Journal mcgrew's Journal: Odds and Ends 4
If you've downloaded the ePub or AWZ version of Random Scribblings, you should download it again. I was a little sloppy when I converted it, and all the paragraph tabs were missing. There were a few other, more trivial bug fixes as well.
If you run across any problems with any of the versions of any of my books, please let me know.
In my last journal, all of the comments were about its use of tables rather than CSS. The choice came down to reason and logic. There is a very small bit of CSS on every page, to allow mouseovers.
CSS was developed because tables used to be the only way to do columns or have exact page placement, and it often played havok with screen readers for blind users. If I had multiple columns of text, I would certainly use CSS for that reason. But for page margins, tables work well on a screen and in a reader, and I've seen way too many web pages designed by hotshots trying to impress, and all I was impressed with was their ignorance, as often a photo would cover the text, or other such nonsense (like this page as displayed on a tablet; link is temporary). The social media crap covers the text, and one would assume since it's a professional publication they would have a well-trained designer.
Like Scotty says in The Search for Spock, "the more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain". He was referring to an age-old, time-tested design principle, KISS. It's an acronym, "keep it simple, stupid". For the use I'm putting it to, tables are logical.
I'm posting a "new" SF story in a day or two. I wrote it late last summer, and Amazing held on to it for six months. It's been shopped around to several markets, but since it's similar to the "Brexit" now is a good time to post it. Actually, a few weeks ago would have been a better time.
I use the word "asterite" to name someone who lives in the asteroid belt. I didn't coin that use of the word, Poul Anderson did in his 1963 story Industrial Revolution. I thought it was clever, since asterite the mineral is called a "star stone". Maybe I should have the Cererians getting stoned?
Someone (AC) pointed me to a replacement for MS Office. It's a good package with a spreadsheet that beats the crap out of Oo's spreadsheet. Unfortunately, it will neither read nor write DOC files, only RTF and all but a tiny minority of publishers insist on DOC.
So the small laptop, the one that actually fits on a lap, was out of commission for two full days, one full day to reinstall Windows and another to remove Bing Bar and all the other garbage manufacturers add to computers, apply all the updates, and reinstall all of my software.
So finally I can get some work done... that is, if I can stay away from here...
moof (Score:1)
I've heard similar sentiments about C++ as yours about CSS, but I don't know if anything is "too easy to screw up". Since everything is relative to one's skill level.
CSS was developed because tables used to be the only way to do columns or have exact page placement
Well, to separate presentation from content. Sure, if you're not adept at CSS-based layouts, it might not be wise to embark on one for a simple project. But the styling parts of CSS are much more simple, like for indenting or setting fonts.
And make it easier to try out different tweaks for taste, without having to, I guess for you guys, invo
Make an image of your system drive. (Score:1)
Keep your personal stuff (and the image, obviously) on another partition. Windows lets you relocate almost every folder in the "Users" folder.
Okay, now make the image while it's still fresh. It will take all of ten minutes to restore it when something breaks.
You know, with all this bullshit over the demand for the DOC format, you shouldn't feel the slightest bit guilty if you just need to run a bootleg copy of MS Office. You don't need that kind of distraction from your work.
Re: (Score:2)
No "bootleg" programs for me, pirating software is begging to be pwned. As to making an image, when you install Office it sets up a separate partition that I can't get in to (well, maybe I could but I'd almost certainly screw something up).
Re: (Score:1)
The new version must work differently then. My image includes everything on the C drive, including office. As far as bootlegging, you just need a serial number, and you can still use the 2007 version that doesn't require activation to get your stuff out