CSS3 advanced layout module: templates. Discussion and proposal.

Submitted by naught101 on Fri, 11/28/2008 - 18:56

CSS template-based layouts, or something like them, have been a long time coming. John Resig has blogged about them recently, echoing the attitudes of a few people, it seems. I generally agree: this looks great, and will be a vast improvement for HTML+CSS web development: finally HTML document structure will be largely separate from visual layout. This is something that CSS grids/tables completely fail to do - divs still have to be in row>column order: a semantic change from HTML tables, and nothing more, and they still aren't supported by ie yet anyway (EDIT: Xanthir points out below that I was confused: CSS3-grid is actually a completely separate proposal to tables, and it's basically the same as what I suggest here, albeit without the ability to name the grid).

But...

Yep, of course there are a few things I'm concerned about (and as there should be - if there weren't I'd know I hadn't been looking hard enough). First, there are a few minor points (Disclaimer: I may have missed or misunderstood parts of the spec. Feel free to correct me):

Arctic ice melt in the 1930s: Another denier argument debunked.

Submitted by naught101 on Thu, 11/27/2008 - 16:32

When I'm reading about climate change in public forums like the internet, or newspapers, I expect to see denial argments all over. Usually, they're the same old shit, that's been roundly debunked by numerous people. So it's a pleasant suprise to find new arguments - it gives you something to think about.

This one really was suprising though: Richard Lindzen is well known for being a good debater, and well-read. He's one of the last deniers that mainstream seems to accept.

Solar power rebate

Submitted by naught101 on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 13:11

I don't usually like spruiking for the corporate media, but channel 7 is doing something good with their Sunrise solar panel petition. I don't make any comment on the rest of what channel 7 does - I usually avoid it like the plague.

But they're right, a means test on the solar rebate scheme is bloody stupid. There are lots of people out there who want solar panels, but for the rebate, you have to have the money upfront. Not many people on a median wage (~$25,000/annum) have thousands of dollars just lying around.

Oh... Petrol prices...

Submitted by naught101 on Thu, 06/26/2008 - 13:29

After months of wondering why Americans are always complaining about petrol prices, I finally figured out why.

This might seem obvious to some, but the solution everyone seems to come up with seems pretty stupid to me.

A Short History of Progress

Submitted by naught101 on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 18:08

I just read "A Short History of Progress", by Ronald Wright(1). Pretty gloomy, if you need any impetus to become either an activist, or completely depressed, this is it. Wright maps the rise an fall of numerous civilisations, and points out that our current technological and social trajectories are pretty similar really. The only real difference between us and the romans, outside of size of the supporting ecosystem, is that we've got evidence of collapse happening before.

Discussion about the semantic web

Submitted by naught101 on Tue, 04/15/2008 - 20:49

The following is a discussion from #swig on irc.freenode.org - the Semantic Web Interest Group. It's logged here if you don't believe me: http://chatlogs.planetrdf.com/swig/2008-04-15#T10-32-11. Edited slightly for clarity.

I think the semantic web is an extremely useful tool, but as I mention down the bottom, I probably would have agreed with Francis Bacon that cutting up animals in the name of science was a good thing at the time.

Dear Mr. Quinn

Submitted by naught101 on Mon, 03/24/2008 - 21:35

Daniel,

You argue that the major defining factor of population size is food limits. Australia (to give an example), currently has a birthrate less than 2 births per woman. We have an overall annual immigration, so our population is growing, but if we had no immigration, our population would be decreasing. Australia is a fairly affluent country: plenty of food, people are educated, well supported with social services, and generally feel secure. They don't need the added security of a large family (I don't claim that this is causal, but believe it may have some impact).

Post-Taker culture and other questions

Submitted by naught101 on Sat, 03/15/2008 - 13:51

I just finished reading Daniel Quinn's Ishmael for the second time (I previously downloaded the audio-book, which was amazing, but I think the book is slightly better). If you haven't read it, read it. I'd say it'd be life-changing for anyone wants to do something about the state of the environment but don't know where to start. For the ones how have already started, it's perhaps even more recommended. That said, the rest of this post won't make sense unless you already have read the book.

Ishmael answers a lot of questions for me - primarily the one that goes "if this isn't the right way, then what is?". But of course the answer isn't final, it isn't an end point, it's just an opening. It's another method of looking at things, and realising how much could change. Which basically means that it brings up more questions than it answers.