fiddle2

It's not very often that you see such grace and elegance in a reply to criticism. Props to Ian.

We just finished recording a new episode of Geek Muse (finally!), so expect an update sometime next week.

Remember when Apple computers used to have the bumps on the 'd' and 'k' instead of the 'f' and 'j'? When I would sit down, my brain would just switch to fit whichever keyboard I was at... I didn't have to think about it. When I use synergy between my workstation and tablet at work, my mind just flips the keyboard shortcuts needed based on the UI. I rarely have to think about it.
Now, keeping that in mind: ever since I installed Firefox 3 beta 5 on my laptop, I have a difficult time telling if I'm in Firefox or Safari. This comes into play when I need to switch tabs (command-alt-arrow vs. command-shift-arrow) or view source (command-u vs. command-alt-u).
I want the old theme back.

Sean Bonner recently wrote a post about managing communications and relationships.

Depending on the kind of relationship I have with someone they have different priorities in my life at different times. If a business contact e-mails me during the week I’d like to see that relatively quickly, where as if they e-mail me on a Saturday I’d be perfectly happy not even knowing about it until Monday. If my family calls me I want my phone to ring, if the dry cleaner calls I’d prefer if that went stright to voicemail. If a friend IM’s me I don’t mind being interupted, however if someone I’ve only just met pings me I’d like them to see that I’m busy and will be back in touch later. What kind of relationship I have with these people isn’t really as important as what priority I’ve placed on their contact with me.

I agree with that, (All except for the part about voicemail; I hate voicemail. But I'm getting ahead of myself...) but I think the method of communication plays a bigger role in it. Anyone who knows me knows that I loathe my telephone. The only person who has a guarantee that I'll answer my phone is Nicole. Everyone else is managed. Work exists between 0730 and 1630 on weekdays, and not a minute outside thereof. My voicemail message advises people to hang up and send me a text message. My text messages are returned at my earliest convenience. Instant Messenger requests are almost always dealt with immediately. I propose the following guideline for telephone communication:]]>

If your communication is urgent and requires return contact, then call me. If I don't answer, then send a text message stating the urgency. Example: You've been arrested and need me to bail you out of jail.
If your communication is urgent but does not require return contact, then call me. If I don't answer, hang up and forget it--do not leave me a voice mail. Text message is optional, but discouraged considering return contact isn't required. Example: You're at a rummage sale where you see something I might like, and want to know if I want you to buy it. (Assumption being that return contact isn't required because by the time I get back to you, it'll be too late.)
If your communication is not urgent, then send a text message. Example: What are we doing tonight?

I mean, it sounds really coarse, condescending and/or shallow, but it's the truth. Nobody can be 100% accessible all the time. My friend Dave once told me that he rarely answers his phone because "it's for my convenience, not the caller's." True that. Once you get over the shock of how mean it feels, your life really is less stressful when you don't feel tied to your phone.

The CSS 2.1 spec recommends 96dpi as the reference pixel resolution for rendering dimensions, but what are the real resolutions of displays these days? Obviously, the days of 72dpi are gone, and have been for years now. I did some looking this morning, and here are the results of my anecdotal sample (of the displays on my desk).

Display	Diagonal size	Pixel dimensions	Physical resolution
Dell Ultrasharp 1901FP	19 in.	1024 x 1280	86.8 dpi
Apple iMac (2.16GHz Core 2 Duo)	24 in.	1920 x 1200	94.6 dpi
Motion 1600LE View Anywhere®	12.1 in.	1024 x 768	106.4 dpi
Apple MacBook (1.83GHz Core Duo)	13.3 in.	1280 x 800	114 dpi

So that gives us about a 100dpi average with a standard deviation of about 12. Fin.

Some folks in #symfony were talking about CSS "frameworks" today, and I am in awe.

hartija CSS Print Framework
First of all, where do they get off calling this a "framework?" It's forty lines of CSS rules. This is just some dude's print stylesheet. That's it.
blueprintcss CSS framework
Okay, so this at least is more substantial, which brings it out of the laughable category, and it's a little closer to a "framework" since it provides something like "functionality" such as the "grid" feature:

The first thing you do, is surround your grid with a container:
Here's my site!
You then use div's with one of the .span-x classes to set how many columns the elements should span.
Here are some examples: Header Left sidebar Main content Right sidebar Notice the "last" class, which every last element inside a container or another column needs.

This is such a horribly bad idea. The whole point of CSS is to separate the content from its display. Using a class of "span-4" has absolutely no semantic value at all, and is tantamount to a named style attribute. This project is clearly run by people who have completely missed the point. If it weren't such a comical failure, it would almost make me sad.

By the way, remote controls do not belong on top of the television. They belong next to the couch. Oi vey.

Heh, the WebKit team just passed Acid3 today. Safari FTW!!!1

I know this is kind of old news since it came out in December, but I did want to mention something about it since the beta only became available this month:
Satan called, and wanted to know why it was getting so cold.
Apparently IE8 passes the Acid2 test, which I confirmed with beta 1. Butter my buns and call me a biscuit. And I'm sure they're already crackin' on Acid3...
As. If.

Google Street View has mapped San Antonio now. When it comes to reference materials, it's one thing to see a satellite picture of your house; it's a whole new level of creepy to look up your driveway:

So, I've decided that I'm going to learn kung fu this year, and I learned something very important during my first lesson: I'm so out of shape that I can't even learn kung fu.
So, I've decided that I'm going to utilize the free membership to Spectrum that I get through work, and get into shape so I can learn kung fu. I went tonight for the first time, and I was surprised at how I kind of enjoyed it. It's paradoxically exhausting and relaxing to just toil at something that requires no mental effort at all—the exact opposite of what I do all day at work. It seems pretty simple in hind sight, but I really didn't see that coming.

What the hell is a Benezir Bhutto ringtone? What's next, an Alan Greenspan ringtone?
Occupying the uncomfortable zone between a sales gimmick that isn't funny and a sales pitch that unintentionally is: "This is doctor ringtone, and I've been practicing musical cellphone medicine for over eight years. I've helped thousands of patients just like you recieve the newest and highest-quality cellphone music.... and your cellphone will feel and sound like new again."

Oh, dear.

This is here mostly so it's saved for my reference. What it does is left as a trivial exercise for the reader.

      table {
        border-top: 1px solid #b2b2b2;
        border-right: 1px solid #000;
        border-bottom: 1px solid #000;
        border-left: 1px solid #b2b2b2;
      }

      td, th {
        border-top: 1px solid #000;
        border-right: 1px solid #b2b2b2;
        border-bottom: 1px solid #b2b2b2;
        border-left: 1px solid #000;
      }

Steve Yegge recently wrote a rant about code size that blasts Java, and recommends some alternatives. What I noticed is that most of the problems he cites (verbosity, IDE dependence, large boilerplates, enhanced copy-and-paste allure) are directly related to static typing. And the languages he recommends as replacements (Ruby, Python, JavaScript) are.... I've mentioned many, many times how I hate any language that doesn't support duck typing. There's just no good reason to make me worry about data types. That's the sort of monotonous shit that we invented computers to do for us. While I'm on the subject, people who bitch and moan about the performance compromises can kiss my ass.

Processor time is a hell of a lot cheaper than mine; and,
The code size that staticly typed languages force makes code efficiency much, much harder, which is why most daily-use apps available today aren't that much faster than their dynamically typed equivalents. (Visual Studio v. Eclipse; XMLSpy v. oXygen) Hell, most of them aren't even faster than their web-based equivalents. (Outlook v. Gmail; iCal v. Scrybe) As an added bonus, it makes code maintenance more complex (and hence expensive; see A).

Slashdot recently posted about the 3rd edition of the CSS Pocket Reference by O'Reilly. Now, I like O'Reilly books a lot, and I keep vi Pocket Reference on my desk, but to be honest, I use the CSS spec (no, really) and zvon CSS Reference when I need something.
I wonder how the quality of the documentation for a given technology must eat the lunch of those trying sell references for it. I mean, I can see why someone would buy a PHP cookbook, but really, who needs a reference when there's php.net? It's a pity that for-profit software companies (still) don't have such standards for their docs.