today | current | recent ... categories | search ... mail | who ... syndication

posts brought to you by the category “scrabble”

Das eez kaput! Sometime around 2002 I spaced the entire database table that mapped individual entries to categories. Such is life. What follows is a random sampling of entries that were associated with the category. Over time, the entries will be updated and then it will be even more confusing. Wander around, though, it's still a fun way to find stuff.

posts brought to you by the category “sax” ←   → posts brought to you by the category “security”
 

Why does the CSS first-letter selector only work with block elements?

I want to be able to do the following:




span.footnote { display:inline; }







span.footnote:before {



   content: "<footnote/>";



   margin-right:5px;



   margin-left:5px;



   font-family:monospace;



   color:brown;



}







span.footnote:hover:before {



   content: "<footnote>";



}







span.footnote > span.content {



   display:none;



}







span.footnote:hover > span.content {



   display: inline;



   font-family:monospace;



}







span.content:first-letter { 



 color:#fff; 



}







span.footnote > span.content:after {



   content: "</footnote>";



   margin-right:5px;



   margin-left:5px;



   font-family:monospace;



   color:brown;



}







<div>hello



 <span class = "footnote">



  <span class = "content">



  * This is the network of our disconnect.



  </span>



 </span>



world.</div>







Which should render like this in a CSS-enabled browser :

hello This is the network of our disconnect. world.

And like this in a text-browser:

hello * This is the network of our disconnect. world.

But it doesn't. Specifically, the leading asterix (which is included to denote a text as a footnote or afternote in user-agents that don't do formatting) is supposed to hidden by assigning it the same colour as the background.




span.content:first-letter {



 color:#fff;



}



If you're wondering why I didn't just define the :first-letter 's display property as hidden it's not for lack of trying. Based on my experiments it simply doesn't work. Another mystery.

But it only works when the span.content element is displayed as a block. I want to display it inline for foofy design considerations, which since we're talking about CSS is as a good a reason as any.

Actually, I'd also like a last-letter or nth-letter selector so that I could wrap my footnotes in parentheses for text-browsers and then hide them when the CSS kung-fu enters the building.

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/08/29/5193/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2003-08-29T05:53:34-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:37:20-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/08/29/5193/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Leo Lapworth : SVG::TT::Graph.pm

Why I'm doing this 3 days before my wedding is anyones guess!

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/08/20/5178/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2003-08-20T13:00:54-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:37:36-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/08/20/5178/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Excerpted : I emptied my studio at 06H30 this morning




July 24, 2003



Montreal







<snip />







Anyway, there are two things I'll remember about my studio :







On the far fall, as you walk in, the previous occupant had fixed a towel



rack to the wall. Over that, she glued mirrored glass which had been cut



into individual letters to spell the word : F U C K E R







On the near wall, as you walk in, there was an old and short filing



cabinet that had been left behind. I didn't use it at first; I just



moved it out of the way a lot. Finally, I did a Big Cleanup and put the



cabinet near a table where I could easily reach things like tape and



pencils and erasers.







The first time I opened the top drawer to put something in it I found



myself staring at a single fridge-poetry magnet that had wedged itself



into the corner where the drawer's bottom met its face. It said : LUST







Like I said, the rest of the year was really just one false start after



another.



meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/08/12/5165/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2003-08-12T07:30:42-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:37:42-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/08/12/5165/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/
[x]
 

Movable Type is now part of the FreeBSD ports collection,

which is kind of cool.

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/06/16/5088/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2003-06-16T08:12:43-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:39:05-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/06/16/5088/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Oh my god, someone please CueCat this thing.

Because aggregators are so twenty minutes in the past and can you really imagine a better way to follow the ebb and flow of weblog chatter?

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/06/10/5076/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2003-06-10T18:34:06-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:39:16-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/06/10/5076/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Using English to Avoid Semantic Navel Gazing

I'm being a little unfair, seeing as I haven't read this in full, yet. But, you know, if you're going to talk about syntactic rigor mortis without bothering to explain what the fuck that's supposed to mean and then, in the very first sentence, invite me to realize XML, well...you're just asking for it.

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/04/17/5003/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2003-04-17T19:02:04-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:40:28-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/04/17/5003/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Sean Burke has set up an RSS feed for "Recently released RFCs"

...you know, in case you felt like you needed a few more acronyms in your life.

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/02/28/4883/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2003-02-28T01:56:16-05:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:42:28-04:00

revision

1.8

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2003/02/28/4883/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

From the "My hands fucking hurt, now" department :

I found found one bug and finally noticed another that as soon as they are both worked out will prompt XML::Filter::YahooGroups to be sent off to the CPAN (with a different name.) Meanwhile, the Mirror Project grew themes for which I earned the title "golden god"; something I'm not sure I deserve but which still leaves me wondering: can I put that on my resume? I also thought about logging , wrote a quick and dirty PHP version of Log::Dispatch , started writing a SAX2 RSS -> hashref parser and even did a few things at work.

meta

 

Bitflux Editor

"is a browser based Wysiwyg XML Editor. ... Now you can edit your content semantically and at the same time display it to your users and editors in its final form. "

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/09/16/4608/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2002-09-16T06:25:11-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:47:03-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/09/16/4608/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : tocsin

Tocsin \Toc"sin\, n. [F., fr. OF. toquier to touch, F. toquer (originally, a dialectic form of F. toucher) + seint (for sein) a bell, LL. signum, fr. L. signum a sign, signal. See {Touch}, and {Sign}.] An alarm bell, or the ringing of a bell for the purpose of alarm. The loud tocsin tolled their last alarm. --Campbell. web1913
tocsin n 1: the sound of an alarm (usually a bell) [syn: {alarm bell}] 2: a bell used to sound an alarm [syn: {warning bell}] wn

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/08/14/4558/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2002-08-14T21:52:11-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:47:53-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/08/14/4558/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : elevendy-three

To avoid giving a true number when questioned.
ex. How old are you mister? Elevendy-three.

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/05/21/4359/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2002-05-21T17:23:23-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:51:11-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/05/21/4359/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

The Drupal-gang discuss the "Collaborative book and Instant Outlining".

I don't want to piss on everyone's parade, but this is really not a new idea. It has been around, and practiced, for as long as their have been xref and link tags, and probably before that too... see also : the commentary on John Robb's outlines as value-added email post

refers to

meta

 

The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : shift

To snog, neck, or make out.
ex. "I shifted Anna at the club last night. Big mistake."
see also : shift dict-ified

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/03/26/4138/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2002-03-26T04:35:36-05:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:54:52-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/03/26/4138/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

From the "Because I Can" department : Searchable RSS

There are plans afoot to provide a SOAP/XML-RPC widget for the search interface but there are some problems that need to be sorted out first. see also : forbidden searches

refers to

meta

 

The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : gripper

An obviously too tight piece of clothing.
ex. Come on, that`s a bit of gripper. We don`t want to see that.
see also : gripper dict-ified

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/01/31/3909/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2002-01-31T21:35:15-05:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:58:41-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/01/31/3909/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Eric Murphy : Jabberzilla Whiteboard update

neat

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/01/30/3906/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2002-01-30T10:01:36-05:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:58:44-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/01/30/3906/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Radio Crankypants 18-19 : Not Invented Here

18) That's unfair, really. The Frontier tcp verbs were around long before Apple released their URL Access Manager/Scripting widget. But the Apple widget has done HTTPS for almost three years now; somewhere in the Windows API there is support for HTTPS; still the Frontier kernel still does everything with plain old HTTP. Frontier/Radio, however, does talk AppleScript , which is a mixed blessing if I've ever heard one. Now that Perl ships with OS X I'm even less sure why I would want to :
try

with timeout of

 before I punch my computer 



     
try with

 "easy to use English syntax" 
to

tell

 application "AppleScript"



           
to

 do fucking anything!!!



        
end tell

end try

end timeout

end try
But hey, if you can deal with it, it does mean you should be able to do secure XML over HTTP on a Mac. I can't honestly remember the details of passing and returning data between Frontier/Radio and AppleScript, right now, but I know it's possible because I used to call the askPassword OSAX in Frontier 5. I have reached that punch my computer stage in this investigation so I have to stop now but it should all be possible with three scripts : one UserTalk, two AppleScript. The first would take your parameters and figure out whether you were running Classic or OS X. If Classic, then hand off to an AppleScript that calls the Late Night Software widget (you could also do this by hand...if you're insane) otherwise use the built-in methods available under OS X. 19) Why are there no verbs for creating XML-RPC or SOAP messages divorced from those that make the actual HTTP requests?

refers to

meta

 

The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : labatyd

"Life's A Bitch And Then Ya Die" Usually in response to whining complaints.
ex. A. "Can you believe it? He only gave me a 3% raise!" B. "Yeah, yeah, labatyd."

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/01/16/3845/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2002-01-16T18:54:02-05:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:59:45-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/01/16/3845/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : claque

Claque \Claque\, n. [F.] A collection of persons employed to applaud at a theatrical exhibition. web1913
claque n : a group of followers hired to applaud at a performance wn

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/01/15/3839/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2002-01-15T21:11:28-05:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:59:51-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/01/15/3839/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Perlmonks : SOAP::Lite and Security

"But the fundamental problem is that SOAP is a poorly designed protocol designed with no eye to security, and built largely for the convenience offered because most firewalls will let through http traffic. This was said pointed out a long time ago by Bruce Schneier, but it is amazing how many people have missed the basic point. The point is that firewalls are retroactive protection for security mistakes in applications. If applications seek new ways around firewalls but continue to make the same basic mistakes then you are guaranteed to get into a situation where firewalls need to retroactively filter a more complicated protocol."

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/01/13/3833/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2002-01-13T20:27:27-05:00

last modified

2003-10-11T10:59:57-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2002/01/13/3833/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Big props to Dave for giving me the push

to fix the weblog code on aaronland.info . Wadda mean my @date = (@_)[0..2] doesn't work?! It does, but whatever... The kind words were nice and appreciated, too. But if any of you think I'm touching the awards controversy with a ten foot pole, you must be drooling uncontrollably. Move along, now.

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/12/19/3735/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2001-12-19T09:41:38-05:00

last modified

2003-10-11T11:01:28-04:00

revision

1.8

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/12/19/3735/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Simon Winstow : WWW::Amazon::Wishlist.pm

"grabs all the details from [an] Amazon wishlist." Now, you too, can perform data-mining from the comfort of your own home! I can see this being the basis for the king of all Which Weblogger Am I? personality tests...

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/12/07/3701/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2001-12-07T03:55:44-05:00

last modified

2003-10-11T11:02:02-04:00

revision

1.8

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/12/07/3701/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Michael S. Shapiro : Copyright as Cultural Policy

via libjuice (pdf)

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/10/31/3582/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2001-10-31T10:21:53-05:00

last modified

2003-10-11T11:04:00-04:00

revision

1.8

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/10/31/3582/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

How To Use the AbiWord [Perl] Bindings

Most excellent. via fozbaca

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/10/10/3511/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2001-10-10T23:55:31-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T11:05:11-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/10/10/3511/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is neoteric

| source : web1913 | Neoteric \Ne`o*ter"ic\, Neoterical \Ne`o*ter"ic*al\, a. [L. neotericus, gr. ?, fr. ?, compar. of ? young, new.] Recent in origin; modern; new. ``Our neoteric verbs.'' --Fitzed. Hall. Some being ancient, others neoterical. --Bacon. | source : web1913 | Neoteric \Ne`o*ter"ic\, n. One of modern times; a modern.

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/09/28/3465/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2001-09-28T20:15:16-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T11:05:55-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/09/28/3465/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Conan Heiselt : Sauté

"is a recipe organizer/cooking aid. It is designed to be 1) easy to collect, store, catagorize, and retrieve specific recipies, 2) able to handle thousands of recipes, and 3) visually appealing."

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/09/03/3335/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2001-09-03T16:54:59-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T11:07:52-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/09/03/3335/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Fabrice Desré : XSLTDoc

"This tool is itself an XSLT stylesheet that analyzes another stylesheet and builds a clean documentation on it."

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/08/31/3322/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2001-08-31T18:04:58-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T11:08:05-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/08/31/3322/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is doyen

| source : web1913 | Doyen \Doy`en"\, n. [F. See {Dean}.] Lit., a dean; the senior member of a body or group; as, the doyen of French physicians. ``This doyen of newspapers.'' --A. R. Colquhoun. | source : wn | doyen n : the senior member of a group; "he is the dean of foreign correspondents" [syn: {dean}]

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/08/30/3319/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2001-08-30T23:40:39-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T11:08:08-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/08/30/3319/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

Steve Mann : Computer Architectures For Personal Space

"I always found it strange why individuals so willingly acquiesce to the mechanized invasions of privacy caused by video surveillance, yet the same people become angered when overtly photographed by an individual wielding a handheld camera. To resolve this seemingly strange paradox, I have experimented with making myself into a corporation, with its own body-worn video surveillance cameras, for the protection of its body's property. What I have learned is that if I can abandon (or appear to abandon) my autonomy, by becoming a corporation, I have much greater freedom. In particular, I discovered that if I am bound by external forces of policy and procedure (as is typical of a corporation), I can be, in some ways, much more free."

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/08/14/3274/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2001-08-14T10:54:10-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T11:08:50-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/08/14/3274/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is hinterland

| source : web1913 | Hinterland \Hin"ter*land`\, n. [G.; hinter behind + land land.] The land or region lying behind the coast district. The term is used esp. with reference to the so-called {doctrine of the hinterland}, sometimes advanced, that occupation of the coast supports a claim to an exclusive right to occupy, from time to time, the territory lying inland of the coast. | source : wn | hinterland n : a remote and undeveloped area [syn: {backwoods}, {back country}, {boondocks}]

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/08/01/3228/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2001-08-01T13:13:47-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T11:09:37-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/08/01/3228/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

The Spread Wide Area Group Communication System

"Spread is a toolkit and daemon that provide multicast and group communications support to applications across local and wide area networks. Spread is designed to make it easy to write groupware, networked multimedia, reliable server, and collaborative work applications. ... Spread currently has programming API's for C, Java, Perl and Ruby."

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/06/08/3103/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2001-06-08T02:46:28-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T11:11:38-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/06/08/3103/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

ActiveState : Regular Expression Cookbook

"Happy grokking!" There's even an RSS feed . Sweet.

refers to

meta

[x]

permalink

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/06/04/3090/

pubdate

http://www.aaronland.info

created

2001-06-04T04:25:06-04:00

last modified

2003-10-11T11:11:51-04:00

revision

1.9

changes

http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2001/06/04/3090/changes.html

categories

license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/

external links

[x]
 

FreeBSD Diary : Installing via wireless NIC

"I installed a wireless NIC into my desktop, configured it to act as a gateway, enabled NAT, and used that as the gateway for my laptop. The laptop then communicated with the gateway using its own wireless NIC. Together, these two boxes allowed me to do an install on the laptop using wireless. This was after I'd failed using the laptop's CD, which I now know is broken."

refers to