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Going offline for awhile...
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For RSS readers who don't come to the site, this is just a notice that the blog's going offline for awhile. The archives will still be available, but I really want to rethink what it is I'm using this site for. I'll be back eventually.... |
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Site refresh
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New design! |
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Updated Movable Type
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I just installed Movable Type 4.0 here to check it out. Things are likely to be bumpy for the next couple of days.... |
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Quick refresh
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swept the floor, washed some windows |
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staticred - new identity
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I created some new business cards for Kirsten and myself, and decided it was time for a new visual identity. Go take a look and see what you think. I'm trying to go for a slightly more 'hip' appearance - time will tell whether I managed it or not. ;)... |
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Housekeeping
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Just a little housekeeping note. Unless you are signed into TypeKey, you may receive a notice that your comment has been held for moderation. I'm just trying to find ways to work around the blogspam that seems to have hit me lately.... |
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Coming back to life
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We're slowly coming back to life here at casa Darren. After my brief hiatus from the web, I decided that it would be just silly to put up my old site, and created something a little newer and more with what the cool kids are doing these days. So here come the gradients! (I'm not so with the time that I'll start doing the whole Apple reflection thing though). I'm going to be playing around with this space for a little while so don't mind the construction dust and wolf-whistling workmen. It'll all be over soon enough. The site is... |
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staticred has a posse
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Did you know staticred.net has a forum? I'd totally forgot until today that I'd set one up ages ago. For those who have enjoyed collaborative fiction in the past, I've started a new category in the forum called "Neverending Story." Go have fun!... |
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Slight change in contact form
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I've had to put a preview in effect when you're using the quick contact form at the bottom of each page. I've been getting overrun with spambots that think this is a blog comment form. So, from now on you'll need to confirm your message before it is sent to me. This hopefully isn't too much of a hardship, and will let you double-check your spelling, etc. So perhaps I should call it a "feature" instead. :)... |
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Forum now up
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What? A forum you say? I'm testing a new forum package called Vanilla, and I wouldn't mind having you folks give it a go. You can find it here. You'll have to sign up, but you should get immediate access once you do.... |
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Upgraded MT
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I've upgraded the site to the new MT (rather late, but I'm lazy and didn't feel like grabbing it until today). Let me know if anything breaks. Update: Looks like everything's peachy...... |
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Spring cleaning
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I'm doing some cleaning up on the server. If something goes missing that you think you'd like to see back, let me know.... |
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Logotype
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I threw together a new logo for staticred... thoughts? The puppy comes from this image, which I copied into Illustrator and outlined. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, considering I am not the world's foremost authority on using Illustrator. I think there's some outstanding font issues with it, but I'm happy enough with it that I'll put it out for slaughter. Incidentally, it's being pitted against this logo: Update: Thanks for the comments, everyone... based on them I think when I do the redesign I'll stick with the second logo.... |
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Minor site addition
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I've had a few comments over the past year or so that it's hard to find my contact info on this site. Well, that's partly by design - I don't want spambots harvesting my email address, as I've already got a bucketload of spam to empty each day. However, it's important that people be able to contact me if they need to. I put a link to the general contact form for staticred in the footer block a few months ago, but today I decided I'd go one step further and just put the entire form there. So, if you... |
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Because I'm not busy enough...
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I'm getting ready to undertake a sitelift on staticred in the near future. Any requests for features, changes, otherwise? For example, would any of you like to be able to customize that calendar over there to display your own upcoming schedule? Do you like the latest photoblog entries being displayed? Anything missing that you think might be nifty? Now's your chance to speak up and get something neat included in the design. (I'm also thinking of duplicating the "Friends" functionality of LiveJournal to pull in the RSS feeds from some of the sites I frequent more often, though this would... |
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We're back!
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Looks like we survived the server migration. Thanks Alan! While the site was down, I changed the way my calendar shows up on the site. Not that you'll notice, of course, since the calendar only ever shows up for me at work and at home. I'm happy to put up a sample though - click on the "thumbnail" for a screenshot.... |
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Of note
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This site and my email will be down for an unknown period of time on March 22nd. If you really need to get a hold of me, you can send a gmail to staticred.... |
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Notes from the motherland template
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I changed things up a bit on le photoblog. If you want to use the template, I've included it inside this entry. You will need to grab a copy of moo.FX and place it in the pixelpost folder on your website. It should be relatively easy to figure out, but to get to the navigation, click on the picture. Later: - I'm entirely too amused by the fadey-inny-outy-thing.... |
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Getting Things Done.
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You won't be able to see it yourself (in theory, it should only display when I access it from work or home), but I've added the next extension to the "Upcoming things" list on my site -- a calendar I really need some sort of in-my-face visual reminder that I have things I need to be doing, and this may be the best way. Time will only tell whether it is useful or I learn to ignore it. Now all I need is a way to synchronize this with my Palm calendar.... |
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Because I wasn't tired enough...
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Because I wasn't tired enough at 2am last night, after having beat my head on the monitor for several hours trying to figure out Flash (and not just "Flash" per se, but importing XML into Flash, piping it to a text box, then moving that text box around), I whipped up a new header graphic for this here blog as well as the main site. Also, the "projects" are finally linked to something. Go me. Lemme know what you think of my sleep-deprived creations. Update: First comments are in from Kirsten, who thought I'd started putting banner ads on the... |
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New site bit
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Just added a 'to-do' list to the site. Well, sorta. I actually added it to my home server, and just pulled in a data file from the site. More noted here tomorrow when I have a functioning brain cell. If you're interested in seeing how it was done, drop me a line. It's so 2.0.... |
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Changed over to feedburner
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Hey guys - I've changed the RSS feed to go through feedburner, because I'm curious how many people read the site through RSS. I'll be putting in an Apache redirect later tonight, but in the meantime, can you resubscribe to the feed here?... |
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Little updates...
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Updates to site. |
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Playing around with a new look
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Updated the look. |
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New icons
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Images for your use. |
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Some RSS changes
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RSS changes. |
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A whole new look!
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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)... |
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*phew*
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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)... |
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Fall colours...
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And since it's fall, I guess it's time for fall colours on the site. :)... |
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Silent running...
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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.... |
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staticred down...
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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: tripsterpara...@yahoo.com... |
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touchin' up...
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Did a little touching up, and changed the header photo...... whaddya think?... |
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new looks
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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. :)... |
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Look. Over there ------------------------>
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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.... |
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RDF index now available
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RDF Index now available...... |
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and another note...
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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.... |
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new and fun!
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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!... |
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I told you it was coming...
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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.... |
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we're live again!
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Comments are back up again, after some database wonkiness... |
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that's all, folks...
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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.... |
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slow men at work
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I'm making some slight changes to the site over my lunch break... so bear with me if things seem broken.... |
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it's fall...
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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... |
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check your links!
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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. ;)... |
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maintenance...
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Super Happy Collaborative Fiction has been moved to the 14th... Click on the above link to add to the story!... |
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Big Sky Country
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Put up a new image... this was taken just outside our apartment, of the afternoon sky...... |
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it only took two months!
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Comments are finally fixed; you won't have to enter your name, etc anymore.... |
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Papa's got a whole new bag
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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)...... |
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As a complete aside...
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Themes will return, once I have a spare moment to work on them.... |
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menulicious update...
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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.... |
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Notice anything new?
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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.... |
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personal notes
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Personal notes to-do: - Finish portfolio - Fix comments in stylesheet - Double-check all pages - Sleep.... |
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watch for falling objects
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Undergoing a facelift. Expect stuff to be not working for the next little bit.... |
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goodness coming...
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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 webmas...@nasty.cx. Taxes applicable in PQ, SK and NC.... |
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I'm back!
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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... |
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it's groovy
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New theme: tubes3. I've also added Category archives to the site nav, so it'll be easier to find things on the site. ;)... |
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new theme
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New theme: tubes.... |
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new theme...
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black.... |
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HTML is a wonderful thing...
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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... |
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isn't it nifty?
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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.... |
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good for her eyes on the laptop...
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new site theme added: kirsten. Thanks once again to iStock for the photo.... |
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new theme...
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New theme added to the site: woman.... |
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new stuff!
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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!... |
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scrolling bug fixed in mozilla
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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... |
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look ma....
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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.... |
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archives working again...
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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...... |
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COOL
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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.... |
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it only took me 9 hours...
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After great struggle, frustration and a blown template database, I've added the ability to remember your info when you post comments....... |
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Yes, it's another redesign.
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Redesigned again. Bear with me while I work out bugs.... |
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sorry yahoo, hotmail, arabia.com users
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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.... |
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Expect something new to appear here on Saturday.... |
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Comments fixed
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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. ;)... |
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New version of MT
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New version of Movable Type is out, with some nice fixes/additions. Let me know if anything goes boom.... |
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css fix
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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).... |
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site maintenance... it's a bitch, ain't it?
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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... |
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new link added
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new link added to the side bar - FEED Magazine... |
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site news.
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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... |
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slight changes
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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!... |