Here here! As a non-socially-inept, intelligent geekette I have dated geeks and non-geeks and have a much better time dating intelligent men, even if they're not my ideal in terms of looks. Luckily I have found my male equal, we used to work for the same company. And we're both blissfully happy after 4 years (living) together.
I can't speak for the US but there's definitely a shortage in Australia and the Netherlands in particular skill areas (even those not particularly specialised). I've been in the industry since glory days just before the bust and I can say that there's no surprise that the workforce is declining. Companies still operate inefficiently, don't really care about the quality of the IT systems and don't want to step into the 21st century; the work that's out there is uninteresting; the industry really hasn't escaped the "geek in a basement" view of programmers; salaries haven't really changed in about 5 years but unpaid overtime is still expected; recruiters have no idea how to properly match people with positions; and don't get me started on gender imbalance! Those who are in the industry are leaving because they want something better (more stable or more rewarding or easier to focus on) and there are less IT grads because the industry doesn't really have much to offer any more.
I can't pass comment on the book reviewed above but I've just finished reading The Zen of CSS Design (from the makers of http://www.csszengarden.com/). It's actually an excellent guide to CSS - aimed at the intermediate to advanced web designers / developers who know CSS and HTML basics.
If you don't know about the csszengarden then you should take a look - it's an invitation for web designers to come up with new designs for the site changing only the CSS. The HTML has no presentation markup whatsoever and only the hooks (quite a few divs) to make it flexible for the designers. The best ones (hundreds!) are linked from the site.
In the book the authors have chosen 36 of the best csszengarden designs and one by one they explore examples of a particular topic: how it's done, browser compliance, how it's implemented in CSS3 etc. It also covers DOCTYPEs and document encoding.
Yes, the designs are all by web designers, and they are real eye candy but it really is a demonstration of how powerful CSS is and what can be done with a little bit of imagination. None of the designs would choke in the majority of browsers and some had little bonuses for those browsers that supported it (as in W3C compliance - not browser-specific tricks). It also has many links to fantastic resources and techniques and also a crib sheet.
This book has changed the whole way I think about web design (it's part of my job) and I recommend it to anyone who writes HTML/XHTML.
Slashdot Mirror
Dammit, I can't be a geek.. I can't even spell 'hear'...
Here here! As a non-socially-inept, intelligent geekette I have dated geeks and non-geeks and have a much better time dating intelligent men, even if they're not my ideal in terms of looks. Luckily I have found my male equal, we used to work for the same company. And we're both blissfully happy after 4 years (living) together.
I can't speak for the US but there's definitely a shortage in Australia and the Netherlands in particular skill areas (even those not particularly specialised). I've been in the industry since glory days just before the bust and I can say that there's no surprise that the workforce is declining. Companies still operate inefficiently, don't really care about the quality of the IT systems and don't want to step into the 21st century; the work that's out there is uninteresting; the industry really hasn't escaped the "geek in a basement" view of programmers; salaries haven't really changed in about 5 years but unpaid overtime is still expected; recruiters have no idea how to properly match people with positions; and don't get me started on gender imbalance! Those who are in the industry are leaving because they want something better (more stable or more rewarding or easier to focus on) and there are less IT grads because the industry doesn't really have much to offer any more.
I can't pass comment on the book reviewed above but I've just finished reading The Zen of CSS Design (from the makers of http://www.csszengarden.com/). It's actually an excellent guide to CSS - aimed at the intermediate to advanced web designers / developers who know CSS and HTML basics.
If you don't know about the csszengarden then you should take a look - it's an invitation for web designers to come up with new designs for the site changing only the CSS. The HTML has no presentation markup whatsoever and only the hooks (quite a few divs) to make it flexible for the designers. The best ones (hundreds!) are linked from the site.
In the book the authors have chosen 36 of the best csszengarden designs and one by one they explore examples of a particular topic: how it's done, browser compliance, how it's implemented in CSS3 etc. It also covers DOCTYPEs and document encoding.
Yes, the designs are all by web designers, and they are real eye candy but it really is a demonstration of how powerful CSS is and what can be done with a little bit of imagination. None of the designs would choke in the majority of browsers and some had little bonuses for those browsers that supported it (as in W3C compliance - not browser-specific tricks). It also has many links to fantastic resources and techniques and also a crib sheet.
This book has changed the whole way I think about web design (it's part of my job) and I recommend it to anyone who writes HTML/XHTML.