About Who I Am
My Dad was in the Navy
That is generally one of the first things I say when I first meet people. My Dad was in the Navy!
There is a great article at Wikipedia about "Military Brats"
"A "military brat" (and various brat derivatives)[1] is a term for a person whose parent or parents have served full-time in the armed forces during the person's childhood. In conventional usage, the word "brat" used alone may be derogatory; in a military context, however, it is neither a subjective nor a judgmental term for most,[2] and it is a term in which many in the military community are comfortable with."
Military culture says their "brats are "Born Rough And Tough" or "Brave, Resilient, Adaptable, and Trustworthy."
Personally by us it was "Born Rough And Tough" – and it didn't matter if you were a girl. It was expected that you could "Take It" – what ever "It" was.
When I was growing up there were three (and only three) correct answers to any question asked, especially if it was my Father. "Yes, Sir!" "No Sir!" "No Excuse, Sir!"
So one of the first things I learned in life was about Rules.
The Web and the Wars
What does all that have to do with the Web?
Well, when I started learning to code it seemed that every book started out with a History Lesson about the Browser Wars.
Do you remember the Browser Wars between MicroSoft and Netscape?
Each of them racing to develop better tricks for their browser to do (and some of the tricks were great!)
But they forgot one thing. The forgot about the guy (or gal) in the middle trying to design a site that satisfies a client, or is trying to make a go of it in Internet Marketing.
Believe me, Internet Marketing is hard enough without losing customers because a browser breaks the site.
So along came W3C – which is made up of some of the world's top and most influential Web Designers and Web Masters. And they all got together and said "Stop!".
It hasn't ended, but it is certainly better than it was 10 years ago as more and more browsers support the W3C Standards.
More about Brats
Oh! Another thing most Military Fathers do is teach their kids to play Poker as soon as they can count the spots on the cards.
Did you every try playing Poker with someone who didn't want to play by the Rules?
It ruins all the fun.
Now you know why I support Web Standards!
