Aja Lapus

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  • Something Personal for November

    I haven’t done a personal blog entry for a long time, but since I would be creating one in the near future apart from a tech blog and a web standards blog, I might as well … uhm … practice.

    Those links above won’t work, as I still haven’t set those blogs up yet. I’m actually waiting for the release of WordPress 2.7, so I could continue blogging there. And, I promise not to let go of this domain, as I have most online accounts registered through various email addresses here. I just hope I could manage these three efficiently (especially financially).

    So, what’s up for November? Nuthin’…

    But, I would like:

    1. a Nikon D80 or D90
    2. a 1-Terabyte hard disk drive
    3. an Apple iPod USB power adapter
    4. a Bluetooth USB adapter
    5. maybe … an iMac or a Macbook as well

    And … all my close friends with me on my birthday! Yep. I’m turning 21 next week, and this serves as my wish list. Heh. I actually had istanbul travestileri in mind a new mobile phone and a really nice gadget desk/shelf for all the stuff I have with me now (scattered on my desk and around the room, actually). But, my father bought me a new phone (a very pretty one) already, and yes … I know … I need to cleanup my room and free a lot of space.

    I didn’t immediately realize I had two of those listed above already in my wish list last two years ago, but I have better-sounding lanyard earphones and a DVD±R/RW Drive (albeit black) already. Yeah, it was that long ago!

    You could post comments below this entry if you want to sponsor any of those listed above to avoid doubling of presents—I really only need one of each kind, thank you. 😉

    Oh, and if you haven’t already, follow me on your Plurk timeline! I update there most often. Thanks!

  • Stacking Script Event Loaders

    I’ve been playing around with JavaScript once when I’ve encountered a problem about my scripts not working, especially those attached to event handlers. You could probably see JavaScript declarations like this on a script or another:

    window.onload = functionName;

    And, soon, I found out that a lot of plugins I have use the same declaration for initializing their scripts. So, I looked for references and realized that they overwrite one another by declaring that assignment operation over and over again. Looking for solutions, I came across two possible ways to do it:

    1. if (typeof window.onload != 'function') {
	window.onload = newOnLoadFn;
} else {
	var onLoadStack = window.onload;
	window.onload = function() {
		onLoadStack();
		newOnLoadFn();
	}
}
    2. var onLoadStack = window.onload;
window.onload = function() {
	if (typeof onLoadStack == 'function' && onLoadStack) {
		onLoadStack();
	}
	newOnLoadFn();
}

    Coding preferences applies, as either basically does the same effect of stacking window.onload events. You could put them on a function if you must:

    function addOnLoadEvent(newOnLoadFn) {
	if (typeof window.onload != 'function') {
		window.onload = newOnLoadFn;
	} else {
		var onLoadStack = window.onload;
		window.onload = function() {
			onLoadStack();
			newOnLoadFn();
		}
	}
}

    And call events using: 

    addOnLoadEvent(
	// declaration of function type
);

    I would recommend anyone distributing scripts to make use of this to avoid conflicts with other event-triggered scripts users may have beside yours. Thanks!

  • Deprecated HTML Still Taught in High Schools

    I was asked for help by my good friend to assist her nephew on his Web page design project. I first asked him what lessons they have discussed in school, so I could match the level of what the teacher taught to what we would be doing. As usual, it included <html>, <head>, and <body> elements, as well as the tables, anchors, images and lists. I was just disappointed when he said they still use <font> tags for changing the size and color of text, and use the <body> attributes background and bgcolor for placing background images and color on the page.

    Of course, as a standardista, I hated the fact that I am forced to use deprecated elements and attributes on Web pages. So, I decided to make a statement on this blog hoping to be heard (or read) by computer, web design, and web development teachers in any level of education.

    Please, please update yourself on what you know and teach about Web design. HTML 3.2, which you are teaching your depolama students, has been replaced by HTML 4.01 almost 9 years ago. That, in turn, has evden eve nakliyat been reformulated to become XHTML 1.0 in 2000. You should also know that HTML should only be used for structure and CSS be used as its presentational layer.

    Web design and development education standardization is one of the things I’d be pushing for in my Web standards advocacy. Education starts in the school. And, if teachers do not know what to teach their students, no advancement would ever happen. In my humble opinion, this principle of educational advancement doesn’t only apply in Web education.

    We are still in the process of talking about forming a formal Web standards organization in the Philippines. If you feel the same way as I do in this blog entry, and love to fight for Web standards compliance, join us in our discussions to help save the Web and its users—for interoperability, accessibility, validity, and semantics.

  • Musing #0013

    Haven’t Microsoft realized how bad the analogy of their new mission campaign to the operating system could be? I see it as, life without walls : computer without firewalls. They also use a big-ass Windows logo hole on a wall as the background image. Windows as holes = the perfect symbolism.

  • Open MSO 2007 Files in Earlier Versions

    I personally prefer the older version of Microsoft Office 2003 than the newer MSO 2007.[1] I have classmates who use the newer version on their Vistas, but I still work on documents, spreadsheets and presentations on my MSO 2003 with a Windows XP. In a situation like this where group projects and collaborative works are a necessity to get things done, and a non-ideal working environment of different computers with different software,[2] I happily share a solution for those people who cannot just give up an older licensed copy for a cracked upgrade.

    Microsoft Office 2007 has a multitude of changes compared to the earlier versions. It doesn’t have the standard menu-and-toolbar environment we are used to be working on, but a general-purpose Office button and the Ribbon of the new Fluent User Interface. It also comes with a set of new file formats from the Office Open XML specification, primarily the .docx, .xlsx and .pptx file formats. Using ZIP compression, these new file formats are a lot smaller than the old formats[3] MSO 2003 or earlier versions create.

    If you still have your Microsoft Office version at 2000, XP (2002) and 2003, you may want to install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. This will enable you to open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. You just need to update to the latest service packs for those earlier versions. There are, however, some document element differences you may encounter while working on a newer file format with an older application version.

    Footnotes:

    1. ^ especially because I know a bug I still haven’t had news about being fixed.
    2. ^ or software versions.
    3. ^ .doc, .xls and .ppt, respectively.