Trevor sent me this. It is good looking. In particular, it's jammed with tons of information and yet feels easy to deal with.
I replied with the following paragraph, and then realized I also got a blog post for free:
I love the fact that it actually is cramming 4 columns in, and doesn't feel cramped on my 1024 dot wide laptop. Now why is this? Pixel fonts, no graphical links, parallelism in the copy, and the graphic across columns. It's a lot of stuff but it's easy to read.
> http://magnetgirl.wordpress.com/
Trevor also pointed out that the alley or gutter between the columns is highlighted clearly. Now, notice that the columns are right justified. But you'd like to give an impression of a left margin. Now look how the border on the left is razor thin and on the right is relatively thick.
It's the little things...
Monday, April 19, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Stretchy CSS Style: Why so rare?
I'm not a pro web developer, so I imagine there are a lot of concerns that I just don't understand. One of them is why people don't use stretchy layouts for like, freakin' everything.
Seems to me this would be a cheap way to make a web site amenable to a lot of different devices, and a lot of different styles of human interaction.
My untutored sense is that spendy websites are static in height and width, almost always. Now this gives a very fixed layout of visual elements, and so the client sees exactly what they're buying. So it's like someone pitching a magazine ad.
This is another one of those matters where I'm throwing this question out there, and either someone will explain this to me in horsey-ducky language, or I'll find it myself and append it later...
The precipitating event was finding this Minima-stretchy template, which I'm perfectly delighted with...
Seems to me this would be a cheap way to make a web site amenable to a lot of different devices, and a lot of different styles of human interaction.
My untutored sense is that spendy websites are static in height and width, almost always. Now this gives a very fixed layout of visual elements, and so the client sees exactly what they're buying. So it's like someone pitching a magazine ad.
This is another one of those matters where I'm throwing this question out there, and either someone will explain this to me in horsey-ducky language, or I'll find it myself and append it later...
The precipitating event was finding this Minima-stretchy template, which I'm perfectly delighted with...
Pushing the Monetize Button
Either you see an advertisement at the bottom of the content area and at the bottom of the sidebar or you don't.
If you do, then I haven't gotten annoyed and disgusted and turned 'em off. If you don't, I did.
When you push the Monetize button, you go into AdSense controls. You give them a mailing addy and some other things that aren't too difficult. You don't give them tax information, i.e. your social, until they actually have $10 to send you, which makes sense. There are no doubt kerjillions of little blogs that have $0.17 revenue and holding.
It all seems pretty slick. I can even turn off ads from certain categories, such as religions, vitamin supplements, and so on. Since AdSense is what makes Google Google to a certain extent, I guess I would expect it to be pretty polished.
I'm trying to imagine being a content provider with lots and lots eyeballs to sell (Lady Gaga's Myspace?... I see that it only has the ordinary banner ad at the top.) -- and the good will of those visitors.
I'm still a long way from figuring out how to sell steak, much less sizzle. Right now I'm just learning about the nuts and bolts.
Once you have an AdSense account parameterized, you can put the ads on different things; they give you a code snippet, with color scheme preferences to work with.
I may be mistaken but it looks as though all your ads in the world have the same parameters. (Maybe I have a louche website somewhere where I do want tattoo parlors?) When I clarify this I'll share...
If you do, then I haven't gotten annoyed and disgusted and turned 'em off. If you don't, I did.
When you push the Monetize button, you go into AdSense controls. You give them a mailing addy and some other things that aren't too difficult. You don't give them tax information, i.e. your social, until they actually have $10 to send you, which makes sense. There are no doubt kerjillions of little blogs that have $0.17 revenue and holding.
It all seems pretty slick. I can even turn off ads from certain categories, such as religions, vitamin supplements, and so on. Since AdSense is what makes Google Google to a certain extent, I guess I would expect it to be pretty polished.
I'm trying to imagine being a content provider with lots and lots eyeballs to sell (Lady Gaga's Myspace?... I see that it only has the ordinary banner ad at the top.) -- and the good will of those visitors.
I'm still a long way from figuring out how to sell steak, much less sizzle. Right now I'm just learning about the nuts and bolts.
Once you have an AdSense account parameterized, you can put the ads on different things; they give you a code snippet, with color scheme preferences to work with.
I may be mistaken but it looks as though all your ads in the world have the same parameters. (Maybe I have a louche website somewhere where I do want tattoo parlors?) When I clarify this I'll share...
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Collapsed Comments. What The Heck?
I get these little things that bother me, that are just little, but they bother me. Like an ingrown hair on my neck, I keep picking at them.
Why do comments default to collapsed shut in Blogger? Why does there not appear to be a setting for making them always stay open? Why does it bug me so much?
I'll continue this post when I have something cogent to say about any of the last 3 questions...
Why do comments default to collapsed shut in Blogger? Why does there not appear to be a setting for making them always stay open? Why does it bug me so much?
I'll continue this post when I have something cogent to say about any of the last 3 questions...
Blogger Will Host Your Pictures
It wasn't obvious to me, but Blogger will host your images. When you go to add an image, it gives you two radio buttons. One is to add a url to your image at your hosting site. The other is to upload. This in turn will show up when you log into Picasa.
Nevertheless, I'm also experimenting with hosting sites. I have an account at Flickr and Shutterfly. If I learn anything interesting, I'll share.
Be warned that uploading images to a server is slow. I should know about different flavors of transfer protocols and such-like geekery but I don't; I just gather that transfer is more expensive than disk space for these providers.
====
Follow up. This weekend played with making a website that has a URL referring to a picture on flickr.
Should have been a no-brainer. 'Twarn't.
One little interface problem. Suppose you've gotten some pictures uploaded. You go to the picture. You want a url dealie you can embed in an img tag. There is NO OBVIOUS WAY TO DO THIS.
The blankety-blank button you need is labeled "All Sizes". On that page a nice lil edit box has the code snippet you need. After that, piece of cake.
Nevertheless, I'm also experimenting with hosting sites. I have an account at Flickr and Shutterfly. If I learn anything interesting, I'll share.
Be warned that uploading images to a server is slow. I should know about different flavors of transfer protocols and such-like geekery but I don't; I just gather that transfer is more expensive than disk space for these providers.
====
Follow up. This weekend played with making a website that has a URL referring to a picture on flickr.
Should have been a no-brainer. 'Twarn't.
One little interface problem. Suppose you've gotten some pictures uploaded. You go to the picture. You want a url dealie you can embed in an img tag. There is NO OBVIOUS WAY TO DO THIS.
The blankety-blank button you need is labeled "All Sizes". On that page a nice lil edit box has the code snippet you need. After that, piece of cake.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Those Little Badgie Dealies
I'm a little bewildered by the little badgie dealies on a blog.
Now that I think about it, I suppose I'm totally clear what they do; I'm bewildered about why I would push one, and "subscribe" to somebody's blog.
I mean, to what annoying place would said feed be fed?
I loathe the idea of this stuff appearing in the inbox of my email. But other people don't. "One Inbox For Everthing" is an ideal for some people. Maybe there are other ways as well...
So dithering about which to bless with my business is sort of out of my hands (which is fine by me, for now.) These include:
Anyway, for the less sophisticated blogster, the question of what to do seems to be done for you. I suppose the more sophisticated, codey blogster will get a code snippet from the aggregator.
Now that I think about it, I suppose I'm totally clear what they do; I'm bewildered about why I would push one, and "subscribe" to somebody's blog.
I mean, to what annoying place would said feed be fed?
I loathe the idea of this stuff appearing in the inbox of my email. But other people don't. "One Inbox For Everthing" is an ideal for some people. Maybe there are other ways as well...
What the blogger does to add the badge dealies
I'm using blogspot so, I added several on a little pick list by adding a widget. Presumably there is a similar procedure for the other free hosting sites.So dithering about which to bless with my business is sort of out of my hands (which is fine by me, for now.) These include:
- Google Reader-- Google itself has a feed aggregator client. Who knew? I didn't. Is this the same or different from iGoogle?
- Bloglines -- apparently more bloggy in focus?
- Netvibes
- Newsgator-- "business value through social computing"... That sounds grim.
Anyway, for the less sophisticated blogster, the question of what to do seems to be done for you. I suppose the more sophisticated, codey blogster will get a code snippet from the aggregator.
What the reader does
The reader, the person I mean, has an account with one or more of the above services, and receives the feed. Alternatively, they acquire a "RSS feed reader" that is to their taste, a client program like a specialized browser. (There was a time when people used other things for internet clients besides a browser. Yes, it's true.)
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