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Friday, May 09, 2003

CSS help - [1:19 PM]

Yesterday's note about CSS, and how much I stink at it, produced some good feedback. Arnab Nandi pointed out the virtues of TopStyle, looks like a VERY nice application and Bill Lazar pointed out HTML-Kit and a GREAT CSS site I'd never heard of called CSS Zen Garden. At CSS Zen Garden I found a design that's very close, it's called Storm Weather, and if I can figure out how to squeeze in a third column and make it look as nice as the two-column design I'm sold!

Thanks guys!

Movie line of the week answer - [10:31 AM]

We got two answers yesterday, both correct.

Our winner was Tommy Williams, congratulations Tommy! He was closely followed by Duncan Mackenzie. Both are MSDN guys, hmmmm....

The correct answer was of course...

Fletch

Great flick! I loved all the double-talk.

Thursday, May 08, 2003

Good notes - [10:21 AM]

Steven Vore has some good notes on the Windows Server 2003 Launch in Atlanta.

Note to self RE:CSS - [10:06 AM]

Go out and purchase Jeffrey Zeldman's Designing with Web Standards.

I'd really, really, like to re-design this site. The only problem is I can't figure out how to do it using CSS and maintain the look and feel of the current three column layout with spacing around the outside. I'd like to provide multiple skins for the site, one of which would be a classic look, along with a totally new look and a minimal text only type view. I know it's not rocket science but it might as well be as difficult as it is to figure out. I guess my brain just works in a different way. I can understand code, like C/C++ or whatever, but something as seemingly simple as markup twists my brain. Go figure.

Are there tools available that can look at a table based site and generate a framework of CSS? Too bad there are no algorithms, or patterns, for site design. Maybe there are and I just can't find the right one to fit this site? If anyone can find a CSS based site that behaves EXACTLY like this one please forward a link so I can go rip off the CSS. Thanks.

Then again maybe Mr. Zeldman's book will save my life, and keep me from pulling my hair out.

Movie line of the week - [8:57 AM]

Today's movie line comes from a movie I'll never get tired of watching.

Here's a hint, it was released in 1985, the year I graduated high school.

Can I borrow your towel? My car just hit a water buffalo.

Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here.

(No, J.D, it's not from The Matrix. )

Wednesday, May 07, 2003

And a big amen to that! - [9:25 AM]

Mike Sax: "...I really don't need vibrating menus, wobly windows, flying buttons, or three-dimensional fonts." - I couldn't agree more. I'm sure Longhorn will have it's splashy stuff and that's ok but I'm more interested in stability and speed. I'm confident the UI will be amazing but let's not forget the beef.

At a recent meeting a mockup of what Visio could look like in Longhorn was shown and some cute transition happened when switching between apps, everybody laughed, and the presenter had to say "Hey that's a real feature". It's ok to have different stuff like that as long as you can turn it off. It's fun to watch for a while, just like being able to add sound to menu selections, but after a while it gets old and I eventually turn it off. Hey remember when full window drag was introduced? That's one I loved, it's a keeper. All-in-all I'm confident Longhorn will be a winner.

Tuesday, May 06, 2003

Order of the Phoenix theft? - [9:27 AM]

The Leaky Cauldron [hat tip Steven Vore]: "Book Five Found in a Field" - I'm a huge Potter fan but I can't imagine stealing copies of the book. It's only 46 days until it's released to the public, I can wait.

The other thing I noticed on The Leaky Cauldron was the report that John Williams will be doing the score for Prisoner of Azkaban and that's a real relief.

Monday, May 05, 2003

May showers bring.... - [10:56 AM]

You know that old saying, "April showers bring May flowers", right? My question is what's the saying for May showers? How about...

May showers cancel softball tournaments and make me grumpy.

That sounds about right.

Our softball team was supposed to play a tournament on Saturday. The 15th annual Cinco De Mayo Tourney. Mother nature had a different event scheduled, rain, and lots of it. Saturday morning I got a call from our team tournament manager saying it was canceled, it didn't surprise me as it rained all night. According to Billy there were forty teams slated to play, forty! That's a lot of softball my friends. Can you imagine what the tournament director felt like having to cancel one of the biggest tournaments of the year? Not to mention all the unhappy campers that traveled to our little neck of the woods only to have to turn around and go home, ouch! Yesterday was of course sunny and beautiful with a nice breeze, perfect softball weather. Hopefully the co-ed teams were able to play.

The real bummer about our weather lately is it ultimately means we're going to go from rain in the 60's to sun in the 80's in nothing flat. A tough adjustment. Just you wait. Before you know it it'll be 90+ in our beautiful little valley. Winter to Summer, no mild spring to break us in. Darn.

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