How do you maintain a DRY code base?

After I tried a couple different approaches to a responsive design, I finally landed on Twitter’s Bootstrap to putter around with. While it’s great to *cough* bootstrap with, it’s in no fashion to be the be-all end-all user interface CSS — you will end up hijacking the code and inserting crazy stuff in it and you would be much better off just starting from scratch for your own web-app.

But how do you maintain DRY code? There are more way to skin a cat, and even more to accomplish the same thing in CSS and JavaScript. How can you prevent other designers and front-end developers from re-inventing the wheel over and over again whenever they make one small edit to the UI?

We did a huge overhaul to just one section of our website, and when the project started I wrote a clean piece of Sass for the developers to use, and by the time the project was done, it was cluttered with repeated and unnecessary styles. I can only imagine it will be 10x worse with a responsive designed website.

How do you organize your code for the multiple experiences?

That being said, how ARE you supposed to organize your code then for these multiple experiences? As far as IDEs go, there are not many (if any) options for CSS out there that can deconstruct your CSS and find duplicated styles and tell you where you can optimizer your code. (If there are, I haven’t used any.)

How to debug with multiple experiences?

We only have 2 people in our QA department and it already sucks time away from them when they need to test features in all the major web browsers and their major versions. Which devices should they be testing on? How much complexity is added with each new screen resolution that you add to the code base?

When I developed my proof of concept, I developed on a Mac with Chrome, Firefox and Safari. I never even took a look at it in Internet Explorer. When do you say “I am only going to support until version X?” You could easily dismiss browser eccentricities and say you should only design for resolutions, but that’s hard to explain to a client when they go to use the website on their respective computer/mobile device and finds out it doesn’t work.

How do you instruct developers not as familiar with front-end development?

As stated above, we had a fairly small development team and after a couple of months of development, even though I had instructed my teammates that they didn’t need to condense the styles into one-liners because we had the Sass compiler do it for us, I was still finding unreadable code in the code base. How do you bring everyone up to speed? It seems with responsive design and more complicated design methodologies, it’s harder for the everyday “coder” to be up-to-speed on all the new jazz with front-end development too.

So those are my current gripes. It’s not going to prevent me from using responsive mobile design at all, but I imagine it will cause some headaches down the road while everyone is still trying to figure out exactly the definition of what responsive design really means.

Many of the stickers I see are from conferences they recently attended, like postage stamps of where your luggage has been. I’ll see stickers of Octo-cat or for programming languages that they are currently evangelizing. You can tell a lot about a person by the stickers they have on their laptop!

Aetna has sent us 6 benefits cards in the past 3 days. Whyyy?

January 22, 2012 17:51 via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@rachelober

Rachel Ober

It was really weird and awkward whenever my husband then texted me later and said, “Aetna called, they saw your Twitter post and want you to call them back.”

Initially I thought to myself, “Uh oh, they must be pissed I said something? What did I say?? Am I going to get sued?”

When I got back in contact with them, a friendly lady answered and said that Aetna had noticed my Tweet, researched why I had received so many ID cards and wanted to let me know why.

Isn’t that freaking cool that companies out there are actively looking at their customers feedback and want to help you versus just trying to shut you up? Kudos, Aetna!

In my office I have a packet of paper tacked to my cork board that has little over one hundred food and plant items that are toxic to dogs. Many of these items I didn’t know were toxic before I got Isabella even though I’ve had a dog in my life for more than a decade (did they not distribute this information in the past?)

When I first brought Izzie home, I reviewed this list and tried to remember this as much as possible and I am usually very careful with what I feed her. For instance, she has a horrible allergy to wheat, and if she eats anything containing it, she breaks out in hives and won’t stop biting herself where she flares up. I don’t feed her table scraps and I scold Adam whenever he feeds her from the table.

That being said, she IS a corgi, and they are well-know for their insatiable appetite and will do anything short of killing you to get a piece of food. Last night, I was finishing up a plate of Thai fried rice and pulled out a bunch of onions that I didn’t want to eat. I had to run to the restroom and left the plate out. From the back of the house, I could hear Izzie jump on the couch and audible gulp the remaining morsels from my dinner plate. No volume of screaming from the restroom would halt her in her food reverie and a few moments later she waltz into the bedroom licking the stay food particles from her lips.

It was then a race around the house trying to find out exactly how much onions were toxic to dogs and who I should contact at 10:30 at night in case it was going to be an emergency.

My first call was to the Animal Poison Control Line run by the ASPCA. After waiting on hold for a few minutes and giving them all my information on the incident, the operator then told me that it would be a charge of $65 before they could even give me advice. This wouldn’t count any time of actual emergency intervention, just advice.

I quickly hung up and dialed my veterinarian. Unsurprisingly, they were closed but gave me numbers to two 24-hour emergency animal hospitals in Brooklyn and I gave them a call. The first hospital was already dealing with an emergency but did tell me that I needed to get her attention soon. I called the second hospital and they too confirmed that she needed to throw up the onions. I could either give her hydrogen peroxide (not the stuff you use on your hair) or bring her to the hospital. I had none of the hydrogen peroxide at home and it would take probably 20 minutes to pick some up at the local CVS and even then it wouldn’t be a sure bet that she would actually vomit.

All the while I am freaking out running around the house, Izzie had since plopped herself down on the carpet and was already ready for bed. I decided to tell her we were going for a walk and quickly shuffled her to the car so I could speed down 4th Avenue to the animal hospital.

When she was finally seen by a technician, they alerted me that onions are particularly harmful to dogs because it causes anemia, which makes them lethargic and prevent oxygen from getting into their red blood cells. If she isn’t treated, the worst that could happen to her was that she would need a full blood transfusion otherwise she would die. Soon that $200 vet bill didn’t sound too bad.

They gave her an injection of a medication that would make her nauseous, but she was still quite stubborn before she gave up those onions! The process made her pretty loopy and I had to take turns with Adam to carry her back home from the car and she spent the rest of the evening curled up in her bed.

The Take-away

If you have fur-children, be sure to keep a list of toxic foods/plants in your house for reference and be careful what you have laying out that your pets could possibly get into.

Also keep an emergency veterinarian number in your mobile phone. And if there isn’t a 24-hour hospital in your area to call, at least get the ASPCA number in your phone, you might be out $65 for advice but better than burying your loved-one.

A lot of people know about how chocolate is toxic to dogs, but the reality is that most chocolate has a high milk content and dogs (depending on weight) need a LOT of chocolate in order to get to toxicity. Usually, chocolate is not as bad as you may think unless they decide to gorge on a pound of 85% cacao. Onions, and other surprising food items, are actually a lot worse.

For a list of toxic food and plants for your fur-child, download a copy of this list to keep around the house. http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/plants/

These commands will either show/hide the hidden files and then relaunch Finder.app to show the changes.

alias show_hidden='defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES && killall Finder && open /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app'
alias hide_hidden='defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO && killall Finder && open /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app'

5. Lady Gaga — Born This Way

Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under

I guess it wouldn’t be me unless I did mention Lady Gaga somewhere in my breakdown for the year. She not only came out with one full-length album, she also released a remix album of the tracks on “Born This Way” at the end of the year. While this isn’t my favorite Lady Gaga album, that would be “The Fame Monster,” I did find some songs on this album that I fell in love with and of course there were a few that made me want to rip off my ears. As a whole, I enjoyed the new territory and I did expect more from her, but I did find myself listening to this album a whole hell of a lot.

4. Amanda Palmer — Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under

I use to follow Amanda Palmer religiously on Twitter for a few years, but after a while even an ardent fan can get too much Amanda Palmer, which is why it took me a little after the fact to find out about her “Goes Down Under” album that came out. It wasn’t until I heard, and saw, the remix of “Map of Tasmania” that I was hooked into this cheeky set of tunes that she wrote while touring the “Land Down Under.” My favorite is definitely “Map of Tasmania” and I would definitely go out and get the remix versions by “The Young Punx” which feature Peaches.

3. Teddybears — Devil’s Music

I had inadvertently listened to Teddybears over the past few years without really knowing it and it finally dawned on me after I heard Robyn’s cover of “Cobrastyle” where I had heard it before. This year they released another great album following up on their 2006 debut “Soft Machine” titled “Devil’s Music.” It’s wide and varied but keeps a consistent strength of songs through the whole album from start to finish. They also team up with some great guests artists including Eve, The Flaming Lips, the aforementioned Robyn, and my personal favorite, CeeLo Green & The B-52′s on the track “Cho-Cha.”

2. Florence + the Machine — Ceremonials

Secret Codes and Battleships

I had listened off and on to Florence + the Machine’s previous album “Lungs” earlier in the year, but it never made a huge impact on me. When I heard their initial offering of “What The Water Gave Me” a few months ago, I was ravenous! When the full album came out a few months later, I could just put it on and listen to the whole album as I worked and it seemed each song was as good or better than the last.

1. Darren Hayes — Secret Codes & Battleships

Without a doubt, “Secret Codes & Battleships” was the album I was waiting most intensely for the entire year. Darren Hayes had been working on this album for the better part of two years and constantly teased his fans with updates here and there about the progress of the body of work. When it finally did come out in October, I was amazed at how perfectly themed the entire collection was. I rated each song of the 12 track album 5 stars in my library. I bought the super-deluxe fan edition which included a vinyl record just because I ended up loving this album so much (I don’t own a record player!) The second CD included in the fan edition wasn’t anything to sneeze at either. It included some very well-archetechtured songs that for one reason or another did not fit into the grand scheme of the album as a whole. Mysteriously, after some digging around, I had found a song titled “I Wanna Know” by Darren Hayes earlier on in the year that I absolutely loved and hoped would be released on this album — it wasn’t, and it wasn’t found on the CD of extras either. Why I can’t seem to find a release of this song will be lost to the ages, but I hope one day it will end up somewhere worthwhile.

Honorable Mentions

Fantasy

These artists didn’t release a new album this year but they did pass along singles or “teaser” tracks to whet our appetites.

I Will Never Be the Same – Hold (Instrumental), Fantasy

I am a huge fan of Josh Atchley’s ”I Will Never Be the Same” project and supremely upset that I’ve never been able to see him live because he’s all the way in Los Angelos, and I will probably never get the chance to go there anyway. That being said, I’ve been frothing at the mouth since his “Standby” album release in 2009 for more music and he has been slowly releasing a few teaser tracks here and there and hopefully he will be releasing a full-length album later this year. You can listen to these teaser tracks on his SoundCloud page. My personal favorites are “Hold (Instrumental)” and “Fantasy.”

Marina & The Diamonds – Radioactive EP

I was turned on to Marina & The Diamonds whenever I saw a fan-made video which integrated the majority of her songs from “The Family Jewels” into a remix that accompanied a professional-level music video featuring some of our well-loved princess fairy-tales from history. She released an EP late last year called “Radioactive.” It varies greatly from her previous album, but I have to say the song is extremely catchy and dance-worthly. I am looking forward to a full-length album whenever she decides to release it.

Open an eBook in Dropbox

So sue me, I like reading books on my iPad and I like using iBooks. Not the Kindle App, not the Nook App and heaven forbid you make me read a book in any of the dozen or so other third-party Apps available in the App Store or make me use Adobe Digital Editions on a desktop.

Another thing I hate to do is tethering my iPad/iPhone to my decrepit MacBook (circa 2007) when I buy an eBook online just so I can load it into iTunes and then sync it to my iPad/iPhone. I try to buy ePubs when I can and I usually do it on a desktop computer (maybe another Mac — like my work machine — quite a few miles away from my home computer.)

In the past I tried uploading the files to a server and downloading it to the iPad (doesn’t work) and even e-mailing it to myself (also doesn’t work, damnit!)

After using Dropbox to transfer the bought books to my home computer where I would then transfer it to iTunes, I then realized “You know what, Self? Maybe can I try to open these books on the Dropbox App on my iPad and read them there!” I attempted a quick drag-and-drop of the file into my Dropbox on my computer which quickly synced over to my iPad and ta-da — eBook goodness!

When you get to Dropbox on your iPad, just click on it and wait for it to download. You can’t view the book in Dropbox itself, but if you click the arrow in the top-right corner of the App screen, you can “Open In…” iBooks (or your choice of third-party App that can read the book’s format.)

However, the book will not automatically transfer itself to other iDevices or iTunes, but you can just do the same trick again to get the book on the device you want. The nice thing is that when you do get around to tethering and syncing your iPad to your computer, you will have no problem transferring the book back to iTunes.

You will run into problems if the eBook has DRM but there are ways around these things.

Lucky for me, I actually do that quite often, but this past week I took a class on something I wish I would have learned before my wedding.

I’ve been getting into crafting the past few years and I joke that I’m a middle-aged cat-woman because of my hobbies and the fact that I get to bed early most nights. Also a few years ago, I started attending “Crop Weekends” with a group of girls in the Tri-State area called “Cropper’s Delight.” Recently, they started adding more generalized crafting classes to the amenities they offered during their cropping weekends. I was particularly interested in their glass etching class after I saw Meryle’s various etching projects that she showed-off on Facebook.

After an exceptionally difficult car trip from Brooklyn to Mahwah, NJ, I finally made it to her class and learned how to etch a plate using a Critcutted vinyl template and some etching creme. I was absolutely amazed at how easy this technique was. After sticking the vinyl to the plate and applying a healthy coat of etching creme, it takes about 10 minutes for the chemical process to eat away at the glass and leave a permentant mark on your glass.

I say I wish I knew this technique before my wedding because it would have been much easier for me to create my own Sand Ceremony glasses rather than searching all over earth for someone to etch one for me and send it to me. It also would have been great to create my own favors with the technique.

After I showed Adam what I had produced, he immediately saw a deal on Gilt for recycled glass bottles and ordered me a few dozen with the aim of me taking custom orders off of Etsy. Now what am I going to do with all these bottles?

To keep a swf from overlapping html, set the wmode parameter to “transparent”.

 

 

Example:   recipe-widget at http://www.foodandwine.com/holiday-guide

 

<param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”>

 

See how the New Year’s dropdown overlays the widget.

Other examples and discussion:

http://www.aleosoft.com/flashtutorial_menuoverlap.html

http://www.codingforums.com/showthread.php?t=156189

This wouldn’t be something we could easily fix as the advertisements are served from an advertising partner and we would have to have the partners contact the advertisers to fix their flash advertisements. We were about to give up and deploy without a fix, as the advertisement only showed up very ocassionally on a few pages, when someone from the marketing side sent an email asking us to bump up the z-index even higher and see how that worked.

I bumped them up to about z-index: 9999; but no dice. Finally, I did what I probably should have done at the beginning and just did into the gabillion lines of code of the offending advertisement and look for z-indexes being specified. And ‘lo and behold, they were setting their ad to 1000000. Hmm. Thanks, guys!

Obviously, they wanted their advertisement to show up above anything else on the page, but that becomes a problem for us when our users wouldn’t be able to navigate the site.

I decided that so this doesn’t happen again, why not just set the z-index to the largest z-index possible? After playing with Firebug in Firefox, I found that yes, indeed there is a maximum z-index and Firefox will automatically truncate the value if the maximum is exceeded. After a little more research, the maxmum is different and what happens when you exceed the maximum depends on which browser you use.

It seems Eric Puidokas did all of the research for us and came up with this nice table explaining the maxmum values and what happens if you exceed those values.

I made a simple test page to find these limits and figure out what happens when you exceed them.

Browser	Max z-index value	When exceeded, value changes to:
Internet Explorer 6	2147483647	2147483647
Internet Explorer 7	2147483647	2147483647
Internet Explorer 8	2147483647	2147483647
Firefox 2	2147483647	*element disappears*
Firefox 3	2147483647	0
Safari 3	16777271	16777271
Safari 4	2147483647	2147483647
Opera 9	2147483647	2147483647

The “lowest” maximum value is “16777271″ but as it’s a outdated browser, I went with the common value of “2147483647″ and then “2147483646″ for the child element per my previous post.

I’m not sure if there is etiquette when it comes to using z-indexes on a page, and that’s why I was originally hesitant to make the z-index some outrageous number like “1000″ (only to find out other people seem to yawn at “1000000″) but I hope with this change, we won’t have to deal with drop-down menu z-index problems ever again.

I’m updating one of our brand websites to include a hover-over drop-down menu to its navigation. I was really proud of myself yesterday for doing this simply without the aid of any JavaScript or jQuery but our QA engineer discovered that the menus were getting covered by other elements lower down on the page in IE 6 and IE 7.

Urgh.

After fiddling with the z-index of the menu element itself, I finally did a cursory search on Google and found quite the peculiar fix for this problem. I’m sure this is old news to the web gurus out there but I’ve been out of the loop for a few years on recent IE hacks and workarounds since I’ve mostly dove into Ruby on Rails coding full-time.

The trick to this fix is to make the parent element’s z-index higher than the child element that is having the problem. And not just the immediate parent of the child element, but the closest parent that has the relative positioning attribute defined. For me, this was 3 or 4 levels higher than my absolutely positioned child element.

Can I stop supporting IE 6 & 7 yet?

More information on the fix: Relative, z-index, and IE