.getElementsByClassNameButOnlySometimes()

I'm making a paint application that involves SVG and Javascript. Now that IE actually supports it, SVG is a viable cross-browser method of implementing vector drawing, without having to rely on Raphaël*. Write once, run everywhere... ish.

Another president executed (policies)

Mr. Khamenei and his close circle of advisers typically decide the direction of these policies, and the president executes them.

Wow. Seems kinda harsh, but okay.

Of course, I jest. This is actually a good news story! About Iran! Yes, the new Iranian leader, Hassan Rohani, appears to be less ludicrously extremist than his predecessor. It's a good sign that we'll be able to come to some kind of solution that doesn't involve more explosions.

bloody blogger bug

So... for reasons best known to the gods, Blogger has chosen to include the IE7 compatibility mode tag in its default template header.



Why does this matter? Well, it buggers things up, that's why. Behold, an embedded fiddle:

Examining the code using Blogger's Edit HTML feature, we find that there is a line forcing IE7 compatibility mode.

"WTF?!" I thought to myself (which, as I'm sure you know, stands for "What's This For?!"). I was unfortunately unable to come up with an answer. I did figure out a simple solution, though, and was gratified to find I was not insane when I found it referenced in the comments of this nifty blog.

Behold:

Which leads to the much more pleasant and less useless:

I'm moving away from Blogger soon, and not before time, it seems. I assume the compatibility tag is there to deal with some legacy issue but it seems really shoddy to me, especially since there is no apparent fix for more modern versions of IE. For shame, Blogger!

Fiddlesprinkler!

Sounds like something you say when you hit your thumb with a hammer and there're kids around, I know. I would certainly encourage you to use it that way, if only because it'd make the world a happier place.

Actually it is a little script I have been working on as part of a larger interactive whiteboard project. I hope you're happy; I was this close to calling it the Sprinklinator.

Orders from Chief of Staff, President Executed

Letters to Air Force Base, Obama Seized in Ricin Probe

I know technically it's in line with traditional newspaper headline style, but seriously - nobody noticed the alternative parsing?

The story is interesting enough without this kind of blatant attention-grabbery. It should be beneath an august publication like Businessweek, at the very least.