Communications Lab

BUG, BUG, BUG!

The concept: I wanted to make a navigation menu for my blog, using CSS. I wanted the navigation bar to be horizontal and I wanted it to appear 'highlighted' when the mouse hovers overs a selection.

The problems: Apparently there's a known BUG with Netscape browsers and CSS floats (which I needed for my horizontal menu). It took me a while to get it performing correctly, but I had to do a workaround solution. In the end, it's stll not perfect. I'm probably going to keep returning to this navigation bar to debug. In general, I kept running into many IE vs. Netscape differences - which were quite annoying. I will need to revisit these issues.

I followed a few design rules that I had decided for myself:
1. This is a blog - Make the content and navigation simple and understandable. Sometimes I get lost in blogs, so that's why I wanted a main navigation page (which is still under construction)
2. Many blogs have a very minimalist interface - Go Wild. I love paisley patterns, victorian patterns, and early 19th century patterns, so I decided I was going to dedicate my interface to William Morris!

Issues/Concerns:
a - I have 0 web design experience and so I'm worried about color choices, background images, how it looks to the user, how it feels on the eyes.
b - Browser incompatibilities :( I'm a netscape fan, so I was very disappointed when my little menu wasn't performing.

TODO:
1. Fix the naming: I have 2 "Main" links w/ different meanings: one is "Back" and one is "home"
2. Fix the traceback/comment url and headers
3. Apply the CSS validation
4. Actually make all the links work.... :/

Oh, and one more thing: you get so absorbed by the aesthetics of it, that it ends up eating up so much time working on your code.

Posted by Yasmin Elayat at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Setting up my blog was pretty easy. I had to download freeware SSH Client for Windows called Putty, and it was smooth sailing from there.

Of all the readings, the "Blogs of War" struck me the most. I mentioned the reason behind the fascination in my blog entry, but it basically revolves around the idea of experiencing a previously unknown, private world. It's a powerful idea - you can live through others essentially. I was especially interested in the dynamic between public and private domains of information and how the DOD will react to this shift.

The Fifty-Five short was by far the most diffcult assignment I had to do this week. You would think that with a limit of 55 words, it's impossible to get writer's block? Think again. I tried to brainstorm ideas on pen and paper. I bounced ideas off of people. I let story lines marinate in my brain over a few a days. Still nothing.

I soon discovered the power of dialogue. While a third-person narrative is a great way of setting the stage, a first-person dialogue allows the reader the opportunity to make his/her own conclusions about the characters and the setting. I found it was the best way to be absent and objective, giving the reader full access to the story.

Posted by Yasmin Elayat at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)