‘Nuther good CSS tutorial, this time on using Floats.

InfoWorld:

Web applications rule the enterprise. That’s the indisputable conclusion to be drawn from this year’s InfoWorld Programming Survey. Despite imperitives from Microsoft and others that developers abandon server-based HTML apps for fat desktop clients, the ease of “zero deployment” through the browser continues to win the day…Contrary to the hype that says Microsoft .Net and the Java elite have a lock on the programming world, many developers have settled on cheaper (and often faster) ways to build the Web applications they need to build.

Jon Udell’s Infoworld article on Mozilla’s role among newer “Rich Media” technologies:

Flash still has to prove itself as a tool for business presentation, not just for multimedia eye candy, but I’m convinced that it can.

The mission of Flash was always to complement the browser, not compete with it. That remains a proper division of labor.

But as Web services redefine documents, Mozilla, an open and extensible document-handling engine, looks more strategic than ever.

I’m not a big sports fan, but for some reason I’m finding freshman girls’ basketball absolutely riveting.

[

larger image](/gallery/jess/IMG_0239)

Here’s a tip for recording artists: Don’t complain about the record companies and then show up on Cribs with a $2M house and matching Excursions with 24-inch gold wheels. Sympathy goes out the window right quick.

And speaking of those dastardly record companies, a new one,

Magnatune claims to be “not evil.” It looks as though they’re at least trying real hard to be good guys.

SQLyog , a GUI for managing MySQL databases, just keeps getting better. It’ll cost you $50.00, but it’s worth every penny. The synchronization tools alone make it a must-have.

You may not know this, but I discovered Iron Maiden. Okay, maybe not, but I was the first of all my little headbanger friends to notice them back in oh, 1980 or so.

I’ve long since stopped listening to them, except for the occasional bout of nostalgia, so I missed the recent outcry over the cover of their new album. It reminded me of one of my great unfinished oil paintings from that era (shown here). Truth be told I can’t remember why I didn’t finish it, but I bet it had something to do with the fact that I didn’t know how to paint Eddie’s hair.

Kevin has drawn the sexiest thing I’ve seen in a long time.

I’ve always hated having to use images for HTML submit buttons. The default buttons are without question more usable: they’re typically platform-specific, they depress when clicked, and they’re immediately familiar to users. But most of this doesn’t matter. Why, well it’s because they’re ugly. Never mind that if the label needs to change, rather than simply editing some HTML we need to call in a team of designers and builders, all scrambling to find the original Photoshop files and what font was that again?

I went looking for a solution and it turns out that even buttons can be styled using CSS and background images. An example (ripped unapologetically from Netflix) is here…

There. Changing the label is easy, it acts like a button, and it looks good (enough). First person that complains that it’s not rendered in the approved corporate font gets his ears boxed.

Note, IE and Firebird work lovely. How’s it look in Safari?

Here’s the CSS…

.form-button {

font: 11px arial,helvetica, sans-serif;

font-weight: bold;

letter-spacing: 1;

color: #333333;

cursor: pointer;

cursor: hand;

background-image : url(../images/form_btn_tile.gif);

background-color : White;

}

I saw a trailer some time ago for a movie about a bunch of kids being taught by Jack Black and, although a closet Jack Black fan, I immediately dismissed it. “That has to suck!” I think I said.

The movie was School of Rock and I was wrong. If ever a film was made for an actor, this was it. Black is great, the (unknown) kids are great. Joan Cusack is perfect. It’s nice without being overly-sentimental. The kids are cute without being too cute. And there’s a lot of good old rock ‘n roll. See it.