Jeffrey Zeldman’s The Daily Report talks about CSS and the hassles of it (and why it is worth it).

Every time I design a site in CSS I hit the same wall where the logic works, the CSS and XHTML validate, and the display is perfect except in Browser X, where it is so bad I need to start over. Every time I hit that wall I curse Browser X and myself and the client and the W3C and Ben and J-Lo, just because. [The Daily Report]

I just ran into this kind of thing earlier this week. I’ve been working on a web site for someone and there were all kinds of things that just weren’t lining up correctly. Both IE and Safari had some neat little glitches I was bumping into. But in the end things worked out. But I certainly spent a lot of time cursing Microsoft and IE. My parents must have thought I was possessed or something.

In the end though, it’s just another step towards me writing better HTML and CSS.

Ahhh, nothing like a four hour power outage to shift your day into slow gear. It was actually nice, I read almost all of Volume 2 of Furuba, drained the rest of the power on my GBA, and took a nice nap.

Mostly from Boing Boing, but also from Davezilla.com

• Flying Gernsbackian vacuum cleaners
• Gummi Bear Experiements (soaking and melting)
• Aerogel (I want some of this stuff)
• Holy Water?
• Magenetoids
• and, last but not least, The fine line between clever and stupid.

Near-Sighted (Tele)Vision

Paul Allen sold TechTV to Comcast Corp. yesterday for below $300 million. Allen took a loss on the station, which he unsuccessfully tried to fold into his own cable network, Charter Communications.

But rather than continue to build on TechTV, which currently employs about 300 people — and which features programs such as “Robot Wars” and “Spy School” — Comcast intends to merge it with its video game network, G4. That network employs 200 people, and layoffs are expected. [Fast Company Now]

I heard about this yesterday, but hadn’t really read much about it yet, but really hope things go well for the TechTV side of this. G4 has always seemed like an interesting experiment that never quite worked. I’m hoping that Comcast keeps TechTV mostly as it is and folds parts of G4 into that programming. As long as they don’t get rid of Morgan I’ll be happy (though I’d hate to see anyone over on TechTV get dumped).

Oh, one more thing before coffee:

Ninja!
You are a sneaky Ninja.
We don’t even know you’re there…
before it’s too late!

Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot?
brought to you by Quizilla

Rock. Ninjas Rule! And at least I wasn’t a monkey

[Quiz originally seen over on apophenia]

I just read an interesting post over on misbehaving.net by Danah Boyd that made me pause and think for a bit. She asks:

So, i have to ask… what kinds of social/emotional support does technology provide you? How? Is this about supporting everyday interactions or providing access to a whole new world of support? [misbehaving.net]

I think it’s a combination of supporting everyday interactions and providing access. For instance, almost all my friends have email. It provides a nice way for trying to plan events and keep in touch randomly. Even when you don’t have time to call someone and chat for a bit you can always sent off a quick message saying ‘hi’. On the other side of things, I’ve been mudding for, uh, longer than I want to admit and I can say that has given me access to a whole other level of support. I have people I’ve known online for years who I have never met face to face who I consider to be friends. We’ve known each other through school, through some of us getting married, some of us getting divorced, children, and so on. I’m connected to those worlds pretty much all the time, and check in on them during the day much like I do email.

I may add to this a bit later, but it’s early and I need coffee before writing anything more.

I slept kinda weird last night, it felt like I was tossing and turning a bunch, but I just woke up and I feel oddly refreshed, so I think I’m going to be doing a tiny bit of blogging before crawling downstairs to make some coffee.

Word from Geneon is that the Limited Edition version of the R.O.D. TV box will be sweet. From AnimeonDVD.com:

The LE version will not be a traditional Artbox. Instead, it will be a faux-leather book with DVD trays instead of pages with room for the rest of the ROD the TV series. Both the LE DVD Book (as we will refer to it) and the regular edition will ship with limited edition two-sided pencil boards that feature the artwork from the R2 cards. [AnimeonDVD.com]

Very slick. I didn’t know until a day or two ago that this was coming out so soon over here, and now this news? I’m psyched. This has ended up being one of my favorite shows of the past year or two. I loved Read or Die and was a bit nervous about R.O.D. TV when I first heard about it. But the show just plain rocks. It takes place a number of years after the OVA (six I believe) and focuses on three sisters who are paper users and Yomiko Readman’s best friend, Nenene Sumiregawa. Yomiko Readman has been missing for a number of years, having vanished sometime after the OVA. The show has a different feeling than the original series (which I found to be kind of like a summer blockbuster action movie). The storyline is a bit slower paced, having to spread things out over 26 episodes, but it still can pack quite a punch when it wants to. The characters in the show are wonderful and I have decided that the tallest sister, Maggie, is my favorite. She’s quiet, likes to read, and likes being in small enclosed spaces, so she sleeps in a closet under the stairs (kinda like Harry Potter, but it’s smaller I think). And the show also had a pretty decent ending, something that is too often missing from anime.

So I give this show two big thumbs up and a bunch of stars. I loved it. If NewTypeUSA has episode one coming up sometime soon I definitely suggest checking it out. This is one release I’ll be getting the day it comes out on DVD over here.

Word from Geneon is that the Limited Edition version of the R.O.D. TV box will be sweet. From AnimeonDVD.com:

The LE version will not be a traditional Artbox. Instead, it will be a faux-leather book with DVD trays instead of pages with room for the rest of the ROD the TV series. Both the LE DVD Book (as we will refer to it) and the regular edition will ship with limited edition two-sided pencil boards that feature the artwork from the R2 cards. [AnimeonDVD.com]

Very slick. I didn’t know until a day or two ago that this was coming out so soon over here, and now this news? I’m psyched. This has ended up being one of my favorite shows of the past year or two. I loved Read or Die and was a bit nervous about R.O.D. TV when I first heard about it. But the show just plain rocks. It takes place a number of years after the OVA (six I believe) and focuses on three sisters who are paper users and Yomiko Readman’s best friend, Nenene Sumiregawa. Yomiko Readman has been missing for a number of years, having vanished sometime after the OVA. The show has a different feeling than the original series (which I found to be kind of like a summer blockbuster action movie). The storyline is a bit slower paced, having to spread things out over 26 episodes, but it still can pack quite a punch when it wants to. The characters in the show are wonderful and I have decided that the tallest sister, Maggie, is my favorite. She’s quiet, likes to read, and likes being in small enclosed spaces, so she sleeps in a closet under the stairs (kinda like Harry Potter, but it’s smaller I think). And the show also had a pretty decent ending, something that is too often missing from anime.

So I give this show two big thumbs up and a bunch of stars. I loved it. If NewTypeUSA has episode one coming up sometime soon I definitely suggest checking it out. This is one release I’ll be getting the day it comes out on DVD over here.

Amazing scientific discovery! Dinosaurs leave butt prints!

Scientists Find Dinosaur Tracks in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY – Amid well preserved dinosaur footprints along what used to be the shores of a prehistoric lake in southern Utah, scientists have found the rare signs of a dinosaur’s posterior.

…

It appears the 20-foot-long dinosaur, likely related to dilophosaurus, sat down, stood up, walked a few paces and sat down again before walking away. [Yahoo! News]