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  • From: Steven Champeon <schampeo AT hesketh.com>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] divs and spans and style sheets, oh my
  • Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 10:35:47 -0400

on Wed, Apr 09, 2003 at 08:12:26PM -0700, Jesse D.d.m. Wilbur wrote:
> whoops.
>
> I guess I slipped up there when I put 'standards compliant' in the
> subject line. I *did* read the article. I even spent a lot of time
> wondering how he could get away with having it not validate. But I
> guess I just got too excited about the fact that he mentioned:
>
> "Positioning footers is a huge Achilles heel of absolute positioning.
> It is ridiculous that you cannot embed three absolutely positioned
> columns within a master div and then position a footer below that
> master div. This is a well known problem of absolute positioning and
> there are a few workarounds, none of which are very elegant."

That's not right, though. There's a difference between "I don't know
how to do this with DIVs" and "it is not possible to do this with DIVs".
And his remarks, given that he's talking about absolute positioning,
are even more ludicrous. If you're absolutely positioning everything,
then it's easy to absolutely position the footer. The hard part comes
when you have to deal with floats and the like, and I'll admit there is
a learning curve. But how difficult is it to use three stacked DIVs,
the top containing a header, the middle containing your three columns,
and the bottom containing your footer?

My main objection is just that we've worked very hard to try to teach
Web designers the basics of markup, and along comes this guy, who covers
his failure to use the technology properly by claiming it doesn't matter.
So now we have to work even harder to convince people that validation
and the use of proper markup is a pre-requisite, not an option to be
easily discarded on the advice of a high-profile, but low-skill designer
for a sports network Web site.

> But, I thought I'd continue in the vein of the discussion:
>
> http://www.uie.com/Articles/meyer_interview.htm
>
> An interview with Eric Meyer. That should be pretty standards
> compliant. :) (and yes, I realize he actually doesn't talk about
> coding any particular site, but I felt I needed to do a little
> redeeming).

Well, he does talk about Wired, and the Fox Searchlight site that
Zeldman did with Hillman Curtis (using JZ's ideas of "transitional
layout", which basically means "tables" ;) as well as a few others.
But I really like this article - Eric knows his stuff, and I envy
him his ability to say concisely what it takes me a lot more to say:

- "It generally comes down to weighing each approach's costs and
benefits for a given situation."

- "...there's a difference between catering to old browsers and
accommodating them."

- "What was the magic? Simple, structural markup."

- "The real problem with table-based layouts is the same as it always
was: the markup is bloated, complicated, slow, and just generally
wasteful."

- "The challenge is in breaking the old habits, and learning a better
way to do things."

- "All they have to do is break out of the grip of "must look the same"
mania...Looking the same really was never possible, and will never be
possible."

I've written (and continue to write) about this and other related ideas;
you may enjoy this Webmonkey article which gives some background on the
fundamentals I keep referring to:

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/42/index4a.html

Keep an eye open for another article, which will expand on the ideas in
this presentation that I gave at SxSW with Nick Finck of Digital Web:

http://hesketh.com/presentations/sxsw/2003/

Steve,
who has an odd reverence for well-formed markup

--
hesketh.com/inc. v: (919) 834-2552 f: (919) 834-2554 w: http://hesketh.com
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Subject: [internetworkers] powerline internet
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i'm posting this on behalf of Vic Minton, who thought you would like to see
this.



Power Lines Can Deliver Internet Access

Wed Apr 9, 8:20 PM ET

Add Technology - AP to My Yahoo!

By DAVID HO, Associated Press Writer

POTOMAC, Md. - The walls in a one-story brick home in suburban Washington
don't talk but their power outlets do.

>From those outlets pour streams of digital video, interactive games, online
radio stations and services familiar to people who use cable or telephone
modems to get high-speed Internet connections. This technology that delivers
broadband through ordinary electric wiring should be commercially available
to some consumers this year.

"This is within striking distance of being the third major broadband pipe
into the home," said Federal Communications Commission ( news -web sites )
Chairman Michael Powell, who visited the house Wednesday to get a preview of
the technology.

The home is part of a trial project run by Current Technologies, a company
based in Germantown, Md. The company, working with the Potomac Electric
Power Co., is providing broadband over power lines to about 70 homes in
Maryland. Another trial offers the service in suburban Cincinnati.

Utility companies including PPL Corp. in Allentown, Pa., and Ameren Corp. in
St. Louis also are conducting test programs with consumers.

Broadband can be up to hundreds of times faster than dial-up service and can
deliver a wider range of services, including high-quality video.

Powell said the FCC ( news -web sites ) is excited about the power line
technology and is studying whether it needs regulation. No current rules
prohibit the technology, but the FCC is concerned that Internet
transmissions carried over power lines could emit signals inside and outside
the home that cause interference.

Companies have struggled for years to make the technology work. Only
recently have they overcome technical hurdles such as interference on the
power lines and getting around electrical transformers that block broadband
signals.

"Power lines are a very difficult medium to send communications signals on,"
said Bill Blair, a utilities project manager with the Electric Power
Research Institute. He said the technology is still unproven as a broadband
competitor.

"It is potentially a huge business < if it works," he said.

Jay Birnbaum, president of Current Technologies, said his company will offer
the power line broadband this year, but he didn't know where the service
would be available.

He said the cost will begin around $30 for an always-on connection more than
four times faster than a dial-up modem, he said. Faster services that can
match cable modems would cost more.

Cable modems and telephone digital subscriber lines, or DSL, typically cost
about $50 a month.

Powell has said he wants more broadband competition to lower consumer prices
and bring high-speed communications services to more people.

In the Maryland test program, the company uses a fiber-optic line to inject
an Internet signal into a power line after it has left a power station. The
signal then moves to neighborhoods, using equipment on power poles to
leapfrog transformers and flow into homes.

"Every outlet in the house becomes a broadband outlet," Birnbaum said.

The only extra equipment a consumer needs is a modem that plugs into an
electric outlet and connects to a computer or Internet gadget. About the
size of a deck of cards and costing less than $70, the power line modems are
already in stores for use in home computer networks that use electric
wiring.

The wiring in the test home is more than 40 years old and required no
changes besides the modems, Birnbaum said.

Powell watched as a Current Technologies employee simultaneously used a
special stereo to listen to an Internet radio station, showed a high-quality
video of a movie streamed from the Web and played a motorcycle video game in
live competition with others online. All the services flowed through a
single power outlet.

"I love this stuff," said Powell, who described himself as a
"techno-ecstatic geek."

Asked if he would put the power line service in his home, Powell said: "Yes,
I would. I'm a little bummed it's not in my area yet."

___
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=528&ncid=528&e=3&u=/ap/200
30410/ap_on_hi_te/high_speed_house






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