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Site Launch: CompassionBloggers.com
May 16th, 2008 | No Comments
The first phase of CompassionBloggers.com has officially launched. This site will be a place for bloggers to get resources and information about how they can partner with Compassion International to help release children from poverty. Compassion Bloggers will also take select groups of bloggers overseas to various countries allowing them to see the work of Compassion first-hand. The site will also document these trips by featuring blog posts, images and videos from each trip.
The site is currently running on a custom, PHP-driven infrastructure but I hope to transition everything over to Django for the next iteration.
Head over to CompassionBloggers.com and check it out. Then come back and let me know what you think.
IE takes the lead
May 15th, 2008 | No Comments
Well, it’s a bit of a sad day here on the blog. Ever since Shaun made encouraged me to start a blog I have become a bit of a stats junkie. By that I mean that every day (whether I post or not) I check all of the numbers of people who have visited my site, how they got here, etc. The numbers are all pretty low, but that doesn’t keep me from checking every day. It’s an addiction.
Well, one of the stats that I track is what browsers people use to view the site. From the beginning Firefox has had the lead over Internet Explorer (and Safari, Opera, etc.). That may not sound like a big deal, but across most of the internet Firefox generally gets up to 20% market share. No more. IE is very dominant. So, I have been kind of proud of the fact that most of the people who roll into my site use Firefox.
Until today. This morning’s stats revealed IE taking the lead by 2%. There is still hope for Firefox to come back, but I fear it’s a slippery slope from here. If only people knew what they were missing. And now, a moment of silence for Firefox’s lead…
IE6 ghost text bug
May 13th, 2008 | No Comments
Warning: geeky web content below! Proceed with caution.
Anybody who builds websites knows that different browsers render websites differently. Most web designers will also agree that Internet Explorer 6 was a horrible at rendering websites correctly. Thankfully Microsoft fixed most of the IE6 bugs in version 7, but not everyone that was using IE6 has moved over to IE7. So, I’m stuck with the task of creating a website the way that it is supposed to be done, and then changing what I have to so IE6 will display it properly (or as close as possible).
This afternoon I was checking a new website in IE6 and everything was moving along nicely until I got to one particular page that had a random character at the end of one line of text. I checked my HTML and PHP and I couldn’t find the character in the code anywhere. It was like it just appeared out of nowhere.
So, I searched the interwebs and found out about the IE6 ghost text bug (ooh, spooky). This seemed like a similar symptom to what I was facing since it appeared as characters from nowhere, but I didn’t have any HTML comments between floats (the most common trigger). So I kept searching but only found more articles about this same bug no matter how I described my problem. I thought, “Maybe this is the right solution after all.” So I started messing with the CSS.
I was using a list (ul) and each list item (li) contained a header (h3) and image (img) and a definition list (dl). So, I had a few tags to mess with to try to find the problem. I floated things, I un-floated things, I made sure everything had layout… nothing worked. And then I read something online that mentioned one cause of the ghost text bug being whitespace. The space between HTML tags.
You see, whitespace isn’t supposed to matter in HTML. Browsers are supposed to only pay attention to the stuff inside the tags (or tag pairs) and not the space in-between them. Keyword: supposed. IE6 apparently does not conform to these “standards” and chooses to do wacky things if it finds space between certain tags like repeating random characters in strange places. Who knew?
The solution: take out the whitespace (in this case a new-line character) between my definition term (dt) and definition definition (dd). And it’s fixed. Lesson learned: burn all copies of Microsoft Internet Explorer 6… or just keep down the whitespace in HTML.
Django in 24 hours
April 11th, 2008 | No Comments
So, I’m a geek. I realize this, you realize this, everybody who meets me probably realizes this. I’m ok with being a dork… I already have a hot wife. Well, to showcase my dorkiness let me tell you what I’m reading right now.
I am learning Django. I will spare you the geeky details about what Django is and just sum it up as “something to help me make websites good-er.” So, to really dig into Django while out on the road I bought a book: Sams Teach Yourself Django in 24 Hours. Sounds good, right? Well, it’s probably the worst technical book I have ever read - and I’ve read a few.
I have come to expect some spelling errors and maybe a mistake or two in the code examples in a book like this. However, this particular book has errors on almost every page. It’s bad. I am amazed that I am able to learn anything from the book.
I won’t go into the gory details but trust me. If you’re wanting to learn Django (and I know all of you are) you should either find a different book or prepare yourself for a lot of frustration.
Compassion Bloggers
March 11th, 2008 | No Comments
I am currently working with Shaun and Compassion International on a new website. Right now we have a single page online where you can enter your e-mail address and request more information. Here’s a little bit about what the site will be…
Compassion recently took a bunch of bloggers to Uganda to allow them to see first-hand the results of CI’s programs in that area. The bloggers were simply asked to use their medium to share their experience with the world. Apparently everyone really liked the results of this trip and have decided to plan more trips like this one.
CompassionBloggers.com will be the online home for these future trips. From here you will be able to learn about current and past trips, see pictures, watch videos, read blog posts, and get to know the people involved in each trip. It will also contain information for those interested in participating in future trips.
Sound good? I think so. So, while you wait for the finished product to go live, go ahead and sign-up to receive more information at CompassionBloggers.com.
Site Launch: chadjarnagin.com
March 4th, 2008 | 1 Comment
Chad Jarnagin (AKA: *The Blogstar) is a worship pastor, an amazing vocalist, a creative genius, a songwriting machine, and a great guy. His personal blog is full of links to great music, news about his life and ministry, and random thoughts and questions about life, spirituality, and the church.
Chad has been blogging for a long time with a free online service and recently decided to take the plunge into the world of WordPress. He wanted an edgy yet clean and professional blog design to help move his online presence to the next level.
This site still has a little refining to be done, but please check out chadjarnagin.com and let me know what you think.
