Theodicius

Good. Evil. Bratwurst.

On Craftsmen

Filed under: General,Technology,Web Design— arlen@ 1:42 pm

(Both Joshua Porter and Eric Meyer have been musing on this theme, and it struck a chord here, as well. This should not be construed as a rebuttal to either piece, just some musings their writings have spurred here.)

In the beginning was the individual. If Og wanted something for his cave, he fashioned it himself, from the materials around him. Chair a little uncomfortable? Get out the hammer and chisel away a little more here and there. Sit down. Chisel away a little more. Finally the chair and Og’s bottom made their peace, and happiness reigned.

But Og had friends over, and they complained about his chair. Og didn’t understand this at first. After all, wasn’t the chair really comfortable when he sat in it? Eventually, Og realized his bottom wasn’t universal. Not everyone’s bottom was like his, so chairs built specifically for his bottom wouldn’t be comfortable for everyone else.
Continue reading →

Bughunting Safari 3

Filed under: General,Web Design— arlen@ 1:19 am

Yes, Oliver there is a bug in Safari3. It’s a javascript issue, to be precise. And it’s annoying.

I have a design relying on Inman Positioning. The javascript is supposed to execute at load time. Problem is, when it does execute, the CSS has not yet been applied to the columns, so it gets an incorrect figure for the height of the div.

The only workaround I’ve got so far is to use setTimeout to set a delay of over 1/3 of a second on the executing of the positioning script. Yes, it’s ugly. But at least it works. And yes, Oliver, I checked the Safari3 tracker and I see 2-3 reports that look like what I’m seeing, so it looks like it’s been reported.

Andy Clarke of Transcending CSS fame convinced me Inman positioning was the way to go, but this makes we wonder. Is it worth it, now?

(BTW, if you haven’t seen that book, see it. The epitome of how a book on design should be not only useful but beautiful. Superb job, buy it, you won’t regret it. Not ever. I promise.)

The Same, Only Moreso

Filed under: General,Technology,Web Design— arlen@ 9:06 am

Was at the Flex show last night over at WCTC. It was very apparent I’ve had my head inside Rails lately. Kevin Hoyt, the Adobe demo guy, did his database access schtick (writing just a few lines of code and — hey, presto! — a fuctioning CRUD db screen appears) and while the rest of the room was going “Oooh” and “Aaah” I was simply thinking “Scaffolding.” Heh.

Seriously, the Flex demo did scaffolding one better by activating sorts on the columns (along with the gee-whizz-bang but of little practical use trick of being able to rearrange the columns on screen) so I can’t say it was just like scaffolding. But it wasn’t a big enough improvement to raise my eyebrows.
Continue reading →

A Tragic Story

Filed under: General,Religion,Theology— arlen@ 1:29 pm

Joel Johnson writes a familiar but sad story. Malfeasance from a pastor drove him out of Christianity. He’s not alone; writer Sue Monk Kidd tells a tragically similar story. I’m absolutely certain the two are not alone in their experience. And they pose a conundrum, to believers and to those who have left because of this sort of thing.

As believers these sort of stories should serve to remind us of the burden we bear. We know we’re far from perfect. We know we’ll do things that offend others, sometimes egregiously, and even sometimes intentionally. There’s always that possibility; it comes from being human. And the burden is that when we do so, the world around us will blame our church, our faith, our Lord, rather than put the blame where it belongs — on us.

Continue reading →

Animadversions on Targeting

Filed under: General,Web Design— arlen@ 7:53 pm

The current issue of A List Apart has an article by Aaron Gustafson, one of those brave articles that is sure to cause a storm of un- and mis-informed comment. It’s a real attempt to solve a problem, and one that shows more than a little bravery.

Eric Meyer’s reply (published side-by-side in a point/not-quite-counterpoint approach) covers a lot of the thought process I went through when encountering it. I’ll freely grant that Meyer, having had more time than I did to come to grips with the idea, may have thought this through deeper than I, but I’m still at the “Ooooh, ick” stage with this idea.

I can see the point, and as I said I congratulate Gustafson for taking the bull by the horns in such a bold manner, but I cannot agree that he escaped goring.

I’m afraid I see this as an attempt to offload the responsibility for good design, to pass the buck, as it were, from designers to browser makers.

Continue reading →

May 2025
M T W T F S S
« Aug    
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031