One more review in the movies section: Crash.

Yesterday I went to Björn’s birthday party; he was turning 80 years old! Great food and meeting lots of people I don’t usually meet. As is custom at these occasions, Björn got lots of bottles of wine. One of them came in a nice styled golden bag, he picked up the bottle and the conversation went:

		- Oh my, this was a nice bottle. 
		Turning to his wife:
		Who was this from?
		The wife rummages through the golden bag, 
		picks up a card, and reads it aloud:
		-Merry Christmas, Ville!
		Best wishes, David.
	

Freaking hilarious! I love it when these things happen!

How is it in your life? Is it common that you pass on gifts like bottles of wine (i.e. gifts that shouldn’t be traceable) to other people?

Yesterday I found out about the company clear:left, which consists of web developing pro’s Andy Budd, Jeremy Keith and Richard Rutter. These three are extremely experienced and have had a great impact on web developing. If I were working for a company in the UK, this is the company I’d contact for web development work.

I wonder what they charge, though… However, quality costs, and in the long run you will definitely save a lot of money if the job was done properly the first time around.

This made me wonder if there should be a Swedish equivalent of such a company, one with the best people we have to offer in this field. I know what people I’d like in that compnay (but that I won’t tell)…

So what do you think? Should there be a Swedish company with the big names we have?

Finally, the Opera web browser is for free. That means no more ads, no nothing. I expressed my opinions about Opera almost six months ago, and except for the getting paid-part, I think the other arguments still stand.

However, what’s good about this is that Opera, most likely, will see an increase of users, and this is what I like. If web-standards compliant web browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Opera gain more and more market share, this will force web developers to write valid and correct code, instead of just relying on Internet Explorer’s error handling for code that should’ve never seen the light of the day.

I can just imagine projects where there will be conversations like:

- My code only works in Internet Explorer! Crying
- That's because you didn't do the job properly 
the first time! Stop writing such sloppy code 
to begin with, and learn your profession!

I guess the future will tell…

Anyway, if you like Opera, rock on! Download away and have a good time!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have lunch with Peter, the guy behind standards-schmandards.com. Why lucky? Except for the facts that he’s a smart and knowledgeable guy, and also the guy behind the Fangs Sreen Reader Emulator extension for Firefox, he told me an intriguing story.

It was about Support-EAM, whose object is:

…to create an e-Accessibility Quality Mark for Web services, as part of the Action Plan eEurope 2005: An information society for all.

This is really a commendable initiative, we have something similar in Sweden that Statskontoret is working on, called 24-timmarsmyndigheten.

The problem with Support-EAM is the example they set with their own web site. Although mostly valid, it’s not that accessible. Let me take care of a common misunderstanding here: just because a web site/page validates doesn’t mean it’s accessible. One crucially important factor in making it accessible is writing semantic code.

Their web site is a table-based layout, there’s no skip links present (although they might not be that necessary in this case) and there are places were headings aren’t written out using the correct h1...h6 elements. There are also a number of inline styles and script blocks that don’t have any comments around them to allow them to be hidden.

Although, it has to be said that their web site has been updated since Peter first visited them, they now use list elements for lists of links, heading tags in some places etc. But what I’m going for here is that such a big project that will affect the whole European Union must be as close to perfect as possible when it comes to setting the bar for others.

Am I overdoing it, or you don’t generally agree with my points of criticism? Or do I actually have a point? Let me know.

I thought I’d write some short comments about some recent Swedish news, just to express my view on them.

Deputy Prime Minister Bo Ringholm thinks the Swedish police is lazy

Apparently he did an interview over the phone, and didn’t hang up properly. The journalist stayed on the line and taped a two minute conversation between Bo Ringholm and another guy, saying things that should only be said behind closed doors (especially if you’re the Deputy Prime Minister).
But I guess this goes to show what happens if managers don’t learn the technical aspects properly… 😉

Man evicted for standing up when peeing

An old guy living in the town of Sundsvall in an apartment building was evicted by his landlord for the reason that when we went up to pee at night, it evidently made such ringing sound throughout the whole building so everyone got disturbed. The man, of course, fights this and says that it’s definitely his right to pee whichever way he wants to in his own apartment. I couldn’t agree more. Get some isolation in the skanky house instead.

Column about the ruckus in Ronna

This is quite a long story, so I won’t try to cover it here. I just wanted to say that Nima Daryamadj has written a great column expressing his view (a view I share a 100%).

Back in ’99 I wrote my first lines of JavaScript, having instantly fallen in love with it and what can be done. One of my first projects when I was studying in the spring back then was a small campaign web site for a flavored childrens milk called MUUmjölk (Moo-milk). Please note that, for apparent reasons, the web site only works in Internet Explorer and Netscape 4 (the year after I was writing AJAX-like applications :-)).

Anyway…
What I wanted to talk about are the books that really helped my JavaScript skills to evolve. The three most important ones were:

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan

This book really gave me a thorough understanding of JavaScript and the mechanisms behind it. A book I’d recommend to anyone starting with JavaScript today.

JavaScript Objects by Tom Myers and Alexander Nakhimovsky

It’s about an object-oriented approach to JavaScript and it really has got some interesting parts. Not for beginners.

Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference by Danny Goodman

Probably the first book about web developing I read. Introduced some cool features and inspired me to think outside the box.

At least the first two would probably still be applicable today, although they might need some updating to scripting with the DOM. I also remember reading Stefan Koch’s Vodoo’s Introduction To JavaScript.

Back in 2002 I was asked by WROX to write a FAQ about JavaScript that was published in their P2P forums. Unfortunately, after their bankruptcy and redesign, all the FAQs on their web site were removed.

And remember, folks: It’s not hard nowadays to get your script to work in different web browsers. Just use the methods and properties supplied by the DOM. The only substantial difference between Internet Explorer and all other web browsers, though, is that Internet Explorer doesn’t support the standardized event model (see link below).

Where to go from here

The first three are links with introduction to how to approach the DOM. The second two are more in-depth articles and writings about JavaScript. Happy scripting!

• Introduction to the Document Object Model by BrainJar
• Scripting For The 6.0 Browsers by Scott Andrew
• Crossbrowser DOM Scripting: Event Handlers by Scott Andrew (if you really want to dig deep in this field, read addEvent() recoding contest)
• QuirksMode by Peter-Paul Koch
• WebFX by Erik Arvidsson and Emil A. Eklund

Updated! Links to references:

• Gecko DOM Reference
• HTML and DHTML Reference
• JavaScript page at Mozilla
• JScript reference (JScript is Microsoft’s implementation of JavaScript)

And there we go again. Recently, Microsoft has made a lot of good decisions, especially when it comes to collaborating with WaSP about having their products, such as .NET, generating more valid and accessible code. This also includes in getting their next version of Internet Explorer to implement a better support for web standards and CSS. All this is great news and very good for the future. The developers at Microsoft seem to really try to do a good job.

But then Steve Ballmer comes along with this quote in Business Week:

We won the desktop. We won the server. We will win the Web. We will move fast, we will get there. We will win the Web.

This has already been discussed by, amongst others, Molly and Roger Johansson. And yes, I know that Ballmer is a business man, he’s got to have this cocky attitude.

But the problem is, especially in light of all the good things Microsoft have done recently, these kind of statements just ruins the goodwill created, it just annoys people who have recently started to think about changing their opinion about Microsoft and to forget the past.

Ballmer is probably just doing this to spite, or to get Microsoft investors all aroused. But please, some balance…

I’m such a copycat. But hell, if something’s good, I want to take part of it as well. I’m now officially a member of the 9rules Network.

Recently, two high-profile bloggers in the form of Molly and Roger Johansson joined, and that’s when I really got my eyes opened for the 9rules Network. I read up on it, and checked out the other members. Liking what I saw, I got in touch with mastermind and 9rules Network CEO, Paul Scrivens, to discuss about me becoming a part of it. And now I am!

I’m constantly looking for getting the greatest exposure possible and for ways how to increase the traffic to this web site, and this seems to be an excellent approach.

Make sure you check out the 9rules Network and its other very interesting members!

Always wondered where the term bug came from? Been pondering what debugging is about? Well, here goes:

One day in the 1940s, Harvard’s famed Mark I–the precursor of today’s computers–failed. When the Harvard scientists looked inside, they found a moth that had lodged in the Mark I’s circuits. They removed the moth with a pair of tweezers, and from then on, whenever there was a problem with the Mark I, the scientists said they were looking for bugs. The term has stuck through the years.

(Dun’s Business Month, February 1983)

That’s the tale at least. BYTE.com has taken a little closer look at the myth.

From now on, I’ll always say there’s a moth in my program when something doesn’t work (I really hope this catches on!)… 🙂