Pimp My Blog
Okay. The updates have been installed and things seem to be working. Firstly, there’s a strong chance that if you’ve visited this site recently, that you’re browser has cached files used to display the site — files that have now changed. If things on the main site or in the photogallery look wrong, refresh your browser. (Usually F5 on Windows computers.)
You’ll notice some minor changes to the site. I’ve installed a few bells and whistles. Why? Because I can!
Quotes
Random Quotes now display in the sidebar. If you know of any good quotes, particularly about science or religion, I’d love to hear them. If I like them, I’ll gladly add them to the list.
Books
I now have a spiffy list of books I’m reading, plan on reading, or have just read. This spiffy list links to Amazon. If you’ve learned about a book from me or were persuaded by a review I wrote, please order the book by clicking through from my site to Amazon. I get a very small percentage, and while I could care less about the money (no this isn’t my backup plan if grad school goes south), it would be really cool to earn a free book once in a blue moon.
Pictures
The photo gallery has been updated to a newer version (no real difference in the functionality from the old). I have, however, integrated it’s look with the design of the rest of the site. About time. I’d always meant to and never gotten around to it.
Tags
Finally, I’m going to start using Technorati tags at the end of my posts. I’ve formatted them quite obscurely and inconspicuously so they shouldn’t be an eyesore. Technorati is a popular blog search service. The tags act like keywords and (supposedly) help drive traffic to a site. We’ll see.
If you notice anything that’s broken, doesn’t look right (remember to refresh your browser first), etc., please let me know. I’ve tested everything as best I can, and feel confident that it’s all working, but there’s always a chance… (And if anybody’s using a Mac, I’d especially like to know if something’s wrong, as I haven’t tested it on a Mac).
Update: I squished a minor bug that could cause some Windows Internet Explorer users to see a glitch. Refreshing your browser once again will solve the problem. Hopefully this is the last of the problems.
Update 2: After watching my wife access the site, I realized that for anybody who arrives at this page via an RSS feed, you won’t see the quotes or the book list. I’ve put these only on the homepage, as I didn’t want the length of the pages to get unwieldy.
The rollovers in the links on the right side of the page seem to be operating a little funky. They all move over one space when I mouse over them.
Thank you for calling this to my attention. It was a bug in Internet Explorer 6 for Windows. I’ve got the beta of IE 7 on my computer, which is why I didn’t catch it when testing.
You’d be surprised just how hard it is to write web pages with all the different quirks in browsers. (Though it’s much better than the nightmare of the late ’90s).
If you’ll refresh your browser once again, the problem should disappear.
As a former web developer, I feel your pain and I remember the pain of the ’90s all too well! Sorry that I didn’t point out the browser version to help you along.
I looked at my log files and matched them to your IP address and knew right away :).