After writing my TODCon update blog this morning, I had a breakfast with Ray. He's still under the weather, but he is more relaxed now that the con is over. I can't blame him - that's a lot of responsibility both professionally and financially.

I'll admit I am feeling a little down. I am already missing my friends. Some I know I will see again, but there is an empty spot inside me at the moment, like something was  taken out and not replaced.

To take my mind of things, after breakfast I did the tourist thing. Took the trolley down as far as the new Wynn hotel and casino. I didn't go inside, but I got some great exterior shots. I'll post a link when I have stuff ready for viewing.

Speaking of photography, I have a total of about 230 photos. So, getting things ready will take some time. Most of them are from the conference itself, but I took many tourist pics too. The last time I was here for TODCon, I got to see part of the strip but only at night. This time, it's mostly daytime photos.  I'm quite pleased with some of them, but editing is still required.

And - MOST importantly - my quest for a new shirt *GASP!* *Oh, the horror!*  was successful! I found one that summed up Vegas nicely and didn't cost my right arm to buy. Tom Green, beware; I have a new shirt and I'm willing to wear it. :-)

I also checked out the Fashion Show Mall and found yet another deal. I'm a big Peanuts fan (Snoopy and Charlie Brown - there are days when I can SO relate to that boy). A store in the mall was closing out and they had 50% off all their merchandise, so I picked up a cool Boy Scout Charlie Brown figure for only $12 US. He will have a prominent place in my office when I return.

I check out in a couple hours. My flight is at (UGH) midnight, which gets me back into TO around 7:30 am on Friday. I'm glad I don't have to work!

Well that's it for me. I'm signing off until next week, when I will post the link to the photos. And it will most likely be later in the week as I play catch up with some ongoing projects. I hope you've enjoyed the updates and it's made ya wish you had been here. All I can say is save your money, and plan on showing up next year. It will be a blast, of that I have no doubt.

My apologies for not blogging this sooner. When Day three ended yesterday at around 3pm, those of us who were not leaving immediately hung together for as long as possible.

Something I would like to point out (better late than never); My updates are mostly about the seminars *I* attended. There were many other sessions and topics presented. For a detailed list, check out the TODCon website at www.todcon.org.

Day 3 began with yet another great breakfast and much needed coffee. Did I mention that sleep is always in short supply at TODCon? When you only see some of your dearest friends once a year, you tend to spend a LOT of time with them.

Opening session was with Paul Davis from KaosWeaver, one of TODCon's very generous sponsors (Paul gave every attendee one of his commercial extensions for free). Paul's talk was one Running Your Web Design Business. A great deal of helpful information was given and even though a lot of the tax info didn't apply specifically to me (I'm Canadian, eh), I still found a lot of his ideas useful.

Day Three was also a special Bootcamp for CMX Jumpstarts.TODCon attendees got a sneak preview of our next Jumpstart (one which I think is VERY cool). Kim Cavanaugh ran two sessions of the JumpStart Bootcamp. Session 1 focused on how easy it is to work with a JumpStart, with particular attention paid to the master PNG file and an overview of the Dreamweaver CSS tools in session 1. Kim also pointed out some very useful Firefox extensions, such as the Web Developer's Toolbar, and ColorZilla. The WebDev Toolbar helps you break apart an html page while in Firefox, so that you can better understand the workings of the various block elements and CSS. It does so much more than this; if you haven't installed this FREE toolbar, GET it from the Firefox web site. ColorZilla is a color picker. You can use it to find specific hex colors on any web page. Again a very handy tool.

In session 2, Kim showed us how to make a Jumpstart your very own by altering the PNG file. Kim demonstrated his methodology for working with the PNG master as well. Lunch was - again - freakin' amazing. Excellent food and lots of it. TODCon is *never* a good time to go on a diet.

The third and final session I attended was also in the JumpStart Boot camp. In this one, Stephanie Sullivan discussed sIFR (Scalable Inman Flash Replacement). sIFR is a very cool way of using ANY font you want in your web pages for things such as headings. The cool part is that everyone will see the true font, regardless of what fonts reside on their systems.

I also sat in on Joe Lowery's session on Ecommerce: The Money Train: All Aboard for Ecommerce. (OK, so I floated between two sessions. Sue me) This session was an excellent introduction to ecommerce from the web developer's point of view. Joe broke down the ecommerce model and various payment structures, delved into database design and shopping cart functionality and check out options. He made a very good point at the top of his session: Many developers are missing out on ecommerce projects because they are not sure what is involved (I'm in that crowd) and that we are missing out on a whole lot of potential jobs. That was enough to get me interested!

The closing session - where many of us said our goodbyes for another year - was also what I call the TODCon Give Away Extravaganza. This is is a TODCon tradition. Many of the conference sponsors (CMX, Centric Web, Kaosweaver, Macromedia, WebAssist, Interakt, Visibooks) supplied some very cool things to give out to some very luck conference attendees. Books, software, t-shirts, web hosting . . very useful stuff for ANY web developer.

And then . . . it was over. That's the part that I hate most. Hugs and handshakes were given, photos taken, emails and business cards exchanged (I'm not lying when I say business was conducted this week. I know of a few people who walked away with job leads or cemented contracts, and I was one of them).

Within about an hour after the closing session, things got quiet. There were many of us who weren't leaving Vegas yesterday, so we all got together for dinner that evening. There were so many of us, we had to split up and head to different restaurants (the buffet at Mandalay Bay is excellent). Lots of conversation and laughs and shop talk went on over dinner, but gradually the group got smaller as people with early flights retired for the night.

I spent the rest of my evening, and a great deal of my early morning, hanging with Ray West (he da MAN!), Laurie Casolino, Steph Sullivan, Paul Newman (umm OUR Paul Newman), Dan Short and Angela Buraglia, the three crazy Romanians from InterAkt, Bill Horvath and his wife, Neil Giaratanna and Christian Cantrell and Kevin Schmidt. It is hard to say good bye to these people. Many of them are not just business associates or like-minded people; they are also friends. I finally folded at around 3am, when we were down to Laurie, Ray, Paul and myself. When I left, Ray was "up" at the Black Jack and Craps tables, and I hope he still is further ahead today.

What more can I say? This conference is the best business investment I have ever made. I have - as I do every year - gained new friends, learned a lot and gained some business. Will I be back again next year?

You can bet on it.

Another information packed day today, which seemed to just fly by. Ray held the opening session and talked about the importance of creating accurate project specifications, managing projects and bug tracking and the source/version control. With our wireless connection on the conference level, he walked us through some interesting open source options for project and task management as well as source control.  Ray has been fighting a nasty cold since before he arrived, but like a real trooper, still managed to pull off a great session.

One particular free online project management solution  (www.tadalist.com)was so easy to use, even *I* set up a project list in minutes - and I'm organizationally challenged at the best of times. All in all, a very useful session for free-lancers, small business owners and even department managers for in house web shops.

Kim Cavanaugh's Fireworks Production Techniques session was great lesson in common sense for the FW user. A lot of great tips to keep yourself organized and productive in FW. Kim covered a wide range of topics, from managing Layers, Frames and Objects, to working with FW symbols to creating custom commands which help speed up your management of layers.

I did my last session today as well, on Creative Masking Techniques. It was well received and I got many positive comments on the session, even from seasoned pro's like Chris Flick and Kim C. And yep, I even used one of my Vegas photos to demonstrate how easy it can be to create a bitmap mask.

I also sat in on Sheri German's session. Sheri is a first-time TODCon speaker and she did a bang up job covering her topic, "What Not to DO with CSS." Used visual examples and a real life scenario, Sheri walked us through the way we used to build the web compared to how we should  be building it now. It was a great introduction to CSS, and the html layout pitfalls to avoid.

And after hours tonight . . well . . . let me tell you. A group of us went to see Cirque de Soleil's, Zumanity (http://www.zumanity.com/en/home.asp).  I've seen Cirque twice in Toronto, but only in Vegas, people, would you see a show like this. A colourful parade of stunningly talented and attractive performers kept us laughing, gasping and sometimes even cringing (the contortionist made many of us shudder in painful empathy) for an hour and a half. If you come to Vegas, you have to see this show.

And ummmm, leave the kids at the hotel. Trust me on this one. Let's just say the tights were really tight - when there were any tights at all.

We wind up tomorrow, and as much as I hate to hurry things along, I must admit I am already feeling a tinge of sadness as the end of TODCon draws near. I will miss the new friends I've made, and the old ones I've kept, some since TODCON V 1.0 in Florida some years ago. Well before I get all mushy and start crying into my keyboard, I'll end this update. I'll save the mushy stuff for tomorrow night. ;-)

Well Day 1 is coming to a close and what a great day it has been. Tons of information to take in. Danny Kastner's keynote presentation was inspiring and brought back into focus one of the most important goals of a web site - engaging the visitor. From a marketing perspective, this is key for the designer and for the designer's client.

Molly Holzschlag's CSS sessions have been fun and informative. Molly's enthusiasm for CSS and it's capabilities really get my creative juices flowing, wanting to jump right in with both feet and get styling.

Steph Sullivan opened my eyes even more to CSS-P layout and showed us a great way to "block" an FW  designed interface using colored translucent rectangle shapes. What a great way to plan out your CSS design!

I had a pretty successful session myself; lots of excellent questions, and felt very priviledged that one of our UK attendees made the choice to sit in on my FW Tips and Tricks session.

It's a real community feeling here and I am glad I made it to Vegas yet again.

Well here I am. I checked in late Saturday night at the Excalibur and have spent most of last night and today adjusting to the time difference - three hours in my case.

Nice and mild today in LV, although we did get some clouds and some rain in the mountains. Chaz joked that Ray brought the Florida rain with him - lol. After hooking up with a few of my CMX compatriots, and grabbing a bite for lunch with Ray West and Barbara O'Neal, I took a breather and walked around outside, shooting some stills of the nearby casinos like MGM Grand and New York New York. I may even use a couple of those images in my upcoming sessions; I like to keep things fresh.

Had a really nice dinner with the CMX'ers who made it to Vegas: Ray, Laurie, Bill, Kim C, Tom G and Tom M, Chris, Stephanie, Arman, Danny, Paul, Sheri, Heidi and Chaz. We laughed so much my stomach hurt!

I've met a few of the attendees too. It's great to be here and see everyone. My first session (Fireworks Tips, Tricks and Retouching) is Monday at 11am. And it's now 1 am Vegas time, so I'm going to crash. More news to come (from many of us, no doubt).

Well. We certainly expended an awful lot of energy yesterday around the news that Adobe and Macromedia will merge into a single digi-opoly in the coming months didn't we? As the dust begins to settle on this development we who are fans of Macromedia have much to ponder yet.

In my initial reaction to the news (well, I'd rather not print my initial reaction) I talked a bit about how losing the Macromedia identity was going to be the hardest thing to swallow. It still feels that way now.

Like most of the partners here at Community MX I've devoted a lot of energy as a fan of Macromedia. Even though I had to back off my Team Macromedia commitment to do more volunteer work with the education side of Macromedia (and see my family from time to time), the time I spent in the incredible Dreamweaver and Fireworks newsgroups--with all of the smart, funny, creative people who hang out there was really valuable to me. Not just from a technical sense, but also because of the friendships I developed there over time. Thankfully many of those friends work with me here at Community MX, so giving up my newsgroup habit didn't completely cut me off.

So I know that those groups are burning up with speculation, anger, fear, and many other emotions even as I type this. (I'm purposely staying away from those groups lest I get swallowed into that morass.) And I wonder how those communities will weather the coming change. Specifically, will Adobe Dreamweaver still engender the same loyalty and incredible fan support that Macromedia Dreamweaver does? Will the culture of helpful enthusiasts, and the open door policy that Macromedia has had with its fans, continue in the future? Will the loss of a brand name make a difference in how the community views itself? What will the employees of the newly organized Adobe do to engender open communication and community building? I hope they learn from Macromedia and embrace the culture that allows newsgroups and blogs and UGs and conferences like TODcon to survive. Then again, maybe Adobe already does that. But the tough sell will be keeping fans together after their favorite team has changed names, locations, and direction.

My partners and I here at Community MX are feeling the same things that everyone else is feeling, and while I don't have time to check I'm sure they've been vocal in the Macromedia groups that they frequent. In our private group the talk has been positive and while sad, as upbeat as we can be. Of course, we look at things from a business as well as a personal viewpoint, but I think I'm safe in saying that as this unfolds there will be new opportunites for Community MX as a business enterprise. Luckily our services can turn on a dime, and our partners have lots of experience in a business where people routinely use both Adobe and Macromedia products. That puts us in the unique position of being able to help our subscribers see how the coming integration will affect them, examine new tools as they are launched, and be here when our subscribers have questions. It will be an exciting time and I believe we're ready for the challenge. And while we move forward we'll continue to write and teach about all things web and Macromedia related.

Here's hoping that all of the other Macromedia communities and groups maintain their identities as well.

Big news in the web development world, I'll let the announcements speak their own volumes, and I'm sure you'll hear plenty of others on the topic. I'm going to wait an see what further info comes out before I decide what I'm going to think about the whole deal.

Macromedia's side
Adobe's side
Mike Chamber's

I guess we'll become quite tired of the "forward looking statements" statements in the near future.

Note: Reported to Macromedia already.

I was trying to help a budding extension developer that was experiencing crashes of Dreamweaver when they added a <label> tag to their file. The basic code boils down to this within an extension:

<label>Name:</label><input style="width:135px" type="text" name="name" id="name">

Turns out that there are two potential breaking points (only played with the code in a Command and only with the text box, for other extension, YMMV):

• Adding the for attribute to the label tag, would cause the issue to go away. In my brief testing, it didn't seem to matter what the for attribute value was, as long as it was there.
• If you removed the id attribute for the text field, the crashing would stop.

One thing that is weird about it all is that if you keep the id and add the for, and you set the for to have the same value as the id, and you have no value attribute, or the value is set to an empty string ( value="" ), that is, when you do not specify a value for the value attribute, then when your dialog appears some square symbol characters will be within the text field instead of the field being empty.

Quite strange indeed.

After years of playing the violin, our daughter decided she wanted to learn the cello. Adventure-bound, we loaded up the car one day with my husband, son (who needed a new viola chin rest), daughter, and two of her fellow string player friends.

Ray Hardy is our Strings guy. I've known him for years, and we have spent many hours together working on his Mac (many musicians love the Mac.) On this particular day, however, we were there for "business." Ray was ready with several cellos in our price range. With our large audience gathered around, Ray took out the first cello and played a scale. No Bach Cello Suite played by Yo-Yo Ma was every more attentively listened to.

And so it went, as Ray demoed cellos with his beautiful, Peabody-graduate vibrato. Finally he went in the back room and pulled out a last cello. All ears leaned towards the "C" string as its low growl began a two-octave scale. Such primal beauty! No mating call was ever more seductive.

This was the one. It was a little more expensive, but what is money for anyway?

And so it came to be that another cat came into our house that already holds a population of Birman, Siamese, and Ragdoll. This, a Royal Bengal Tiger of cats, low "C" growling and announcing its supremacy over the others, had to have a name too. We dubbed him "Richard Parker" after the tiger in Yann Martel's book "Life of Pi."

And just as a character in the book claimed of its story, "it might make you believe in God," so too does this cello invite the wonder of the universe through sound.

I recently completed a little design work for someone who was happy to see their site get fixed, but apparently less eager to pay me for my work. What a drag.

Now, I do design work like this almost as much for what it teaches me as for the money. After all, I have a full-time job already, but my modest web development "company" does take on design work. I usually get into these things when someone learns that I teach web design. "Really? I need some design work done. Would you be interested?" If the project looks interesting, and won't take too much time, I do dive in from time to time.

Recently I was presented with a site redesign job by a friend through one of those tangled relationships that are hard to understand. "Yeah, my brother-in laws sister's neighbor needs a site done. Can you do it? They're eager to get this done and are ready to pay."

Oh, OK. Doesn't look too hard, there's a little PHP work involved (and Lord knows I can always use practice in that) so I took on the job. A quick discussion through the friend (not with the actual client--which should have been my first warning sign) and a few hours of work and the job was done. Contract?

Friend: "Really, this is a steady guy. He'll pay what you quoted no problem. Or I'll pay you. Whatever."

Warning sign #2. Which I ignored right along with #1.

A few hours of work later the job was complete.

ME: "All set and live on the Web. Let me get you an invoice."

Friend: "Oh of course, no problem. I'll have a check by the end of the week."

And now more than a month has passed. A smattering of promises have been made by the friend, but nothing of late. No, it's not a lot of money, and no one is going to starve at my house if I don't get paid, but it has become this nagging annoyance. If nothing else, I don't need the hassle of "reminding" my "friend" that I should be paid. I do the work, you get an invoice, I get my money. Simple, right?

The lesson is simple. Never work without a contract. Ever. Negotiate your fees up front and be clear on the terms, no matter who it is. If the invoice is to be paid net 10 days of the site going live then be clear on that. And it doesn't matter who it is. Your Mom, second grade teacher, pastor--whoever. Get........a..........contract.

And it really comes down to being seen as a professional more than the possible legal actions that you might take against someone who doesn't pay. If it appears to your friend that you're doing work as a "favor" then you'll be treated like someone who helped them move some furniture. Sure, you have a truck and you'll help them out, but the understanding in that relationship is that you'll repay the favor some day, but not with real money. If you work without a contract you're buddy, neighbor, or whoever is going to see you as a hobbyist, instead of someone who has paid good money for software and spent a lot of time developing you skills.

Unless they're a total moocher, they'll understand your professional attitude and that you do this for a living, not for pure fun. And if they are a moocher you'll be better off if they balk at your prices or when and how you expect to be paid. In those cases it's better to preserve the realtionship and turn down the work.

In my article titled Communicating with the Server without Reloading the Page, I used a free temperature web service to show how the XmlHttpRequest object worked in JavaScript.  Even though this service has been active for a couple years now, I should have known better.  Merely two weeks after my article was published; they took the web service down.

They did however put up a static replacement.  Instead of returning the current temperature of the zip code you provide, the service always returns a static temperature without doing a lookup.  But all is not lost, the point of the article is not how to get the temperature of a given location; it is how to do so without reloading the page.

With the help of Laurie and Paul, the article is now updated to work with the newly provided, static web service.

Holy Web Horrors, Batman! Can you believe what's happening with Bill and that "special lady" friend of his? Whew boy! Well, let's see if we can make him forget about his troubles for just a bit as I finish up my long promised second part of my "Baseball Movie" blog.

This time, as promised, are the baseball movies I consider to be the worst. Now remember, we're not talking about the acting or even the overall entertainment of the movies themselves. Instead, I'm judging them foremost on the baseball SKILLS depicted in these movies. Then comes the acting, the plot, the actors, etc., etc., etc.

Also, they aren't listed in any particular order either. Anyway, for your enjoyment (and debate if you'd like):

1) The Slugger's Wife
I managed to make it through this entire movie thanks to Rebecca DeMornay but there wasn't any "Risky Business" to be had here, that's for sure.

2) The Babe
Liked the story. Liked the movie, even but John Goodman playing baseball? The best thing in this movie was that he's been the only one that seems to have been able to imitate The Babe's unique running style.

3) Bang the drum slowly (remake)
As I mentioned in my previous blog, as long as the actors weren't anywhere near an actual baseball field or ACTING like they were professional ballplayers, this movie's alright.

4) Ed
Brrrrrrrrrr!

5) Little Big League
Angels in the Outfield
Rookie of the Year
Tiger Town
All of these are, essentially, "kids films" so you can't be too harsh with them - but still...the actors that played "pro ballplayers" in these movies are hard to watch. With a possible exception to Timothy Busfield who still plays in an amateur baseball league in California.

6) Major League II and III:
Even though a lot of the cast returns in these sequels, for some reason, the baseball playing skills just got weaker and weaker - even if they were trying to play it up for laughs.

Okay... with Major League II, I still hold a grudge because I wasn't selected as a ball playing extra on that movie. But it was still fun trying out as an extra for three days - got to hit and (almost) field on a ex-major league baseball field (Baltimore's old Memorial Baseball Stadium). We never got to take ground balls on the field because the last two days of try-outs, it rained.

Anyway, though... these are the handful of terrible baseball movies that stand out in my mind. This list is far from complete as I'm sure you all have memories or opinions of what you consider to be THE absolute worst baseball movie.

These days though, it seems that for the most part, producers in Hollywood are keen on the idea that it's important for the actors to not only ACT but when portraying baseball players, they actually have to LOOK like they have played the game before! That was one of the nice things about some of the extra bonus features on the DVD, "61*" starring Barry Pepper and Thomas Jane. Thomas Jane had never actually played baseball before so Billy Crystal sent him to a baseball camp run by ex-pros to teach him how to hit - and how to hit LIKE Mickey Mantle. Same thing with Barry Pepper - they worked with him to perfect not HIS swing but Roger Maris' swing.

Why is this so important? Well, in the greater scheme of things, it's not but as a baseball fan - a TRUE baseball fan - it can be hard to watch a movie even as great as "Field of Dreams" is when you see Ray Liotta on screen and keep thinking to yourself "but... Shoeless Joe Jackson batted LEFT handed...why's Ray batting RIGHT handed???".

I'm such a baseball geek.

:-)

If you haven't seen Part One of this mess, see below, or follow this link.

So, you read that the Sherrif's office called me... or did they? [Cue lightening and pipe organ effects] I checked my phone for that incoming number, and called it back. The phone number was a disconnected number. That's odd enough, right? But I googled the phone number and found out that number used to belong to my congressman. OK, that's wierd too, right? Just to make it even more odd, I have a PO box that used to belong to... the same congressman. Sweet Raisin Danish! This is all one big coincidence, I'm sure, but then again, my PO box is listed in WhoIs, and maybe she googled it and connected it to this congressman...?

So I called the Sherrif's department that this deputy said he was from. They never heard of him, and there is no record of anyone in their office calling me. Holy ice-cream sombrero! So my wife calls our cellular carrier to find out if someone can fake a number like that. They said yes, it can absolutely be done. It's caller-ID spoofing, and it certainly appears that it may have happened to me.

Oh- I talked to one of this lady's other victims today. This guy has been going through a king-size mound of manure with this person for about three years now. He basically told me that she gives crazy people a bad name, and that she is capable of anything. She called all of his clients and told them that he was sexually harrassing her and/or he has done unspeakable things that they "need to be aware of." He gets his day in court with her- finally - on the 18th of this month. I'll be interested to find out the results of that one.

I won't post what actions I'm taking against her here, since she may be an avid blog reader (many psycopaths are, although I have it on good authority that just as many regular folks are prone to reading blogs as well).

So, if you ever find your text on someone else's website, be forewarned that if they were crazy enough to steal your text, they could be crazy enough to do a whole lot of other things as well. Freaks... can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. No, wait. I could live without this one.

Someone emailed me today to inform me that one page of my website was being copied word for word on another website. I checked it out, and not only was my website being copied, but none of the pages on this other website were original. Every single page was taken from somewhere else.

Naturally I emailed the website through their Contact form and let them know that I would like them to take down the offending page. Here's where it starts to get interesting: I received an email back:

"I have sent this to our lawyer for response. I am also going to call the police regarding your harassment."

Not quite the response I was expecting. Really, I expected either no response (I mean, it's Saturday night and all) or someone saying "Oh, sorry. Didn't think you'd notice." A minute later, I get this email from the same individual (heretofore known as "freak"), which has been sent to my ISP and to me, as well as my domain registrar and Google for some reason only a psychoanalyst could even begin to understand:

"I am writing to you in hope that you will be able to talk to your 'member' and prevent criminal and civil charges.

It is not clear to me or to anybody else here what possesses someone as such individual to write something like below. Forms are common on the web, and his form is neither unique nor 'copyright protected'. Further more we see this as attempt to extract money as it would be to write to all the domains and claim .com or .ca domains rights and suggest to them to 'I'd start dismantling if I were you.'.

From what I see, this person is possibly attempting money extraction which started over the last weekend and we have involved the police on this matter. As soon as the criminal investigation is done and the players charged we will start a civil process.
Please note as a provider you are responsible for e-mails and extortion attempts if you are notified about the illegal behaviour about your subscribers.

We hope that this last cease and desist will be able to pacify crazy and belligerent as the poor individual from the bottom. I wish that he gets some counselling and certainly hope he has enough money as this behaviour does and will have severe consequences."

Clearly someone is a few clowns short of a circus, and it ain't me. Form? Who's talking about a form? I replied and posted a link to their page and to my page, illustrating, with a calm that I didn't realize I had, that these were identical pages - the only difference being that my page has original content whereas theirs does not. Here's the reply back, again sent to my ISP as well:

For your info...sending me e-mails is sending it directly to the Toronto's Police Dpt. Go ahead. THe law here and in San Diego is when you are told to stop, you have to otherwise, ...well you will find out...knock..knock...I wouldn't want to be in your shoes, my sickly friend"

I take issue with that, as I am clearly not this person's friend. In any case, the local Sherrif's department calls me. They say they received a call from a woman, who shall remain nameless, no matter how much I would loooove to spread her name around, who said I was calling her and trying to extort money from her. We have now passed the wierd stage and gone into full-blown "Huh?" The deputy tells me that I can't go around doing this type of thing. I tell the deputy my side of the story and how I've never called the woman and I just want my text taken off of her web page. The deputy and I even go online together so I can show him what I'm talking about. He says he's not really a computer guy, and couldn't take one person's story over the other. I ask him if he won't take sides, can he at least admit that the woman who called him is a complete loon and freak of nature? He said he couldn't. Apparently they have some policy about that. Hmph.

That's the story so far. I've heard of this kind of thing happening to other folks, but had never experienced it firsthand. I'm apparently dealing with a table-turning, psychotic thief. You know what bothers me the most? She can't even spell certifiable correctly, and you know she's had that diagnosis before, so it should be easy.

Dreamweaver's appeal for many people is its visual tools. Macromedia has included many one-click features that are meant to expedite production and ease the learning curve of some of web development's more difficult steps. Some of these features create their own problems, however. For instance, the Properties inspector has text formating buttons that can add seemingly endless inline styles: style1, style2, style3, ad infinitum.

I try to teach my students to use Web Standards and Dreamweaver "best practices." Unless I can replace the MM quick and dirty tools with something equally appealing, though, it's a hard sell. The students fall into the bad habit of adding those styles--among other things--and allowing them to conflict with the external style sheets we painstakingly constructed.

Through my work in promoting the Community MX JumpStarts Dreamweaver CSS templates, I have developed quite a few bits of reusable CSS code. I started adding them to my Snippets panel, a Dreamweaver feature with enormous potential that is still largely untapped. Community MX is extremely pleased to offer two sets of CSS snippet collections, easily installed into the Snippet Panel with extensions created by Danilo Celic.

Set one includes 15 handy hacks such as the Tan Hack, the Caio and Anti-Caio Hacks, the Holly Hack, and various permutations of IE conditional comments. Set two includes 17 helpers and fixes such as centered layout starter code, IE fixes for bugs such as missing images and double float margins, and zeroing out multiple margins code. We invite you to check them out.

I would like to note that this project was not developed in a vacuum. I had the help of some of the best CSS gurus in the business. Big John of Position is Everything and CMX, Holly Bergevin, Zoe Gillenwater, Adrian Senior, and Stephanie Sullivan all contributed valuable suggestions. We sincerely hope that these collections speed up your CSS development as well as spare you some head scratching.