Comments on: Stupid Web Site Tricks http://www.dougv.com/2007/01/14/stupid-web-site-tricks/ ASP.NET, PHP, XML, JavaScript, DOM, Web geekery Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:22:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Kevin http://www.dougv.com/2007/01/14/stupid-web-site-tricks/#comment-65 Kevin Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:51:55 +0000 http://www.dougv.com/blog/2007/01/14/stupid-web-site-tricks/#comment-65 Just want to add: Clean up the edging on your graphics! If your logo, icon, masthead graphic is raggedy and bitmapped, you look like a tool, would you settle for a crappy image on a business card? NO! Your website is your internet business card, sloppy graphics looks unprofessional, and by extension YOU look unprofessional. Oh and use readable fonts, nobody takes the time to read seriffed, italicized 8px fonts. Just want to add: Clean up the edging on your graphics! If your logo, icon, masthead graphic is raggedy and bitmapped, you look like a tool, would you settle for a crappy image on a business card? NO! Your website is your internet business card, sloppy graphics looks unprofessional, and by extension YOU look unprofessional.

Oh and use readable fonts, nobody takes the time to read seriffed, italicized 8px fonts.

]]> By: Mehdi http://www.dougv.com/2007/01/14/stupid-web-site-tricks/#comment-64 Mehdi Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:19:18 +0000 http://www.dougv.com/blog/2007/01/14/stupid-web-site-tricks/#comment-64 *applause* Couldn't have said it better, myself. *applause*

Couldn’t have said it better, myself.

]]> By: Lojjik http://www.dougv.com/2007/01/14/stupid-web-site-tricks/#comment-63 Lojjik Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:51:06 +0000 http://www.dougv.com/blog/2007/01/14/stupid-web-site-tricks/#comment-63 Yea, I hate web pages that make you scroll sideways, too. Yea, I hate web pages that make you scroll sideways, too.

]]> By: Julius Davies http://www.dougv.com/2007/01/14/stupid-web-site-tricks/#comment-62 Julius Davies Mon, 26 Feb 2007 01:06:55 +0000 http://www.dougv.com/blog/2007/01/14/stupid-web-site-tricks/#comment-62 I saw one website, once, where the <bgsound> was vital. It was an internal server-monitoring page. The webpage in question had 24 images representing 24 critical servers inside the company. These images would be “green” when the servers were healthy, and “red” when the servers were encountering problems. The page was on a 30 second refresh loop. The computer sat in an operations room where staff were guaranteed to be present 24/7. But staff were not guaranteed to be looking at the green or red images! If a server went “red”, a <bgsound> element would also be introduced. The was a .wav file with 30 seconds of silence, followed by 30 seconds of insane beeping. This way if the server went “green” after a momentary 30 second “red” spell, the beeping wouldn't happen. The beeping would only happen if the server stayed “red” for at least two refreshes of the page. The beeping had the nice effect of causing the staff in the room to look at that computer and figure out what was going wrong. I taught a course on PHP once, and I used this as the only example, *ever*, where a background sound is permissible. I still have a soft-spot for <center> and especially <table align='center'>. I know it's bad, but I can never figure what weird contortion of CSS does the job. Is it margin-left: *; margin-right: *;? But doesn't that screw up on IE5? text-align: center obviously can't deal with display:block, only display:inline. Can never remember the trick, and still <table align='center'> works so well! (<table>'s are like the force. They have amazing power, but great evil can be done with their power.) I saw one website, once, where the <bgsound> was vital. It was an internal server-monitoring page. The webpage in question had 24 images representing 24 critical servers inside the company. These images would be “green” when the servers were healthy, and “red” when the servers were encountering problems. The page was on a 30 second refresh loop.
The computer sat in an operations room where staff were guaranteed to be present 24/7. But staff were not guaranteed to be looking at the green or red images!
If a server went “red”, a <bgsound> element would also be introduced. The was a .wav file with 30 seconds of silence, followed by 30 seconds of insane beeping. This way if the server went “green” after a momentary 30 second “red” spell, the beeping wouldn’t happen. The beeping would only happen if the server stayed “red” for at least two refreshes of the page.
The beeping had the nice effect of causing the staff in the room to look at that computer and figure out what was going wrong.
I taught a course on PHP once, and I used this as the only example, *ever*, where a background sound is permissible.
I still have a soft-spot for <center> and especially <table align=’center’>. I know it’s bad, but I can never figure what weird contortion of CSS does the job. Is it margin-left: *; margin-right: *;? But doesn’t that screw up on IE5? text-align: center obviously can’t deal with display:block, only display:inline. Can never remember the trick, and still <table align=’center’> works so well!

(<table>’s are like the force. They have amazing power, but great evil can be done with their power.)

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