Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Hmmm. Conservative thadiyam, I don’t deal well with change. After cogitating on this a bit, I’m thinking I’m liking it. The Recent Posts and Recent Comments are nice features.
Me too will give it a week, but I think it will work nicely.
OOOOOOH! So very Sargasso-like.
Interesting trasition, but not sure I like it. The big change I can see from this end is the commnet frame is so uch more Spartan. No preview pane for us 10-thumb typists that used to use 10-point dividers (that actually had 11-points). AW1 Tim will unnerstand.
Yesterday, I had the privilege of participating in a rather somber memorial ceremony – the loss of two P3-Cs from VP-50, 16 years ago, 21 March 1991. 27 officers and enlisted were lost in the worst single naval flight mishap. I was back east then and couldn’t believe hearing of it. Q. What can go wrong with a station hand-off? A. Plenty.
Not much has benn recovered since then.
VR-
-SJBill
May God continue to bless these kids as they remain on station.
Nope, don’t like it. The center column is too narrow, making it hard to read, and the underlying art work is distracting.
I have about the same reaction as ManlyDad (loved the old set-up *sniff*).
But as cool as the line drawing of the Hornet in the background is… it’s really hard for me to read the text that is in directly on top of it. Perhaps a darker/heavier font or lighten the drawing so that it isn’t as distracting? ACK!!! It’s driving me nuts, as I’m typing directly over the most detailed part of it right now. Blech!
Nothing personal, you know…
I think the rest of it will grow on me.
It may just be my old eyes but I don’t do well with white
letters on dark background. This is especially true with longer
articles. I go to a link with dark backgrounds and I’ll just
hit the back button.
One other thing, when entering into the comment box, the text
continues on into the blue and doesn’t wrap around.
ICK! I definitely prefer the old setup,I agree with FbL and SCP8 on their gripes.
Lex,
Nicely organized, and the blue background in the left and right hand columns is easy on the eyes. It shows up as Tahoma font on my system, which is fine (although I am partial to Arial myself for its clarity and cross-platform support). I think that on the whole the Guinness was well consumed.
One “Blogger in Arms” that I offer to you as someone to consider adding is Maj (formerly Capt) Z of tcoverride. And Dadmanly is another (love his stories defining the various Army people and their responsibilities).
Thanks for adjusting the “About” frame. I’m onlyu using a PC, (no macs in this house) and it was having problems. The center collumn was partially obscured at first, but not now. “About” adjusted itself over to the right about a centimeter.
Q. What are the gray “postage stamps” in each of the block quote squares? They don’t make much sense to me — no functionality, etc.
BTW, I won’t update to Internet Exploder 7 becuase it cannot handle much legacy content in my company.
One more thingy: In the Comment Box, the floowing HTML garbage is appearing:
“Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
-SJBill
Being mostly color blind I cannot read all the dark on bluetype at the top of the site. BUT!!! as I must read this blog numerous times per day I will adjust!
Overall, I like the changes. I like having the main entries in the middle, with the other info on the sides. Change is good, now and then.
Though, I do miss seeing a Preview of my comments. But that’s a small issue.
I’m with Pat. The center column is way too skinny.
With all due respect, I like it better the other way.
Thanks for your thoughts. I’ve lightend up the background image until it’s nearly spectral, and made a couple of smaller, behind the scenes changes as well.
As far as the content in the center, the width of that is fluid, so if you expand the window, you shouldn’t – depending obviously on monitor size – see any degradation from the old theme.
It has allowed me to balance out the gew-gaws on either side, and move towards widgetized sidebar entries. Which is rather nice.
Cool…only problem I see is at the very top title bar: your links are obscured. Everything else works for me.
But, since I’m just a simple old Cajun shipfitter, all it takes to make me happy is a roof over my head, clothes on my back, and a big pot of seafood gumbo
Hate it. I use Firefox, you see. Why? Because it permits me to zoom the text size with great ease, providing much-needed relief to my poor old, horribly nearsighted eyeballs.
One column of text means dozens of keystrokes.
Nice graphics tho.
Lex, it’s your site Sir. We’ll all adjust. It’s the content that counts, and we an always count on that to be perfect.
Just noticed these on re-entry. There’s now a tiny identity icon on the URL address line. Looks like an itty-bitty bird (captain’s eagle?) atop a minuscule mountain with radio waves to the left & right. Funny thing is on my Bookmarks it shows as a red script capital R–very classy looking but what’s it to do with a Lex?
The F/A-18 is now nearly invisible, like it’s activating a stealth Klingon cloaking device.
BTW, I use Firefox 2.0.0.2 and everything looks very good. The center column is huge wide at full screen setting. Mebbe make the column background a buff color to tone down the brightness at full screen force.
It’s not unattractive, but I see about a 20% reduction in content per screen. Perhaps if each sidebar was reduced by half?
Actually, ManlyDad, that’s a miniaturized version of the Command at Sea pin that graces the right-hand side of the title graphic. The script “R” was the original “favicon” of the theme developer, it surprises me that it remains on your favorites bin.
For my own part, I’m tired of looking at it. Will pulse all of y’all next week after we’ve had a chance to push it around a bit.
Pogue – if I reduce the sidebars, most of the content there won’t fit anymore. I’d like to figure out a way to go to a single sidebar view reading an individual post – maybe next weekend?
I like the lighter drawing, now. Very subtle and easy on the eyes, but still noticeable. Very nice.
Buddy, with Internet Explorer, hold down the CTRL key and scroll your middle mouse wheel. Text will enlarge, and shrink.
Found that by accident, dontcha know…
Buddy,
In firefox that I use if I hold down Ctrl and = I can make the font larger and larger and larger. Ctrl – to make it smaller.
Hope it works for you.
I have issues. But then some would say I always have. Basically I find it really hard on the eyes. With the background of the sidebars showing up as black with white print and the background white in the centre…. I don’t know, its just…..painful.
Sometimes change is good. But I don’t like this one. Although as others have said, its the content that counts. And it is all yours, of course. But I know my eyes are definitely going to favour TFD from now on.
PS But its cruel…..just cruel…….to lose the preview function.
Ya know, I have to admit I liked the old design. It was kinda crisp and clean and, for some reason or other, it kinda reminded me of my days at the Severn River Technical School. I suppose that I have minimalist leanings.
As far as the new design goes – looks fine to me. After all, I don’t visit these halls for the aesthetic qualities but rather for the pithy prose. Keep up the good work.
For those of you with problems with the size of the type try holding down the Ctrl key and rolling your finger across the scrolling wheel on your mouse. Works for both IE and FireFox (haven’t tried it on my Mac yet.)
Thanks to all for the script enlarging tip!
Donno. First thought my computer sh!t the bed and made my brain hurt. Mebbe it will grow on me. Like a tumor.
My first impression was the same as GEO6′s — I hit “reload,” thinking Firefox was doing weird things. But, no. It’s supposed to look like this!
Like Michelle, I miss the comments preview pane. And the comments numbers, but that can be solved with a time hack.
Re: the blogroll. Us retired guys can’t be “Bloggers in Arms?” Or is it because I used ta wear the “other” blue?
Should have added “not that I mind being a wingman.” There are worse, much worse, things to be in life!
Looks just the same on my ancient browser with all the fugs and beatyours turned off, as is my habit.
Buck said: “…Should have added ?
Buck said: “…Should have added “not that I mind being a wingman.” There are worse, much worse, things to be in life!…”
Just noticed I’m listed as a wingman – considering I’m as earthbound as they come, and a total civilian – I’m all puffed up with pride this morning.
I’m a wingman, I’m a wingman…need. more. coffee.
Well. Having logged in from my work computer (Wintel machine running some legacy version of IE – how do you version check an app in Windows?) I begin to see where some of the consternation comes from. Two words: Download Firefox.
I mean, I’m stuck with IE because NMCI forces it down my throat, but ugh!
Lex,
You know, despite the well intentioned jab, that I am a huge fan. I check several times daily looking for new content. I read the blog for the words and the fun of seeing what you have done with the words. I occasionally like the pictures.
That all being said, I must respectfully vote for “The Way We Were.”
I fear change…
Nose
Like others have stated, I come here for the content. But, I also respectfully have vote for the original. This just looks much too busy (colors/fonts).
That should be “have to vote” (reminds self to proofread before post).
Lex, apparently Firefox (or at least the way you can download it for free – it only comes with a Google pakcage) requires Windows XP. Its not easy being left back in the dust – and here I thought I did well when I upgraded from Windows Millenium to 2000.
But you did change the background colour in the centre column. So it is slightly less annoying now. Thanks for that
Lex,
As to your “favicon,” my Firefox bookmarks picked it up after I deleted the old link (script R) and carried over the new one.
I noticed today that the star is clearly seen when I mouseover the link. It shows up clearly with the blue highlighted background–the empty spaces between the star points make it stand out clearly. Without the background change, there’s no star to see. It’s a tiny bird over a very tiny point with tiny ((( ))) to the sides.
And yea! for the comment preview.
I like the old one a bit better. I think it may be the fonts. I’m more of a straight and easy type and there seems to be a bit of distraction going on here and there. the point is the prose kept within and there seems to be much more than that going on. The old rendition appeared ‘cleaner’. Keep It Simple.
I’ve let it stew for a day now and, ehh, it’s not all bad. Some comments:
Like the ‘recent’ widgets.
Variable width is great w/ high resolution. Barely passable at 1024×768. I understand the gripes of those with lower resolution, or increased font size.
WOW that’s quite the blogroll!
And my REAL gripe: The F/A18 outline image is a different color than the “off-white” of the rest of the main window. If you have good CRT monitor that actually displays real colors (most LCD’s need not apply here) I get a white square in the middle of the text surrounded by off-white, cream colored background. Very distracting. For those of you reading this on a low-contrast LCD, I’ve taken a screen capture and bumped the contrast enough so that it should be clearly visible[1]. The fix for this is to make the background image fill exactly the same color as the CSS background color.
Cheers,
~foobert
[1] Yes, it’s “doctored”! Changing the contrast is the easiest way to exaggerate the real problem I’m trying to point out.
I think I’ve fixed the worst of that, although there is still some lingering difference between the #FCFFE4 color of the background and that of the image. The distinction is less now than it was earlier today (when I first changed to a buff background), but it’s still not perfect.
I’ll keep toying with it.
I was absolutely appalled today when I saw what I had spent Sunday evening admiring on IE. What a wreck!
“Highly standards compliant” indeed.
i didn’t even notice the color difference untill the post below mine pointed it out with the screenshot [yes, i'm on an LCD]. now it’s annoying.
#FCFFE4
=
R=252
G=255
B=228
If that is any help.
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