DIV versus TABLE

As I was working through Chibi Heroes, one of the testers ask me a question "why did you use tables? That is so dot-com, man. You should use divs. You need to keep up with the semantics web, you know?"

I was taken aback. I smack my forehead yelling "argh! Why didn't I see that coming!"

What am I missing, you ask? Dot-com? Web 2.0? passé a few years back. Now it is semantics web. The new in thing. CSS, semantic web, SEO, accessibility, etc. I'm missing out on the bandwagon again! I am missing out on all the glorious layout CSS can provide me, the way that dot-com companies are missing out on all the pinball machines and free flow soda and pizza lunches. I should go all out on the beautiful semantic accessibility tags (I don't know wtf this means but it sure is important to semantics extremist!) the way that dot-com companies go all out in spending for a penthouse office, golden topped table, and couches that cost $40,000.

Imagine you come up with a website that serves millions of people by using TABLE. Now compare that to a website that semantics extremist created which serves the population of Antartica (130 people hah!), even though it is using the latest SEO techniques, DIVs, blah blah blah.

Dude, wake up. It's not about you, it's the customer, stupid. It's about KISS : Keep It Simple Stupid. Stop, take a breath, and think about it. You are putting up a web page to make money to pay yourself and your workers. You customers don't care if your page is rendered in div or table! All they care is the end result. A web page that display data, images, and buttons to click. Trying to say otherwise is tantamount to idiocracy. :)

You, my TABLE friend, is a winner. You keep doing whatever works for your millions of customer rather than what an ivory tower guy with 130 customer tells you to do, my friend.

Control Technology, Not Let It Control You

If you have a pointy-haired boss dictating the direction of technology the company is going to take, run away fast.

Two and a half years ago, I was still working at a big company, when this actually happened. What did I do? I ran.

Don't get me wrong, I mean the company was very good and the bosses are nice and caring. Heck one time I was so sick, the boss was nice enough to offer to pay for a full medical check up. I didn't take him up on his offer though because I hate to feel indebted to anybody. But just because you read about it in "tech du jour" magazine does not mean you have to change your whole software department to use it. It is as silly as proclaiming you are a neurosurgeon after reading "Brain Surgery for Dummies". By the way, I did eventually went for a medical check up, and found out I had hypertension aka high blood pressure. So now I have to take some medicine every day until the day I die to prevent my heart from exploding or something. Just like that Ironman guy with that thingamajig that prevents his heart from melting.

The thing is, if you are running a technology integration firm you need to know that you need to use the right tool for the right job. You don't use a hammer to chop down a tree. You don't use a saw to hammer in nails. And you most definitely don't use a screwdriver to saw a piece of wood in half.

How bad could the situation be when technology that you boss chose just because it is over-hype as "poised to take over the world by storm" or "with this technology you will never have to code again"?

Imagine this scenario. You pointy-haired boss came upon a Predator wrist equipment. Now this equipment can cloak your boss, display real-time 3d mapping images, or cause a nuclear explosion. Now imagine your boss randomly pressing some buttons. What are the chances of him pressing the button that activates nuclear explosion?