Any Django People Coming To LinuxWorld?

August 11, 2006

Anyone working on/with or just interested in Django coming to LinuxWorld? If so, let me know and we'll see about an informal meetup.

Browser Speed on Render or Load

August 10, 2006

A discussion about browser speed broke out today on Google Blogoscoped. The case was made that XHTML Strict creates smaller pages than Google's old-school, non-standards HTML, which will load faster. I agree that pages are smaller, but I got to thinking about page load times.

Page load, as perceived by humans, is affected both by download times and render time. So yes, lighter pages download faster. But does the old-school HTML render more quickly? I asked the same in the forum for Google Blogoscoped and got summarily shut down. But I asked in #firefox on irc.mozilla.org, and it turns out in quirks mode, the browser (at least Firefox anyway) begins rendering immediately and may appear to render quicker. It does, however, have to make adjustments as it renders. With XHTML, Firefox waits until the page loads to begin rendering, but can then render quicker. Mossop's comment on #firefox — [old-school html] "may appear faster."

Who knows, really? Which is why I raised the question. I wonder if Google has done any work on this, actually testing the perceived speed in human terms, rather than just raw download times?

DISCLAIMER: I am a believer in standards and XHTML. I just point this out due to my own curiosity, not to question the validity of smaller download times with XHTML Strict.

Where Do You Doodle?

August 8, 2006

I just don't have the same process as Adam Howitt when he explains how he designs an AJAX application. He works from design mockups, then considers functionality, then codes it up. I always start with code and work back from that.

To each his or her own process, but it feels more natural to me to start with code, even when dealing with interaction design. Computers are, afterall, just working from text themselves.

I remember reading in college about the writer Flannery O'Connor just sitting down and writing some dialogue or a descption from a scene, and then suddenly the fiction had a life of its own and she just followed along. For me, design and development works much the same.

Think Different(ly)

August 7, 2006

I got a macbook pro. When I'm not working, I just take pictures of myself with the built-in web cam.

(Seriously though, I really like this machine. I still run Linux for most of my work via Parallels. When I do work on the mac, it's my usual OSS tools -- Firefox, Python, Vim, Open Office, etc. But there is a lot to like about this machine -- iTunes, Airport wireless, amazing battery life, the 17" wide-screen display.

And lots of pictures of myself while I think differently (!)

Thanks to Eric Moritz for the use of the sarcasm exclamation point.