Looks like my distaste of Internet Explorer isn’t going to get any better with IE7. Check out this quote from Microsoft Watch’s “CSS Support Could Be Internet Explorer’s Weakest Link.”
“CSS 2.0 has a few nice features, but realistically, I don’t think it being in there makes much difference either way,” said a Windows developer, who requested anonymity.
Yesterday, I was reading an article called “Easy-peasy PHP” on Digital Web Magazine’s website. As I was busy learning how I could become a better programmer, I realized something I wrote was being cited as a reference:
“Later on we might want to use PHP to make the list highlight the current page, perhaps using “Keeping Navigation Current With PHP” [by Jason Pearce] or a similar technique. For this reason, instead of adding a single instance of navigation.php to main.php we’ll actually want to include navigation.php in each of the files (intro.php, bluetruck.php, redhouse.php, and brownbear.php).”
Exactly who is the PHP expert here? I’m certain that I am most definitely not a PHP expert.
Sure, I wrote an article for A List Apart describing a PHP trick I used often, but that doesn’t make me an expert — or does it? Oddly, the author of the article stated that he, too, was no expert. Yet, we both publish something that gets read and referenced by hundreds of users.
Maybe it’s the sole act of putting something in writing. When I received a phone call from Ze Frank (a notable blogger) earlier this month to talk about Third Goal, he even said he’s no expert, but because a lot of people read his website, he’s often asked to speak at conferences and the like.
Whatever it is, I’m no expert. I discover this every day. The more I learn about PHP or just about anything at all, the more I become aware of how much I don’t know. Maybe, just maybe, that explains why I truly did know it all when I was 17.
Here’s a list of some useful HTML character entities. I’m trying to use the four quote symbols more often.
| Character | HTML Entity | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ¢ | ¢ |
Cent sign |
| £ | £ |
Pound sterling sign |
| € | € |
Euro sign |
| © | © |
Copyright sign |
| ‘ | ‘ |
Left single quote |
| ’ | ’ |
Right single quote |
| “ | “ |
Left double quote |
| ” | ” |
Right double quote |
| « | « |
Left angle quote |
| » | » |
Right angle quote |
| — | — |
Em dash |
| – | – |
En dash |
| ® | ® |
Registered trademark |
| ™ | ™ |
Trademark sign |
| ° | ° |
Degree sign |
| ± | ± |
Plus or minus |
| ¼ | ¼ |
One quarter |
| ½ | ½ |
One half |
| ¾ | ¾ |
Three quarters |
| × | × |
Multiplication sign |
| ÷ | ÷ |
Division sign |
| α | α |
Greek letter alpha |
| β | β |
Greek letter beta |
| ∞ | ∞ |
Infinity symbol |
On a completely different topic, I’ve recently set up a web server at home. Three great tools helped make this happen.
The first would be my Linksys Wireless G router. This router offers a Dynamic DNS utility that keeps my ever-changing home IP address working.
The second tool would be The Saint TSW, a WAMP package that made it real easy to get up and running. It includes Apache, PHP, mySQL, and mail and FTP servers.
The last great tool is TightVNC, a virtual networking client. This tool gives me the ability to manage my computer remotely.
Though I haven’t played with it much yet, Mambo might beet them all as my favorite. A CMS, this open-source app might change the way I build websites.
Lambda Chi Alpha’s conference, called General Assembly, is to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, July 29-31 - just three weeks away! My goal is to build a demo of our new site, with two or more CSS designs. I have a lot of work ahead of me.
Since the entire site is going to use a single XHTML template with PHP includes for various blocks of content, I only have to build one full set of content. But I will have to use the exact same foundation of code to support multiple CSS designs. I’m kind of setting up a CSS Zen Garden of my own. This is going to test my skills.
In coming up with some fluid CSS design ideas I noticed a few nice trends in browser statistics.