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Via wait till I come!: a quick and concise video that explains (very well) what the whole Web 2.0 thing is about. It’s not just buzzwords for cool new stuff - it’s a mindset.

Today I was a dirty, dirty boy.

At work I had to replicate a client-provided layout. I lay out simple splash pages for our advertisers - a sort of gateway to their website that they can promote specials on and so forth. Anyway, it’s not that big a deal and I churn them out regularly. I do my best to use these as places to hone my css/xhtml chops - once in a while throw in a little javascript for fun. You know, just try out the latest thing on unsuspecting customers. Luckily, I usually do a pretty good job and the client almost never has any idea what they want. Until today.

I received a gorgeous layout from a print designer. He sent it to me at 300dpi and it looked like a magazine layout. Go figure - he’s a magazine designer. Anyway, his layout, while gorgeous, showed no signs of any knowledge of design for the web. I stared at the layout for literally half an hour just thinking and thinking about how to do this layout with css. I arrived at the following realization:

Sometimes getting it done fast surpasses the importance of getting it done right.

So I ended up using tables for layout. I felt like I had cheated. Mostly because the css solution I arrived at in my head was really cool but, fact is, it would have taken me hours to hash it out, test it, and be satisfied… and no one would even know or care about the markup behind it. So tables won out. I suppose I could chalk it up to being more seasoned as a developer - there is a time and place for everything, after all. And it did validate, so I wasn’t that bad, right?
*sigh* I was a dirty boy. I should be spanked.

IE7 Is Coming This Month!

Ok, I admit it. I never thought it’d happen. And now, we’re scrabbling at work to find out if our stuff is going to explode or not. Check your sites, people, and hold on to your hats. This could be either really good… or really, really bad!

I don’t like to discuss my work on here too much (do I discuss anything much?) because I’d really rather not get dooced or anything. But I was having a conversation with my boss today about my annual review when he paid me one of the best compliments I’ve ever received.

He explained that my official review was being delayed because the people he reports to asked for details to explain all of the good things he had to say about me… when I asked him what he meant by details he said,

They want photographic evidence that you can actually walk on water.

I’m all sheepish now. Gosh, I think I’m blushing. I do bust my hump for that guy though. Glad he noticed.

If it wasn’t for Shaw, this blog would be a log.

If ten people other than Shaw post a comment I will share a deep secret. And, no, they can’t be Shaw’s other personalities (no cheating).

On with the show…

So, I had posted about Aptana, a web development IDE for Ajax. Then, the alluring Catherine told me about Eclipse - the second beautiful woman in as many days to recommend that product. Well, I’m using both! I installed Eclipse at work, and then extended it with Aptana… so now I’ve got a super duper integrated web development thingamadingy. Eclipse is friggin’ awesome… mostly because it’s so flexible.

After I move (did I mention I’m moving to Nashua?) I’m going to throw out Dreamweaver and go whole-hog Eclipse.

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.