After 15 Years, He Finally Cleaned The Place
Yes, a subtle layout overhaul. A light dusting. As is the way with such things, there may be one or two glitches to sort out, archived videos that need to be resized, etc. Do feel free to point them out. But overall, the blog should be more legible and responsive to a range of devices. Less squinting, I think.
Also, I now have a Twitter account. By all means follow me there. I mean, you wouldn’t want to miss anything, would you?
And because there’s always, but always, a catch…
It’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge, on whose seating your arses rest, is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are buttons in the sidebar with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are accepted. For those wishing to express their love regularly, there’s a monthly subscription option. And if one-click haste is called for, my PayPal.Me page can be found here. Additionally, any Amazon UK shopping done via this link, or for Amazon US via this link, or via the buttons top right, results in a small fee for your host at no extra cost to you.
For newcomers wishing to know more about what’s been going on here for the last decade and a half, in over 3,000 posts and 150,000 comments, the reheated series is a pretty good place to start – in particular, the end-of-year summaries, which convey the fullest flavour of what it is we do. A sort of blog concentrate. If you like what you find there… well, there’s lots more of that. If you can, do take a moment to poke through the discussion threads too. The posts are intended as starting points, not full stops, and the comments are where much of the good stuff is waiting to be found. And do please join in.
As always, thanks for the support, the comments, and the company.
Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
After 15 Years, He Finally Cleaned The Place
About bloody time. 🙂
Your tip jar has been hit.
Quoting Groucho Marx, Whatever it is, I’m against it.
Hyperlinks are not clearly visible–are merely a slightly different shade of the plaintext color. How about a return to underlines?
Not sure, but pages do seem to load slower than before.
Do we have to dress smartly now? Ping!
Your tip jar has been hit.
Ping!
Bless you, sir, and bless you, madam. May your noticing of a female neighbour’s oddly big feet not itself be noticed by the owner of the feet in question.
Hyperlinks are not clearly visible–are merely a slightly different shade of the plaintext color. How about a return to underlines?
[ Starts writing list. ]
Do we have to dress smartly now?
I’d settle for some of you just dressing at all. Mentioning no names, of course.
Do we have to dress smartly now?
Isn’t eveyone else wearing their blogging thongs?
[ Starts putting newspaper on the upholstery. ]
*kerching!*
I’d settle for some of you just dressing at all.
[ Hastily verifies that webcam is disabled. ]
*kerching!*
Bless you, madam. May your enemies learn, with horror, just how much fluff finds its way under the bed.
I have said in earlier threads that I like England enough to want a second small home there. But not until all these government goons have been deported to North Korea.
What fresh hell is this ?
Now I need an electron microscope, it is not even 2/3 the width of a real monitor. This appears to be a aimed at people who play on phones all day or using a 13in VGA CRT monitor. The text is at best 6pt, and maybe 4 in the “Categories” list.
What a cool thought – I had no idea they were so cheap…
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/362768654848
Alternatively, I could just use the [CTRL +] keyboard combo and find myself in lovely 125% zoom land.
About the big floating left-arrow and right-arrow: I definitely liked the old style much better; they worked perfectly and they told you the names of the links.
Text looks about the same size as it’s always been to me. I’m running Firefox on Windows.
The text size looks somewhat smaller in my browser (Firefox on Windows) but I can enlarge it satisfactorily with the Zoom + control.
I definitely liked the old style much better…
What he said, it worked.
Text looks about the same size as it’s always been to me.
Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, and a couple of more obscure ones on Win or Linux, all equally subatomic type, and yes, I can hit CTRL + or put on my 4X Optivisor, but this is the only site requiring either now. The only place there is a marginal improvement is on a phone.
OTOH, at least it is not that Disqus pile of horsecrap.
Sad news: Nichelle Nichols has died. I did not realize she had Alzheimers. Sigh.
And now only Shatner, Koenig, and Takei are left.
What he said, it worked.
Yes. I’d like to make some sort of smartass comment, but cannot think of anything that might make David laugh.
[ Slips on spilled beer, falls on ass. Listens for cruel laughter from behind the bar. ]
I’d like to make some sort of smartass comment…
Well, to add to you comment about page loading, yes, my unborn grandchildren will be able to read this comment by the time the page reloads…
I had no idea they were so cheap…
Well it was used. The depreciation on those things will kill you. You lose half the value the minute you drive it off the lot.
I love the new look! One of the navigation tools I found useful is gone though. At the top of the page there were hyperlinks to the main page, the previous post page and the next post page if you’ve been looking at earlier posts and they’re gone now.
No biggie, but I found it useful when comment threads exceeded 100 (which they seem to be doing with increasing frequency).
Laptop running Windows 10, Firefox browser
One of the navigation tools I found useful is gone though. At the top of the page there were hyperlinks to the main page, the previous post page and the next post page if you’ve been looking at earlier posts and they’re gone now.
Very useful. I want them back.
View discretion is advised.
I want them back.
A metaphor.
What a cool thought – I had no idea they were so cheap…
I’m rather intruiged by the prospect of it being delivered by post.
I’m rather intruiged by the prospect of it being delivered by post.
Don’t forget to request “fragile, handle with care” stickers to guarantee that it gets dropped multiple times.
Change? I’m ag’n it! Seriously, ping! I’m waiting to see if my employer will hold my job while I’m in Ukraine with the International Legion. Last hurdle but they’re taking longer to make a decision then the Ukrainian military.
Since David’s is my landing page for when I want to peruse blogs and such, I did rather like the blogroll links on one side, the in-blog tags on the other. But I can scroll down and find the blogroll, so no biggie. I did use the links to Main at the top, for the same reason as Steve – gets you back to the main page after you’ve perused 2 pages of comments.
The comment compose text seems larger – all the better to not miss unclosed html tags so that helps. Seems to be a different font to the main blog content font, too. The blogroll font is as tiny as it has always been, but now seems grey instead of black.
But, again, I don’t like change – never have, prolly never will. But I can get used to this layout. I enjoy the blog, however it looks.
I was going to praise the font, but it turns out from the CSS that it’s supposed to be Helvetica or Arial, and being a Linux geek, I don’t have those so my browser’s falling back to the default: IBM Plex Sans. It’s rather pleasant.
“This appears to be a aimed at people … using a 13in VGA CRT monitor.”
14″, actually. Dell Trinitron. I also have a 19″ one, but no space for it. (Because yeah, most of the time I use a couple of more modern LCDs. But CRTs will be the next vinyl, mark my words.)
Since I’m on nerdy stuff, this is a somewhat disturbing development.
CRTs will be the next vinyl, mark my words.
I want “one strike and you’re out” to be the new vinyl.
Just looking at her, you would never guess what she believes.
We’ve had a wonderful intersectional moment this week in Australia after 7 Christian rugby players decided they’d rather sit out a match than wear an LGBT pride jersey with some (honestly quite understated) rainbow stripes. Media coverage of their decision has obviously been overwhelmingly negative, but tempered by the fact that they’re all of Pacific Island heritage (as is almost half of the league, yet the 3 players they found to model the jersey happened to be white). For some reason, there was much less outrage when a female Muslim Australian rules football player did the same thing.
Tim Blair and Nick Cater chat about it on their podcast this week.
Great blog. Tip jar hit.
“He finally cleaned the place”
My goodness! Is that a parquet floor? Or just the same dreadful old carpet? In any event, ping!
I think a “Ctrl – +” is in order with the new look.
Morning, all.
[ Rubs eyes, slurps coffee. ]
Seriously, ping!
Tip jar hit
In any event, ping!
Bless you, sirs. When shopping, may they always have your size.
Have you remembered your pronoun bracelets?
Some, of course, prefer pronoun earrings.
Because the rest of us have nothing better to do than to scrutinise other people’s accessories.
And in church-going news.
Apparently, there was a pressing need for a “special communion worship service with guest presenters in drag.”
equally subatomic type
Heh. How about now? I knocked it up a notch.
Thanks for reporting back on the cray-cray.
*hits tip jar*
*hits tip jar*
Bless you, sir. May your new boots combine style with good traction.
On a boring technical note, the new theme has a nasty case of FOIT (flash of invisible text):
– at a glance, all text remains hidden until everything has finished loading. Happy to help you debug if the cause isn’t obvious.
Portland property market.
https://thepostmillennial.com/portlanders-desperately-try-to-sell-off-homes-taken-over-by-squatters
Also ping!
Portland property market.
Nothing tempts a buyer quite like the words “squatters in the barn.” Or casual references to rooms full of trash and extensive fire damage.
Also ping!
Bless you, madam. May you always have handy index cards on which to scribble notes, shopping lists, etc.
And in anthropological news, a development on TikTok. Perhaps the ladies think it’s empowering.
I managed to mangle my comment – I meant to say the new theme has a nasty case of FOIT (flash of invisible text):
The stylesheet currently hides all text until the
wf-activeorwf-inactiveclasses are applied – in other words, not until the web fonts have finished loading or are inactive. The easiest solution is to remove thevisibility: hiddenstyles and accept the flash of unstyled text.Perhaps the ladies think it’s empowering.
Not the word I was thinking of.
Not the word I was thinking of.
I was particularly charmed by the words dealer and rehab.
It’s a lot easier to read on my phone.
*throws British quids in tip jar*
*throws British quids in tip jar*
Bless you, sir. May your phone upgrades coincide with noticeable and pleasing improvements.
New layout is an improvement,. on both Android phone and Firefox on PC.
PING!
Pointed husband at your Amazon link and gave him a list. Hope it helps.
PING!
Pointed husband at your Amazon link and gave him a list.
Bless you, sir, and bless you, madam. May the neighbours’ dog not take a dump on your lawn, then wander off in a carefree manner.
We’ve had a wonderful intersectional moment this week in Australia after 7 Christian rugby players decided they’d rather sit out a match than wear an LGBT pride jersey
“coach Des Hasler had told the players he understood the difficult position the players have been put in as a result of the club not consulting them about the jersey, and will support their decision not to play.”
I miss the days when the purpose of a uniform was simply to identify which team the player belonged to, and not to propagandize for the political cause du jour. Note the arrogance and moral blindness of executives dragooning employees into causes which have nothing to do with their jobs.
David, the blog ‘s text is larger (and therefore easier to read) on my iPhone.
However, I did notice one oddity: The text shrinks noticeably when go from the main page to this post. The main page’s text size is better.
html links – please, please, begging you, please make them obvious.
Then I’ll talk to my bank manager ( to add a pecuniary incentive).
Also, I now have a Twitter account.
Is that account bringing in lots of new readers? I’ve noticed a lot of new names popping up in the latest comment threads.
The text shrinks noticeably when go from the main page to this post.
It’s exactly the same. Georgia, 10.5 pt. I was fiddling an hour or so ago, so try refreshing the page.
I knocked it up a notch.
A nice improvement, but another notch or two wouldn’t hurt. Right now I am down to using the range finder from an Iowa class battleship to read it which is a marked improvement over the direct feed from the Mauna Loa observatory.
Also, as PST has mentioned, a link to get back to the main page would be nice…
And in church-going news.
They were probably right, given Elmira used to be normal.
html links – please, please, begging you, please make them obvious.
The links in the main text are quite clear, at least for me. It’s just links in the comments that need tweaking.
Is that account bringing in lots of new readers?
I’ve only just set the thing up, so I doubt it. Early days and all that.
A nice improvement, but another notch or two wouldn’t hurt.
The resolution and display settings of whatever you’re viewing this on are also factors. If you’re reading this via a very high-resolution monitor or a 4K TV, the results may differ somewhat from a mid-budget laptop, or a tablet, or a phone. Not sure it’s possible to keep everyone happy. Meanwhile, I’d suggest using the zoom settings of your browser, which can be customised to suit. (In Chrome, click the three vertical dots, top right, then scroll down about halfway.)
It’s exactly the same. Georgia, 10.5 pt. I was fiddling an hour or so ago, so try refreshing the page.
Nope. Refreshed several times. Still see the difference.
Georgia, 10.5 pt
Making everyone happy will be an Augean task, but for reference, one point in real (like on paper) type is roughly 1/72 of an inch and type size is measured from the top of the ascenders to the bottom of the descenders (e.g. top of an “f” to the bottom of the “g” ).
Different things will, of course, display differently on different things but in general, 12pt is the most readable for most typefaces for most people depending on other factors like x height, which is the height of the lower case letters from the baseline. Georgia has an average x height, but to display properly I have to bump up to at least 110% which again suggests 12 point may be a happy medium.*
*(not to be confused with Miss Cleo)
On a Windows machine in Chrome, once I click a link it becomes identical in appearance to the text, so it is no longer obvious if you go back to an entry.
Making everyone happy will be an Augean task,
Knocked it up another notch. Now 11.5. How’s that?
[ Waits for someone else to complain about how the text is now too big. ]
Is that account bringing in lots of new readers?
If any readers have Twitter accounts of their own, retweeting my first tweet, this one, about the blog, may be helpful in attracting passers-by.
Something stirs.
Via Julia.
How’s that?
Declare victory over the comments (is very nice on phone & tablet), the Categories & Blogroll column could stand a touch of embiggening still.
Something stirs.
This is why you need a 30 round magazine, rabid little bastards.
This is why you need a 30 round magazine,
I have to say, it wasn’t what I was expecting.
the Categories & Blogroll column could stand a touch of embiggening still.
Embiggened, ever so slightly.
Embiggened, ever so slightly.
Slight, but the increased leading makes it much more readable.
It’s exactly the same. Georgia, 10.5 pt. I was fiddling an hour or so ago, so try refreshing the page.
[ Returns from Healthy Exercise. Refreshes page. ]
Text sizes are now the same!
Right, I have a meal to prepare.
Oh, before I forget. Thanks to all who’ve chipped in so far, or subscribed, or done shopping via the Amazon links, including all those much too shy to say hello. It’s much appreciated and is what keeps this place here.
Housewarming ping.
May your coffers overflow like the attendees in the congregation if maybe not quite so much as the over-matched clothing on the guest speaker.
On that subject I wonder how many will actually show up next week for something as mundane as a church service and what future unholy abominations will be inflicted on this particular House of God to keep the bums on the seats.
I’m hesitant to ask how many mummified bar snacks were found . . . let alone how many are being recycled.
*ping*
Oooo, cheeky little forward and back arrow. Nicely played.
Housewarming ping.
*ping*
Bless you, sirs. May your enemy’s colander retain a remarkable amount of water, despite much shaking.
May your noticing of a female neighbour’s oddly big feet not itself be noticed by the owner of the feet in question.
LOL. Ping!
LOL. Ping!
True story. In my defence, they were eye-catchingly big. And bless you, sir. May the power cord of your steam iron not turn itself – despite your best efforts and with uncanny speed – into a tangled, unwieldy nightmare.
Pong.
Pong.
Bless you, sir. May the sound of seagulls remain evocative of childhood holidays.
Oooo, refreshed digs … and it looks like the windows have been cleaned.
It feels downright uptown in here!
ping
This is terrifying. We’ve only recently started using robots ourselves.
And in church-going news.
The modern churchman philosophizes away the notions of territory marking and desecration – who’s to say what belongs to you and what belongs to me and what belongs to God? And yet what’s going on there is territory marking and desecration, intentional and concerted.
It feels downright uptown in here!
[ Peers over spectacles at clientele. ]
Not for long, I’m guessing.
ping
Bless you, madam. May you be spared the attention of wasps.
My 2 cents…The font size thing seems irrelevant to me as I can control that. What I now see, using my PC (which I rarely do because…lazy) vs my iPad is that the browser on the PC (Chrome now but probably whatever) puts the “recent comments” links in the column on the right, but Chrome on the iPad (which is likely categorized as “mobile” or similar in style sheets) puts it way down at the bottom. Which to me is fine for a phone but a tablet is more of a PC than a phone in my perspective. Though based on other conversations I have had in the techy world, I suspect my perspective is in the minority. Of course it’s a real estate issue and I’ve fought these battles in the past myself. When text areas get tight, no one is ever happy. Especially when you want to increase font size or use a different font, eventually something has to give.
Whatever you decide is FBM. Just thought I’d mention it in case someone else to timid to speak up needs…inspiration. As always, the content here is of such quality that we could be doing this through a listserver and I’d still be happy. Unfortunately, I blew through budget this month, big time, and needed to help out our lawn maintenance guy who had about a thousand dollars of equipment stolen recently so even the charity bucket is low. I’ll have to catch you up on the next fund raiser.
I have to admit that I’m even less enamoured of the new look than I was with the Humungo-Text of about a fortnight ago, although (ironically) the text size in this case I think is fine. I preferred having the column with your tags and content links on the left-hand side, and the other blogs on the right with your meaty blogpost(s) sandwiched between. Seemed more visually elegant, somehow, than just shoving all the non-post links down one side almost like an afterthought. And given we read from left to right, more logical too – this first column pertains to this blog’s post tags etc., the middle column to the blog posts themselves, and the final column to interesting content elsewhere – at least it seems more logical to me. But that’s just my opinion. Oh, and before I forget, you have ping-age.
Male chokes woman at cheerleading camp … “It was just a joke.”
Whiny Bitch Comics from a woman who claims to have an insufferable life slaving as a mom – except for the husband doing all the work.
Oh, and before I forget, you have ping-age.
Bless you, sir. May you remember to take the raspberries out of the fridge an hour or two before you plan to eat them.
Comic mom: probably on the pill, which distorts female hormones. Working and having kids is very difficult. Blaming your partner is not helpful. These women who act like no one in history ever had to do any work…no words.
May you remember to take the raspberries out of the fridge an hour or two before you plan to eat them.
Thank you. That said, I rarely buy them nowadays. They seem to be losing their tartness, which I find slightly irritating as I like mine to have a bit of bite. And, since it’s an open thread, here’s what one might call a thoroughly disapproving vase:
https://twitter.com/NouveauDeco/status/1554011973079236608
thoroughly disapproving vase
Not even close to a band name, but I laughed out loud at it.
I want to know what is going on with all these hammer attacks?
Clearly we need common sense hammer control.
I’ll have to catch you up on the next fund raiser
Barkeep, I’ve got the gentleman’s ping tab.
Barkeep, I’ve got the gentleman’s ping tab.
Again, bless you, sir. May the bottled water stashed in your car-door pocket not taste vaguely unpleasant, possibly on account of having been there, unsealed, for several months.