HTML5 introduces new tags that make a lot of sense. No longer will each divison of a page need to be speculated as to its purpose; the new tag names have it built right in. I’m going to take a look at what these two tags mean, and how to implement them. Note: This article will be written based on current drafts, and implementation and definition are subject to change.

Header: The <header> tag defines the header of a section or document.

Section: The <section> tag defines sections in a document. Such as chapters, headers, footers, or any other sections of the document.

Article: The <article> tag defines external content. Such as a news article from an external news provider, or text from a web log (blog), or text from a forum. Or any other content from an external source

Footer: The <footer> tag defines the footer of a section or document. Typically contains the name of the author, the date the document was written and/or contact information.

It all seems pretty self explanitory. As of now, an overly simplified version of a blog layout may look like this:

<div id = "header">Blog title, blog links, and so on </div>
  <div id = "content">
    <div class = "post" id = "1">Post content</div>
    <div class = "post" id = "2">Post content</div>
    <div class = "post" id = "3">Post content</div>
  </div>
<div id = "footer">footer content, links, copyright</div>

This, of course, is not the complete page, but you get the idea. Once html5 is adopted, it will appear more like this:

<header>Blog title, blog links, and so on </header>
  <section id = "content">
    <article id = "1">Post content</article>
    <article id = "2">Post content</article>
    <article id = "3">Post content</article>
  </section>
<footer>footer content, links, copyright</footer>

That doesn’t seem so hard. In fact, I bet I could “upgrade” an entire WordPress theme in about an hour to html5 syntax. What does this mean for developers? Well, the truth is, absolutely nothing right now. HTML 5 is not supported in current browsers, and probably won’t be for some time. Opera 9.5, Firefox 3, and Safari 3.x include a handful of html5 features (namely the canvas element), but none of these tags above.

What it means for the future, is simply web pages that make more sense; easier readability. Also, with the same content, there are 30 less characters that needed to be typed. 30 bytes times 1000 means 30 megabytes of bandwidth saved per thousand page loads. This will also mean cleaner and easier to read stylesheets. Overall, pages like a standard blog page will just be much more efficient. This is great news for developers and end users alike.

Sources: http://www.w3schools.com, http://blog.whatwg.org/, http://www.w3.org/html/wg/html5/

I’ve used many different ad networks, and even if you have a favorite… you should get on the Adbrite bandwagon. If you’re making.. say… 10 bucks a day with Google Ads, awesome! You should still use Adbrite. It’s genius.

You tell Adbrite how much you’re making, you plug in the code from your favorite ad network, and if Adbrite has better (read: more profitable) ads to display, it will. Otherwise, your regular ads display as if Adbrite never existed. Basically… that means that you will automatically make at least as much money as you were already making… and can possible make more.

I’ve used Adbrite with Google Ads (before they canned my account with no explanation, five dollars short of a payout. Assholes), with WidgetBucks, and even with cj.com ads, and have always gotten a few extra bucks out of it. Best part: Minimum payout is only 5 bucks. No more waiting a few months between checks, and perfectly supports my point of it being a great “ad on” ad network.

No. I didn’t get paid for this post, and I’m offended that you think so. I just like to share the wealth. (literally)

While modifying a plugin to work correctly in WP 2.5, I came across this code snippet.

I haven’t had to deal with it myself, but maybe someone else will find it useful, or hilarious as I did. Here’s the code to make timestamps WordPress friendly (apprently):

// Dealing with timestamps in WordPress is so fucking fucked.

$offset = (int) get_option('gmt_offset') * 60 * 60;
$this->post['post_date'] = gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s', $this->published() + $offset);
$this->post['post_modified'] = gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s', $this->updated() + $offset);
$this->post['post_date_gmt'] = gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s', $this->published());
$this->post['post_modified_gmt'] = gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s', $this->updated());

What the hell is a <canvas>? How do I use it? Why do I want to use it? What is so great about it?

I have had no idea, so I decided to find out.

With my recent kick on finding out everything I possibly can about html5, this is one part of it that has been implemented in a few of the more popular browsers, and actually has some use. By definition:

The tag defines graphic, such as graphs or other images. The tag is new in HTML 5

That seemed 100% pointless to me, until I learned more. The idea of this element, is to provide a container for graphics, and to use a script to actually print the graphics to the screen. What that means is… dynamic graphics in your webpage without the need for Flash, Java, or Silverlight (shudder) . This is my dream come true. Here is a great example of a real life example: http://canvaspaint.org/, and here is a page with a few basic “how to’s” to understand the <canvas> element better: http://labs.mininova.org/canvas/

Supported Browsers:

• Mozilla Firefox 1.5+
• Opera 9.5+
• Safari 3.x
• IE8beta1

Edit: Damn RSS feeds and wordpress titles… If I put <canvas> in the title, the browser sees it as a tag. If I put &lt;canvas&gt; in the title, then the rss feed sees it as a tag. C’mon people… this tag arrived in 2004…

I have been an avid Nine Inch Nails fan since 1996, when I “accidentally” switched CDs with my friend. I put his “Downward Spiral” disc in my “Nirvana, Live in New York” case, and took it home with me. He complained that the title track sounded too much like a dishwasher… but I had been curious for a while to see what NIN sounded like, and decided to make the decision for myself. At the age of 13, I took the CD home, and listened to it straight through. I hated it at first, but by the time I heard “Need you dream you find you taste you use you scar you f*** you break you” I was sold. It was the first album I had ever listened to from beginning to end and loved it immediatly. Since then, The Mars Volta, Radiohead, Muse, and the Beta Band are the only others to have met that challenge.

But I digress.

NIN recently released “Discipline”, a single with which they seem to have no plan. (I know better). As always, I decided to view the source of the download page, and noticed a few things.

1.   <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/firebug/firebugx.js"></script>

2.   <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/sp5.js"></script>
   

It seems that they are trying to keep the way their site works a secret… but at the same time, very obviously announcing that they use the SP5 framework to put their sites together. Now, this may be a one time thing; They haven’t used this in the past. According to Q101, my local radio station, they sent this song out to radio stations within 24 hours of mixing it. 24 hours after that, they had a download link up for the song. Was it a quick fix? Was this website thrown together overnight for an extremely large sum of money to get it done quickly and right?

All I know, is that I could have put something together in a couple of hours just as easily, and would gladly have taken Trents money… after all… I’ve given him quite a bit of mine.