When I started my job about 2 months ago I went through [The Nerdery's] standard Front End Developer training. In it we talked a whole bunch about modular CSS and reusable patterns, it was super awesome. But in the course of it we also talked about style guides. At the beginning of each project they’ve been trying to get started on a style guide first. This is done by building out resusable patterns so that it is all in one place when it comes time to do builds of pages, etc. Read more
This will be a three part series on skinning Flex components. For part one I have chosen to dissolve the myth that Flex 3 can’t truly cascade styles. This three part series will start simple and get more complex with each post. You can use this code to mimic descendant selectors, dimensioning and multiple class names within Flex.
Problem:
Flex can’t do true cascading styles like HTML (for example a black play button)
Solution:
YES, flex can do cascading styles. It just requires a different approach. A programmatic approach. Don’t worry, I assure you that even a non-programmer can pick this one up.
Lets dive a little deeper. Cascading styles refers to the ability to start with a button, style it into a black button then go a step further and make it a play button. First, create a button and use some CSS to style various properties of that button. Read more
Astrological Sign: I honestly don’t know. Never really looked into it.
Time at the Nerdery: Since September 2008.
Area of expertise: Front end development mostly (HTML, CSS, JS), but I can knock around PHP pretty well, and recently did my first Rails project. I started off as a designer . . . who knew an Art degree would lead to programming?
When people ask you what you do, how do you respond: I make websites. Any details further than that and people kind of nod their heads and pretend they know what I’m talking about, but the “I make websites” usually brings an “oh, cool” response.
Favorite kinds of projects to work on: Ones that I can focus on for an extended period of time. I can juggle multiple projects, but its much more fun to have one or two projects that I can devote time to, but if they last for more than 2-3 months I start to burn out.
What one thing about The Nerdery surprises people the most when you tell them about it: That I bring my dog to work. Also when I tell people it’s doubled in size in the last year.
Seven dream Jeopardy Categories: 1) The IE 6 Box Model; 2) Name that CSS bug!; 3)Definition Lists or Unordered Lists; 4) IE 6 CSS hacks; 5) Bathroom tile removal tools; 6) Ways to annoy my wife; 7) World of Warcraft (pre marital bliss).
Favorite Fictional Nerd: Hiro, from Heroes, but he lost his powers recently and kind of sucks at the moment. There was a foreshadowing scene in the first season where he was a ninja and didn’t talk like a nerd, so I’m eagerly awaiting the episode when he becomes a kick ass ninja, but I guess he wouldn’t be a nerd anymore.
According to the Wikipedia entry on Nerd, some nerds show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, or overly mature for their age, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Do you know what disambiguation is: That question is too long. Can I pass?
This example is for anyone who needs to use anchor tags in ActionScript TextFields. If you’re using AIR then the best route is to use an HTMLLoader to load in the raw HTML. If an HTMLLoader is not an option you can use this example to create a wrapper class that mimics the anchor tag functionality. Before we get started it is important to note that TextFields have a number of properties, formats, and styles available which all have an effect on the way text is rendered. This example takes advantage of a specific set of properties in order to accurately determine the line number and char location of certain strings. Variables may require some adjustments / tweaks (or may not work at all) if the TextField properties are changed. Read more
CrazyLeaf Designs has named their Most Beautiful Web Sites of 2008. The choose 50 of the best CSS and Flash designs from their Web site showcase. Some of the sites are really pretty, though after a bit they start to seem a little same-y looking. A lot of them seem to have the cartoony look of a Ferry Halim game (beware: clicking that link might get you sucked into beautiful flash games and cause you to lose many hours of your time) look about them.
So here’s a questions for you, what do you think are some of the most beautiful sites on the Web?
Six Revisions has six questions for Eric Meyer on CSS3. Meyer an author of six books on CSS and a member of A List Apart talks about what he’s most exited about in CSS3 and what designers and developers can do to help with the adoption and development of the spec.
I really liked the 37signals piece on Defensive Design and anticipating where your customers/clients might slip-up and designing so that when they do slip-up it doesn’t have serious repercussions.
The 90-9-1 Principle is about how users tends to participate in online social communities. The overarching theory is that 90% of the people lurk, 9% will add to something already created, and 1% actually do the creation. Interesting reading. [via]
Web Controversy of the Week: Moms vs. Motrin. I don’t know about you, but I love this kind of stuff. It fascinates me on so many levels. First of all, I am surprised that people are paying such close attention to Motrin’s Web site. Second, I think this is a lesson in how fast a community can organize, especially when you piss off the moms. Third, it gives anyone who works in or with the media a real-life example of how to deal with a very public backlash against you.
Okay, I saw this all over the Internet this week, but it took me until like the sixth mention to actually watch the video. It’s a viral marketing video for Guitar Hero featuring a a kid playing “Prisoner of Society” by The Living End on his bike. You have to watch to understand it. It’s pretty cool (even if it is a big ol’ advertisement).
So what were you reading on the Internet this week?
Written by: Susan Robertson
