Nick's Blog: February 2009

Useful: CSS Zen Garden

Submitted by nick on 27 February 2009 - 7:53pm

I converted to the Semantic style of coding a long time ago. For those of you who need your memory refreshing, the principle is to separate Content (XHTML), Behaviour (JavaScript) and Layout (CSS). The benefits should be obvious but just to gloss over them, let's say you create a large website with over 100 pages and you did not use this separation. Now someone comes along and wants the layout changing; well now you have to go to each individual page. A lot of work.

Book Review: Thatcham

Submitted by nick on 21 February 2009 - 12:44pm

Most of you know that I love my history, especial local and ancient. The book I am reviewing this week is 110 years old, written in 1899 by Samuel Barfield and in my opinion is the best reference material for the history of Thatcham. The full title of the book is "Thatcham, Berks, and its manors." The author passed away before having it published and so James Parker arranged for its publication in 1901. The book constists of two volumes, the second of which contains copies of the source materials he used.

What If: Dinosaurs

Submitted by nick on 16 February 2009 - 1:00am

What: Dinosaurs were animals that dominated the land from 235 to 65 million years ago, which included the, Jurassic and Triassic periods. Not all of the animals from this period that are thought of as Dinosaurs are actually Dinosaurs. For example, Plesiosaurs and Mosasaurs are commonly called Dinosaurs but are not, they are marine reptiles, well almost.

TV/Film Review: Longitude

Submitted by nick on 15 February 2009 - 7:09pm

Longitude, is the story of the solving of how to accuratley and reliably calculate Longitude. This is based through the eyes of a Navy Commander, Rupert Gould who is played by Jeremy Irons. He discovers some of Harrison's time pieces and lovingly restores them whilst he suffers a break-down. This is placed together with flashbacks to the past showing Harrison's enthusiasm and unending devotion to solving the problems he faced. Well worth a viewing.