One client of mine liked really fancy client-side interfaces… too fancy, but I couldn’t talk them out of it… so I got pretty good at JavaScript and I had a passable understanding of the DOM in some detail. The DOM was specified by humans, and humans are capable of unintended but vast ambiguity. Browser designers, even those with wholly good intentions, resolve those ambiguities in an amazing number of different ways, so that complex code (I think you’ll admit that TinyMCE is a tour de force), even if it is utterly standards-compliant, doesn’t run quite the same in different browser implementations.
I am fully sympathetic to the programmers at TinyMCE; it’s a difficult task. And from my discussion with WordPress staff, I’m convinced TinyMCE is not attempting to pander to Microsoft. They’re just trying to produce a product that works correctly on most of the browsers out there. Been there, done that.
]]>The irony is that many of the health-related problems along the border with Mexico are driven by Americans, not Mexicans… Americans consuming illegal drugs, American companies employing workers at maquiladoras who live in communities with substandard or nonexistent health infrastructure, etc. Those Americans who are hostile to Mexicans in general have no real basis for their hostility (other than racism), and those Americans who are hostile to Mexicans who are in the U.S. illegally need to think long and hard about why they are here, and then go look in the mirror for the primary cause. Building high walls or fancy electronic fences along the border will not solve the problem. Creating a sort of second-class citizenship or guest-worker program will not solve the problem. When Americans (and especially their corporations) enter into fair business relationships with Mexicans, then we’ll find out what jobs Americans really won’t take (I suspect there are damned few such jobs, if salaries are fairly determined on both sides of the border) and we’ll find out how much it really costs (in money) to solve the problem, rather than how much it really costs (in human terms) to continue to abuse our neighbors.
(OT again, I’ve corresponded with WordPress; they’re amazingly responsive for an outfit that gives away services, storage and bandwidth. My main problem was not knowing the Shift-Enter keystroke, which inserts a break tag rather than a paragraph tag. The other problems may be browser-specific. Details later.)
]]>If someone is in trouble in the water you don’t ask for a “green card”, you pull them out.
If someone is wandering in the desert, you don’t ask if they’re a prophet [I couldn’t resist], you give them water.
I have a question for the author, how can you legally determine someone’s citizenship status if you don’t work for the government? That information is protected and you can’t get access. In a world filled with Photoshop and color printers, documents don’t mean a thing. Do they have any idea how many people have absolutely no documents left after last year’s hurricane season?
In a world with a flu pandemic on the horizon, I want sick people in a healthcare facility.
]]>(OT, today, WordPress just replaced their editor on wordpress.com with an alleged WYSIWYG editor, and the results have sent me screaming. Hint: poets like to control line breaks in their documents; automatic word wrap is a bad, bad thing for most poems. They have threatened, um, I mean, promised to migrate the new editor to the installable version of WordPress. Beware of upgrades!)
]]>It didn’t occur to me that chopsticks were a problem until the local BBC reporter explained how they were deforesting huge parts of China specifically to make them. I guess I should be using my good ones, or find some plastic ones that can be washed effectively. The disposable wooden ones were certainly convenient, and they were more effective at holding on to food than the lacquered ones.
]]>oooh! the chinese are going to tax wooden, disposable chopsticks b/c they’re wasteful and consume lots of wood…now there’s news!
]]>If we didn’t have desperate people willing to work for $5.15/hour it would have been history a long time ago.
If they can’t get work, they won’t stay. You don’t have to arrest or harass them, they’ll leave on their own.
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