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Comments on A List Apart 4.0
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Nice design… Wish you all the best!
That is *great* Thanks.
I love ALA especially _ ALA 4.0 _
Congratulations, folks. It's quite lovely. And the move to TextDrive? Pure genius, if I may be so bold.
Great job on the site! Onward to the content!
Very, very nice.
we say in german.
plain and good.
hoped for an update since may and I really like the new things.
Good work guys. It's great to see ALA get a new lease of life. The only problem is deciding which "t-shirt":/store I want most :)
Looks great and definitely more agreeable to read. Looking forward for what's to come.
You guys pulled a nice one again!
A great read, and this bit really cracked me up:
_"Each issue will have its own color scheme. Imagine: Red and green for Christmas; blue underlined links for when Jakob Nielsen finally writes for us."_
I can't wait to see new issues appear, now even more than before.
It's fantastic to see the content back, I always really enjoy reading your articles. I can't get enough of the illustrations. Great stuff!
Now it's probably just me, (and I feel slightly blasphemous saying this) but I find it really difficult focusing on the text in the articles. It would be great to have an option to make the font-size larger for us people with bad eyes and small monitors. :)
Finally ALA gets the classy look the great content deserves. Good work!
Great to see your back guys!
Does this mean you're taking submissions again?
I had only been thinking about ALA last night in bed (no really), and wondering why it seemed to have died..nice surprise this morning to find it resurrected in all it's new found glory. Now happy as a pig in doo-dah..
Have we now arrived at the days when we can design at fixed width, 1024x768? Not that I personally have a problem with that.
Great new look, Congratulations!!! I especially like the top left graphic and issue number.
Great Job all of you!
I really feel at home with the new design.
That said only one thing irks me: Did it really have to be Verdana? Lucida would have done the readability-trick too as it did in 3.0.
A nice, clean design that puts the focus squarely on the content, and a bold move to target larger monitors.
Well done, lads!
Great work from all concerned. I like how you've rebranded and yet there are aspects which still feel very much like previous incarnations.
The illustrations by the way are superb. I'd come here just to see them to be honest.
OK, enough sycophancy ;o)
A very nice design indeed. I'm sure we'll start seeing copycats emerge, i.e., that "sincerest form of flattery" thing.
This is really nice work.
Congratulations!!! This look is fantastic! Great Work.
I visited the States for the first time recently and was struck by how common this word was in use. Here in 'stiff upper lip' Britain we reserve it for things that are truly awesome!
Awesome redesign guys!
I just wanted to congratulate you guys on a great job. I really appreciate the content you provide and it serves as an inspiration that even tough this is a tough field to work in at the end if you love it you can still be happy in it. Love the new look!
I came to see the changes and was instantly hooked… What was supposed to be a quick 5 minute visit, turned into an hour long stay… Great Job!
The Joe Clark article, at least in Firefox, prints 8 pages, only three of which have content - on the first three pages, the content shifts in successive stages to the right, then by page 4 it's gone. In IE6 slightly different, the right edge of the content column simple disappears, so you lose words and parts of words.
Please file under "constructive criticism" :)
The attention to details on the new design clearly show the passion of everyone involved. Congrats on a great re-design.
This new design makes me want to read it *ALL* over again.
Can someone explain the thought behind using 0.8125em for the body font-size? Lookin good btw.
love what you've done. tight design - simple, easy to read. thanks for running a great site.
The new site looks great. I'm excited to hear that ALA is back! This site has been an invaluable resource for designers. Thank you!
Great work all around. I've had glimpses into how much effort this was, and it was well worth it. Cheers.
The new site has panache!
Thrilled to see a favorite site, move forward.
Keep up the good work…
Looking forward to An Event Apart near me.
Every now and again my favorite online magazine is redesigned and I am taken aback by it's beauty in organized thought and aesthetics. Welcome back.
Love what you've done with the site!
You guys did a wonderful job. The re-design is great and look forward to all the new articles.
A List Apart is now absolutely gorgeous! I always went to it as just a resource, never thinking of it as eyecandy. But now, wow, now it is both. Simplicity is sublime, and this design is sublime.
Okay, it's designed for 1024x768 rather than 800x600 (or fluid). But that does not really detract from the design, merely the right of the publisher to cater to the audience.
The small touches on the links, the beautiful typography, and the newspaper look all really make this design come together and invite reading. Amazing job to the team that put this together.
Lovely. Congrats on the redesign. Live comment preview is a nice touch.
Very fine work! It feels so light and airy—and live preview is amazing!
We simply must see some Ruby on Rails writings very soon; some of us get PHP, but Ruby is another beast indeed.
Good to see ALA back with a new look. I think most people have said everything there is to say, but major kudos to the sexy new design - some top class CSS from Eric as usual.
I look forward to your future articles with glee and hope that there is any remote chance of you bringing An Event Apart to England any time in the future.
All the best
I generally like the new fresh look, but…
# I don't really see why everyone in the comments above are so forgiving for the 1024x768 issue? I think it's a problem.
It's not that I can't handle viewing on that resolution, but I choose not to. Because the font looks really small on my monitor and I choose to scale the page. Happily Opera manages scaling really well and fit-to-page-width feature removes the horizontal scrollbar problem.
# Visited and unvisited links look exactly the same. Why isn't there a destinction? Not that I would claim all links should be underlined and blue and visited ones purple. But removing the ability to see where you have already been, is simply reducing this site's usability.
Happily again, I can choose to override the visited link colors with my own style sheet.
# (Finally a real problem.) When I tried to register and left the not required e-mail field empty, the site told me "This e-mail address is already in use."
There should be a *preview button* too, because the live preview isn't always quite correct.
My previous post obviously wasn't formatted as I expected.
Congratulations on the redesign! Looking forward to (the) next Tuesday already.
Very, very nice design!
Congrats on the redesign, and glad to see another big name hosting at "TextDrive":http://www.textdrive.com!
Five pages of 'love the site' - wow, job well done!
I enjoyed reading Joe's tome on the new alistapart. It was nice to see an in-depth story as opposed to a longer diatribe split between several posts as seen on many web sites. I hope this leads a movement towards more in-depth content generation around the web.
That's great! Tnx a lot, Jeffrey and ALA team. Wait to see new issues appear.
P.S. And we'll translate them on Russian with pleasure like we done this work before.
Hats off to all of you for this new look in ALA 4.0. I never had a problem with the previous layout, but this new look and feel is more professional, more scholarly, and easier to read.
I'm looking forward to diving into the new site soon to see what else has changed for the better. Until then, good luck and have fun.
Nice redesign!!
more readable, comfortable
You guys are too cool. The new site is stunning.
the right side of the ALA page is clipped in print preview in IE
I've been snooping around the new site and have been enjoying it very much. Great work all around.
I don't think the 1024 width is an issue, as you can read the main text of any article without problems with a 800x600 screen resolution: you only need to scroll if you want to access the small list of topics, advertising, search, etc. That seems ok to me.
Very nice indeed.
not to start a flamefest, but why go with rss 2.0 over rss 1.0? just wondering…i like to get my content in my rss1.0 feeds, and 2.0 doesn't even allow that.
Very nice Clean design, welcome back ALA.
Are you going to be pointing the www.alistapart.com to the new site? Just wondering. I went to it a few minutes ago and was greeted with the old design and content.
Thought it was all a dream for a minute.
The first thing I felt when I saw it was "this looks like a university site." I'm glad it was partially intentionally, or at least acknowledged. I like it a lot—very handsome. I'm looking forward to a wealth of great articles.
As for the t-shirts. I especially enjoy the Count Rugen edition (look it up. ;) xHTML, indeed!
Congratulations on your beautiful and skilled design work at ala 4.0. But where is the beautiful print style sheet you had in your previous version?
- Lack of print CSS
- Previous, Next links on the very bottom of the page has overlaping with page footer in Opera 8.02 (7 and even 6 are Ok).
nice rugen comment!
one other small quibble: "markdown":http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/ does a better job than textile at translating text to html…
Again, very slick. Very…very! Always finding a voice and this is the loudest yet. Congrats on the re-launch of something big and necessary.
The new ALA is really nice! Glad to see it updated again. ;-)
Love the new layout… very minimal, but also very classy. I miss ALA, but no longer ;)!
I too prefer Markdown over Textile, however, they both work just as well.
Noticed that the User Name links, strips out the slashes '/' from the URI's of users.
You folks all did an excellent job! Nice, clean feeling! You rock!
Really nice design, amazing. Congratulations, parabéns!
Beautiful work, all. Damn impressive and inspirational, as a good redesign of a beloved resource should be.
It's great to see ALA back in action, and that pleasure is made that much greater by the tremendous improvements that have been made, aesthetically and structurally. Congrats to the whole team; you've done a superb job!
All i can say is super!
Not bad at all guys! Good to have ALA back again
My resolution is 1024x768, but like so many I surf with my sidebar open, so count me in as another detractor for the widescreen fixed width design. I actually wouldn't complain, except that this design wastes a lot of space on the left just to make room for the logo. Kind of goes against good design sensibility, doesn't it?
I like the new visual design and especially the mild colors.
However, I wouldn't call this wide fixed-width layout good/modern.
Love the new design, but I note that your older articles no longer have their discussions available.
This is rather irritating since I have some of those pages bookmarked (oh, and the bookmarks don't work either!) where people have posted some extremely useful information and web links.
Is there any chance that these will return?
And if not, are all the comments currently being made destined for binary oblivion?
Nice open design, and nice that it's friendly to my 800 x 600 monitor as well for reading the articles themselves.
Is Textile fully working? I tried "h1." at the beginning of a line and it didn't render as <h1>:
h1. This is supposed to be H1 text, but isn't in the preview.
and *bold* via asterisks doesn't work if the last character before the second asterisk is punctuation, *like this,* which means I have to violate the rule that bold styling is supposed to carry over to the immediately following punctuation.
However, I see they both work once posted. The problem is only with the preview.
Old discussions should _hopefully_ return in the near future. As you can imagine the task of migrating all the old issue content was a huge undertaking, and the comments for those articles are even more numerous and expansive. But, we know about it, as well as many other hiccups. You will just have to trust we are on the job :D
_- your friendly neighborhood designer_
Just lovin' the new look, so much easier to read. Congrats to all on what must have been a huge undertaking, what with moving host at the same time and all.
Much respect, and I love the style of the layout. My only gripe is that with all the CSS experts on staff, you still put out a static width layout that doesn't even work on 800x600…
Come on guys, you can try harder than that. Much love!
Subj. Look at the Print Preview. Right side of a page cutted.
I too like the muted color scheme and the general order and dynamism of the new ALA. I do however agree with several of the posters about the fixed width.
The new design is okay, but I find it pretty hard to read compared to the old one. Not really sure what you meant by lacked soul; I had no problem with it, heck, I preferred it.
Beautiful design here, guys. The internet went down at my work today, and the entry on ALA version 4.0 was the last thing open on my browser, so I spent the whole day just staring at it and looking it over. A coworker even came by to look and loved the design as well.
I'll be ordering the XHTML shirt now as a slap in the face at all the Flash designers at my work. Keep up the inspiring designs and articles.
Thumbs up for all the design, the effort in bringing back a 'kinda defunct' ALA (now i know why), and the work to come, to make all archive articles avaliable to us on this new layout and design.
I don't know how long i've been reading ALA now, but I really see this space as one of the most representative websites in my not-so-short career into website development.
Keep the good work guys, you are really appreciated by the whole of us!!
The new design is spiffy, but what really interests me is the new publishing platform using Ruby on Rails. I'm amazed no one has commented on this yet? I look forward to an in-depth article on the technology behind ALA 4.0, and my mouth waters at the thought of peeking at the code behind the scenes. Will the platform be open sourced?
Just when I thought the web was getting 'stale' and nothing new was happening and every page was looking the same, along comes ALA (again). Love the new design, classy, clean design, it just sneaked up on us.
absolutely great re-design. really love it and lookin' forward for upcoming new content. best wishes from germany!
As one who has recently taken to browsing sites such as this with NetNewsWire, I am disappointed to find that I need to shrink my sidebar in order to read the site. Come on folks! You people taught me how to design an effective liquid layout. And now you've cocked it up.
Still, it's great to be see some new content!
Very nice indeed - I have been wondering what had been going on with ALA after not seeing an update for a while!
Liking the new design, looks almost roman to me with the reefs and stuff and nice cool colours. Another site gets redone in a liquid layout - with stuffandnonsense doing the same is this how we are going now? We have just redesigned to a fixed width!
great design guys, brave departure from the old style.
i second the calls for a print style sheet.
for those with woes over 800x600 you could probably offer an alternative style sheet which moves the masthead logo to the top above the nav. The main 3 cols seem to fit nicely within an 800 wide window, if you wanted them to…
I'm I the only one who prefers the old style site? Guess you can't please everyone :-)
I have to agree with all the comments questioning the fixed 1024×768 display. I feel this site should be a flagship for the best practice that is talked about in it's articles.
I really like the new design. I am also glad to see new stuff being added to the ALA feeds. I've really grown to miss the regular updates as I follow the ALA feed pretty close and hadn't seen anything new in a while. Now I know why. Here's wishing you a bigger, better, brighter future. Keep up the great work.
As much as I like all the improved functionality and admire the excellent, I dislike the design. It is 2005, not 19.. whatever. Real shame that such a great opportunity is missed.
Again don't wanna dampen the joy but the design only works at full screen (1024 by 768). I only use full screen when working in applications that require my full attention. Browsing the web lends it self to multi-tasking & multi screens (not just multi tabs in Firefox) - at full screen the website feels as though it is imposing itself on my desktop and it is far too easy for my boss to spot!
Even in this day of larger screen resolution I still advocate designing websites to the old 800 * 600 or getting rid of fixed widths. Bigger is not always better.
Nice to see an update to a site that helped me think about web standards and css in a new way when I first started out in the web development business, but like recent articles, somehow it is unfulfilling and doesn't grab me like the designs that Dan Benjamin, Dan Cederholm, 37 Signals and the Coudal Partners produce.
Nevertheless, this site remains a regular on my bookmark list.
P.S. It also does work well on my pocket pc - something I didn't expect for a revamped site.
The new design is just lovely!
Content is King, right? And this site's content is at least an Emperor, so I can forgive it much in the layout department. It's easy on the eye, only marginally afflicted by the "tiny text disease" contemporary designers are prey to, and still usable when not full screen without excessive horizontal scrolling. A style switcher would be nice though.
The absence of a print stylesheet (or equivalent) is a surprise, given that it was Eric's article on here that got many of us to abandon the old "printer-friendly version" way of doing things. I'm assuming that's work in progress.
What I'd really like to do is control how many comments are displayed per page - articles often trigger good discussions, but I find paging through the comments ten at a time can be a real pain. I'd rather have the option of loading the whole lot at once, or at least getting them in bigger portions.
So glad you're back. I love the new design—fresh yet classy. The article by Jim Coudal was terrific. Looking forward to Tuesdays.
Is it just me, or does the colour scheme in this first issue of ALA 4.0 reek of "zeldman.com":http://zeldman.com/ ? I'm really not impressed with the whole musty brown look for this issue - it makes ALA look like a wine-tasting site instead of a web design site - and personally I'm glad that the colours will be changing in each issue. I hope that ALA 4.0 redeems itself by looking a bit more modern and cutting-edge in the next issue.
I really loved ALA 3.0, and I'm very sorry to see it go. I disagree with Jeffrey Zeldman's criticism of it as "??generic??" and "??lacking soul??". I thought it was quite the opposite: it was sleek, innovative, and full of character. I think that those criticisms are more valid for this new incarnation, than for the old one. Is there any way to look at the site (or at least some pages of it) in the old design? Has ALA 3.0 been archived somewhere, to satisfy those of us that are pining for it?
I'm not impressed with: the lack of support for low-res and / or small-screen users; the removal of the beautiful paintings from the banner; and the continued use of a fixed-width design (particularly now that the banner paintings are gone - using em's to specify the width would be more plausible now). But most of all, I just don't think the new design suits ALA: it's more upmarket, but the 'upmarket' look is bordering on snobbery, and this could turn away the geek audience that has always been a significant part of ALA's readership.
Then again, this new live comment preview is _really cool!_
While quite liking the new design, I find the main text column too wide for comfort. It would be less tirihg to read if it were somewhat narrower. I have tried zooming-in with Firefox but that spoils the overall appearance of the page—by the time the column is the right width, the text is becoming unaesthetically large.
I have no problem with fixed width layouts; in fact I detest liquid designs because they make the long-line problem even worse.
Still, it's good to have you back!
Nice job on the redesign. I've learned a lot from reading this site over the years. Thanks for all your efforts.
What can I say, the new design rox. V.nice.
Nice redesign, simple and elegant. It's not a revolution in terms of design but it's very well crafted. However one question has been nagging at me after reading the article about the redesign and who participated.
Is a web guru still a web guru if they didn't design their own site?
Don't take this as a personal attack on Zeldman himself. I have no doublt about his abilities. But it's an interesting debate.
What makes a web guru? A good understanding of web issues alone? A flair for creative writing and oral presentation? Or is it neccesary they practise what they preach?
P Lemoine
Pierre, is a great movie director still a great director if he doesn't write the screenplay, hold the camera and act in the movie?
A triumph of a redesign - congratulations to all involved. It's like breathing fresh mountain air.
In fact, there's an article about the subject of art direction "within these very pages":http://www.alistapart.com/articles/artdirweb
With all the fantastic design and CSS/XHTML going on here, I have to say my favorite part is the tiled-background-image-with-bottom-border on the links. Something so very simple yet so very cool. Love it.
Meant to say background color…
Very nice design, very clear and beautiful.
I really like the comment preview! I can watch myself type and watch text elements like *bold* and ^superscripts^ are shown to me in real time.
The new design shows a classiness that the old one didn't and I like it! Keep up the great work.
Charles: Good point about the director. He is an integral part of the process. I also enjoyed the article about Art Direction (an article that I'd missed).
To refine the question I posed earlier, if a web "guru" becomes removed from the work over time how does that impact their credibility? If they don't do the work and new technologies develop that they've never used themselves, but they preach about these new technologies are they still credible?
A director can talk about how the latest digital effects help him do his job but if he starts telling me how they're done I'd find his input substanltially less credible than the effects supervisor.
I do feel Zeldman knows what he's talking about otherwise I woldn't keep coming back to this site. But I felt it was a question compelling enough to post. (And was posted here only because his article made me think about it.)
messes up the page layout?
I discovered ALA in June on my journey to better standards design. And then I noticed it wasn't updating ... oh the horror. Anyway, great to see the site renovated and hope to read many new articles.
As for the comments on design, I like it. It's simple and elegant. I don't have a problem with the fixed width as all my monitors run 1280x1024 or higher as a do a lot of graphic work.
Keep up the good work.
Awesome site, I've just discovered it, and now I'm in love with it, what a wonderful work! I've hours reading wonderful articles. Thanks!
Pierre, I see what you're getting at; George Lucas springs to mind with the whole visual effects thing. But I think you're selling the other members of the "Happy Cog team":http://happycog.com/about/ short if you take ALA as a Zeldman only production. Ultimately, the credibility of those involved should be judged by the overall quality of the end result. The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating.
Nice to see this out of the closet.
Wonderfull new side. Please tell us more about the Backend. A mission statement about Ruby on Rails in production use would be a great thing.
Congrats on the redesign! Keep the great content coming…
The new design is great! Definitely worth the publishing freeze that had me worried all this time. Fantastic work—the new design is beautiful and elegant, but sits back and lets the content take center stage.
The topic reorganization is probably my favorite thing about ALA 4.0—the sheer number of articles filed under "CSS" or "XHTML" was a victim of ALA's own success. I'd click one and say, "What if I want CSS articles related to [blank]?" Now, I can easily find something when I have an objective in mind.
I'm very glad ALA is back and better than ever. You guys are truly at the frontier of the web.
Great redesign and as far as it being designed for a 1024x768 resolution; I'm thinking that it was designed for people who make webpages. The target audience are webdesigners meaning it would be the proper time to step out of the 800x600 box and use 1024x768 resolution.
A job well done
Good to see there is a new life for ALA, the prime resource for web coding/content production.
I'm a little bit disappointed in the 1024*768 design. My iBook has got a 1024*768 screen and I never surf in full screen mode. Given the names that produced this website, I would have thought that a bit more flexibility would have been no challenge at all ;-)
On the upside: the site is very easy to read; an example for online reading.
Is Ruby on Rails a scripting language like PHP? I can't tell from their site what it is exactly….
Excellent piece of work! This is what you get when great minds cooperate.
As a long time reader of ALA, I witnessed all incarnations from version 1.0 up, and this is by far the best looking one. Great to see it's still going as strong as ever.
Beautifully simple, stunningly readable, massively useful. An excellent upgrade. Heck, it even works in Konqueror!
All the best…
Firstly - I'm rapt to see some action on the site and like the redesign. My favourite aspect is how you have made many different fonts all work in the same design. Clever.
However (hate that word, but…) the css is not working in IE Mac - was that browser written-off as irrelevant? I was eager to see how you addressed the 100% width repeating header (and pesky scrollbar) issues as I have been struggling with that myself in Mac IE. When I checked IE Mac's rendering of your site I found that a large section at the top of the design extending right from the main logo is obscured by a grey rectangle. This makes the site unuseable in that browser. I know web designers that use Macs and test in IE thinking (wrongly) that they are covering IE PC also. These are the same people who would benefit most from your enlightened content but will go elsewhere if they visit using IE Mac.
Lastly, regarding the fixed width debate - I was expecting to see the column widths expand when scaling up the text, but I understand the issues that made you refrain from this.
In awe of your skills people. And thanks for all the great content.
It looks good - modern, clean, professional.
But if I was sat at any other desk in this office, it would be a PITA to use. Mine is the only PC that can display more than 800×600. So anyone else in this office looking at your site would see horizontal scrollbars and wouldn't see the menu "above the fold".
And it only looks good because my computer is bad. IE doesn't remember that I like to look at text at "smaller", because "normal" size text is just too big. But if I do look at your site with "smaller" text - ie, the text size that I find best to read - it is illegibly small. Not just too small to be comfortable, but utterly illegible.
For a site that prides itself on accessibility, and writes such good articles on the topic, this is disappointing. Not so much the font size, because I can get round that, but a minimum width of 1024 really is unforgiveable. Sorry.
For a moment, I thought that I visited the wrong site. But it was ALA's itself. Still Legendary and still magnificent. Really good job.
It goes to crap at anything smaller than 1006 pixels. Many of us still set our monitor at 800x600, and many of us browse with a smaller-than-maximized window that might be smaller than 1006 pixels. Horizontal scrolling bad.
It also goes to crap at larger text sizes - some menu items at the top become completely inaccessible.
I'm greatly disappointed in a site that preaches accessibility on the main page - and a site I like to point others to when *I* preach accessibility.
It's great that on the comments page, someone can click on my name and go straight to my web page, a really nice touch.
But what of the home(page)less? Clicking on their names sends you to http:/// - not very friendly. Could there be some trick that only hyperlinks the name when there's a non-empty string?
Let me preface my comments by saying, I'm one of those old school guys that started designing before the web, or computers.
As such, my view of design relates to the form and function of the page visually. I agree that web standards are important (if I didn't think so I wouldn't be here).
In reading some of the other comments, there is a lot of praise for this design. I agree the code for this site is done very well, but don't confuse code and visual appearance. Without going into a long winded critique, I would just say that there are elements of this design that don't work (and I'm not talking about 800 x 600). Now I'm not saying by any means that this site is terrible, my point is that it appears to me more thought is given to the code and not enough to the actual presentation.
In his book, Designing With Web Standards , Jeffrey Zeldman walked us through a design process that started and ended in code. I don't know if that was the case here, but this is a practice I have seen too often. The design process should start with a well thought out design that is then translated into compliant code. A really great design does both extremely well.
I'm not terribly sold on this upgrade. A lot of people could skim through old articles on this very site and make arguments on its design. Visually the site's on the mark, but only for those with enough screen to afford it. The content management system is above the mark (and far beyond something I could pull off), but there are still issues (the CMS no longer allows people to register without an email address because it sees a blank email address in someone's account and says the email address has been taken). A lot of this can be fixed easily, though.
I think expectations were very high for this redesign; people wanted a flawless, liquid layout with a rock-solid CMS straight out of the gate.
I can't fault the A List Apart folks, though, because overall this is a spectacular site and has helped me out several times. While this redesign isn't a 100% case of "practice what you preach", it's still a good place for people new to standards-based design to learn.
This was indeed a welcome surprise when I dropped by ALA this morning. It's good to seea loose, easy layout with spiffy design, executed via css (as I would expect from Zeldman et al)...
Congrats all who worked therein!
Loving the new look and feel. I had wondered where you were Jeff, now I see that the absence was worth while.
Nice work guys!
Your response to my comment about design is not true…
"Nobody would write such markup and CSS unless they were working to deliver detailed page designs."
Unfortunately, they do, I see it all the time. I am glad that you took the time to map out your site properly. However I work with and see lots of examples of designers/developers who spend countless hours working out code for a poorly planned site.
If you want to defend the attributes of your design, which there are many, point to them, don't use the markup as proof.
Congrats with improvements! But why again fixed page layout (as opposed to fluid)? Why default font is so small (at least I can change its size from MSIE, some sites use absolute font sizes)? When I change to "larger" font from "normal", MSIE 6.0 hides the right navigation column. Do you guys really think that small fonts and toned-down colors make for a upscale website? Not that my own site is better (frankly, it sucks), but you are supposed to set the tone amongst those not in the know.
C'mon, you can do better, guys!
Lots of positives but… I find the very small font hard to read, soon becoming tiring, especially with the white background glare. The line-length is also too long, imho. So I do NOT find it comfortable reading, which is one of the main aims of the site. Surely an option to change style is a must as all kinds of people make websites these days.
I like the visual joke of the A List Apart logo being in the form of a…list…apart on the left, but it doesn't have me rolling on the floor. I would prefer 800 width instead, even though I don't use 800x600 much, but I almost always have my sidebar open so my window size is 800, so I miss the right column. If you must, you could still have the logo apart but make it float over the text when the window narrows or make it push the top text aside.
I think it's a beautiful new look. I really enjoy the feeling of open space. However, when I try to look at the site on my smartphone, it draws the black rule across the top and then crashes the browser.
I really like the new design, great work team.
One small thing I noticed is that the old /stories/ urls are broken eg: http://www.alistapart.com/stories/doctype/. At this point Google is still pointing to the old URLs so some Apache tweaking may be in order.
This is a hugely attractive and inspiring design. Many congratulations for all the work everyone has done - it's never easy revamping, but seldom is it as successful as you've made this look and feel!
Great T's too!!
I recently started browsing A List Apart after reading ??Designing with Web Standards??, and I must say I am quite impressed by the wise use of horizontal space in the new layout.
My favorite part is how the box containing the logo goes "over" the border at the top of the page, but "under" the horizontal line that supports the nav and the bug. Additionally, The rollovers on both the logo and issue no. elements are fabulous.
Thought I'd give the old bookmark a click and to my surprise the new ALA site was such a pleasant surprise. Works great on my set up (23" HD Cinema Display at 1920 x 1200) and quite frankly I find it a pleasure to read and truly enjoy the white space.
The new site design feels light, clean, airy, refreshing, tasteful, and sophisticated, and to my thinking is an excellent example of "less is more." I'm surprised by some of the negative comments, especially those that seem stuck in a mind set of "overdesign for design sake." This site is meant to be read, and the new design serves that end wonderfully. It's easy to read and doesn't seem to lead to visual fatigue sometimes brought about by darker, heavier design elements.
A very nice, effective, and attractive redesign - ALA leaps forward once again - Thank You!
The new design is very nice to look at but I was a big fan of the last layout. However, ever looking forward and not backward I look forward to growing into a good feeling about this design. Besides the cover of the book is not the correct judge of the content held within. Keep up the good work all.
bug > when signing up to comment, it says that email is optional, so I left it blank, but that generated an error because somene already has the email address 'null'
Your new design is attractive, but one of the things I liked most about ALA was being able to print out articles that I found useful. Printing from the new ALA site is pretty useless. I don't understand why there is no print style sheet with this new design.
And unfortunately, I've never been a fan of fixed-width designs. The new ALA design is almost 1000 px wide, too wide in my opinion.
Hope you will fix the printing issue.
I guess I will be the first say that I feel the new layout and design is not nearly as 'neat' as the last one. The new site actually looks boring at first glance and somehow I feel the text is harder to read as well.
...why aren't articles printer friendly?
Both Explorer (Win 6.0), Opera (Win 7.23) cut the right side of the page (including text). Firefox (Win 1.0) works good.
Anyhow: great job!
This is realy briljant. Nice layout and design! I'am impressed.
The design and layout are lovely indeed. I find myself wishing that the width of the center column were variable however. Some of us keep our browsers slim, and your right column completely escaped my view until I saw the horizontal thumb bar at the bottom of the browser window.
I also wish you used the "user name" rather than the real name for posts. (Wasn't that the implication?) :)
I especially dig the new IRI design, i.e. no trailing slashes for new articles. :) Congrats to the entire team!
This new design is fantastic! Easy to read, aesthetically pleasing.
ALA is simply more beautiful than ever…
So I like the new layout for its wider main column and improved readability. I don't quite mind the fixth widht set at 1024 px. However, as someone else pointed out, why is there _nothing_ except the logo at the top. Are there plans to have content under that logo in the future? If not, there seems to be no reason why this couldn't just be a two column layout.
Anyway, I also noticed, as previously mentioned some bugs in the Textile preview and an error when leaving one's email blank during registration.
Keep up the good work and great content.
It really is the most pleasing site I have come accross in a very long time - and SO informative and easy to navigate.
Congratulations to all concerned - and keep up the good work.
It really is the most pleasing site I have come accross in a very long time - and SO informative and easy to navigate.
Congratulations to all concerned - and keep up the good work.
Like the new presentation, but…
I've got two "vanilla" Windows machines here in the office, one desktop and one laptop. The default text size option (i.e. what was selected following system installation) that is set within IE6.02 on each machine is "smaller."
When viewing the "new" ALA on either machine using IE, the text size of the body copy throughout the site is so small that it is unreadable. This was not the case with either of these machines when viewing the "old" ALA.
Personally this doesn't bother me as I use Firefox as my default browser, however given the nature of this site I'm quite surprised to see such a significant oversight. With computers set to use higher and higher resolutions out of the box (especially laptops, where the res gets higher but the screens stay the same), this is hardly something that should be chalked up to an IE weakness or a user-config error.
I'll be happy to provide a screenshot on request.
I am really glad you guys are back. But it seems like I am the only one who DOESN'T LOVE the new look. It is like when the wife comes home from the beauty shop, "You like my new hairdo?"
I didn't know you NEEDED a new look. AND, worst of all, I don't like it. Sure, some things make sense, and overall, I am glad you did it… but…
I miss the graphic headers (paintings) and really dislike the article titles onMousOver (hover) style. Uuugh-ly. My opinion.
However, I do love the magazine and content and will continue to learn much from you guys, so welcome back.
Looks groovy. However, the principle article font is set quite small. On Windows, it's readable. On Mac, not so much. Perhaps this could be addressed.
It's been fun, exciting, rewarding and educational to watch ALA grow since the list days. She's all grown up now. Looking forward to a bright future reading Alistapart.
All the best 8 )
As has already been said, the font sizing and the fact I need a side scroll at 800x600 is a backward step, has anyone at ALA given a good explanation for this? I fear a hoarde of non-compliant copycat sites who claim it's ok to go against web standards cos ALA do.
Relly nice design and engine
I am suprised that Eric Meyer didn't provide a Printer Friendly version of the site… considering he was the one who wrote the article on "Printer Friendly Sheets"
Also, the font is way too small. There should be a limitation to how small it can be viewed.
bq. "¦ the font sizing and the fact I need a side scroll at 800×600 is a backward step, has anyone at ALA given a good explanation for this? I fear a hoarde of non-compliant copycat sites who claim it's ok to go against web standards cos ALA do.
There's nothing in the W3C recommendations about (initial) font size and screen width. The fact that the font size is adjustable in IE/Win means it is following accessibility guidelines. ALA already did justify the width by stating they couldn't please everyone—count yourself among those that aren't pleased.
Personally for me, the width is neither here nor there. It doesn't matter. For a site visited mainly by developers and designers, it's surprising that so many people have a problem with a 1024-pixel base width.
You are back! Missed the pleasant readings all this time. Thanks folks and congrats on the upgrade.
(one more little bug you guys might take a look, in the create a login form, you might not enter your email, but then it tells you that email is already taken. Fun with the insects.)
Plain and Simple aka Beautiful :-) Compliments from Italy :-)
Plain and Simple aka Beautiful :-) Compliments from Italy :-)
what ever happened to ALA 3.0's print style sheet? Or was it
left as an exercise to the readers? oh, also btw, would be nice
if the checkbox with id "incdisc" in the Search ALA form is
linked to a label.
Seems like most form elements on the ALA forms are labelled.
Love the new design.
bq. Personally for me, the width is neither here nor there. It doesn't matter. For a site visited mainly by developers and designers, it's surprising that so many people have a problem with a 1024-pixel base width.
This is a website to promote good design and good practice. Unfortunately the 1024 fixed width and the lack of a print stylesheet violate both of those principles.
Just because most web designers have high end computers doesn't mean that we all do, and it doesn't mean that we want to browse in a full screen window. If ALA can get away with saying "Our website is only going to be read by the élite", where is the incentive for other designers to make the effort?
Mixed feelings about the fixed-width — I do it too, but not generally this wide — but as far as the colors, typography and layout goes, the new design looks fantastic. (I guess I'm a sucker for tone-on-tone.) ALA always serves to inspire me, and this version is no exception. Congratulations!
I have been wondering where does ALA get the statistics for determining the site's specs, specifically the width of the browser? Is 1024 the current standard today?
I am wondering if this is a delimiter, to separate the 800x600 crowd. But don't get me wrong, I pretty much like the new/old style. It's just that I am thinking, would web designers/developers start embracing the fact that indeed the 1024 is here and we can kiss the 800x600 crowd… well rather out?
I have been wondering where does ALA get the statistics for determining the site's specs, specifically the width of the browser? Is 1024 the current standard today?
I am wondering if this is a delimiter, to separate the 800x600 crowd. But don't get me wrong, I pretty much like the new/old style. It's just that I am thinking, would web designers/developers start embracing the fact that indeed the 1024 is here and we can kiss the 800x600 crowd… well rather out?
Fantastic! My compliments to the ALA team, bravo for real!
Kevin Cornell is a morally bankrupt, dirty-dirty man. How A List Apart could lower itself to employ such a lecher is beyond the scope of my imagination. Oh happy day!
Hope this marks the turning of the corner for ALA, looking forward to reading more. Great stuff.
I've followed link from site older than ALA4 and got "http://www.alistapart.com/topics/dom/":404. I was expecting you brilliant guys to have automatic redirects from all old links.
Oh, and there is "click here" link above comment box! How lame! ;)
I've got Textile link wrong. It was supposed to be: "404":http://www.alistapart.com/topics/dom/
It is lovely indeed, but you've got a small bug in registration. although email is listed as optional, if you leave that field blank you are given the error that "that email is taken"
cheers on the launch!
Nice site and all, but in the name of accessibility I think you have chosen a far too small font size. Especially code is unreadable…
Nice work. :) I was just wondering, since ALA strongly promotes accessibility and clean semantic code, why you didn't use any labels for your "Search ALA" field?
"Include discussions" is just a in your form. What about <fieldset> and <legend>? (also missing these things on your registration form, though you did implement labels there: http://www.alistapart.com/comments/ala40/signup)
Was this left out purposely or was it merely an oversight (e.g. in a rush to get the new site online)? Not trying to be too nitpicky… :)
I always loved ALA. If the content-related level of articles won't be lower, I'll love you much more than it is now :) Good luck.
Like others have said before me… Could we please, no I mean *PLEASE* see some source on how the Rails CMS was built? There's a sore lack in the webdev-space for this kind of progra atm. We might be rolling our own here at "mopo as in Norway":http://mopo.no , but would prefer to build on the work of others (we are a free as in liberty type of company).
I noticed the new colour scheme for Issue 202 still uses brown for the hover background on links. Shouldn't it be a shade of green? Also I was thinking the main ALA logo would change colour too with each issue. Anyway, great site! Keep it up. So glad you're back.
Sorry to be late to the party but I'm a busy man. I haven't had time to read all the comments but the ones I have read seem to like ALA 4.0. I don't.
But if you move that bloody logo (I hate branding) over to the right of the viewport so I can read the, mostly, brilliant articles and interesting comments on them without having to SCROLL HORIZONTALLY I'll change my mind. But if anyone tells me to make my browser window wider I'll scream and probably not visit ALA again. User rules OK (since CSS2, anyway).
I quite like the 'live' comment preview though it was lucky that I had scripting enabled. Not everybody does you know and I haven't been able to find any noscript tags in the XHTML source. ( http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/wai-pageauth.html#tech-scripts , I think.)
You make over 25% of page left side completely useless. This huge logo is so important? Very good content, but scary design. Old ALA layout was much better for me.
- Tasteful combination of serif and sans serif types. (The small font is just fine)
- Perfect application of big space on the left which is a basic layout principle of white space.
- Palette that gives the site a mature and respectable air.
Totally inspiring. Best design ever!
I always found ALA a great source for CSS stuff. But now it looks like a cornflakes box. Maybe the web will look in general more like a cornflakes box with CSS. Certainly that impression arouses when you look at some designers' pages ... Talking about the old ALA as looking "conservative" I don't know how to call this. But maybe such things come after publishing books and growing up.
Best greetings.
I was suprised to see a new design. I do like it though.
I also plan to buy all three of the ALA shirts when I get paid.
I was suprised to see a new design. I do like it though.
I also plan to buy all three of the ALA shirts when I get paid.
Congratulates! version 4.0 was born.
And thanks ZELDMAN, always give me best ways for standards
I love new ala's dress "molto elegante".
Thank you for your great work.
When the discussion are closed, the link to the Discussions is removed. Atleast let me read what was already discussed, even if new discussions are not allowed. Perhaps someone already asked the question similar to mine and it was answered.
As it stands I'm stranded.
Such an attractive site, clean, crisp, beautiful on a Mac with anti-aliasing! I can't stop staring at the layout, the smooth serif fonts…
Have you intentionally designed for a minimum 1024x768 ?
When viewing the size in a windowed browser, running this resolution, WXP, Firefox 1.0.6, horizontal scrolling is required to view content.
I must say, I'm not a big fan of the forced fixed-width design. I think it overlooks a lot of basic web design principals. But, so be it—the redesign does look nice. A recent debate about this in another forum got me motivated to offern an alternative for those that want it. I made a bookmarklet to convert the article pages into a fluid-width layout for thos of us that prefer it:
Textiled link:
"ALAP Fluid Bookmark":http://mnteractive.com/archive/fixing-the-fixed-width-design-again/
As I grow and learn (present tense always) ALAP has been and continues to be an inspiration to excellence.
As an old teacher used to tell me, a real pro makes it look simple. Your new design has that awesome simplicity.
However, I do feel that the fonts of comments are too small. I always read it enlarged.
Is it me or the design?
Nir Ben-Dor
I write for "Linkaedlic Magazine":http://www.comagz.com/webmagazine/ , you can too.
ALA能有今天之å?'å±•ï¼Œå®Œå…¨å› ä¸ºå¥¹ä¸?是为自己而生ï¼?ï¼?"没有任何广告"?,å?¯è§?一斑ï¼?ï¼?æ¤å…¶é•¿ä¹…ä¹‹å†…åœ¨æ ¹æº?。
is there a physical "A list Apart" magazine i can order?
Congratulations, I like this new better. Nice Loking!
The new look is cool but I still prefer the old stylish , compact page


text:
Pillar 3: Consistency Via Safely Shared Resources
Pillar 3 is all about dealing with shared resources, especially shared memory state, without either corruption or deadlock. Here we use key terms like acquire and release; read and write; and atomic and consistent and transaction. In these columns, I'll mostly focus on dealing with mutable objects in shared memory.
Today's status quo for synchronizing access to mutable shared objects is locks. Locks are known to be inadequate (see [3] and [4]), but they are nevertheless the best general-purpose tools we have. Some frameworks provide selected lock-free data structures (hash tables) that are internally synchronized using atomic variables so that they can be used safely without taking locks either internally inside the data structure implementation or externally in your calling code; these are useful, but they are not a way to avoid locking in general because they are few and many common data structures have no known lock-free implementations at all.
In the future, we can look forward to improved support for locks (for example, being able to express lock levels/hierarchies in a portable way, and what data is protected by what lock) and probably transactional memory (where the idea is to automatically version memory, so that the programmer can just write "begin transaction; do work; end transaction" like we do with databases and let the system handle synchronization and contention automatically). Until we have those, though, learn to love locks.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Remy Mars+Favorites
Remy Mars
Date of Birth:11/11/87
Height:5 ft 7 in (170 cm)
View Remy Mars's Media:
Although his name sounds like a rock star with a fondness for cognac, Remy Mars is in fact a black gay porn star from Philly. Remy was born in Jackson, MS on November 11, 1987 and later moved to Philadelphia, PA, where he graduated from Washington George High School in 2005. Remy started performing in gay adult film a year later and some of his most popular films include You Know What I Did Last Summer 1 & 2, Turned Out, There's Something About Remy, and Black Gold. In addition to performing, Remy also considers himself a student, entrepreneur, and writer.
Photo Gallery
Recommended Movies


text:
Passing up Passport Revenue?
Until the early 1970s, citizens applying for passports had to wait in long lines at one of 10 U.S. Department of State passport offices or at a federal or state court. The traveling public was not happy about the inconvenient locations of these offices or the hours' long wait to submit an application, and they let their elected officials know. The solution allowed post offices to accept and process passport applications on behalf of the State Department. The passports were then mailed directly to the applicants.


text:
China Set to Become Top OPEC Importer
China is on track to become the world's top buyer of oil from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Deborah Kan talks to Wood Mackenzie's President of Global Markets William Durbin about China's growing demand for Middle East oil and its commercial and geopolitical consequences.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... the the ... AEO as the buyer of oil from OPEC and ever con joining me now is Williams and ... Lee is the president and global markets actively make and see ... Heidfeld and to see you at this ... time ... overtaking the U S as the biggest purchaser of oil from OPEC what is this all mean and how to the upside down ... will any legal means is you sure it doesn't mean ... a whole lot to be as ... this is more of a commercial adjustment for him ... in the news and as ... as China it just becomes the dominant customer ... of it in the longer term it does play a role ... in the sense that will be looking in China ... adding much to Congress exposure ... to diesel oil supply and demand is going to be coming from a single ... region ... and convert ... sleeper though Pakistan and instead of the industry globally has become more concentrated ... in Asia and of course to Asian demand ... is heavily weighted towards China ... so in terms of of what it all means ... is really interesting to see how the opponents of the rules of cutting its workout ... I in in in the next few years between hope in China ... what that what I ... think this will have on the EU had met and the current sadden us now and oil at boiling gas revolution and the U S is experiencing right now ... what is that on me ... well when he said ... it's it's affording the US ... of course you buy one free on ... line you in terms of it's it's an easy ... relationships ... to the world ... in the past has always expected of us would be looking and rising imports you're in here ... because of the oven because the goal ... of completing the resource base ... for shale oil and it ... changes the equation and Angie's the relationship between us and a undress world ... going forward basis ... but you really the train I am season and Tennessee's top five companies and national oil companies ... I think you'll still see the same amount of of of of competition ... for assets that will eat for upstream assets globally ... and as I think I have a lot about laughing its foreign dependence on oil that the two women that isn't going to be dependent on the Middle East ... for some time to come ... what is this all mean for the geo politics in the region and given the fact they do ... a lot of the ... instability in that region ... you know that it's it's it's it's a complicated question in the short answer ... is his bosses stays on design beauty ... changes that that's going to happen in this ... relationship ... and in fact new in the the the sale of oil demand ... up and oil imports and Elise were for China ... a story still forty tell place ... at table in the Middle East ... it's it's uses it to say that place ... the course existing players and including the United States ... will need to recognize that China's growing commercial and diplomatic presence in the region ... only be nominated for purchases though it is accommodating ... China's oil demand growth ... and its impact on on who is loyal to the kitchen ... and that will happen to us from Beijing for more on that star a pink


text:
PENN TWP — Shelbourne Personal Care has a new owner.
The Nugent Group of Hermitage bought the facility at 296 Dinnerbell Road in May from the Hollinger Group of Mechanicsburg.
The sale was announced today.
Despite the sale, there are not expected to be any changes in staffing or services.
"Everything should stay status quo," said Sarah Boland, spokeswoman for the Nugent Group, on today.
The facility has 60 beds, and Boland said it is at about 95 percent capacity. It has about 40 employees.
Boland said that the building will undergo some potentially major renovations soon. Currently, workers are doing some painting in the facility, she said.
The facility was founded in 1998 by David and Laurye Feller and four partners, all of whom are health care professionals, after searching for an assisted living facility for their mothers but not finding anything they liked.
The Nugent Group, which was founded 55 years ago, is a company that specializes in health care and education.
It owns five other health care facilities, mostly in Mercer County, as well as a nonprofit.


text:
Today, Denzel Matthew, a youth in Dominica, is presenting his success story to the United Nations as part of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. As part of our blog series "31 in 31," we are sharing Denzel's story in his own words, as well as some of the photos he has taken as part of a ChildFund-sponsored photography course.
By Denzel Matthew
I am 16 years old and one of a group of other people close to my age who are working together to address the needs of our community.
We have a high rate of school dropouts in my community. High poverty rates mean that many children and youth cannot attend school. Some quit school early because they are not happy, or they are thrown out because they do not behave properly. We hope to change this by mentoring and tutoring them in reading and writing schools. Our group has made a proposal to ChildFund staff to see if this is possible.
We are also focused on providing positive social activities, such as attending sporting events and playing football and hiking together.
We also want to help protect the environment. We are proposing a conservation program to help protect an area called Nature Island, a popular destination for tourists in my country. We want to help conserve the animals in this area, which includes rare turtles and a frog species known as a Mountain Chicken.
But this wasn't always my story. Less than two years ago I was known in my community for other reasons. I used to feel frustrated and hopeless. I turned to violence to express my unhappiness with life. Every day was a struggle for me to survive, as I come from a poor family and community. I could not see my future. I had nowhere to go. I felt helpless.
But something happened at my school that changed my life — a photography class was introduced thanks to ChildFund. One of our assignments was a photo essay to show off our community. It seemed strange because in my world, there was little beauty. But I liked taking photos and my other friends liked it as well.
We also had a football program at our school that I participated in with my friends. For the first time in my life, I had a way to let out my emotions without being violent.
Today, I am a happier person and am happy to tell my story. But much work remains. I hope that by helping others in school and getting more youth involved that I can change the future of others who may be in situations like mine.
For more on Denzel and today's event, click here.
What's next: Our discussion of island nations continues as we stay in the Caribbean to visit neighboring St. Vincent.


text:
Vermé Scriptorium; The Usherwood Adventures Blog
The Usherwood blog site has been launched at http://www.usherwoodadventures.com/blog/. You're invited to stop by and leave your comments.
Usherwood Publishing Art Available at FineArtAmerica.com
You can now order prints of your favorite Usherwood Publishing illustrations through online art publisher FineArtAmerica.com. All adventure maps are also available for purchase as high-resolution poster prints. Click here to view the gallery.
OSRIC ePub
Usherwood Publishing is proud to provide eBook conversion services for the OSRIC SRD. See the Downloads page for details.
Take OSRIC Everywhere you go!
Usherwood Publishing presents its exclusive A5 trim of the complete OSRIC SRD. This is the same editorial version as that offered by Black Blade Publishing in conjunction with Usherwood Publishing. Its smaller trim (approximately 5¾x8¼ inches)—and free companion PDF—is perfect for travel. This trim is available exclusively through Usherwood Publishing. This trim is available exclusively through Lulu.com and RPGNow.com by Usherwood Publishing.
The Bone-Hilt Sword: complete campaign
All five books in the Bone-Hilt Sword sequence are now availble as print-on-demmand (in both black-and-white and color versions), PDF (includes form fields throughout the PDF to record you gaming notes), and eBoos (in both .mobi and .epub files formats).
Watch also for the Bone-Hilt Sword Complete Campaign to be released as a single volume POD exclusively available through our outlets at RPGNow.com and Lulu.com. Anticipated release date is April 2013.
Update: The POD book is now available through Lulu.com and RPGNow.com.
Within the fires of creation
Watch for these upcoming new adventures, and utilities from Usherwood Publishing:
Zor Draxtau
Usherwood Publishing is pleased to announce this periodic newsletter, which will feature campaign setting updates and Open Gaming Content (OGC) materials from the Usherwood Adventures Sourceweb, and featured Usherwood Publishing adventures and products. The newsletter will be a free PDF download available through this website, as well as the RPGNow.com family of eStores. Also contained within the newsletter will be articles of FEADAD (First Edition)/OSRIC interest, and special deals on Usherwood swag and POD adventures.
Open Game Content
Unless otherwise noted, all content contained within this product is to be considered Product Identity, and may not be used in any form without the expressed written permission of James D. Kramer design services. That content which is denoted as Open Game Content may be used in accordance with the Open Gaming License (copyright Wizards of the Coast, Inc.), and/or the OSRIC license (copyright Stuart Marshall and Matthew Finch) where applicable.
Open Gaming Content (OGC) can be identified in text as serif'd and green, and will be accompaied by the logo seen here to the right of the text column.
Featured Artist(s)
The Setting Sourceweb utilizes the artistic talents of several RPG artists, as well as repurposing numerous historical artistic pieces that fall within the Public Domain. I have included an End Notes section that details the soure of each of these pieces where available.
Copyright, Trade Dress, and OGC
Free information of course does not imply that this content is free for you to distribute or republish as you desire. Please respect the copyright ownership of all providers that appear on this website. Where information is determined to be Open Gaming Content (OGC), such information will be duly noted at its place within the website. Content not identified specifically as OGC is considered to be product identity, and therefore is the copyright of James D. Kramer design services, or other third-parties, and may not be used without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder. Further, the specific trade dress and presentation of the materials on this website is considered 'trade dress', and therefore cannot be replicated without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder(s).
All content presented on this website is the copyright of James D. Kramer design services, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.


text:
Emma was on Summer break last week, so we filled the week with local explorations and little day trips. Peony season is one of my most favorite times of the year - the blooms are just so unbelievably majestic and heavenly scented, I just can't get enough. So our first trip was to the local (as in 45 minutes south...) Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens (Overland Park, KS) on a hunt for peonies - I wanted Emma to be able to experience them in a huge bounty.
We packed a picnic lunch, put on Emma's most peony appropriate dress, drove alllll they way out there to discover... I had forgotten my wallet. It was in the swim bag from the day before. Admission was only $3 (for me, free for Emma) and all I could scrounge up was $1.25 in quarters from my car.
I asked the admissions lady if they would allow me to mail a check for the remaining fee (I even offered to include an extra donation...) if they would allow us to come in. A woman near by that seemed to be in charge (she was on a golf cart and sporting gardening gear) come over and said not to worry - she would pay the rest of my fee. I realize that a $2 handout is tiny by most comparison, but it seemed huge at the moment... the difference between putting my 1-year-old back in the car for 45 minutes after talking about all of the pretty flowers we'd be seeing on the way there!
We spent a fabulous morning there - I let Emma lead the way, which she loves, of course. She ran and roamed all over the gardens smelling flowers, looking at fish and testing the boundaries.
These are my favorite peony - the palest pink with bright yellow centers. Very chic.
My favorite area, was of course the peonies...
But the "fishies" were her favorite part.
The gardens are all maintained by volunteers.
Emma wondering around with her brownie.
Many artists enjoying the blooms.
Starting to wind down...
More gardeners.
Irises in bloom.
Love how she closes here eyes when she smells the flowers.
Dancing on the deck.
The funniest joke.
More groovin'!


text:
Froggy wrote: i don't think i could mentally handle being ultra wealthy.
If by some miracle I'd win the 500mil, I'd hope other folks would have winning tickets as well.
As long as I would never have to work again, I'd be happy with that. I don't want houses and cars and things, I just want to be a lazy bum and never have to work for a living.
I would do volunteer work, but I wouldn't consider that mind numbing, yoke of oppression work.


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Quote from: REALITY on August 22, 2010, 08:08:20 AMIn the end, who cares WHY it works out that way, as long as it does?First off, let me point out that you didn't address my point on the anecdotal nature of the evidence.With regard to the WHY, if there's an independent reason that's causing the correlation but you don't take that into account, then there's a good chance that things will no longer continue to work out that way.Say, for example, that the people you know who are lawyers happen to be the people you know who are smart and motivated. They would probably have made more money regardless of whether or not they became lawyers. If, however, you say that the important thing is that they are lawyers and not that they are smart and motivated, and this leads people who are not smart or motivated to go to law school, then your observation that lawyers make more money will no longer hold true, at least not to the same degree.
In the end, who cares WHY it works out that way, as long as it does?
No shitthats why I started it off with "who cares"
No!!! All it takes is to coast through college and get some multiple choice questions on a test about nothing. Then you get admitted into a law school and all your worries drift away. You become almost superhuman, you can't count the money in your bank account, and you become extremely motivated once you start. Don't you know that law school solves everyone's problems.


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Okay, obviously none of the things any of the rappers list in this song are a problem whatsoever. Loving bad bitches? Totally cool. Loving to screw? That's a perfectly normal human desire.
But Notorious B.I.G. first established the maxim of "mo' money, mo' problems," and perhaps if you're a popular rapper, the same principle applies to your ladies. [Spotify]


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Get Journey North's free New Mobile App!
Citizen scientists and budding environmentalists can now report sightings of birds, butterflies, and other migrating species from the field to the Journey North network using their iPhone or iPad. The new app provides tools including maps, a geographic locator, and a function to record and send field notes. App users can take and send photos of their quarry using their camera phone. By reporting sightings of migrating species, the app user becomes part of a network of more than 900,000 K-12 students who contribute data as they track the season's advance northward. An Android version of Journey North mobile is currently in production and will be announced shortly. download the free app
Journey North, the nation's premiere citizen science project for children, is a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. Participants (including the general public) share observations of animals and changes in the ecosystem. The data feeds into the resource-rich Journey North Web site, which features migration maps dating back to 1997, images and photos of wildlife, video, standards-based lesson plans, classroom activities, and information from scientists about specific species and the seasons. Journey North is a winner of the Webby award as a best educational site.
Journey North is presented by Annenberg Learner and can be accessed through its Web site. Annenberg Learner is a division of the Annenberg Foundation. FlickerLabs is the developer of the Journey North apps.
Saturday, March 24, 2012, Elizabeth Howard got a chance to tell listeners of The Animal House on WAMU 88.5 about the Journey North citizen scientist program! Read the audio transcript of the interview here: Journey North on The Animal House.
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Check out the Journey North Web site for information about how to get your students involved in tracking animal migrations and the arrival of spring.


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Frizura - Hair Style
Frizura per cdo event, dasma, fejesa... si dhe njohuri e pergjithshme.
Hair styling and Hair care. Hair care equipment and appliances. How to create braids, chignons, french pleats, rolls, top knots, twists, coils, curls... Everything about your hair!
Monday, May 07, 2012
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What's in a name? The name "Chicano" carries with it the identity and ideology of the student militancy of the 1960s and '70s. While the term has become synonymous with its political times, "Chicano" began as something much more humble.
The man who in 1979 wrote about the term "Chicano," its origins, usage and influence, comes to the University of Houston as part of the Center for Mexican American Studies' (CMAS) 40th Anniversary Spring Speakers Series.
"Chicano Revisited: Politicizing the Practices of Everyday Life" will feature Jose Limon, University of Notre Dame professor of American Literature. The event is planned from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 5 in the Rockwell Pavilion in the M.D. Anderson Library. The event is free and open to the public.
"My talk explores the tensions that can arise when political elites appropriate the everyday cultural practices of a people whom they presume to lead," Limon said. "I was and continue to be such a political elite. I focus on the term "Chicano" as it was appropriated by the political elite of the Chicano Movement of the 1960s, but I also discuss other such cultural practices in the arts, literature and everyday language and dress."
In 1979, Limon wrote the seminal essay "The Folk Performance of Chicano and the Cultural Limits of Political Ideology," which traced how the name "Chicano" moved from a nickname—or the Nahuatl shortened name for "Mexican"—to a public name associated with political ideologies.
"The speaker series commemorates the accomplishments of the center, but also reflects on the contributions of the activists and academics that evolved during that time period as they sought a place and space for Chicanas and Chicanos in American society," said Lorenzo Cano, associate director of CMAS
The Center for Mexican American Studies was established in 1972 as an interdisciplinary academic program focusing on the Mexican American and broader Latino experience in the United States. With an aim to advance knowledge, promote critical thinking and foster the value of service to the community, CMAS has a broad spectrum of public and scholarly programs—the Visiting Scholars Program, the Graduate Fellowship and the Academic Achievers Program. It also offers students the opportunity to minor in Mexican American Studies.
WHAT: UH Center for Mexican American Studies 40th Anniversary Spring Speaker Series
Featuring Jose Limon, University of Notre Dame professor of American Literature
WHEN: 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 5
WHERE: Rockwell Pavilion, second floor of the UH M.D. Anderson Library


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Used Truck - 2004 Ford Excursion Limited 6.0L 4WD in Miami, Fl
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About This 2004 Ford Excursion Limited 6.0L 4WD
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Limited 6.0L 4WD
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Located at First Leasing Corp in Miami, Fl. Call First Leasing Corp today at 305-260-5552 for more information about this vehicle.
Vehicle Options:
- 4wd/awd
- Abs Brakes
- Adjustable Foot Pedals
- Air Conditioning
- Alloy Wheels
- Am/fm Radio
- Automatic Headlights
- Cd Changer
- Cd Player
- Child Safety Door Locks
- Cruise Control
- Deep Tinted Glass
- Driver Airbag
- Driver Multi-adjustable Power Seat
- Electrochromic Interior Rearview Mirror
- Electronic Parking Aid
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- Front Heated Seat
- Front Power Memory Seat
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- Heated Exterior Mirror
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2004 Ford Excursion ReviewThis car review is specific to this model, not the actual vehicle for sale.
The big rig of SUVs.
In terms of size, the Ford Excursion is the king of big sport-utilities. Supremely stable at speed, it feels safe and secure on the open highway. Whether you have a lot of cargo to carry, a bunch of people to transport, a big trailer to pull, or all of the above, the Excursion is ready for whatever you throw its way.
The Excursion seats eight or nine passengers, depending on how it is configured. It can tow up to 11,000 pounds. Options include a powerful gasoline-fueled V10, and a state-of-the-art turbo-diesel V8. While the Excursion is too large for serious off-road driving, its optional four-wheel-drive and all-terrain tires enable it to handle hilly shale roads, snowy highways, and slippery boat ramps, those places that are accessible in a heavy-duty Ford pickup.
The Excursion is a beast, however, taking up more garage space, parking space, and street space than anything else this side of a dually. It's no minivan. The Excursion best suited for families who tow boats, horses or other heavy trailers. Properly equipped, Excursion is rated to tow up to 11,000 pounds.
For 2004, the Ford Excursion comes primarily in four trim levels: XLS, XLT, Eddie Bauer, and Limited. Each is available with rear-wheel drive (2WD) or four-wheel drive (4WD).
XLS 2WD ($36,585) and XLS 4WD ($39,840) come with a moderate level of standard equipment, including four-wheel anti-lock disc brakes (ABS), tilt steering wheel, cruise control, a 40/20/40 split front bench seat, a 60/40 split-folding second-row seat, a folding/removable third-row seat, power/heated mirrors, power windows and door locks, remote keyless entry, AM/FM/cassette/CD stereo, and an overhead console. XLS is visually identified by body-color side moldings, black running boards, and 16-inch chromed steel wheels.
XLT 2WD ($37,575) and XLT 4WD ($40,830) add power adjustable front bucket seats with a floor console, automatic headlamps, and rear-seat audio controls. Recognize an XLT by its platinum-finish body-side cladding and 16-inch aluminum wheels.
Eddie Bauer 2WD ($40,660) and 4WD ($43,760) add power rear quarter windows, Reverse Sensing System, automatic climate control, trip computer, power-adjustable pedals, auto-dimming rearview mirror, two-tone leather seating surfaces and cherry woodgrain interior accents. Arizona Beige front and rear bumpers, grille, body cladding and wheel lips provide exterior identity, along with illuminated running boards.
Limited 2WD ($41,985) and 4WD ($45,085) add a premium stereo with an in-dash six-disc CD changer, heated front seats, memory seats and pedals, climate and audio controls on the steering wheel, premium leather seating surfaces and a HomeLink transmitter. Body cladding and wheel lips revert to body color, but with a chrome insert. Grille and bumpers are body-color, too, for a monochromatic effect.
Three engines are available: a 5.4-liter V8, a 6.8-liter V10, and a 6.0-liter turbocharged diesel V8. The 5.4-liter V8 is standard in XLS, XLT, and 2WD versions of the Eddie Bauer and Limited. The V10 is standard in 4WD Eddie Bauer and Limited models, optional ($585) on other models. The diesel ($4,755-$5,345) is available for all models. All Excursions come with an automatic transmission: a four-speed automatic with the gasoline engines, a five-speed automatic with the diesel.
Many of the deluxe-model luxuries are available as options on even the basic XLS, including the adjustable pedals ($120), and six-disc CD changer ($255). The DVD entertainment system ($1500) is available on all models except the XLS; wireless headphones have been added to the system for 2004.All Excursions come with a seven-wire trailer harness. An optional 4WD Trailer Tow Group ($275) includes manually telescoping trailer mirrors with heated glass, integrated turn signals and clearance lights; plus a rear anti-roll bar. The mirrors are also available by themselves ($220).
The Ford Excursion is big. Based on Ford's Super Duty F-Series pickup trucks, it's more than 7 inches longer than the Chevrolet Suburban.
Excursion's rear cargo doors are split three ways. You can swing the glass hatch up for quick access to gear. Below the hatch is a pair of half-height doors, like Dutch doors. So they can be opened when you've got a trailer attached, and can be swung nearly 180 degrees for easier access. This arrangement also offers much better visibility rearward while driving than the Suburban's full-height split doors yet offers the benefits of split doors.
Ford designed the Class IV receiver hitch, which comes standard, to prevent smaller cars from going underneath the rear bumper, while a specially designed BlockerBeam is designed to accomplish the same goal up front.
The 2004 Excursion comes with a nicely designed interior. The dash is attractive and well designed and all of the controls are easy to find and operate.
The seats are comfortable. It doesn't matter whether you're sitting in the front seats, second row or third row, all of the seats offer generous legroom, headroom and elbow room. Six adults can ride in comfort with 48 cubic feet of cargo space left behind them. For shorter trips, like going to a restaurant, the Excursion can seat eight people, or nine if you opt for the XLS with its front bench seat.
Remove the third-row seat, and the Excursion can easily carry five people and more than 100 cubic feet of gear. Removing the third-row seat is easy: Flip the seatback forward, yank a bar at the foot of the seat and pull the seat toward the rear of the vehicle; it glides along on rollers. The seat weighs 75 pounds, but in short order I pulled it out and threw it into the back of another SUV on a cold Montana morning before driving to a trout stream.
Set up as a two-seater, the Excursion can carry an outlandish amount of cargo. A sheet of plywood slides in easily and lays flat on the floor. Two people could sleep in comfort on the huge, flat cargo area. Believe it or not, we managed to fill an Excursion. We'd just finished a three-day float on Oregon's Deschutes. As planned, the river guide in charge of setting up camp had arrived at our vehicles ahead of us. He quickly stuffed all of the supplies from base camp and enough fishing equipment for eight people inside. When he was done stuffing, only seating for two remained and the rear-view mirror was rendered useless. Granted, he could have packed more efficiently, but he was grateful for such a large storage container. No question, the Excursion can hold a lot of gear.
After reorganizing the equipment and putting some of it into another vehicle, six of us piled into the Excursion and made the long trip back to town. Cruising along steadily with this load, the Excursion demonstrated its virtues of size, stability and power.
Driving Impression
Cruising along in a 2004 Ford Excursion gives you a secure feeling. The optional V10 ($585) is a delightful engine. It produces 310 horsepower and generates a very impressive 425 pounds-feet of torque at 3250 rpm. It can propel the Excursion along the Interstate at high rates of speed. Tell someone you have a V10 and they think you're driving a rocket. But an Excursion 4x4 weighs about 7,200 pounds, so even with the V10, its acceleration at high altitudes seems no better than in an Explorer or Expedition.
Still, our Excursion had no trouble passing other vehicles on two-lane roads. The Excursion is rock solid at 97 mph where a governor keeps you from going any faster. The EPA doesn't even rate trucks this big for fuel economy, but you should expect something in the 12-mpg range. We saw 14 mpg on the highway, but 10 mpg is more likely around town.
Despite its high initial price, about 60 percent of excursion buyers opt for the 6.0-liter Power Stroke diesel. This is a state-of-the-art unit, with hydraulic rail direct pilot injection and four valves per cylinder. Ford claims it offers best-in-class power, with 325 horsepower and 560 pounds-feet of torque, the latter at just 2000 rpm. That much torque should certainly be sufficient for pulling stumps out of your yard or pulling heavy trailers up steep ramps. Introduced in mid-2003, this new-generation diesel was designed for less noise, cleaner emissions, and better efficiency than the larger, but less powerful, diesel that it replaced. The diesel gets about 18 mpg, yielding a range of more than 700 miles from its 44-gallon fuel tank.
The five-speed automatic transmission that comes exclusively with the diesel offers a Tow-Haul mode which, when activated, automatically minimizes shifts and maximizes available torque. According to Ford, this can help increase a driver's feeling of control when towing large loads up and down steep grades.
We didn't try the standard 5.4-liter V8, but we suspect it would struggle if you loaded six passengers and luggage and headed for the mountains. With 255 horsepower at 4500 rpm, and 350 pounds-feet of torque at 2500 rpm, the V8 is best suited for the flatlands.
While 2WD Excursions come with Ford's signature Twin I-Beam independent front suspension and coil springs, the 4WD version rides on a solid front axle and leaf springs. But differences in ride and handling between the two are surprisingly subtle. Our test vehicle had the 4WD Trailer Tow Group ($275), which includes a rear anti-roll bar, and it seemed to compensate for some of the weight up front from a handling standpoint. The 4x4 handles well for a big rig, tackling corners with confidence and offering good grip on dirt roads.
At high speeds, the Excursion is stable. Strong crosswinds and an 18-wheeler going in the opposite direction had little effect. However, Excursion does not offer the ride sophistication of the Chevrolet Suburban and GMC Yukon XL 1500 models. The all-terrain tires that are now standard on all 4WD Excursions are good for muddy trails, but the all-season tires that come with 2WD models are smoother and quieter for towing long distances.
Its long wheelbase means the Excursion is not a serious off-road vehicle. But the part-time four-wheel-drive system and 8.1-inch ground clearance should get you up some pretty gnarly dirt roads in nasty weather. Ford's clever vacuum-controlled hub-locking system quickly engages four-wheel drive on the fly by pressing a button. A low-range set of gears is ready whenever you need to tackle steep, slippery terrain. If you do drive off the pavement or on snow-covered roads, you'll want to opt for the limited-slip differential ($250) and the transfer-case skid plate ($100).
Towing, more than anything, is what the Excursion is designed to do. Properly equipped, it can tow trailers up to 11,000 pounds. That's more than enough to pull a hefty boat. All Excursions come ready to tow, with a C.
Ford's gargantuan sport-utility is a stable platform for towing heavy trailers and can at the same time carry a truckload of fishermen. It rides fairly well for a heavy-duty truck and it's luxurious and comfortable. For those who want to tow trailers up to 11,000 pounds, the Excursion is a good alternative to a pickup with a cap. Ford says it will continue to produce the Excursion through the 2005 model year.
The Ford Excursion should not, however, be considered an alternative to a minivan. It's far too thirsty, and its size, weight and design make for poor maneuverability and handling when compared with minivans and light-duty SUVs.
Model Lineup
Ford Excursion XLS 2WD ($36,585); XLS 4WD ($39,840); XLT 2WD ($37,575); XLT 4WD ($40,830); Eddie Bauer 2WD ($40,660); Eddie Bauer 4WD ($43,760); Limited 2WD ($41,985); Limited 4WD ($45,085).
Assembled In
Louisville, Kentucky.
Options As Tested
V10 engine ($585); 4WD Trailer Tow Group ($275) includes rear anti-roll bar, manually telescopic mirrors with heated glass, turn signals, and clearance lights.
Model Tested
Ford Excursion XLT 4WD ($40,830).
7339 Sw 45St Street
Miami, Fl. 33155
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LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A bill passed by the Michigan Senate would allow health care providers could use a "moral objection" or "matter of conscience" standard to refuse service to patients.
The Detroit Free Press reports the legislation moves to the state House for consideration next week following Thursday's 26-12 vote.
The Michigan Catholic Conference issued a statement in support of the changes. Planned Parenthood says the legislation jeopardizes the health of women and families.
According to MLive.com, under the legislation, coverage plans participating in health exchanges that are part of President Barack Obama's federal health care act couldn't cover elective abortions unless the coverage is offered as a separate optional rider.
The state already has a conscientious objection clause for abortion services, but some say birth control prescriptions also could be affected.


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wonton filling:
1/2 lb ground pork
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons shaoxing
1 1/2 inch knob ginger, minced
1 small bunch green onions, minced
wonton wrappers
8 cups chicken, pork, mushroom or shrimp stock
1 2 inch knob ginger, sliced
4 dried shiitake mushrooms, sliced
3 tablespoons shaoxing
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 cloves garlic, halved
to serve:
diced green onions
sliced char siu
1 bunch green onions
Mix all of the wonton filling ingredients together. Place a teaspoon of filling in the center of each wrapper. Moisten the edges. Fold the ends together to form a triangle. Fold the two sides together. Repeat. Place finished dumplings on a plate and cover with a clean, dry towel. Meanwhile, bring all of the soup ingredients to a boil. Drain out the solids, return to stove. Add the dumplings, the now rehydrated mushrooms and char siu to the broth. Discard the rest of the solids. Cook until the dumplings float and are cooked through, about 5 minutes. Ladle into individual bowls, sprinkle with green onions.
Yield: 2-4 servings