Entries for month: May 2010

Example usage of <tbody>

Every now and then I poke around on the w3.org website eyeballing the HTML / XHTML specs to see if I'm doing things correct. One of the things I've been bumping into was the fact that I needed to group some table rows (<TR>) together, but if you give table rows a :hover effect, it'll only kick off the hover on one row at a time. I  need the group of table rows to hover all at the same time.

So, I went back to the w3 site and read the table spec. One of the things I noticed was the fact that I hadn't really been paying attention to the fact that <table> tags had a <thead>, <tfoot> & <tbody>. Also, from the example given, you can have multiple <tbody>s which would solve my problem of grouping table rows together. I could put the :hover affect on a <tbody> spanning 3 rows and all three rows would trigger :hover as if I moused over 1 row.

Example code:
<style>
table tbody:hover { background-color: pink; }
</style>

<table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tbody>
    <tr><td>Row 1 - Tbody 1</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Row 2 - Tbody 1</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Row 3 - Tbody 1</td></tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
    <tr><td>Row 1 - Tbody 2</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Row 2 - Tbody 2</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Row 3 - Tbody 2</td></tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
    <tr><td>Row 1 - Tbody 3</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Row 2 - Tbody 3</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Row 3 - Tbody 3</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

And demo:

Row 1 - Tbody 1
Row 2 - Tbody 1
Row 3 - Tbody 1
Row 1 - Tbody 2
Row 2 - Tbody 2
Row 3 - Tbody 2
Row 1 - Tbody 3
Row 2 - Tbody 3
Row 3 - Tbody 3

This is also pretty useful for styling with css and using effects with jQuery.

CFBuilder Update

If you've been living under a rock, CFBuilder Update 1 has been released. BIG BOLD NOTE FOR PEOPLE USING CFBUILDER AS A PLUG-IN: #3 in the technote is important:

When you see the successful update prompt, do the following:

  • (For standalone installation) Restart ColdFusion Builder
  • (For plug-in Installation) Start ColdFusion Builder using the following command:
    eclipse –clean

Otherwise, your eclipse will basically remove CFBuilder as a plugin and you'll have to re-install it. I know this from personal experience. Learn from it. :)

 

One week with Android

 

So, it has been a little over a week with my HTC Incredible / Verizon Droid Incredible phone. I thought I'd share my thoughts now that I've had time to break it in a little.

Regarding battery life, make sure you download "Advanced Task Killer" (Thanks to Joshua Cyr for the tip) - You'd be surprised how many apps you have running in the background. I find that I should use it once a day and my battery life is pretty decent thereafter. I do charge nightly. I'm not entirely sure why the apps hang around so long or perhaps I'm not properly closing things.

I'm really surprised by how good the camera / camcorder is on this thing. The 8 megapixel is nice and a suitable replacement for a quick point and shoot camera. Went to an amusement park with it and I was able to capture all the kids in their silliness with ease and still maintain a decent battery life.

I really miss the phone book in the iPhone. The iPhone phone book as far as managing your contacts and such is a little more polished and thought out. For example, a contact can have as many mobile numbers as you want to give them.  In the Android "People" directory, you're limited by the labels you give the person. Once you use the label, you can't use it again. Also, the fact that you can star any number regardless of how many of them belong to the same person is nice. You can't do that in the HTC phonebook widget. Example, if I wanted my parents cellphone and their house number as a favorite. I'd have to make sure the house and cell belonged separately to my Mother / Father.  I haven't dug into looking for a better phone book yet. I have found that you can create shortcuts on the Android desktop to a phone number regardless of who it belongs to. I may just go that route instead. Forgot to mention, at the very least, at least the Android has a working "groups" concept. You can put the person in as many groups as you want (example: VIP, family, etc) and you can navigate through phone numbers using groups instead.

App updates notifications are pushed to your phone. Where as on the iPhone, you had to go check yourself using iTunes and/or the phone. One oddness, you have to update each app one at a time whereas the iPhone lets you update them all at once. That being said, once you update the app, you're not beholden to stay on any particular screen as it shoves it to a background process and you're free to do what you want including moving to the next app to download.

Using the facebook app, one thing I noticed is that I can upload photos to facebook and move on. Again, very much a background process. Select the photo, upload and I can then go and post to my profile something else or surf around, etc. I'm not required to sit and wait for things to finish uploading.

My earlier statement stands. There is life after Apple / iPhone. Android is good enough to compete and it's getting better.

Regarding "cellular service" - Bear in mind that I moved from AT&T to Verizon. I've never been with Verizon so I don't know what their service is like other than what I'm experiencing. In Pittsburgh using at&t, I always had 5 bars out of 5. Yes, I have had the occasional wtf phone call drops, but they were far and few for me to care / worry about and there were small pockets where I'd get no service and I got familiar with them. With Verizon, the norm appears to be 1 or 2 bars out of 4. Sometimes my call quality sounds like the voice is getting clipped as if the speaker is too loud or the packets are getting dropped. There were some calls I just had to call them back and try to get a different connection. That being said, I have not had a call drop so far.

So, that's all I have so far. I guess I'll check back in a month. :)