Jason Pearce

I don’t know why I haven’t thought of it before, but I figured out a nice little trick this week while developing some difficult CSS graphs and charts.

CSS can be tricky when you use lots of floats and nested positioning. So much so, that you practically have to test your code in several browsers for each and every little change that you make to the code, just to see if everything is going to work as you want it to.

Testing, however, can eat up a lot of time. You have to view the page in various browsers and various operating systems, which means you have to go from computer to computer hitting “Refresh” to display the page with your most recent changes. Until now.

It dawned on me that all I had to do was toss in a refresh META tag in the HEAD of the document and all of the computers will refresh the document automatically, say, every five seconds. That way, I could have three or four computers within visual range of my desk automatically loading my changes to display my every flaw in disappointing detail.

The Refresh Meta Tag

<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="5" />

I’m such a idiot for figuring this out just now.

The word is out: I’m returning to Lambda Chi Alpha’s staff. COO Kip Zurcher posted the following in the fraternity’s “This Week at Headquarters” weekly email. The email goes to staff, board, former staff, and a bunch of key volunteers.

Jason Pearce Joins Staff (Again)!

Beginning May 1, Jason Pearce (Elon ‘94) will become our Director of Technology. He previously served the Fraternity as an ELC, editor, and director of communications from 1995 to 1999. Since leaving staff, Pearce helped start (and close) WeAlumni.com in DC; worked for Carden Jennings Publishing by opening an office for them in Indianapolis; served as a volunteer for the Peace Corps in Guyana; and currently is a web designer at Gourad Media Group.

Jason will direct the revamping of our website and insure that the internal network at headquarters is working well. He will report directly to me as the Chief Operating Officer to ensure that all areas of the staff are benefiting from his work.

Welcome back, Jason! We look forward to seeing great things from you.

For more information, please visit Jason’’s personal website at jason.pearce.net.

It will be good to be back. Thanks Kip.

On a similar note, I’ve tossed in my hat to chair a committee or serve on the board again for CFEA, the College Fraternity Editors Association. CFEA’s conference will be in Chicago May 6 - 9.

Ironically, neither Lambda Chi Alpha nor CFEA’s website have changed much since I last worked on them several years ago. Is there a pattern here?