The Cafes » Web Development

I’ve been writing my talk notes in XML and delivering them in HTML for years. These days I rarely if ever use PowerPoint. Especially since my talks tend to be quite code heavy, HTML works much better. It’s much easier to put a decent amount of (still legible) source code on an HTML page than a PowerPoint slide, plus I can scroll if I need to.

One of the most common questions I get when I give one of these talks is how I make the slide advance from one to the next by just hitting one key. It’s actually not that hard, but it does surprise people, so I thought I’d show you.
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CSS has a noble goal: separating content from presentation. The sad truth, though, is that the implementation of that goal is unbelievably hideous. We’ve spent so much time over the last decade first evangelizing the goal and then excoriating browser vendors for not correctly implementing the specs, that we’ve neglected to notice some fairly fundamental flaws in the language itself. The first of those is a violation of the DRY principle: Don’t Repeat Yourself.
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I tend to assume most people know what they’re talking about, especially if they’re talking about something I don’t really understand. Sometimes it takes a really blatant example of just what it is they’re saying before I realize they’re talking out of their posteriors.

For instance, I used to think homeopathy was a vaguely reasonable practice based on traditional herbal medicine. Then one day I was stuck at the pharmacist for fifteen minutes waiting for a prescription. Since I had nothing better to do, I picked up a pamphlet about the principles of homeopathy and started to read. Almost immediately it became clear that there was nothing in the little glass vials except plain water, that there was no possible way any of these “remedies” could do anything except through the placebo effect, and that the whole field was complete and utter bunk.

It’s important to note here that I didn’t read some detailed scientific study about homeopathy. I didn’t read an article in the Skeptical Inquirer debunking homeopathy. I read a really well-written piece by an advocate of homeopathy that explained exactly what homeopathy was and why they thought it worked; and that clear explanation showed me (or anyone with a layperson’s understanding of chemistry) that homeopathy was completely bogus. I have recently had the same experience with microformats.
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We’ve known for a long time that cookies are are deeply antithetical to the design of HTTP and the Web (#1). We’ve known they are used to track users and violate privacy (#2). However, I recently had called out to me yet another reason why cookies, specifically user authentication cookies, are bad for you.
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Hi there. My name’s Rusty, and I’m an air conditioning tech. I’m not a rocket scientist, but I know how to wield an electronic screwdriver and recharge the freon in a unit. Lately I’ve taken a job with Roy’s Environmental Systems Technology. It sounds impressive, but really it’s just another air conditioning and heating company, nothing cutting edge, nothing fancy. We mostly just call it REST.
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