Hivelogic
30th August 2003
Dan Benjamin's personal site The Hivelogic Narrative continues to interest me. Something about it just seems to work. Is it the programs he offers that include a free email encoder? Is it the well-written prose on all manner of things including web code and cigars? Or is it the minimalist black and white design? Or maybe the random header photographs from a bygone era? Like I said, it just seems to work. I find myself checking it regularly, which is surely the highest accolade any site can achieve.
A New Look
28th August 2003
I hope you like the new layout I'm working on. (See main page.) It uses some clever tricks which I will detail soon. They include using borders to create the impression of three centrals divisions of equal height, and the use of tiny images to show the status of a link. (I'm particularly proud of that one.) For now, take a look at my stylesheet (not perfect) if you want to know how I've done this page.
Containing Floats
28th August 2003
Eric Meyer has published an article called Containing Floats as part of his new business venture Complex Spiral Consulting. If you've ever battled with floats or thought about using them you'll definitely want to read it.
Announcement
13th August 2003
I'm slowly improving this website, so bear with me while I implement some exciting new features. The first of these is the Comments system you'll now find under certain entries on this page. Eventually all new items should have comments, along with all artwork, photographs etc.
I also plan to improve the comments system over time. I apologise for the lack of formatting in your comments, such as bold, italic and so on. I've tried two ways to implement this but both suffered from errors, so I had to take out the code. I hope to solve the problem soon.
Here are some future improvements to look out for:
- A consistent look across each page. (A lot of pages are still using my old design!)
- Better custom styles you can select from the top menu
- The Resources links section is rubbish. I need to sort it out!
- Much greater emphasis on web coding with tips and mini-articles
- More accessibility improvements
- Other features I think would suit visitors
If you've any suggestions why not use the Comments link right here? If you have any good or bad points to make about the existing pages instead, let me know.
In Mozilla you can hold down CTRL and click on a table cell on a web page. It will highlight it with a blue border. Keep CTRL down and click around to highlight other cells. Try dragging the mouse around as well. If you click near the top of the table, the entire table is lit up. I find it's a great way to see where the cell boundaries are on a page. You might use it for debugging your own layouts.
JPEG 2000
13th August 2003
TASI have published updated details of the emerging JPEG 2000 image format. It offers better compression than current JPEG files with more options and new features.
Internet Explorer 6 CSS Bugs
13th August 2003
http://tom.me.uk/2002/2/ie6css.html
Web Design Postcards
13th August 2003
Matt Robinson has created some great-looking postcards to represent various tips for making a website.
Although IE doesn't support position:fixed the same effect can be achieved, thanks to a CSS trick by Eric Bednarz of Tagsoup.
Recent CSS Finds
13th August 2003
Sometimes you find several impressive sites at once. If you're into cutting edge CSS, or just want to see some neat layouts done with it, take a tour round these sites:
Lazycat.org, Stopdesign & Tom Gilder's Blog.
Modulo 26
4th August 2003
Modulo 26 is an "online serial devoted to issues of interest to the graphic design community, namely: Sources of Inspiration, Web Design, Typography, among others."
Out Of The Lens 2
13th July 2003
Issue 2 of my online photography magazine is now available!
CSS2 Test Suite Failures
11th July 2003
I'm pleased to announce an update to my comparison between IE6 and Mozilla 1's CSS2 handling. The results have been completely overhauled and now include Opera 7. I've also retested each browser more thoroughly using the latest versions. Here's my completed list of CSS2 Test Suite Failures. To be honest it's pretty depressing - there are so many commands our shiny new browser versions still cannot handle. Go read and weep. But then think about the commands we can safely use cross-browser today.
Netscape 2 announced!
5th July 2003
Whilst moving some ancient magazines today I came across Issue 14 of Internet Today, sadly now defunct. This was dated December 1995 and a headline on the cover grabbed my eye: Netscape 2 - Frames, Java and Plug-ins - it's the second coming. The article reveals how Netscape 2 will support progessive JPEGs, client-side image maps, complete mail and news facilities, along with a 'Gold' version aimed at authoring web pages. Another new feature is the ability to control the colour of the font tag, rather than the entire document!
On top of this is the new 'DIV' and 'P' tags (which enable the justification of text to either left, right or center)...
You mean Netscape 1 didn't have a paragraph tag?!
I now have to quote from the box at the end which definitely didn't turn out to be true!
All of this would suggest that browsers such as Microsoft's 'Internet Explorer' are likely to live short and (hopefully) painful lives as it seems unlikely that even the mighty Microsoft could possibly keep up with the pace of Netscape's development. Another factor in Netscape's favour is their 'open' policy towards standards, which essentially means that Netscape will happily publish their standards documents so that other parties can produce technology that complies with Netscape's guidelines. All of this should help to secure their status at the zenith of Internet application development, and will hopefully lead to some well needed egg in the face of Microsoft.
But is the pendulum about to swing back? I refer to the 'death' of IE6 and IE5/Mac and the continued rise of alternative browsers.
This article is a far cry from the one in Issue 122 of PC Answers (August 2003), which is entitled "Netscape Bites The Dust?". It shows an illustration of a tombstone for Netscape haunted by the spectre of Bill Gates. The magazine claims "The browser wars have ended - and while the winners may be AOL and Microsoft, it's hard not to feel like one of the losers".
The article questions how much longer Netscape will be available. I find this premature though coming days after the release of Netscape 7.1! Who knows what will happen in the future?
The DOM Inspector
4th July 2003
Mozilla users are now well served by a feature in their browser called the DOM Inspector. Read my summary article to learn what this does and why it's so cool. Also discover how you can edit the browser's built-in page styles.
Hydro74
2nd July 2003
Joshua Smith's excellent showcase for vector illustration Hydro74 has been updated. Here the work is stunningly professional; the skateboard designs are superb. I just hope Guns N' Roses use Joshua to do the artwork for their next project.
Illustrator World
2nd July 2003
IllustratorWorld "is the hottest community and showcase for vector artists". There looks to be a lot of quality content here. I particularly like the illustrations by Fred Enfield.
> Disclaimer
Some links on this website lead to information provided by external services not under my control, therefore I am not responsible for the content or accuracy of them.
Coded by Chris Hester with help from Big John.
Last updated: 5 October 2016.