Beast-Blog.com
Mike Cherim's Professional and Personal Web Log

As you may or may not know, dear reader, I’ve divided my time between my usual role as a web developer and my newer passion for photography. If not, I’ve recently explained it. Being so divided and all, I’ve somewhat neglected reading other people’s blogs, now only spending a fraction of the time doing so. I’m still out there, though. Just recently, in fact, I was checking out that A List Apart (ALA) article by Dave Shea: CSS Sprites2 - It’s JavaScript Time.

Continue reading “Keyboard Support: Mysteries Unveiled” »

When I made my How to Build a CSS Web Site tutorial I purposely started with a valid and well-formed, but unstyled HTML page — within the tutorial’s styled page (tricky). I then applied styling gradually, seen as the tutorial runs. The Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) additions are marked on the example text “File” for each page. By the time one gets to page twenty the template is done, hack-free, and the style sheet is complete. I didn’t use universal resets in this build, so I really just whipped a couple of elements into shape with as little styling help as possible. I let the browsers do their thing instead of butting heads with them. During this element whipping I also “tweaked” list types in this template (on page 18). It’s this I want to point out because I think its works well, especially for the minimalist.

Continue reading “Tweaking Your Lists” »

This article is about the pros and cons of writing a script, then freely sharing it with others via distribution on the web. Specifically I’m focusing on a script, but believe me when I tell you the points raised in this article are equally applicable to open source templates, themes, widgets, and more. I’m writing this so that you, as a script author to be, will be better informed and prepared for what’s involved if you want to do it right. The information herein is based on my own experiences as a script writer, both good and bad.

Continue reading “Writing a Freely Distributable Script” »

Picture this, there’s this guy who loves web development, but lately hasn’t done much of it. You might wonder why. Well, I’m that guy, and I have been telling you for a month or three that I’ve been up to something on the side. The deal is, as you may have gotten from the title, I have been hard at work on becoming a photographer. I enjoy photography, I have been an amateur since I was a boy, and it suits me. How it suits me and how I got to this point is a bit of a story.

Continue reading “Picture This” »

I’ve been trying to find the time for a post — and I have a couple of good ones in draft form — but nothing is ready to go. Then again, I have been trying to cut my hours to something resembling a normal person’s, so less time is being devoted to… well, everything. That is why this post is so strange in my opinion. It’s really out of the blue. Conception to completion happened in the blink of an eye. I rewrote the lyrics for Mad World, the Gary Jules/Michael Andrews version (originally it was written and performed by Tears for Fears). I gave the song an angle a web developer might appreciate. Here’s Mad Web:

Continue reading “Mad World to Mad Web” »

They say too much of a good thing isn’t all that good. It’s true, and this fact remains as the statement is applied to web development. Especially when it’s applied to the web accessibility branch. Let’s explore this. Web accessibility is a good thing, right? You bet it is, from its benefits to myriad users to its benefits to the site in the area of search engine indexing. It’s win-win all the way. But before jumping in and going wild with its application and adherence on your next project, making sure your site is accessible to the nth degree and all that, it can be overdone.

Continue reading “Web Excessibility” »

I haven’t been posting as much, roughly once a week I guess, but not as much as I used to. This post is meant to explain why. To tell you what I’ve been up to — or not up to as the case may be. I have been purposely cutting back. I have family, it’s the nice time of year, and I have a life-long hobby I’m taking to new level, or trying to. I’ll offer more about that at another time. I have been dong fewer web and blog projects, or perhaps you could say I’m allowing more room between projects, making time or all of my other pursuits. Which are varied.

Continue reading “My What-I’ve-Been-Up-To Post” »

Semantics, schemantics, right? If that’s your view, you might want to start questioning it now. The importance of web semantics may be on the rise. Semantics is meaning. On the web semantic HTML conveys this meaning to the user and his or her user agent. It lends itself to web accessibility, and the clear content organization is extraordinarily helpful to being properly indexed by search engines. Someday this fact may be more important than ever thanks to an interesting new approach to search.

Continue reading “Web Semantics and Search” »

Please, let me explain. I speak not of wives without husbands. I am instead talking about a typographers’ term that defines an undesirable situation that looks bad in print and is best avoided for reasons of both aesthetics and readability. The term pertains primarily to print as said, but it also applies to a web page situation that, in my opinion, is also best avoided. I’m not going to provide graphical example of the aforementioned malady, but I will offer a quick definition of the term I’ve introduced you to.

Continue reading “Killing Off Web Widows” »