Negative Margins Adventures in css, javascript, and all things web

Have a javascript or css question?

I spend 40+ hours a week knee deep in javascript, css and php, but lately mostly javascript and css. I'm responsible for making everything over at www.lijit.com not only provide a great user interface, but work in Firefox, Internet Explorer 6/7 and Safari 2/3, I never seem to have the time to get to Opera =-\

That being said, I've dealt with all manners of javascript and css trickery. Granted, I use prototype and scriptaculous to do most of the heavy lifting. None the less,  I feel qualified to answer all manners of questions in this space. So, ask away: @ me on twitter: http://twitter.com/cranberyxl, This way we can keep the answers out in the open, and if I don't know the answer, may be someone else does. I fI cant' answer in 140 characters, I'll link to a blog post back here.

Post Gnomedex Post

After a week on the road, culminating with Gnomedex 07, I'm back in the office. Molly and I spent a week in the northwest where we were able to visit her family. We then took a train up to Seattle for a weekend of conference fun. The trip home was a convoluted collection of planes, trains and automobiles spanning three states and taking over twelve hours.

Once in Seattle we met up with Stan, went to the mixer and Gnomedex was on. After spending the past few months hanging out in Chris Pirillo's live chatroom, it was a pleasure to finally meet him and his wife Ponzi in person. They put on a wonderful weekend where the field is very level and you are equally likely to get into a conversation with a new blogger or a seasoned blogger like Robert Scoble. The presenters provided a wide variety of topics covering everything from open money to elder blogging.

It was really cool to meet some of out users who are doing cool things with Lijit. Deepak Singh has found some really cool academic uses that he writes about here. Of course, there were people that knew our fabulous evangelist Tara, like Tajee, a Japanese video blogger. Perhaps I can use her videos to learn a little Japanese. It was wonderful to be surrounded by people that understood what we do, where the odd Web 2.0 lexicon that we've developed was okay to use. I think Chris Brogan really understood and did a nice write up that has turned a few heads our direction. I'm very excited to see where things go.

I definitely look forward to going to Gnomedex 08, seeing old faces, and meeting new people. Stepping outside of Boulder and our developing tech scene and into a room full of people from the Valley was very energizing, but now I've got a lot of coding to do.

Make mp3s remember their position like podcasts

I'm sure many of you noticed that when Apple rolled out the Podcasts section in iTunes, that podcasts remembered the position they were last stopped (unless they played through completely). I've often foudn myself wishing that other mp3s did this. For example, a podcaster might release an optional audio file, not in their normal genre, which they offer for download on their website. I'll find myself listening to said mp3 and without thinking, I might jump to another file or close iTunes. I'm trained, when listening to spoken word, to be able to pick up where I left off. Well, low and behold, apple does offer this feature for all files.

Single File

1. Select the file you want to edit
2. Right click on the selected file (ctrl-click Mac) and Choose Get Info
3. Choose the Options tab
4. Select remember playback position
5. Click OK

Multiple File

1. Select the files you want to edit
2. Right click on the selected files (ctrl-click Mac) and Choose Get Info
3. If prompted about editing multiple files, select Yes
4. At the bottom of the dialog box change Remember Position to Yes, and check the box next to it
5. Click OK

Now, the tracks the you selected will remember their playback position, just like podcasts.

Widgets vs RSS and Feed Readers

As we work on the next phase of development at Lijit, we have been thinking a lot about widgets, or wijits as we call them. Steve Rubel writes about widgets transforming blogs into start pages. I think this is a great idea, but then I started to think about how many people read blogs. Most serious blog readers use a news aggregator of some sort, either a desktop client or a web based reader. These feeders consume RSS and therefore don't benefit from widgets or advertising mostly for that matter, but FeedBurner is working out ways around this.

This brings me to wonder what will win in this space. Will users find enough value from the widgets on a blog page to venture outside of their newsreaders? Will content producers continue to syndicate their entire posts? Will a happy medium be found where newsreaders and home page destinations equalize? Will someone discover how to integrate widgets into RSS? It will be interesting to find out.

The obligatory first post

Every blog has a beginning, that post saying, I don't know what I'm doing, this is ugly and some day it'll get better, if I remember to keep posting. Well, here goes. I'm giving WordPress a go, it seems neat, lots of people use it. I randomly picked this theme, had to fix the the css to make it look halfway decent in Firefox, but it is what it is. It will get better.

I work for Lijit Networks, Inc now, or just Lijit as we like to call it. I've been slicing and dicing html, php, css and images almost constantly for the last month and we've got our first beta going. If you want to make your way into the beta, you can do so by click on the Trust me! button on the right. This will take you to the Lijit website and provide a way to add me as your first informer. Over time I will talk more about Lijit, how I use it, what it can do for you, and where it's going.