I'm heading up to Edmonton this weekend and, as the status line above occassionally mentions, I won't be checking my email. Which is going to be hard, let me tell you -- I've been addicted to email for a very, very long time (since about '93 - 92 if you count the BBS days). I just feel, well, burnt out from the amount of stuff falling onto my desk over the last couple weeks. Now I know what you're going to say -- it's part of the industry, and I'd say you were right -- but what has caused the burning out has not been the amount of work that has come across my plate, but rather the amount of decision changing that has happened after getting the "final" directions on a project.

But enough ranting.

Tonight, I fly out to Edmonton on my favourite airline, WestJet. I'm planning on leaving work at 4:45, no matter what I have left to do, stop off at Subway & get my dinner, and just sit at the airport to read for an hour or so before my flight leaves. I desperately need this downtime, so that I'm not a jiggly little ball of stress when I meet Kirsten at the airport. I plan to relax this weekend, and not get stressed about anything. At least, that's the plan. :)
posted by Darren Harkness 2:04 PM

For HTML geeks only. [astoundingweb].
posted by Darren Harkness 9:42 AM

The Curse of Information Design [alistapart
posted by Darren Harkness 9:14 AM

Linux development lab opens. Got some pretty big backers too, with HP, Intel, IBM and NEC.
posted by Darren Harkness 12:04 PM

Microsoft: Web problems were technician error. From what I understand, Microsoft had all its name servers on the same subnet, and had several other problems with their network setup. I think there's a lot more to it than "technician error" -- things such as, oh I don't know, not having a redundant system set in place to deal with DNS failures?
posted by Darren Harkness 12:03 PM

Study suggests Venus could have been wet planet
posted by Darren Harkness 11:58 AM

This is freaking hilarious.
posted by Darren Harkness 4:48 PM

Well, here we are, ready for primetime.

Welcome to the slightly redesigned Static|Red. A few things; We're finally liquid! That's right, the years of ice/jello design is over! (well, ok, maybe not completely yet, but hey.. it's a start!); You'll find the page a lot more useful now, through the links to the right. Email me at webmaster@nasty.cx if you have any suggestions for web design/development related sites/resources

Last, but certainly not least, I've built this page entirely without tables. Yup, that's right, not a single one to be seen. This means a couple of things: hopefully faster rendering times, a little more control over how things are laid out (I love CSS, I really do), and it should degrade gracefully in non-css compliant browsers (tested it in a few, seems to go ok).

I'm going to use a very similar system for nasty in the near future (Read: when I have time) -- I'm hoping I can find some sort of content management system, which allows either K or me to upload articles & have it update the site's archives, main page, and various category indices. Any perlsluts out there begging for a time-killing project? Let me know. ;)
posted by Darren Harkness 2:52 PM

Playing with CSS Goodness in a mild redesign of the site. Look for it to come up in a few hours.
posted by Darren Harkness 1:30 PM

God-Man! [engel]
posted by Darren Harkness 9:55 AM

Our new $10 bill
posted by Darren Harkness 11:56 AM

Effective Web Writing -- for my own reference
posted by Darren Harkness 9:04 AM

*snigger*
posted by Darren Harkness 11:10 PM

Seen in a .sig:

"A Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer is to computing what a McDonald's Certified Chef is to fine cuisine."
posted by Darren Harkness 2:30 PM

(Dis)graceful degradation: Don’t support bad (beta) browsers [MacEdition]
posted by Darren Harkness 1:27 PM

I had talked before about George Dubyah increasing the US defense budget by $20 billion, and was outraged at the expense of money that could clearly be used elsewhere. Now, I read this. Dubyah is proposing a $1.3 trillion tax cut. Yes folks, that's right, trillion. Why not take this money, and instead of making the rich richer, put oit back into the education system Dubyah so despises? Why not, instead of penalizing schools that have low student performance, giving those schools the funding they so desperately need, so they can hire teachers that can teach? (Qualified, outstanding teachers just don't head to inner-city schools. They can make more money working a school in Beverly Hills than they can working in south-central LA, and they can do it safer too... would you go work at an inner city school for a low salary when you were pretty much guaranteed to at least be injured by one of your students?)

Why not put this 1.3 trillion dollars into programs for the homeless? Fund affordable housing (and no, not like the Projects of LA & other cities -- truly affordable housing that you don't have to check for rats/termites/roaches)? Give more funding to programs which get kids off the street?

There are so many better ways to spend this money - education, homelessness, poverty...

But, then again, perhaps that's the socialist in me speaking.
posted by Darren Harkness 9:37 AM