Just did some major redesign stuff on the site. Can you tell the difference? Probably not... I didn't make any real changes in the content of the site or anything like that, but I did redesign the code behind the scenes to be a bit more secure. Also, page URLs are a bit nicer now, no more 5-inch URLs with php and the like.

Along with security, the other major reason for the changes is to allow for much better flexibility in the site's design. I'll spare any further techie details, but rest assure these changes are a Good Thing.

Oh, and the other reason for the update - to show that I'm still alive! I'll have to write a /japanblog entry in the near future. Stay tuned.

- Vultaire

If you check the menu at the left, you'll see a new link for "Chat". This is a general purpose chatroom for use for whatever purpose. I intend to use it for talking with other JET program participants without needing them to have IM or IRC software installed. I think it's 10 users max, but if there's a need I should be able to hack the chat script to support more. (I didn't write the chat script; it's BlaB! Lite 2.2 from hot-things.net.)

- Vultaire

Just got done creating thumbnail images for all the pictures taken for the matsuri in Himeji I visited last month. So you don't have to dig for the link, here's the new temporary page.

- Vultaire

Modified the div layout of this site's "tables" to make them render better across browsers. The new code is more logical, too.

Added a new page, "Thoughts". Not sure how long this'll last. It's just a page for me to put some of my meditations on life, that type of thing. Not sure what exactly will be put up there; I think of a lot of things but I'm not sure what all I want to put up for the world to see. At the same time, I'm not much for just keeping a personal journal; these are thoughts I do want to share to some extent... Anyway, that's it for now.

- Vultaire

I'm trying to rework this first page so it's obviously just a portal to the rest of the site. So, I rewrote some stuff at the top of the page to shove the blog-like techno-jabber down a little bit. If I'm still not happy with how it looks, I may just move all the blog content to a new page, "Site News".

This is one area where a DB-based design would help - I can post the latest entries from Site News, Japan Blog, etc., all on the front page. However, I dislike how that forces all my content to be based in the DB... or is that necessarily true? I'm still trying to think of how best to handle this, or if I'm doing well as it is.

I also removed the Japanese-style dates from the front page since they are more relevant in the Japan Blog portion of the site. I don't expect many non-English speakers to focus on this part of the site, and the info is redundant anyway, so having it on non-Japan related pages just doesn't serve any purpose.

That's all for now. Oh, check out the Japan Blog; it's starting to get mildly interesting. =)

- Vultaire

Went ahead and did a few more minor tweaks. Specifically I removed a <b><font> block and replaced it with a <span> block. Now the html is essentially all data definition, while the CSS handles all presentation details.

What does this mean to the average user? Pretty much: absolutely nothing. But I wanted something to do, and updating this site to be compliant with recent web standards is a good thing for many reasons: accessibility, cross-browser support, easy validation through w3.org, and as an example to potential employers that hey, I can make a standards-compliant web page, whoop de doo!

Anyway, enough of that. I need sleep. Catch ya later.

- Vultaire

I decided I'd try to update the site and make it a little more standards compliant, if for no other reason than to be able to use the handy W3 tools for validating my HTML. So, I tried updating my site to XHTML, and found out that my nested tables didn't seem to fly very well. So, this led me down the road of getting semi-modern with my web site and replacing all tables used for layout with <div>'s and CSS styles.

After a bunch of wrestling with various things, tracking down a bunch of bugs, and fixing a transposition in my XHTML DTD declaration, the site now validates as correct XHTML 1.0 Transitional. The CSS also validates correctly.

I may decide later to see if I can go "all the way" and push for XHTML 1.0 Strict, but for now I think this is okay. When I again find myself with too much spare time, maybe expect something more. ^^

- Vultaire

Today I finally took down the placeholders for this site. The site is still very basic, but it works.

There's not much here yet; just the home page (here) and the Japan Blog. I will be adding more as I get time, which with how busy I currently am, may be very frequently.

- Vultaire