Microsoft recently redesigned their website (at least their homepage). As you may know, they aren’t a big backer of standards.
Look how well their page validates.
This concludes this episode of Microsoft-doesn’t-care-about-technology.
Validating as XHTML is even more fun.
Apple isn’t perfect, but isn’t to bad either.
This website is fine though 🙂
Go standards!
Just a real quick shoutout to standards. MacVillage.net’s News System… currently in development, will support valid RSS feeds. That’s right. Valid. I implemented the feature last night. It’s working with relative success (still not complete, but valid).
Still to be done is indexing, searching, mailing, and several dozen bugs. Not to mention the mentioned features to be done are going to be buggy at first.
Standards are a wonderful thing no?
Any suggestions on other feed formats other than RSS? Would something else be recommended in addition? I’ll most likely implement a JavaScript feed (just insert a javascript line to output headlines to a page). Other formats? Let me know, I’m open to making it a very standards compliant system. When I’m done it should be 100% valid CSS, HTML, RSS, anything else.
I’m a fan of standards (as you can tell). I think they make the net what it is. And will make the net what it’s capable of. Standards are what make the Internet special. Millions of computers, many different types. All connecting to the same data source. All interpreting the same data. Pretty cool no? Wasn’t to long ago 2 computers made by different companies couldn’t do anything together.
Tomorrow I’m hoping to get a lot done on MacVillage.net to get it ready. Still no launch date. But hopefully I will have one soon. It’s going slow. I’m getting frustrated, but will bring it back.
The new News System for MacVillage.net 4.0 (Daemon of the Abiss) is coming along smoothly, but slowly.
Indexing, searching WAP interface, and RSS Syndication are still to be tackled. They are the more complex, and tedious tasks.
What’s nice is that’s it’s pretty portable and easy to upgrade. Once I get all the necessary stuff plugged in for it to be ready for use, I will beta test for a while (perhaps solicit others to take a look), and put it in production for 3.0, to get the last bugs out.
I can easily revamp the entire system, and put a new version out, with minimal downtime, unless the DB needs serious work (which I doubt).
Once the new system is in place, I can begin the final process of moving over the old site into the new framework and complete the transition.
Then we can start rolling.
So it’s still a while off, but it’s coming along. Each day is a step forward (thankfully). It’s not a moonwalk, but actual forward progress.
I updated this blog to take more advantage of CSS. Thankfully it did lower the page size a bit, and as there are more posts, it will be even more evident.
Only implemented on the homepage right now.
If anyone has suggestions on compatibility with all browsers (in particular improving the display on NN4), shoot me a line, or leave a comment. Would like to make the site look better in Netscape 4, and older browsers. But don’t want to sacrifice page load.
Also, see something else that can be cut out (without adverse effects to design, or compatibility) let me know.
Ok, I’ve gottin quite a few emails, and a few comments on this. I’m going to turn the site a bit more CSS savvy, hence degrading the “experience” a bit more in older browsers. Mainly Netscape 4. Why? Because the page size is to big. I won’t do away with tables 100%. But will greatly reduce my dependency, and the amount of table related HTML being used. The page size on the homepage is just way to big. I think most would agree.
Some stats for the curious…
I’m strongly thinking about porting this blog back into XHTML (same design, new code). Granted I loose you “older browser” fellows.
So my questions are as follows:
1. To go Xhtml or not?
2. If stay with HTML 4.01… how to make the page smaller, keep it valid, and retain all contents and formatting.
3. Just post less on the home page, so the page size is smaller?
4. Leave as is?
Please comment by the comments link below or email if you prefer.
Macromedia Flash 7 Beta Available… wonder what’s new? Will have to give it a closer look in the morning.
Trying to get Zend Optimizer running successfully. So far no success. Will try again tomorrow with a clean installation of PHP. Perhaps that was the problem.
Can’t find reports of it working, or not working, so I will assume the best.
This little effect seems pretty cool. I think I’m going to have to try implementing it on the new design soon.
So far all is well with the new design. Tested in the following browsers:
All browsers render the site properly. Amazing what some valid HTML does.
Over the next few days I will try and consolidate some code a bit, as well as implement the design on the remaining pages.