When is a pound sign not a pound sign?

When it is a #.  Hardly the best joke in the world but yet another example of the colour color difference that occurs when you travel across the north Atlantic.   The reason why I mention this is because I am starting to work on Cascading Style Sheets and in particular style selectors.   I had seen a video podcast about the ID selector and the presenter referred to the 'pound sign' as the symbol that it must start with.  The pound sign in this case was the #.  Now to us on this side of the pond this is the 'hash' mark rather than the pound sign which is, of course, £.

I have now seen the pound sign mentioned again in the Dreamweaver for Dummies book I am using so I decide to examine this problem a little further.  According to Wikipedia this goes not refer to the currency but rather the imperial measurement of weight/mass.  It also notes that apart from the USA and Canada the rest of the english speaking world calls this the 'hash' mark.

This is, of course, another example of the power of the dominant culture to impose their values on other cultures.  The culture that I am talking about is that of programing languages which are all defined in 'American English'.   One of the best examples of this is the ways that dates are handled within a program.   The default setting is the American i.e. Month, Day, Year - this is why we talk about 9/11 rather than 11/9.

So what is the point of this ramble through the arcane difference in names of symbols in programing languages?  Well I suppose not a great deal apart from the fact that you have to be aware of these differences.  In many ways the American way of spelling is more straightforward with their removal of superfluous letters, again such as the u in Colour.  This difference may become more important as the weeks and months advance in the new Presidency of Barack Obama, who may treat Britain with a little more reservation than previous incumbents.  The so called 'special relationship' has always been about self interest rather than anything else.

Phew!  Moving from difference in programming language to political relationships in three paragraphs - whatever next?

Dreamweaver - The first few lessons

It is like being back at school.   I have decide to work through the Dummies book from start to finish (well almost...I have skipped a few sections that don't reply - for example the chapter on how to create graphics/images for the web by photoshop).   So far so good.  I have  been very disciplined and completed the exercises even if they are very simple and something I would never do.  I am now onto chapter 5 - Cascade Style Sheets (CSS), the heart of modern web design.   The idea is that you separate content, text and images from style, fonts, underlining, alignments etc.  The later is placed in one or many style sheets.  I have some knowledge of style sheets but I want to build on and reinforce this information - hence the process of working through the book.  So far so good and I must say I am finding this really quite rewarding.

One the project front I hope that the staff accept 'Flash Photography' as my subject.  This is something that I have done very little of and this is a real chance to explore what to do and when.   To this end I am including interesting links on this subject in the blog.  This is mainly for my information but should anybody else read this and wish to use them well all the better.

So it begins - the great web page upgrade

I have been talking about this for months but I have finally got around to redeveloping my website.  This will take a while as the first step on the way is learn how to use Dreamweaver.   This may come as a shock as the current website was developed in Dreamweaver.   However, this was by more luck than judgement and I feel there are still many things I want to improve on.

The basic design inspiration is that of a blank gallery wall.   My intention is to keep the look as clean and simple as possible but at the same time improve the experience of the user.   I have no idea how long this will take but it is something I intend to get right.

The first step I am taking is to go back to basics.  I have started to read Dreamweaver CS4 for Dummies.   I have always found the dummies series a great place to start when learning about new software, programs etc - this is no different.  So the journey begins.