Why is Optimization So Hard?

I'm in the process of building a new website and am always in process on making this one better. Most recently I started trying to figure out how to best optimize Intellectual Poison for viewing on a mobile device.

And the information varies widely on the best way to do this. So I'll try one way, copy & paste in some code, republish the blog and see how it works. If it doesn't work, then I remove the code and start on another one. It is very time consuming and feels like a waste of time.

But I also feel like it won't be a waste of time once its done and once I've learned how to replicate the process on the new site under construction.

Anyone have a simple way to set up a website for tiny screens? Let me know about it in the comments.

Don't Go There

Unless you like spinning beach balls and totally fudged to heck home pages.

I am talking about, of course, the local newspaper's website, SantaCruzSentinel.com. The paper was sold last year and is in a long, slow and annoying transition process. Part of the fallout from that transition is that the website is completely buggered. Not only does it not render properly, it has bad scripts or something in there that turns my cursor into a beach for minutes at a time.

The sad thing is that I'm sure they know about it but have no money available to fix it so the website side of the paper languishes in bad code hell. And I miss my daily police reports to keep track of the gang violence in my neighborhood.

And, on that note, I'm going to start my rounds at school and see if I can make some teacher's lives a little better. Wish me luck!

The Pain in the Ass of Domain Registration

The thing about trying to create a new website is that, no matter how clever your domain name, someone has already freakin' registered it. Absolutely no matter what.

And, if you happen to have initials like mine (ECO) then forget about it. Pretty much any combination of my initials and anything resembling photography has already been snapped up by environmentalists or domain-wranglers.

So, once your first tier of ideas has been rapidly exhausted (and let me tell you, I LOVE going to a domain that I've thought of and finding nothing but ads and links, no website whatsoever) then you start making compromises to see if you can retain a mote of the original idea and wit.

And then you end up with a gobbledegook mash of letters that means nothing to anyone but you.

Which means I'm back to the drawing board, AGAIN. I had a great name this afternoon but, to come close to it, I risk completely losing the concept behind it. Maybe not but I think I'll approach it with a fresh(er) mind in the morning.

Stupid domain-name-wranglers and their stupid computer generated domain registrations.

Site Update and Spit Shine

I added some code from Flooble.com to the site last night to make the side menus collapsible and hidable. I like the idea of a cleaner interface and that's what I'm going for. If any of y'all run into problems with them menus, let me know, 'kay? The plus sign [+] means the menu can be opened, the minus sign [-] means it can be closed, pretty straightforward although I should note that I wanted little rotating triangles but I couldn't find them so we got math signs instead.

I'm not done with the minor redesign yet but my eyes had gone crossed and I had to go sleep.

And the boys were up at 6, again.

In other news, my powerbook is off for repairs. It is almost as economical to just get another powerbook but I want my laptop back. We'll re-evaluate the situation in a few months and see if I really do need to downsize my portable power.