Devil without a clue

I hate #CSS frameworks…

Maybe its just me, but CSS frameworks are a pain. Call me old school, but I like to work with code directly, and all of the cryptic class names make working with physical code a huge pain.

Also, why even bother with a framework? Sure, I like the whole “grid layout” (and have stolen this idea to a certain extent) but I do not see the need for a framework unless one never wants to see the code itself. And, honestly, if thats the case, then one shouldn’t be building layouts anyway. Wysiwig editors and frameworks are nice, but at some point abstraction becomes dangerous. Troubleshooting CSS framework laden code in particular is a painful experience.

bah. maybe its just me.

Hiding a div based on a radio button

This is fairly easy. the radio group and divs:

<label>
<input type=”radio” name=”foobar” value=”foo” id=”foobar_0” class=”hide_foo”/>
foo
</label>
<label>
<input type=”radio” name=”foobar” value=”bar” id=”foobar_1” class=”hide_bar”/>
bar
</label>

<div class=”hide_foo” id=”foodiv”>I am foo.</div>
<div class=”hide_bar” id=”bardiv”>I am bar.</div>

and the jQuery:

$(document).ready(function(){
$(“.hide_foo:radio”).click(function(){
$(“div.hide_foo”).hide();
$(“div[class*=hide_]:not(.hide_foo)”).show();
});
$(“.hide_bar:radio”).click(function(){
$(“div.hide_bar”).hide();
$(“div[class*=hide_]:not(.hide_bar)”).show();
});
});

using the matching classes and the :radio selector I hook the click event to the radio buttons

What each event does is then hide the appropriate div, and then show all of the other divs with the hide_* class EXCEPT the one you want hidden.

this is done with the [attribute*=value] selector and then the :not(selector) modifier. doing it this way prevents all of the divs from flashing on screen for an instant.

wow. my blog sucks

just pointing that out

UL are here

In order to assign a “you are here” effect i jquery/css there are several steps.

Assuming that your URLs are fairly structured to match your navigation, assign each ul a class or (preferrably) ID to match the path.

i.e, if your urls are http://…/blog/… http://…/news/…, etc your uls would be

<ul id=’nav’>
<li id=’blog’></li>
<li id=’news’></li>
…
</ul>

then your jQuery would be

$(document).ready(function()
{
var currentPage = /http:\/\/[host]\/([a-zA-Z0-9]*?)\//.exec(document.location);

$(‘#nav’).children(‘#’+currentPage).addclass(‘current’)

}

You could carry it out to sub levels easily enough by expanding on the regex and further ‘children()’ calls in the jquery stack

$(‘#nav’).children(‘#’+currentPage).addclass(‘current’).children(‘[whatever selector]’).addclass(‘current’)

after that its just a matter of CSS.

This can also be done if your URLs are not symantec, by defining the currentPage variable manually at the top of each page, but that is slightly less dynamic.

On the Illuminati

Recently, most likely due to the upcoming Dan Brown movie (I love how the sheep take their queues from mainstream media) there has been a resurgence of interest in the supposed “Illuminati.”

It is often suspected by most intelligent and rational persons, that there is a higher power behind international, or even local affairs. Conspiracy theorists would like you to believe that this “shadow organization” has ultimate control over all goings on in the world. The truth, as I see it, is much less extreme, though may be just as organized.

It behooves those in power to take steps to ensure that their power, however obtained, continues unabaited. This is evinced in the behavior of totalitarian governments, communism, and even the (somewhat) slow degradation of our own democratic process to the semi-police state that we have today. In the days of kings and emperors, power was derived from property. Those who owned the land, controlled those who lived on it, dictating much of their daily lives. Over time the property itself became increasingly irrelevant, as did the people on it, with the derived monetary value being of increasingly greater import.

Now, rather than directly controlling the lives of their inferiors, a fluid system of monetary pressure controls the intrigues and happenings. Wealthy individuals and entities (banks and corporations) increase and decrease monetary flow to affect the outcome of any given scenario. This is true a local level with smaller players, but escalates to a multi-national level where the process is much the same. You can see it in action any day, any where. From businesses trying to pave over parks and residential areas to expand their holdings, to OPEC fiddling with the price of gas to affect a political outcome. Multi-national banks and various federal reserves do much the same thing to affect desired outcomes in political and idealogical conflicts. At any given level, key players run in the same circles and have many connections to each other. This is only natural, and does not neccesarily indicate a “secret society,” though they certainly do exist. Many of our founding fathers were indeed Free Masons, and as a result there are many masonic influences to our National heraldry. There is also a certain amount of truth to Weishaupts Bavarian Illuminati, though the continued relevance of both is suspect.

The reason for these fraternities, orders, clubs, etcetera is simple and less diabolical than the conspiracy theorists among us would have us believe. Individuals of like mind tend to gravitate together and establish a hierarchy which coalesces, either by design or accident, into the trappings of a “society.”

Free-Masons and similar groups still exist, and ambitious persons still gravitate to them, where they establish relationships with other ambitious persons and these synergystic relationships result in many of them being in positions of power and apparent conspiracy. To further this, having been in the fraternity, they are likely to favour those of younger generations belonging to their fraternity and promote them to positions over others who lacked the membership due to a percieved connection and set of parallel views and values. On the surface one is tempted to cry “conspiracy!” but in actuality it is simple psychology.

While it is romantic to dream of “Eyes wide Shut” type parties and shadowy gatherings where the course of events are set, it is, in all actuality, our minds finding patterns where none exist. And sure, there are shadowy powers controlling the outcome of events, but they are only shadowy because, lets face it, to most of us international finance is quite boring, but it is the life blood of us all. Do you think for one second that China does not have some level of control over the United States, afforded them by their willingness and ability to bankroll our sophomoric fiscal adventures?

Financial pressure is one of the most powerful forces on the planet. See it in Lobbyists in Washington, OPEC, the IMF, and any number of local, national, and multinational interests. The world is not controlled directly by some morally questionable “black hand,” but indirectly by morally agnostic individuals and groups that control the flow of wealth. When any two (or more) are opposed, things get interesting and dramatic events begin to unfold, but there is nothing ultimately secret about it. We don’t know becasue we don’t care, and they care because the have, and want to keep, their wealth and power.