We attempted to do a production install of our senior project software this afternoon on this machine. It turns out that the Tomcat web server software that was supposed to be running on the machine was replaced with something called ePrints. A production machine mysteriously had its web-guts torn out with absolutely no notice about two days ago (as best I could tell from using uptime), leaving us high and dry. Is this sort of thing common in the IT world? Maybe I should take up accounting… #

I’ve begun to read Francis Schaeffer again, which has been extremely refreshing for me and a welcome change from the rote consumption of technical data that this semester has been. I may have to quote extensive portions of True Spirituality in this space. Web Sites That Do Not Suck™ quote extensive portions of Francis Schaeffer. #

Speaking of which, do you know what the biggest hindrance will be to the Christian counterculture movement in the 21st century? It’s this: we just don’t understand semantic markup. I mean, com’on people—we actually believe that the Word was made flesh (cf. John 1)! Surely you’d think that this very statement in the Scriptures would express the critical importance of the written word. Context is king, subtlety is beautiful, and words have as much power to heal as they do to destroy. We have technologies that emphasize the context and subtlety and meaning of these words, but we still build web pages that are the browser-based equivalents of bad photocopies: tag soup, table alignments, and misshapen text. The web has been chosen as the medium for the voice of the Christian counterculture. I’m afraid that unless we start using the technology to its potential, no one is going to hear us. #

Sarah spent Friday and Saturday dogsitting for a friend of the family. It occurred to me in the process what kinds of sacrifice owning a large dog really involves:

* if you want to have dry feet, you must either buy slippers or wear shoes at all times
* sleeping in until 5 AM is a luxury
* eating anywhere but in the kitchen?—forget it
* washing your hands at least 3 times per hour
* entertaining friends and family by trying to make the dog turn his head to the side in order to understand you
* never, ever using the word “walk” again

Contrary to where this list may lead, we did have a really good time. :) #

If you don’t obsessively read Dive Into Mark everyday, you’ll likely have missed the CSS Zen Garden. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it: Dave Shea provides five nine (9!) completely different skins for the exact, same markup—all brought to you by the wonders of Cascading Style Sheets. #