text:
Description: These are various leaded cables for attaching to multimeters, power supplies, oscilloscopes, function generators, etc. Cables come in red/black pairs.
Dimensions: 36" Long
These are the first sparkfun products I've been less than entirely satisfied with. The grabbers don't work at first (at least the 4 I got didn't), had to really put a lot of pressure on the backs to pop the hooks out the first time, like putting them on a table and pressing down as hard as I could, and I'm a big guy. 3 of the four work well now, but one looks like it had some plastic in the grabber coupling and twisted internally, and sort of works, it's hard to get the hook out. Still a good buy for the price, 3/5 stars and all, but not perfect, as Sparkfun merch usually is, and I suspect a fraction them will break in the process of getting the hooks out
when will these be back in stock?
I don't recommend this, banana jacks are way too loose. I can remove them from my meter with a light tug on the wire without holding the meter down. Hook part was adequate.
The manufacturing tolerance and/or testing on these appears to be poor. The banana plug on the red wire in the set I purchased is too big to fit into any jack, including the piggy-back jack on the black wire.
Sorry about that, email email@example.com and they should be able to gt that straightened out for you.
Can someone please post a pic of the back of these banana plugs, or confirm whether or not another set of banana plugs will piggyback onto these?
Yes, the plugs are stackable.
No reviews yet.


text:
- Home
- News
- Sports
- Opinion
- Obituaries
- Features
- Special Sections
- Classifieds
- Public Notices
Forgot Password? | Not a User? Sign up
The 2010-11 Hardin County Youth Leadership Class held its graduation at the May Hardin County Chamber luncheon. First Federal Savings Bank sponsored the graduation along with the Hardin County Chamber.
Keith Johnson from First Federal Savings Bank served as the MC for the graduation. Darian Ditto, one of the HCYL students, spoke about the Youth Leadership classes.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the The News Enterprise, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
If you are new to the award winning The News Enterprise and wish to get a subscription or simply gain access to our online content then please enter your ZIP code below and continue to setup your account.
|ZIP Code:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Things That Cannot Be Shaken
The entire epistle to the Hebrews seeks to encourage tired and suffering believers to keep looking to Christ in order not to lose heart and give up the good fight. God's good providence has ordained that we all must pass through many tests — some of them very painful. Hebrews says that only if we will keep the end in view, shall we make it successfully, no matter how excruciatingly the vice of temporal difficulty presses us in its iron grip.
That was the problem of the Hebrew converts to whom this epistle was primarily addressed. This letter was written before the downfall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Some of the church-people were severely tempted to give up the faith, since Judaism still had the power to persecute them in various ways. It must have seemed an easy thing to slip back into the impressive religious rituals of the still-standing temple, and in so doing to avoid harsh attitudes against them for following Jesus. Moreover, it must have been tempting to rejoin a religious system that, at that time, tended to stress external participation and conformity, instead of treading the hard way of the cross that requires crucifixion of the inward, proud self-life. Was it really worth all this cost? That question probably comes to all of us, especially when we are going through particularly hard times in our lives.
How can we frail folk, believers though we really are, make it to a successful goal when everything around us seems to be going wrong (or, at least, we feel that it is)? How do we keep going when so many voices are crying into our ears, "Give up, this battle is too strong for you. Why make it hard on yourself? How can you be sure that it is all true anyway?"
Hebrews has the answer — the divine remedy for weary, hurting pilgrims. Hebrews 12:2 instructed us about "looking unto Jesus." Here, in Hebrews 12:26–28, we are handed the same mighty weapon (from a slightly different viewpoint): Keep in the very front of your mind the end of your history and of the world's history. You, and everything else, are going somewhere. Look by faith to where you are going, and you will be given the divine strength to get there against all apparent odds.
The author of this letter takes us back to Haggai 2:6–7, which predicts tremendous shaking of the nations to make room for something better and permanent. The early Christians were living in a time when everything was shaking around them. I suspect that the Puritan commentator John Owen was right to refer to this shaking primarily as the shaking down of the Judaic church/state as a result of the completed work of Christ in the first century (John Owen, Hebrews, vol. 7, 363–368).
It may not have been long after the ink was dry on this epistle, that Rome destroyed Jerusalem, so that an ancient system that had opposed the incarnate Christ was brought down to make way for His lasting kingdom of grace. This principle of "shaking down those things that can be shaken in order to make room for that which cannot be shaken" did not cease to operate in the year A.D. 70. Was it not at work when Rome itself came down in the fifth century? Was it not at work when the political power of Roman Catholicism was, to a considerable degree, broken through the revival that constituted the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century? When Rome was shaken down, the Christian church had room to spread the Gospel to all of Europe, thus establishing something that "cannot be shaken." When Roman Catholicism had much of its political power shaken down, the Reformation, with its teaching of salvation by the grace of God through faith alone, had room to spread throughout much of northwestern Europe; thence it spread into the new world of America, and later on into every continent of the world (to varying degrees).
The point is this: to have stood with the Gospel of Christ in hard times (whether under late, unbelieving Judaism, the persecuting Roman Empire, or the Spanish Inquisition much later) insured ultimate victory over the most impressive political, military, and cultural powers. Such powers (and there are legions of them with different faces in every generation) are granted temporary ability to hound the people of God — sometimes all the way to death. But their time and power are divinely limited.
As part of the mysterious process of shaping His people into the image of Christ, God lets evil powers test and hurt them to a divinely limited degree (see Rom. 8:28–39). Then the evil powers will be broken to make room for the very church they hated and persecuted, so that the saving Gospel may spread yet more widely, thus building up that kingdom, which can never be shaken, over the rubble of sinful, temporal powers that must be shaken down in due season.
Hebrews 12 shows us that it could be different. Those who look in obedient faith to the Mediator of the new covenant in hard times and good, and those who take their cross to self in order to follow Him and bless others, are the forerunners of a brighter, holier, and happier day. For the sake of Christ, they have given up what they cannot keep in order to gain what they cannot lose (to paraphrase Philip Henry). May God grant us the grace to be in their number!
© Tabletalk magazine
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you do not make more than 500 physical copies. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred (where applicable). If no such link exists, simply link to www.ligonier.org/tabletalk. Any exceptions to the above must be formally approved by Tabletalk.
Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: From Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul. © Tabletalk magazine. Website: www.ligonier.org/tabletalk. Email: email@example.com. Toll free: 1-800-435-4343.


text:
The name Levonat is of not available origin.
The meaning of Levonat is "incense".
In the U.S. in 2014 less than 5 girls were given the name. Less than 5 boys were given the name.
View the Levonat Name Popularity Page to see how the popularity trend for Levonat has changed since 1880, or to compare the popularity of Levonat to other names.
Just for fun, see the name Levonat in Hieroglyphics, learn about ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics and write a Hieroglyphic message.
Learn about nautical flags and see your name or message written in nautical flags, on the Levonat in Nautical Flags page.
Looking for something more mystical? Visit the Levonat Numerology page.


text: Home damaged by Superstorm Sandy in Point Pleasant (Dennis Malloy, Townsquare Media NJ) [ Fewer Than 600 Appeal Sandy Aid Denials By Associated Press April 2, 2014 | Townsquare New Jersey About one-tenth of the New Jersey residents who were given more time to appeal denials of housing aid after Superstorm Sandy have taken up the offer. Read More|Comment Category: New Jersey News, News, Sandy Tags: Federal Aid, Housing, NJ, Sandy Send to a friend! Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pin it! Reddit This! Share on Tumblr!


text:
Concept 1.This idea was tested by stickytaping keychain LEDs to our fingers and seeing how the camera viewed the data - even after turning exposure down to 1/2000th of second, the LEDs still flooded the display, and produced vertical streaks. In addition, it seems that many superbright LEDs have a narrower field of projection, meaning that the LEDs would have to be pointed at the webcam.
Build a glove with superbright (3000mCd+) LEDs on the end of each finger, figure out the position of each finger and translate movements into computer commands (moving the mouse, clicking, rotation etc).
After obtaining a suitable glove, it was noticed that typing with full-length gloves is like trying to eat chocolate with oven mitts, and even with the thinnest of gloves, having an LED on the end of your finger also introduces considerable errors (such as when it gets stuck in your laptop keyboard, and extrication results in keys flying everywhere).
Concept 2.
Mount an LED on the end of the index finger of a glove, and mount two switches on the user's middle finger, to be activated by the user's thumb - these switches would light two LEDs that would be picked up by the software to produce mouse clicks.
This would allow a user to place their thumb on the middle finger switches, and point their index finger slightly upwards to allow the green LED to be seen by the webcam. The middle finger LEDs would be visible when the middle finger was pointed downwards (see figure 3 below). The ring orientation would allow the LED to be swivelled around to the top of the user's index finger, to be used in 'hands down' situations (so the user can leave their hands on the keyboard, with the webcam pointing down from the top of the screen).
Concept 3.
Mount the green 'pointing' LED on a ring to be worn around the middle of the user's index finger, allowing them to type and move without restriction, and mount two switches and accompanying LEDs on another ring to be worn around the middle of the user's middle finger.
|Glove Hardware:
3 5-15mCD LEDs
2 AAA Batteries
Lots of wires
2 mini momentary switches
Velcro cable ties (for rings and wristband)
|Computer Hardware:
Dell Inspiron 4100 Laptop
Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks Pro
|MS Visual C++ 6.0, DirectX 8.1, SDL
|two days
|6 hours
|3 hours
|4 hours
|12 hours


text:
$811.73 available Savings
Emergen-C Coupons and Printables
Sorry, no offers currently available.
You might like these coupons
clip coupon
Save $1.00
One A Day®
on ANY One A Day® multivitamin product
See more offers in Health Care.
clip coupon
Save $1.00
on any Citracal® Product 60ct or larger
See more offers in Health Care.
Popular Categories
clip coupon
Save $1.00
First Response™
on ONE (1) First Response™ Reproductive Health or Pre/PostNatal Multivitamin
See more offers in Health Care.
clip coupon
Save $3.00
Move Free®
on any ONE Move Free Ultra® Product, 30 Count or Larger
See more offers in Health Care.
Loading Page 2
SuperSaver Newsletter
Never miss another great coupon. Save like a couponista with weekly saving alerts and new offers delivered right to your inbox.
Coupons.com Mobile App
Save time and money. Find coupons and codes for stores you love while you shop in store or online. Coupons.com app is available on iOS and Android.Get App
Coupon Codes
Shop online with coupon codes from top retailers. Get Sears coupons, Best Buy coupons, and enjoy great savings with a Nordstrom promo code.Shop Now
About Us
Find out more about how Coupons.com helps brands and retailers engage consumers with our portfolio of digital, social & mobile solutions.See Details


text:
01363 774381
Mon - Sun: 8am to 11pm
|Awarded a Food Hygiene Rating of 5
|Broadcasts Live News
|Cask Marque Accredited
|Children Welcome
|Licensed Outside Area
|TV Screens
This Wetherspoon pub bears the name of the distinguished general who was born at Downes, the Bullers' fine, seven-bay mansion to the southeast of the town centre, in 1839.
Crediton's most celebrated son of modern times was General Sir Redvers Buller. His distinguished military career included campaigns in the Sudan and the Boer War.
We show live subtitled news (on silent) throughout the day.
Simply enter your town, postcode or pub name
Download the Point Of Interest (POI) file for your sat nav device


text:
Bindel tabbed as new Rider head coach
Up until four years ago, Marc Bindel always considered himself a defensive coach.
And until Tuesday, Bindel had always had only held the title of assistant coach.
But the ninth head football coach in Rider High School history has always considered himself a Wichitan.
Bindel is excited about the chance to follow Jim Garfield as the Raiders' head coach and hopes to build upon the success Rider has enjoyed in recent years. Garfield resigned last week after accepting the head coaching job at Elgin.
Bindel, 33, is a 1999 graduate of Wichita Falls High School who got his coaching start in Red Oak under former Hirschi coach Danny Edelman.
Bindel came to Rider in 2009 under coach Scott Ponder and then elected to stay there when Ponder moved to Iowa Park.
It was almost on accident that he was moved from defense to offense four years ago as the Raiders began using some of the Tony Franklin system he was familiar with and he became co-offensive coordinator.
"I said then I'm a defensive coach through and through, I'd never coached a down of offense in my life," Bindel said.
Bindel has "fit in wherever he's been needed" as position coach of cornerbacks, receivers, offensive line and then running backs in his five years at Rider.
Now he's needed in another office as the new head coach and campus coordinator. WFISD Athletic Director Kenny Catney made it official Tuesday evening that Bindel had earned the promotion.
"Coach Gar was the heart and soul of our team and our school and he'll be hard to replace," Bindel said.
It's the students there who give Bindel faith the transition will be a good one.
"The kids here are unbelievable," Bindel said. "They've totally bought into the way we have things at Rider and it works."
However, he's not taking the eight-plus wins every year or deep playoff runs for granted.
"From a coaching standpoint, we can't get complacent," Bindel said. "Sometimes when you've had success over and over from a coach standpoint, you stand back and think we're going to be good. Each season is its own entity. The biggest challenge is don't get complacent and keep putting in the work. The previous Rider teams put in the work."
Bindel looked ready to see his guys fire off the ball now, but will probably have a few hires to make in the meantime. He said spring practice is planned for April 24, a little later than normal for the Raiders but something that worked out with Wichita Falls High School and Danny Russell a year ago.
Bindel is excited to remain a part of what he called a "great coaching staff."
"I think the 'One Family, One Team' mantra needs to keep going, it's swept the school and the coaches and kids believe in it and the non-athletes believe in it, we need to maintain it. Something that's swept Rider and we need to maintain it," Bindel said. "And we've got great administration at Rider. Mrs. (Judy) McDonald is an unbelievable principal and the assistant principals are great. And we have great teachers."
Bindel said his age never came up in his meetings, although he realizes the administration part of the job will be new to him.
"Coach Catney told me there might be some struggles with it, but we're just going to work hard and get through it," Bindel said.
Bindel doesn't consider the current WFISD situation with secondary schools and the upcoming bond vote to be a detriment.
"I don't want to be a coach that tries to find excuses why we can't win," Bindel said. "We've had great kids at Rider anyway, and I know we'll have great kids who will come. Stuff that's beyond your control you can't worry about all that. That didn't affect me at all."
The unity on the Rider staff also made the quick transition easier. The school had a send-off for Garfield earlier in the day and will show up to school with another fired up athletic leader on Wednesday. And someone they're very familiar with.
After graduating from Old High in 1999 — he was born too soon for the great Coyote run in 2000 — Bindel graduated from Midwestern State in 2004. He began his coaching career under Edelman at Red Oak, coaching junior high in 2005. He also coached at Bay City and Arlington Sam Houston before finding his way back to Wichita Falls.
His first order of business was to take his wife, Carlye, and their three daughters (Georgia, 7; Sara Jane, 5; and Juliette, 3) out to a good dinner. Tuesday's news meant the new head coach was also buying dessert.
Subscribe to the Times Record News
Need Help? Call us at 1-877-710-6181.
Monday-Friday: 5:30am-8pm / Saturday: 6am-1pm / Sunday: 6am-1pm


text:
Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.
"We've struggled with tight prices, with expenses and so forth for several years, and so this is an excellent opportunity."
The Reuters poll says low grain inventories mean an end to cheap food prices. Caldwell says other factors will play a bigger role in driving up grocery bills.
"Right now, a huge part of what drives the cost of food in the grocery store is fuel prices. Fuel prices affect our energy that we use for utilities to run the store, the fuel prices to transport the goods. Everything that we do in our society, fuel cost is one of the largest things that we face."
Drought in Russia, flooding in Australia and surging demand for corn from U.S. ethanol producers have combined to deplete global grain stocks.


text:
We at Diana's Travel offer a large choice of excursions on Crete and holiday services to make your holiday on Crete a pleasant & memorable trip. You can find lots of helpful information about Western Crete & in particular around the area Chania, as that is where we are based.Diana's Travel has been representing Freelance Holidays Ltd, a UK based Tour Operator for over 25 years who specializes in Villas on Crete.
Diana's Travel ensures that their customers arrangements have been organized as well as providing them with local information and a back up service 24/7.Diana, the owner, is originally from Wisconsin, USA, but on her travels through Europe in 1986 she ended up on Crete & living on Crete. Now married to a Cretan & together with her two daughters who are now taking part in Diana's Travel after their studies in the industry.
After so many years of living on Crete is has naturally given her the benefit of knowing the island, culture & lifestyle. So if you are planning a holiday on Crete, there is no need to look around to book a day trip on Crete, rent a car on Crete or book a taxi transfer.
It's easy, just send us an email and we can provide information about anything that you are interested in doing whilst on holiday in Crete, we reply to your email & once you have paid by credit card an e-voucher is sent to you with all the details. No need for printing, just use it for reference on the day. It's simple.
Diana's Travel is an accredited agent by the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO- License Nr 1042E606100222301) and a member of the Hellenic Association of Travel & Tourist Agencies (HATTA).
Currently representing:
Services provided on Crete
Like us on Facebook:
Contact us:
Chryssi Akti
Chania, Crete
Tel: +30 28210 33575
Or join us on facebook:


text:
Sounds like you had a great, albeit busy, trip. You're right about the Guinness tasting better, and the friendliness of the people can sometimes be shocking when you're used to the "keep to yourself" hustle of American city living, especially when visiting rural Ireland. When I lived in England in the nineties, I used to fly to Ireland every 4-6 weeks or so for short trips to explore different regions of the country. I once arrived in Donegal, way up north, by bus, rather later in the day than I expected. I stopped in the first pub I could find to get a pint and something to eat before heading out to look for some last minute accommodation for the night. I struck up a conversation with a guy sitting next to me at the bar, who happened to have relatives who lived near where I grew up in New York City. After many more pints and a few whiskeys he told me to forget about the hotels and B&B's--he'd just call home and have his wife cook up a "proper" dinner for us and make up the guest bed. How often does cool stuff like that happen in life?
I've been dying to try the Connemara line of products and it sounds like you got a good one. Too bad you couldn't score the Green Spot but there's always next time.


text:
Elbert McLaughlin
posted this on May 18, 2012, 19:16
Great update! Thanks! It's also googd to know that the iPhone app is just around the corner. (Although I don't have an iPhone :))
I am still waiting for the iPhone app. Currently I am still using Nirvana and Wunderlist at the same time since I am most of the time on the move. But I would like to use only 1 app, Nirvana. When will the iPhone app be available?
We are doing the dance with Apple to get our paperwork through and the app into the AppStore. Not sure if this means one more week or two. We are as eager to get the IOS app into the store as everyone is to get their hands on it.
I'd like to clarify that there are multiple development fronts at Nirvana.
Love the new quick entry at top features! Awsome!
I can finally create a task and not hunt for it at the bottom of the pile.
Ok got it now :-)
"Create new tasks in the middle of a list" is my favorite... and the one that does'nt work here (Safari, Mac OS 10.6.8) while other shortcuts are ok. I can only drag the existing task, nothing gets created.
BTW, I did not try before Nirvana build 463.
Any reason for that ?
Sorry, my mistake : I moved the mouse when... you should'nt ;-)
Solved !


text:
Capitol Investment Advisors is a theme-based, research driven investment team dedicated to excellence in equity and fixed-income investing.
Capitol Investment Advisors - a Unique Approach to Investing
We act as fiduciaries for our clients. This requires a greater standard of care and expertise when contemplating and implementing investment strategies. Recognizing that our clients hire us to act in their best interest, we create a customized investment strategy unique to their specific needs and objectives.
We invite you to explore what our group offers to the select clientele that we serve.
Contact Us
101 South Capitol Blvd., Suite 1800
PO Box 390
Boise, ID 83701
Phone: (208) 388-4221
Fax: (208) 388-4202


text:
Suppose you've just joined the army and expect to serve for, oh, say, four years before returning to civilian life.
Which would you rather have when you get out: a lifetime-guaranteed annual check for $7500 (adjusted each year for inflation) or a package of VA benefits?
To help you decide: The VA benefits include payments of anywhere from about $100 a month to almost $3000 a month in the unlikely event that you are partially or fully disabled, a pension on the order of $15,000 a year in the more unlikely event that you are both disabled and poverty-stricken (rising to more like $20,000 a year if you need regular aid and attendance), educational benefits under the GI bill, and health care of whatever quality the government chooses to provide.
Me, I'd take the guaranteed $7500-a-year in a heartbeat. If that's the typical response, then it's hard to see why we have a Veteran's Administration in the first place, seeing as how the VA's annual budget would just about cover those payments.


text:
New Era Pinstripe Bowl - West Virginia v Syracuse
Woods of the West Virginia Mountaineers completes as pass as he is... News PhotoAmerican Football - Sport,Borough - District Type,Bronx,Finishing,Full Length,Horizontal,NCAA,NCAA College Football,New York City,Pinstripe Bowl,Sport,Stadium,Syracuse Orange,Syracuse University,USA,West Virginia Mountaineers,West Virginia University,Yankee StadiumPhotographer Nate ShronCollection: Getty Images Sport 2012 Nate ShronNEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 29: J.D. Woods #81 of the West Virginia Mountaineers completes as pass as he is chased by Keon Lyn #8 and Dyshawn Davis #25 of the Syracuse Orange during the New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium on December 29, 2012 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Nate Shron/Getty Images)


text:
Chad Gillespie | Fishing & Hunting KBH Range Worth a Visit
Located on the Old Belfair Highway, just a stones throw from any Kitsap location, is one of the premier archery ranges in Washington and home to the organization that calls itself KBH Archers.
This isn't just the standard archery range where a target or two might be stacked against some moldy hay bails. Nope, KBH Archers — also known as Kitsap Bow Hunters — is one of the best courses to test your aim and endurance with a bow.
Years ago, while fishing Mission and Tiger lakes, we would drive past KBH Archers and I always wondered what the heck went on at that place. I would ask my dad what exactly it consisted of, and he would say it was an archery range.
I thought to myself, 'OK, that makes sense,' and didn't think much more about it. We weren't into archery or bow hunting at the time and didn't have much reason to explore the club.
Years later, I have found myself dedicated to making the drive to KBH as frequently as possible. It's a drive I look forward to taking all of the time.
Are you new to archery shooting or want to get into bow hunting? Once you borrow or purchase a new bow, this is the place to start shooting.
They have a standard range set up outside beginning at 20 yards and ending at 80 yards. Each target has hay bails stacked on top of each other sheltered by a small roof to prevent the bails from rotting.
The archery shooter has to be way off to lose arrows on these targets. It's a great spot to warm up, or as a beginner, build confidence.
Inside the club house, there's a 25-yard range and a perfect spot for those nasty winter days. Club meetings and banquets are held inside the club house, and if you become a member you receive a personal key pad code to enter at any time of the day.
The best part of this course is the outdoor walk-through stations. Located throughout the 30 acres that KBH owns are 28 walk-through stations that simulate what hunters might come across while bow hunting.
At some stations you are shooting up hill and others downhill, but each represents its own uniqueness.
It tests your ability to judge distances, including inclines and declines where you might have to aim high or low. Some targets include actual pictures of elk, deer or turkeys.
KBH Archers is located at 3680 Old Belfair Hwy. Merlin Dahlke is the man to contact for information. His number is (360) 769-2601 and his email is email@example.com.
A membership for a year is $80, which isn't much once you see the beauty of this course. Drive out and give it a try.
Chad Gillespie's column on hunting and fishing appears every Tuesday in the Kitsap Sun's Outdoors page. You can contact Gillespie at email@example.com.
Subscribe to the Kitsap Sun
Need Help? Call us at 1-877-304-7764.
Monday-Friday: 5am-6pm / Saturday: 5am-8pm / Sunday: 4am-11am


text:
Nonetheless, the meaning and importance of these terms is rarely explained, which can often lead to misunderstandings. For example, oftentimes the term HTML5 is used to mean the set of technology and tools beyond the updated HTML5 specification, including JavaScript, CSS3, and related frameworks. Other times, it is simply used to refer to the new — and not yet finalized — HTML standard. The goal of this article is to help you make sense of the buzzwords and truly understand why web standards are important and how they are changing the world of web design and development as we know it. Specifically, I discuss some of the history of these terms as well as the current state of HTML5 and CSS3, and I explore how Adobe is contributing to and creating tools for these standards.
Those who have been in web design and development as long as I have will remember that in the early and mid-1990s Netscape and Microsoft were engaged in the so-called "browser wars." During this time, one browser vendor would implement features that the other browser did not have, which led to websites that did not work properly in both major browsers. For example, you may recall seeing disclaimers indicating which browser was best for viewing a particular site.
The goal of creating web standards, such as the HTML standard, was to eliminate these discrepancies and formalize the de facto standards, enabling you to create sites that worked reasonably well across all browsers. Standards bodies such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) were created as forums to establish agreement across the industry and among vendors. Other standards groups have formed since, most notably the HTML5-focused Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG). While there is often political maneuvering involved, the goal of each of these standards bodies is to find agreement and thereby formulate standards, often referred to as specifications, across the industry on the technologies that drive the web, including HTML and CSS.
The term HTML5 needs some clarification. In the media, it is often used to encompass a whole range of technologies from CSS3 and JavaScript to web video, web audio codecs, mobile development, and sometimes even various frameworks and libraries. In essence, HTML5 has inherited many of the meanings that were attributed to the well-worn catchphrase "Web 2.0." Some groups, like the WHATWG, have seemed to embrace this extension of the term, while others feel it can cause confusion.
At its core, HTML5 is an updated version of the specification for HTML, the core markup language of the web, and the successor to the HTML4 specification that has been in place since 1997. There are actually two versions of the specification, one maintained by the WHATWG and another by the W3C. From an average user perspective, the differences are not very substantive, and while neither specification is actually finalized, many of the features of HTML5 are already supported in recent versions of all browsers thanks to strong momentum and support across the industry.
A simple way to explain the difference between HTML4 and HTML5 is that the former was mostly geared toward the development of websites and the latter is focused on web applications. In addition, several of the changes and additions focus on the semantic meaning of the contents being marked up, such as indicating which sections are navigation or header and which contain the article. On top of about 30 new tags, HTML5 also added attributes to many, if not most, of the existing HTML tags. If you're looking for a detailed list of the differences between HTML4 and HTML5, you should check the W3C working draft.
Some of the most heavily publicized additions include the support for SVG graphics, the new <canvas> tag for displaying interactive graphical content, and the <video> tag for displaying video content, of course. If you've tried any of the impressive, community-created demos at Chrome Experiments, you've probably encountered heavy use of either SVG graphics or the <canvas> tag. On the other hand, if you've watched video in a browser on your iPad, you may have encountered the HTML5 <video> tag.
You can find many great resources if you are interested in learning more about HTML5's capabilities or perhaps leveraging them on an upcoming project. For example, Google sponsors a site called HTML5 Rocks that contains several articles and tutorials. Sites like HTML5 Please and CanIUse try to make sense of the browser support complexity. Adobe Developer Connection offers a growing list of tutorials and articles in the HTML5 and CSS3 Developer Center. And if you're interested in all the gory details of the HTML5 specification, I recommend the HTML5: Edition for Web Authors published by the W3C. While it goes into great detail on most features, it specifically omits those portions primarily relevant to browser vendors.
Adobe has a team dedicated to contributing to the WebKit engine, which is one of the primary browser engines behind browsers such as Chrome and Safari. This means that Adobe — as a tools vendor — can not only help drive the development of the HTML5 specification but also represent the needs of its customers who are the content creators of the web. For an excellent overview of Adobe's contributions in this area, I suggest reading Adobe, standards, and HTML5 by Carl Cargill on Adobe Developer Connection.
While the primary goal of HTML is to describe the structure of a web page, the goal of CSS — or Cascading Style Sheets — is to describe the presentation of that page. By separating the structure of the page from the presentation, CSS makes your web applications easier to maintain as well as easier to adapt to multiple screens.
CSS3 (or CSS Level 3 if you are looking at the W3C documentation) is actually a collection of specifications broken into modules. In practice, the various modules are in a variety of stages of development, ranging from pure exploration to full completion. Much like HTML5, however, most browsers currently implement many portions of the specifications that are otherwise not considered complete by the standards boards. (For a complete breakdown of where each module stands, the W3C has a table of specifications for CSS.)
CSS3 introduced several enhancements that offer designers the ability to truly realize the full creativity of their designs without compromising on the accessibility of the content or the maintainability of the page. In practice, this means less reliance on images to represent portions of the design that could otherwise be handled through standard text or layout. For example, CSS3 added support for drop shadows, rounded corners, improved font support, and 2D and 3D transforms and animations, among many other things. The Adobe Developer Center has a whole section dedicated to resources for learning CSS3. W3Schools also has a great set of beginner CSS3 tutorials that introduce you to the capabilities.
One benefit of using CSS3 to truly separate page presentation from structure, and even to leverage some of HTML5's semantic markup, is that you can create pages that more easily adapt to multiple screens — from desktop browsers to mobile phones to tablets. Lately, the concept of Responsive Web Design, created by Ethan Marcotte, has become increasingly popular. It attempts to leverage new and improved aspects of CSS3, such as media queries, to create fluid layouts that can theoretically adapt to any screen. Responsive Web Design has become so popular that it is now a standard among widely used CSS frameworks like Less Framework or full-stack front-end frameworks like Twitter's Bootstrap. For a good beginner's guide to Responsive Web Design, read Nick Pettit's tutorial.
Adobe has been an active contributor to CSS3 standards, submitting proposals for CSS shaders as well as CSS regions and exclusions that have received widespread support. Essentially, CSS shaders help you extend filter effects, including animations and transitions for creating complex visual effects. Meanwhile, CSS regions and exclusions help define more complex text flow across portions of the page or within and around shapes. These proposals further advance the capabilities and flexibility of web design in areas where Adobe has unique expertise.
Obviously I have only scratched the surface of both HTML5 and CSS3. You can find a wealth of resources to learn more. And the advancements coming from Adobe are just the beginning. New tools like Adobe Edge already utilize many of the web standards advancements discussed in this article to enable you to get a level of interaction from a standard HTML web page that was either incredibly complex or technically impossible in HTML4. Existing tools like Adobe Flash Professional will be adding features that leverage web standards, such as exporting to HTML5.
The innovation in web standards, both inside and outside Adobe, is moving at an incredible pace. In this transition period, not all standards are complete or implemented in every browser. However, continued enhancements are enabling web designers to fully implement their design vision and web developers to build complex, desktop-like applications. As these standards solidify and new tools arrive, web designers and developers will be able to better leverage these new capabilities. I will continue to cover web standards for Inspire, and in future articles, I'll examine some of the products, technologies, and tools as they develop.
Brian Rinaldi is as a content and community manager for the Adobe Developer Connection team, where he helps drive content strategy for HTML5 and JavaScript developer content. Brian blogs regularly at remotesynthesis.com and is an unreformed twitter addict @remotesynth.