March 2002 – Page 9 – Richard Bennett

Urban Legend

— A couple of readers take issue with my mini-rant on the design bug in Movable Type and Blogger where font-size is specified in pixels rather than in the handy font-size keywords (medium, small, and x-small) that work so well, pointing me to the Urban Legend that moved designers in this wrong direction (A List … Continue reading “Urban Legend”

Who goofed? The W3C or the IE/Windows team? It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that the keywords don’t map to expected sizes, and an incompatibility exists not only between different manufacturers’ browsers, but between the Mac and Windows versions of the same browser.

…
So what can you do? Sadly, until browser makers agree on the right way to render absolute font size keywords, all you can do is ignore the W3C recommendations and use pixels in your Style Sheet. Or do not use sizes at all.

With all due respect to the folks who run A List Apart, this is bullshit. IE 6 and Netscape 6 render fonts specified by keyword exactly the same way, and just as you would expect them to be rendered – medium is a normal size font, small is smaller than medium, and x-small is smaller than small. They also render “medium” at the same size as Netscape’s old font size “3”, for whatever that’s worth. And – and this is the big deal – if your visitor wants to see the font-size defined by keyword larger or smaller, he can do so simply by changing the Browser’s View->Text Size setting; if you defined it in pixels, this adjustment does nothing.

Now it may very well be the case that IE 3 or Netscape 4 didn’t render these keywords correctly; those browsers have so many problems with CSS that it really doesn’t matter. So the fact remains that a font defined in pixels won’t display as you envision on high-res displays, and there’s not a damn thing the user can do about it, while a font defined by keyword will display correctly in a modern browser, and the user has control over it in any case. If this is some sort of unique issue for Mac people, c’est la vie.

Democrat death wish

— Young Andy Sullivan, writing in Rupie’s jewel, says that national Democrats are acting like California Republicans: Suicide isn’t pretty for a political party; but the Democratic leadership, for short-term political reasons ? or for lack of any other viable strategy ? is contemplating it once again. That’s OK ? they give the voters a … Continue reading “Democrat death wish”

— Young Andy Sullivan, writing in Rupie’s jewel, says that national Democrats are acting like California Republicans:

Suicide isn’t pretty for a political party; but the Democratic leadership, for short-term political reasons ? or for lack of any other viable strategy ? is contemplating it once again.

That’s OK ? they give the voters a clear choice.

The Ugly Pickering Smear Campaign

— Diana West’s editorial on the smear campaign liberal special interests are waging against Pickering is worth reading: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, repeatedly uses the word “polarizing” to explain the Democrats’ expected rejection of the appointment. What is polarizing, however, is not Pickering, but the personal smear campaign against him. Senate Democrats may wash … Continue reading “The Ugly Pickering Smear Campaign”

— Diana West’s editorial on the smear campaign liberal special interests are waging against Pickering is worth reading:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, repeatedly uses the word “polarizing” to explain the Democrats’ expected rejection of the appointment. What is polarizing, however, is not Pickering, but the personal smear campaign against him. Senate Democrats may wash their hands of the matter by voting “nay” tomorrow, but that’s not very likely to leave them clean.

As a Californian, I’m especially annoyed with Feinstein for her role in this ugly affair. She studiously avoids calling Pickering a racist, but her insistence that he, and not the fund-raising-hysteria-driven PFAW and NWLC goons are responsible for the polarization is an affront to intelligence.

Spam King Bill Jones

— Bill Jones is the number three candidate in the Reep race for Gov. in California. He hasn’t been able to raise money, so he’s resorted to spamming potential voters (and anybody else with an e-mail account), which has drawn him lots of criticism from Sgt. Stryker and others. Rough and Tumble reports that his ISP pulled the plug on him for violating his user agreement. This is all very sad because Jones is the only Reep holding statewide office, the first in the Gov’s race, and a long-time party faithful. Here’s the R & T entry:

Jones and email spam — The Web site of Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Jones was shut down awhile yesterday after his Internet provider kicked it out for sending political spam e-mails. The Web site was down at least several hours after the service provider Atlantech.net concluded that the latest mass e-mailing violated the spirit of their contract, which forbids spamming. The Jones campaign later found another Internet provider. Ryan Kim in the San Francisco Chronicle Dion Nissenbaum and Laura Kurtzman in the San Jose Mercury Dan Smith in the Sacramento Bee — 3/2/02

False dichotomy

— Macintosh user Virginia Postrel really puts her foot in her mouth in this essay on productivity in the New York Times (Lessons in Keeping Business Humming, Courtesy of Wal-Mart U.) “Surprisingly, the primary source of the productivity gains of 1995 to 1999 was not … information technology … though companies accelerated the pace of … Continue reading “False dichotomy”

— Macintosh user Virginia Postrel really puts her foot in her mouth in this essay on productivity in the New York Times (Lessons in Keeping Business Humming, Courtesy of Wal-Mart U.)

“Surprisingly, the primary source of the productivity gains of 1995 to 1999 was not … information technology … though companies accelerated the pace of their I.T. investments during those years,” reports a summary of the findings published in The McKinsey Quarterly. “Rather, managerial and technological innovations in only six highly competitive industries — wholesale trade, retail trade, securities, semiconductors, computer manufacturing and telecommunications — were the most important causes.”

When academic economists come out with crap like this you wonder if they’ve ever held a job in the Real World. The industries listed in the McKinsey report Postrel derives this derivative essay from are the most highly info-systems-dependent ones in the entire economy; they are able to make their “managerial and technological innovations” because they have networks of computers that feed back vital information about buying trends (“sell-through”) to the warehousing, shipping, and purchasing operations that keep the enterprise humming. This is exactly what info systems are about, when they’re not used for blogging. What a completely idiotic opposition she sets up.

Daily Meta-Blog

— Friday’s Blogathon between Instapundit and VodkaPundit was disappointing. The judges had to disqualify Instant for junk posting, noting:3 posts on spam (one on phone-spam, of all things), 3 vanity posts on mentions from other sites,2 posts from the British press on American subjects not pertaining to Italian food,6 posts on the infiltration of the … Continue reading “Daily Meta-Blog”

— Friday’s Blogathon between Instapundit and VodkaPundit was disappointing. The judges had to disqualify Instant for junk posting, noting:
3 posts on spam (one on phone-spam, of all things),
3 vanity posts on mentions from other sites,
2 posts from the British press on American subjects not pertaining to Italian food,
6 posts on the infiltration of the musical community by Capitalists (a “Sullivan,” which is 5 or more posts on a topic of no significance), and
2 additional Ken Layne references.

The judges want the boys to play hard, but to play fair, so they urge them not to let this happen again. Meanwhile, Vodka has a real ISP, and has survived a trip to the dentist. Only losers blog on weekends, so the competition will resume Monday.

On a related note, the trend of bloggers toward professional web site designer makeovers is disturbing. Professionally-done sites tend to highlight the designer’s own visual creativity, and typically result in the site’s text being harder to read. This is not going in the right direction. Whether you’re buying a makeover or doing your own, bear in mind that rule number one in good Blog aesthetics is to maintain high legibility for your musings. This means fonts that are workmanlike and large enough to read, and high contrast between text and background.

The default templates for Blogger and Movable Type both have design bugs with respect to fonts, specifying their size in pixels rather than the relative units (medium, small, or x-small) that are adjusted by the Browser’s View Text control. The pixel is not a unit of uniform size, since video display systems vary from 72 Pixels per inch all the way up to 144. So a 10-pixel font that may look fine on a medium-quality display shrinks to half the size you think it has when viewed on a professional-quality, high-resolution video card with a large screen. Movable Type also specifies line-height, an unnecessary thing that also interferes with user adjustment of font sizes.

It’s surprising that this design bug is so prevalent, but no more so than the lack of reliability on the Blogspot server. When the Professor moves to his ISP, I expect that Blogspot will improve however, since he probably accounts for half their traffic, if not more. Humble sites like this one entertain 1000 unique visitors a day, but the Prof has to be knocking down 10 times that many, if not more.

The noble Chihuahua

— The web page that this information comes from is extinct, so I’m preserving it here for the benefit of dog-lovers everywhere: Few breeds of dogs can claim as mystical or mysterious a past as can the chi. One of the very few native American breeds, the chi’s roots can be traced back to the … Continue reading “The noble Chihuahua”

— The web page that this information comes from is extinct, so I’m preserving it here for the benefit of dog-lovers everywhere:

Few breeds of dogs can claim as mystical or mysterious a past as can the chi. One of the very few native American breeds, the chi’s roots can be traced back to the ancient Olmec, Toltec, and Aztec civilizations of Central America and Mexico. The Olmecs (now thought to be the mother culture of Mexico) had two sources of domesticated meat: turkey and dogs. Although repulsive to us now, this tradition of eating dogs was not unusual.

By the age of the Toltecs, there is evidence that a plump, thick-necked little dog with short erect ears and tail was bred for the table to be eaten principally by the nobility. It was not the Chihuahua as we know it today; but the Toltec carvings dating from the ninth century A.D. show a small dog with a rounded head and erect ears, reminiscent of the Chihuahua. This early dog, known as the Techichi, is believed to be the ancestor of most Central American breeds and was most fully developed my the conquerors of the Toltecs, the Aztecs.

The Aztecs kept several distinct types of dogs for a variety of reasons, the most unusual being sacrificial animals. Aztec life was filled with attempts to ensure prosperity by appeasing the gods with ceremonial blood offerings, usually of captive humans. These dogs lived in the temple with the priests. Dogs were believed to be able to see into the future, and to cure disease by transferring sickness to other people. A small red dog was believed to guide the souls into the underworld of the dead. Such a dog was kept in every Aztec household and killed at the grave and buried with any family member who died. Archaeologists have found the Techichi in human gravesites all over Mexico. Occasionally a pottery dog figurine was substituted for a real dog.

The Techichi was larger than a chihuahua, usually had long hair and was said to be mute. There are a lot of legends of how the modern chi was derived. Some say it was interbred with prarie dogs, others say it was crossed with a small Asiatic hairless dogs brought into the region by migrating Indian tribes, still others point to a more recent influence from China. At any rate, it was over 300 years or more until the dog known as the Chihuahua made its appearance

To celebrate multiculturalism and to express solidarity with the Korean people, I’ll now post a recipe for Chihuahua Vindaloo.
Continue reading “The noble Chihuahua”

Kevin What’s-his-name

is still sulking about the porn discussion a few weeks ago (Ideas etc.) If paid sex with strangers is so natural then why should anyone be ashamed of paying an attractive women to keep you company? Heck, I bet Mr. Bennet feels it saves marriages. That’s Bennett with 2 t’s, Kevin.

is still sulking about the porn discussion a few weeks ago (Ideas etc.)

If paid sex with strangers is so natural then why should anyone be ashamed of paying an attractive women to keep you company? Heck, I bet Mr. Bennet feels it saves marriages.

That’s Bennett with 2 t’s, Kevin.

Living with herpes when you don’t know where you got it

— Wellberts (subscribers to an 80’s vanity publishing system) are stopping by the Omphalos in large numbers recently. Here’s a nice little treat for them.

Dog meat controversy winds on

— We scooped the Western press on the Leno/Korean dogmeat flap here, sourcing the Korea Herald Monday. The story has legs like a Russian Wolfhound (Yahoo! News – NBC Seeks to Quell Flap Over Leno Dog-Meat Joke) But she said Leno himself was “very gracious” during a 30-minute telephone conversation with her and the head … Continue reading “Dog meat controversy winds on”

But she said Leno himself was “very gracious” during a 30-minute telephone conversation with her and the head of the Korean-American Coalition, Charles Kim. But she said the comedian at first professed surprise that his joke was so hurtful because “from his perspective it was based in fact.”

Leno says what we said. I really should be charging for this.