FAQ
Site Design ...
Q1:
What is the NAV bar on the right of the page all about?
A:
Mainly to reduce rodent travel between the scroll bar, back, forward, reload buttons - basic navigation with the rodent can be done with this bar.
R = Reload/Refresh
TP = Top (move to top of the page)
UP = Up (move up the page)
DN = Down (move down the page)
< = Back a page
> = Forward a page
Q2:
Why use XHTML 1.0 Strict as the doctype?
A:
To try and clean up the code and separate the styling from the markup with the hope that newer browsers will be more consistent with the newer standards. It is however less forgiving than the old HTML 3.2 & 4.0 but that as they say is progress.
Q3:
Why is there a strange internal scroll bar when using IE6,5.5 & 5.0?
A:
This occurs because those browsers don't support position:fixed in CSS so it is a workround. Fortunately IE7 will render the page similar to other standard browsers (Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, etc).
Q4:
This site does not work well with IE for Mac - why so?
A:
Love to have the site work in every browser but my line in the sand required reasonable CSS standard capability. Safari & Firefox on OSX are pretty good but IE for Mac just doesn't cut it. IE for Mac doesn't conform with the PC variants so it gets the big punt! See the browser page (on home page) for compatibility notes.
Q5:
My email client doesn't open up when I click the mail bar at the top of the page.
A:
A form method is used because if the users PC doesn't have a mail client installed then the mail bar would not work - the form method is more universal in operation.
Q6:
I can't see the whole page in my browser.
A:
A design decision was made to cater for a minimum 800 x 600 screen size since most screens now use that size or larger. As yet the site does not use flexible sizing (a future project). 1024 x 768 is perfect and larger is OK. It should be noted that browser toolbar and style arrangements may further reduce the viewable area so maybe using full screen (F11) mode will enhance the surf.
Q7:
When I click on an image it opens in another tab rather than a popup window.
A:
Ah yes - progress .... Unfortunately because of the bad reputation of javascript and underhand implementations of window pops for advertising (you know, all those Viagra ads and so forth) XHTML has deprecated (getting/got rid of) methods for popping windows easily. It can still be done via involved workrounds but newer browsers (IE7, Opera 9) are likely to show the larger image in a new tab rather than a window.
Q8:
The site uses XHTML 1.0 Strict pages but they are being served as text/html - what is going on?
A:
It's the great XHTML charade of course! The pages are designed to XHTML 1.0 Strict spec and are validated however because they are served as mime type text/html the browsers will not use the XML parser as they should. The answer is to serve the pages as mime type application/xhtml+xml however since IE does not support this it is a problem. My answer will be to implement content negotiation on the server when I get the time so browsers that support application/xhtml+xml will get just that and the rest will get text/html.
General ...
Q1:
How can I keep up with site updates?
A:
Well sometimes the slave is a little slow on adding content but there is an RSS feed on the home page that can be subscribed to. Updates to structure/content will be notified on this feed.
Q2:
Can I use any of the images commercially elsewhere?
A:
Well, I'd like to think I hold copyright on the images that I snapped and I can't really stop anyone ripping them off but if you are going to get pots of dosh through their use then I'd like a bit of the action. If you want one just let me know and I'll see what the hippo can do.
Q3:
Can I link to your site?
A:
Yup, feel free. Use the index page and please don't link images.
Q4:
What is the credits page all about?
A:
The site uses code and resources that have been obtained from the internet. In the main the resources are available as freeware with some requiring some form of acknowledgment - this is where the credits page comes in. Some code tends to get heavily modified or altered substantially but may still be credited on the credits page (which reminds me, I need to update the thing.....).