background image position px css

Safari Tech Books Online (PennKey required for access) offers several books on web design topics such as HTML, CSS, Javascript, as well as at least one Dreamweaver-specific book, "Dreamweaver CS3 The Missing Manual"

The CSS Zen Garden is a showcase of web designs and a good example of the incredible power that CSS affords a web designer, independent of HTML.

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DVD-CCA vs. Pavlovich deals with the juristiction of internet publications and accountability for content. Pavlovich was an open source devleoper who founded LiVid (Linux Video Project). They're goal was the provide DVD playabck support for Linux computers. Part of the project involved using the DeCSS algorithm which Pavlovich made available online. In his testimony, he says that he knew that there was questionable legality of using and spreading the code when he originally came across the algorithm, but he did it anyway.

Howver, the opinion of the court written by Justice Brown finds that Pavlovich cannot be forced to stand trial in California for the publishing of DeCSS on his web site. Pavlovich is not a California resident, performs no business in California, and was not actively encouraging California residents to use his algorithm to harm Californinan businesses. Brown determined that he cannot be held responsible for any negative economic impacts on California businesses that his posting caused.

The outcome of this case is important when considering the Dmitry Skylarov situation. Skylarov was detained for months for breaking a law of a country which he was not a citizen of, nor was he present in at the time he allegedly violated the DMCA. Not too long after, the courts are ruling that the liability can be restricted by state lines.

Another interesting aspect to this case is the dissenting opinion by Justice Baxter, particularly his wording. He critizies Pavlovich's "network of 'open source' associates'" in their efforts "to undermine and defeat the very purposes of hte licensed CSS encryption." Baxter tries to connect open source and piracy, a misconception that many people have. This association hurts legitimate developers and their efforts.

Baxter's opinions also details the inherent incompatabilities with the open source movement and closed DRM.  An open source project could never be licensed by the DVD-CCA because the stipulations would never allow certain parts of the code to be revealed.  He also compilcates the decision by discussing the fact that the whole point of the the DMCA to restrict playback ability.  Whatever their motivations were, they were making use of a technology that the DVD-CCA should have full control of and was developed through illegal means under US law.  Baxter determines that, jurisdiction issues asside, the LiViD developers should be held responsible for their development with an illegal technology.

Edward Felten, head of the ACM's special interest group on DRM, petitioned the Library of Congress for an exemption in order to circumvent access control mechanisms for research purposes. Felten discusses how the evolution of technology is dependent on past improvements. By restricting researchers from experimenting with copy protection methods, improvement to techniques will be hindered. He demonstrates the negative impact by discussing the paper he wrote comparing different methods of breaking protection and what information is required to crack the protection, something the record companies tried to prevent from being released with the DMCA. Felton also claims that in the field, it is unclear in the early stages of research whether a possible DMCA violation will be incurred or not. Academics are unlikely to engage in research that could potentially lead to violations, hindering not only research directly related to DRM, but tangential applications as well.

The most important thing to come out of the exemption request is the context in which research is given. In describing the valuable research he participated it in before the DMCA was enacted, Felten notes that the SDMI sponsored his acclaimed research paper on breaking access control methods. The SDMI is a group of music distributors, and had something to gain from their studies, and now sought to prevent others from sharing in this knowledge. Clearly, by inhibiting research into access control, the technology of copyright protection and the lessons learned from the research falls solely in the hands of the gatekeepers, the record companies. Without the added input of the academic community, research in the field has been hindered and copyright holders have not been provided the best digital protection methods.

The best example of his hindered research is the Sony Rootkit debacle. He and an associate discovered the vulnerability but had to delay publication and hire a lawyer to make sure that they weren't exposing themselves to DMCA violation. Threats of DMCA violations prevent important studies and important information from reaching the consumer.

The courts' decision in “MPAA vs. 2600” prevented journals from writing articles about Digital Right Management that divulge methodology. After “DVD Jon's” deCSS program (which breaks the encryption on DVDs) began circulation, 2600 had an article in print and online which detailed the algorithm and decryption codes used in breaking the CSS encryption. The MPAA filed suit under the trafficking provision of the DMCA, claiming that 2600 was distributing a program which would contribute to breaking DVD encryption. 2600 claimed that this inhibits free speech. As a technical journal which specializes in computer encryption and decryption algorithms , it needed to be able to provide the details to its readers. The magazine complied with the injunction to remove the algorithm from their site but began to participate in what they referred to as “electronic civil disobedience” by encouraging others to post the algorithm and then provided links to these sites.

The court determined that both posting and linking were not protected by the first amendment. They determined that while there is a part of code which is speech, there is also a non-speech component which can be banned under the anti-circumvention clause. Exemptions are provided for reverse engineering and cryptography. However, these exemptions only extend to the cryptographers and the reverse engineers directly. Publishing their results is not considered an exemption. The consequence of this decision is that to prevent lawsuits, technical journals will likely avoid discussion of Digital Rights Management. For example, discovery of important security flaws would not be published because it might hint as to how to break the encryption. Understanding the flaws of the current generation however is essential to enhancing security for in the future. Development of future security methods have continued to be crippled by the DMCA, due to the limited scope of the exemptions.

It's all about tools, baby...

The Yahoo! User Interface (YUI) Library is a set of utilities and controls, written in JavaScript, for building richly interactive web applications using techniques such as DOM scripting, DHTML and AJAX. The YUI Library also includes several core CSS resources. All components in the YUI Library have been released as open source under a BSD license and are free for all uses.

Complex css design for 3 to 4 column layout. Holds together well in IE and FF and at different font-sizes. I haven't tested different screen resolutions.

A tutorial on using xhtml & css to do a 3 column layout. Seems to hold together well in IE & FF.

More tools...

While writing this blog a small library of reusable components based on YUI has been started. The library was namespaced YAHOO.ext (short for Yahoo! UI extensions), and already has a few very useful classes that make day to day development with YUI much easier. All of the classes are well-documented and there are some examples of using them found in the posts on this blog. The code is of course free and has the same unrestrictive (BSD) license as Yahoo! UI.

More tools...

While writing this blog a small library of reusable components based on YUI has been started. The library was namespaced YAHOO.ext (short for Yahoo! UI extensions), and already has a few very useful classes that make day to day development with YUI much easier. All of the classes are well-documented and there are some examples of using them found in the posts on this blog. The code is of course free and has the same unrestrictive (BSD) license as Yahoo! UI.

It's all about tools, baby...

The Yahoo! User Interface (YUI) Library is a set of utilities and controls, written in JavaScript, for building richly interactive web applications using techniques such as DOM scripting, DHTML and AJAX. The YUI Library also includes several core CSS resources. All components in the YUI Library have been released as open source under a BSD license and are free for all uses.

A tutorial on using xhtml & css to do a 3 column layout.  Seems to hold together well in IE & FF.

Complex css design for 3 to 4 column layout.  Holds together well in IE and FF and at different font-sizes.  I haven't tested different screen resolutions.

Website Testing: Conquering Cross-browser, Cross-platform Woes

As I was doing final cross-browser testing for a redesign of SKDesigns, my website design business, the design implementation was working quite well in nearly every mainstream browser for Windows, Mac, Linux, and even the Lynx text-only browser. Unfortunately, though, I found problems with three old or little used browsers, such as Internet Explorer 5.2 for Mac that destroyed the CSS-positioned layout. I toiled over how to best handle these browser bugs, especially since my upcoming Web design book—currently in production at my publisher—stresses the importance of usability, readability, and degrading gracefully for older browsers. Today’s post covers part of my decision-making journey and choices of approaches for dealing with these CSS bug-riddled old and little-used browsers.

Interesting site that focuses on control of css layout techniques.  Simple, complete and understandable.  Importantly, looks at how to set up columns that are cross browser compatible, controlable, and can be used to layout the newsite.

Great tips on CSS, AJAX and other Web 2.0 thingies...

24 things refers to 24 things to do that will impress your friends. Things like:

• rounded corners
• ems
• prototype.js
• in-place editing!
  

 

These are IE hacks