Code Ownership

We are at the stage in the project where we no longer own the code. Ownership is now with QA is it goes through a series of test environments on its way into production. Our customer is QA and their accounting mechanism known as bugs. Anything that does not match the spec, or customer expectations will be ruthlessly, and rightly, entered as a bug. As a consequence the code repository exists for satisfying those demands.

Via gui.tavares on flickr

We changed our view of quality for this project, incorporating the visual demands as an essential and integral part of the quality process. Previously we scheduled time at the end to do it all and due to the inevitable engineering pressures some of it squeezed out the wrong side of the project - ie was omitted.

The developers that were better at CSS produced high quality components, whereas those that were weak produced decent ones visually. CSS is not my strong point, unfortunately I am more the developer, but this was the reason for focusing on the visual side of things early on - otherwise developers just do code and algorithm and aesthetics are an after-thought.

From the customer's point of view though it is the first thing they see and the first impression they have of the product. Hence the focus on visuals and aesthetics early on in the quality process.

CSS Selectors

There are seven non-attribute selectors:

em in css is the width of the letter m in the current font. The main issue is that the default font size is different on different browsers and platforms. More on css units.

CSS Resetting of Padding and Margins

Interesting article on CSS Resetting. When I worked at the previous place we did some pretty hard core javascript and css. I predominantly worked in the javascript/java-controller area and didn't do a lot of direct css work but out specs had to be pixel perfect. If they [divs] were out by a couple of pixels we would get bugs on them.

I haven't used CSS Reset, nor was I aware of the technique of resetting every element to something equivalent to factory defaults so that the cross browser issues disappeared. The only thing I have done in the past is set the border, margin and padding to 0 on the body tag because of IE. That was usually enough to make things look the same in each browser.

Since I left the last workplace I haven't had to worry about Internet Explorer. All my home machines are Apples and I work on a Mac Pro. My development is now in middleware and backend technologies so I don't touch the front-end much anymore and have lagged a little in keeping up with the latest technologies.

Most Popular on South Sea Republic

The articles that have been viewed the most:

Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix

Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for Phoenix, Scottsdale and Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area. This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most; My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are AZ88, Postinos, Bomberos with Grazie, Humble Pie, Orange Table, The Vig, Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on phoenixeatsout.com

Most Popular Hikes in Arizona

Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak. For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in Tom's Thumb and Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.

Alternate Australian Constitutions

Between 2004 and 2009 this site, southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues. One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome: The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.

Archives For South Sea Republic

South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then; The articles are ordered by views.

Who Is Cam Riley

Cam Riley I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident. I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end. I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.

I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now. The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.

Websites Worth Reading

Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;