“Ruby” are short runs of text alongside the base text, typically used in East Asian documents to indicate pronunciation or to provide a short annotation. This specification defines markup for ruby, in the form of an XHTML module.

Here’s a sample…
Firefox’s ruby markup rendering:

Internet Explorer’s ruby markup rendering:

Here’s how it should look (ignoring the difference of font and font size):

So far Firefox (v1.5.0.7) is not rendering it correctly at all and strangely enough Internet Explorer (v6) shows the example correct but still has very little but at least some support. From the examples I tried myself, IE is OK as long as there is only one ruby text tag and one base tag. The main problem for me is that I don’t use IE on a everyday basis. I’ve seen ruby markup used in print (dictionaries) but the print world and web world can have vast underlining differences as pointed out in the article.

…the Web may lead to some phenomena and problems that are not present in traditional typography. Structural markup for ruby, as defined in this specification, cannot guarantee that ruby text will always be rendered alongside the base text. There are a very wide variety of current and future output devices for documents marked up with XHTML.

Anyone thinking that the web will cause print to be extinct soon shouldn’t hold their breath yet.

Update: There is now a .xpi extension available for XHTML Ruby Support by Hiroshi Shimoda

Luckily, another On Demand anime that’s started anew doesn’t have any translation added…yet. Cromartie High School. This one has become a new favorite of mine. Way too hilarious!

That’s the day I turn 40! I tried the site’s Mayan date calculator but the .cgi script doesn’t work.

I came across this site while venturing off to other related sites from www.mandarintools.com looking for a Chinese representation for my name since ChinaSprout was selling carved stone “name chops”, (they’re stamps or seals), but at a rather high price. I figured that a cheaper alternative would be learning to write the name and/or making my own little stamp/chop.

Another site urban75.com was a bit lame to me with their Japanese name converter. #8220;How can you sleep at night without knowing how to say your name in Japanese?!” it asks. I typed in my first name. Ooo! Big deal! Now I know my Japanese name is “Sonia”. Who would have guessed that “Sonya” would be pronounced “Sonia” in Japanese. No wonder it is under urban75’s “totally useless” category. There are other activities here as well. Well worth a surf through.