The 37signals team wrote up a nice trick on creating a default styling for an element using an element id and then customizing it using an element class.

Here’s one of their examples:

#Flash {
  text-align: left;
  border: 1px solid #ccc;
  font-size: 14px;
  margin: 0 7px 12px 0;
  padding: 5px 5px 5px 30px;
}

div#Flash.good {
  border-color: #9c9;
  color: #060;
  background: url(/images/alertgood_icon.gif) #E2F9E3 left no-repeat;
}

<div id="Flash" class="good">Oh yes, that's nice!</div>

This technique is nice when you have one specific element that needs decorating. Since element ids are unique within a document, you can apply the exact formatting you need to that one section. However, you need to define an explicit CSS block — div#Flash.good in this case — each time you wish to combine styles.

A similar approach is assigning multiple classes to the same element:

.Flash {
  text-align: left;
  border: 1px solid #ccc;
  font-size: 14px;
  margin: 0 7px 12px 0;
  padding: 5px 5px 5px 30px;
}

.good {
  border-color: #9c9;
  color: #060;
  background: url(/images/alertgood_icon.gif) #E2F9E3 left no-repeat;
}

<div class="Flash good">Oh yes, that's nice!</div>

Use this to compose more general styles. For example, if you want all error text to be red and bold, you could define a general error class. You can then use that style anywhere in the document with any other style without needing to update your CSS.

Nothing too earth shattering, but two good tools to have in your bag.

I am hiring a person to figure out how we should be exposing eBay using Web services and then creating the product proposals to implement the strategy. You also get to monitor everything else that’s going on at eBay and make sure it’s API-enabled in an platform savvy way.

If you’re interesting in participating in this thing popularly known as “Web 2.0,” then this is a killer opportunity. We serve up 2 billion (with a b) API calls a month, and we just made all calls free, so we’re talking serious scale and opportunity.

The ideal candidate has some strategy, programming, and product experience in her background. A little financial analysis wouldn’t hurt, either.

Here’s the official job description. That’s Requisition No. 7471BR at ebaycareers.com, in case the link doesn’t work. (Mac and Linux friends, please don’t flame me for the Win/IE bigoted job recruiting web site. I had to boot up my girlfriend’s Windows box to use the site when I applied, too.)

If you’re interested, e-mail me or apply directly and let the recruiter know you found out about the job through my blog. My work e-mail address is the first initial of my first name (a), followed by my entire last name (trachtenberg), at the ebay.com domain.