A PHP present from the Easter Bunny

Okay, for those of you using Netscape 4.7x to read this site, the Easter Bunny has a present for you: you can now read all pages on domesticat.net again. After weeks of pondering what I could do to make the site both HTML 4.0 compliant and have workarounds that would make the page readable in Netscape 4.7x….

I had a momentary flash of brilliance.

The short version is that I’m using PHP to detect if your browser has a pre-5.0 version of Netscape. If it sees that you do, it will drop in some table code to keep the main body of the page from bleeding over into the sidebar.Netscape, unfortunately, seems to barf on my CSS font specifications, so everything’s in Times New Roman with blue & underlined links in Netscape 4.7x. I’m not happy about this, and I’m hoping I can figure out the problem in the next few days and get it fixed. It works in all other browsers, though—because

In the meantime, though, you guys now have access to the rest of the site again, but I really do wish you’d get a better browser.

Sad—I spent most of my day working on this. Learned some more about PHP in the process. It was somewhat comforting to realize that there really wasn’t an available HTML workaround for the problems I was experiencing. It wasn’t a lack of ability on my part; it was that there really was no fix. (PHP to save the day!)

Other notes:

• I have also redone the white text menu in the right sidebar. It occurred to me about a month ago that I could neatly separate the entire site according to content (words or images). Doing so made the menu much less unwieldy, and I’m all over that. I’m trying to limit my obfuscation to the entries.
• I need to ask Gareth if I can modify .htaccess on omnipotent so that I can generate a custom 404 page.
• Still gotta fix the main domesticat.net header graphic. I’ve never been happy with it. I’ve also gotta fix the crappy artifacts on the red image of me—looks icky, and I can do better.
• My all-time-favorite come-on line hasn’t changed: “Do I want you? With all that charm? Do I want you? Twist my arm.” *laugh*
• I should also add that the song listed above is not my favorite Tragically Hip song. That would probably fall to the title cut from “Fully Completely.”
• You really don’t need to know this.

Other than that, not much to tell. I really did spend most of the day working on domesticat, trying to get the workarounds to, well, work. Once I realized that it was a structural problem that required different HTML for different browsers, the fix fell into place over a couple of hours. That was incredibly satisfying.

Speaking of incredibly satisfying—then there was the smartass phone message I left for Brad when I realized that I was probably dealing with a Netscape bug. So he calls me back, obviously feeling just as much of a smartass, and we had another one of those raucous, insinuation-filled phone calls we seem to have a few times each month.

Both of us are making uneasy jokes about getting our livers ready for the Memorial Day vacation. I’m afraid. You should be too.

fully completely
Bring me back in shackles,
hang me long out in the sun,
exonerate me, forget about me
I recommend measures for ending it.
Lover, she simply slammed the door.
She said, “you’re gonna miss me.”
Wait and you’ll see,” fully, completely
I ponder the endlessness of the stars,
ignoring said same of my father.
Either it’ll move me
or it’ll move right through me;
fully, completely

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