BurningbirdFirebug has released a beta of the first full version, 1.0. The previous version was extremely helpful. This version is beyond helpful. I dare say it goes all the way to, “Wow!”
I don’t use Firebug because I’m a Firefox browser user. I’m a Firefox browser user because of extensions like Firebug.
In St. Louis Today, Harry Levins writes:
As a general rule, newspapers stop running anniversary stories after 50 years.
The thinking holds that past 50 years, few readers even remember the event, much less took part in it. Past a half-century, journalists cede the field to historians.
World War II was an exception. Because that war dragged on for so long (45 months) and because it put so many Americans in uniform (16 million, or more than 10 percent of the population), it imprinted itself in the American soul, as only the Civil War had before it.
Both WWII and the Civil War involved the entire nation over a long stretch of time. And although nobody alive in America today remembers Shiloh or Gettysburg, enough Americans remember WWII to nudge newspapers away from the 50-year rule.
Thanks in part to the emotions stirred by Tom Brokaw’s “The Greatest Generation” and to the movie “Saving Pvt. Ryan,” newspapers in the 1990s ran 60th-anniversary stories on the big WWII battles.
But that attention to WWII is fading fast, as is the generation that fought the war.
Come next June 6, some elderly reader will call the paper to grouse that his paper makes absolutely no mention of the fact that it’s the 63rd anniversary of the day in 1944 that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower led the D-Day landings in Normandy.
Chances are that the grumpy reader will be making his complaint to an editor who was born after President Dwight D. Eisenhower left the White House in 1961.
I thought that now would be a good time to recommend two legal weblogs associated with consumer law, credit, and bankruptcy:
We focus so much on DRM and copyright in weblogs that we forget that consumer law probably has far more impact on us, and far less public exposure.
Another related weblog is Ross’ Arbitration Blog, which covers the growing proliferation of mandatory arbitration clauses, and lack of accountability in the arbitration process. In particular he points to a LA Times article on arbitration that discusses some of the concerns associated with the increasing use of arbitration for any non-criminal court activity. (Sorry, free registration required for this article.)
A more pungent discussion on the current state of arbitration can be found in the article: Arbitration and the Godless Bloodsuckers, by a former state supreme justice of West Virginia. Richard Neely really lets loose with both barrels. PDF of actual article and be forewarned, it’s a large document.
Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
Dave Winer writes that Daylife is in business. I vaguely remembered hearing something about it once, and then remembered, “Oh, yeah. That’s that Jarvis thing.” To make sure it was that Jarvis thing, I looked it up online and discovered this phenomenally self-referential post at Valleywag, that perfectly explains why I now write more about Missouri and other things.
As ParenthetiGal wonderfully puts it, that was the most satisfying comment-sex i’ve ever witnessed on valleywag. thanks boys!.
Damn! And here I was hoping to get a job with The Man.
update
Ut Oh! Someone forgot to sacrifice to the Mikey!
update
I must provide a disclosure on Daylife: I submitted a resume when the company was hiring people, was consequently sneered at and treated with disdain.
As homey as that left me feeling (“Hey! It’s just like being on Techmeme!”), I can’t say I have the most positive feelings about any one damn person involved with this really useless site that took a year and half to create.
Roger Johansson sharpens his teeth and tears into Ajax/JavaScript/Web application developers with You cannot rely on JavaScript being available. Period. He poses a questions:
I have a question for people who label themselves as JavaScript developers: Have you forgotten about, never heard of, or never cared about the terms progressive enhancement, graceful degradation, and Hijax? If the answer is yes, then please tell me why.
I would also like to know whether you actually consider disregarding those best practice methods to be compatible with modern, responsible, and professional JavaScripting.
Following the question, Roger lists out several popular web sites with a description of what happens when script is blocked. I’m not surprised at Bloglines, but wouldn’t have expected Blogger to depend on JavaScript for login. That’s very limiting.
As to his question, this is a time of flash and sizzle, and anyone who programs cautiously, worrying about such things as graceful degradation or accessibility, is going to be left behind. There is a frantic need to prove that JavaScript and Ajax and the whole genre of tools is cooler than cool. This is a time of competition for eyeballs, and grabbing market shares, and wow factors, and pages so crowded with interactivity, frankly, it’s like trying to read or work with an ant hill. With angry ants.
It’s this way because if you go slow, or urge caution, or back off of some of the more ‘hip’ Ajax/JavaScript effects, you’re out of the loop–not a part of the ‘with it’ kids. This all means then you don’t get the opportunities, jobs, even the pats on the head and a well done. As for those who might provide accolades to those who do use the JS best practices, well, they’re too busy in their own world focused on web design, CSS, accessibility, XHTML–conferences here, web standard get-togethers there. The only time they might notice us ‘hacks’ is when we do something they don’t like.
So Roger, the answer to your question is: when was the last time you pointed out those who support the ‘good’ practices of JavaScript?