dangerousmeta > Archives
:: wed jan 05 00 ::
okay, 'under construction' is a bit cryptic. this is a better title, for now.
for some reason, my discuss tag on my news day headers was sending me to the main userland discussion group. i've swapped it out for my opinion section (where i'm storing things people seem to be interested in). i enclosed discuss in quotes, and got userland! i'm a better programmer than i think.
mark cidade advised me to go from pixels to points in my text css on this site. i'm trying it out today. is it better?
11:30 PM: changed from points to ems. now you can scale the size yourselves, but the title/text ratio remains the same. thanks, mark!
he also gave me a hint about setting borderleft and borderright to get a more satisfying effect on those nav buttons. i would do it ... except i've got another sick and twisted idea ...
ego trip
whenever i get a link to my site, like yesterday, i start thinking about the bigger picture. can't help it. my fifteen seconds of fame go to my head, and i think my opinion counts. it's a nice feeling. thanks folks.
is manila the visicalc of the web?
this was brooding in the back of my mind all evening yesterday.
arguably, visicalc was the first compelling application on the early home computers [texas instruments, apple, commodore, etc.]. until visicalc, you played with 'basic' and 'logo,' made colored lines on the screen, played pong. visicalc empowered the end users. you got real work done without having to learn how to program! put in two numbers, add them, and you got a result.
we've been playing on the web for a while, all of us technos or wannabes, for the most part. yeah, dreamweaver is nice, all these other programming-facilitation tools are nice ... but my clients want direct control of their sites, without having to learn html. with manila, you edit your page, post changes, and you get a result.
it may be just me ... i worked on wall street for a brief (thank god) time when visicalc took the financial world by storm. the big old washing machine size DEC VAX machines, and these little apple II's hidden in a corner, with suits huddled around ... making financial projections in minutes, rather than hours.
i have one client on editthispage.com, and after standing over their shoulder yesterday, i realized that manila is having the exact same effect. both senior executives huddled over a computer, blasting changes into their own website, themselves. like a man who has been walking through the desert for days, and hits an oasis.
some web programmers may see manila and editthispage as cutting into their bottom line; after all, there goes maintenance out the window. but i look at three points: one, this paradigm is overdue, and would be happening soon anyway. two, everyone is going to want advanced functionality on their manila sites. three, i think the volume of interest is going to be tremendous. i have no concerns about my bottom line ... it just changes a bit. i didn't like maintenance agreements, anyway.
i hope userland is prepared for the onslaught when this paradigm gets wider recognition. this is huge.
oh, and one other thing. you know the song, "all my ex's live in texas?" well, "all my members live in ALABAMA!" (guffaw) didn't know there were this many hicks in silicon valley ...