Just to let everyone know, now I have seen it all. (Thanks to Ken for pointing this out!)

It has almost been two months since I got on a commuter train, worried about having a lunch packed, or making it in to work on time. How has my life changed? I am much more calm and patient. I no longer try to make traffic lights at all costs and I really do not rush anywhere. In fact, I almost feel like I have moved into the southern way of life. Me…yeah, me. I tend to drink more Coke Zero, listen to music louder, and really enjoy what I do 90% of the time (compared to about .05%). I have enjoyed working on numerous projects - big and small, and building new relationships. Thanks to iChat and iSights, I have a weekly conference video chat with some of my old co-workers and IM keeps us in touch as well. My weekly conference calls with old co-workers have become weekly enjoyable conversations about stuff we enjoy instead of what we hate - and I no longer have to worry about what train to catch or where to park. If I teach my kids one thing, it will be that we all … [more]

There has been plenty of cicada talk here in the midwest concerning the 17 year cicada. The news covered weddings being rescheduled, teachers at school were making “cicada hats” with their students to try and lessen the scariness of the bugs, and of course, the great Walter E. Smithe commercial. No sign of the bugs yet, but I did want to share the insane commercial for a local furniture chain. Yes - furniture. These guys have a great sense of humor!

I am currently working on a big project which includes wrangling over 12k lines of CSS. Tonight it took me an hour to create a very simple form when it would normally take me 5 minutes. Why? Overcomplicated CSS. At this point I am using so many default values (like vertical-align: baseline; and float:none;) that it is insane. Why can’t I start from scratch and just toss all the old code that is messing everything up? I wish I could, but so much of the project is reliant on it, that I am forced to plow through it. Just a quick reminder to all those people who work with CSS: keep it simple and define the bare minimum.

Well, after a few months of using Yahoo!/SBC Global Elite (fast) DSL, I am moving back to using Comcast’s high speed cable. The speed was horrible, the support was horrible (I spoke to a “Mac Expert” who did not know that traceroutes could be done on a Mac, they thought it was only a “Windows thing”) and I got tired of network timeouts. Comcast gave me a next day installation time and so as of this afternoon, I should be cooking with gas once again. I know a lot of people have had luck with DSL, but I am not one of them. Apparently I am just too elite for the “elite” package.

For a browser that is hardly standards compliant, Internet Explorer still infuriates me and acts as my arch enemy when debugging CSS. How about an example?
This code works in Safari, FireFox, Opera but not IE:

.heading {
background: url(”images/heading-bg.gif”)repeat-x;
color:#fff;
font-size:1em;
margin:5px 0 5px 5px;
border:1px solid #292929;
padding-left:3px;
line-height:21px;
}

The result: The background image is displayed properly in Safari, Firefox, Opera, etc but not IE. IE failed to display any background image at all.

This code, the same as above with one minor difference, works in Safari, FireFox, Opera and IE:

.heading {
background: url(”images/heading-bg.gif”) repeat-x;
color:#fff;
font-size:1em;
margin:5px 0 5px 5px;
border:1px solid #292929;
padding-left:3px;
line-height:21px;
}

The result: The background image is displayed properly in all browsers.

What is the difference? There is a space in between the “)” and the word “repeat”. Mind you, both of these validate.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cross checking different platforms and browsers. Hopefully this will help someone when they are super frustrated with the same problem.

I would like to think we all have standards of some sort. I expect people to treat me with respect as I will treat them with respect. Other people demand to be catered to at all costs - all the time. This morning at the train station the police were out and about issuing tickets for all people who crossed the tracks (there are 3 sets - closest: from Chicago, middle: express trains to and from Chicago depending on the time, far set: local to Chicago). Anyone who has ridden the Metra for a few days/weeks/years has crossed the tracks (after looking both ways of course) to catch their train (and we have also seen people get killed doing the same thing too). It is not always smart, but when you know the schedule, you also know what other - if any - other trains are coming and going. This morning, I was trying to catch an express train. Unfortunately, the train showed up early, and after seeing the police there, I was not going to cross and get slapped with a $250.00 fine. Don’t worry, some idiot did…and got fined. … [more]