Burningbird

  • Snowing
    01/26/2010 - 09:21
    Status

    I've not been the best at keeping up with my writing at my various sites. I have been writing, though.

    I have a two-part article up at A List Apart: Using SVG for Flexible, Scalable, and Fun Backgrounds, Part 1 and Part 2. Though Microsoft still hasn't implemented SVG in IE, with the company's new membership in the SVG Working Group, there's new hope for the future. And I cover how to use a JavaScript library, SVGWeb, to work around the lack.

    I'm also finishing a new book for O'Reilly: the JavaScript Cookbook. It promises to be a big book, which isn't surprising, considering how much JavaScript has advanced. I'm also incorporating the relevant bits from the HTML5 specification, though I have to be careful, as we don't know which bits will remain, and which removed before Last Call.

    Speaking of which, I've been spending an inordinate amount of time with the HTML WG. I have about a dozen Change Proposals coming up in March, which I'll write about here, when finished. Among them is one to remove one of the more recent additions, the iframe srcdoc attribute. This example for this new attribute is the following, for weblog comments (the use case for the new attribute):

    <article>
 <h1>I got my own magazine!</h1>
 <p>After much effort, I've finally found a publisher, and so now I
 have my own magazine! Isn't that awesome?! The first issue will come
 out in September, and we have articles about getting food, and about
 getting in boxes, it's going to be great!</p>
 <footer>
  <p>Written by <a href="/users/cap">cap</a>.
  <time pubdate>2009-08-21T23:32Z</time></p>
 </footer>
 <article>
  <footer> At <time pubdate>2009-08-21T23:35Z</time>, <a href="/users/ch">ch</a> writes: </footer>
  <iframe seamless sandbox="allow-same-origin" srcdoc="<p>did you get a cover picture yet?"></iframe>
 </article>
 <article>
  <footer> At <time pubdate>2009-08-21T23:44Z</time>, <a href="/users/cap">cap</a> writes: </footer>
  <iframe seamless sandbox="allow-same-origin" srcdoc="<p>Yeah, you can see it <a href=&quot;/gallery/cover/1&quot;>in my gallery</a>."></iframe>
 </article>
 <article>
  <footer> At <time pubdate>2009-08-21T23:58Z</time>, <a href="/users/ch">ch</a> writes: </footer>
  <iframe seamless sandbox="allow-same-origin" srcdoc="<p>hey that's earl's table.
<p>you should get earl&amp;amp;me on the next cover."></iframe>
 </article>

    Just in case you're curious, no, I'm not particularly fond of weblog comments as escaped HTML within an attribute on an iFrame.

    I've also been playing with the new Drupal 7 alpha in my copious spare time. I won't be moving my sites over to Drupal 7 until a stable release, but I do have a "play" site. I like the new release, though I wasn't terribly fond of the admin overlay. However, the new admin overlay can be turned off. In addition, I re-posted all of the pages, and comments, from my older Wordpress weblog. It takes up little room, and ensures I can find, and link, some of my older work. Plus, folks can find their comments. I was impressed with the fact that Wordpress was able to upgrade my old site, without a hitch.

    So much to write, so little time. Today, though, it's snowing, and I haven't had a walk outside since the weekend. Enjoy the articles at A List Apart, and more writing here, soon.

  • Change Proposal for HTML5 dt/dd
    11/10/2009 - 16:12
    Status

    Just posted an email to the HTML5 working group with my Change Proposal for dt/dd. This is in response to the dt/dd elements being redefined to be used with figure and details, as well as the dl element.

    I have a couple of other bug reports to file based on this work, as well as other items. I hope to detail these in RealTech after I take a mental break.

  • HTML5 status, and when not to tweet
    11/08/2009 - 10:55
    Things I Find Interesting

    I'm in the process of rolling out some change proposals and bug reports for HTML5. I had volunteered to help with reviewing MathML during Last Call, and submitting comments for the HTML WG. Unfortunately, the process did not go smoothly.

    In the meantime, this week was the W3C's TPAC meeting, where all the boys and girls from all the W3C working groups get together for a face to face. Interesting stuff happened, including the TAG (TAG is the overall W3C architecture group) recommendation that HTML WG split Microdata from HTML5. We'll see where that goes.

    Twitter was very useful for those of us who were not at TAG. Those at TAG pointed out the IRC channels associated with each meeting, and where links to reports and presentations could be found. It was an example of good Twitter use.

    What was not an example of good Twitter use last week were the "live" Twitter messages that came from a soldier in a hospital within Fort Hood during the recent tragic events. The inappropriate and less than helpful use of Twitter was detailed in an exceptionally good post at Techcrunch, written by Paul Carr.

    In the writing, Paul makes the point that rather than help, or at least get out of the way, during a crises, we grab our cellphones and become mini-journalists—macabrely excited about being "live" at the event. We post photos of people hurt in accidents, or shot by a crazy man, regardless of who we might harm, including family members or the victims themselves. We exaggerate the event until one gunman becomes three, and an act of insanity becomes one of terrorism.

    More importantly, we jam necessary cellphone lines in order to get that last tweet out, cause confusion, and aid and abet chaos.

    Even outside a crises, we don't seem to know when to turn off the spigot. How many of us woke up this morning to be met with the ultimate of absurdities: hundreds of messages from folks "live tweeting" a Congressional vote. My god, it's just a bloody vote. There is nothing exciting about a vote until the vote is finished and the tabulation made.

    Frankly, I would rather hear what people had for breakfast.

    Anyway, more on HTML5 later, and do read Paul Carr's writing.

    update Suw Charman-Anderson has a detailed rebuttal. She has some good points, especially about the Iranians feeling reassured that people were listening.

    What she misses, though, is the past tense: people were listening. People listened during the Iranian election, dyed their avatars green, and filled Twitter trends with the topic. And then...it all just went away. And that's the point I think that Paul was making: social media's ability to influence events is directly proportional to the attention of the participants, and the participants are being subjected to a continuous barrage of new events, and new outrages.

    The green avatars are gone. Do the Iranian people still feel assured that people are listening?

  • November is HTML5 Month
    10/28/2009 - 11:07
    mechanics

    I'm not particularly good about compartmentalizing my interests. They say we women are good at multi-tasking, but I must be an exception to the rule.

    I have sent off my first half of JavaScript Cookbook to my editor, and I hope to try to salvage an article I was doing for A List Apart, though I've run into some bandwidth issues that may be related to the technology covered. But my hope is to spend all of November working on HTML5: writing bugs, escalating bugs to issues, writing comments or change proposals, and, ultimately, going over every last bit of the HTML5 specification.

    I can always sell my car to pay my bills.

  • No, HTML5 is NOT at Last Call
    10/27/2009 - 17:49
    Things I Find Interesting

    It's unfortunate that the WhatWG made a unilateral decision to go Last Call with HTML5 at WhatWG, as HTML5 is far from ready for Last Call at the W3C.

    Supposedly the reason it went to Last Call at the WhatWG is no bugs in the WhatWG database. Considering that there are significant bugs and issues at the W3C, one can only assume that concern about quality is not as strong at the WhatWG as it is at the W3C.

    There are also more people questioning decisions, issuing proposals for change, and submitting bugs at the W3C. If one were suspicious, one could imagine the HTML5 editor made this move to assert some form of control.