GlennFrazier.com

Ancient Browsers - Who needs em?

Well, I've got someone who's having trouble seeing the new version of my site, but they're using AOL 4.0 for Macintosh, of all things. I'd be somewhat inclined to just let it pass, except that this person is my mother!

Okay, I'll help her upgrade when I get the chance, but it got me thinking about how many average people don't ever upgrade their browsers until absolutely forced to.

It also bugs me that I can't track down what the incompatibility issue exactly is. My latest guess (to be tested when she next checks email) is that she's choking on my <?xml namespace.../> or my DOCTYPE declarations. The browser keeps trying to download the site as a file. At first I thought it was choking on receiving PHP files, then I thought it might be the linked in stylesheet; I mean, who knows what AOL 4.0 isn't capable of handling? I certainly don't, off-hand.

Anyway, I sent her to various sub-pages and dummy pages on my various websites, and php extensions and linked css pages offer no problem. For a bit, I suspected that it was a JScript issue, except that (a) that makes no sense, and (b) I haven't changed any of the client scripts since the last version of the site, which she could see fine. Did one of my advertisers do something goofy with one of their scripts?

Nah, that still wouldn't make sense. I think it's got to be something to do with the site being in xhtml. Of course, I've never had problems before with XML-stupid browsers reading XHTML, but who knows.

It's also hard to troubleshoot this sort of thing over the phone, of course. If I get a chance, I'd like to actually sit at her machine and try things from there.
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Posted by Mac at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here We Go

Okay, the lessons learned in all my PHP hacking are about to go into an actual launch.

The full-scale portal isn't going up, mind you.

My main blog is getting more and more traffic, and is also getting more and more cumbersome to maintain and, to a degree, to load. There's way too much javascript going on, there. Too much is being handled from the Blogger template. The archives menu keeps breaking (both a javascript and a Blogger problem). Many things (the archive menu, the essays menu, the book promotions, etc.) are getting a bit big.

So I've now got the URL glennfrazier.com set up and ready to receive. This is what I'm going to do:

First, I'm going to build some PHP rotation scripts for banners, buttons, textads, news headlines, and book promotions. These will be very simple. Basically, there will be a directory ("topbanners") for instance, with a bunch of html snippets in it. The script will randomly choose one and shlorp it into the main page. Weighting of the snippets will, for now, be handled merely by duplicating scripts so there are more copies of the ones I want to show up more often. For what I want, this actually makes more sense than a MySQL solution, although in time I'll want to cut over to that. There will be a subdirectory in each dir for holding "non-circulating" snippets for future use.

Then, I'm going to build a PHP page that contains all the nav elements and the rotator scripts and shlorps up the blog postings from html files. This will mean my blogger template will become extremely slimmer, just pushing out the html of the posts and archive posts, and little more. Probably Blogger will publish html snippets to a "posts" directory, from which the main PHP pages will shlorp.

The archive menu I'm not entirely certain about and have to think a little more on. Basically, I want the menu to be mostly static, and get updated only as needed. One thought was to just phpinclude an html snippet that is the menu, and have a seperate phpscript that generates the menu; this generator script will only be called explicitly by me when I see the need to do so (like when a new week of posting begins).

The main PHP page will involve some changes to the layout, include a top nav system, throw some other static bits, and generally make using the site a little easier while at the same time increasing the behavior I want from users (hopefully).

Having done all this, I'll then test the mother out of it. (Each step also includes unit testing, but the next step is a doozy, in a sense, and shouldn't be leapt into until everything preceding it is working just right.)

Then, I'll cut my main blog預s far as Blogger is concerned熔ver to glennfrazier.com. Test the snot out of it again.

If all is good, I then do some fancy-dancy .htaccess RewriteEngine magic over at mac.thefraziers.org so old links to my site and to specific old blog posts will be gracefully handed over to the appropriate places under the new URL.

If all goes well, I'll then begin phasing in additional items.

For instance, launch one of glennfrazier.com will add menu items for Home & Contact and move some of the other junk around. Launch two will add in menu items for FAQ, Links, Archives, Tips, Swag, and "Copyright & Disclaimer". In third and later launches I'll bring in nav links for items that will take some effort to build in themselves, such as RSS, Deadpool, Forum, and Subscribe. Also in these 3G+ launches (or maybe sooner) I'll be replacing the pollhost.com poll (it throws occasional popunders, which I despise) with a php doohickey, as an interim step toward creating my International Deadpool (a fun concept that I'm excited about but not quite ready to code). During the 3G+ launches I'll also be making major mods to the Swag section. In the 2G launch, this will just be a page of Amazon Assoc. items傭asically a bookstore to make up for the fact that I'll only have one book on the main page at a time, now. Later on I'll be incorporating a book store, a news stand, a swag shop (fun CafePress.com tchochkies (sp?) and possibly some ebay-related stuff.

There are other plans, but rather than write them down, I'll just get going on what I know for certain needs to be done.
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Posted by Mac at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tempted...

I really need the sleep, but astro-forecasts say if I stay up to 2am, the skies will stay clear of clouds and seeing/scintillation will improve from "poor" to "average", although transparence will drop to "average" from its current level of "above average".

No, I'm going to sleep. Hopefully I'll get time to scope out the Jupiter-Venus event. I naked-eyed both of them as they slipped down behind some trees this evening, but I'd really like to put a scope on Venus (which would be a first for me). And no, I did not catch the five planet super-show last month!

Ah, well.
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Posted by Mac at 12:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Finally!

Despite the fact my binocs are dirty, depite the fact my Dob needs collimating, despite the fact that both neighbors' porch lights were going on and off...I finally got some good time under the stars, tonight!

It was a short stint. Took awhile to get oriented, as it's been something like four months since I've sat at a scope. Darn babies. Darn weather. Darn need to sleep.

Anyway, I started off with M13. It was my first time, and it kinda surprised me when I just aimed in the general spot, glanced through the big 32mm and傭ang! there it was, all big and globby. Seeing wasn't great, but at higher powers I could make out some graininess. Showed the wife; it was her first time, too.

I then decided to look up the Ring Nebula, and found that pretty quickly too. Seeing was terrible, as it was a straight shot right above my house's roof and under high power there was a lot of waver. Tried it with and without the broadband filter for the heck of it; better without this time. Again, grabbed the wife to show her; I'd seen it before, once, but it was her first time. She had a hard time keeping it focused and centered at high power, and ants kept going at her bare feet (she was standing in the flower garden悠 was huddled in an awkward spot trying to avoid the neighor lights), so she went inside to bed shortly afterwards.

I spent some more time admiring the Ring, then just lay back in a lawn chair and naked-eyed it for awhile. It's a grand universe.

Time 22:30-23:40 EDT
Clouds: clear
Transparency: above average
Seeing: poor
Darkness: complete
Pollution: typical Philly skyglow, plus lots from neighbors until last half hour
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Posted by Mac at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)