But a giant pain in the ass.
Getting all this stuff to layout right using css isn't that bad, really. What kills you is trying to make the layouts look even somewhat consistent across all the different browsers. I've checked Mozilla on Solaris, Win NT, and Mac OS X. Looks fine, as far as I can tell. It even looks ok on IE 5.x on Windows, after much wrangling.
Sheesh. Gotta wonder if it's really worth it...
Boy, the nutjobs are out today.
I'd get fired before I taught that crap in my biology classroom. Might as well ask me to teach that the world is flat, or the earth is the center of the universe, or that thing about the world being held up by elephants standing on some turtles, or that thunder is caused by Thor cracking someone with his hammer.
Once upon a time, back in late 1994, I learned html and started making web pages. It was easy, everything was straightforward, but the content and design was boring. Pretty much all anyone had on their websites was lists of links, maybe a few photos. But I was current enough that I could call myself a web geek without anyone paying me to create web pages.
In the meantime, while I was making nice static pages with static content, the web world moved out from under me, and I'm having a hard time catching up. I learned a little php when I rebuilt this site last spring, so I could load random quotes and random images into the top section of my pages. It occurred to me then that I should learn enough php to make my entire site modular, and enough css to make redesigns easy. I put it off, and did it half-assed, so there's lots of static content, and a little flexible content.
And then I started looking into this blogging stuff, Movable Type, and others, and I've discovered that I'm behind, way behind. You can do some way cool stuff, but man, it's a lot to keep track of. So I'm stuck editing these entries by hand until I have the time to sort through all the implications of implementing Movable Type on my site.
I think I'll probably just back everything up and give it a try. See what breaks. Not like anyone's reading this stuff anyway...
Well, it looks as if I have avoided unemployment about as long as I'm going to. By all appearances, I will be out of a job beginning October 24th.
I work as a unix administrator for a certain contract firm, we'll call them "Lords, Inc." I've worked for them since July, 2000, on-site at a large pharmaceutical corporation. The drug company pays Lords, who then pays me after taking their (large) cut. Hundreds of people at LDC (large drug company) are contractors, worldwide I'm sure it's in the 10s of thousands. My contract has been renewed in 3-month increments for the last 18 months because that's the max time limit LDC will allow extensions these days.
Last summer, LDC decided to narrow the list of contract vendors to minimize the variation in charged overhead among vendors. The vendors were invited to submit applications to be on the new "approved" list. For consideration, the vendors had to agree to all sort of conditions, one of which was waiving their employees' non-compete clauses. So, if I work for Lords, but Lords doesn't make the list, I could go to work for one of the companies that did without interference from my current company.
This is exactly what happened: Lords didn't make the list, and I received an email from Lords informing me that my contract would not be extended beyond 10/23/02. Lords has also decided to prevent me from continued employment at LDC through another contract vendor by vigorous enforcement of the aforementioned non-compete clause. Of course, Lords has not identified another job to send me to, so at some point in the next few weeks they will be forced to terminate me, sending me into unemployment just before Christmas.
There are 8 members of our unix team, half of which are contractors. Three of us work for companies that did not make LDC's approved list. Mine is the only company which is attempting to prevent its employees from retaining gainful employment by switching to another vendor.
I am trying to appreciate their position in this, but am having trouble. My position in this is: I have three children I have to clothe and feed, and my "employer" is actively preventing me from gainful employment.
Blogger appears to be more trouble than it's worth. I'm still having trouble posting text with embedded links. So, I'm going to try Movable Type based on this guy's recommendation. It will probably take at least a day or three before I get it working again, so we'll see how it goes.
But, while I'm at it, here's the post I was trying to get Blogger to accept...
Check this out for an alternate take on the whole W vs Saddam thing. This guy doesn't appear to trust W very much, and I can't say I disagree with him on that... I do find it ironic that back in the 2000 campaign Dubya was supposed to be strong in domestic policy, and weak in foreign affairs. After all, he had trouble remembering (and pronouncing) the name of the guy in charge in Pakistan.
And now here we are, domestic economy is a mess and the surplus that took several years to generate has vanished almost overnight. Oh, right, presidents don't have that much effect on the economy. Unless it's bad, then it's Clinton's fault. Or if it's good, then it's Bush's doing.
And we're about to invade Iraq, possibly forcing Saddam's hand into using whatever nasty crap he's developed on our troops and/or Israel. And Sharon is definitely NOT Rabin, or even Shamir. A fine mess.