Friday, June 29, 2012

Columns without tables

Once upon a time I was phone interviewed. The first question was: how do you do 3 columns on a webpage? Sure, it is <table><tr><td></td><td></td>..<tr><table>

Ok, but how about WITHOUT a table. I was stumped. Tables are not liked nowadays everyone wants to do div tags and stylesheets. I am no style designer.

I didn't get the job, but I wish I can tell the guy: hey I can probably find something on the web and able to use it, and I did.

Left

Middle


<html>
 <head>
  <title>
   Multicolumn pages without tables or frames
  </title>


  <style type="text/css" media="all">
   body {
     font-family: arial, sans-serif;
     background: #fff;s
     }



   #head {
     margin: 10px 10px 0px 10px;
     padding: 5px 10px;
     border: 1px solid #000;
     background: #cfc;
     }
 #masthead {
     font-weight: bold;
     font-size: 36pt;
     color: #fff;
     background: #9f9;
     }

 #left {
     float: left;
     width: 25%;
     margin 0px;
     }
 .leftcontent {
     margin: 10px;
     padding: 5px 10px;
     border: 1px dotted #000;
     background: #eef;
     }

 #middle {
     float: left;
     width: 50%;
     margin 0px;
     }
 .middlecontent {
     margin: 10px 0px;
     padding: 5px 10px;
     border: 1px dotted #000;
     background: #eff;
     }

 #right {
     float: left;
     width: 25%;
     margin 0px;
     }
 .rightcontent {
     margin: 10px;
     padding: 5px 10px;
     border: 1px dotted #000;
     background: #ffe;
     }

 #foot {
     margin: 0px 10px 0px 10px;
     padding: 5px 10px;
     border: 1px solid #000;
     background: #cfc;
     }

  </style>
 </head>
 <body>
  <div id="head">
   Masthead and Titles
  </div>

  <div id="left">
   <div class="leftcontent">
    <p>Left</p>
   </div>
  </div>


  <div id="middle">
   <div class="middlecontent">
    <p>Middle</p>
   </div>
  </div>

  <div id="right">
   <div class="rightcontent">
    <p>Right</p>
   </div>
  </div>

  <br clear="all" />

  <div id="foot">
   <p>Bottom</p>
  </div>

 </body>
</html>

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Tracking Homicides App Idea

The number of homicides in Chicago is ALARMING. This link contains lots of data. Look! 250 so far this year.

Oh and there is no phone app for this data?! There may be one and ought to be one. It is quite easy to draw a map, put some icons on each crime scene... tap on it and show you details.

It will take some time (and motivation) to do this.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Dinobots are back!

Dinobots are coming back!

These autobots are unique! They are fun. They don't use language well. As in: Me, Swoop, No See Nothing. In one episode Grimlock even tries to overtake Prime. That's badly out of place!

These are autobots, kick Devastator's butt as in 1986 movie? Yes! Terrorize around? No. and I don't remember seeing Grimlock breathe fire. They are missing in the new movies and I doubt they will be done right anyway.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Gun fire in Magnificant Mile

This is insane!

Gun fire on Magnificent Mile

Look folks. People don't just get shot in the troublesome neighborhoods. These gangsters have cars. Something needs to be done!

Maybe Chicago will have fewer and fewer visitors now as we embrace bullets flying all over the place. That will hurt the economy even more and probably cause even more gun troubles!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Microsoft Surface surfaced

I want Microsoft to survive in the tablet market. In general, I don't like dominance. The world needs choices! innovations!

Here we go, the Microsoft Surface is announced. Nope, no details on price or when it is available.

At a glance, this looks just like an IPad, but with 2 good things built in: the keyboard and the stand. Yikes, an Ipad cover will cost you almost $50! A keyboard will cost you even more!

This is likely to be good at one thing that other tablets can't: Microsoft Office. It is hard if not impossible to craft a document more fancy than a regular text file on other devices. This thing has potential: if the price is right, if the keyboard works well, if it is responsive, if it doesn't have Blue Screen of Death.

How do you write a program on it? It better be EASY to catch on. Face it: Objective C for IPad programming is hard. Fortunately there are html5 converters and other easier libraries.

I welcome the Surface into the tablet ecosystem. Lame Android pad makers would be very afraid.