Strange IE-Pseudo-Property: hasLayout

On Having Layout describes a strange property that certain elements may or may not have. Why should you be concerned? Well, if Internet Explorer is not behaving as more standards-compliant browsers are, this could be why.

See also: How to insert conditional css for IE only.

IE Conditional Comments

This page at QuirksMode is the best single page reference on Conditional Comments in IE.

http://www.quirksmode.org/css/condcom.html

See Also: IE hasLayout Property

Thank God It’s Friday

I’m at Phoenix Sky Harbor picking up my wife. She’s been in California for 2 weeks training for a new job and is finally coming home. I figured I’d try WordPress from my iPhone. If you can read this, then it worked.

Dreamweaver CS4 Subversion Integration

I’ve been developing websites and online applications for over 10 years, but I’ve only been using Subversion for about 3 years within my web development projects. Although it may seem like an added inconvenience, especially for small websites, from my experience, making the commitment to learn to use a source code repository and version control system as a part of your normal development routine can be one of the smartest decisions you’ll ever make. Even if you have the best anti-virus software, a good back-up software, and back up your hard drive frequently, having your actual code and websites backed up and versioned, particularly on a different system than your workstation, can be a huge benefit for several reasons.

First, you can look back over time and see exactly what you did at a glance. Second, if your project scales quickly, or you run out of time to finish on deadline and need to hire some programming help, having your work in a repository makes it a thousand times easier for multiple programmers to work on the same code without collisions — accidentally overwriting each other’s work. Third, if catastrophe does strike, you can be back up and running much more quickly.

I use Dreamweaver as my main IDE. On Windows, I’ve been using Tortoise, the graphical interface to Subversion repositories, along with Araxis Merge for comparing source code. On Mac OS X I use Dreamweaver, Terminal, svn-X, and the SCPlugin.

So I have a fair amount of Subversion experience on both Mac and Windows. I was excited to learn about Dreamweaver CS4 having built in Subversion integration, because I figured I’d be able to save a step or two having Subversion repository support included natively within Dreaweaver CS4.

So I set about setting up a repository and entered the information into Dreaweaver’s Site Manager dialog box. It was as simple as placing the right information in the Subversion server settings dialog box.

I checked out the head, made a few changes and started poking around. Well, to my disappointment, I have to say nice try, Adobe, but not worth the time. What a bummer.

This article on Adobe’s website proclaims that the Subversion features of Dreamweaver CS4

will have a proufound impact on developers?

Hardly! The feature is crippled. You’re much better off using Tortoise.

You can’t do svn log. You can’t do diff (without Araxis merge or another diff merge tool outside of Dreamweaver.) You can’t do so many things… as compared with Terminal or even Tortoise, it was a big let down.

Dreaweaver CS4 does keep track of new, modified and deleted files with ease. You don’t even need to explicitly tell Dreamweaver to add files to the repository — all files are added by default (in many cases, that can work against you). I couldn’t find a way to put in any svn:ignore properties, so having to click on and not commit _notes folders with dwsync.xml data is a giant waste of time and a deal breaker for me. I guess it doesn’t hurt having _notes/dwsync.xml in every folder in my repository, but it’s just unfortuate that some of the basic features are left out.

Oh well, thankfully I never uninstalled Tortoise.

Which brings up one final annoyance — a Dreamweaver working copy is not modifiable by Tortoise and if you checked out with Tortoise, you can’t commit with Dreaweaver.

Mustard Plug

I just discovered that a friend of mine from high school plays trumpet in the band Mustard Plug from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

How cool is that?! Go Brandon! I had no idea.

Mustard Plug MySpace page has some awesome inie ska / punk / rock music videos if you like ska bands.

Check it out!

enter the dreamgate

Independent Comic Book Authors Redefine Comic Book Heroes On Their Own Terms

One of my best friends, William, and his roommate, Alex, have officially finished their own graphic novel and have recently made it available online. The artwork is killer and the story is surprisingly original and quite funny. Countless hours of inspired creativitity and collaboration went into the making of the e-book.

“The Dreamgate is a Sci-fi super-powered adventure involving seven main characters. Our heroes had been Programmed to be soldiers fighting Silent Wars for the Government. During a battle they shared an experience with a mystical portal called THE DREAMGATE and awaken from the nightmare that they’d been living.

What do you do when you realize the truth and decide to stop fighting? Try to stay awake and assist others.

Embark with our heroes on the first chapter in their new journey together. Experience the action, humor and adventure that happens as seven AWOL, super-powered, pseudo-enlightened friends try to fit into society, thwart injustice, and take on their biggest challenge of all: running an Intergalactic Travel Agency together.”

You won’t find a more unique and entertaining piece of fiction for $3 anywhere.

Tosca No Hassle

Slow down. Relax. Take a deep breath. Steal back an hour from your busy life. This is really worth your full attention. 

So the info page opens on the microsite for the new release album No Hassle by Tosca. The Austrian duo of Richard Dorfmesiter and Rupert Huber are “back with their most magical and mesmerizing album yet, a luxurious tapestry of analogue and digital sounds, submerged samples, live instruments, soundscapes and sensual rhythms,” - Steven Dalton  

In the interview video on the microsite, Dorfmeister says, “It was a really nice experience at the first concert. We didn’t use a normal P.A. with, you know, left and right. We didn’t do the whole left-right thing. We had six speakers on the first floor, and two more upstairs. It was crucial, because you can do so many things that nobody’s used to.  So we had 8 channels to mix sounds with. We looked for special locations. Churches are perfect, because the feeling of the room is like an instrument. Churches have a feeling. A feeling 10 times deeper than any club situation that we’re normally used to. It’s more like a concert, in which to invest 1 hour of your attention, more like an ‘audio massage’.”

“We didn’t do any of it on purpose. It’s just our sounds. We love this merging of different things from anywhere. If you can explain the way we do it, then like this. We’ve been reducing all the time, to try to get rid of things. We really tried to keep it as minimal as possible. We have much more material, but we’re choosing the stuff that off from the sound. Unpretentious. We’re not trying to be different, we just like it this way. it’s perfectly uncommercial, but this is just how we like it.”

Dorfmeister: “This is what everyone wants but what nobody has: no hassle. We just want no hassle. Not too much of anything. A good balance. Feel right music, without boringness.” 

Huber: “I think it’s a human right not to have to deal with reality all the time.”

Your job? Forget about it. Things to do? Ignore it. Put the crackberry down. Just take an hour and chill out to the most unique and original ambient electronic album to come out in a very long time, and certainly one of the best for 2009.

Classy Insults

The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor:
She said, “If you were my husband I’d give you poison,” and he said, “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.”

A member of Parliament to Disraeli:
“Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.” 
“That depends, Sir,” said Disraeli, “whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.”

“He had delusions of adequacy.” - Walter Kerr

“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” - Winston Churchill

“A modest little person, with much to be modest about.” - Winston Churchill

“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.” – Clarence Darrow

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.” - William Faulkner  (about Ernest Hemingway).
“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?” - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.” – Moses Hadas

“He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.” - Abraham Lincoln

“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” – Mark Twain

“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.” - Oscar Wilde

“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend…. if you have one.” - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second… if there is one.” - Winston Churchill, in response.

“I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.” - Stephen Bishop

“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” - John Bright

“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.” - Irvin S. Cobb

“He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others.” – Samuel Johnson

“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.” - Paul Keating

“There’s nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won’t cure.” - Jack E. Leonard

“He has the attention span of a lightning bolt.” - Robert Redford

“They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.” - Thomas Brackett Reed

“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.” - Charles, Count Talleyrand

“He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.” - Forrest Tucker

“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?” - Mark Twain

“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork ” - Mae West

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.” - Oscar Wilde

“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts.. . for support rather than illumination. “ – Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” - Billy Wilder

“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.” - Groucho Marx

(Thanks to King C., a forward from Jack W.)

Great Piano Tunes

I was trying to remember the other Scott Joplin piano piece I used to play as a kid. Of course the most famous song of his (that just about everyone has heard) is The Entertainer, which many people mistakenly call, The Sting, since the song was used as the 1973 Robert Redford & Paul Newman movie’s theme.

I don’t love the bridge toward the end as much as the beginning part of the song, but Maple Leaf Rag is a terrific ragtime melody. Also I think that The Entertainer has a much better bridge. Anyway, this performance of the song by Glenn Hardy, as many commenters suggest, is played at the correct tempo. I love the interplay of major and minor chords in ragtime music.

Here are some more amazing piano songs…