I came across a problem yesterday while modifying a Joomla! template. The template I was making was kind of a hybrid of two different ones. One of them started like so:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
That is, the XML declaration followed by the doctype. The other template began:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
So the doctype and XML declaration were switched. Each template then proceeded to make heavy use of CSS and a mix of <div>'s and <table>'s in a complex layout.
Once I had finished the new hybrid template I then encountered every web developers worst (yet most common) nightmare. The template looked fine in Firefox, Opera and other sane browsers but not in ye olde Internet Explorer. The anomaly it caused is hard to describe. It was a sort of spilling in the rightmost <div> column.
To cut a long story short, I spent hours trying to fix the template and only after I had gone through every piece of the HTML body and CSS did I realised that all that was needed was to switch the doctype and XML declaration so that the XML declaration came first! I had used the template where it came second by chance (where it had no adverse effect).
Back when I started web design in the mid->late 90s Internet Explorer 4 had a much more complete CSS implementation than Netscape 4, and was by far a much more enjoyable browser to make sites for. These days the exact opposite is true, and IE is an absolute headache. Any IE user should do themselves a favour and download Mozilla Firefox right away!
Monday, September 26, 2005
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Duh.
Some people think I'm smart (although I vehemently disagree, and will often volunteer evidence to the contrary). Having been at uni for a while has obviously put me amongst (actual) smart people. I have been thinking about what things make someone smart. Recently I have liked the idea that someone's intelligence is purely a measure of their ability to focus on a problem. More recently I have been thinking that in addition to focus (what is 'focus' exactly anyway?) it may also be the amount of distinct chunks you can work with in your mind at the same time. After all, if you can only focus on one single chunk you won't get very far.
I've noticed that smart people often tend to be perfectionists. Perhaps not perfectionistic about everything they do, but certainly with at least a handful of things. For example, I have a friend who is an audiophile. At this very moment he is meticulously sorting and annotating the metadata of his outrageously large music collection. He has a keen interest in sound compression algorithms, and will sometimes even use a lossless algorithm to encode his music with.
Like me, he also is very careful about his spelling and can never knowingly leave a spelling/grammar mistake in a piece of writing, even when it's in short, informal communications like IRC or email. Another friend I made back in first year (who was much smarter than I) put it quite succinctly when he said "I just hate not knowing how to do things" (this was in reference to studying for an exam for a university subject).
I hypothesise that perfectionism is actually a notable factor in intelligence (or, at least, being smart). A perfectionist does not like leaving a job half-done. If something is taught to them that they do not fully understand, their perfectionist tendencies will drive them to try and complete the puzzle -- just for the sake of completeness.
I think this tendency/attitude has its disadvantages though. Firstly there is the possibility of wasting time on useless things (such as correcting a spelling mistake in an instant message sent to a friend who could understand the original message easily anyway).
Also, since a perfectionist has a desire to do a complete, whole-hearted job of a task, there may eventually be less of a desire to take on certain large tasks. That is, there is an attitude of "I don't even want to start this project because I know that once I've started it will take a lot (possibly an indeterminable amount) of time to finish it to the standard I would like". Finishing it to a lesser standard is not an option! I have found this happen in a few projects I've needed to do, and I see some of my friends suffer under it too. I think this is at least part of the attitude of procrastination rampant among uni students and postgrad students in particular.
Sometimes the scenario works out to be that the only way to stop the project from taking over your life for months is to do no work on it until the deadline is in two weeks. Then the project has only occupied two weeks of your time, and the excuse that you weren't able to do it to the best of your ability is due to 'external factors' outside your control (namely the deadline).
Finally, I think it can also lead to being overworked, leaving the perfectionist burnt-out and unmotivated. This could possibly spell the end of a person's perfectionist attitude in that particular area (such as studying at university).
Perfectionism isn't like Force-sensitivity -- it comes in varying degrees. Perhaps being *really* smart is knowing when to perfecct something further or when to just let it go.
I've noticed that smart people often tend to be perfectionists. Perhaps not perfectionistic about everything they do, but certainly with at least a handful of things. For example, I have a friend who is an audiophile. At this very moment he is meticulously sorting and annotating the metadata of his outrageously large music collection. He has a keen interest in sound compression algorithms, and will sometimes even use a lossless algorithm to encode his music with.
Like me, he also is very careful about his spelling and can never knowingly leave a spelling/grammar mistake in a piece of writing, even when it's in short, informal communications like IRC or email. Another friend I made back in first year (who was much smarter than I) put it quite succinctly when he said "I just hate not knowing how to do things" (this was in reference to studying for an exam for a university subject).
I hypothesise that perfectionism is actually a notable factor in intelligence (or, at least, being smart). A perfectionist does not like leaving a job half-done. If something is taught to them that they do not fully understand, their perfectionist tendencies will drive them to try and complete the puzzle -- just for the sake of completeness.
I think this tendency/attitude has its disadvantages though. Firstly there is the possibility of wasting time on useless things (such as correcting a spelling mistake in an instant message sent to a friend who could understand the original message easily anyway).
Also, since a perfectionist has a desire to do a complete, whole-hearted job of a task, there may eventually be less of a desire to take on certain large tasks. That is, there is an attitude of "I don't even want to start this project because I know that once I've started it will take a lot (possibly an indeterminable amount) of time to finish it to the standard I would like". Finishing it to a lesser standard is not an option! I have found this happen in a few projects I've needed to do, and I see some of my friends suffer under it too. I think this is at least part of the attitude of procrastination rampant among uni students and postgrad students in particular.
Sometimes the scenario works out to be that the only way to stop the project from taking over your life for months is to do no work on it until the deadline is in two weeks. Then the project has only occupied two weeks of your time, and the excuse that you weren't able to do it to the best of your ability is due to 'external factors' outside your control (namely the deadline).
Finally, I think it can also lead to being overworked, leaving the perfectionist burnt-out and unmotivated. This could possibly spell the end of a person's perfectionist attitude in that particular area (such as studying at university).
Perfectionism isn't like Force-sensitivity -- it comes in varying degrees. Perhaps being *really* smart is knowing when to perfecct something further or when to just let it go.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Reason #924 Night Elf Priests Are In Trouble
One of the things I enjoy about World of Warcraft is that the game is constantly being tweaked and improved (well, usually the changes they make are improvements).
My main character in the game is of the priest class, more of a healer than a damage-doer. Along with choosing a class, you can also choose what race your character is. The race I chose was Night Elf.
Now, all priests in the game have the same spells at their disposal (more or less). One exception to this are two spells called "racial spells". For example, a Human priest has the two racial spells called Feedback and Desperate Prayer. A Night Elf priest does not have these spells, but instead has Starshards and Elune's Grace.
Just before I get to the point of this post, let me explain one more thing. In order for Blizzard (the makers of the game) to try and achieve a good balance between players they have forums where Blizzard representatives listen to suggestions from players. There are some designated Blizzard people that are in charge of 'looking after' certain classes. Their job is to play the character class in many races, talent configurations, and situations -- this knowing the class inside-and-out. Unfortunately for priests, our guy is Eyonix.
Eyonix is renowned for ignoring the priest class, and we have been forced to sit back and watch our abilities grow stale compared with the improvements being brought in to other classes. As priests aren't primarily damage-doers it is probably harder to tell that we're falling behind, but anyone who actually plays a priest regularly can surely tell.
In addition, Night Elf priests have an even harder job than priests in general because their racial spells are very, very poor in comparison with those of all other races. Elune's Grace in particular is virtually useless. Priests have been petitioning for a very long time to have it replaced or modified in such a way as to make it useful in at least some situations.
This feeling was compounded for me today after reading this thread in the official forums. For some reason threads don't seem to last very long there so I will reproduce the relevant bits:
Player: Does anyone else think [Elune's Grace] should be fixed?
Eyonix: Admittedly, I've not used Elune's Grace much at all, as the ranged damage it prevents is seemingly less significant when compared to what my Renew spell or Healing Wave will restore - and with a worse mana to health efficiency ratio. I will try and test the ability out in more situations where it could be taken advantage of, and perhaps ask the class designers their particular thoughts on the ability.
(Emphasis added by me.)
OK, so this sounds great. Maybe Eyonix is actually going to do something that benefits priests for a change. Wait just a second. Healing Wave? I'm an experienced priest yet I don't recognise this spell. Oh! I know why! Healing Wave is a shaman spell!!
If our representative cannot even remember the most basic priest spell (called, unsurprisingly, Heal) what chance do we have?
My main character in the game is of the priest class, more of a healer than a damage-doer. Along with choosing a class, you can also choose what race your character is. The race I chose was Night Elf.
Now, all priests in the game have the same spells at their disposal (more or less). One exception to this are two spells called "racial spells". For example, a Human priest has the two racial spells called Feedback and Desperate Prayer. A Night Elf priest does not have these spells, but instead has Starshards and Elune's Grace.
Just before I get to the point of this post, let me explain one more thing. In order for Blizzard (the makers of the game) to try and achieve a good balance between players they have forums where Blizzard representatives listen to suggestions from players. There are some designated Blizzard people that are in charge of 'looking after' certain classes. Their job is to play the character class in many races, talent configurations, and situations -- this knowing the class inside-and-out. Unfortunately for priests, our guy is Eyonix.
Eyonix is renowned for ignoring the priest class, and we have been forced to sit back and watch our abilities grow stale compared with the improvements being brought in to other classes. As priests aren't primarily damage-doers it is probably harder to tell that we're falling behind, but anyone who actually plays a priest regularly can surely tell.
In addition, Night Elf priests have an even harder job than priests in general because their racial spells are very, very poor in comparison with those of all other races. Elune's Grace in particular is virtually useless. Priests have been petitioning for a very long time to have it replaced or modified in such a way as to make it useful in at least some situations.
This feeling was compounded for me today after reading this thread in the official forums. For some reason threads don't seem to last very long there so I will reproduce the relevant bits:
Player: Does anyone else think [Elune's Grace] should be fixed?
Eyonix: Admittedly, I've not used Elune's Grace much at all, as the ranged damage it prevents is seemingly less significant when compared to what my Renew spell or Healing Wave will restore - and with a worse mana to health efficiency ratio. I will try and test the ability out in more situations where it could be taken advantage of, and perhaps ask the class designers their particular thoughts on the ability.
(Emphasis added by me.)
OK, so this sounds great. Maybe Eyonix is actually going to do something that benefits priests for a change. Wait just a second. Healing Wave? I'm an experienced priest yet I don't recognise this spell. Oh! I know why! Healing Wave is a shaman spell!!
If our representative cannot even remember the most basic priest spell (called, unsurprisingly, Heal) what chance do we have?
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Macquarie University Linux Seminar
I'm organising a Linux seminar through the Macquarie IT Society. You can find the details in the relevant blog post and the poster I gimpped up (~150KiB).
We also got a mention in the news! Very cool!
A big thanks to Pia, Jeff and the MITS guys for helping out! Hopefully things will go smoothly and we'll get a decent turn-out.
We also got a mention in the news! Very cool!
A big thanks to Pia, Jeff and the MITS guys for helping out! Hopefully things will go smoothly and we'll get a decent turn-out.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Official, Accurate Internet Tests
Well maybe not official, or accurate... but they're certainly on the Internet.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Fight fire with fire
I saw these guys covered on Slashdot today. I remember a similar tactic used last year that didn't last too long for some reason, but was apparently quite effective.
There are ethical issues on DDoSing spammers, but having thought about it for six seconds, I don't have a problem with it -- assuming you're using your own bandwidth to do it and not your zombie army of trojaned Windows drones :)
Speaking of Windows, they don't have other versions of the software available, but they have provided the source code (good on them). Hopefully we should start seeing some meaningful ports soon.
There are ethical issues on DDoSing spammers, but having thought about it for six seconds, I don't have a problem with it -- assuming you're using your own bandwidth to do it and not your zombie army of trojaned Windows drones :)
Speaking of Windows, they don't have other versions of the software available, but they have provided the source code (good on them). Hopefully we should start seeing some meaningful ports soon.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Mac laptop users -- switch to Linux!
OK, so maybe people won't be converting in droves. My good friend ctd (who I have had the pleasure of actually meeting a couple of times) just discovered that some genius has managed to get his airport extreme wireless card working under Linux!
This has been the major drawback of running Linux on a modern G4-based Mac laptop for some time. The general rumour is that the Airport Extreme cards manufactured by Broadcom are capable of military-grade wireless stuff (whatever that is). Anyway, they're not to keen to release specs or open drivers for the card, so it has only ever worked on OS X, until now.
While the hack seems pretty experimental, most people who try seem to be having success. Now, can I be bothered going back to a dual-boot system... ;)
This has been the major drawback of running Linux on a modern G4-based Mac laptop for some time. The general rumour is that the Airport Extreme cards manufactured by Broadcom are capable of military-grade wireless stuff (whatever that is). Anyway, they're not to keen to release specs or open drivers for the card, so it has only ever worked on OS X, until now.
While the hack seems pretty experimental, most people who try seem to be having success. Now, can I be bothered going back to a dual-boot system... ;)
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