Hawidu

CSS is Syntactically Inconsistent

Brad Czerniak — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:12:44 +0000

HTML is a pretty straightforward markup language. It has tags, each of which has optional attributes and sometimes required ones as well. Content goes between the opening and closing tags. Sometimes you can even self-close tags (but not <script> ! For the love of all things holy not script!). That's about it -- there are comments and a doctype (which is just a special comment in the scheme of things), and some quirks relating mostly to form element attributes, but the gist of html is tags with attributes. JavaScript has been to hell and back in attempting to handle this object model, but is getting there. If you want to be there now, the extendability of js allows you to use a library like JQuery to play with the tags, attributes, and their associated behaviors. How, then, can a more recently-updated language like CSS be going so off course? Take, for example, this checkbox:

<input type="checkbox" name="receivenewsletter" class="register-input" id="receivenewsletter" checked />

Here are some ways to target it using CSS:

input[type="checkbox"]{}
input[name="receivenewsletter"]{}
input.register-input{}
input#receivenewsletter{}
input:checked{}

Some of the "input"s in the list are superfluous, but I left them for illustrative purposes. Otherwise, it would be difficult to see that #receivenewsletter is really preceded by the universal selector for all intents and purposes. I can sort of buy the full stop being shorthand for [class=""] and similarly the hash for an id (though in the development of CSS as a language, that's not really wha happened), but the last example really bugs me. CSS pseudo-classes are generally relegated to default browser styles/behaviors that can reasonably take CSS declarations. :hover is a good example. If you've ever tried to apply :hover to an element other than an anchor, you know that IE6- will not take the directive. I agree with this -- <a> has a default behavior on hover while most other elements do not. The :hover pseudo-class is therefore taking over behavioral duties from JavaScript. Just so you know, I also think that the quirks mode box model makes more sense and would allow for better liquid layouts and cleaner markup had it been the standard. Getting back to :checked -- As far as I know, hovering does not create, destroy, or change attributes by default in a browser. On the other hand, checking a checkbox via an interface does create or remove a checked attribute. Therefore checked should be treated as an attribute using an attribute selector. Having the pseudo-class just muddies the issue. Just my two cents. I could be wrong.

iPhone alarm clock improvements

Brad Czerniak — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 06:12:34 +0000

You're like me: you use your iPhone as an alarm clock. You even cued up Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" to play just like in Groundhog Day (to remind yourself every morning that the only way to beat the futility of day-to-day life is to strive for what you really want). Yeah, you're like me. So I'm going to assume these things are true too:

When you wake up, the lights are off and your eyes have been closed for 4-12 hours
You've kind of enjoyed being asleep, and are kinda cranky at whatever's making that racket
When I say cranky, I mean your judgment may be a little impaired too

What am I getting at here? The iPhone alarm clock is really usable -- it's easy to set, fairly customizable, can schedule alarms really well, and is reliable as it gets. The only time that the usability sucks is when you're just waking up. Here's what it looks like when the alarm goes off: Here are the problems with this in my opinion:

It uses your default wallpaper, which could be blindingly bright with undilated pupils and other changes to the eye that occur in low-light conditions
The text is small, condensed, and white, making it hard to read because optical resolution is lower at low-light conditions, and the brightness of the letters makes halos around each one
The snooze button is small, and fumbling around for it can be very frustrating
On an older-fashioned alarm clock, you don't actually read the word "Snooze" when you hit the button -- it's just the big button on top. Reading the word makes you mentally connect-the-dots. Call me weird, but sometimes when I wake up and read the word Snooze on the phone I think I'm in some Dr. Seuss-esque dream

So I propose an interface more like this: An Apple designer could make it prettier, but the basic ideas are there. The background is black, all elements are - at brightest - 74% gray, the Snooze button is about twice as large, and it says Sleep instead of Snooze. Also, it doesn't really break from the core iPhone UI; the same slider bar, clock, top bar, and dialog colors are all present (though I used black text in the button for contrast's sake). If you'd like to know more about human vision in low-light conditions, check out these Wikipedia articles for starters: Rod cell, Scotopic vision, Adaptation (eye). Also, for some User Interface advice, knowing about Fitts' law could be really handy. It would also be great if there were an easy indicator to know when it's in Snooze mode. I often set a second alarm because I'm not sure, so then there are two alarms going concurrently. Then, as I finish checking my email and Facebook, a little dialog shows up and I hear that damned song again. How about putting the number of Snooze minutes left inside of the alarm indicator in the top bar? Thanks.

Google Chatback Badge Improvements

Brad Czerniak — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:58:40 +0000

Google Chatback badges are great for adding the ability to chat to with your visitors to your sites - Google even offers a couple of formats that you can copy and paste straight from their site. It couldn't be easier! However, if you'd like the coolness of the iframe version (javascript popup, etc.) and the themability of the simple link, here's a little code for you:

<a class="ask-item"
	title="Chat with Brad instantly"
	onclick="window.open('http://www.google.com/talk/service/badge/Start?tk=z01q6amlq1do7r41j2498um28pp81ungnf86ajqk6cj1kqrk8htll2t43us1gk2aua89v8akkuuagor6inh581hoqpskhbkb4s9rlur1brtcqen9al2c0gqkj2auj7q0pp25321osdbr2khk7l3ee7msrjvfto918t6v9u15a','Window','menubar=no,width=300,height=500,toolbar=no,resizable=yes');"
	href="#">
<script type="text/javascript">
if(location.protocol.toLowerCase() =='http:')
	{
	document.write(unescape("%3Cimg src='http://www.google.com/talk/service/badge/Show?tk=z01q6amlqb9e8ste4je59hoj5t9ngb9evhed9couk6fd7lli6i4s1lkuujp02g0mkd9e3b6cm3s9d5uab3ud8et6m2raheov3ugl8r5golbc75mmoi4uol4uhj17kife84ecn2i1rbsikfnkglac5lmh6ooed3sv9d82idslh&w=9&h=9' alt='' /%3E"));
	}
</script>
<span>Chat with Brad</span>
</a>

It'll look and work like this: Chat with Brad Notes:

For those of you that use protocols other than http, the script will conditionally avoid a mismatch. If this isn't a concern, you can remove the javascript and just use the straight img tag
The whole thing is wrapped in the link to make the indicator clickable, so the span can be used to style the text with an underline
To use it, just get the URLs from the Google code generator and insert them where they make sense
The link uses inline JavaScript, which is not the best answer in terms of usability and browser compatibility, but should fail silently in fringe use cases

If you have any questions or suggestions, leave 'em in the comments (or, y'know, click that link up there).

Skeptical about this one

Brad Czerniak — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:53:08 +0000

Today's circulating single-volume wonder was the barely-tolerable Encyclopedia of Strange and Unexplained Physical Phenomena [Jerome Clark, Gale, 1993]. It must be tough to put together such a work, as most such phenomena have no evidence whatsoever, though many readers may have beliefs. Clark ranged between absolute denial of claims and a believing awe of others. This editorializing wrecked the book's credibility for me. Probably the most heinous offense was the repeated use of quotations and testimony from Ivan T. Sanderson, who either ended up wrong (In the case of Jacko), or sputtered gibberish (as in his 'penguin' theory of the White River Monster). While Sanderson is likely a respected name in cryptozoology et cetera, the frequent mentions detracted from the authority of the encyclopedia.

Encyclopedia of Censorship

Brad Czerniak — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:48:24 +0000

Today's Encyclopedia in the series is The Encyclopedia of Censorship, edited by Jonathon Green. Here are some Pros right off the bat:

It's a single volume, and we all know I'm a sucker for single-volume 'cycs
Due to its age, and for other reasons, this particular copy was in the Circulating collection

To the learning!

The entry on Hugh Hefner was particularly entertaining; though I think I found more bad puns than the author had intended. Altogether, this Encyclopedia was unimpressive. The articles were pithy to the point of uselessness, and there were many spelling and grammatical errors. Perhaps this is one of those books that's really a dictionary but was entitled with Encyclopedia to sound more official.

Week 2 - Encyclopedia by Letters

Brad Czerniak — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:42:54 +0000

This week I'm reading an entry from each letter of the alphabet (26 entries if you're keeping score) from a different Encyclopedia every day. Today was Encyclopedia of the Great Depression, and here's what I read about:

The impression I got from Jonathan Alter's The Defining Moment (or maybe it was a PBS special) was that FDR remained isolationist as late as his 1940 campaign. Even so, it seems people were derided for being isolationist and/or pacifist earlier than that. The things you learn! BTW, did you know Charles Lindbergh was born in Detroit? Altogether, it's a neat little two-volume set. [Week 1 note: I had a Turk-free weekend. When I've completed 8 hours, I'll post the final tally]

52for2009 #1 - Turk for 2 hours a day

Brad Czerniak — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:01:45 +0000

This year I'm doing something new every week. Sometimes it'll be accomplishing a particular thing (like writing all my representative legislators), but more often it will be a daily activity for the week, like watching a Woody Allen film nightly. As you may have guessed, I'll be blogging these experiences.

Week 1

This week I'm spending 2 hours a day doing HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks) on Amazon's Mechanical Turk. At the end of the week I hope to have earned enough to buy something (from Amazon of course).

Quick Summary

Mechanical Turk is named after a famous fake chess-playing automaton
It's "A Marketplace for Work," where you can offer a bounty for a simple task, or perform the task for a tiny sum
Tasks are generally between $.01 and $5, and take between a minute and a few hours
You can make money

What I did

[caption id="attachment_102" align="alignnone" width="422" caption="Turk Interface. I spent a lot of time looking for high-paying-yet-simple tasks. This was a fool's errand."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_101" align="alignnone" width="422" caption="A Simple Task I performed. I clicked the ads I preferred. It took about 15 minutes for 55 pages of the same thing, bringing me a few cents."][/caption]

What I Learned Today

A lot of your time is spent finding tasks, not performing them
The per-hour equivalent of working on Turk is sub-poverty
The easiest tasks generally have lots of available HITs
It's most fulfilling to forget about the money and find tasks where you can help the requester with your special skills (I'm talking to you, librarians and web developers!)

Alternatives

You could try Mahalo Answers, where the best answer to a question can bring some money your way.

Recipe before I make it #1- MexItalian Burger

Brad Czerniak — Sat, 24 May 2008 18:51:29 +0000

Part 1 in a continuing series where I think up a recipe, post it, THEN make it. I will post later as to whether it's worth making/eating. I will try to be elaborate with the actual procedural recipes; but right now I'm quite hungry, so here's the menu description: MexItalian Burger A 1/4 lb patty, covered with shredded Mexican cheeses, Black beans, and Jalapenos, all on a Bruschetta-like bread bun.

For the Cultural Lexicon

Brad Czerniak — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:24:51 +0000

Since I feel shafted that "rocket surgery" took off unattributed, I propose the following terms:

stARCHIVE - The act of starring an item in gmail, then immediately archiving it.
Fonticate - while used by Michael Herf as the name for a cool font-picking program, I propose the word be used in this manner: The act of reformatting a multi-user document (esp. a collaborative powerpoint presentation) by uniformely changing the font and various other visual elements.

meta rock

Brad Czerniak — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 04:26:57 +0000

meta rock Originally uploaded by bradeuchre This is my entry into Color War 2008's first battle -- Flickr RoShamBo! Things you should know: I'm throwing rock, for the Orange Team

Those Canadians!

Brad Czerniak — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:57:44 +0000

It appears that the Canadians are experimenting with protomatter. Just look at this video: It's obvious now that they are trying to create a Genesis Device in an attempt to terraform the moon. Schematics to follow...

Help me with my resume

Brad Czerniak — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 07:10:23 +0000

My resume is finally ready for the web. However, I'm interested in your opinion and criticism, so please contact me with your thoughts. Also, for your time-wasting pleasure, I give you: Faker Baker BS3 . Anyone's who's ever used B&T knows this screen all too well. Now, all you have to do is point your browser to brad.hawidu.com/bt and you'll instantly look busy! For you pros out there, the color is #47768e.

Context in the Future

Brad Czerniak — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:48:03 +0000

The strongest argument for a centralized personal account that is device-decentralized is the elimination of redundancy. Read that again. I'm claiming (without prior research) that holistic web services are most efficiently disbursed through a monopolistic provider.

The simple principle of this is that you don't want to remember web addresses, account names and passwords. It's a big hassle to check tons of sites all the time. Email notification, RSS, and widgets currently help with this, but a central system is better at it.
- There is evidence of this. Look at portal sites. I'm more likely to use a Google service than an external one, even if the Google features are lacking -- if it means I only have to go to one site instead of two.
- Providers (esp. Google) are not using predatory tactics, but are rather naturally gaining comprehensive market share. Yes, the long tail is important, but everything on the web is still bunching up.
The entire concept of media is built around context.

Future media solutions will know a user's background knowledge -- and leave out redundant information.

If I read an article about America, the content provider doesn't have to assume I know when Columbus sailed the ocean blue -- they'll KNOW I know it, because their central system told me.
In order for this power to work, it must be tied into almost my entire media experience. That is why it will not be stored on a local device.

Just a thought.

Stuff about sleep

Brad Czerniak — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 19:19:51 +0000

First, caffeine withdrawal feels like angry jetleg with headaches. Second, and this is a very local thing. One of my dreams last night had a creepy fictional wild-west amusement park south of Temple on Cass. There was a saloon, an arcade, and trains going EVERYWHERE. It was AWESOME. Just my opinion, but I think Detroit should build "Wild west town" just north of Foxtown.

Observations

Brad Czerniak — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:21:42 +0000

1. Take apart the message of the Microsoft Sync commercials: "If you use our product, you will become a hazard to yourself and others due to your own idiocy" 2. The Love Guru - Mike Myers will forever be Austin Powers. Despite hiding himself as a computer-animated ogre for so long, one look at him trying to play some character in real life and the 'shag-a-delic' grooviness comes right back. If you put a ridiculous prop mustache on Justin Timberlake, he unexpectedly looks a whole hell of a lot like Orlando Bloom. This is not surprising -- Orlando Bloom looks ridiculous all the time, with or without a mustache.

Lose the MeeboMe Gadget

Brad Czerniak — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:20:18 +0000

Chat reference should be easy, instantaneous, and pervasive. It's good to also be accessible, usable, open, and attractive. It's the first three reasons that I liked MeeboMe widgets It's the last four reasons why I now prefer libraryh3lp or Google chatback badges.

Is it Opposite Day?

Brad Czerniak — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:24:04 +0000

www.isitoppositeday.com My parody of the famous http://www.isitchristmas.com/ website. IS it Opposite Day? Think about it.

Valentine Commercialism

Brad Czerniak — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:10:32 +0000

Anodizing consumer electronics varying shades of pink does not make them any more romantic as gifts. This is even true for iPods. Here's the range:

Just friends - cheesy card (bonus points if it's from one of those elementary school set boxes, and/or contains a Fun Dip candy treat)
More than "" - Chocolate
Sucking up - Chocolate Flowers
Extra-special Day and/or you're loaded - Jewelry

Note the lack of cell phones and other gizmos on the list. There may be instances when the above guidelines do not apply, but giving a Magenta Blackberry Pearl seems a little messed-up on such an occasion.

Oh Dear

Brad Czerniak — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:46:54 +0000

I guess I'm just perpetuating the sensalionalism, but... The salesgenie.com ads during the Super Bowl were incredibly racist. They actually reminded me of spots I'd seen from the 50s and 60s, prior to political correctness. AND THEY WERE INTENTIONALLY BAD! If it wasn't so brilliant, I'd be really angry! But they were still racist (even considering that they could be considered self-deprecating), so it's tough to know how to feel. All I know is that I'm not gonna go to salesgenie.com.

Patrons in their Natural Habitat

Brad Czerniak — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:00:56 +0000

A Reddit Comment Thread of a DumbFunny Pic of a Thread Comment. Everything about this is brilliant.