Okay, here are a few things you will notice on the site other than Ronald Reagan.

With the help of a friend I was able to implement sIFR which helps out tremendously with the font on the header.

If you want to see the full image, grab a monitor that is 1400+ pixels wide. I made it so those with wide screen monitors could enjoy. Yeah, that means the background image is a little heavy, but once its cached you are good.

I really tried to work on how it reads, this way someone can easily thumb their way through the site.

I am not sure if I am done yet tinkering with new technologies out there, but I think you get the gist of the site design. Enjoy! (comments are welcome)

Readers will notice various changes with the site over the next couple of days. This is because I am tweaking the site and giving it an over haul where the site is more easier to ready and access.

I am not one hundred percent satisfied, but it is a start.

Feedback is welcome.

As I am tooling about working on various comps today I came across a design which I absolutely adore: Here.

Why do I love it? Because it is unlike anything else and uses css in ways I have yet to see.

I am sick of the bars and gradient retreads on various other sites which seem to recieve heaps of praise.

In any case, be sure to check it out.

Many times us web developer types get carried away with trying to be creative and push the concept to its limits and forget about just building a solid website.

I admit it, I find my self in that quagmire more often than I should.

Instead of trying to bow down to the alter of sharpening “style” (think of it as an artistic thumb print) I would suggest people to think of the client and their branding needs.

Why this post? To be blunt, I’ve been noticing a startling trend of many developers to simple spit back up the same design style and no different to building a solid product which serves the client.

In short I think we need to be different but not forget the practicality of the piece of work.

So yeah, I say fooie to those who say a website must validate 100% before considering it a good piece of work. To do so would shrug off some darned good work.

Similarly, though, if we do not build a website which is viewable by a wide range of audience and built then it will fail to work.

Anyways.

As I was scanning the news this morning I noticed an interesting head line on the News-Leader’s website. Apple launching a PC based browser? What the heck? So I scooted over to Apple’s site. Sure enough..

So, now if you want to use Safari for your PC, the option exsist - though in the form of a public beta.

What does that mean to us web developers? It means its a pain in the tail as we content with another browser which will render sites slightly different than the others.

I hope it operates under the same rules as the Mac browser. If so, we should be fine.

In the mean time I will be inflicting pain upon my self and downloading it to see what little suprises will be around the corner for us.

I dont know if anyone else used DNS Stuff or not, but it recently jumped the shark as a useful dns tool.

Why do I say that? Because a once free service is now pay only. Even once you have registered, there are only a certain number of DNS look ups allowed.

Dont get me wrong, as a business practice, its fine all and dandy.

However for users, like my self, there are plenty of other free DNS look up tools out there which will do us just fine. I am not quite sure why DNS Stuff believes theirs is superior enough to charge people $36.00 a year for the service. Maybe if they improved it or offered something to help locate specific ips like another free service I know of.

In either case, though, its good bye to DNS Stuff. You have officially jumped the shark and there are other tools to use (at least for the moment).

This is one of the projects I was talking about a few days ago which we were close to releasing. The site has a quite a lot of detail to it and includes on line registration for events, club membership, forums all rolled into one.

My personal favorite part of the project is how tight certain elements of the design feel in addition to the clean css positioning code.

In any case onward to our next project release, which we are working on with Wannenmacher Advertising in addition to a couple more local sites. Stay tuned.

I know, I know.  I should know better being a veteran web developer who throws down hours of code kung-fu day in and day out, but I did not realize what was up for a good hour. Doh.

For those who do have not figured out how to slay the issue with the A: hover link not showing up properly after it is visited here is the answer. IE (Internet Explorer) will take the last line of CSS code as law. That means if you have the A: visited after the A: hover you will be hosed up.

So, the moral of the story is in your CSS make sure to have your A:hover command AFTER the A:visited. And yes, I will need to slightly rework the CSS on this site when I get a chance.

For those of you who do not know Missouri State has been without a website for its athletics department for some time now. The original company who contracted with MSU went bankrupt and there has been no site except for this temporary one. 

The good news:

I have been told by a very reliable source that Missouri State has contracted with XOS, the same organization who works with several Big Twelve and MVC school’s website.

The bad news:

I do not have a date of when the site might be ready, but it is also my understanding that they SID office has had the tools for a while to get the site going (my source was not clear if this was before or after contracting with XOS). For what ever reason the site obviously not on line.

Summary: It looks like steps are being taken to get the site taken care of, but for what ever reason things are not being done in a timely fashion.

My personal editorial: My personal guess is that the internet is just not that important to the Sports Information Department.

Before some of you guys go screaming about the Sports Information Department, please keep in mind that most of the people in the department probably do not understand the power of the internet and how important it is.

I have the same problem when I deal with selling websites to established businesses or politicians who have been around for a while. They are used to a way of doing things and stuff outside of it probably is just “somthing to play with.”

Update: At least one other person posted on the letsgobears.com site that he was told that the site was nearing completion. If that is true, then we are in a much better situation than I thought. Especially considering the quality of work by XOS.

After a long past few weeks getting ready for the Addys, dealing with some serious personal issues and having to change the design at last second (oh yes, you will see what we had planned eventually, and it will be uber cool no thanks in part to working with parallax studios).. but its finished and I absolutely love it.

I think we might have been able to put some more detail work into it, but I at the same time I didnt want to take away from the content or other parts of the design. The audio and back ground ambience helps emmencely.

Anyways. Go check it out if you wish. Enjoy.

Now, to submit those darned Addy entries.