Rodent Regatta

Happy Cog 3.0 (Creme)

You’ve probably noted the near total focus on CSS, web design, Movable Type and XHTML coding recently. (To those I often link to but have neglected lately, I apologize.)

I’m in the midst of an important project, and I simply must learn how to use Movable Type well to maintain web sites. I wish I knew of a tool that handles ecommerce sites as well as Movable Type handles content management. I need to be able to provide web-based registration and purchasing via credit cards with all the appropriate auto-responders. I’m clueless as to which tools or resources I’m supposed to be using. That’s not my point though.

During this crash course, the folks at Lockergnome got frustrated, abandoned web standards, got pasted with (virtual) rotten tomatoes and returned to standards. The story, all of its pieces and the happy ending can be found at Matthew Mullenweg’s Photo Matt.

I’ll return to a more balanced look at the Rat Race once I get the ecommerce stuff figured out and launched.

In this entry Eric Meyer celebrates the arrival of the second edition of his book. Eric is one of the gurus of CSS understanding.

However, there is other important information in his post. O’Reilly is returning to the ”lay-flat” binding for their books. Eric points the way. The ability to read and type, read and eat or read and know the book is not going to spontaneously close is worth a lot.

”Those things are akin to the creature comforts on a Cadillac Escalade.” [Jay Allen – The Daily Journey]

There is every possibility that MT-Blacklist won’t be required once TypeKey is rolled out under Movable Type 3.0. In the meantime, there’s a new MT-Blacklist file that you should add to your installation if you’re a MT-Blacklist user.

Then, of course, there is the noise level concerning TypeKey’s feature set and functionality. Dave Winer raised a few questions – some with speculative underpinnings and some with ”wish I’d thought of that” tone. Others began to weigh in with the pros and cons.

Be assured the ones actually using MT 3.0 as early testers are either keeping quiet or they are being quite reserved in their comments. There is truth somewhere in all the rumors. It will come out in due time.

• * * UPDATE * * * Truth may start here.