Dan Rubin's SuperfluousBanter

Blog

  • Monday Updates

    OK, so it’s really Tuesday, but since Monday hasn’t officially ended for me…

    The sidebar has now been updated to reflect most of the changes made by the winning entries of the Sidebar Redesign Contest. The new look has checked out in IE 6/Firebird on XP, and IE 5/Safari on OS 9/X, but let me know if you see any oddities.

    I’ve also made some changes to the images in the sidebar. All rollovers are now handled by CSS (no more JavaScript rollovers!), and I’m also using Pixy’s Fast CSS Rollovers. The book banners at the bottom of the sidebar use just one image each (images: DWWS banner, Speed banner), while the Style Switcher rollovers all use the same source image (view switcher image). This cuts down on the number of HTTP requests needed to load the page (before: 10 images; now: 3), and there is no more delay for the hover images to load. Very cool.

    In addition to these new items (some other positioning has been tweaked in this site’s primary css file, so you may have to reload/clear your cache if things look odd), I thought I’d point out (for those of you who haven’t noticed) the header graphic on every page of this site. It’s a PNG file, with no colors other than white and gray (view image). The color is visible through the transparent areas of the image, so the image has to load only once, even when a user switches styles. To allow users of IE5.5+/Windows to view this trick, a handy bit of code by YoungPup tells IE how to properly display the transparent portions of the image.

    I’ve been handling the image this way since the current site design was launched, but I’ve never thought to say anything about it. It’s cool enough that I figured it was about time.

    As always, let me know if anything doesn’t work as advertised, and I’ll get right on fixing it.

  • Sidebar Redesign: Contest Results

    The results are in for my Sidebar Redesign Contest.

    Although the response was a little under whelming, I like a lot about each of the three submissions (a bonus for each designer: there are three prizes, so everyone wins :-) and have decided to incorporate parts of each into the sidebar of this site (each winner will get a mention in the source of the sidebar, and the Grand Prize winner will get a link in the sidebar).

    Without further ado, I proudly present:

    • 1st Place (Grand Prize) | Brad Smith ( homepage / view entry )
      Brad’s design is clean, and (to me) feels like it adds just what I felt the sidebar was missing. More visual separation for the section headings, as well as the indentation for each list item, adds structure to the sidebar. The Recent Comments section is also nicely done.
    • 1st Runner Up | Kjell Olsen ( homepage / view entry )
      Kjell’s entry is a mostly behind-the-scenes reworking of the sidebar content, allowing control of each section via MovableType. I really, really like the way this is put together — this is top-notch in my book.
    • 2nd Runner Up | Hadley ( homepage / view entry )
      Hadley’s submission does a terrific job of reorganizing the content, combining items like the contests into one section, along with more descriptive naming for each section. This design also features more separation between section headings.

    Each winner has been notified via email of the results, along with their TypePad 20% Discount Codes. I plan to implement the changes throughout this week, and possibly into the weekend, and will post a short note when the new sidebar is live. My guess is that regular readers will appreciate the changes, especially the extra separation of the section headings (as seen in two of the entries).

    A big thanks to Brad, Kjell and Hadley for entering, and not allowing the contest to slip by unnoticed. Your entries are terrific, and will make this site even better than before!

  • View Browser Source (AppleScripts)

    Our set of AppleScripts was mentioned yesterday by Zeldman, and was coincidentally updated to version 1.3 — for those of you in the dark, Webgraph’s View Browser Source AppleScripts (created by yours truly) fill a still-glaring gap present in all OS X web browsers: the lack of an option to view web page source in an external editor of your choosing.

    Our scripts solve this problem by using the AppleScript hooks built into most OS X web browsers, as well as a few clever uses of Unix apps like cURL, to pick up the source of the site you are viewing, and insert it into a new document in your text editor of choice (actually, the text editor must be selected from the list I chose to support, but I’ve covered pretty much all the usual options, including command line editors, and I’m willing to add text editors to the list upon request).

    They are really wonderful, if I do say so myself (I use them every day), and for folks like Zeldman, these scripts provide a much-needed feature not seen since the days of OS 9…

    Download your copy today, and let me know what you think — I’m always open to suggestions.

  • Contests, Quizzes and Semantics

    If you haven’t checked out The Old Technology Giveaway, you are missing some great collections of techno-stuff. Of note so far: Grant, Emilio, Tim and Dave.

    The deadline for submissions to Sidebar Redesign is near (the 31st of this month) — if you have any suggestions at all, any ideas, or if you just desperately want those TypePad discount codes, submit something. Anything. Be creative. Heck, redesign my logo if you want; at this point, I’d rather hand over those codes to someone who will use them, than let the entire contest be a flop. Experimentation is the name of the game…

    In other news, Dan Cederholm has launched a series of quiz questions to generate discussion regarding web standards, semantics and the various methods employed by developers when writing markup. It’s worth a look, especially Sunny’s comment, which nails it right on the money (you’ll need to scroll for it though: Dan has yet to provide permalinks for each comment). I’m looking forward to the next quiz already.

    There has been quite a bit of discussion lately (Jason, Dan, Doug, Dave, Jeffery) regarding the difference between valid markup and semantic markup. I find it interesting that something I have taken for granted since I began my transition from tables-based design to XHTML/CSS should suddenly be the topic of the week. After reviewing the thoughtful opinions of the authors listed above, as well as the comments from many other developers and designers, it is clear that there are many “right ways” when it comes to the concept of semantically rich markup, which makes the discussion worthwhile.

    While this site is not a perfect example, I have been working to improve the semantic qualities of the markup for quite a while. There are still some things that are not as I would like (the primary navigation, for example), but I have used the current design (version 2) to build on what I learned from version 1. New projects are even more semantically correct (it’s always easier to start with a clean slate than to fix in place what is already broken), and I’m beginning to think this site is ready for Version 3: The Semantic One.

    As I commented on Dan’s post, I believe responsible designers will find their way to more semantic markup on their own. Granted, books like Designing With Web Standards and Speed Up Your Site (both are currently on my nightstand) should almost be required reading for any web designer, and there is no question in my mind that reading both will make any developer better at what they do, but there is so much information available to help guide developers and designers through the transition to XHTML/CSS that their markup will naturally become more and more semantically rich.

    It’s all about being comfortable: Designers have to focus on design first, which means leaving semantics (a somewhat intimidating subject to begin with) alone until they are comfortable with writing valid XHTML and CSS, and have left table-based positioning behind entirely. This is where XHTML and CSS validation is a good thing: it provides positive reinforcement to designers making the transition; for many, those “dumb” validation apps might be the only encouragement they receive (especially for in-house developers).

  • Contest: Sidebar Redux

    From the nice folks who brought you “The Old Technology Giveaway” (me) comes a new contest, with useful prizes!

    Presenting: Sidebar Redesign

    Objectives: Redesign and enhance the sidebar for this site (SuperfluousBanter), in keeping with the existing look and feel.

    Prizes: The Grand Prize winner will receive 10 TypePad 20% Lifetime Discount codes, as well as your name credited in the “About” page of this site, a link to your site in the “External” column, and a credit in this site’s source. First Runner Up and Second Runner Up will each receive 5 TypePad 20% Lifetime Discount codes.

    Requirements: If you plan to submit a working demo, it should validate as XHTML 1.0 (Transitional or Strict), and the CSS should validate and work properly in the following browsers: IE5/Mac, IE6/PC, Mozilla (and related browsers), Safari. All designs must work well in the 3 different color schemes of this site. Things I’d like are a recent comments list and a “currently enjoying” link list, but those are just ideas. Feel free to come up with ideas for its content as well (this is also an opportunity to shape a small part of the regular content of this site). Do not feel obligated to fit your design into the current sidebar dimensions: there is no restriction on size, but it should fit visually with the rest of the site design and layout.

    Submissions: Post a link to your entry in the Comments of this post, in one of the following formats: JPG, GIF, PNG, PSD, or an actual working demo of your design.

    Deadline: The TypePad 20% Lifetime Discount codes expire November 30th, 2003, so we will receive entries through 11:59pm EST on August 31th, 2003. The winners will be announced on or before September 30th, 2003. This will give the winners enough time to figure out how they will use their spoils.

    More prizes may be added before the contest is over, and I’m certainly open to donations to the prize pool.

    Questions? Email me.