A silly Izzie apology
06/09/2003 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaOh.....Iz feels sssso stupid. Been thinking evil nasty thoughts about Netscape Navigator and only today the dreadful error of my ways dawned on me. Now instead I can get amused about non standard standards.
The latest Goblin project to keep Izzie busy is an assignment to design a personal website. This is worth only 20% of the unit mark. Yesterday we had the first of three spot tests worth 10 marks each. These tests are only 10 minutes long! Short answer, multiple choice - that sort of thing. Izzie asks - what is the logic - 10 marks for ten minutes. Why so many marks when the website which takes ages is only worth 20? Did not make sense to me at all although the answer did. Well - you could get some one else to do the website for you and we have no way of ever knowing. At least with a test we do know that it is your own work.
Fair enough thinks Izzie. But for me it is not so much the marks or the time. I'd always thought that making a webpage was something incredibly difficult. time consuming and terribly technical that only professional web-designers or 14 year old geeks could do. Something way beyond the capabilities of a simple serpent such as myself.
Well Iz wanted to start straight away but there was the minor problem of the student webpage server being down so there was no point in starting when I could not test stuff straight away. But I finally began three weeks ago by getting old html books from the library - (poor ickle Iz ain't going to BUY them) and typing tedious quantities of code in notepad just to see what it would do. Izzie would do whatever it takes not to give in and resort to using the recommended by the goblins software package MUGGLESOCKS fuckpage.
After 8 or 9 test pages, finally felt game to try a few frames. It was a pleasant surprise to get just the thing I wanted after only one or two attempts at tweaking.
It worked both in evilnet explorer and netscape so Iz was most delighted. But depending on the size of the window, sometimes the ministry motto and mail link would not show so ickle Iz decided to dump percentage in favor of pixels for the banner bit. So far so good.
But then Iz went testing over in netscape and suddenly where three frames used to be was now only one. Just totally disapparated. Damn what have I done. Since the original still works in ie will just go write another homepage for netscape.
Took some time to get the right layout and everything in its box but got there in the end. So far so good. Went back to IE and it worked there too. So now I have a new multipurpose homepage. At last all is well in Izzieland. One happy accomplished little serpent. I had learnt an awful lot in only one week.
Then I started tweaking with the snake links. After an unsuccessful attempt at re-doing the buttons with text using tables - decided just to make the frame just the right size so the titles would be on one line next to their buttons. After about five tweeks got it just right. So far so good. So next stop is Netscape. Suddenly where three frames used to be is now only two. Damn it thinks Iz. Bugger Netscape. So damn fussy. Just could not be bothered any more with keeping both browsers happy.
This time Iz could not be bothered trying out more html for a third home frame page.
But then Iz had the sudden idea - I know it had them in the newest of all the old books I was using, but no one else had forward slashes in their frame size designations and nor did any source codes I'd peeked at. I went and took them out and the pages then worked again perfectly in netscape. So Iz went home to check this book. Sure they were there but in small print after the example I'd used as a model it says - if you use pixel values you don't need the slashes. But Iz of course had not read the small print!
Turns out the little buggers were de facto percent substitutes. For some reason everyone else used the rather more logical % sign. But they had worked at first so Iz never noticed.
Then the green light went on inside the Izzie skull. Of course the later frames would disappear - netscape was trying to make the first one 120%! Now if only I had put in a 90/,*/ instead. Would have seen straight away what the problem could be. It also explained the sudden disapparation of the third frame when I set the second one at 280.
And there was me bitching and blaming netscape for my own stupidity! Silly Iz. But what I still don't understand - why on earth does evilnet explorer let me get away with it?
Izzie needs to know.
But at least all this frustration and farting around and getting a feel for it means that I have learnt infinitely more than I ever would by letting the evil empire do all the dirty work.
But Iz is inherently lazy. Got tired of typing ten lines of brackets and slashes just to get a sentence or so on a page. The folks in Azkaban gave me a tipoff about Netscape and Mozilla Composer. So they do the grunt work and Iz just takes a peek to do the odd tweek.
Should be finished by the end of September. I really must spend more time studying for the midsemester taxation exam in two weeks time (will be a lot easier than last years 'Care of corporate creatures' mid semester exam also the third Friday in September) and that essay about strategic games. We need to pick two examples. I think the first one will be M$ vs Linux... still thinking about the second one..preferably related though not at all necessarily...just looks better to give the impression of having a big picture birds eye STRATEGIC view of things.
Officially the websites are up for all other students to click and visit on Friday 10 October. Iz intends to post a link here some weeks before then to get some comments from the Cyberian creatures - particularly those with exotic, text only, ancient or otherwise unusual browsers.
The latest Goblin project to keep Izzie busy is an assignment to design a personal website. This is worth only 20% of the unit mark. Yesterday we had the first of three spot tests worth 10 marks each. These tests are only 10 minutes long! Short answer, multiple choice - that sort of thing. Izzie asks - what is the logic - 10 marks for ten minutes. Why so many marks when the website which takes ages is only worth 20? Did not make sense to me at all although the answer did. Well - you could get some one else to do the website for you and we have no way of ever knowing. At least with a test we do know that it is your own work.
Fair enough thinks Izzie. But for me it is not so much the marks or the time. I'd always thought that making a webpage was something incredibly difficult. time consuming and terribly technical that only professional web-designers or 14 year old geeks could do. Something way beyond the capabilities of a simple serpent such as myself.
Well Iz wanted to start straight away but there was the minor problem of the student webpage server being down so there was no point in starting when I could not test stuff straight away. But I finally began three weeks ago by getting old html books from the library - (poor ickle Iz ain't going to BUY them) and typing tedious quantities of code in notepad just to see what it would do. Izzie would do whatever it takes not to give in and resort to using the recommended by the goblins software package MUGGLESOCKS fuckpage.
After 8 or 9 test pages, finally felt game to try a few frames. It was a pleasant surprise to get just the thing I wanted after only one or two attempts at tweaking.
It worked both in evilnet explorer and netscape so Iz was most delighted. But depending on the size of the window, sometimes the ministry motto and mail link would not show so ickle Iz decided to dump percentage in favor of pixels for the banner bit. So far so good.
But then Iz went testing over in netscape and suddenly where three frames used to be was now only one. Just totally disapparated. Damn what have I done. Since the original still works in ie will just go write another homepage for netscape.
Took some time to get the right layout and everything in its box but got there in the end. So far so good. Went back to IE and it worked there too. So now I have a new multipurpose homepage. At last all is well in Izzieland. One happy accomplished little serpent. I had learnt an awful lot in only one week.
Then I started tweaking with the snake links. After an unsuccessful attempt at re-doing the buttons with text using tables - decided just to make the frame just the right size so the titles would be on one line next to their buttons. After about five tweeks got it just right. So far so good. So next stop is Netscape. Suddenly where three frames used to be is now only two. Damn it thinks Iz. Bugger Netscape. So damn fussy. Just could not be bothered any more with keeping both browsers happy.
This time Iz could not be bothered trying out more html for a third home frame page.
But then Iz had the sudden idea - I know it had them in the newest of all the old books I was using, but no one else had forward slashes in their frame size designations and nor did any source codes I'd peeked at. I went and took them out and the pages then worked again perfectly in netscape. So Iz went home to check this book. Sure they were there but in small print after the example I'd used as a model it says - if you use pixel values you don't need the slashes. But Iz of course had not read the small print!
Turns out the little buggers were de facto percent substitutes. For some reason everyone else used the rather more logical % sign. But they had worked at first so Iz never noticed.
Then the green light went on inside the Izzie skull. Of course the later frames would disappear - netscape was trying to make the first one 120%! Now if only I had put in a 90/,*/ instead. Would have seen straight away what the problem could be. It also explained the sudden disapparation of the third frame when I set the second one at 280.
And there was me bitching and blaming netscape for my own stupidity! Silly Iz. But what I still don't understand - why on earth does evilnet explorer let me get away with it?
Izzie needs to know.
But at least all this frustration and farting around and getting a feel for it means that I have learnt infinitely more than I ever would by letting the evil empire do all the dirty work.
But Iz is inherently lazy. Got tired of typing ten lines of brackets and slashes just to get a sentence or so on a page. The folks in Azkaban gave me a tipoff about Netscape and Mozilla Composer. So they do the grunt work and Iz just takes a peek to do the odd tweek.
Should be finished by the end of September. I really must spend more time studying for the midsemester taxation exam in two weeks time (will be a lot easier than last years 'Care of corporate creatures' mid semester exam also the third Friday in September) and that essay about strategic games. We need to pick two examples. I think the first one will be M$ vs Linux... still thinking about the second one..preferably related though not at all necessarily...just looks better to give the impression of having a big picture birds eye STRATEGIC view of things.
Officially the websites are up for all other students to click and visit on Friday 10 October. Iz intends to post a link here some weeks before then to get some comments from the Cyberian creatures - particularly those with exotic, text only, ancient or otherwise unusual browsers.
