The itch to write

Pun aside in this post title, it's springtime - at least for the northern half of the world - and doesn't it feel good? A cool breeze in the city streets, a clear blue sky finally rid of the moody english clouds, and a bright golden sun!

What do weather phenomena have to do with blogs? Well isn't just about time you updated your blog banner and put some dendelions, daisies, and other flowers? Isn't it time we stroke up an orchestra of color? Well maybe you can. With some CSS, javascript, and a wee bit of imagination, the opportunities are countless.

 First, let's look at a sample letter-drop: let's take the previous paragraph and don it with a bright big capital W letter instead of the dull old Arial 10pt letter. How?

Here goes: 

hat do weather phenomena have to do with blogs? Well isn't just about time you updated your blog banner and put some dendelions, daisies, and other flowers? Isn't it time we stroke up an orchestra of color? Well maybe you can. With some CSS, javascript, and a wee bit of imagination, the opportunities are countless.

And the code to achieve that? Easy:

 Then, whenever you want a capital letter to drop down, simply add a div as follows:

While those of you with a techier trend may already be equipped with a wireless keyboard set enabling you to blog from virtually any place in the house (e.g. the kitchen, the bathroom, the shed in the yard...) it doesn't quite solve the screen issue. Typing is all quite fine but typos are frequent and one wouldn't know where to click to save a post.

On the other hand, think of your mother, grandmother, roughly those people who can't stand staring hard at a bright screen to read line after line of blog dribble. Wouldn't it be nice to read a blog from the comfort of the living room's big old armchair, a mug of hot Van Houten cocoa teeming with marshmallows?

Readers, behold. Researchers are not miles away from mass producing e-paper (e as in electronic). It feels like, looks like, behaves likes; but doesn't quite sound like real old paper! Tux, a German blogger reports:

So what does it mean to us bloggers? One can imagine that if the interface does undergo such a revolution - and it will happen at some point - the level of blog interaction will increase; the number of comments will rise dramatically, and you bloggers will enjoy writing and reading even more, having access to your scribble haven in a more convenient way.

Top e-paper with wireless technology (e.g. wimax), and you'll have connected e-paper anywhere anytime. Imagine slipping your daily e-paper in the car instead of buying the local paper. Now you'll be able to blog during traffic jams and moblogging (blogging via cellphones) will be a thing of the past.

Possibilities are countless and the people researching these technologies have such wild imaginations that I can rest assured tomorrow will have yet another basketful of e-surprises...