It has already been a few years since this site has seen any kind of update (or much content for that matter). Every time I start this I think to myself keep it simple and by the time I'm done I have a style sheet longer than the constitution. Well that still may be the case, but at least this time I didn't write it.

As a huge fan of JQuery and the related user interface elements of JQueryUI , I decided to start off by only using these components. If the resulting layout was not to my liking then I would begin adding my own CSS. What happened next was a near miracle.

First I deleted my style sheet and removed all style markings from my templates. Then went through and updated the layout using YUI3's grids, strolled through the templates adding only the standard classes that come with JQueryUI, and added a few extra style helpers here and there for padding and margins. POOF Instant web site.

My style sheet remains empty which is about as low maintenance as you can get.

There are still a few items that need some attention. What fun would it be to get it all done at once?

I did have enough time to rollup all the css files into one in accordance with one of Google's Let's make the web faster tips. So instead of making 4 or 5 separate requests for files there is just one. Even if the files are cached the browser will still ask "Has the file changed?" which takes an additional round trip. Less round trips makes the page load faster.

For rolling up the files I created a really simplistic Makefile to help me out. In the Makefile I use Yahoo's YUI Compressor to minimize the files. It simply removes the comments and white spaces squashing everything into a big one line file. Less bytes! Here's the quick Makefile

yuic=java -jar ~/prod/lib/yuicompressor-2.4.2.jar -v

css/thesergents-combined.css: css/reset.css css/base.css css/grids.css css/pygments.css css/thesergents.css
    cat css/reset.css css/base.css css/grids.css css/pygments.css \
    css/jquery-ui-1.8.9.custom.css \
    css/thesergents.css | ${yuic} --type css -o css/thesergents-combined.css

clean:
    rm -f css/thesergents-combined.css

Not perfect, but it works.

And now it's that time of year again. Time for the snow blowers!

Let the pictures do the talking!

The first one is our driveway before snow removal. What driveway you say? Exactly! Check out how tall it was compared to a Sam!

Sing the praises! It's that time of year again! Short sleeves!

Maybe I'm getting old, but this winter felt especially long and hard. Yes, we had extra snow. There was something else. Oh, I remember. Having two monsters couped up the whole winter. Enough to test the most patient of people.

I would like to thank the following saving graces:

• The zoo - we have a family membership and will for the foreseeable future
• The gym
• My office space heater
• Giant bags of Dunkin Donuts coffee - every morning! hothot as Nora would say.
• Smartwool Socks
• Our 20 year old snowblower - you made it another year

Winter, I will check you on the other side of fall. I'll be the tall grizzled guy with the warm socks.

No SQL databases are all the rage lately. Been experimenting with Cassandra myself and became very interested in the theories and ideas behind this class of databases. Oh, more infomation you say?

• Brewer's CAP theorom - just read it.
• Amazon's Dynamo which is one of the first widely publicized instances of a no sql databse being used in a large production environment.
• NoSql Landscape (part 1) - a good summary of the current landscape. Lots of projects making lots of headway. It sure is fun to watch.

It might hurt your brain, but it's good for what ails ya.

This was definitely one of those "ah-ha!" moments in my programming journey.

Take a read of Implementing "weightless threads" with Python generators

Some ideas are so simple they're hard. I think this is one of those cases.