We need someone with a keen interest in HTML/CSS and are after the following:

• You enjoy writing the cleanest HTML & CSS possible
• You have knowledge of at least one CMS/blog platform
• It would be a bonus if you know, or have played around with JQuery, but not essential
• PHP/MySQL skills are a bonus but not a requirement
• You are interested in all the current trends on the web, including progressive enhancement
• You can work in our studio in Reading (no remote workers I'm afraid)

Lift is a small design studio (5 people) producing work for a range of clients, from big corporate clients to small arts organisations. One of our current developers is moving on and we need someone to fill the space in the team.

We work in a brand new, custom built studio in Caversham (on the outskirts of Reading, on the Oxford side). You will be expected to work in the studio with the rest of the team. We like to make our working environment comfortable, so we provide big screens, an Aeron chair and a company iPhone. And you get to work with me, which is a huge plus in itself ;)

We are looking for someone on an initial 6 month contract, with the option to then make the position permanent. If you're interested, send over your details to matt@studiolift.com. We are looking to employ someone as soon as possible, so don't wait around!

A structure we quite like the idea of is one that uses a repository per client, then directly within that we have directories for each project (site) that we have worked on, as we often work on multiple codebases for each client. Within each project would be the typical trunk, branches and tags. Illustrated:

• /client-name/
  • /project-a/
    • /trunk/
    • /branches/
    • /tags/
  • /project-b/
    • /trunk/
    • /branches/
    • /tags/
  • /project-c/
    • /trunk/
    • /branches/
    • /tags/

This allows us to conserve how many repositories we are using, group related projects and still use branching and tagging for each codebase. Does anyone take a similar approach? Is this a common structure?

I also welcome any alternative structure suggestions as well as any advice for better integrating SVN as part of the development process. SVN has always been used in my time at Lift but only now are we really looking to get the most out of it, as a part of a larger plan to improve our development methodologies.

Version 4 of akamike has been marked up in HTML5, taking advantage of some of the new elements for improved semantics and document structure. Writing at HTML5Doctor, and my own general interest, has had me involved with this new standard for quite some time. Redesigning akamike was the perfect opportunity for implementing it, and has found me reviewing what I previously thought about some elements in HTML5. Dig around in the source and feel free to ask in the comments about how it has been done.

The redesign also gave me the excuse to change content management systems. For a while now I have been drifting away from Wordpress and my work at Lift is primarily with Movable Type, so it makes sense for me to use a system I can develop far faster in and honestly enjoy working with more. It was quick and easy to move content across, and integrating the site into MT was very easy.

I am using MT to run multiple sites on my server space, including another which has also recently launched in HTML5. But more on that another time ;) I am looking to take advantage of more of MT's functionality in the near future, such as the user sign-in options. Keep an eye out for little tweaks here and there!

As well as some new functionality, I will still be tweaking the design over the next couple of weeks and correcting old posts, some of which have some formatting issues from the content transfer. If you spot any issues, or just have some general comments, let me know! :)

That's all well and good in theory, but instead you can frequently find Trending Topics filled with rubbish that you have no interest in, such as an ego-boosting campaign from the latest celebrity Twitter newbie or hashtags grouping the latest in low-yield humour. Personally, I don't give a crap about your favourite songs to listen to before/during/after sex and I'd rather spit on Zac Efron than hear about his latest movie. I am pretty sure I'm not the only one in this, Efron could probably get a shower everyday just from the people who dislike him, but with enough people who follow people just for the sake of following people and those constantly re-tweeting because they have nothing of their own to say, the Trending Topic system can be abused. Another flaw in Trending Topics lies with spam bots, who will grab at any topic deemed popular and start hammering it with the usual offers of improved relations with the ladies and the latest pyramid schemes. Trending Topics has quickly become useless.

That's not to say it is a bad idea. The feature indicates what people believe is important, no matter how moronic it is to other people, and it does that job well. It's just far too broad to be worth checking frequently.

Here's an idea: what if Trending Topics was smarter and more personal? I follow people who's content is relevant to me, soon I'll be creating lists to group related users to topics, I have saved searches find news on #html5, #css3 and even #rdg. Why doesn't Twitter analyse this and serve up some topics that are related to these yet I might not heard of yet? I'm a web developer and I'd like to know what is big in the industry, but I might not want to read Firefox news all day and only get a little nudge if they, for example, suddenly switch to IE's Trident rendering engine! Sure, I'd be concerned about the impending apocalypse, but I would at least like it if Twitter thought I should know sooner rather than later.

I don't think this is a difficult feature to build, and it certainly isn't a strange idea. Of course, I expect there is a lot to think about when it comes to scalability, so it's probably something quite far into the future, but I think it would be something people would get a lot of use out of. It just needs to take into account what you say, who you follow, who you say things to, what lists you have made and what searches you have saved, then serve up personalised trend lists of the hour/day/week.

Any thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments. Or, better yet, tweet this post with the hashtag #bettertrendingtopics and you might win a kiss!

Making an appearance next to the squirrel and Jeremy Keith, we have a completely innocent conversation which is unfortunately devoid of semantics. Google-bot happens to be passing by and takes it upon itself to work out what we are saying.

This comic is in response to the recent removal of, and failed alternative solution to, dialog. I wrote about dialog on HTML5Doctor not too long before this change, and was not best pleased by the replacement. Now, marking up conversations is up for discussion (no pun intended), so make sure you get your thoughts in.