The Problem

The easy way to get started using LessCSS is to use the JavaScript implementation.  This turns a lot of people (me) off, because the thought of forcing a mission-critical resource like CSS to rely on Javascript — which may or may not be available — is horrific.

The second implementation that they offer is based on Node.js, which I’d sincerely love to get into someday; but it’s largely C-based, which is beyond my standard skillset.  I don’t want to have to implement a web server every time I want to sling a little style around!

The .Net Curveball

At FrogSlayer, we’re a .Net development shop.  If I want the wizards with whom I work to be able to add some horsepower to the back-end of the pretty sites I make, it means I need to work with ASP.Net.  Enter DotLESS.

DotLESS is a .Net implementation of LessCSS.  There’s some very simple instructions available on their website that will have a programmer churning out .less stylesheets in no time flat.

FLAW: Programmers don’t (usually) write stylesheets.  Designers do, and we’re the ones who are desperately trying to get this technology working!  The assumptions made in all of the documentation I’ve seen — essentially everything about .Net that programmers know and designers don’t — stopped me dead in my tracks.

The Solution

I beat my head against this for a couple of days, drank several whiskeys and even cried a little bit — but I finally put together a quickie set of instructions for getting DotLESS working with a new ASP.Net w/ MVC3 web application.  Here are my steps, recorded primarily so I can remember them.  This assumes you have Visual Studio 2010 and MVC3 installed.

1. Acquire DotLESS
• Go to https://github.com/dotless/dotless/downloads
• If you don’t want to use Git to download the source and build it yourself, just download the ZIP file containing the latest release.
• The only thing you really need is the dotless.Core.dll file in the ZIP file; extract it to your desktop.
2. Open Visual Studio and create a new ASP.Net/MVC3 Web Application (I used the Internet Application template).
• Add the dotless.Core.dll file to the project (wherever you like; I usually add a root-level Resources directory for things like this).
• Make a reference in the project to the dotless.Core.dll file.
3. In the Content directory, rename Site.css to Site.less
4. In Views\Shared\_Layout.cshtml, change the stylesheet <link> tag from .css to .less
5. Right-click Content directory
• Add > New Item… > Web Configuration File 
• Replace the pre-generated contents with the following:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<configSections>
<section name="dotless" type="dotless.Core.configuration.DotlessConfigurationSectionHandler,dotless.Core" />
</configSections>
<system.web>
<httpHandlers>
<add verb="*" path="*.less" validate="false" type="dotless.Core.LessCssHttpHandler" />
</httpHandlers>
</system.web>
</configuration>

That’s it!  Build and run the project, and you should be able to start rolling LessCSS into the Site.less file (or replace it altogether).  Happy styling!

Fourth time’s a charm! I started Nano’ing in 2008, and finally just won for the first time tonight. The novel itself is now about halfway finished — well, the first draft of it, anyway. Once I’ve had a little bit of rest, several glasses of Scotch and a good deal of Skyrim time to recover, I’ll get back to it.

Only 11 months until NaNoWriMo 2012!  Think you can write 50,000 word in a month?  Give it a try!

If that weren’t enough benefit, I recently lost half a day to a web server crash because GoDaddy deleted my company website’s stylesheet.  I had an old version, so I didn’t have to rewrite it from scratch… but it still took a lot of work to recover.  SVN is one of the best backups you can have.

Luckily for me, someone else at the office was responsible for setting up our VSN server — which unfortunately means I have no idea how to provide instructions for doing so.  Best of luck

Once you have SVN working, create a new repository and add a themes folder to it.  Then go into your wp-content folder in your development directory, save the themes in your themes folder to your desktop, and delete the existing themes folder.

Do an SVN checkout of the themes folder from your repository in the wp-content folder (where your old themes folder was).  Move the themes from your desktop into the folder, add them through SVN, and commit.

Now do this on your other computers, and syncing themes from one computer to another becomes a lot easier.

Virtual Host URLs

This article also made my life a lot easier this week.  By setting up virtual host URLs on my computers, I get to bypass some of the problems associated with absolutely referenced URLs in subdirectory deployments — and I get to use more entertaining URLs for local development.

With virtual URLs, you don’t have to use real top-level domains.  I’m now developing on my laptop at http://wordpress.lol.  Yes, it’s a little bit dumb, but I’m entertained.

Since I’m bending the definitions of common words (which is typically the exclusive province of academia), I should probably elaborate a bit:

• Work: The act of producing the thing that you produce.  Welders weld, designers design, carpenters carpent (or something like that).
• Business: The nebulous, behind-the-scenes process that encompasses everything aside from the work.  It’s wrapped up in all of the social media, networking, handshaking and knowing-a-guy-who-knows-a-guy magic that most of us feel like we don’t know… but we just might surprise ourselves.

Until recently, I’ve strictly been a worker.  I love working.  It’s fun and it’s rewarding.

I’m still a worker, but since I started working for FrogSlayer, the business end of running a company has become a part of what I do.  I never paid a lot of attention to the phrase “you’ve gotta network,” because I never made the connection between knowing people and prosperity.

Then I started thinking about every job I’ve ever had.  With a few exceptions, every job I’ve ever gotten has had more to do with who I know than what I know.  The friends I’d made in purely social contexts eventually found themselves needing to fill a position, and thought “you know who would be perfect for this? Sam.”

That’s not to say that I had it easy — once given the chance, I still had to produce results.  AND, since my friend had stuck their neck out to vouch for me, I had to go above and beyond to make sure they didn’t regret the decision.  We don’t recommend our slacker friends for jobs for a reason: their poor performance reflects poorly on us.  Likewise, if we recommend someone for a position and they do well, it reflects well on us.  Reputation is very important in business.

The same idea applies to any enterprise, from flipping patties at Burger Barn to inter-company contract work.  If I make a good-looking, functional website for a client, chances are they’ll recommend me to another colleague who needs some web work done.  On the other hand, if I make a habit of slapping something together that barely does the job, I’m likely to be applying at Burger Barn (and hoping I have a friend there who can help me out).

I’ve been unemployed before, and that really sucks.  I remember thinking “if I only had the opportunity to work!” Instead of thrusting my resume blindly into any inbox that the want ads presented, I’d have done myself a greater service by calling up my friends.  If your friends believe in your work ethic, it’s hard to remain unemployed for long.

Business is the art of becoming trustworthy in the eyes of the right people.  Do enough business, and you’ll find work.

I’m not deluding myself into thinking that I’ve got this whole business thing figured out, but I’m excited about the fundamentals.  Want to start doing business? Just make new friends!  How awesome is that?

<img src="/wp-content/themes/YourTheme/images.ImageName.png" />

(Note the “/” before wp-content.)

For some reason, this wasn’t working.  If I used anything other than the Default permalink setting, it would incorrectly reference the images, and they would not display.  With a little bit of fooling around, I was able to get it corrected.  While the steps are fresh in my mind, I wanted to make a record of how one can get a new installation of WordPress to work with pretty URLs:

These instructions assume that you’ve done your theme development in one environment (namely localhost on your computer), then migrated to a fresh WP installation on your server.  If you’ve done things differently, you’ll need to adjust accordingly.

1. Absolutely reference your images. As noted above, use a leading forward slash in all of your link URLs during development.

2. Install WordPress on the server. This is the server where it will run in production, i.e. http://YourWebSite.com.

3. Delete the sample page and “Hello World!” post. Delete them, then delete them permanently in the trash.  This is a necessary step.

4. Go to Settings\Permalinks and set your permalink structure.

5. Add pages and posts.

That’s it!  Keep in mind that these steps have worked exactly once for me, and I may have missed something.  Good luck.

The R-Word movement to “End The Word” was started by Special Olympics to protect the dignity of people who happened to be born with intellectual disabilities.  The derogatory use of the R-Word marginalizes people on the basis of their disability.

It’s hurtful, derogatory and offensive.  The biggest problem is that most people are completely unaware — I certainly was, and I was seriously taken aback to learn that something I’d thought to be completely innocuous is widely considered to be hate speech.

The English language is positively brimming adjectives that apply negative connotations in completely inoffensive ways.  In fact, the sheer number of negative adjectives at our disposal is rather harrowing.  Roughly 30% of them were invented for use in the criticism of government officials (which, as far as you know, is an accurate and well-vetted statistic).

Here are a few for reference:

• absurd
• obtuse
• foolish
• inane
• sophomoric
• asinine
• incongruous
• preposterous
• askance
• nonsensical
• daft
• cretinous
• ridiculous

Don’t try to rationalize whether anyone “should” be offended by the R-Word, or any other word, for that matter.  Simply accept it.

Furthermore, don’t think of this as an attempt to limit your use of language.  Refer to the word list above.  Do you use all of those words in equal proportion to the R-Word?  Since Oscar Wilde is dead, I don’t think any of us can claim to have so broad a mastery of the English language that we can demand usage of the entire catalog of words.  We can all afford to sidestep the patently offensive bits.

So far, I’ve resolved to drink enough water and re-learn Spanish.  I’m pretty consistent on the water thing, y puedo hablar Español mejor que el mes pasado.

I’m highly tempted to use my monthly resolutions to do something work-related, but I’m trying to keep them in the spirit of health and well-being.  This month, I’m going to start paying more attention to the food that I buy, more in an ethical sense than a dietary microscope sense.

Take coffee, for example.  I used to go to Starbucks fairly recently, mainly due to consistency and convenience.  I can walk into any Starbucks anywhere — including the one spitting distance from my office — and get a predictably acceptable cup of coffee.  It’s not the best coffee in the world, but I know that it won’t be awful; and if I feel like putting sugar in it, I know exactly how much it will need.

We bought a coffee maker for the office, so I don’t go to Starbucks as often; but I was buying their beans for awhile, mainly for the aforementioned consistency.

Then I started looking at some of the labels on other products in the coffee section, and I started to wonder what terms like organic and fair trade mean in the context of coffee, and why Starbucks isn’t organic if they claim to be “100% Responsibly grown. Ethically traded.”

Fair Trade

For starters, I went to the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) website.  They describe Fair Trade as a trading partnership with coffee growers, which seeks to ensure that the people responsible for producing coffee are fairly compensated for their work, and not exploited (I’m paraphrasing; here’s an article that goes into greater detail).

Being a savvy consumer who likes to make informed decisions, I’ve decided that I support fair trade coffee.  Unfortunately, Starbucks is not even a member of the Rainforest Alliance, whose label only guarantees that a product is at least 30% fairly traded.  Based on a few articles I read, it seems that Starbucks’ fair trade consistency has wandered between 3-6% over the last few years, and they’re simply not responding to public outcries for improvement.

I’ll blog about my personal opinions on social responsibility another time; for now, suffice it to say that we are not amused.

Organic

In the US, standards for organic certification are set buy the USDA, and certifications are issued by state, non-profit and private agencies approved by the USDA.

There are three levels of organic certification:

• 100% Organic: Products with this label are made from entirely organic materials.
• Organic: Products with this label contain at least 95% organic ingredients.
• Made with Organic Ingredients: Products with this label contain at least 70% organic ingredients.

(Starbucks claims none of these distinctions.)

According to an Organic Trade Association article, “U.S. requirements for organic coffee production include farming without synthetic pesticides or other prohibited substances for three years and a sustainable crop rotation plan to prevent erosion, the depletion of soil nutrients, and control for pests.”  This doesn’t seem like it should be terribly difficult for Starbucks to attain, yet they don’t seem interested.  Apparently, their social responsibility is limited to marketing BS.  Good job snowing most of your customers, but I’ll take my business elsewhere.

And there it is — after about half an hours’ research, I am well-informed enough to confidently make smart decisions.  I just hope my ethical compass doesn’t hit my wallet too hard!

Everybody in my family likes each other, but we never seem to have a chance to talk.  I’m hoping this will fill the gap between the holidays.

The good news?  You can control when people find out about your blog.  You’ll have a respectable cache after blogging for a month or two, so wait awhile before you start publicizing yourself.  In the meantime, there are a couple of things that everyone should always avoid putting on their blog.

1. Every Blog is a “Work in Progress”

Spoiler Alert: You will never win at blogging.

That’s not to say you’re not a good blogger, or that you’ll never be successful in the venture; but you’re not going to win.  There’s no finish line to cross, no trophy to collect.  There’s only more wit and wisdom to pour into your growing circle of readers.

I’ve perused many a blog that has felt the need to point out (usually within its first dozen posts) that it’s a work in progress.  On behalf of the legions of people who are able to connect to the internet, I’d like to respond by saying “Duh.”

Maybe you’ve just set your blog up and are racking your brain for content — I’ve been there, and I sympathize.  But please resist the urge to add filler content.  Commit to writing one good article a week, and your site will look respectable in no time.

2. I Know I Haven’t Blogged In Awhile…

“I’d like to apologize to my readers for having been quiet for so long.  I’ve had a lot going on, but I’ve got time to write again…”

If you haven’t blogged in six months, to how many readers do you believe you’re apologizing?  A dozen?  Does excluding your family cut that number in half?

The BlogPology is filler content of the worst variety.  Not only are you not actually saying anything of value, you’re doing the opposite of inspiring reader confidence.  The internet is littered with the abandoned husks of blogs that have one good article from two years ago, a BlogPology from 9 months ago, and nothing since.  They do little more than to justify the fact that someone designed a default template theme.

If you want to renew your commitment to the blog you haven’t touched in a year, just start writing.  No apologies, no promises to your readers (who would exist if you were writing).  Just WRITE.

The most important thing is to tailor your resume to suit the job you’re seeking.  Of course, at one time or another, we’ve all been willing to take whatever job we can find.  The rent, after all, must be paid.  I get it — but from the perspective of the potential employer, the resume that says “I just need to pay the rent” does not translate to “ideal candidate.”

Regardless of how menial the work might be, we’re looking for someone who isn’t going to bolt when they get a slightly better offer next month.  It’s not that bottom-of-the-ladder employees are irreplaceable, but a significant amount of managerial time and effort goes into the hiring and training processes, and we don’t like to waste our time.

Rule #1: Don’t Shotgun Your Resume

I understand the temptation to throw your resume into any inbox that will accept it, but I can tell you that you’re wasting your time.  Whenever I post a job online, I have to delete countless emails that simply say “I would like to know more about the opportunity available at your company,” and have a resume attached.

At least look at the job and decide whether you’re qualified.  Don’t waste an hour going to an interview for a job you’ll never get.  That hour would be better spent honing your Xbox skills.

If you’re at least partially qualified or think you have a shot, personalize the email to which you’re attaching your resume: “I saw your posting for a graphic designer, and I have 5 years’ experience with PhotoShop.  Could I swing by for an interview next week?”  This lets me know that I should bother opening your resume.

Rule #2: Waiting Tables is just Waiting Tables

Unless they’re a Harvard legacy, the person who will be interviewing you has probably waited tables before, and knows that there’s no management component to the job.  Don’t embellish positions you’ve held in the past to make them seem more impressive.

If you’re a recent college grad applying to an entry-level position, no one expects you to have 10 years’ industry experience.  In fact, if you say you do, we’re not likely to believe you.  We’re also not going to believe that you managed a team of 12 people as a hostess at Bob’s House of Steak; however, if you worked there for 2 years, we feel confident that you can hold down a job.  Combine that with a relevant degree, and you’ll at least get an interview.

Rule #3: Don’t Inflate Your Title Either

Which of these doesn’t belong?

• 6 months’ programming experience (C#, C++, ASP.Net)
• Earning B.A. from Awesome University next year
• CTO for multinational corporation

If you work for a small business, your boss may tell you that you can claim to have any title you want.  Titles are free, and bosses like to be cool.  It’s fun to pretend, but don’t fool yourself — because you won’t fool potentials employers.

Being the IT person for an American company that has a client in Canada does not make you the CTO for a multinational corporation.  Even if your boss lets you put it on business cards, you need to put “Junior Programmer” on your resume.  It accurately reflects your level of competency.

If you have 6 months’ experience and most of a degree, be realistic — you’re not going to get a job as CTO for a real multinational corporation; and if you can manage to make your resume look like that of an industry powerhouse with 10+ years of experience, you’re not going to get an entry-level programming job either.

Be realistic about your experience and your expectations, and you’ll be able to pay the rent.