The Eric Wroolie Blog

Overpass Experiences

CSS Revisited

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I’ve read a lot about CSS back in 2000 or so and had pretty much exhausted the subject.  In fact, I’m very proud of my css knowledge.  I read the entire CSS1 W3C specification.image

But hat was a long time ago. Yesterday morning I started reading CSS Mastery, which I picked up from the Marylebone library for a quick thumb-through.  CSS has changed a lot and browsers are more strict in terms of compliance–making some of my layout methods obsolete.

Being an IE4/5 and Netscape designer is a lot difference than a IE6/7 and Firefox designer.  Here are a few things I need to break out of the habit of doing:

  • Using tables for layout (I think in terms of nested tables)
  • Not declaring my doc-types accurately
  • Mixing Presentation (width, height, nospan, etc) with markup

I know I’m not alone in these shortcomings, but I’ve always been a believer that you need to code to current standards, and not just code until it looks okay when you refresh your browser.  Otherwise, a new browser gets released and the old forgiving browser you tested on goes away.

Anyway, my eyes are opened after the first few chapters.  Question though: will CSS soon be irrelevant in the Silverlight / Flex world?

Taking a half day for history

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I took a half-day off yesterday so I could be home to watch the inauguration at 4pm. I think most people watched it live. Even though it is so easy to record it (especially in the age of hdd recorders), it’s the kind of thing you want to experience with everyone else, as it happens.

This inauguration was more like a holiday. I can’t remember so much excitement before.

I remember watching the George Bush (senior) inauguration speech in Algebra class when I was in the 11th grade. I never paid much attention to the Clinton or Bush Jr festivities.

So, it was a nice afternoon off. Like most people, I feel relieved. It’s finally over with.

Saw My First Hindi Film

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This weekend I watched my first Hindi film. I know I could have watched one without taking a Hindi course first, but this was the whole reason I wanted to watch it.

I searched the local Blockbuster for films in Hindi, but it’s a small town and they don’t really have any. So, I ordered a few from LoveFilm and finally had one delivered last week.

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I watched Chak De, a film about the a national India Woman’s hockey team. I really enjoyed the movie. I found out from friends at work that it’s a very popular international film. I guess I shouldn’t feel too multi-cultural for having watched it, then.

The movie was really good, but I was surprised at how long it was. It was almost two and a half hours. Just when I thought it was over, it had an “Intermission” card go across the screen.

In terms of Hindi practice, despite being a Novice, I understood a lot that I could identify. My favourite sentences were the really short ones like “Con?” and “Kew?” and I was surprised how much English was thrown in.

My favourite scene was the fight in a McDonald’s. I’m a simple man.

When I watch Chinese movies to practice language, they always seem very different than a Hollywood movie. It could be that my sampling is too small, I suppose– but they always seem to be very artsy. This movie could have been a Hollywood movie easy.

I have a few more films selected on LoveFilm, but they seem to be very slow in sending them.