random… very random

I’ve been writing some getting started documentation for Python and Libxml2 after spending a ridiculous amount of time trawling around the Net only to discover there isn’t really any out there.

I found a reasonable primer at http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/05/14/py-xml.html but like most sites, it doesn’t really cover the subject in any depth.

This is a shame, as I have found the library to be one of the most complete XML toolkits around, not to mention its speed. It comes complete with a set of Python bindings, so I would imagine it to be used more but if this is the case, it’s users are keeping their code secret!

So if you are looking to use Libxml2 and Python, you need look no further.

If you already use this combination, why not help out - I’ve put it on my Wiki so jump on in and add some content!

Toby just pointed me at a huge list of music videos on YouTube (11520 songs to be precise). There’s loads to enjoy in this list - plus a bunch of things I’ve never heard of.

To make things easier, I knocked up a quick page to get to them without any unneccessary fluff… so without any further ado, I present…

… My YouTube music video toy.

Warning - This page can waste serious amounts of time!

It never ceases to amaze me how Internet Explorer can break on seemingly straightforward pages.

For the past couple of days I have been playing with the site templates, getting my new layout “just so” and then I look at it in IE. Bugger. I’m now going to have to spend this evening hacking my layout - for some reason all the content is being shoved down below the sidebars, which means that there is a huge empty space below the headline.

It would be interesting to work out how much development time has been lost worldwide just trying to make things look right on the dominant browser platform on the Web. I bet if that time was turned into dollars, it would make a sizeable dent in Microsofts profit.

Oh well, at least IE7 manages to show the transparent bits on my menu properly. Now if it would only display it without that pixel gap below the menu items…

Hmm, it seems I am not the only one having problems - I suddenly noticed that bits of the page are randomly disappearing in IE7, but then reappearing if you scroll up or down. This reminds me of the old peekaboo bug in IE6 and a quick Google later reveals that this is a new IE7 bug. How lovely.

See Rick Hursts description of the problem