So, I'm sitting here working on the long-overdue next version of BLISS, the blogging engine which powers Rant of the Day, and I am, as per usual, battling to try to make things cross-browser compatible.
This time, however, through a cruel twist of fate, it's not IE which is 'misbehaving' as such - this time, it's the only browser which supports CSS which lets me do what I want. This is because MS have extended CSS to do these things - but they either haven't reccomended them for inclusion in the official CSS spec (thus allowing for cross-browser support) or they have, but too late to make a current CSS spec.
I can't even seem to find any nifty JavaScript snippets or anything that'll do the job instead. It seems that truncation other than at a set number of characters is just one of those things which is near-impossible.
Well, I decided to get the domain name ShrinkThisLink.com and set up a
free link shrinking service - no ads, either.
If there's a web page you want to share with people, but the URL is long and convoluted, simply paste it in to
ShrinkThisLink.com and hit the button, and it'll give you a nice short URL to give to friends etc - making it easier for those people to visit the page. It's especially handy if you want to put the URL in your MSN Personal Message, as there's no way to copy from the MSN PM to the clipboard, and links in it do not become clickable - so the URL has to be typed out to get to it.
Why do major organisations use such stupid systems? Why do they never seem to be thought out properly?
Yesterday, I went to get my learner's license. I got there after 4pm, and as such was told that I would have to come back as their system doesn't allow times after 4pm. So I went back this morning, look tee test, and then had to wait for nearly 15 mins to get my temporary license, because their system is so limited that it only allows specific times to be entered - presumably only quarter hours. This fiasco meant that I arrived late for the first lecture of the day, though I didn't miss much.
If their system had been thought out properly before it was created, they would be able to cut the crap and issue the temporary license when the test is passed rather than a random amount of time after, and would also be able to keep issuing licenses (at least learners' licenses) until just before they close for the night, rather than having an hour and a half where they have to tell people to bugger off and come back some other day - and I would have had my temp license yesterday and not been late for class.
Also, when the woman took my bag to put it behind the counter, she didn't first make me place any cellphones etc in it, so I had my phone, pda and mp3 player on me during the test... And she found it so heavy that she dragged it along the desk, nearly pulling out the glass panel in the top of the desk, then at the end had to bring it around the counter to give it back... Good thing I only brought the textbook for one of the two classes with me today, I suppose...