A new and very useful site has appeared at Microsoft.com - the Beginner Developer Learning Center. Here’s the official description:

Welcome to the Beginner Developer Learning Center - a centralized learning environment specifically targeted to beginning programmers. Here you’ll find a rich array of learning content that starts with the very basics, and guides you through step-by-step to becoming a fully-fledged developer!

No experience or programming knowledge required - so dive right in!

(more…)

CSS Tinderbox is an open source site where you can view and download CSS Page Templates for free.

I checked them out and I think it’s a useful sight. Especially if you want to use them as learning tools. You can download the page, view the source and find out how the various page designs are created - like a 3 column version or a “fluid” layout.

Cool looking site as well.

http://csstinderbox.raykonline.com/

Thought I would share the current list of books on my Amazon Wish List.

Techie books are so expensive these days that they tend to sit on this list for a long time. Hard to justify the money unless the book has received absolute rave reviews or your company is buying it for you. I think most people, like me, just search Google for tips and answers.

Anyway, here are a bunch of books I’d love to own - if they were all free : )

HTML Mastery:: Semantics, Standards, and Styling

More Eric Meyer on CSS (Voices That Matter)

HTML Dog:The Best-Practice Guide to XHTML and CSS

Designing with Web Standards (Voices That Matter)

Don’t Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions

Bulletproof Web Design: Improving Flexibility and Protecting Against Worst-Case Scenarios with XHTML and CSS

Had a question this morning about the following syntax in CSS. Thought I would share it here since it was also a good review of my own understanding.

Question: What is the difference between the following 2 CSS entries:

#feature.leftcol

And

#feature .leftcol

Specifically, how does the addition or removal of the space effect the CSS?

Answer:

The space actually has a significant effect on the CSS.

No Space refers to an ID (#feature) that has been assigned a CLASS (.leftcol).

Adding a space refers to any CHILD of the ID (#feature) with a CLASS called (.leftcol) .

Here are examples of applying these styles to HTML:

Space:

<div id="feature" class="leftcol">

No Space:

<div id="feature">
    <h2>Latest News</h2>
              <div class="leftcol">