Why CSS should not be used for layout

“I would rather spend my allotted time skiing or making love to my wife than worrying about whether or not I need to define a virtual destructor in my base class.”

That quote really sums up the argument pretty succinctly, but you may need additional persuasion depending on your circumstances.  It also comes from his second post on the topic.  A follow-up to the masses that commented on the original post with sundry opinions.  Some simply stated that the author was an idiot while others took the time to tear him a new one proper-like.  As the author states, many that would condemn have forgotten to add their own supporting cases; a common problem with these antagonistic debates.

For my part, I see the logic in the author’s comments.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that I agree with him, but it at least gives me some ideas of how to defend his method.  We all have to do things we don’t like to do, and sometimes we do things that compromise our abilities.  Web development is no different – in fact, it’s probably one of the defining cases for compromise.

Being a casual web developer myself, I have the luxury to code for standards and play with some of the latest methods available in technology.  Not everyone gets that luxury, and indeed at times, I don’t either.  I have to analyze the amount I can make on a given job versus the time spent on it.  As a hobby along side two children, a wife, and a few other hobbies, I’ve really got to make the most of my time.  As such, if I’m not going to get paid the amount I want, then something else is going to suffer.  At my day job, we’ve talked about Price, Quality, and Time as being the defining parts of a project.  Together, they all make up a circle and have to adjust dynamically as the others get larger or smaller.  If you sacrifice price, and there’s a time limit, then the only thing left that can slide is quality.  It tears at my nonsensical work ethic, but it’s reality.  On the otherhand, a lesser quality job doesn’t have to look like it.  We web developers have the benefit over some other industries because we can hide most of architecture mess behind a beautiful presentation layer.

So back to the conversation at hand: CSS versus Tables.  To bring this all together for you – and I trust you’ve either read the linked articles above or already know about the discussions surrounding the virtues of CSS and table design for XHTML layouts – let me settle the argument for myself.

I am an Arts and Crafts of Olde appreciatist.  I love my work as a craftsman; that is to say, I love the process of reaching a goal through creative and oft eccentric means.  I am learning to be a more pragmatic person in my work habits – at least when it’s necessary.  It’s a slow process, but I’ve made headway in little ways throughout my life.  It’s about compromise and keeping in mind the circle of Price, Time, and Quality.

It’s simple enough to imagine I could always remain vigilant on this circle of project specification goodness, but I wouldn’t.  Sometimes you just want to do a project.  So when either I have no boundaries per the specification, or I’m just personally driven to work at a project for my own reasons, I’m going to use CSS and standards-based coding practices.  When time and/or money are the object with which I am to contend, then I might use tables, or worse yet, a WYSIWYG editor.  The later approach ultimately saves me the most time and a customer’s money, but will ultimately take more time should the customer want some specific types of feature modifications to the code later.  I tend to view cheap and/or quick projects as being throw-away because of this.

I hope this insight has helped you to shed some light on your own dilemna in whatever craft it is that you persue – ever-mindful of the art in your craft, while carefully weighing the cost to your lifestyle (whether monetary, socially, or time management).

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In the event that we should become multi-millionaires in the future, we want to make sure we know what we’re going to do with the money.  The following is an ongoing list of major things on our list:

Establish a Commune

And by commune, you have to understand my interpretation of the word.  The usual ideas just don’t cut it – my idea of a modern commune is little more than a community of friends living in close proximity, each generally having some arcane talent.  Other than that, everybody maintains their own job.  The added benefit is that you have a community of actual friends in close proximity to help with things.  Think about some of these nicer neighborhoods going up that include parks and community facilities like a club house or picnic area.  That’s where the millions of dollars come in – someone has to pony up the money to put it together.

Establish an Olde World Arts and Crafts Guild

Look into America’s early years after the Declaration of Independence.  As was popular in Europe, guilds popped up all over the place.  Funny thing was, they never seemed to last.  The guilds cranked out some epic-level work, but rarely made the profit needed to keep the their doors open.  The Industrial Revolution was what put them out completely.  Mechanized art, while not for the purists, was the way of the future and a clear winner in the end.  Revival after revival, it was only when the the passion was washed out by insufficient funds that the guilds closed their doors.  An arts and crafts guild would work today, but only if I could poor money into it endlessly.

Create an Elderly Care Facility that Cares

Most elderly care facilities – the ones that the average senior citizen could afford – are clever facades on the same old song and dance.  There are too many horror stories to count as you look across the gamut and research their “customer appreciation.”  A big reason for this is funding.  The hired help is majority volunteer, public service workers, or minimum wage.  When you’re not paying well, it’s hard to attract good help, but that’s just what you need.

My wife is the one with real passion for this one.  She would love to pour many into a retirement home that is treated more like a spa than assisted living.  It would have to be a non-profit venture with backing.  The key is to rally support within the area communities, government, and of course, mad money.

Build the Lake Lanier Boardwalk District

How cool would it be to have a boardwalk district on Lake Lanier?  I envision long wooden decking, boat slips, a beach, and fantastic night life and retail shopping.  There should be bars with karaoke, an outdoor stage, a gallery, and much more.  Normally, this kind of thing wouldn’t need so much money to keep it up, but I think I’d have to pay off the Corps. of Engineers a hefty sum to allow it!

Create a Seafood/Freshwater Fish Restaurant on the Lake

Along with that whole boardwalk idea, you have to have some big foundations.  I purpose a fish restaurant out on the water.  It would be awesome to have its center piece being a large circle of the lake with underwater lights and sub-level glass for viewing.  Above that, have two to three stories encircling the “aquarium” for diners to look down upon.  There is some real opportunity to make a case for the environmental concerns surrounding the lake in a venue like this.

Build an Irish Pub

Another permanent resident of the boardwalk should be a good old-fashioned Irish pub.  If you know of McGuire’s in Pensacola, then your thinking along the same lines.  Good food (or bad, but traditional!) and drinks.  These relics of America’s past have always been places of fun and festivity.

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For lack of better alternatives, I bring to you the current meme on my plate.  Young whipper-snappers may be unfamiliar with this word, but it is essentially an Internet chain-letter.  Spazzmanda passed this on to me from her blog, where she refers to such activities as “tagging.”  I always thought that was a cultural art of defacement by way of graffiti, but what does an old fart like me know.

The Rules: Rules are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people and posts their names. Then the player goes to each of the “named” people’s blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. If you’ve been tagged, you do the same, letting the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer. Your answer, of course, is the answer to the following questions. Here we go!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? One decade ago I was two months from my 2nd wedding anniversary with my lovely wife, Amy.  We had no children, though we had pets.  We were in our first year at our first house together (and current house).  Amy was still in school at North Georgia College and State University (though it may not have been a State University at the time), and I was working for…Whittman-Hart, perhaps.  I was a consultant beginning to cut my teeth on information systems security.  It would be my primary job and objective for the next several years.  I registered gradin.com for the first time – it was a standard 2-year registration and cost me $70.00 (I think my last registration was $8.95 for a year).  I was finally able to access my awesome Mindspring account web space using my rocking X2 US Robotics Sportster (externel) modem via www.gradin.com.  I was working in Allaire’s Cold Fusion, though I couldn’t afford a license for the server to host my own site using their technology.  I used Allaire’s Homesite as my primary editor with Photoshop and Fractal Painter as my graphics packages.  I think I was trying to get onto Bellsouth’s xDSL beta program, but with no luck due to my distance from the carrier.  I was, however, involved with Wachovia’s beta online account access.  It was a glorified BBS – awesome!

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today? I’ve got ESX hosts to convert to 3.5i, installable.  SAN storage to attach, and VMs to migrate both through traditional migrations, as well as the new and improved Storage VMotion.  I also have some process proposal documentation to get done for the collected efforts of the Norcross lab engineering team, as well as that of our Hillsboro office.  I hope to get some ping-pong in at lunch, ride my bike 10 miles back to my car, and then facilitate a drum circle for 100 people in northeast Georgia with some friends.

3. Snacks I enjoy: Have you tried my nuts?  They’re salty and dimensionally variant.  I enjoy the texture especially, though others are just happy I am able to share – there’s more than enough for everyone to enjoy!  I also like beef jerky and granola bars.

4. Places I’ve lived: I’ve had a good spread in my life, though as of late my homestead has been very static.  I began in Ocean Springs, MI; moved to Plano, TX, and then jumped to San Diego, CA shortly thereafter.  We moved a couple of times there, but finally moved out the state to Tuscon, AZ.  From there, we departed for Waycross, GA, and then onto Gainesville, GA where I live now.  I’ve moved several times throughout both of these places in Georgia, and I’ve been here the longest amount of time so far.

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire: This is actually the title of a post I’ve been working on for a while now.  It’s a recurring theme throughout our decade+ of marriage, and one that will most likely continue to develop and mature in time.  The most boring thing I think of from our list is to pay-off debt and acquire some commercial real estate to lease.  There’s money accumulation prospects in that, so we would do well to set ourselves for the inevitable loss of said billions through the frivolous purchases from our list.  There are two more intriguing opportunities: 1) Develop a waterfront district on Lake Lanier – a boardwalk with shops and dining – that aids in the lake’s restoration efforts, as well as providing some awareness about the lake’s ecosystem.  2) Convert an old mill on the outskirts of town into a turn-of-the-century arts and crafts guild.  History tells us that these guilds are mere congregations of passionate people in the arts and crafts and generally have no ability to sustain themselves financially.

5 “Tagged”

1. Sean Williams
2. Jason Darling (Bleh.  MySpace)
3. James Palmer
4. Israel Lawson
   
5. Steve Tucker

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• Zune Hardware:
  • Alphabet ToC Navigation in addition to click-wheel
  • Ratings categories (so I can play 4-star or 5-star music only, for instance)
  • The ability to remove songs from my “quicklist”
  • Setting EQ attributes to a song or album uniquely
  • Inline normalization
  • New category…or put a recently added link at the top of each category
  • Make playlists of video files
• Zune Software:
  • Faster *My software has long periods of unavailability, though I realize I have an over-sized library
  • Automatic playlist creation
  • Support for OGG
  • Insight into the folder monitoring – some sort of progress or status on this
  • Better album art application – album art isn’t always displayed immediately after you add it
  • Without knowing any better, I wish the album art was embedded within the ID3 tag of the file rather than being added as a hidden file in the directory
  • Perhaps support for a real database back-end – I feel the need for enterprise class media management

There were also some real problems that needed attention:

• Crashing…the software crashes, the hardware crashes. Sometimes it’s solid, but then it goes into a fit and crashes consecutively all to often. **UPDATE – I found out that the hardware is most likely crashing due to an electrical protection feature. Static electricity is not the Zune’s friend.
• Renaming/hiding MP3’s. This could be related to crashing – I’m guessing that MP3’s were being indexed and something went wrong. Then, the Zune software went and renamed a *lot* of MP3’s to their cataloged GUID and hid them. The files won’t play until I rename them back to a .mp3 extension. It will annoy me when it comes up – so far only a few of these songs have come up in my shuffle list.

In the hardware category, Microsoft did exactly zero to fulfill my wishes. The closest they came was to introduce sorting by “date added” to the software. That’s actually very helpful, but it doesn’t help me find new music on my device after I’ve left the computer. The Alphabetical ToC thing would still be cool, but I will say that the click wheel seems to be spinning songs by faster than it used to. It hasn’t bothered me as much that I can’t jump to a letter in the alphabet quickly, though it would probably make me a safer driver if this feature were added. Depending on your attitude towards the “Ratings” debate, the new software either decimated your organization, or has drug you from Ratings procrastination. I’m somewhat in the middle on this. I’m adapting quickly enough, though I had finally figured out a decent way of rating my music along the 5-star basis that helped me managing my music. The new Zune uses only a “Heart” to signify the emotion a given song lends. You love, hate it, or are indifferent. Despite the change, there is still no way to play music on the device that you’ve “Hearted” unless you create a playlist first (static). Microsoft took away the “Flag” option in the Zune hardware. I was using it a little bit, but it was so unnecessarily slow and useless that I had stopped altogether. I had hoped that the new firmware would add much needed functionality to the flagging option, but now we find it missing in action. No love lost for the old function, but I would like to see the ability to flag a song for my review back at the software. I would primarily use it as a reminder to do something with that song (e.g. add to playlist, look up artist, etc.).

The Zune software; that is, the part installed on a Windows machine for interaction with media and the device itself, is a piece of work. I mean that in two very polarized ways. Piece of Work: 1) Quality craftsmanship, exemplary; 2) opp. The worst, poorly demonstrated – syn. Piece of Shit. I may sound a little harsh, but this new software encourages me to use Microsoft’s new “Heart” ratings to express my emotions. This brings me to my earlier comment regarding the product’s shift in direction. I really get the feeling they threw the old software out and started fresh. On the love side of things, I really like the new look. While I prefer the technical features of an app to let me do all matter of evil to it (i.e. preferences, customizations, tweaks, etc.), I really do like the slimmed-down simplicity of the new Zune software. The previous software left me feeling like I should see more options, but didn’t. This software, on the other hand, gives me the impression that what I see is what I get. It took a little while to get used to – I’m still a little unfamiliar in its kid-gloves aesthetics – but I’m gaining proficiency. I also like the fact that this software appears to be running faster with fewer crashes. I haven’t had any MP3′s get renamed (and hidden) to GUID replacements. While file monitoring still doesn’t lend any insight as to the percentage complete, it does seem to run faster and more consistently.

On the negative, the functionality of the software has been grossly gimped. I am no longer able to do something as simple as edit my own ID3 tags in a simple form-based interface like before. I can’t seem to update an album against a web lookup – it happens automatically, but I don’t have finite control over the process as was given in the previous software. While I love the addition of the podcast category, I don’t much care for the level of experienced interaction given to users here. I prefer the more technical feel when it comes to podcasts. They tend to vary wildly in format and compatibility, so it seems best that I have the option of modifying URL’s, identifying what URL’s are being used, and possibly see the actual error message for a given RSS URL when the Zune software rejects it.

Ultimately, the Zune software direction has the potential of being good. I feel more like I’m using an Alpha product than something released for public consumption, but the good stuff is really good. With the negatives going against my my expectations of software for this type of work, I would actually rather use a third-party application to synch to the Zune. As I’ve stated before, MediaMonkey is my favorite (in case their developers are reading).

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In 1969 the goat was burned on New Year’s Eve.

In 1970 the first goat burned six hours after it was erected. Two heavily intoxicated youths were tied to the crime. With contributions from several donors, the goat was rebuilt, this time of reeds.

In 1971 the local merchants who had previously built the goat abandoned the project, tired of seeing it burn each year. The science association at the Vasaskolan upper secondary school took over. Their little goat was broken to pieces.

In 1972 the goat collapsed due to sabotage.

It’s a Guiness Book record holder – probably for all times, but I haven’t checked that factoid out. I love the idea of a massive, miscellaneous craft project brought to local cheers and jeers. It’s unclear to me how the whole thing got started back in 1966, but it’s town tradition now that triumphs through all manner of abuse. I mentioned to a friend of mine in Sweden that my family should start our own goat (Gradinbocken) to display at the house and arouse further suspicions that we were…off. He pointed out that anyone late to that party may not notice something as obvious as a 1,300lb straw goat either. Still, it’s a worthy venture I think! Anyone want to start a Gainesville tradition? Maybe a Godzilla-sized chicken would be more appropriate…

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As soft & silent as snowflakes they fell:
Their arrival announced by a faint chiming bell.
They landed like angels, their bodies aglow.
Their feet left no marks in the new fallen snow.
Before we could ponder what next lay in store,
There came a slow creaking from our threshold door.
We crept from our bedroom & were spellbound to see
…There in our parlor stood the Yule Trinity!
Lucia, the Maiden, with her head wreathed in flame,
Shown with the radiance for which she was named.
The Lightbringer’s eyes held the joy of a child,
And she spoke with a voice that was gentle, yet wild:
“May the warmth of this household ne’er fade away.”
Then she lit our Yule log which still burns to this day.
Frau Holda in her down cloak stood regal & tall;
The Matron of Solstice, the Mother of all.
Under her gaze we felt safe & secure.
Her voice was commanding, yet almost demure:
“May the love of this family enrich young & old.”
And from the folds of her cloak showered coins of pure gold.
La Befana wore a kerchief on her silvery hair;
The veil of the Crone who has secrets to share.
In her eyes gleamed a wisdom only gained by spent youth.
Her voice was a whisper but her words rung with truth:
“May health, glad tidings, and peace fill these rooms.”
And she banished misfortune with a sweep of her broom.
They then left a gift by each sleeping child’s head,
Took a drink of our wassail, & away they sped.
While we watched them fly off through the night sky we laughed,
At the wondrous magick we had found in the Craft.
As they departed, the spirits decreed…

Merry Yule To You All & May All Blessed Be!

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