A little respect -- let me decide, let me suffer 

Maybe it's just the rebel or stubborn cuss in me, but I hate having anything decided for me, whether it's which candidate should be nominated or which methods I choose to employ in making websites.

I understand the Democrats resolved on the superdelegate system to protect us from ourselves again, should we choose somebody like McGovern again. Here's an MSNBC story from last year that includes some history about the process. It's kind of a Jeffersonian, disrepectful idea. Parental. I don't like it.

Yesterday I spent hours looking for a alternative to the target= attribute that would also conform to XHTML strict. I need to use the strict DTD because some of the output is bulk emailed, but I also need the same content to work in iframes as widgets, so something like target=_top is necessary to open links in the full window instead of in a little sidebar space.

What got in my way of finding a solution? Parental lectures in answer to questions like mine about how it's not cool to open new windows to keep people on your site, therefore it's a good thing the target attribute was never included in the standard. I agree about not opening new windows but that's not even what I want to do, and the pattern of the commentary really got to me after a while.

Let me do something you think is dumb. Get out of my way. I don't work for you and I'm not your kid.

Oh dear, I don't know... is this going too far? 

Jeff Pulver's social media meta moment.

Even though you know it's cool and transformative and all that, don't you sometimes just want to say "Enough media already."