Discovering this in a template for one of work's webapps:

  <table>
   <tr>
     <td width="99%"><div class="header1">Page Heading</div></td>
     <td width="1%"><img src="static/images/1x1_transparent.gif"/></td>
     <td width="150"> </td>
   </tr>
 </table>

Yes. That is the markup they have given a PAGE HEADING. It serves no other purpose. JUST A PAGE HEADING.

ETA: for those playing at home, here's what a standards-compliant, semantically marked-up, beautiful page heading looks like under its skirts:

<h1>Page Heading</h1>


Though I was pitifully too busy to follow-through on most of my 3W4DW plans, I did manage to make one successful post! Possibly as these kinds of technical things are precisely what's consuming my brain right now. Here is this thing what I built:

Scripty goodness: Fanfiction Header Builder

The Fanfiction Header Builder is a tool made to help you create nicely-formatted headers for your stories with ease.

Just select the elements of the header you want to include, enter your own material, and then copy & paste the code into your "compose entry" text box (in plain text mode, of course).

The (now unlocked) mirrored LJ post can be found here.

Introducing the Fanfiction Header Builder!

The Fanfiction Header Builder is a tool made to help you create nicely-formatted headers for your stories with ease.

Just select the elements of the header you want to include, enter your own material, and then copy & paste the code into your "compose entry" text box (in plain text mode, of course).

Features include:

• Links to previous/next/master posts, if you're posting a chapter of a WIP - just enter the URL and it'll write the rest of the code for you


• Same goes if you'd rather link to your story elsewhere, rather than LJ cut it - just enter the URL and the text you want hyperlinked


• The option to include the "highlight to reveal" code on a couple of components, if you want to warn safely but hide spoilers


• A whole range of components you can take or leave as you see fit - and all the text fields are unrestricted, so you can put whatever material you like wherever you like.

And of course, you can always edit the header yourself once you've pasted it into your compose entry page.


You will need to have Javascript enabled in your browser in order for this tool to work.

It's optimised for Firefox, but has also been successfully tested in Safari and Chrome. It's incompatible with IE6 (I'd welcome feedback on how it works in IE7 & 8, though).


( further author notes )


Feel free to link to this post or the Header Builder itself if you'd like to share it around.

Thanks!

Against Pseudonymity and Sexual Shame

The thing is, writing under a pseudonym is absolutely great for blogging. Unfortunately, it's not much good for anything else. If you want to write for a major publication, even one that's just online, and if you want to get paid for your work writing anywhere, you basically have to write under your own name. Which is all well and good, except for that without my writing that I've done under a pseudonym, I'm nobody, just a young lawyer with a little work experience and a lot of attitude.

...

What is the source of my nagging feeling that if those things were on the internet, popping up under a Google search for the name I was given at birth, that a wide swath of the employers I might someday want to work for would never hire me?

It's one thing only: externally-imposed bogus sexual shame. It's not as if my political opinions are so far out as to represent some kind of employment liability. I'm a pretty standard liberal. I haven't written anything racist or offensive. No, the only reason I'm worried about these writings is that they acknowledge, frankly and openly, that I'm a sexual being. But it's not like I'm writing a sex blog filled with the details of my exploits. I'm simply exploring the ramifications of sex and sexuality in the life of a young woman, a politically-minded feminist. And that, to my mind, is dangerous.

In my case: replace "writing" above with the swathes of web work and ICT I've done in fandom over the past 7 years. Sigh.

Most people know enough quick-and-dirty html to give their LJ posts a wee bit more formatting without having to work in the dreaded Rich Text Format.

But DID YOU KNOW that there's a right way and a wrong way to use these wee bits of formatting and functionality?

The main one I see most often is using <i> </i> for italics and <b> </b> for bold.

Yes, this will visually represent italics and bold in pretty much all browsers, but if you want to be accessibility friendly, you should:

use <em> </em> for italics, and
use <strong> </strong> for bold.

Visually, the result doesn't look any different - italics and bold! - however, the accessibility point here is that not everyone 'reads' information on web pages the same way (with their eyes on a screen displaying a browser). The 'em' and 'strong' tags are accessible to other technology such as screen readers, which provide an audio verbalisation of what is being displayed on the user's screen.

The screenreader technology interprets 'em' and 'strong' as requiring emphasis, and delivers them thus. It will not recognise 'i' and 'b', therefore not translating that bit of formatting to the user who is not accessing your post visually.

It may seem like a drag at first (I have to type 'strong' instead of just 'b'?? oh, man!), but really, you get used to it very fast with the added bonus of being a good netizen. After all, you *do* want more people reading your post/blog/story, right? Frankly, this way is just as quick-and-dirty, once you get in the habit of it.

( A few other tips for making your usual quick-and-dirty markup a bit more accessible )


Addendums to this post following comments
( Read more... )

A note on intended use of this PSA

This post does not set out to explore and explain the ins and outs of accessibility for people building websites from scratch. There are a range of resources on the web out there that'll do that for you.

My intention with this post is to provide a few easily-understood tips for people posting to services like LJ and Dreamwidth, who would like to know more about how to make their posts accessible, but don't necessarily have the technical confidence or knowledge to dive into the world of coding tutorials on the web.

Please be aware that the guidelines described above do not encompass the extent of accessible use for the tags - for example, use of the 'alt' tag in images can differ a lot depending on what the image is being used for. I've not gone into it here because I'm writing with the idea that the people reading will be solely using the img tag to post pictures to their blogs, rather than building websites that use graphics.

If you're serious about accessibility and are writing your own code off LJ/Dth, I strongly recommend reading up on more accessibility guides. The W3C is the hub for this; if you find it too dry or hard to get into, just google "accessible code" and browse through the results.



Feel free to correct me if any of the above needs correcting, or suggest any more tips I should have included. (With the understanding that I've tried to go with layman's terms here, for people without geeky motivators or expertise.)

Phew. I've spent a lot of time over the past couple of days migrating fic from hopeful_fiction to hope.oscillating.net, and updating tags and whatnot in prep of merging that fic LJ into my Dw account.

Working backwards, I've got up to mid-2004. I've just hit the Try Seventeen ficlet and am pondering whether to start a "One-offs" category under the Fandom category parent. I suppose all the Crossover fandoms could slot under there too... hmm.

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying this archives plugin that displays a list of all posts ever, by date. i.e. provides a master list of fic uploaded there without me having to do it manually :) It also gives me a pretty good overview of the trends of volume and fandom in my fic writing over the years.

Also handy is the automatic wordcount plugin, which tells me I've uploaded almost 340,000 words of fic to the site so far.

O_O

Fic! I've missed it being my primary mode of fannish engagement.

Is there a site/service like Goodreads for TV watching? If not, there really really needs to be. On it you should be able to:

- Keep track of what you've watched - both entire series and up to episode numbers (as Goodreads lets you enter what page you're up to!)

- Rate & review what you've watched

- Get recommendations of what to watch based on what you've added and rated and the collections/ratings of other users

- Let you browse the site in "spoiler-free mode" - it would not show you reviews for shows you'd added beyond episode numbers you'd specified you're up to

- Have fields where you can specify if you own it on DVD or not - and, subsequently, who you've leant it to!

- Send you reminders/notices if a new episode has aired or is about to air.


imdb really doesn't cut it. I want this to exist SO HARD. Please please link me if you know anything like it anywhere

Always good to know:

Windows: LJArchive - for backups that you can browse, search & view statistics on locally, or re-upload to LJ & clones should you need to.

Mac: XJournal - is actually a LJ client (for updating etc) that has a "History" function - you can easily search, browse & edit all your past entries, and importantly: download them for backups. (Just go to the "Window" menu, then "History" then the "Download" button.)

Any OS: LJBook - for backing up your entire journal as one big PDF (obv not as portable should you wish to reinstate your LJ)


Apparently there are other ways too, but they seem to involve programming n stuff, which I am wary of playing with when it comes to backing up important stuff. The above three are the easiest I've come across.

Each week I re-shuffle what goes into each section, it really depends on the weight of whatever I bookmark that week *sigh*. Though "Geekery" is not a section this time, that's only because it appears in ALL sections below.

That said, this is pretty much the perfect icon for this particular set of bookmarks.


( Tools & Reference )

( Recommended Reading & Shininess )

( Visual: Art, Photography, Design & Video )

( Fandom )

Gmail have rolled out themes/skinning, though they've not put a link to where you can change that yourself somewhere useful.

So if you'd like to change your Gmail theme, you can do so here: https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#settings/themes

(More info via Lifehacker here.)

I don't mind the new default theme, though what I *don't* like is the lower opacity font colour - just give me black text, dammit, I don't want the stinking grey! But I am trying to get used to it. And my greasemonkey Better Gmail scripts alleviate that a bit. At least I think it will, they only made the change this morning so I haven't had a chance to look at Gmail at home on my extended Firefox.

&gmail;

brown_betty has some excellent practical information and advice about how to protect your LJ (and webmail, and all other login-required services) from account hacking/hijacking.

If you're familiar with the plights of dorkorific/shoebox_project (not linking because still under attack - DO NOT GO THERE, DO NOT CLICK ANY LINKS THERE), copperbadge and shenanigans related to recent stop_plagiarism stuff, you'll probably already know why you should read this.

If you are a crazy productivity junkie like me (don't judge us, it *is* actually fun), allow me to tempt you with a couple of tasty morsels:


1. black_samvara has been bookmarking and tagging every story ever listed in spnnewsletter over at supernatural_fic on delicious. She no longer has time to run that herself, so has put out a call to anyone (or anyones) interested in taking it over. It's a totally awesome resource, SOMEONE PLEASE DO IT! Go and comment on this post if you're interested.


2. The OTW is coming up to its first birthday, which means to keep things exciting, they're giving everyone a poke again to see if anyone wants to work on any of the projects as a committee member.

They call the whole volunteer recruitment drive "willing to serve" (which makes me think of joining a socialist army or something, but really, it's not all as bureaucratic or militant as that sounds). Basically, anyone can volunteer to be on a committee, but you'll need to be able to commit to attending regular meetings, replying to emails and you know, actually doing a bit of work and thinking on the project you're working on *g*

Having run a year already, the project descriptions are a bit more useful this time around for knowing what you're getting into (you can find them all here, not all of them are 'public', a few have to do just with the internal running of the organisation). I'm copying & pasting the wiki one here; if your interest is piqued then by all means ask me more questions about what's involved, what it's like to be on an OTW committee, etc etc. ( What'll be involved in being on the OTW Wiki Committee next year )

There are also many opportunities to volunteer with the OTW without being on a committee, be it in an area of expertise you have or in general you can indicate your interest/availability.


Also in OTW news, recently the IRS (USA's tax office) approved OTW's tax-exempt/nonprofit status, which means that if you're in the USA then donations over $10 are tax deductible now. There's currently a donation drive going on, so if you feel like donating to keep the servers that host the Archive, the Wiki and other great projects alive, you can do so here. And if you want more info on just how much money comes in and where it goes, you can read the annual report.



Right! So anyway. For your info, flist in general etc, I am going to be AFK for most of this week, so any emails/comments will be caught up with at a later date. Laterz!

Fewer bookmarks this week as I've been wiki-ing instead of reading and browsing.

( Fandom )

( Recommended Reading )

( Geekery & Visual )

( Fandom )

( Visual/Design/Art )

( Geekery )

( Recommended Reading )

ETA: [And this is not meant passive-aggressively, because TBH I really don't mind not getting comments on bookmark posts because it's mainly just an exercise for me to share my delicious messing about, but] it tickles me when there are no comments on my bookmarks post but there are inevitably several people on the flist posting entries about stuff I've linked to shortly afterward :D

Bookmark sharing as indirect conversation: I am fond.

Question for Mac nerds:

Since I installed my scanner drivers, my Photoshop keeps crashing. How do I uninstall the drivers?


Question for Firefox users:

ARGH. I am using Firefox 3 on three machines, but in one of them (windows laptop), I am not able to get pages to load by typing the address into the address bar. Well, I can type in the address, but hitting enter or the go arrow does NOTHING. I can only get to 'new' pages by clicking a link or bookmark. Any ideas?

I am LOVING the new del.icio.us!

Apparently the java 'network badge' doesn't work on LJ.

So, in case you're wondering, I am hopeonarope over there. Woot!


ETA: ooohhh. so very pretty (and so very Capn Jack). Damn my self-imposed frugalism!

via Slashdot: new geek-inspired words in Merriam-Webster. One of those words is "fanboy", which Cnet appear to be attributing to the juggernauting Apple craze. Because of course, the only people who like Apple, technology, and hell - are geeks in general! - are boys. Duh!

Although, a lot of the new entries seem to be from very old words that M-W is totally, like, cool, to integrate. Here's the definition of "fanboy":

_Fanboy (1919): boy who is an enthusiastic devotee, such as of comics or movies. (via here)

But, it's not exactly nothing new to have male groups legitimised by being instated officially in and therefore acknowledged by the dominant lexicon...

But is there an alternative female term that's legitimising/positive (I won't go so far as to say "neutral"...) rather than being pejorative? One that hasn't just been re-appropriated and used by the 'subculture', but now has mainstream use? I mean, does "fangirl" mean the same thing as 'fanboy' does above? In my experience it has more negative connotations than simply being enthusiastic about it.

When "fangirl" is a noun and you're talking about someone else being a fangirl, it's mildly critical of that person's behaviour or manner - i.e. "and then the crazy fangirl attacked Jensen".

When it's about yourself, "I'm a total fangirl", it's kind of ironic and self-aware - same way you compare yourself to a teenage girl going into hysterics because you want to have Jensen Ackles' babies. (Even if you don't seriously want that, you're poking fun at yourself as you express how enthused you really are.)

Then there's the verb, "fangirling" - which is self-aware like the above, but still connotes that out-of-controlness when you ironically say to someone "I'm totally fangirling you right now!" to evoke the image of yourself jumping up and down and squealing.

Not that there's anything wrong with jumping up and down and squealing. But fangirl still connotes that distasteful history of 'female hysteria' and being out of control, whereas 'fanboy', while it might have once been a pejorative term, is now linked with cool, smart and stylish geekery (like Apple).

[note: just musing on my experience, I certainly don't expect that the term has the same connotations for everyone.]

Anyway, rambling. Just seems to me that a girl can't be an enthusiastic devotee, such as of comics or movies in such a way that it's perfectly fine and dictionary-ised.


On a slight tangent, Mary and I were bitching about the ageism in the blatant othering/generalisations of "Gen Y" and whatnot when she came across a newspaper article talking about how "Gen F" adopted technology.

"Gen F" as in: Generation Female. As in, more than 50% of the population. As in, that OTHER group of people who aren't NORMAL but require categorising as DIFFERENT. Females. And in relation to new technology, no less. WHAT THE.

Since I've been on a Mac at home (ok, a Mac desktop and Windows laptop) I've been using my work desktop as my Windows sandbox.

As I don't have nearly as many plugins on my Firefox here at work, but was having problems with saving ANY kind of data between sessions (seriously, it wouldn't even save my new BOOKMARKS), I went ahead and upgraded to Firefox 3. Ooooooh. It is SHINY. My main plugins here have had the chance to sort themselves out, so good old Web Developer is running a charm. And not only are my sessions saved, but they were saved from the last time I ran shitty!Ff to the first time I ran Ff 3 \o/

Following that readability thread I linked to on Slashdot last week, I installed the Windows XP ClearType Tuner It is rather shiny, though for some reason I had to go in and enable it again today. It does take some getting used to.

In hardware news, iPhone in Australia - now for the bad news. I suck at getting my head around the figures in financial contracts, but have been trying to lately over the iPhone as I want one and it's being sold by The Big Three. That blog post actually manages to articulate a lot of what was making me feel iffy about all the deals that were being offered, though. Dammit, when will Australia get reasonable broadband pricing? And reasonable gadget pricing, too? I'd like to pay US$200 for an iPhone rather than AUD$700+.

In non-geek news (though, okay, it's a WEBCAM), Ferretbaby is getting ginormous and more and more adorable each day. Ehn!

My external hard drive has arrived and is waiting for me at the post office. Streetwise is pretty damn cool. Their shipping is pretty much at-cost ($8.95 for shipping in Melb). I order on Monday, Tuesday I get the note that they've shipped it, Wednesday the package arrives. Now I just have to wait until Monday (my office-hours day off) to pick it up. I wish POs had more friendly hours.

Anyway, seeing as I have been in SPN fandom for the past few years - therefore during the latest generation of my gadgets - pretty much all my technology is named after SPN things. The iMac is iMpala. My USB stick is Colt. My iPod is Metallipod, digital camera is Bela. The old external HD was Lawrence until it carked it. (hah hah)

I am crap at giving things non-fannish names. So I'm pondering doing some re-naming when I get my new generation of stuff, starting with my HD purchases.

iMac is just begging to be turned into iMacClane. It's very shiny, beefy, and also very bald. In addition, everybody scoffs and scorns when I glee over how awesome it is, until I SHOW THEM just how awesome, by getting it to do something amazing (like dropping some C4 into an elevator shaft or blowing up a plane). It is rather functional and copes exceedingly well with just about anything I do to it.

My new LaCie is already not that far from being Lucy. It's a backup, pretty much a carbon copy of the old man the iMacClane, plus some more room to move and do its own thing with that extra space in there.

And, hmm. I am pondering getting a LaCie Rugged also. That would be extremely handy, not to mention rather portable and haul-aroundable. Handy in a pinch, not to mention cross-platform! Perchance F4RR3L would be a good name for that one (because seriously, the hacksploitation l33t of the movie is just TOO DAMN AWESOME to try and ignore).

Then again, my phone contract is expiring right about the time the iPhone is coming out here, and dear god do I need a new phone. Preferably that one. I hope it's available to purchase outright, or at least somewhere on a less-than-$30 per month plan.



...At times like this, when I think too hard about this stuff, my sister's voice comes into my head. Saying "Nerd alert!" in the Austin Powers tone, as she has done so many times. Clearly, my sister is way cooler than me.


In other news, I have one more scene left to write of my hard4brains ficathon fic!! Then to re-read/-write, then off to beta, then maybe finding someone to American-check, if it still needs it following my Canberran beta. omg fic! long (for me) fic!