· Playing around with a new look (February 2005 )

Updated the look.

· New icons (April 2004 )

Images for your use.

· Some RSS changes (March 2004 )

RSS changes.

· A whole new look! (December 2003 )

OK, so I got bored with the look again... So here's something new. :) Let me know if you find any problems with it! (inside pages to be updated in a bit)...

· *phew* (December 2003 )

Some of you may have noticed that the blog was down in a very bad way last night and this morning. Essentially, the box that this site is hosted on had some mega-bad hardware problems and everything was lost. Gone. Kaput. Etc. Thanks to a great sysadmin, and a friend-of-sysadmin who went to the colo to check on the hard drive that died, things are back up and running and everything is restored. So, yay. :) (and a mental note made to start a daily/weekly off-site backup of the staticred archives and databases)...

· Fall colours... (October 2003 )

And since it's fall, I guess it's time for fall colours on the site. :)...

· Silent running... (October 2003 )

I'm heading into silent running for the next month, since I'll be busier than hell with the move and the secret project. I'll see you folks on the other side (though maybe I'll post here and there in the next month). I'll be without 'net from approximately the 15th to the 22nd, depending on how long it takes cable to be installed at the new place....

· staticred down... (July 2003 )

staticred will be unavailable for an indeterminate amount of time tomorrow (July 15th), as our provider is moving their offices... if you really need to get a hold of me, use my ICQ account, or send mail to my spamtrap: tripsterparadox@yahoo.com...

· touchin' up... (June 2003 )

Did a little touching up, and changed the header photo...... whaddya think?...

· new looks (June 2003 )

Let's hope this doesn't b0rk up the site..... if it does, well, tough luck until I get home. :) OK, so it didn't bugger things up too much... good to know. :) More will come over the next week or so. Tip: Fonts are set to a size I like looking at, using em. You can easily make the fonts larger by increasing your browser's font size. I may at some point put in a 'make these fonts larger' button, a la Zeldman. But not today. :)...

· Look. Over there ------------------------> (May 2003 )

Changed the links around a bit tonight, removed some old and busted links, and threw in some new ones. Have a look, and if I forgot you, give me hell. There'll be some relatively massive changes coming to the site in the next couple of months, depending on how things play out, and how much free time I find myself with. If you want a sneak peek, let me know, and I'll consider showing you....

· RDF index now available (May 2003 )

RDF Index now available......

· and another note... (April 2003 )

For those of you who have been using time, I've updated the UI to something a little more usable. Let me know what you think....

· new and fun! (February 2003 )

new site design! I thought I needed to make the site look a little more professional(ish), while putting more of a focus on the work I've done lately... so I completely redid it yesterday and today! New site features include a rotating ad script in PHP, and will eventually include a resource center. Let me know what you think!...

· I told you it was coming... (November 2002 )

A little while ago, I mentioned I was going to be redesigning the site a little... and it's now done. go take a look and let me know what you think....

· we're live again! (November 2002 )

Comments are back up again, after some database wonkiness...

· that's all, folks... (October 2002 )

That should be all the changes for now.... but mental note for when I get home to go through the rest of the site and fix it up. I just checked, and there's over 1200 pages on this site now. Goodness....

· slow men at work ()

I'm making some slight changes to the site over my lunch break... so bear with me if things seem broken....

· it's fall... ()

Even though it's starting to get closer and closer to winter-like weather, it's fall here in Edmonton. As a result, it's time for a new main graphic... This tree was found on my walk back from work about a month ago, and had turned a brilliant orange-red colour before the other trees in the park. I whipped out my little Hi-matic and snapped a shot. What d'ya folks think? By the way, that site redesign I talked about awhile ago is still on its way... I've just been too busy with other projects. Look for it before the new year though....

· check your links! (October 2002 )

If you're a regular reader of this site, you'll want to make a note to ensure your bookmarks are pointing to http://staticred.net/speakeasy/, rather than http://staticred.net/ The reason? I'm going to be redesigning the site over the next couple of weeks, and the main page will be putting even less of a focus on the journal (not to say I'll be posting here less, just that it'll be less prominent to the site overall). Just thought I'd warn you now. ;)...

· maintenance... (August 2002 )

Super Happy Collaborative Fiction has been moved to the 14th... Click on the above link to add to the story!...

· Big Sky Country (July 2002 )

Put up a new image... this was taken just outside our apartment, of the afternoon sky......

· it only took two months! (May 2002 )

Comments are finally fixed; you won't have to enter your name, etc anymore....

· Papa's got a whole new bag (April 2002 )

darren james harkness » web guru. Time for another site redesign... This design hit me about midnight last night, and I was up until 2am working out the details... I've finally managed to port the entire site over (thank god for CSS and Movable Type)......

· As a complete aside... (March 2002 )

Themes will return, once I have a spare moment to work on them....

· menulicious update... (March 2002 )

Update on the new site: Added a timeout to the menubar -- it now closes itself after 4 seconds. I'll post updated source to iStock later today. (or, if you're *just* that impatient, grab the source here....

· Notice anything new? (March 2002 )

This is what happens when you deprive a geek of his website. I've done a total rehaul of staticred.net this weekend, making things look a little kinkier, run a little smoother (for which I have Movable Type to thank), and even took time to create that portfolio section I've been wanting to add for ages and ages. There's still some wrinkles to iron out, so let me know if you come across any oddities on the site (please send a screenshot and browser information if possible). And now, I sleep....

· personal notes ()

Personal notes to-do: - Finish portfolio - Fix comments in stylesheet - Double-check all pages - Sleep....

· watch for falling objects ()

Undergoing a facelift. Expect stuff to be not working for the next little bit....

· goodness coming... (March 2002 )

New things, they are a-coming. Watch this space for a kinky new look, new features, and more of the other things you come here for. Suggestions/queries/gobs of money can be sent to webmaster@nasty.cx. Taxes applicable in PQ, SK and NC....

· I'm back! (March 2002 )

I tell ya... I head on a weekend trip, and everything turns to shit! Sunday night, the server that hosts staticred.net and nasty.cx went belly-up. The new hard drive Alan had thrown into the system completely turded itself when faced with the sheer amount of data it had to handle. Well, after fighting the gods of server troubles, Alan was finally able to get the server back up and running. And not a moment too soon! This weekend, I'll be completely overhauling staticred. The content that's already here isn't going anywhere, but there will be new content a-comin' and a brand spankin' new look to the site to bring everything together. Can't get into too much more detail, but it'll be pretty damned bitchin' On a personal note, I finally got my chipped tooth fixed today. Going into the dentist this afternoon was an intimidating prospect: I was either getting a filling, or getting a root canal. When I left his office last Wednesday, he wasn't entirely sure what was going to happen -- but he'd have a happy pill waiting for me if it was root canal time. When I entered the office this morning, there he was -- happy pill in hand. As it turns out, he still wasn't sure if I was going to be getting a Root Canal, or the much-more inocuous-sounding IRM. A few drilling expiditions later, it was determined that there was no significant damage to the nerve, and the base of the tooth was still quite strong. As such, no root canal was required! The Dentist therw in a 'medicated filling' to heal the nerve fully, which has to be removed & replaced in about 6 months. While I was in, they scheduled me to go through a cleaning. My memories of recent cleanings have been far from pleasant: the former dental hygeneist was a bitter old cow who had nothing better to do than inflict massive amounts of pain on her subjects. The current dental hygeneist was exceptionally gentle, stopping when I needed her to stop, and putting off some more severe cleaning until next we meet. So, over all, despite my intense phobia of needles and metal in my mouth, it was all rather painless. I still have to go back in a couple of weeks to get a cavity taken care of, and then I'm done for another 6 months!...

· it's groovy (March 2002 )

New theme: tubes3. I've also added Category archives to the site nav, so it'll be easier to find things on the site. ;)...

· new theme (February 2002 )

New theme: tubes....

· new theme... (January 2002 )

black....

· HTML is a wonderful thing... (January 2002 )

Added a new feature for HTML4 compliant browsers... 'accesskey' This is only instituted on the menu system. Hit alt and the underlined letter in the menu (ie: alt-f for friends) and enter, and the menu will appear... it's kind of a neat feature to incorporate, especially for keyboard jockeys like myself. Here's how you do it (it's so damned easy): <a href="somewhere.html" accesskey="s"><u>S</u>omewhere</a> This works best if you're specifying a text-decoration: none in your stylesheet for links. You could easily change the underline to a bold, or some other mechanism, of course. As well, I discovered how to make text blink again. Simply create the following class: .blink { text-decoration: blink; } and enter it in like this: <span class="blink">blink</span> neat, huh?...

· isn't it nifty? (January 2002 )

look! it's a new default theme! To set your browser to the new theme, go to the Themes menu and select "Standard" (or click on the handy link in this paragraph). I've also made a new front page for the site, since I want to make it easier to find other things on my site. ;) Check it out....

· good for her eyes on the laptop... (January 2002 )

new site theme added: kirsten. Thanks once again to iStock for the photo....

· new theme... (January 2002 )

New theme added to the site: woman....

· new stuff! (December 2001 )

So, I got bored with all the rants about small fonts from the programmers here at work, and made some alternate stylesheets. You can now view Staticred in one of three modes: 1) Alan mode: Same Great Look, bigger font-size! 2) Darren mode: the classic. The site as I like it, smallish fonts and all. 3) Brian mode: TTY all the way, baby! Console jockeys will especially love this mode. If you have suggestions for new stylesheets, leave them in the comments!...

· scrolling bug fixed in mozilla ()

Finally got around to fixing the horizontal scrolling bug Alan was bitching about.... It's a difference between how different browsers handle the width element. IE sees width as being the width of the container element (if it's in the <body>, then it's 100% of the body width... if it's in a sized <div>, it's 100% of the sized <div>), whereas Mozilla appears to view it as 100% of the <body> width. One of the <div>s I had created had a padding of 10px, so it was sizing the div to 100% of the body, and then adding the padding on for some reason, making the page wider than it was supposed to be. I removed the width statement, and replaced it with right: 0px;, which extends the element (in most browsers) to the far right of the browser window....

· look ma.... (December 2001 )

new image! I was looking through some old websites and found this image... Touched it up a bit and changed the colour, and voilà... new look for the site. ;) Sorry Al, the scrolling background's back....

· archives working again... (December 2001 )

Just for you guys, I finally got around to fixing the archives. I've also changed the way the archives are stored... they're now put in haierarchal directories, according to yyyy/mm/dd format......

· COOL (December 2001 )

Added a nifty new feature into the comments.... live updating! Preview your comment AS YOU TYPE! ;) Found a reference to the script at taint.org, but no further attribution beyond that. Usage Notes: Works just dandy in IE 6 & Netscape 6.2 (although there are some redrawing funkiness in Netscape -- it redraws the entire block of content on each character entry). Does not work in Netscape 4.x and Opera 6....

· it only took me 9 hours... (November 2001 )

After great struggle, frustration and a blown template database, I've added the ability to remember your info when you post comments.......

· Yes, it's another redesign. (November 2001 )

Redesigned again. Bear with me while I work out bugs....

· sorry yahoo, hotmail, arabia.com users (October 2001 )

Just had to throw in a procmail filter to redirect all email from yahoo.com, hotmail.com and arabia.com to /dev/null. Sorry to the one of you I know who has a yahoo account, but with the deluge of spam I've been getting lately, it was necessary....

· (October 2001 )

Expect something new to appear here on Saturday....

· Comments fixed (October 2001 )

When I upgraded MT today, it blew away my old mt.cfg (ok. so I uploaded the file, and didn't even think to check the settings)... As a result, comments went *poof* They're fixed now. ;)...

· New version of MT ()

New version of Movable Type is out, with some nice fixes/additions. Let me know if anything goes boom....

· css fix (October 2001 )

Fixed the left-hand navigational box for Mozilla -- the fix was to add a <br clear=all \> inside the parent element... this causes the parent element to resize itself to be one line larger than the largest element contained within it. The only sticky point now is Opera, which seems to be ignoring the transparent gif (making it a block colour) and botching the positioning (instead of sizing it up from the bottom, it simply sizes from the top *to* the bottom)....

· site maintenance... it's a bitch, ain't it? (April 2001 )

just did a little site maintenance. You shouldn't notice any difference. Basically, I just added in some comments for the tiny bit of Javascript wizardry I put in, to deal with the Netscape 4.x stylesheets problem. At some point, I may decide to actually do something *nice* for Netscape 4.x users. But I doubt it.I also did a little bit of directory restructuring, to organize the backend a little nicer. Should be easier for me to make tiny (or radical) changes in the future. BTW, if you're looking for my old blogger-era archives, you can find them here -- including my personal favourite: China may be stripping spy plane, says U.S.In other news, the sun may rise tomorrow, says prominent meteorologist, Guy Smiley. posted by Darren Harkness 12:07 PM The Portfolio section will come eventually -- just not right now. :)...

· new link added ()

new link added to the side bar - FEED Magazine...

· site news. (April 2001 )

site news: I added a little bit of javascript wizardry to turn off stylesheets for you poor, pathetic Fucking-Netscape-Four-Point-X people. Don't say I never do anything for you guys. ;)For yer own reference (in case you're too lazy to view source): <script type="text/css"><!-- if (document.getElementById) { document.write('<k rel\="stylesheet" type\="text\/css" href\="staticred.css">'); } --> </script> Basic explanation: If the browser properly supports CSS, it will understand the document.getElementByID statement and write out the link to the external style sheet. IE, Opera, NS 6 -- these all parse that just peachy. If it doesn't understand that, it skips by the document.write, and goes on its merry way, never having known a stylesheet existed.Parts of the code came from a list apart, Jeffrey Zeldman's little HTML standards rag. I'm using the same code later, though modified to do if (!document.getElementById) -- the ! being a NOT statement -- to write out the nice, polite little message NS 4.x users see at the top of the screen....

· slight changes (April 2001 )

slight changes to the site... I've changed from Blogger to Greymatter, in an attempt to find something a little more stable. ;) You guys shouldn't notice any changes to the site at all, except for the addition of comments!...