Update Archives – 9/8/01-10/31/01
Presenting a complete list of all site updates for the dates of 09/08/01 to 10/31/01. Please click here to return to news and update archives home page.
9/8/01: Fixed a problem causing some images to display transparently in the frameset.css version of the page when viewed in Netscape 6.1/Mozilla 0.9.3.
Fixed a problem that caused centered tables to display incorrectly when used in the page title. My solution was to remove the table and use only text. It is better this way so nothing is lost.
Removed underlines from all links. The current colors do not require them. I am going to check the page with a colorblind friend to make sure there are no issues.
Improved support for Netscape 4.7 in a few areas that had room for improvement.
Site is almost ready for a true focus on content.
10/7/01: Started construction of new appearance. Design 80% complete.
No longer updating frames and frames CSS versions.
10/9/01: Today’s updates are apparent.
I have initiated the new look to the main page. This is mainly for testing reasons so I can view it on the remote end from different operating systems. This will also gives me a live example to show to other people and get opinions.
The new design in now finished, I am just making some final touches to the appearance, layout, and the CSS.
10/11/01: Aesthetic changes. Menus at top and bottom reconstructed to not only be a little more readable, but also a little more stylish. I am quite happy with the changes.
The background colors throughout the scheme have had their contrasts reduced. This makes it easier to read the test. The color of these backgrounds (on the menu to the right and to the top and bottom) has also been made lighter. This will also make it easier to read the content.
Removed the page title on the menu to the right completely. It was wasted space.
Redesigned the search button.
Resolved some spacing issues and added a border to the main page. To see what it should look like please go here, you can use this to give me some much appreciated feedback. [issue resolved, example taken offline].
Thank you Justin very much for your feedback.
10/12/01: New design complete. I can hardly believe it, but there are no bugs that I am aware of! This is the first time in the history of this page that there wasn’t some odd little thing that I was hoping to fix. I even managed to resolve that spacing issue in NS 4.7 with CSS of all things, the bane of NS 4.7.
The new look has been added to all pages in the home/ section of the web page. This includes this page, the archive pages, and the brand new Java Script and CSS demo pages.
Added the new rot3kjs.html and rot3kcss.html pages [both links replaced with the Site Elements page]. The purpose of these pages is to display this web sites CSS and JavaScript files in readable HTML format. This is mostly so I can view them from a remote location without hassle, but I made them available to anyone that wants to see them just in case someone wants to see how I did something.
Next I am moving on to the other sections. And, as always, please offer any feedback possible… no matter how small. I am early in the design phase and it is still easy for me to implement changes. Every single little idea is valuable to me.
10/13/01: The new look has been applied to the Information and Links sections. Both of these sections have also been improved in the sense of CSS/HTML compliance/compatibility, layout, and a more consistent color layout.. Soon the Information section will also actually see some real content (and a less annoying layout). I have also started the update in the resume [offline] section.
General improvements to the new CSS file and the layouts involving it have also been made—the menu on the right side of the page, for example.
Registered with TheCounter.com to get the site stats that I am too lazy to get any other way. Good rid of that ugly image that was in use for the counter.
10/14/01: Completed first half of new Information section along with first development pricing.
10/15/01: Completed initial design update and code cleanup on the Graphics, Resume [offline], Tutorials, and Web Pages sections.
Changed default font from Technical to Arial. Even though Technical looked great on Apple Computers it did not look so nice in Windows PCs. Windows does not anti-alias smaller fonts like Mac OS does, resulting in unclean edges and difficult to read wording. Arias uses mostly vertical and horizontal lines for the font, so it displays decently in Windows. It also compliments the new design, so the choice was not that hard to make.
Set margins around the page to 5px with CSS at some viewers request. I must say I like the change.
Added a link to WhatIs?com. I was at work and needed specifics as to what a CSU/DSU was, so a coworker recommended this site. I went there, looked it up, and there it was. Complete with a detailed explanation. This great resource is now in the links page and I am happy to have located it.
10/16/01: Completed the updates in the Resume [offline], Information, Graphics, Tutorials, and Downloads sections. This actually also completes the update to this new look. I will have some people go through the pages to make sure everything looks great and after that it is finished. I am also going to have to update the search Perl script, but that shouldn’t take more than a half an hour. After that I am going to make some free navigation buttons and some tutorials.
Updated the browser information in the Browser Downloads page and I also updated the browser downloads menu that appears at the bottom of various pages.
Added a link to the JavaScript Section. “This is a wonderful site that I came across on Zeldman.com. It includes some JavaScript snippets for you to use along with great information on DHTML, proper usage of JavaScript itself, and how the language can be used properly with forms, framesets, windows, and other bits in the HTML world. If you like JavaScript at all you will probably enjoy this site.”
10/17/01: Updated and completed the Perl script used for the search engine.
Minor fixes and additions. Among them being the fact that you can use the down image on the menu bars as a like. This didn’t used to be the case, which, needless to say, in some places made navigation, particularly page reloading, a little more annoying than it needed to be.
10/18/01: Completed the feedback tables in the Information section.
New splash page. Much simpler than before, but more efficient, I believe.
Moved the counter to the splash screen to improve information gathering and eliminate a rare problem that was caused by server delays at TheCounter.com.
General fixes and final cleanup site wide.
10/19/01: Made the Apple in the right menu much cooler.
Fixed some dead links that developed as a result of all the work this month.
Started a new tutorial, “Frames for Beginners and Advanced Users”.
10/20/01: Started work on the Color Tool. It is a tool that you can use to get the Hex, RGB, CMYK, or Index values for any of the web safe colors.
Some fixes on the right menu for Netscape 6. It used the
class="cenonly" on multiple elements when all it needed
was the same CSS in the <td>
tag. Also made the top set of the menu normal text instead of a <p>.
Netscape was adding a hard return at the top that I did not want there.
Cleaned up and made minor changes to the stylesheet.
Reverted to the default search button.
Code cleanup throughout the site.
10/21/01: Improved accessibility for those who are color blind, blind altogether, or who use text browsers.
Site and CSS cleanup continued. Almost all of the old stuff left behind from the old version is now removed.
10/22/01: Rethought and redesigned the JavaScript [redirect] file for this site to be only half as large. This means that pages in the site will load faster, there will be less issues with the onMouseOvers in stubborn and older browsers, and loading the initial page will take only a fraction of the tile that it normally takes. Dialup users should notice a significant increase in efficiency. Thanks to Library Items in Dreamweaver this took only 2 or so hours (instead of something like 10). Because the script was removed I had to update the search engine too, that is where another hour and a half went in and of itself.
Made some HTML and CSS tweaks to make my site more informative to portal spiders. This should also make sure that I actually list on searches in major sites that include me.
Finished the layout of the Frames Tutorial. It looked beautiful until I opened it in Netscape 4.7.x (followed by an hour of troubleshooting). Nothing quite reminds me how much I hate that browser until I see, once again, that it likes to render good CSS improperly. If they are going to make it render CSS, why not correctly? Is that too much to ask? Summary: Netscape 4.7 and iCab suck for not being able to do anything interesting with CSS.
10/23/01: Touched up on the frames tutorial and started work on the advanced frames tutorial.
Found and changed some titles that had not been updated to reflect recent changes in the site.
Touched up the CSS and site colors for better display in Windows.
Worked some more on the color tool, something I will be doing for a while.
Fixed http://kongming.net/doae/’s search engine, added meta to prevent indexing by search engines to pages that were supposed to appear other search engines like Google, and aold some frameset issues in the site.
10/24/01: Finished both the beginner’s frameset and the advanced frameset tutorials. Much of the content is still in draft form, so wording stands to be improved, but the actual tutorials are now complete.
10/25/01: Added a new tutorial (An Introduction to C++) by my good friend Justin LeCheminant. Prepared HTML and CSS for this document so it could retain its format online and remain easy to read.
Changed the menu apple’s onMouseOver image. Yes, I care about that.
10/30/01: There was a delay while I upgraded my network. I installed a new router and a gigabit switch. I was also upgrading one PC and building another. Between that and work I have been busy.
Added a new tutorial (C++ Tutorial: Functions, Data Types, and More!) by my friend Justin LeCheminant.
10/31/01: Started working on the navigation bar graphics downloads page.
Completed a new tutorial: Graphical JavaScript navigation Bars for your web site.
Updated the browser downloads section to reflect the update of Netscape to 6.2, the update of Opera (Mac OS9) to 5.0b4, and added a new browser K-Meleon 0.6.
< Return to Archives Home Page >
Copyright ©2001–2002 James Peirce
Accessibility -
Privacy -
Hosting -
Validate