Book Review: Stylin' with CSS

May 20, 2008
Add Comment

I feel that I must first disclose that Stylin’ with CSS was written by someone I work with. That said, I don’t feel that our work relationship swayed my opinion in any way.

I have been doing web development for a long time now and have played around with CSS quite a bit over the years. I can get a lot done with it but have always found that there were certain points that I would get to and just spin my wheels. When I change one property, something else stopped working. When I fixed the something else, the original change broke again. After reading this book I now understand why.

4172k6q3y7l_sl500_aa240_.jpg

The first handful of chapters go over the way CSS works, its structure, and how browsers go about rendering it. An extremely important part of this is the explanation of hierarchies and relationships between elements. These chapters also focus on the different types of major elements, block and inline, and go into details about how each work. The remaining chapters go over things like how to achieve different layouts and effects and how to create reusable components. In addition to examples in the book there are a number of libraries that can be downloaded from the book’s website that will allow you to quickly recreate any effects in the book with minimal duplication of code.

If you have never heard about or touched CSS, buy this book. If you have just a little bit of web experience and want to learn more about CSS, buy this book. If you have a fair amount of web and CSS experience, consider buying this book. If you don’t know everything about CSS but are very comfortable using it, this is likely not the book for you.

No Pain, No Gain

May 17, 2008
2 Comments

So my work provides us with bicycles, treadmills, and other things so that we can keep healthy. Promoting the health of its employees is one of the core values of our company. After my recent graduation I decided to start using my lunch breaks to get in shape. I’ve been biking, running, and doing gravity resistance things (pull-ups, push-ups, etc) with a friend/colleague of mine, Paul. That’s gonna have to go on hold.

Friday, we were out riding and the front wheel of my bike caught on the curb as I was going up. For some reason, instead of spinning over like it normally would, it stuck. While the front wheel stopped completely, the bike and myself did not. I flew over the handle bars and landed square on my shoulder. A lady in a car saw what happened and let Paul use her phone to call for help. The fire department arrived and took me and my bike back to work – I wasn’t bad off enough that I wanted an ambulance. I grabbed my stuff and drove to the hospital.

untitled.PNG
My MS Paint rendition of the event

Turns out that dropping ~240 pounds directly on a shoulder doesn’t fare well for the structural integrity of one’s body. I ended up with a separation of the AC joint, which is basically the ligaments that hold your collar bone to your shoulder. It’s not really too serious (at least so they tell me) and it should heal completely within 6 weeks and I’ll have full mobility return. I also ended up with either bruised ribs or a hairline fracture of the ribs – they couldn’t tell which but they are treated the same so it didn’t really matter. Fun day.

Points of Contact

May 16, 2008
Add Comment

Q: What can have a single face or thousands of them, but should only ever have one identity?

A: A company.

Every time an employee of a company contacts a customer, a potential hire, a supplier, a government office, or anyone else, they are assuming the identity of their company, whether they realize it or not. This means that the impression people are left with not only reflects the individual themselves but also the company as a whole. Because of this the core values of the company will be either hidden or disclosed based upon the actions and value set of the individual. If the individual has a set of core values that is closely aligned with the company then the interactions with outsiders will typically yield an accurate depiction of the values of the company, assuming the individual acts in accordance with those values. However, in cases where the person is not closely aligned or does not act in accordance with the company’s core values, the impression left is not one that accurately reflects the true identity of the company.

Disparities in values are not only acceptable but necessary for a thriving company. A friend/colleague of mine always says, “If there are two people in a business that have the exact same values and opinions, the business has one too many people.” Differences of opinions and value sets are necessary in order to push the envelope and allow companies to sustain their forward momentum. However, when these differences cause a negative perception of the company the entire organization is instantly set back.

While the internal organization should cultivate diversity, this should be largely hidden from external entities in order to paint a singular image for the public. Companies must insist that all employees foster an attitude and environment that appropriately portrays the values of the company and minimizes differences. As an example, many companies have poor customer service, which is undoubtedly not something they strive for. Customer service representatives that are rude, recruiters that attempt to devalue potential hires, and store staff lacking knowledge of their products are just a few of the many ways that companies allow the public to get a hazy image of the core corporate values. All of these could be fixed by management.

While most modern companies are highly focused on low cost and fast turnaround, it is essential that management focus on the task of getting all points of contact to emulate the image the company wishes to show to the public. It doesn’t matter if employees agree with the values or not, as long as their complaints and dissensions are never voiced publicly and always reserved for the office. This is the only way to prevent a fractured public opinion.