added up and squared.

(note: that was hyperbole)

it has made web development FUN again.

(well, jquery has helps in that regard, too)

Sep 20, 20081

Future Proof Web Design ; my presentation at LDC 2008

Future Proof Web Design
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: ldc2008 lasso)

Future Proof Web Design

Jul 3, 20080

37signals signals the rush out of hell

IE 6 is a last-generation browser. This means that IE 6 can’t provide the same web experience that modern browsers can. Continued support of IE 6 means that we can’t optimize our interfaces or provide an enhanced customer experience in our apps. Supporting IE 6 means slower progress, less progress, and, in some places, no progress. We want to make sure the experience is the best it can be for the vast majority of our customers, and continuing to support IE 6 holds us back.

37signals Product Blog: Phasing out support for IE 6 across all 37signals products on August 15, 2008

May 23, 20080

6 Places that Flash Does Not Belong

“A couple years ago, I did a website for a large church organization that had dozens of menu items and many pages of content per menu item. They insisted on a Flash site where you never had to use the browser scroll, and at the same time, it should look just like an HTML site (which of course, begs the question, ‘Why are we using Flash?’). Needless to say, they ended up with a very cumbersome website that costs much more than an HTML site, both to build and maintain. Furthermore, visitors complained about the site usability, preferring even a simple text-only site where they could actually get the information they wanted. In general, you’d be surprised how often a visitor will take information accessibility over a great-looking Flash one. If your website’s primary purpose is delivering informational content, avoid Flash.”

6 Places that Flash Does Not Belong

May 7, 20080

dave hyatt on CSS3 selectors “really shouldn’t be used”

he’s right — this IS a sad truth:

The sad truth about CSS3 selectors is that they really shouldn’t be used at all if you care about page performance. Decorating your markup with classes and ids and matching purely on those while avoiding all uses of sibling, descendant and child selectors will actually make a page perform significantly better in all browsers.

CSS Qualified Selectors // ShaunInman.com:

Apr 30, 20081

new chapter starts

today was my last day working for imagenation, where i have been a web developer for just over a year.

i truly enjoyed working for mark williams, the principal there, who is kind, honest with his clients and his employees and whom i never saw get angry over the “small stuff”.

he was a joy to be employed by.

but i am moving on due to a fantastic offer that i simply could not refuse from SiteWelder, where i will once again be doing fulltime lasso development.

i am really excited about this new chapter in my life.

i am sitting here at my desk at home, which will be my office for the forseeable future.

given everything going well, i imagine being with SiteWelder for a long time to come.

here’s to the future!

Feb 26, 20080

Your markup validator

There is almost never a good reason for you to be validating someone else’s code. Usually, if you’re validating someone else’s code, it’s because you’re being an asshole.

Your markup validator

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Feb 24, 20080

on bad web design

i am sick of bad web design.

people who know me well are already chuckling at me — knowing that bed web design is something i have been sick of since, oh, 1996 or so.

but just now i was trying to read a blog post.

i use NetNewsWire to read blog posts with, mostly, and it’s a fantastic product for numerous reasons, but one of the main ones is that it allows me to display blog posts using my own styles.

i have created a NNW style sheet for reading blogs with good typography, always the same style, always pleasant to read.

which gets me back to my point: most websites are downright lousy for actually reading.

i was just reading a wonderful article that is downright arduous to read simply because of how crappy the typography on the site i was reading it on is.

this is a shame.

i wish there was an easy, reliable, way to turn any crappy website into a well-laid-out, well-designed, easy-to-read website, the way i can read blog posts.*

* side note: i HATE when blogs only put part of a blog post in the part that shows up in my reader, and make me open the post in a web browser to read the whole thing.

fortunately, netnewswire allows me to do this easily, and without opening a new program, but sheesh — allow me to read the whole post in the reader and not in a web page.

ugh.

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Feb 11, 20080

flash documentation gripe

in the flash 8 docs, we have this in example code:


this.createTextField(“myTxt”, 20, 0, 0, 100, 20);

now, i don’t know if flash allows parameter names, but this example is so unhelpful for newbies (like, the people reading docs) for so many reason.

what do all those numbers mean?

why aren’t they named like this?


this.createTextField(
name.“myTxt”, _depth.20, _x.0, _y0, _width.100, _height.20);

…or something?

how annoying.

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Jan 30, 20080

fantastic news made clear by John Resig regarding the HTML5 DOCTYPE

What’s nice about this new DOCTYPE, especially, is that all current browsers (IE, FF, Opera, Safari) will look at it and switch the content into standards mode – even though they don’t implement HTML5. This means that you could start writing your web pages using HTML5 today and have them last for a very, very, long time.

If nothing else, this should be a good excuse to look through the changes in HTML5 and familiarize yourself with what’s in the pipeline for browsers – Internet Explorer included.

John Resig – HTML5 DOCTYPE

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Jan 25, 20080

CSS to make text wrap

/* Browser specific (not valid) styles to make preformatted text wrap */
code {
white-space: pre-wrap;       /* css-3 */
white-space: -moz-pre-wrap;  /* Mozilla, since 1999 */
white-space: -pre-wrap;      /* Opera 4-6 */
white-space: -o-pre-wrap;    /* Opera 7 */
word-wrap: break-word;       /* Internet Explorer 5.5+ */
}

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Dec 5, 20070

test

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property usernamePasswordString : ""
property tagsString : ""
 
on run
	checkUsernameAndPassword()
	postToDelicious()
end run
 
on postToDelicious()
	tell application "NetNewsWire"
		if exists selectedHeadline then
			set u to "\"?&url=" & (URL of selectedHeadline) & ¬
				"&description=" & (title of selectedHeadline) & ¬
				"&tags=" & tagsString & "\""
			set curlStatement to "/usr/bin/curl -u " & usernamePasswordString & " -d " & u & " https://api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/add"
			set retValue to do shell script curlStatement
			if retValue contains "wrong" then
				display dialog "Headline did not post to del.icio.us. Something went wrong."
			end if
		else
			display dialog "Please select a headline to post to del.icio.us"
		end if
	end tell
end postToDelicious
 
on checkUsernameAndPassword()
	-- Check to see if the file where our username and password are stored exists
	try
		do shell script "cd " & POSIX path of (path to preferences as text) & "; ls | grep com.larrystaton.toread.txt"
		try
			set prefFile to ((path to preferences as text) & "com.larrystaton.toread.txt")
			open for access file prefFile with write permission
			set prefs to read file prefFile using delimiter {return}
			close access file prefFile
			set usernamePasswordString to item 1 of prefs
			set tagsString to item 2 of prefs
		on error e
			close access file prefFile
		end try
	on error
		set username to text returned of (display dialog "Please enter your del.icio.us username" default answer "username")
		set pass to text returned of (display dialog "Please enter your del.icio.us password" default answer "password")
		set tags to text returned of (display dialog "Please enter any desired default tags" default answer "toread ")
		try
			set prefFile to ((path to preferences as text) & "com.larrystaton.toread.txt")
			open for access file prefFile with write permission
			set eof of file prefFile to 0
			write username & ":" & pass & {return} & tags to file prefFile
			close access file prefFile
		on error e
			close access file prefFile
		end try
		set usernamePasswordString to username & ":" & pass
		set tagsString to tags & " "
	end try
end checkUsernameAndPassword
Oct 30, 20070

this has to stop

this has to stop

twitterific errors, a lot.

i know it’s twitter’s fault, but i have errors set to “off” and it still notifies me, every single time.

it’s he of annoying.

also, the window never hides itself like it is supposed to.

gah.

Next,

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