Question Box: one-key, no-screen internet

67624CE5-CEA4-4288-B740-DAE9F3006179.jpg

This is an interesting idea, that seems slightly mad at first, then starts to make perfect sense once you think about it. Then it seems really obvious. Then it makes me think about that fact that I already provide this service to family members! Cool.

Safari 3 oops

safari

Tiger update 10.4.11 installs Safari 3, which seems all well and good. But it left Safari almost completely unusable. I could trick it into showing me a page by Cmd-clicking to open the URL in a new tab, but neither just typing in the URL and hitting return, nor clicking a link from bookmarks would launch it.

I noticed on Zeldman that he was having the same issue (albeit more seriously, leading to instant crash) to which a commentor suggested removing InputManagers. I removed just PicLens which cleared up the problem. Needless to say, the latest version of PicLens doesn’t have this problem.

More CSS work.

Socialtext Open screenshot
I’ve been doing a lot more HTML/CSS recently than backend stuff, which suits me actually. Anyway, this is for Socialtext Open, the Wiki platform for which I’ve been doing a fair bit of work recently. It’s quite an extensive and varied app, so dealing with the CSS is quite an interesting challenge. The HTML is fixed (without getting your hands dirty – it’s OSS so you can dive in and do what you like) although it’s possible to set up a custom javascript insert in the config through which the DOM can be manipulated to suit. In this example, it’s used to add an automated onion-skinning technique for the sidebar boxes and some other tricks (font-size toolbar, etc.)

Saddam: a tribute

The Guardian’s _comment is free…_ has a nice piece entitled Saddam: a tribute by David Cox in which he talks about the frightening slide of Iraq from unacceptable repression into completely unmanageable chaos on the way to Armageddon.

Oh, John, you *are* a card!

‘It’s a shame when you see world-class players trying to get others booked’, says John Terry. Yes, I agree. Did Drogba just like the nice Camp Nou surface or does he need a hip replacement? If I see him in the street (unlikely, I know) I’ll tap his ankle to see what happens.

Flickr geotagging

loc.alize

I’m loving the Flickr geotagging, but obviously the problem comes with the fact that it was Yahoo! and not Google that bought Flickr… To be honest, for absolutely anywhere I’ve taken a photo, it’s almost impossible to pinpoint it on the Yahoo! “maps”. You’ve got *half* a chance with the satellite imagery, but it’s all very poor as compared with Google Maps. I’ll have to stick with loc.alize for now and import later.

Image blocking on RSS feeds.

It seems a little daft to me that you’d set up your RSS feed to include images, then block image download by referer, when by definition, the referer isn’t going to be the feed’s home site.

Barcelona humour.

22 arroba

Black humour, really. And I like black humour, but this is not that funny. I was having a quick peek at to see the lay of the land in the web/tech sector in Barcelona and it’s not a pretty sight:

– companies looking for experienced analyst/programmers and expecting to pay 900€ a month – that’s NET of tax, though!
– offers for PHP/MySQL jobs that then ask you to know Java, ASP a bit of C++ and why not? Photoshop and Flash as well! ***WTF does a self-respecting PHP coder want to know bleeding ASP for?***

When I came to Barcelona in 1999 I noted the difference between here and the UK, but suggested it would improve. It hasn’t, still. Of course, I go through this process [every year](http://domi.co.uk/2005/04/26/196/) so maybe I should just let it go?