Yes, we're OPEN!
by Rick - April 13, 2010 03:27 PM
This has been a very cool learning experience for me. As I work in the XML world all day, I was able to utilize some XML and XSLT technology to power the site. When you go to Boat-Lettering you will see a listing of fonts. That listing is driven by XML. The color palette for fonts is also created with XML except IE cannot render the background correctly so I had to transform it to HTML.
There are some things I will be adding to the Boat Lettering site including:
- E-mailing of the order. This will include a rendered version of your vessel's name
- Color palettes for the effects options
- General cleanup such as rounded corners for IE support
There also seems to be some bugs with IE support (no surprise). I will need to track those down. I'm not too worried though. I haven't had a lot of traffic.
If you do try this out and you have any questions, e-mail me directly by clicking on my name to the left.
Enjoy!
Boat Lettering site GRAND OPENING
by Rick - April 9, 2010 09:56 AM
For years, my 'store' sat there dormant. It was like walking into a shop that only had pictures of the stuff they sold and no cash register. That's all going to change coming this Monday, April 12 when Boat Lettering by Sail-2-Live officially 'opens'.
At Boat Lettering by Sail-2-Live you will be able to choose from hundreds of really neat fonts and instantly see a preview of your boat name. You can also add effects such as drop shadows. We have some of the most competitive prices on the web and you can pay for your purchase through PayPal or any credit card. You will receive a receipt via e-mail showing you the exact font you selected.
So, go check it out and experiment with the previewer. Then come back after the 12th and order.
Baba Site Resurrection
by Rick - April 3, 2010 08:10 AM
You can view the Baba BBS by going to http://baba.sail2live.com and clicking on the BBS link on the left.
Changed my mind
by Rick - March 29, 2010 01:55 AM
Of course, since I'm sure no one is watching the site evolve, I'm not too concerned.
In any case, I've changed directions somewhat. Initially I was trying to make Sail-2-Live into some sort of e-commerce site. But, my inability to focus means it would have been really confusing to have one site as the catch-all for any e-commerce I might get into.
Enter Subdomains.
I can create up to 100 subdomains. I'm pretty sure I'll never need that many, but it's a handy feature. I can now segregate my various interests into individual sites. We'll see how that works out. Essentially that means I'll now have 5+ sites to keep up. I have a lot of the content already created, I just need to plug it in.
To see where I'm going with this, click the 'Elseware' link above.
Your comments appreciated.
by Rick - March 24, 2010 12:20 PM
I've added more crap to the site and cleaned up the colors on the Accordion Menu (that menu thingie that shows up if you click on Design). Feel free to send me a comment either by clicking 'Comments' at the bottom of one of the blog posts or clicking the email link on the left.
A common concern with making e-mail addresses available is that 'bots can steal your addy if you simply use a mailto HREF. When you hover over my email link, you sill see my address, but it doesn't actually exist in HTML code. It gets concatenated at the hover event, so no worries about bots.
As for the Comments though, I need to install some sort of Captra or something. The spam coming from that Comments link is a pain. Don't these people have better things to do?
Progress
by Rick - March 21, 2010 01:09 AM
So I guess I should take back some of my flame against MS.
I've added links now to the Design section. You can click that and a portfolio of my work will appear along with an accordion-style menu on the left.
Still a lot of tweaking to carry out.
Enjoy!
Website Makeover (cont'd)
by Rick - March 16, 2010 10:48 PM
No, I'm not a Microsoft hater. There are two sides to Microsoft, like Frosted Mini Wheat. One side is the crunchy whole-grain side that's really good for you (that would be their development tools - the software that makes software). The other side is the sweet icing side that's not so good for you, but it's probably why most people buy it (pretty much every consumer product they make).
One product in particular that is one of the worst offenders is Internet Explorer. It has always been a mediocre platform, but since it was free and ubiquitous, most people just assumed that's how things were. Netscape tried to keep up by piling more and more sugar on their wholesome goodness until their internet nutritional value collapsed.
Then along comes Firefox (which never was really gone and most folks know it also as Mozilla). Firefox is a major contender and in fact in my experience seems to be in use at least as much as IE. Users claim better performance, more stability, ease of use and a host of other very subjective reasons why they like Firefox over IE.
I have to admit, I only recently started using Firefox in place of IE (pretty much since IE8 came out) and I have to say I'm pleased. Now that I'm re-tooling my website, IE8's shortcomings are becoming more obvious. The big problem, I think, is that Microsoft is a big ship. She doesn't turn so easily and in fact is pretty much like its own floating country with its own language and it's own food. The web page you are looking at is a good example of what I mean.
If you are looking at this page in Firefox, you are seeing some pretty cool effects like semi-transparency, drop shadows, and rounded corners. The transparency comes from alpha transparency settings in the .png file I'm using as a background. The rounded corners and drop shadow are from CSS3. CSS3 is not implemented as a standard yet, but Mozilla, Opera, and Safari all implement CSS3 through simple extensions. IE8 also offers extensions, but they are a convoluted mess and not all CSS3 features (like rounded corners) are even available in IE.
Now, all of that is sugar. Where Microsoft's sugar is more like high fructose corn syrup, the 'other guys' sugar pure, uncut sugar cane. Not only that, their fiber is pretty good too. These features don't prevent the page from being viewed in IE, but the IE experience will not be as cool as the Other Guys' experience.
So, if you aren't currently using Firefox, or Opera, or Safari, Google for 'em and download away. You won't be sorry.
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