Thoughts From Eric Archive

The HTML-based slides from last week’s keynote address at Web Design World are now available on my “Speaking” page; note that these slides will only work well in a CSS2 positioning-savvy browser.  Gecko-based browsers and IE/Win both qualify, and IE5/Mac does not in this case.  Other browsers weren’t (and won’t be) checked, although I suspect Opera won’t deal well with my styles either.  Also, given the nature of this presenation, the styles pretty much assume a 1024-by-768 display with the browser window maximized.  After all, that was the projection environment in which I was working.  If the text comes out too big and your browser lets you resize pixel-based text, then go for it.  If it doesn’t, sorry.  You could always use a browser that does.

While I was at it, I put up links to the talks I delivered in May and June of this year; these slides are best viewed in Opera 6 for Windows in “OperaShow” mode (hit F11).  But you can read the content in any browser, all the way back to Mosaic betas, with no real loss of information.

• Web Design World Keynote Available was published on Monday, July 29th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Speaking category.
• There have been no replies.

We just got back from Seattle, where I delivered a well-received keynote address at Web Design World and had a good time poking around the city with Kat in my few spare hours.  At the conference, I got to catch up with some old friends, meet some folks for the first time, and life was generally cool.  The weather was beautiful, actually; sunny and highs in the 80s and 90s.  Apparently this constitutes a heat wave in Seattle, since all the weatherpersons were telling people to take it easy and drink a lot of fluids.  We found this incredibly funny.  Well, I’m sure they think our winters are deadly cold, too.

Eric Meyer on CSS is starting to get reviews, and they’re good ones.  Check out the book’s companion Web site for details and links.  I think my favorite review line so far is this: “As you’re reading the book, you get the feeling Meyer isn’t fighting the medium, he’s working with it in almost a Zen-like way.”

• Back In Cleveland was published on Friday, July 26th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the General category.
• There have been no replies.

Happy anniversary to us.  If you like, you can work out the anniversary number from the text of our honeymoon journal.

Ser Zeldman did me the great favor of publishing a glowing note regarding my latest book, which adds to his already incredible favor of writing a truly wonderful Foreword for the same book.  Thanks, Jeffrey.

I don’t know how many of your remember the 1988 movie Scrooged (one of my favorite holiday movies, by the way, despite the fact that much of the primary cast and the director inexplicably wishes it had never happened) but it turns out to have been disturbingly prophetic.

• The Scrooged Prophecies was published on Friday, July 19th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Books and Writing categories.
• There have been no replies.

Over the weekend, InformIT published the primary text of Project 4 of my latest book as an article (registration is required to read it).  The article elicited a few reader responses, including this one, which I absolutely love:

Great article. This article presents some new things about CSS that I didnt know. It also uses a very practical example which helps grasp the material. I have never heard of Eric Meyer before. From the detail and attention shown in this article, I expect to hear his name more.

Wow, tough room.  No matter.  It’s always nice to be regarded as an up-and-comer!

• Project 4 Now Online was published on Wednesday, July 10th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Books and Writing categories.
• There have been no replies.

“With strict enforcement and higher ethical standards, we must usher in a new era of integrity in Corporate America… In the end, there is no capitalism without conscience, no wealth without character,” says the President.  Right.  So why did it take a court order to see the list of people with whom Vice President Richard Cheney consulted on energy policies last year, and when do we actually get to see it anyway?  The White House is still claiming executive privilege and appealing these court decisions, rather like the Nixon administration did in regard to Watergate-related files.

Still, it sounds good, doesn’t it?  “No capitalism without conscience” does have a certain ring to it.  Maybe similar rhetorical devices should be used in the struggle to make standards a priority, in spite of lazy Webmasters.  “No sites without standards, no Web without validation.”  Hmmm… needs work.

• Yeah, My Trust is Soaring was published on Tuesday, July 9th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Politics category.
• There have been no replies.

The advent of Independence Day (U.S.) caused me to reflect on freedom and what it means, and I was going to say a few things about that when I started thinking about the recent court rulings on the Pledge of Allegiance and school vouchers, and that took me in a whole new direction… one that went on for a while.  So I turned it into its own short essay.  Take it for whatever it’s worth to you.  Finally, proof that on occasion I do think about stuff other than CSS!

• On Freedom was published on Thursday, July 4th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Culture category.
• There have been no replies.

Okay, here’s the deal: when Eric Meyer on CSS arrived at the New Riders warehouse, it apparently wasn’t a full shipment.  This led to the book being taken off the “coming soon” list without actually landing on the “available now” list.  I guess it landed on the “incomplete shipment” list, and the New Riders Web site took that to mean “no longer available.”  Or something.  Either way, the book is now available for order from the New Riders Web site!  Let the bells ring out in celebration!

As for Amazon, Borders, etc., the Web sites still claim the book will be published on 15 August 2002.  Not true: it’s already been published.  Somehow the data feed got polluted.  In fact, the book should be available for shipping somewhere around 9 July, as the Barnes & Noble site correctly states (or did when I wrote this).  So feel free to pre-order!  You won’t have to wait six weeks, but more like one or two.

And the book really is gorgeous.  I keep flipping it open to random points just to admire its design.  This means that I have to get moving on an update of the companion Web site.  Soon to come: project files for all 13 projects, bonus material that was cut from the theatrical release, and more!

• Really, You Can Buy EMOC! was published on Monday, July 1st, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Books and Writing categories.
• There have been no replies.

I now have in my possession two real physical paper copies of Eric Meyer on CSS.  It looks as beautiful as I could have hoped—better.  310 pages of practical CSS, divided into 13 projects, each and every page in glorious full color to really show what CSS can do.  I’m really, really, really very happy right now.

Sadly, this joy is tempered by the fact that most e-tailers think the book will become available in August; Barnes & Noble is the exception, with a fairly realistic 9 July availability date.  Even the New Riders Web site claims the book isn’t available, and encourages you to search for a newer edition(!).  Trust me, folks: this baby is revved up and ready to go.  There just seem to be a few annoying roadblocks in front of the starting gate.  If you’re interested in ordering a copy, and of course I hope you are, please try again in a few days.  I’m looking at the two copies as I type this (please excuse any typos), so I know the book actually exists.

• Friday, 28 June 2002 was published on Friday, June 28th, 2002.
• It was assigned to the Books category.
• There have been no replies.