Web design question:

I don't really understand CSS all that well. I'm trying to put a background image in a certain cell in a table. I got to work without using CSS, and now I want to do it using CSS.

Without CSS, the TD tag starts like this:

<td class='hrReg' style="background: #ffffff url(images/corner.gif) no-repeat right" >

Then I created a new entry in the style sheet which is the same as the 'hrReg' style but with this added:

background: #ffffff url(images/corner.gif) no-repeat right;

Then I changed the 'hrReg' class to the new style. That doesn't work. What am I missing?

eta: Nebbermind - got it to work. The file path in the CSS document has to be relative to the CSS file, not the file the table and stuff is on.

Anyone know of a free PDF editor for OSX? All I really need to do is delete extraneous pages from an existing document.

[eta: nevermind - apparently Preview can do this.]

Can someone help me with an XSL issue?

I have an XSL doc that starts like this:

<xsl:template match="/">
<employees>
<xsl:for-each select="xml/rs:data/z:row[not(@Status)]">

So it's supposed to find each unique employee name. What it's doing is apparantly conflating an employee named "Garcia, Joe A" with one named "Garcia, Joe J"

Help!

eta: Fuck! This works perfectly fine on our development server, but not on the client's production server.

eta²: And it works fine on the client's development server as well. Someone shoot me.

eta: For those following along at home, I got this to fail on our development system. Yay failure!

eta: Solved it. It was bad data. Bad data that came that way from an Oracle database that we have nothing to do with (other than importing its data into our system).

Canon EOS Rebel T2i: new king of the cheap DSLRs?

Canon just surprised the photo world with this fresh announcement, showing off its EOS Rebel T2i that will take its place atop the company's Rebel line of lower-cost digital SLR cameras.

This 18-megapixel powerhouse is the beneficiary of a lot of trickle-down from Canon's twice-as-expensive EOS 7D camera. That means you'll be able to get a $799 camera (body only) with such advanced features as 9-point autofocus, a 63-zone dual-layering metering system just like the 7D, a 3-inch live-view smudge-resistant viewfinder, ISO of 100- 6400, and 1080p video shooting at 24, 25, or 30 frames per second with an external mic input.

GuruPlug, the next generation of SheevaPlug

Meet GuruPlug, an all-in-one server that is now available for pre-order. This is the next generation of the popular SheevaPlug that features some added goodies. The base model sells for the same $99 and appears to have the same specs as the original but for $30 more, the GuruPlug Server PLUS moves to 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports, one eSATA connector, and built-in WiFi and Bluetooth. All of this for $129 and it only pulls 5 watts? Wow.

Finally installed The Gimp on my new work computer.

This is version 2.6.8. I'm surprised at how much easier it is to use than the older version I was using.

Google to test 100x faster Internet service

Google must feel like we do about average Internet speeds in the U.S., declining as other developed nations enjoy increasing speed. The "don't be evil" Googlers plan to build and test an "ultrahigh speed broadband network in trial locations across the United States" for at least 50,000 people, and maybe up to 500,000. Best of all, Google wants to offer this service at competitive prices, and share what it learns about mass-market fiber optic networking with everyone.

How fast is ultrahigh speed? Try 100 times faster than what most of us have now, fiber-to-the-home connections zipping along at 1 gigabit per second. To give you an idea, the Internet service you're currently using to read this is probably somewhere between 5 megabits (Mb) per second and 15 Mb per second, if you're lucky. The U.S. average is currently 3.9 Mbps. A gigabit is heckuva site faster than that, equal to 1000 Mb.

This is my sixth post here in a row - somebody else post something, dammit!

Anyway, Virgin Wireless now has a prepaid plan for mobile broadband: [link]

How do their prices compare with other mobile broadband providers?

Also, if I were to, for example, use the $20 plan, how much browsing would 250 MB be? They say 12 hours. But if I mostly use it for b.org and Google Reader (i.e. stuff that's mostly text) I wonder if I could stretch that out to more than 12 hours....

Hmm. I used to have web access on my Virgin phone, but I remember it was a daily/monthly usage charge. (Insanely cheap at the time, like $1/day, $5month.) But the service was pretty smooth.

I don't know from usage though - my usage on my BB last month was 46M, and I use it for web browsing all the time. Don't know how relevant that is.

Oh, I see, this is for your actual computer. Carry on.