We can learn a lot from animal behaviour. Even the Bible has several anecdotes on nature. Remember the story of the ant? I was drawn to an equally intriguing slide by Alexander (a positive thinker).

So here is a Polar bear approaching a fettered husky. On any other day, these are the worst of foes. But this isn't any other day. The most unusual and interesting thing happens next. Watch the slide and come away wiser.

Creating design-worthy stripes for your site is much more complicated than it seems. Particularly, diagonal stripes. Getting the angle of the stripe right has always been a challenging task for me. The angle has to be just right so that a single striped image seamlessly merges into one as it tiles across the screen. Fortunately, there is a tool to make life easier and it is aptly named, StripeMania .

I am a bit under the weather and very much disinclined to remove myself from bed, let alone write a post. I share a thought nonetheless, particularly since I received a beautiful mail in my feedbox. It wasn't the usual 1200-worded reports or the banal rants, of which I am slowly developing an aversion to. Just a simple caveat:

"Important warning! Forward it to everyone you know."

Read and do likewise.

GT500 theme has sailed into rough weather. Upon my request GT500 emailed me the updated 'themes.php' file this morning. I needed to see if I could modify it to suit his theme. The code was not something I was quite ready for. The updated file is a huge departure from the earlier version (v0.4). (For the uninitiated, I'm talking about the updated SimplePHPBlog.) GT500 was quick to update his blog to v0.5, while I, assuming only minor changes, plodded on with his theme based on v0.4. Assumptions can be dangerous.

I have mixed reactions to this. First from the point of view of the designer. The earlier version was definitely easier to theme on as almost all required information was on this particular file. A carefully prepared theme would not have required a change to the blog engine. This update changes all that.

Now from the point of view of the programmer. The newer version certainly has a more polished code. The earlier version looked more of a roughly done jigsaw puzzle. This one looks more swanky. Sadly though, the blog engine has to be modified to suit tableless design. Sadder still for GT500, this little project has to be shelved till I try out SimplePHPBlog v0.5 myself. Also it would be unethical for me to keep on beta testing his theme here. So I revert.

Poor fellow!

Update 29-7-2007
I'll have to eat some of my words. Maybe I wasn't looking closely enough, but the 'themes' file is almost the same as it was for SimplePHPBlog 0.4.x. It can be modified to suit tableless design indeed. After three days of failed attempts to configure PHP5 for Apache, I've now got it going and was able to test SPB 0.5 first hand. So GT500 will be getting his theme afterall.

There still are some HTML embedded deep into the system that could resist tableless design (like in the earlier version). But I think, this would suffice. Hence the need to commence beta-testing the theme again.

I must share with you some my favourite blogs. These are required reading for any aspiring (like me) or established web-designers. I use the term 'web-designers' very specifically to mean people who are very particular about CSS and its applications. It should not be confused with the all-encompassing term, 'web-developers'. So here is a compilation of what I've been referencing.

Web-developer's handbook
Very aptly named, this has to be the mother of all references. I needn't say more. See for yourself.

CSS Reference
This is a humble CSS reference but very handy nonetheless. It is not very elaborate. Instead it concentrates on the more popular CSS properties.

PIE
PIE is a sarcastic acronym for Position is Everything. It lists various bugs in popular browsers and methods to squish them. Not unexpectedly, most of it concerns Internet Exploder, err Explorer.

Developer Dictionaries
Nothing beats HTML Dog and HTML Playground.

Practical Examples
One learns more by observation than by pure bookish knowledge alone. Observe and learn.

Some free components
WebAppers shows you where free components are available. Glad tidings to any graphic designer.