James Oppenheim's blog

How to view Firefox’s default internal CSS stylesheet

James Oppenheim — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:44:32 +0000

With the current dialogue about the merit of using a reset.css stylesheet within your front-end development workflow I thought it might be intriguing to delve into the inner workings of Firefox to see what the actual default styles were. The reasoning behind using a reset.css is this: with every browsers providing it’s own interpretation on each HTML element default styling, developing consistent pixel perfect designs is difficult unless you reset all the default styles back to ground zero before applying your own design. While I will not debate the pros and cons of a reset stylesheet here and now I will show you two ways of accessing Mozilla Firefox’s default stylesheet. After some digging around on my XP file system I came across the following directory: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\res and within that directory are the following Cascading Style Sheets:

EditorOverride.css
forms.css
html.css
mathml.css
quirk.css
svg.css
ua.css
viewsource.css

Note you can also access these stylesheets by typing: resource://gre/res/html.css and: resource://gre/res/forms.css etc, etc into the address bar. With this information on board we should have an easier time deciding if we really need to change the default behavior of the current element we are styling.

Firefox about:config, customising Firefox the easy way

Technorati Tags: Web, Web Standards, CSS, stylesheet, Firefox

Caravan Cafe: a burger to remember, Seymour style

James Oppenheim — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:47:17 +0000

In these days of rising petrol prices an unnecessary road trip to indulge in the mouth watering Caravan Cafe burger seemed the perfect antidote to any well thought out savings plan. The Caravan Cafe burger came highly recommended and what’s more I can’t resist a challenge, so both my girlfriend and I thought a quest was in order.

So off we went into the Melbourne countryside with salivating mouths and Internet printed directions. However, after driving around Seymour for half an hour due to inadequate directions provided by the what I thought was the all concurring and infallible internet (can you tell I use a computer every day?) we ended up asking a local bikie, who was more than happy to help; after a 5 minute conversation. The wrong directions that were provided actually turned out to be the home residence of the late owner of the Caravan Cafe and special burger patty creator ‘Mrs Sal’. Driving around Seymour actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because this mystifying burger was starting to take on an eerie mythical status and we also got to take in the sites including the defunct adult store ‘erotic nights’.

“Two burgers with the lot ($7 each) with beetroot (50c extra) please, oh and a strawberries milkshake”. The words were spilling out of my mouth, I could not stop them, I knew I was excited. Tantalisingly, we were able to watch the creation of these legendary beasts: the special burger patties were moulded up with an ice cream scoop, flattened on the grill and then onions mushed on top. Toasted buns, bacon, pineapple, egg, cheese, tomato, lettuce and sauce. Excellent juiciness, good structural integrity, dribble down your arm good times - what a combo!

All in all I think the Caravan Cafe burger was worth a road trip, however, the overall size, bacon and cheese let it down just a touch. I would have to say that the Buxton Burger still rocks my world. But, if you happen to find yourself driving through Seymour a stop is well worth your while.

On the way home we stopped in at the Flowerdale pub for a beer amongst the Harley’s and dirt bikes. Upon indulging the barman on our epic quest he said with a smirk on his face “I don’t know where you got your information from, but have your heard of our Mountain Burger?”

Will the search ever end, I hope not!

The best hamburger in Melbourne, the almighty Cathedral burger wins again!

Technorati Tags: Melbourne, Seymour, Best hamburger in Melbourne, Burger, Personal

The John Slatin Fund Accessibility Project needs you

James Oppenheim — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:39:22 +0000

The John Slatin Accessibility Fund Project is an independent volunteer collaborative effort of accessibility experts who are generously donating their time to do an accessibility audit of participating companies websites.

The accessibility audit cost the site owner a minimum of $500, which will be donated to The John Slatin Fund.

Who is John Slatin? Why not check out the Knowbility website.

This is an ideal opportunity for both any company that was wondering about the accessibility of their website and any accessibility experts with some spare time.

Technorati Tags: Accessibility, Website, The John Slatin Fund Accessibility Project

James Oppenheim’s blog best of the best 2007

James Oppenheim — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 07:15:32 +0000

With 2007 done and dusted I have had a chance this weekend to sit down and reflect on my first full year as a blogger. I must admit that I struggled to find the time and motivation to write blog posts, weather they are personal, professional or just funny. But all in all I think it was a good year. So without further ado below is a list of my favorite blog posts from Oppenheim.com.au:

Thank you all for reading and I look forward to a fantastic 2008.

Technorati Tags: James Oppenheim, blogging, 2007

Merry Christmas to everyone

James Oppenheim — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 07:24:26 +0000

Merry Christmas to all and a happy new year. I will be off the radar for a while so this can keep you interested. Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: Personal, Interesting sites, Christmas, ElfYourself

IE8 leading the way with Acid2 Test compliance

James Oppenheim — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:19:13 +0000

IE8 has just announced that it renders the Acid2 Face Test correctly.

Wow, this is huge news for all Font-end Developers (FEDs) around the world. Not to mention all the users that browse the web with Internet Explorer by default. This is a huge step considering the considerable flack Microsoft is getting at the moment from Opera.

As a comparison I thought I would see how other web browsers managed with the Acid2 test, Browser Shots will enlighten us all.

All we have to do now is wait for IE8 to be released and subsequently adopted.

Technorati Tags: Web Standards, Acid2 Test, IE8, Web

Do websites need to look exactly the same in every browser?

James Oppenheim — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:36:37 +0000

Every wondered if websites need to look exactly the same in every browser? Well the world renowned front-end developer and author Dan Cederholm answers the question on a new domain:

http://dowebsitesneedtolookexactlythesameineverybrowser.com/

You have to love the length of the domain name!

Technorati Tags: CSS, Web Standards, Interesting Website, Dan Cederholm, Simple Bits

Spam me!

James Oppenheim — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 10:37:04 +0000

Recently my site clocked up 32,000 Spam comments. Yes that is correct, 32,000 in just over a year! Spam is the bane of my existence. Why do people do it? It must be working!? Surely not, I don’t need a Rolex watches, diet pills or to increase my credit limit.

AARRRRHHHH!!!!

n a side note, I don’t think I have ever used so many exclamation marks in a post! How about some more for good measure!!!

Down with Spam. Up with good quality content!

Technorati Tags: Spam, Website, Blog comment spam

Where have you been all my life?

James Oppenheim — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:55:26 +0000

My previous lack of blog post can be contributed to a number of miscellaneous, but somewhat connected factors including: moving house, changing jobs, working an extra job, but most of all no internet access at home. It is definitely a truism to say that being a web developer requires the Internet. One would have though that this is as obvious as an old cheese festering in a hot Australia summer. I have the internet at work, however, this really makes me appreciate how much I use it at home for random activities like: wasting time on Facebook, looking up movie times, doing web related research, reading RSS feeds, sending personal emails, looking up recipes, but most of all bloggging.

But one thing to come out of this lack of Internet is the subsequent research unveiling the relatively new concept in Australian broadband: naked DSL. No this is not a new version of a DSL plan for 18 year olds and over. It is a DLS plan where you don’t need a phone line. Wow, that would be great, because I must admit I would not need a home phone if it were not for the Internet. But there is a catch, I have to wait until December for Australian ISP’s to release their plans. Oh well I am sure I will come up with a solution in the mean time.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Personal, Australia, Naked DSL

Animated loading gif images

James Oppenheim — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 11:56:48 +0000

After needed an animated loading .gif image for a recent Ajax application I did some quick Google searching and came across a fantastic site: http://www.ajaxload.info/

Ajaxload allows you to generate your own animated Ajax loading images with a few simple click. Starting from a number of animation templates you can then choose a background and foreground colour for your new loading .gif. After 30 seconds of playing around, see some of my examples below:

Fantastic, yet simple. This is the way all websites you should be, well done Ajaxload.

Technorati Tags: Ajaxload, Ajax, Interesting websites, images, animated gif