Groan ... my aching body

Note for the future: Don't play squash for the 1st time in 12 months (I won ... yay!) then have a few drinks, get dehydrated and expect non-aching muscles. D'oh!

AJAX Not just a buzzword

Seen it on discussion lists but until now not understood it: ajax: a new approach to web applications is a good explanation. A very cool approach to web app design ... and we have 2 new modules that are crying out for it: one on XML and the other entitled Advanced web design techniques, so look out! students, here comes XMLHTTPrequest ;-)

Progressive enhancement & Ajax from Adactio -- excellent idea. (And in XHTML application/xhtml+xml too ... nice!)

XHTML

I've wanted an excuse to add an XHTML post <grin> and this clear explanation from The Autistic Cuckoo of the way browsers use the HTTP Content-type and DOCTYPE web pages should supply is it: Doctype Declarations and Content-Type Headers.

Planning Structural HTML

It's great to see such a straightforward explanation of how one might think about structuring an HTML page with CSS in mind as this: The Early Bird Catches the CSS: Planning Structural HTML. One criticism -- whilst <div> elements are probably very useful for beginners to separate the structure of the site and as hooks for descendant selectors, I can't think of many reasons why the navigation <ul> elements need individual <div> containers. It's simpler and leaner to give the <ul>'s an ID and the advantages mentioned:

The nesting of div elements, as in this example, allows you more options for CSS rules to present what is structurally just two lists. There could be a presentation rule for #navcontainer, and another for #globalnav?For example, the #navcontainer rule might center the div in a column, while the #globalnav rule might left align the text of the centered div. And, of course, there can be rules for the presentation of #globalnav ul or #globalnav li that use this structural context. The rules for the list in #subnav could be completely different in terms of presentation.

can be achieved equally well with ID's on the <ul>'s. Are there any other reasons for the <div>'s? (Hackery to make IE work?)

Funny stuff from Google: Google Gulp

Responsible billionaires with a sense of fun? Google Gulp <grin>

Argh! Gas leak...

We had a gas leak outside our house, discovered and reported at 10PM, Transco were there before 11PM and the second crew to dig up the pavement are here now, pnematic drill pounding away! All credit to them for being respnsive, but it is midnight on a sunday ... me and the rest of the street need our sleep <yawn>

Cite what you like

Wahey! A useful tool: I'm always looking for another way to organise all the journal papers I intend to read but somehow seldom get around to ... thanks, Jill!

Maintaining standards

General reaction to De Montfort effectively lowering pass marks is of horror, but it seems to me that it's also a good advert for the systems of quality assurance (government review & external examiners) that exist at every university in this country. If we tried something similar we'd get hammered, not just by our externals but also by our internal QA <shudder> people ... at least I fervently hope we would because it'd demonstrate that all the bloody paperwork our QA people keep making us do does serve a purpose ;-)

IMO it's an essential part of the job (as an academic) to maintain standards & that means failing people who should not pass! It surprises me regularly when students complain because they are "close" to passing so feel they should because "they worked hard" ... sorry, I appreciate the hard work but it's tough: Meet the grade and pass! Fail to meet the grade and you should expect to fail!!

The Zen of CSS Design

Now this looks like a fascinating book ... and if you haven't seen the CSS Zen Garden -- why not?! Go there now ;-)

Marking joy

OK, so it's usually marking hell but today feelings of joy: four of the 80 or-so assignments I'm marking have copied students who did the same exercise last year in a clear, unequivocal way <grin> ... gives me a (brief) happy.