One reason some HTML documents are so over-populated with <div> & <span> tags, is they lack the power of the CSS CLASS selector.

When first learning CSS, I slapped ID’s on everything. I didn’t understand when to choose a class or an id. So, I ran roughshod with ID’s (and thus more <div> & <span> tags) everywhere.

I kept learning and created my own mnemonic for remembering the difference between id’s and classes.

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That’s not grass

We all thought our lawns were dead. They resembled straw more than having ever been green grass. I almost hated to play with my dog in the backyard. Her nails would fling chunks of the light, yellow grass in the air.

How dry was it?

I’m not sure how far below the normal rainfall we got last year, but I know the drought of ‘05 was tough on North Texas. I’ve never bought into the ‘global warming’ theory. Everything has a cycle. We had numerous grass fires in North Texas this last winter, caused by the lack of rain and dry vegatation. But, it is a cyclical thing. Nature takes care of itself. I’m sure there were raging grass fires that no one cared about hundred of years ago. We just don’t like them now, because they might burn down our house.

The rains finally did come this Spring and we are back on track with rainfall and lake levels being where they should be. And the grass? Came right back to life.

Plant a Garden

In anticipation of Spring’s new growth, I dug up about a 10′ x 10′ section of the backyard probably 6 weeks ago and planted a garden. We’re all really psyched about our pending crop harvest. We will surely have more than we can eat, so our neighbors and co-workers will have to help us. I won’t be buying peppers from Walmart all summer I hope. Here’s the rundown of what we have coming:

• Green & Red Bell Peppers
• Aneheim Peppers
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Habanero Peppers
• Roma Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Beefsteak Tomatoes

My first job (at 12 kids!) was working in the neigbors 100+ acre farm. I’ve got fond memories of the big garden we had at our house (in Ohio) as well as my grandparents. This is the first time for my wife to experience the difference that a vegetable fresh from your own garden tastes like.

While researching the possibilities of implementing a way to send requested email (text message) notices to cell phones, I found the following cool and simple information. You can send email (text message) to the following cellphone providers from your computer email program. Or, using php mail() function in a script. Ahh, the possibilties. Don’t abuse it though….!

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I always seem to miss out on these, but I did find this one in time. Slashsdot is having a CSS Redesign contest. Grand prize is a laptop.

I’ve been migrating a slew of customer contact data over for a client. The previous database entry submission form allowed contacts to sign up multiple times with the same email address. Since unique email submission was vital to the new functionality I had programmed into their customer contact management, I needed a quick way to sort through thousands of records to find duplicate ‘email’ addresses within the ‘prospect’ table.

Here is a simple MySQL statement to do the trick:

SELECT email,
COUNT(email) AS Duplicates
FROM prospect
GROUP BY email
HAVING ( COUNT(email) > 1 )