Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Farewell HTML

I created my first web pages back in 1994. The local ISP I had my dial-up service through at the time included web space in the package, so I figured why not? I learned some basic HTML and I was off and running.

HTML at that time was pretty basic. I don't even think the table tag was available until a year or so later. Essentially, it was just about knowing how to change the background color, insert a link or an image, using H1 and H2, and how to turn on (and OFF) the annoying blinking text that was all the rage back then.

Over the next decade or so I hand-coded many websites, and my skills grew along with it, but stayed mostly in the realm of HTML. I'd played with a few pearl scripts, but when CSS came to dominate, I knew I was on the trailing edge of my learning curve.

This blog, created on Blogger in 2001, back when the company was owned by Pyra, long before Google thought to purchase it, has gone through many different designs and transitions. Now, this (and I believe every blog on the platform) is using one of their templates, but there was a time when I even hand-coded the HTML for these pages.

The last site I maintained by hand -- and to clarify, what I mean by that is typing out the HTML in a text editor, no WYSIWYG editors for me -- was my consulting home page. I'd started that site in 2003, and while I regularly modified layouts and added (or deleted) pages, it was always my own HTML. Of course, that got sloppy too. There was probably still some of that original 2003 code still running the site until this week.

Yep, until this week. I'd known this day was coming, mostly because mobile. My site looked like hell on a smart phone. But I'd managed to keep telling myself "I'll get around to fixing that later" until this week. Google is now officially penalizing sites that are not "mobile friendly" in their search results. It was time to make a serious change.
"Awesome!"

This week goldsteinconsulting.com has officially relaunched with my all new template-driven responsive design hosted by Google Sites. There's still some work to do to make it "just right," and a few more sub-pages to add, but it's looking pretty good already.

And with this change, there's no more HTML for me to write or trouble-shoot, and no need to FTP the pages from my hard drive up to the servers.

It's all so easy, but just a little bit sad.

Wednesday, April 08, 2015

Only Seven Deadly Sins

Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and everybody's favorite, gluttony. You've heard this list before. You know 'em, you love 'em, you either fear committing them or treat it as a to-do list. It's the "seven deadly sins," also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins.

I've been thinking about this lately, and reading up on the Seven Deadlies thanks to our good friends in Indiana. Had I missed something? Had buggery finally been added to the list?

... Continue Reading on Daily Kos ...

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