From the monthly archives: August 2007

Fergus the fungus

by Jeffrey on August 26, 2007 · 5 Comments · in jeffrey-ism, odd

“Sorry,” he said. I moved my ski poles out of the way. This ski lift is slow.

“No worries,” I said.

“You sound funny. Are you American?”

“I’m from Chicago. Do you know where that is?”

“No, but I’ve been to America. My dad took me to Tennessee last year to see Elvis and my Uncle.”

“Cool. Did you have fun?”

“Yea, but we won’t go back this year because my Uncle is dead.”

“That’s… horrible.”

“…”

“So what’s your name?”

“Jeffrey. What’s yours?”

“Fergus. But people call me fungus.”

“Why do they call you fungus?”

“I’m not sure. It’s just a nickname.”

“Oh. Do you like that nickname?”

“Yea, I don’t mind it. I think it’s funny. Do you have a nickname?”

“Some people call me fingers.”

“Fingers? That’s weird.”

“I guess it’s a little weird.”

“…”

“How old are you,” he asked me.

“How old are you,” I asked him.

“Guess,” he said.

“10?”

“No.”

“5?”

“Nope.”

“8?”

“Nu-uh!” He laughed.

“6?”

“11?”

“9?”

“Yes!”

“Well. Can you tell I’m bad at guessing ages? So how old do you think I am,” I asked.

“26?”

Little bastard. But I don’t think I’ll forget him.

Dive HTML 5, dive!

by Jeffrey on August 23, 2007 · 2 Comments · in code

HTML 5 is stewing. This articles summarises some basic improvements in the markup.

HTML 5 is more semantic. For example, the DIV element, which “represents nothing at all, and achieves nirvana with the Buddha in web documents” is replaced with specific elements, like HEADER, FOOTER and NAV.1 For example, instead of this:

  1. <body>
  2. <div id="page">
  3. <div id="header">
  4. <span>My page</span>

HTML 5 markup looks like this:

  1. <body>
  2. <br /> <header>
  3. <span>My page</span>

Flash! Less typing makes my fingers quiver.

Naming these elements is a good move, but it doesn’t address confusion about markup, which is sad. For example, should logos and company names use an H1 element? Some say yes, others no. So why not include a LOGO element in HTML 5?

And almost all websites have search fields, search results, a registration form, a log in form, tags or categories, etc. Why not include these elements as well?

They could even include an ADS element too. Imagine, a magic button that can hide advertisements at will!1

The magic button that hides all advertisements in an ads tag

Also, there are specifications in the current document I don’t understand. They’ve created the NAV element and stated “The nav element represents a section of a page that links to other pages or to parts within the page: a section with navigation links.” If it’s just a list of links, why isn’t it grouped with lists like UL and OL? Nesting a UL or OL in the NAV element seems redundant.

The document is still under discussion so anything can change. Browser support is probably a few years away anyways.

1. I imagine this would never work, as we’re all greedy.

Crazy Coding Kiwis

by Jeffrey on August 22, 2007 · 2 Comments · in catcher, code, jeffrey-ism, kiwi-ism, patriotism

FullCodePress finished on Sunday morning. And the result? Victory for the Kiwis!

In first place we have the Kiwis’ website:
http://kiwi.fullcodepress.mbcomms.net.au/

And in second place we have the Koalas’ website:
http://aussie.fullcodepress.mbcomms.net.au/

I was awake for the duration of the competition and the awards ceremony (about 36 hours without sleep) and then crashed until the morning (about 18 hours sleeping). My brain is fried from coding so quickly.

I’m still recovering (hence the late blog post).

New Zealand won by a small margin, but more importantly our client has a new website for their charity. Hopefully it will help their cause and change someone’s life for the better.

Before the competition, I saw the Sydney Opera House, and the beach at Manly.1 Then the teams ate together along CockleBay.2 Sydney’s a beautiful city, and not what I expected.

Darling Harbor

My team members kicked ass, and the Australian team rocked as well. It was great to get together for good causes, even if it was under the guise of competition.

You can read the reactions of my team members too:

Or you can read the Xero blog entry. The competition was also plugged on National Radio (somewhere between two and three minutes).

The next FullCodePress is before Webstock in February and any country can participate.

1. I felt manly after leaving Manly.
2. Cockle Bay? Manly? Sydney seem to favor one gender over another.

Pre-code Kiwis fly to Sydney

by Jeffrey on August 17, 2007 · 5 Comments · in catcher, code, jeffrey-ism

What’s this? What’s this! There’s warmth in the air! Last night I arrived in Sydney with the Codeblacks for FullCodePress.

This morning we walked to the Opera House (the competition begins tomorrow and seeing this building is an obligation):

Sydney Opera House

Seeing the Opera House reminds me of the first time I saw the Statue of Liberty in New York City. Describing this feeling is like explaining orange to a blind man.

We’ve been setting up our networks this afternoon and the competition begins tomorrow at 9:00. This is exciting :)

FullCodePress-ure

by Jeffrey on August 15, 2007 · 5 Comments · in american-ism, code, css, kiwi-ism, patriotism, patriotism

Today’s I leave for Sydney to compete against Australia in FullCodePress. FCP is a competition to “build a fully-operational website for a non-profit organisation in 24 hours.”

My team is awesome, and we’re going to win. The competition starts on Saturday. Here are some details:

Can I see the event online?
The two teams will be building their websites online, and you can watch the progress on the two websites in real time. The web addresses will be announced at 9.30am on Saturday at http://www.fullcodepress.com.

The New Zealand team

Photo and video action:

Blog action:

Who is running the event:

24 hours without sleep! I’m going to feel like a student. Wish us luck…

Life is Scrabulous

by Jeffrey on August 10, 2007 · 2 Comments · in jeffrey-ism, odd

I’m addicted to Scrabble. Instead of blogging or reading or breathing or sleeping I play Scrabble on Facebook. This was my most intense game:

Proud Scrabble

She placed hurdles as the first word, which used all the letters in her rack. The total score was 78 points. By the end of the game I won with 320 points (she had 271).

I enjoy playing Scrabble with Richard as well. His vocabulary is dirty, and I blame one-eyed Meg for his choice of playful words.

Dirty Scrabble

And this was my strangest game.

Average Scrabble

I feel like I’m in a hole, and I can only climb to freedom on a stairway made of Scrabble tiles.

Update: Mashable has a post about the popularity of Scrabble. I’m not surprised!