This collection of web-site nosey-ness is evidence that web devs do have a sense of humour! Well, almost. Nice to see the geeks at top sites like facebook are as frustrated as I am when it comes to hacking the crappy IE box-model into working properly. Makes me feel… like a proper front-end web developer.
I wonder if I can get away with sneaking stuff like this into my clients work, as an aid to my occasional frustration.
The answer, quite blatantly, is yes. Stephen Colbert is the Greatest Living American. This has absolutely nothing to do with his current attempt at a bit of Google bombing, it’s just a statement of fact that occasionally needs stating now and again. I know I’ve written about Mr. Colbert before, but I’ve been paying even more attention to his shows recently and he’s really making sense of the world. He just won’t shy away from real controversial viewpoints like some of those cowardly lefty pundits; take Anne Coulter for example. His truthiness knows no bounds.
So we pray that, like an eagle soaring through the sky in the bright mid-day sun, Colbert continues to fly high over us all.
A colleague pretty much ordered me to install the new(-ish) Firefox plug-in Firebug onto my machine at work. Now it’s on my machine at home. Why? Because it makes my job at least twice as easy as it was before. I won’t bore you with details; I’ll just say that even alongside other helpful tools such as the Web Developer plug-in, it’s super-handy if you’re building pages, regardless of whether you’re an amateur, a pro, or someone who fools himself into thinking he’s both. The drill is basically as follows: Hit F12. Press ‘Inspect’. Hover over any element on your page and click on it to see what css values that element is using (or not using). You can even change values ‘on the fly’ and the page will update in front of your very eyes (locally at least). It’s the perfect bug-fixing tool.
I’m now going to go do a little bit of fixing elsewhere. Previously, I wouldn’t have been arsed to bother with it had Firebug not made re-understanding previously forgotten old tag soup so easy.
Get Firebug here. If not for me, then for your own sanity!
It’s been ageeees since I’ve posted here and I’m not even sure Ian still wants my light-hearted bitterness spilt freely over his mighty blog like Jif Lemon sprayed over a filthy toilet in an embarrassing yet understandable confusion. But fuck it, new year’s as good a time as any to start blogging again and my blog seems to have been bummed in the gob.
Well, January’s traditionally a time for looking back over the previous year, if not the previous night, with a sense of faint regret. I for one regret that it looks like Dan Brown’s going to get away with The DaVinci Code, since the Catholic church apparently “don’t do fatwas”. But let’s not be so negative. There’s been lots of good things happen, for one Ian’s job’s taken him to the other side of a country I often feel is far too small, and I mean that in a nice way, darling. I’ve also discovered Doctor McNinja, the finest webcomic I’ve read since Dragonball was translated into farts and homosexuality on a website I can’t be bothered to look up. And in what seemed suspiciously like a rush on Bush’s part to make good on some of last year’s resolutions before Auld Lang Syne, we’ve seen a middle - eastern dictator hanged - on cameraphone, no less - and turned into what is surely the world’s most widely distributed snuff film. I can’t help but think it’s a shame we didn’t have camera phones to record Clinton’s major achievements, I think they’d be in much better taste.
And after scientific trials, I can honestly say Monica Lewinsky’s easier to masturbate to than Saddam’s execution.
The internets is in a state over the recent display by comedian Michael Richards (who played the likeable Cosmo Kramer on US show, Seinfeld). He said some erm… select words to some hecklers and it’s was pretty shocking and/or hilarious. We could use his outburst to take a deep look at the racism inherent in American society. We could discuss freedom of speech or what constitutes good taste. We could talk about the fact that when his outbursts are directed towards jews, no one bats an eyelid. However, all things considered, I think it’s best to think about it like this: it’s really just a case of a not especially thoughtful comedian saying some not especially intelligent things.
Lets take the piss. That’s all comments like this deserve. Lets allow YTMND to help us do this in the funniest way I’ve seen so far. Also; c’mon Mel Gibson! You gonna let some 2-bit comic take your crown?
DHS favourite; the colour-coded terror alert system is an easy target for parody. This Wired article pretty much hits the nail on the head (yes, Wired again. Sorry). Statistically, a rather more severe threat than terrorism to your average American is ‘Accidental poisoning’. I’d suggest that steps are taken to make those toilet duck bottles look a little less alluring before citizens rights are trod upon any further. Also at a rather more elevated level is death by the flu. Coincidentally this is exactly how I feel it’s going to end at the moment *sneezes*.
Whilst I’m letting others take a stab at my pet hates for me, I think MySpace’s ‘victory’ in winning 1st place in PC World 25 Worst Websites list is a great achievement for News Corp. Spam, spyware, paedo-sensationalism, the perpetual “THNX FOR TEH ADD”, poor accessiblity standards compliance and the sort of wit not seen since ‘Noels House Party’ stopped brodcasting, means that MySpace pretty much sums all that is bad about the internet in one domain.
Not claiming this is it, by the way, it’s just I’m always open to suggestions. I felt like sharing this humorous yet painfully accurate Wired article with you. Read it. They’ve got some good points. I used to read Boing Boing but gave up when it felt that every second post was about subway maps. Don’t get me wrong, I think that Harry Becks London subway map is a fine piece of iconic work, but a chap can only take so many ’subway mash-ups’. I quit Metafilter as well after all those links provided by each and every article proved to be far too time consuming before my finals.
A pal showed me this video which was for meant for internal Microsoft UK employees featuring Ricky Gervais in his role as David Brent (from the Office, obviously). This being the internet of course, it didn’t stay internal. I see Gervais as a somewhat modern-day Alf Garnet, but he can still be pretty damn funny in his ‘worst boss in the world’ guise. I post this mainly for the probable delight of regular reader Rami, who is not only an ardent Gervais fan but also seems familiar with the world of ‘management speak‘ and societys attitudes towards… well, geeks.
In other news; I changed hosts. Despite some teething problems, especially on pages which co-inhabit this domain, everythings good and the page should be a lot faster than my old one. This is not only due to me applying greater intelligence in remaking the site, but also because this site resides in the rather swish London docklands. Bravo!
Back in St. Helens again. This constant traveling from one side of the country to the other is very disorienting but I keep meeting interesting people on trains, so I’m not gonna complain.
Easter is on the way and this video just brought the lols:
I’ve always had my doubts about the Easter Bunny. It’s those big, black, lifeless eyes. He has no soul, he kicks ass. Consume.
I didn’t know that Drew from the frequently chortle-tastic Toothpaste For Dinner and Natalie Dee were married. There’s an internet-pseudo-celebrity factlet for you. Well now we all know because they’ve done a website together and it’s called Married To The Sea. I’m not entirely sure quite why I find it funny, but it certainly has its moments. I’d be interested to know where they get the original pictures from. But lets face it, these guys were never about artistic prowess, they were all about getting down with the clown. Enjoy or, y’know… don’t. > Visit Married To The Sea
Google maps is brilliant. Especially when people can leave each other charming messages like this. Search for “Billingley” on maps.google.co.uk then view the satellite photograph, zoom in a bit (3rd from the highest level of zoom will do) and go west (that’s left, people) a few hundred meters to the tan coloured field. Take that crop circles! A brief, yet confusing, suggestion for such frustration may be found in the villages wikipedia entry.
> View the exact location on google maps
via The Register
It’s tough to find you’re locked in a cycle of porn and comics, believe me; an intervention should probably be staged at the point you lose coordination and find yourself masturbating over Garfield. I’m glad to say that this week I’ve rediscovered the thing of random beauty the web should be.
StumbleUpon is a great website with a firefox plugin, that allows you to surf to a semi-random site (based on your interests) at the click of a button. Think of it as AudioScrobbler, but for surfing. To its credit, as much as this sounds like spyware, it’s not, it’s the pure, sleepkilling stuff that int0rn3tz are made of. Wipe your keyboard off, and give it a try.
