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Recommended Viewing

• 300†
  Does exactly what it says on the (comic book) tin. Loved it.
• Little Miss Sunshine†
  Very funny, disturbing (the beauty pageant) and completely messed up -- but in a good way.
• Laputa: Castle in the Sky†
  Story great, characterization a little on the weak side -- though the big robots are cool.
• Porco Rosso†
  Stylish, funny, exciting.
• Grave of the Fireflies†
  Very sad, which was a little unexpected since I didn't know much about it before watching it. Can be a little too slow in places though, otherwise it's very good.
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind†
  The story can get a little dense at times what with the various factions, but still really enjoyable, inventive and engaging.
• X-Men: The Last Stand†
  Opportunity, talent, money - all blown. Over 3 films X-Men has hinted of something great that could have been, this last one says "No, sorry - not going to happen". Bah.

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Vertical Text in CSS

Here's a quick example of how to make text flow vertically, rather than horizontally, as in table headings. I've kept the CSS inline, so it's all there when you view the source.
All it does is apply an HTML tag to each letter, and then style that tag to display block, which causes each letter to stack on top of the other.

2 CommentsOctober 15, 2004

HTML begins with a DOCTYPE

The first part of any HTML document is a DOCTYPE. A DOCTYPE tells the browser what sort of HTML is being used, and the browser renders it accordingly. You can read more about using the right DOCTYPE at ALA, it's all there in black and white.

0 CommentsOctober 13, 2004

CSS 'Background' Shorthand

Instead of this in your CSS:

.foo
{
background-color: color-value;
background-image: img(path/to/url);
background-repeat: repeat-value;
background-attachment: attachment-value;
background-position: position-value;
}

try this:

.foo
{background:color-value img(path/to/url) position-value repeat-value attachment-value}

Any order will do, though for clarity be consistent. :)

0 CommentsOctober 13, 2004

How Not To Link

Here’s a working example of how not to do web links. The Jobfinder section of the Belfast Telegraph website, Northern Ireland’s flagship news publication, creates ‘More Details’ links to job descriptions like this:

<a href=”javascript: callAdvert(foo)”
class=”bar”>[More Details]</a>

Why is this bad? 10% of users don’t have JavaScript enabled, thus making the job descriptions inaccessible to them. Luckily it’s easy to fix:

<a href=”/path/to/url”
onclick=”javascript: callAdvert(foo); return false”
class=”bar”>[More Details]</a>

JavaScript Links - Further Reading:

• Dive into Accessibility - Using Real Links
• A List Apart - Accessible Pop-ip Links

0 CommentsOctober 11, 2004

CSS 'Font' Shorthand

Instead of this in your CSS:

.foo
{
font-style: x;
font-variant: x;
font-weight: x;
font-size: x;
line-height: x;
font-family: x;
}

try this:

.foo
{
font: font-style font-variant font-weight font-size/line-height font-family
}

Keep the values in the above order, the bold properties are always required, the rest are optional.

0 CommentsOctober 11, 2004

Instiki

Since Mena mentions Instiki in her latest post, I will too. I *heart* Instiki. If you're looking for a real smooth wiki application that'll run anywhere on anything, Instiki is for you!

0 CommentsOctober 4, 2004