Andrew Krespanis has a very clever tip for creating cross-browser cascading style sheets by removing the different margins and paddings that each browser might apply differently. Then you can style them back to a default layout and be on your merry way. Totally makes sense, and I’m surprised I didn’t think of it.
Update (20 Oct 2004): In related news, Steve Smith has a guide for writing lean CSS code.
I’ve been looking for the perfect RSS news aggregator. One that can sort based on date of entry, uses an embedded browser, and isn’t buggy beta-ware. And I need to find one for both Mac OS X and Windows. I tried FeedDemon and NewsCrawler, but they didn’t do quite what I wanted, and they weren’t free. Being free isn’t a requirement, but if it’s not going to do what I want, I’m certainly not going to pay for it. I tried RSSBandit, and it was working out quite well, but was glitchy at best. Pages would open inconsistently in either a tab or in IE, and seemed to be a resource hog (although I can’t prove it). And it fell in a category of other programs that graft tabs on to the IE engine that cause display problems on my computer (both Crazy Browser and Maxthon cause it as well). I’m sure it’s no bug in the program, but a system level bug in Windows 2000 with dual monitors.
On the Mac OS X side, I only tried NetNewsWire, and was pretty comfortable with it. I was on the verge of purchasing NNW, but thought about usage and subscription maintenance. I do most of my reading on my Windows box, and very little on my Mac. I just couldn’t justify paying for NNW for how little I’d be using it. And maintaining my subscription across programs and platforms seemed to time consuming (even with support for OPML files).
Then I stumbled across Bloglines, and my answers were solved. It sorts the way I want, it uses an embedded browser (the opposite actually, because it’s just a web page), it quite stable, and even better: it’s free and it’s cross-platform. Also, it relieves the extra bandwidth on the servers of the places I visit by half, because it acts as a middle man, by querying the RSS feed once and supplying the results to all the people subscribed to that feed.
Update (26 Oct 2004): Feel free to look at my Bloglines subscriptions.
Here he comes. Here comes Space Runner. He’s a demon on… um… legs.
Requires Java, and probably a good dose of coffee. You can find it here.
Damn, I can’t get past 23.7 seconds.