This new design sports what I believe to be a brand new way of creating a website that is flexible relative to one’s browser.

Since the majority of my small readership are not CSS nerds, I’ll start with a little background. Feel free to skip over that if you just want the code. (If you don’t want any of it, the final example is right here)

Read on…

Throw a little Wicked-Worn in a blender with a new liquid CSS technique, some dropcaps, and it’s a new look for uwMike!

Eleven and a half hours late for the Official Reboot, but I needed that little something extra to amuse myself during the past week of working on my UWaterloo Co-op Work Report.

Right now, I have to get rested up for the first day of summer term tomorrow.

Mike

p.s. watch this space for more on that new liquid layout trick…

p.p.s. If you’re looking for the prior layout, it’s archived here.

Statistics are fascinating. Some are a little bit scary.

If you send me an email or leave a comment on this site, I know your IP address. I can look at my logs and see every page you clicked, every file you accessed. In fact, I can even see, from the referrals, how you got to this page — by typing it in, searching Google, or linking from another page. Every webmaster has this ability.

If you’ve ever used Google, you have the Google Cookie on your machine — a unique number that they associate with your settings and preferences on their site. And also, it’s well established, with their search logs. They can create extraordinarly detailed personality maps for each computer just based on all the searches you’ve performed since last clearing your cookies.

And that’s fine. They provide me a service: fast, free, and accurate web searches. If my search habit data is entering a larger corpus of information that powers Sergey Brin’s science projects, great. However, the advent of GMail introduces a whole new variable into this equation. Now all those searches can suddenly be connected to a corpus of email, and also the name that was provided on signup.

Even this is fine. Google is a company that I trust. They’re a selfless organization that’s taken advertising online from ludicrous flashing banners to useful, relevant text links.

What’s worrying is what will happen when governments and lawyers suddenly realise that all this personal information may be available, just waiting for a subpoena. The recent attempts of ISPs to protect their customers from the MPAA prove that when it’s the Law versus Privacy, the law wins.

Which, generally, is good. I’d rather be safe. But it’s a slippery slope. Google may just be a privacy disaster waiting to happen. Yes, 99% of the drivel at Google-Watch is complete garbage. But this one point deserves attention. Being the custodian of anything takes responsibility, but perhaps the most when it’s information, which is so easy to share.

Anyone really worried about privacy shouldn’t be online at all. For all the security in email, you might as well have written your private information on the back of a postcard.

Mike

I never really intended the previous incarnation of this site to exist for all that long. It was more of a temporary entity while I mulled over how I wanted this page to appear.

I knew pretty well right away how I didn’t want it to appear — as a centered, fixed-width, two column page, like every single other blog site out there. The two column layout is sensible in terms of content, but I wanted to see if I could really flex a bit of CSS muscle and create something interesting with some bolder colours to contrast all the ultra-modern pastels out there.

I think it came out all right.

It’s not finished, but I’m too busy with school these days to wait much longer before going live. Anyway, the engine is purring much smoother now — all the pages are fully compliant, the links are nice and tidy, the archive is much more browsable, the security is much better. All around, it’s a reflection of everything I’ve learned about PHP in the last year. A worthwhile journey it’s been, and it wouldn’t have started without Blitz, so I’m very much endebted to him. Every month I still see a handful of referrals come through from the old location.

Anyhow, it’s bedtime now, but give me a shout about it. Especially if you’re on a browser other than IE6 or Firefox and you’re seeing a visual anomaly.

On that note, Firefox 1.0 comes out today. Be sure to pick it up.

Mike