mike's web log

Every year, a couple months before school ends, a kind of controlled experiment happens in NCLB schools: The principal remains the same, the teachers remain the same, the students remain the same. The only thing that changes is that the test is over, forgotten until next year starts. And suddenly everything changes: test prep boards come off the wall, students start writing poetry, they go on field trips and do science experiments, they work in groups and do real reading.

If it weren't for Babineau, Devine wouldn't see a doctor as much as he should because he likes to stay right where he is.

"I specialize in inactivity," said Devine.

• companywide (v company-wide)
  
• dialog (v dialog box)
  
• email (v e-mail, e-mail message)
  
• filename (v file name)
  
• web (v Web)
  
• webpage, website (v Web page, Web site)

By optimizing as many routines as possible without losing user friendlyness[1], Notepad++ is trying to reduce the world carbon dioxide emissions. When using less CPU power, the PC can throttle down and reduce power consumption, resulting in a greener environment.

To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.

-- Woodrow Wilson [source]

On [this] day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves[1] to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower [source]

• Data binding. Specifically, I use the Design-view wizards to initially configure a data source control. For controls like GridView, if I'm already in Design view, I use the Task Pane to select a data source and set some initial properties (e.g., EnablePaging).



• Template editing. I'll usually at least start template editing by using the Task Pane menu. I'll generally tweak thereafter in Source view.



• Control property builders. In GridView or ListView, if I have to create TemplateColumn objects or some other non-default column or item type, I'll use Design-view builders.
  
  
  



• Previewing pages. Of course, Design view does not provide true WYSIWYG; by default, there's a lot of detritus such as non-visual controls, borders for div element etc.[1] But because the page reflects current CSS settings, it's good for a quick look. For a real preview, tho, I run the page.



• Creating handlers. I will double-click controls to create skeleton handlers for default events, and I'll often use the Properties window to create a handler for non-default events.
  
  
  



• Adding a CSS style sheet to a page. It doesn't get any easier than dragging a .css file onto the page.

• Dragging controls around to locate them to absolute x and y coordinates. Two reasons. One is that I rarely use absolute positioning, oops. The second is that I find that it can sometimes be dang hard to select an individual control within, say, nested div elements.



• Setting most control properties, unless: a) I already happen to be in Design view, or b) I'm dealing with complex properties for which a builder might be handy. Even then, for relatively simple complex properties many times I'll create (e.g.) ListBox items in Source view by hand.
  
  
  



• Table editing. The table editor in Design view got a big overhaul in Visual Studio 2005, I think it was, and it's much better. Even then, I rarely use it. It never seems to do quite what I want.



• Setting any kind of attribute on any kind of non-ASP.NET markup. I do pure HTML almost exclusively in Source view.



• Working with styles. CSS editing facilities made huge progress in Visual Studio 2008. Indeed, if I remember to use the CSS editing windows while I'm in Design view, I'm always impressed. Still, I do CSS in Source view, which has been made easier by IntelliSense.
  
  
  


• Master pages.

A precise model helps, for example, when specifying the interactions between two instances, such as a network protocol. These forms can express the how of a design very effectively because they are, in a sense, only one step removed from the actual code expressing that design. They do not, however, explain the why of a design.

As the design trickles out from the original conception to the organization as a whole, the requirements for communicating with each new audience become broader. It is rarely necessary to take a low-level design document to a customer, but it is often helpful to have the requirements in a form that is both understandable to a diverse audience and written in a way that can appeal to the audience at many levels.

So, if you wonder whether Twitter matters for business, remember, if you will, when people new to cell phones used to call each other to report the most trivial details of where they were and what they were doing; remember how blogs at first were thought of merely as personal diaries of no interest to anyone in business, and how they grew up to become the heart of a new media paradigm. For that matter, remember how the personal computer was dismissed by the titans of the computer industry as nothing but a toy.

The future often comes to us in disguise, with toys that grow up to spark a business revolution.

Twitter is like that.