Archive for September, 2008

Teaching CSS to beginners

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

I’m thinking about starting another website. The sole purpose would be as a learning tool to others. CSS and HTML is pretty easy to learn but can be a little overwhelming at first. I sort of remember starting out and getting frustrated and reverting back to table based layouts several times. This site wouldn’t be like Chris Coyier’s CSS-tricks it’d be more basic, a starting point if you will.

My fears are this:

1. too much work, not enough time - will people use it and benefit from it or will I be spending several hours a week and no one uses it

2. how much is too much - do I really want to talk about basic html tags, I mean do I really have to start at the beginning and talk about how to set up an html document? Do I assume everyone that would read it knows what a paragraph tag looks like, or the difference between ordered an unordered lists?

3. Would this be like training someone to take my job? I understand that only people that want to make websites will try to learn how to make websites, and they’ll do it with or without my help, but would I be assisting my future competition? One thing I’ve noticed about the web industry is that most people are willing to help. There are some more experienced guys running around that have seemed to have become pretty cocky and they like to talk down to a lot of people, but overall it’s a pretty friendly community from what I experienced.

I don’t know, if anyone has any thoughts on the subject, let me know.

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Kindness at the Library

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

So I went to the library today to do a little research, and I parked next to one of those 15 passenger vans that you see picking up old people from retirement homes. They were parked on the line, which made me cheat to the right of my spot. The car to my right probably had about 10 inches, so it was pretty tight, I even contemplated moving to a different spot but the lot was pretty full.

When I returned to my car I had this piece of literature on my windshield. I would love to meet the author because I have a couple concerns. First and foremost the spelling. Maybe he was there looking at pop-up books, or picture books of some type. I’m also a little concerned that the note was written on an envelope from Nick magazine. I assume that means the author is a shining role model for kids, or has a thing for kids. The third option though, may be that the author of the note is a child. This would explain the Nick envelope and the fact that they can’t spell.

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I’ve been slacking off

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

I’ve been slacking off lately. I just got around to updating some of my work. But I’ve been pretty busy.

fnacotton.com is getting ready to launch.

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