Burningbird

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.

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.

The fall has been nice, but I haven't been able to take advantage of the decent weather and pretty scenery. I have a book deadline next week for my new book for O'Reilly, The JavaScript Cookbook.

I can't do much anyway, because my car is doing very odd things, and I no longer trust it for longer out of town trips. I know there's a short somewhere, but every time I take it in, it costs me $500.00. But I'm getting a relay click in the dash, the battery light comes up, briefly, every time I start the car (and it's a new battery), and the speedometer went crazy on one trip. All of this combined is wiring, and wiring seems to be beyond car repair people.

I save the longer trips for the weekend when I can drag my roommate, and my roommate's car, about. His car isn't possessed.

I rejoined the HTML WG. Again. The group has come up with a change procedure/process that I can support. There was confusion before about whether HTML WG members could issue formal objections, since supposedly we're part of the group making the original decisions. The new procedure, though, reserves us the right to submit a Formal Objection if all other avenues are blocked. I'm more comfortable being part of the group, now. I even have a first change proposal assignment, due after the book deadline.

Good news from the group: the HTML+RDFa document is now a published draft. However, the work on distributed extensibility is slow going. It's difficult to split off the technical concerns from the knee jerk reactions.

You may, or may not, have noticed that I don't post links to my main feed, or this site, for my Just Shelley site. That site is very personal, and a lot of people who read my stuff are more interested in my more impersonal writings, such as tech. Of course, I haven't been writing at any of my sites lately. Too busy with the book.

I did get a Wave invite--thanks to whoever sent me it. And yes, I've given out all of the Wave invitations I have.

What do I think of Google Wave? I think it's too much for me, though I did have a fun exchange with Marius Coomans, as he was sailing the ideal waters around Australia. We exchange emails and twitter messages, but there's something different about seeing a message being typed out by someone who is on a boat, and watching them make corrections, as they're watching you correct your own mistakes. And you're on opposite sides of the planet, and different hemispheres. It's not earth shattering, but it is a bit uncanny.

So what else is there to say about Wave. The user interface sucks, but that's not unusual for a Google application. The performance is sluggish, but it's alpha. And it performs better than Twitter. Other than that, though, I'm just not sure about the usability of the service. I know that others like the tool, such as Laura Scott who had a nice write-up.

Frankly, though, I'm really getting burned out on the whole social media thing so I may not be a good judge.

There was another instance where I wrote one thing, and it was interpreted as the opposite. I supported what Kurt Cagle wrote on HTML5, but based on a intense Twitter exchange I had with another person, Kurt interpreted my reaction to be opposite of what it is.

Twitter is useless as a tool for doing more than pointing out a link or talking about what you had for breakfast.

I've disabled commenting on the HTML5 story, my apologies who wanted to add anything. The last 24 hours have been difficult at home, and I'm not much in the mood for debate today, or dealing with spam.

Yesterday we spent several hours at the veterinary hospital with our cat of 18 years, Zoe. In a week's time she went from being an older but still happy and healthy kitty, to one where she is no longer eating, and now drinking.

Our regular vet was not on duty, but the vet we had was excellent—not making any assumptions, not pushing any tests. Because of Zoe's age, most aggressive forms of treatment are not an option, but we still decided on x-rays and blood work, as well as a urine test, to see if we could find what's happening, and if what she had was treatable.

Zoe has fluid surrounding her lungs. What caused it could show up in the blood tests, or we could do a biopsy of the fluid. The latter is very unpleasant, so that's not an option we're most likely going to pursue. We were going to see what the blood work shows, but little girl is degrading so quickly that our choice has now been limited to one, though it's not a choice I'm having an easy time with.

While we waited the test results, the vet injected water subcutaneously to help with hydration, and we took Zoe home. The vet also gave her a b12 shot, and an antibiotic, just in case there's an infection somewhere. I tried to tempt her with her favorite poached salmon, but she wasn't interested. She had a couple of licks of chicken baby food from my finger, but now won't eat anything else. She won't drink water, either.

It's 3 in the morning. I just went downstairs, where my roommate is sleeping in his chair, Zoe on his lap, covered with a blanket. She greeted me weakly, but can't get up. I'll let them both sleep until morning, and then do what I need to do. Many of you who have known me all the many years I've had a weblog of some form or another, also know Zoe. I thought you might want to know.

I was aware that things could get very contentious in the HTML WG, but I wasn't expecting to run head first into the degree of sexism I, and other women associated with the group, have been experiencing.

It is exhausting, disappointing, and inhibiting, to the point where I am no longer sure I can function as a member of the group. I know that there are several of the men in the group who want me out, to quit, to go away. I've never been one to run away before, but this is becoming more than even I can deal with. I've pointed out a couple of instances of sexism in the group's email list in Twitter, and some folks have noticed the problem, others haven't.

The differing perception reminds me of the presentation about women in Open Source at OSCON that I linked recently, Kirrily Robert's, Standing out in the Crowd, where she wrote that 80% of women have noticed sexism in the field, compared to only 20% of the men.

Do I indulge in snarky behavior at times, and get angry? Sure, but I'm not the only one. In fact, if we include IRC channels as part of the group's communication, my behavior is positively angelic compared to some other folks. But when I'm taken to task in an official W3C channel not by one guy, not by five guys, but by several, including those who responded directly in emails, then it goes beyond just telling a person to back down—it becomes abusive.

I find it ironic—not— that this happened directly after I posted a note in the HTML WG about the lack of diversity among those making decisions about HTML WG.

Even then, I could probably handle being taken to the wood shed by the men folk, if I weren't also finding myself frozen out of discussions. Not just myself, either, but other women (though I don't want to mention their names without permission, as I'm concerned about repercussions to them.)

Today is the closest I have come to giving up on everything: the Working Group, trying to have any impact on HTML 5, technology, Twitter, this web site, everything.