As I become more familiar with it, it’s easier for me to see what it’s capable of (hint: everything), and as a result I started thinking about a redesign of this blog in an effort to completely and utterly abuse integrate some of those capabilities. As work progressed, I realized there were some other bullet points I’ve been wanting to hit as well. Here’s the laundry list:

JQuery

Like I said. In this case I’m using it mainly for the archive dropdown and the endless scrolling on listing pages. I played with some concepts that involved more horizontal scrolling, but decided to ultimately go a different direction.

Grids

I’ve been basing the various iterations of this blog off of grids for a long time, but this is the first time in awhile where said grid hasn’t been dictated by Flickr. In this case I decided to try a 960 grid system and ended up using a 16 column grid here, with each column equaling 50px with a 10px gutter. I used this CSS generator to develop the initial CSS.

I’m debating whether I’d use this technique if I were to do it all again as I had a couple of hangups with the process:

• I didn’t love the naming conventions for the various classes; I ended up replacing all the underscores with dashes because that’s what I’ve become accustomed to using in my CSS.
• The system falters somewhat if you’re floating multiple blocks inside of a larger block (for example, three .grid-3‘s in a .grid-9. You need to add .omega (to remove the right margin) to the last block in the line, which doesn’t bode particularly well for dynamically-generated content.
• It seems like an excessive amount of markup in general. Then again, I suppose that comes with the territory in a system that’s attempting to be somewhat universal.

Dynamic Stylesheets

I’ve been wanting to experiment with adding constants to my CSS files for some time now. One way of doing this is with LESS, a Ruby gem (also available as a WordPress plugin, thankfully). LESS basically allows you to define constants and nest classes within your stylesheets, which is a tremendously useful concept.

But in short, I hated it. I attribute part of this to the fact that I had already been messing with PHP as a way to dynamicize my CSS, but the LESS system ended up being a little too clunky for me to find useful:

• LESS does math, and that’s great. Except when it tries to divide my shorthand font declarations, and as a result the entire CSS becomes null and void.
• It seems that commas are no less of a hurdle, as I found LESS to stumble when I was trying to define the same set of properties for two different elements.
• As I mentioned, any issue with syntax will cause the entire stylesheet to be totally dysfunctional with no indication of what the problem is.

I ended including the CSS in PHP form, which has functioned in a much more predictable manner.

Color Editing

This is the third version of mine to feature theme-editable colors. In this case, though, I ended up going a slightly different route. I had been using a variation of the functions.php file from the old default Kubrick theme, which writes custom CSS in the header of the HTML to define the chosen color. Instead of that, I decided to make use of my newly-created PHP CSS and pass that new color to the CSS via a URL variable. Much cleaner.

In addition, I decided to make light and dark stylesheets from the get-go, which I can also switch from the admin.

Mobile Friendly(ish)

I’ve been watching with interest the recent developments in “responsive web design”. As such I decided to define an alternate version of the site for mobile devices and viewports smaller than the width of the normal site. It’s an early effort, but I’m pleased with it for now and like the rest of these points, it’s experience that I can carry forward to future projects.

And More Less

From a content standpoint, I really wanted to simplify my own presentation of myself. I decided to eliminate the “about” page for the first time in basically ever, opting instead to let my various (side) projects and social networks do the talking.

From a contact standpoint, you may notice that the comment form is no more. Existing comments have been preserved, but the ability to comment has been disabled (for now, at least). Same goes for the contact form, for similar reasons: anybody who wants to discuss an article or get in touch is someone I likely already talk to on a regular basis (or someone I would talk to). I get the whole public discourse thing, believe me, but that happens so rarely here that I felt it was no longer worth the inclusion.

So that’s it! Let me know what you think OH WAIT YOU CAN’T.

I’ll be honest and say that of all the headaches I’ve dealt with over the past few years, IE6 has decreasingly been the cause of them. I think more people are starting to come around to the theory I posted on Twitter this morning:

IE6 users either A) know their browser sucks and expect a degraded experience (corporate) or B) don’t know/don’t care (grandparents).

Everybody knows this is true. Any self-respecting nerd wouldn’t be caught dead using IE6 – we’re talking about software that:

1. is nearly 10 years old.
2. was never that great to begin with.
3. stopped being supported 2 versions of Windows ago.

All of which begs the question: why are so many people still using it? The obvious answer is because they can. Massive corporations insist that their websites continue to be IE6-friendly, which means there’s no incentive for the user (or the user’s IT department) to upgrade. And since they don’t upgrade, then massive corporations insist that their websites continue to be IE6-friendly.

Which is totally insane; the burden then falls on the developers to build websites that somehow feature the latest technology and run in a browser that was built before most of that technology was invented? I mean, we can do it, but we don’t like doing it because it encourages bad habits.

As developers we can only explain all of this to the client in the name of enlightenment, but If anyone can pull the plug on IE6 it’s the enterprises. Google, bless them, is leading by example and we can only hope others take notice. We’ve got to get the IE6 users potty-trained onto better browsers instead of coddling them into adulthood while they’re still shitting their pants.

Thankfully, I think my coping mechanism has finally caught up and kicked in, and I’m feeling substantially better than I have been for the past few weeks, and I’m able to look at April as a month of “silver linings” versus simply being bad.

The biggest news is that I’m now officially self-employed. {hire} became my full-time pursuit at the end of April, and has been going about as smoothly as you can expect a sudden transition to freelance work to go. I’m very excited about both existing and potential partnerships, and also for the freedom allowed by my new schedule. Suffice it to say, it’s both the most and least stressful job I’ve ever had.

As a result, my daily routine has changed dramatically, as have my priorities. The awesome weather has made running every morning a joy, as has the fact that I now have the time to run every morning (instead of afternoon or evening). I haven’t been on the bike nearly as much, mostly because my commute now consists of walking up the stairs, but I’m trying to fit a longer ride in here and there as a break (ha!) from running.

Maybe it’s because it’s summer, but I’m also not gaming much right now. The Saboteur and God of War II are both sitting, unfinished. The only console game I’ve really enjoyed lately is Borderlands, and that’s because it’s a social activity. Instead, I’ve been reading a lot more; something I hope continues even as I slowly run out of books around the house.

Finally, I’ve decided that it’s time to take a break from theatre. I’ve had a lot of great opportunities over the last few years, but more recently it’s been taking its toll on my mind, my self esteem, and my schedule. Now is a good time for a hiatus, especially considering the aforementioned career change.

The year started strong. January didn’t bring the same drama this year that it brought in 2008 (thankfully). Instead, I get to point out that that was the birth of the current iteration of this website.

February was relatively uneventful as well, aside from preparing for shows. But I did put together some awesome LEGO.

I spent a lot of time complaining about the weather this year, as I was already raring to get back on two wheels when March rolled around. That was only exacerbated by the new toy. The day trip to Minneapolis to pick it up was awfully fun too.

In April I put new wheels on my car. No, I mean I put them on. By myself.

May brought the first of a number of shows last year: The Last 5 Years, in which I was approximately 50% of the cast. It was a great experience and the theatrical accomplishment that I continue to be most proud of.

Then Godspell happened in June, and that was awesome too! Great cast, great technical staff, great venue, and a great show. Probably one of WCT‘s best, ever.

Things wound down a bit in July, but we had the official Godspell reunion / cast party up in Tomahawk. AKA Real World: Godspell. TEXT MESSAGES!

August was a quiet month, so I spent a lot of time on the bike, and did my first (and second!) 40-mile ride(s).

After years of planning and months of labor, Citizen Wausau 2.0 was finally launched in September, much to the excitement of those involved.

In October, I ran.

The only potentially negative item on the list happened in November, when I passed out on stage. Even then, it’s just something that happened, but I don’t think of it as being decidedly “bad”.

I had such a great vacation in December, you guys. Seriously, it was wonderful. Plus it was my birthday!

Through this point everything remained fairly manageable. Thanks to the terriffic Twitter Tools plugin I was able to easily turn those tweets into “real” posts. But recently I’ve become smitten with a new (to me) service that leaves me wondering where to go from here: Tumblr.

I’ve been playing with Tumblr for a week or so, and I’ve found it to be a neat bridge between WP’s long-form posting and Twitter’s extreme short form, text-only entries. I like Tumblr’s versatility when it comes to handling a large variety of content types, and it seems to have just the right amonunt of meta for such things.

The problem is, I still like WordPress. I’ve built a nice little home with it over the years, and for longer pieces (like this one), it’s pretty darn great. Plus it has comments, although I’m just not sure how important that is to me anymore.

So given my current situation, it seems I have some figurin’ to do with regards to what andylaub.com actually is. The ideal for me would be to treat posts from Tumblr similar to how posts from Twitter are handled in that they’re imported into the actual WP database and join the archive. From there it’s safe to assume I could use the associated meta to manipulate the various sorts of posts as needed. Honestly I would love to see the same behavior with Flickr.

Currently, though, it doesn’t seem that such a plugin exists. I’m about 99% positive that I’d prefer to avoid the opposite approach (RSSing WP into Tumblr). The other option is to break everything apart completely and then reaggregate it into one central location, but that too seems like a huge compromise.

You’ll probably see me messing with this issue over the coming weeks; alternatively I may lose hope completely or go completely crazy and try to replicate some of Tumblr’s functionality within WP. Time will tell, but ’till then I’m certainly open to suggestions.

0:00 – Fire.
0:05 – Cat! Off to a good start.
0:14 – That kid has awesome painting skills.
0:17 – While the dog seems to be incredibly competent at kneading, I’m still not sure this is the best staffing situation.
0:22 – Okay, I don’t know any humans who can make dough look like a bone OR a string of sausages. I retract my previous statement.
0:25 – And some dude fanning himself with his hat.
0:26 – And a dude with a pipe.
0:28 – …and a screwdriver.
0:31 – Wow, seriously. That dog is impressive.
0:35 – Fire.
0:53 – The problem with this television is clearly spiderwebs. But it’s not enough of a problem to actually fix, I guess.
0:56 – The cat looks kind of flirty now.
1:11 – Flirting = success! Maybe?
1:12 – Okay, definitely.
1:14 – Those curtains are magical!
1:22 – A screwdriver is still not the best tool for not fixing spiderwebs.
1:32 – You made a bone? What happened to the dough?
1:49 – It’s just Snow-freaking-White up in here. But at least the spiderweb problem has been resolved?
1:54 – Something awesome obviously just happened.
2:05 – I’m not convinced the kid is speaking a real language. It’s just consonants. Also, does he have pupils?
2:07 – Ooooh, it’s Christmas.
2:16 – And we’re outdoors.
2:19 – I’m thinking the money spent on the zoom lens could’ve been better used on a coat or something for that dog.
2:22 – Wait – the camera has a rifle grip? What?
2:26 – “If he shoots us, I want you to know that you’re my favorite. Also I’m drunk right now.”
2:32 – “I’ve had better.”
2:35 – “Oh.”
2:40 – That’s just not a camera I would be comfortable standing in front of. Or near.
2:41 – Like that guy. I’m with him.
2:47 – “Great! Dinner!”
2:49 – Oh.
2:51 – Beardy is talking about moose. Or ghosts. Ghost moose?
3:01 – Wouldn’t it be better for them to just go inside and watch Mustachioed Pianist Variety Hour?
3:02 – “Whose mustache is better? Be honest.”
3:06 – “Eh, you’re both equally queer.”
3:07 – Cat and boy are both astounded by the forwardness of such a statement.
3:12 – “Ohhh snap!”
3:14 – That lady is certainly… geometric.
3:20 – I don’t think that’s music.
3:28 – Here comes a lady with skis. Is this an Old Navy ad?
3:35 – Mr. Mustache clearly doesn’t understand how this technology works.
3:39 – On second thought – Michelin?
3:46 – She sounds like pretty much every Russian lady I’ve ever heard.
3:56 – Uh oh – something magical just happened, as it’s now time for the traditional Christmas Snowflake Treatment™.
4:00 – Aaaand that’s a wrap. I think we all learned a valuable lesson here.

But I woke up this morning to a comment on a post I wrote months ago about video games, in which the commentor basically just called me biased and said I was a fanboy. While the bias accusation just leaves me stupefied (in terms of bias, that particular article ranked pretty low – you may be more interested in this one or this one or this one) but as a whole I’m not sure how I’m even supposed to react to a comment like this. I could write a real rebuttal or offer a slightly less mature response (the PS3 sucks and so does your face), but both of those would be based on the assumption the commentor is going to show up again, which seems unlikely – they took their shots, why would they come back?

So the only option left is to ignore it, which just irritates me. I just can’t figure out what compels someone to Google “MS NXE vs PS3 XMB” and leave a half-baked comment on the first site they find about how M$ sucks and Sony r000lz. It’s sad, because I love discussing this sort of thing and would be totally willing to have this conversation with a total stranger regardless of bias, yet these are the sort of people who share this hobby.

Oh look – option four is whine about it. I can do that!

Except the content providers always seem to ignore that it’s not black and white. My viewing choices aren’t limited to “watch it on Hulu” or “watch it on live TV”. They also include “don’t watch it at all”, “torrent it”, or “watch it on TiVo and skip the ads”. So are those zero-revenue choices (admittedly I’m not sure about the TiVo one) really preferable to the revenue from Hulu’s ads?

Comparing the launch version to version 13 before it, it’s not hard to see what I felt was working and what wasn’t. A good portion of the content styles and graphic elements made it to the new site unscathed, while dropping the heavy-handed and overly divided feel of the previous design.

The Grid

Version 14′s major defining element was the grid based entirely on the Flickr photos at the top. Initial versions had nine 75px columns separated by 5px alleys, and in November 2008 I added a tenth. While it’s not a new thing for me to have grids defined by the size of my images (as evident in all of my site designs back when this was purely a photoblog), this was the first time I gave myself more than four columns to play with, and I really enjoyed that flexibility. I think the layout worked even better on pages where the Flickr photos weren’t visible; there was still a strong sense of grid and organization, but without the obvious indication of where it was all coming from.

Content Separation

The other major stylistic decision was the way status/blip/link posts were presented when compared to the regular journal entries. After experimenting with different options I ended up with the meta for the posts in the center column, while short posts would live on the right and full posts on the left. It worked best when it was populated evenly, but there were many times where compulsive Twittering would leave the home page entirely empty on the left column.

Then & Now

So how does this newest version compare to the outgoing iteration? You can see that while I haven’t done much with it yet, the grid concept remains intact.

In terms of visual carryover, though, that’s about it. The overall look of the new site was influenced heavily by those wallpapers I just did and my portfolio. I continue to use Helvetica for the headers, but I’ve moved back to Lucida for the body copy, which harkens all the way back to Version 8.x, as ever since then I’d pretty much used Helvetica for everything.

The dotted lines, which I have dearly loved for a very long time, are hanging on by a thread. Because I’m not using a white on white on white layout this time around, everything is divided by blocks of color and shading, which means borders as a whole just aren’t necessary.

Finally, the Status/Twitter posts have become the foremost bit of information on the new site, with Flickr taking the slot below that and the Journal even further down. This just seemed like the only way it could work, organizationally. I didn’t feel that the Flickr content was deserving of the most prominent spot on the page, and the Journal couldn’t be at the top simply because of length. As-is, most visitors should see all three sections when they visit and be inclined to scroll down. Or everybody reads this in RSS, in which case it doesn’t matter anyway.

All that said, I’m quite happy with this latest version, and I’m most interested to see what it evolves into as time progresses.

AIM (Free)

Having any instant messaging app at all is nice, as it doesn’t use up my allotted text messages. And at least a majority of my contacts are on AIM to begin with. But here’s hoping for Adium mobile.
Download →

Calendar (Included)

I was a little hung up on how I was going to handle calendars on the iPhone. The built-in calendar works well, but I’ve been using Google Calendar now for about a year and really appreciate its across-the-board accessibility. The problem is that Google Calendar on the iPhone SUCKS and is extremely limited in its functionality. Then I stumbled on this article pointing to a site called NuevaSync, which basically keeps your gCal in step with your iCal. Phenomenal – it’s the best of both worlds.

Mail (Included)

It’s email. Having email on a phone is nice.

NetNewsWire (Free)

I’ll be honest – I’ve never been much of an RSS user. But on a mobile platform it makes so much more sense than accessing sites one by one. NNW has been great in this regard. The only problem is that I haven’t seen a way to add feeds through the app itself – you have to manage them through NewsGator’s web interface. Not a big deal if you’re adding feeds at home, but if you’re out and about and only have Edge, then have fun hoping the page will load. Once it’s done though, it’s fantastic.
Download →

Safari (Included)

It’s the internet. Seriously, I’m not sure what else to say about it, but I love the internet and therefore I love Safari. Duh.

TWC (Free)

It’s The Weather Channel, on the iPhone. Much nicer interface than their website, and loads faster too. Great for checking out the forecast as I’m getting out of bed.
Download →

Twitterriffic (Free)

A nice free Twitter app for the iPhone. Ad-supported (by The Deck), but it works extremely well for the cost of zero dollars.
Download →

WhitePages Mobile (Free)

Why in the world would you not want a built-in phonebook on your phone?
Download →

But at the same time, I’ve been thinking about lines that have to be drawn when it comes to the types of knowledge and content that are available. It’s the golden age of Web 2.0, where a typical person is probably subscribe to at least 2 or more social websites. I know that holds true for me.

And there are so many of them. And a lot of them are good and interesting and have neat technology behind them. But I’m reaching a point where it’s all just overload. Dino and I were talking yesterday and he said that he’s been observing an exodus of sorts from Twitter to Plurk. Great.

I’ve been trying hard to only subscribe to a service when I feel it can genuinely be a benefit to me. Flickr is a no-brainer; it’s the best in the biz when it comes to photo sharing. Facebook is excellent for shooting a quick note or comment to somebody, since a huge percentage of my social circle resides there. LinkedIn seemed like a good idea at the time, but I really haven’t reaped any benefits from it. Twitter, for what it is, is decent. When it works.

The services that I’ve given my attention to have typically been of the more mature, widely-used variety. Call it peer pressure, but why use a social service that none of your friends are using?

But when I started using WordPress three years ago, blogging was the standard fare. The question wasn’t “do I want a blog?”; it was “which blogging software do I want?”. Now with services like Plurk, Pownce, and Tumblr it’s not the de facto choice any more. So then what should I do? If nobody reads my writing on andylaub.com, how much do I care? Should I go somewhere else? Do I want to go somewhere else?

And that’s where Web 3.0 comes in. I predict that very shortly, people are going to get tired of all this sharing. Tired of signing up to the service of the month, finding people they know, and then abandoning it when something new (notice I didn’t say “better”) comes along. Tired of reporting on every little experience they have and calling it “content”. I’ll wager that we’ve all had the feeling – that little, niggling impulse that says “Record this! Photograph this! Twitter this!” And that twinge of guilt when you opt not to do so.

I guess it’s because we want to acquire a sort of tangible catalog of experiences and not rely strictly on memories. I respect that. But if you’re too busy documenting something for posterity’s sake to actually experience it, that’s just crazy.

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Please print out the invoice copy attached and collect the package at our office

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Talk about shooting for the lowest common denominator. If you can’t figure out this is spam even before seeing that it’s from teo@qec.net.au, then you don’t belong on the internerd.

We are the mice. Content is the cheese. Or maybe the desire to give our feedback on content is the cheese.

And just like mice, we often pursue that cheese without all the information and with a disregard for the repercussions.

Just one thing: mice learn. What if somebody fixes the mousetrap?

But when I sit down and start to write a post here, I just don’t feel like being serious anymore. I tried. For a long time. And that worries me, because this blog reflects who I am as a person, and somebody wondering if I’m “hire-able” is likely to be turned off by ridiculous content. Or will they? Honestly, blogs websites that take themselves to seriously are generally boring. That’s fine if you’re a bank or the gooberment but not if you want your site to be enjoyable.

I don’t really know or remember where this was meant to go. I saved a line as a draft yesterday as a reminder, but apparently that was not enough to inspire anything vaguely coherent.

But why Twitter? The other day I went to post a blip. But it was not a link, as they traditionally have been; more of just a state of mind sort of thing. And I thought “this would be apropos for Twitter.”

Of course, nothing ever comes easy. It wasn’t hard finding a plugin that suited my needs, but my laziness in keeping my WP install up to date came back to bite me in the ass. I’ve been running 2.0 since, well, too long; because it worked for me, I never bothered to follow the updates. Which meant that to make the little birdie happy, I had to set aside a larger chunk of time to get WP up to snuff. And by up to snuff, I mean, WP 2.1 (they’re now at 2.3). So I did that and fixed the custom field junk that had changed between 2.0 and 2.1 (fortunately I had dealt with it on another site months ago).

Having done that, it was time to actually install the plugin. Doing so turned out to be hassle-free, once I had the right version, but the output wasn’t quite to my liking. The default is to truncate the Twitter post and make that the title; I wasn’t thrilled with the post slugs that resulted in, since my general blip posts don’t have titles at all and therefore are just assigned numbers. I can’t fault the logic in this design, though; it’s easier to figure out how to get rid of it than it is to implement it. Case in point: line 196 of twitter-tools.php

, 'post_title' => ''

Now that Twitter was producing title-free posts, I turned my attention to the other hurdle; creating a link back to the original Tweet. I did some searching and came up empty-handed; fortunately I had the good sense to see that Twitter Tools adds the post ID as post meta, and from there it can easily be called from the WP templates themselves. Fortunately, that solved my other problem as well: how to get the Twitter link to only show up on Tweet posts.

I’m pleased with the entire result, as it’s exactly what I was looking for, now the question becomes whether or not I will continue to use Twitter in the first place.

Right now Facebook doesn’t seem to be quite as widespread within the general populace as Myspace, or at least their circles don’t overlap completely. That said, Facebook wins out for me for a few reasons:

• Most people use real names, and real photos
• Widget-oriented customization means you can have all sorts of junk on your page but it still doesn’t end up being completely ugly
• A lot of functions are handled with AJAX, so like Flickr, you’re jumping around a lot less, which in turn feels faster.
• Seriously, not ugly.
• I have yet to see spam.

On a related note, those in the Wausau area may have noticed the recent shuttering of WausauBlog, something that struck me as rather depressing. It’s fortunate then, that I’ve gotten together with somebody interested in “continuing the legacy” and so we’ve started to work on a spiritual successor to WausauBlog. We’re calling it Citizen Wausau, and while there will be similar content (it will have some of the same contributors), we’re hoping to work in some new features as well.

I think something snapped in me when I started to collaborate on Citizen Wausau. Part of it was a desire to collaborate on more projects with more people, and part of it was being able to work on a project that I was excited about. With that said, I am now officially for hire. Please keep me in mind of you know of anyone who needs a website, or if you want to work together. For now I’m still working at Digital Dialogue, and I’m sure I’ll continue to work with them, just not necessarily for them.

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Seems pretty standard. So I wonder how this got past Akismet and wander into my admin to delete said comment, only to find that it’s not there.

And then I realize: it’s not a real comment notification. A normal subject line will be formatted with the blog name in brackets, not the URL. Furthermore, it will give links to both view the post and delete the comment.

So I’ve got to say, this is clever(?), but I don’t get the point. But asking what the point of spam is beyond being part of the internet experience has about the same point as spam itself.

1. Anyone who’s looking can find me
2. It’s another way to get people here

Once they’re here, great. They can do whatever; read posts, go to Flickr, etc. But I don’t link back to Myspace; to me it’s just a means to an end.

Which is why, on the rare occasions I go on there to check messages, I find myself tempted to push the “delete” button and just kill it. I strongly dislike Myspace. The problem is, I like the people that I know there, and for some of them I think sites like that are their only social link to the internerd.

And so then I end up doing nothing, and I forget about it until the next time I log into Myspace.

New

My biggest goal with this new site was to really start taking advantage of the power WordPress has, and that meant a switch to themes. Once I figured out the basics I was very impressed with the options that are available and how easily they can be configured. Versions 9 through 12 of the site ran off of a clump of PHP files that pretty much sat outside of the WordPress umbrella. It really worked in spite of itself, which I think sums up my feelings about it.

In contrast, I was surprised by all the options the theme system has to offer. The search function worked right out of the box (except for one day when it mysteriously didn’t), and now I have a 404 page and real category pages.

The other big reason for the switch is the fact that almost all the good WordPress plugins rely on the theme to do what they do. The contact form is a good example of this; it’s generated using a quicktag and therefore had to be set up as a WordPress page. And thanks to pages, my menus no longer have to be hard-coded.

Improved

Usability was next on my list of priorities. I’ve already mentioned the 404 and Search pages, but I also added PHP redirects on the old _____.php pages that push the user to the current page rather than a 404. Also, thanks again to the themes, all category listings are now clickable.

You’ll also notice the wider comment display area on the single pages, and, just for jb, clicking the header now takes you home.

Just Plain Different

Aside from this pretty new design (I swear, I DID NOT steal the banner idea from Jonathan Snook!), there are two more notable changes. The first is that I’m done with del.icio.us. It worked fine for links, yes, but since installing WordPress 2.0 back in February, I haven’t been able to make it play nice with Magpie RSS. Rather, I mentioned using a Javascript approach but that didn’t please me either, partially because it wasn’t searchable and partially because something in the way it was set up never displayed properly in Internet Exploere (not even 7!).

This time out I’m going mainstream and integrating the links right into the main body. They’re pretty easy to pick out, since they don’t have titles and have a cute little border thing applied to them. More importantly, they now have times and dates applied to them, and it’s one less service to rely on.

The other big step is a brand new logo, as you may have already noticed in a number of places. For now, suffice it to say that I like it much better than the old one and I’ll write more later.

That about wraps it up. What do you think?

Because I don’t.

Today marks the date, and though DOCADD still has me in its clutches, but its grip is loosening. Minor bits and pieces have been altered along the way, along with a slight refresh last month, but nothing extensive has been altered and so I consider the effort largely successful.

Furthermore, I’m happy enough with the site in its current form, that barring another minor update or two, it will continue in this state for a couple more months. Instead of arbitrarily redesigning again, I want to hold out for the next CSS Reboot on November 1.

This decision holds a couple of advantages:

• It keeps me from rushing into things. No matter what happens, I cannot show a finished product before November 1. Plenty of time to refine a design (this should be the long part) and CSS-ify it.
• It generates more interest as part of a larger event. I’m still getting hits from the one I did back in Spring of 2005. And I’m a sucker for publicity.

Now it’s just a matter of working the design magic. I’ve got a general wireframe in mind but nothing solid yet. I want it to be nice. Really nice. I just have to figure out how to make it really nice without resorting to the Web 2.0 trendiness.

There are also a couple of features I’m wanting to try out, though I can’t say with certainty what will work and what won’t. Following in jb‘s and more recently majafa‘s footsteps, there’s a good chance you’ll see a “recent comments” section on the homepage.

That’s really all I know.

The result? Airbagindustries.com is now my top referrer of all time, narrowly eclipsing a Google Images search for “CHICKEN FIGHT”.

Now, how do I make those people come back?

On that note, I started to wonder if there was some way to have the benefits of Flickr pro (unlimited photos) without having to pay the full $25. I figure that the brunt of the cost is for a) hosting and b) bandwidth, and I wonder if Flickr could remain profitable by offering a third choice between the free and pro accounts. It could allow people with decent hosting (like me) to upload their photos to Flickr’s service still, but instead of living on Flickr’s servers they would live on the user’s, leaving us with only one hosting/bandwidth bill instead of two.

There are only two potential issues that I’m aware of. I could see Yahoo! being concerned at the loss of too many Flickr pro customers, and I don’t know how valid that is. It depends on what kind of hosting they have set up on the side, if any. The other concern is how much bandwidth my photos actually use on a monthly basis. I can’t imagine it’s a ton, judging by the number of views that are recorded, but who knows. That’s one argument to remain a full-on pro user for some of the more popular people.

I have second thoughts about this idea already, and I know that part of me is just wanting to stop spending so much damn money. Is this a valid idea?

Flickr says this doesn’t delete your photos (as evidenced by the fact that you can still access individual photos), it just removes them from your photo stream, meaning they’re no longer available to people browsing. Any tags associated with those photos disappear if they’re not found elsewhere in your library as well.

One consolation is that if your photos have been added to pools or groups, they remain there. I find this kind of surprising, but at the same time it makes sense for the sake of other users.

I wasn’t really planning on buying a Pro account in the near future since I’ve had no problem staying under the monthly alloted bandwidth (for uploads) so far, and I don’t have a huge need for more than three sets. But this restriction kind of clinches it and I’ll probably be upgrading shortly.

Regardless, it’s been a good time so far, and even though the images have migrated, I have every intention of continuing to chronicle my various thoughts. But for now, let’s look at some facts and figures, yes?

Shortstat info since October 25, 2005

Total hits: 48,806
Unique hits: 4,250

Top browser: IE 6.0

Top 5 repeat referrers:

1. images.google.com: 368
2. forums.vwvortex.com: 330
3. bloglines.com: 191
4. spring2005.cssreboot.com: 97
5. google.com: 74

Top 5 search terms:

1. andy laub: 38
2. swedish models: 17
3. macbook: 5
4. Andy Laub: 4
5. You may want to consider using a third-party utility to convert the
   muxed file to a format that does allow you to edit or export: 4

Overall info since inception

Posts: 244
Average posts per day: .67
Average time between posts: 1.50 days

Comments: 273
Average comments per post: 1.12
Average comments per day: .75

Internal images: 257
Average images per post: 1.05
Average images per day: .70

Videos: 2

Flickr images: 203
Average Flickr images per day: .56

del.icio.us bookmarks: 235
Average bookmarks per day: .64

Change in regular readership: 400%, up to four now! Way to go, guys!

If you haven’t downloaded the torrents and you have the bandwidth (and the disk space), you may as well; it’s free music! If you have, then maybe give these a listen:

1. Avantcore
   Busdriver
2. Be Gentle With Me
   The Boy Least LIkely To
3. Blue Sky
   Gliss
4. Cowbell
   Tapes ‘N Tapes
5. Devils & Angels
   Toby Lightman
6. Don’t Let Me Down
   A.J. Croce
7. Everyone’s a Winner
   The Meligrove Band
8. Fork in the Road
   The Stringdusters
9. Freewheel
   Duke Special
10. Get Your Way
    Jamie Cullum

11. Ghetto Ways
    Scissors for Lefty
12. Girl Anachronism
    The Dresden Dolls
13. Give a Little Mo’
    The Mutaytor
14. God of Hell
    The Rodeo Carburettor
15. Junkyard
    Page France
16. Love Don’t Care
    Lab Partners
17. New Comes and Goes
    Oranger
18. Right About Now
    Talib Kweli
19. The Vice & Virtue Ministry
    The Happy Bullets
20. Walkin’ on Nails
    Mac Lethal

Regardless, Rollyo offered a simple to implement and unobtrusive solution to my dilemma. Once you’ve signed up they have an area where you can fill in a simple form and have the appropriate code generated. While the pre-made ones look nice enough (example here, kind of), the dropdown menu (for site selection) bothered me as it really doesn’t serve a purpose. Rather than try to figure this out on my own, I looked to a site that uses a version similar to what I wanted: Airbag.

It took me a minute to figure out what data the form was using to tell it what site to search, and it turns out it’s this:

<select name='sid' style='display: none;'><option value='65987'>andylaub.com...

The highlighted number is basically the ID assigned to the site that you’ve added (for some perspective, Airbag’s number is 7080). In the standard dropdown menu it can handle multiple user-defined sites, each with its own number but in this usage only the one for andylaub.com is necessary. Also of note is the style attribute in the select tag which keeps the list from being shown at all; with only one option there’s no point in having it visible.

That’s it in a nutshell. I’m pleased with the result for now, at least as a stopgap, as it makes older stuff easier to find until I can create a more comprehensive and organized archive. The only issue I’ve noticed is the time it takes to index new pages, so putting in “Madonna,” for example, wouldn’t turn up the post I wrote Saturday (yet).

• 7. Suzuki Reno
• 6. Dodge Caliber SE
• 5. Hyundai Accent GLS Sedan
• 4. Toyota Yaris S Sedan
• 3. Kia Rio5 SX
• 2. Nissan Versa 1.8SL Hatch
• 1. Honda Fit Sport

Some high points:

• Quickest to 60 mph and in the quarter mile (8.7 and 16.7 seconds).
• Most supportive seats and overall nicest interior. “Acura-grade gauge cluster.”
• Set apart by handling — lane change faster than the competition and even the Corvette Z06.
• Shortest and narrowest, while maintaining 42 cubic feet of cargo space and a flat load floor when the seats are folded.
• C&D elects it “the president of economobiles.”

I don’t know why I’m so psyched about this, but I am. Score another for my favorite team. On another note, all of the above manufacturers with the exception of Nissan have clean URLs for these particular cars. To be honest, this seems to be the exception for Honda since the Fit page is treated like a microsite at this point. Still cleaner than Nissan’s, though — those are a mess.

But on a more positive note, I decided to get the torrents that PDF painstakingly analyzed and came away indifferent. Part of this is because to ask me to listen to 900 songs by anybody is a stretch. I listened to some and continue to experience them as they pop up on the iPod. It’s quite a variety, which is nice, and I haven’t run into any that are just awful. Except one.

The song They Cleaned My Cut Out With A Wire Brush by Happy Flowers makes me hurt inside just because of how incredibly bad it is. A brief synopsis: some kind of screaming; repeat the title; more screaming; then the title; band maybe falls apart at some point; then it’s over. You owe it to yourself to never, ever listen to this song. Ever.

On the other end, the song I was trying to think of today that I pretty much liked was Everyone’s A Winner by The Meligrove Band, which I’m not sure proves or disproves the “The + n” theory of good songs.

Yep, that Sprint. No question, I really do like them a lot, but I’m a little sad at the same time. About a month ago, they sent this to my published email address:

Hi Andy,

The Sprint Ambassador Team recently visited Andylaub.com and wants to invite you to participate in our Ambassador Program.

The Sprint Ambassador Program is all about exploring our latest products and services and allows you to give direct feedback to Sprint. We recently launched the Sprint Power Vision (SM) Network and want to provide you with the full experience, at no charge. Sprint Power Vision Network enables customers to download data at faster speeds and experience new data products.

So what’s the deal?

As a qualified participant, we will send you one Sprint Power Vision phone and provide you with six months of all-access service (at no charge). You’ll have access to the Sprint Music Store(SM) live TV broadcasts, gaming and more. Yes, you will also have unlimited free calling and data service. It’s a pretty good deal and all we ask for in return is your candid feedback (you decide how much and how often).

[ Registration information deleted ]

If you have questions regarding the registration process or the program, please email us at [ Email ]

We look forward to receiving your registration!

The Sprint Ambassador Team

I was really excited about this because it was totally out of the blue. Unfortunately, I didn’t qualify because I’m not in a metro area right now. Admittedly, it makes sense that they want people who actually have access to the service to test the service, though as a footnote, I was at Best Buy yesterday and was told that Wausau does indeed have the Power Vision service. Interesting, because according to the service map, they don’t.

I see no orange in Wausau. Image from Sprint.

I’ve been trying to figure out whether Power Vision phones are backwards compatible with regular PCS Vision, and I wonder if this is the case of the salespeople just being confused. They said they used their demo A900 (dreamboat!) to browse the web all the time, but what if that just means it can get on the regular Vision network and isn’t necessarily on Power Vision? Maybe I need to stop overanalyzing?

H & R Block

Just get your shit together and let me e-file my state returns. I’ve been waiting for 2 months now.

TiVo

Much to the chagrin of many, many TiVo enthusiasts, TiVo is raising their monthly fees (to include free boxes) and dropping their beloved lifetime subscription. I am a firm believer that a lifetime subscription (meaning you receive unlimited TiVo service for the life of your TiVo unit) is the only way to go. I know several people who’ve saved hundreds of dollars already by buying it outright.

If you are considering a TiVo, now is the time. Lifetime subscriptions are still available for all boxes purchased through tomorrow (according to TiVo’s sales department) so I recommend biting the bullet and just getting one. Otherwise there is eBay, which is a viable alternative because the subscription is attached to the box and not the user. However, we all know how eBay gets when it comes down to supply and demand, and I have a feeling that demand is going to be up there in this case.

Abe and I have been back and forth on the TiVo thing for nearly a year, so I guess instead of calling TiVo a bunch of jerks (which they are), we should thank them for finally giving us the kick in the ass we needed to just go and buy one. We picked up an 80-hour model yesterday at Best Buy. Total cost: $220 box + $300 service + $50 wireless adapter = $570.

Furthermore, I (never) did this on dial-up for quite awhile until we got DSL, meaning I could let my 800 assorted Shirley Bassey tracks all continue to download while I was off galavanting (not that I ever did, even though I could have (download songs I mean, not galavant; I did that all the time)).

iTunes sort of gives you that freedom, though it requires money, meaning you should probably be a little more sure if you want to buy a song and not just add every single Dolly Parton track to your cart on a whim. I suppose you could use Limewire or the like (but you shouldn’t; I don’t and never have and never will), but like I mentioned before you’ve also got to worry about misnamed, incomplete or flat-out broken files. Torrents are also (not) an option, but they don’t seem to work well on a track-by-track basis (based on third-person research that I’ve done).

I guess I’d better go spend some money.

Recently, though, curiosity has brought me back and I looked up a couple of people that I was friends with a long time ago and sent them my IM in hopes of sparking conversation and rekindling friendships. Here’s hoping.

Posts

As you may have noticed, beginning with Chicago, pt 2 posts will no longer have an image associated with them by default. I made this decision for a number of reasons. First of all, having an image to go with the post was keeping me from posting as frequently as I’d like; there are certain days, as evidenced in the archives, that the image and the words have nothing to do with one another anyway so why associate the two? Secondly, flickr has way more power and capacity than I could ever hope to match, and so they are my new choice for hosting images. They will make organization and sharing easier, and they have a number of nifty features that I wanted to try out.

Images

Like I said, I’m now using flickr for these. I use the flickrRSS plugin to wrap the images in the appropriate elements and display them onsite; it’s minimalist in its options but it does what I need and does it well. Over the weekend I also experimented with a variety of image uploading techniques. Flickr’s web uploader is quite nice and I prefer it over Flidget, a Dashboard widget that, while convenient, only lets you tag and upload one image at a time. The cream of the crop is flickr’s own Flickr Uploadr which gives you about 95% of the capabilities of the web admin panel without ever having to open your browser.

Links

I continue to use del.icio.us for links because it’s just so damn easy, but upon discovering that they provide a JavaScript alternative to Magpie (my old PHP method of fetching the links) I decided to try that out. Implementation is fairly basic, though I was challenged by the code because I wanted the link to include not just the headline but the description as well (and all function as a link). This is what I came up with:

function showImage(img){ return (function(){ img.style.display='inline' }) }
var span =document.createElement('span')
for (var i=0, post; post = Delicious.posts[i]; i++) {
    var a = document.createElement('a')
    a.setAttribute('href', post.u)
    a.setAttribute('class', "entry")
    var h3 = document.createElement('h3')
    var p = document.createElement('p')
    h3.appendChild(document.createTextNode(post.d))
    p.appendChild(document.createTextNode(post.n))
    a.appendChild(h3)
    a.appendChild(p)
    span.appendChild(a)
}
document.getElementById('delish').appendChild(span)

The result is exactly what I was aiming for. The del.icio.us method seems more capable than the Magpie route with its ability to show favicons and tags in addition to just the title and description.

Feeds

If you wander down to the footer, which you should be able to see by the time you’re reading this, you’ll notice that I’ve finally added a feed link to more easily obtain the RSS for this site. If you’re interested, here’s the master list of feeds in case you want to follow my photos or links as well as the words:

• Journal
• Images
• Elsewhere

It seems that the more I learn about CSS the more inclined I am to use that instead of any kind of actual layout program, and while it seems to be working OK, suddenly the site launches and I hate it. Part of that is a result of general frustration with every site implementation since 8.5, the version I did for the Reboot. I didn’t really like that one all that much and I haven’t been a huge fan of any of the WordPress-enabled versions.

With 8.5 it was just too bizarre a concept, and a result of being chained to the HTML that was already there. With the others the mistake I made was jumping straight from concept sketches to a final version without mocking anything up beforehand. That left CSS responsible for most of the elements and that resulted in sites that didn’t sit well with me for long (hence the jump through 4 versions in half a year). You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now, but current evidence shows that I certainly haven’t.

That might sound fickle, but what’s strange is that I can go back and look at all the microsites I did at work and be quite happy with most of them. The reason? Every single one originated in ImageReady (Photoshop’s web-oriented sister) and was then translated to HTML. Almost none use CSS. It’s totally opposite from what I have here, and maybe that’s why I have what I have here.

What I need to do then, is literally go back to the drawing board, and not rely on CSS for (all) my design elements.

At that same time I was already looking for some way to take the data from Delicious Library and have it spit out an RSS feed that could then be parsed for this site much like what Magpie does with the other (free) del.icio.us. I still have not found that. There was some hope when I read somewhere that DL can output XML but I gave up on that after not finding such an option. It also seemed incredibly cluttered and complicated considering I was hoping for something more web-based.

I briefly considered just creating another del.icio.us account and linking to Amazon with every post, something that would probably be the most straightforward but somehow also feels like cheating.

In the meantime, however, I came across a plugin called Addictions which, while it doesn’t do exactly what I’m looking for, is rather close and as a bonus, it’s simple enough to dissect and rearrange things to my liking. As a result, after maybe 30-45 minutes of fiddling with the code I now have a nice window into the media that currently keeps me from posting more often and generally being more productive. As a nice bonus, there are some things to look forward to with Addictions 2.0 when (if) that happens, and it sounds as though it will be evolving more into what I want, especially with the auto Amazon linking and the archive.

Something that the WordPress 2.0 update and this most recent plugin adventure made me realize is how much better I’m getting at messing around under the hood of this site. I still couldn’t write any kind of PHP from scratch to save my life, but I do enjoy going in and trying to figure out how to make stuff do what I want it to.

Part I

I spent a couple of hours over at a friend and coworker’s house updating one of the coolest Macs ever from OS 9.1 to Panther. I was a little nervous doing such a major jump on a computer that wasn’t mine, but I have gone through the process a couple times on my old G3 so it wasn’t unfamiliar. Before starting, I had to take the chassis out to add some RAM which reminded me again of how thoughtful Apple is in most cases when it comes to component access. We got Mail set up in no time and experimented with how OS X plays with here printer, camera, and external CD burner. The answer? Perfectly; no drivers required.

After playing with the eject button and watching CDs pop out like toast out of a toaster, the process was complete and we had some pizza and cookies.

Part II

In what has to be one of the most bizarre effects of peer pressure, I felt obligated last night to update to WordPress 2.eh. The update process is well-documented on their site and I bugged PDF about it as I went along, but when all was said and done, I was on 2.0 with no pain whatsoever.

Because of the extensive UI changes, one of the first steps was re-downloading the WP Tiger Administration plugin, version 2.0. After getting that going, I added a couple lines to the CSS at PDF’s suggestion:

.dbx-content #categorychecklist {height: auto;}

This one extends the categories list instead of making it scroll.

#uploading {display:none;}

This one hides the image upload option on the post page. Considering that I frequently use that feature, you might wonder why I’d choose not to show it, and the answer is simple. The only reason I used the built-in image uploader in the first place is because it could automagically create 180×90 thumbnails for my archive page. The thumbnail feature on WP 2.0 is conspicuously absent, which renders the entire option worthless.

I decided to do some playing around with this, and copied the WP 1.5 upload.php file into the new wp-admin directory, and it still works! One problem solved. The next issue was figuring out a way to link it from the other pages. In 1.5 it would’ve been in the main navigation. Alternatively, I decided it would work nicely in the subnav, as shown:

To do this, I added the highlighted line of code (thanks Paul) to line 22 of the menu.php file under wp-admin:

$submenu['post.php'][5] = array(__('Write Post'), 'edit_posts', 'post.php');
$submenu['post.php'][10] = array(__('Write Page'), 'edit_pages', 'page-new.php');
$submenu['post.php'][15] = array(__('Upload Image'), 0, 'upload.php');

So far, so good, but there were still a few issues. The ability to specifiy the upload directory has mysteriously vanished from the Options > Miscellaneous page as well. This is handled by the options-misc.php file in the wp-admin directory. Like I did with upload.php, I simply copied the 1.5 version back over, so I can now specify the directory I want my images to upload to.

The final issue was how WP 2.0 handles thumbnails, which is bizarre since I don’t know how you’re even supposed to make it create thumbnails with the current UI. Regardless, rather than using the traditional thumb-IMAGENAME.jpg it now uses IMAGENAME.thumbnail.jpg by default and with nowhere to change this option in the admin menus. Because I have nearly 200 posts and all of them have thumbnails named with the old convention, it was easier to just try to hack it back to 1.5 standards. As it turns out, this is handled by the admin-functions.php file, also in wp-admin. I basically reverted that section to the old version by commenting out the stuff that didn’t match up and pasting in the old rename function (~line 750). The result:

// If no filters change the filename, we'll do a default transformation.
// if ( basename($file) == $thumb = apply_filters('thumbnail_filename', basename($file)) )
// $thumb = preg_replace('!(\.[^.]+)?$!', __('.thumbnail').'$1', basename($file), 1);
// $thumbpath = str_replace(basename($file), $thumb, $file);
$path = explode('/', $file);
$thumbpath = substr($file, 0, strrpos($file, '/')) . '/thumb-' . $path[count($path)-1];

After all is said and done, WP 2.0 now handles image uploads identically to WP 1.5. I’m happy to say that, aside from this, everything else about 2.0 seems fairly good. I really like the live preview option that lets you view the post in its intended environment before going live, especially for instances like this where I’m using certain classes for the first time. I can’t honestly say that I took advantage of a lot of the other features in WordPress so I don’t notice a huge difference between the two versions, especially with the Tiger plugin obscuring the new UI design.

Overall though, I’m glad it’s over and done with, and the average WordPress user won’t have nearly this much trouble with the upgrade.

That I work and feel this way really doesn’t surprise me much. I like to assemble things, but I don’t so much enjoy creating the components out of which those things are assembled. Maybe it’s because coding is really kind of is a menial task, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I just mean that unlike with creating graphics, there’s a definite right and wrong way (for the most part) to code a site and you know when you are done. The only creativity really comes when deciding what kind of language to script things in, or how to eliminate one or two more classes from the CSS, which is nice. It’s easier making structural, necessary decisions than aesthetic and subjectively arbitrary ones.

Anyways…

Alista has a thought-provoking article on using CSS to apparently *ahem* think outside the grid, something I obviously did with this site. Whatever. From what I read of the article, it seems to be a little misguided and confused. But the comments are gold. At least I can take consolation in the fact that other designers agree that Alista is not 100% infallible.

The grid discussion comes on the heels of not only the redesign of my own site but PDF’s recent article about structure. He observed about his own site:

I tend to carry the structure of the HTML that makes up a web page into its presentation. What I mean by that is most of the block elements tend to stack on top of or next to each other rather than flowing in, around or through each other. Even if the layout isn’t built on a fixed grid, there is often that clear separation of elements defined by right angles and gutters.

This is one of the biggest design commonalities Paul and I share. I don’t think this is a bad thing – it’s always good to start with a grid, which is why Alista’s article seemed so ludicrous to me. I could continue to elaborate, but I’m not saying anything the aforementioned comments already said.

Viva la Grid!

My first reaction to this was that of frustration, which I expressed in the discussion Paul and I were having about it. However, he reminded me that it’s only an experiment. With that in mind, it’s an interesting idea, but kind of in the same way a sleep deprivation experiment is (click deprivation?). Of course, people continue to sleep because it’s a fact of life, and for now so is clicking unless certain key fundamentals are addressed:

• The first is the environment in which the clicking is done. Sure, DONTCLICK.IT has demonstrated that it’s perfectly possible to create a website that can function without clicks, but in the age of browsers and (consumer-level) operating systems that rely almost solely on click-click-clicking a site that discourages clicking is more impractical
• The second is the very point of clicking. It creates a more physical bond to the virtual environment that you’re interacting with. If I click and hold on a window to move it, it give the impression of grasping it with my hand, and if I click on an app to launch it, it’s as though I’m pressing a little button to turn it on. It’s a tactile thing, and it makes us feel as though the actions happening on screen are more directly connected to our own commands.
• The final problem is the mouse. Currently this is the weapon of choice for probably 99% of computer users. Yes, you can do a ton of stuff with keystrokes alone (more on some OS’s than others), but not quite everything, especially if you’re planning on actually using applications. If you eliminate clicks, you’re eliminating half of the functionality of the mouse, turning it into something you simply push the cursor around with. If that’s all it’s doing, why have it at all? And if you don’t have a mouse at all, well then damn, you’re just screwed when you go to visit your source for anti-clicking propaganda.

But hey, at the very basic experimental level, it’s interesting. Any more than that and it gets a little obnoxious.

But speaking of protection, the thought has been nagging at me for some time now that I really should back up my database somehow so if anything ever goes awry I can at least have a recent restore point. I found this one at Skippy.net, which gives you a plethora of options for saving – you can have your backups saved to your server, emailed to you, or just downloaded straight to your hard drive.

It gets even better. If you are too lazy (like me) to make yourself back stuff up with some regularity, install WP-Cron and it will email you a nightly backup. Plus, in addition to the standard WordPress tables, it’s also nice enough to let you remember anything else that might be in that database if you tell it to when setting it up. You know, like ShortStat junk.

Nope, no lulls here! Anyway, here’s a Land Cruiser from back when they were still good.

Literally the day after the last update I was already trying to figure out how it could be better. I’ve worked around the issue that resulted in the background shifting as the browser window narrowed by assigning a background to the wrapper instead of the body. This resulted in the problem of the background not extending the full length of the screen, but this new taller footer fixes it for all but the one-sentence slacker entries.

I mentioned before that I was considering moving to a different column structure. As much as I want to, I cannot do five columns. 1050 pixels is simply to wide for anyone who’s not me. The other natural option was 3 columns, but I don’t see that being a satisfactory solution at this point either. So for now I stick with four columns and hope that I don’t need to redesign again for another, say, 3 months.

♥

We were discussing a particular site, and talking about how it was becoming cluttered and unusable (or rather, has been cluttered and unusable for some time). At that point I said that we were Fixing It With Addition, meaning that every time something went wrong the solution was to add something else instead of researching the cause of the problem.

It’s an issue that’s fairly abundant in all walks of life, not just the internerd. Your car’s not selling? Make it bigger, add more features, bigger engine, more power. A prime example of this was the Passat W8 of a few years ago. VW, and for this I think they are clever, developed a new W-shaped engine layout that meant you could fit eight cylinders into an engine compartment made for 6. It was a novel concept, but the problem here was that for all the extra power the W8 made over the V6, all it did was compensate for all the extra weight added by the motor itself.

FIWA’s best friend and partner in crime, I’m convinced, is DIBYC (Doing It Because You Can) and as you can see he made his presence known in that whole Passat situation.

Just because you can put a huge graphic across the top of your site to drive up sales doesn’t mean you should and definitely doesn’t mean it will. Maybe if your sales aren’t so hot you should consider a new marketing strategy and reexamine your target audience. Maybe they’re not buying because your site is too complicated? Maybe everything on the home page is equally vying for attention, and the decision of where they’re supposed to go just drove them away?

If that’s the case, maybe the ‘F’ in FIWA should stand for something else.

And while we’re on the subject of games, I finished The Getaway : Black Monday and was not disappointed. Despite their rather mediocre ratings I’ve really liked both of the games in the series. They’ve got a nice feel about them and you can really see how the developers tried to inject it with a cinematic vibe.

As an afterthought, I need to direct you to their site again. It is a pretty impressive endeavor, not so much because of its design but because of its content. By clicking around you end up on a mini-tour of London and meet all the characters (played by their voice actors from the game). It’s a great way to introduce you to the environment or just kill some time.

• Those Little Buttons With Pixelated TextThey could be for a CMS, your website, your OS, a browser, or your dog, but one thing’s for sure: they are freaking everywhere.

  Be careful and only use a couple, though. It’s not hard to go overboard.

• Red Cross ButtonsOr worse, Red Cross splash pages. Yes, the disasters are very disastrous, and it’s very novel that sites want to help, but do these things work? Did they even exist before the tsunami last year? Now, in the wake of another distaster, they’re all over the place. That last one’s pretty sexy though.

  You may ask what the point is – will the five people who visit your site change their minds about donating thanks to the Red Cross on your site about cars? I guess businesses must do it so they don’t seem insensitive, so you should too because if you don’t you are heartless and will die an early death and go to Hell. HELL!

• Drop ShadowsAre either in or out, along with horizontal hairlines and making things look like they’re all glossy. If you have a site that is totally flat, sorry, you’re not cool so you’d better get some gradients in there hurry-up soon.
• CSS…is a fad in the same way the iPod is. It came out, some people liked it; it got better, more people liked it and then it just kind of stuck around accumulating more and more users. Eventually everyone will use CSS and have iPods, like it or not, including you. That’s just how it goes with these things.
• del.icio.usAccording to Time who gets their information from Technorati, this is the most popular weblog, which surprised me because I didn’t even know it was a weblog. Regardless, it’s cool and useful and relatively easy to import the content into your own site (hell, I figured out how to do it!) and that makes it a staple.

  You’ll need to watch this one though. Make sure the links you add are cool enough for all you web-friends to see. They won’t visit you anymore if you start linking to the latest Barbie video game or a bug that pretends it’s a tongue.

• Useless ListsIf you haven’t already, you need to post one of these STAT.
• BlogsDuh, get a blog already. Otherwise how are you going to meet all these other criteria? Which gives way to…
• Accessible CMSCMS = Content Management System = WordPress, Movable Type, TypePad, Blogger, etc. We don’t “hand-code” our entries. What is this, the stone age? It’s gotta be dynamic! It’s gotta have comments! The content is optional, though, and if it overshadows your wicked look, you Red-Cross button, or your del.icio.us links, than it may be best to leave it out.

  Another one of those fads that stuck around (thankfully), your site is potentially marginally cool if you are on Blogger, cooler if it’s WordPress, and the effing rawk if it’s on Movable Type or some other pay thing. If you wrote your CMS yourself, you may be hardcore but that doesn’t make you cool.

Once you have all of these things, put them together and viola! Your site is the new black!