Archives for 2002

I followed a link from plasticbag

February 18, 2002 by Michael Boyle

I followed a link from plasticbag

early this morning and took an interesting test: Battleground God. The basic idea is that it tests the consistency of your beliefs in god and such. As a long-time atheist, but one who has studied religion in various forms, I was particularly interested in seeing this thing in action.

I ended up being judged to be very consistent with my views, but I got one “direct hit” – meaning that I was badly inconsistent in one opinion. The site said,

Earlier you said that it is justifiable to base one’s beliefs about the external world on a firm, inner conviction even when there is no external evidence for the truth of this conviction. But now you do not accept that the rapist Peter Sutcliffe was justified in doing just that. The example of the rapist has exposed that you do not in fact agree that any belief is justified just because one is convinced of its truth. So you need to revise your opinion here. The intellectual sniper has scored a bull’s-eye!

This is wrong – similar to what Tom found, the site has judged something inconsistent incorrectly. In saying that it is justifiable to base beliefs on a firm inner conviction, it does not follow that any firm inner conviction is therefore justifiable or acceptible. I base my beliefs about the world on firm inner convictions but also upon other things, such what I feel “society” or my community finds acceptible. For me, it is the constant dialogue between my existing inner convictions and the demands of the wider world that determines my morality, not only firm inner convictions, unconnected to anything else.

Someone named dsinclair

February 18, 2002 by Michael Boyle

Someone named dsinclair

has compiled an interesting page called Right Wing Myths Exposed. The best part is about the “Liberal Media” myth: “For conservatives of every persuasion, it is a self-evident truth that the mass media are liberally biased. As a proud liberal myself, I wish it was true: where are those liberal TV channels?” Check out the map at the top too.

Glen Fleishman

February 14, 2002 by Michael Boyle

Glen Fleishman

has the story on the new Google Appliance: Google Goes Business Class. Having sat in interminable discussions about how to organize the shared folders in medium-to-large corporate networks, the Google thing is a godsend. They alone, from what I have seen, have the power under the hood to do away with pipedreams like trying to force everyone to place their files in a pre-baked taxonomy.

The question on the table

February 13, 2002 by Michael Boyle

The question on the table

: Are tables really evil? Well, no they’re not. But they were never intended to be used to format web pages, and so now that there’s a better solution (CSS), they should no longer be used that way. Tables are still completely viable in HTML – but for displaying tabular data.

Why? Why, really, should anyone change? The best answer is this: for the same reason Userland developed Radio. Radio solves (as do other systems) a big problem: separating content from style. Trouble is, there are three variables, not just two.

Content – we know about that. Style – we know about that too. But there’s also structure to consider. Using CSS allows us to separate structure from style. This is as powerful, in its own way, as separating content from style, and just as important.

By using CSS to format my pages (though I do have one table still kicking around, unfortunately), I get to present items that any device can understand. If some bit of text is a very important heading on the page, I don’t obscure the fact by coding it with font tags and hiding it in a table that’s purely there to place it in a prominent position on the page. I call it what it is: h1. Simple, clean.

Most importantly, though, suddenly it no longer matters what device is trying to “display” or render my page. Anything at all will see that and display that bit of text as the most important thing on that page.

Why is that important? Well, because as Dave Winer says, the web should be a great writing environment – which implies that it should equally be a great reading environment. When I’m writing, I’m only concerned about me – my ability to write well and have it appear. To make it a great reading environment – and thus support the other side of the coin – I can’t just care about me, I have to care about everyone else as well. And the fewer assumptions I make about them the better. Who am I to insist that they use a certain device to look at my page? They read, their choice. Why should I make them track down an alternate version which may or may not work on their particular device?

If you want the web to be a great writing environment, you also want it to be a great reading environment. And that means using CSS to provide the style, HTML (or XHTML) deployed in templates to provide the structure, and a CMS to feed the content. It’s quite simple, actually.

Happy birthday to me

February 13, 2002 by Michael Boyle

Happy birthday to me

. This weblog – albeit in slightly different form – is two years old today! But the weblog format wasn’t my first incarnation on the web – this month also marks 6 years and 3 months since my first personal site went up. That original (ugly) site is available via the Wayback Machine.