For those few who have been wondering why my posts have been sparse and sporadic for the last few days, I've been engaged in a switchover from Grey Matter to Moveable Type blogging software. It has involved much gnashing of hair and pulling of teeth, but I've finally gotten it up and running (at least, assuming that you see this post, and the new look of the site...).

The biggest challenge was in preserving the links to my old posts in the new system, so that archived links from other weblogs will still take people to the relevant posts in the new setup. I think that I've succeeded, by generating 400+ referral pages... (good thing I know a little Perl--it would have been murder to do that by hand...).

Anyway, feedback on the new site look is welcome. Also, notice my expanded and reordered link list to the right.

Enjoy.

[Update: Doh! That's to the left. I was confused 'cuz it's on my right from inside this computer thingy...]

[Tuesday Morning Update]

I'm informed that the site is broken in some versions of IE on the Mac. Not owning a Mac, it'll be hard for me to test, but I'll play with it today and try to find the problem. I'll appreciate any feedback from Mac users as I progress.

So sorry to see that you are no longer visible in Net$cape 4.78...for those of us who care not a whit about glitz, flash, and bang, but wish to read worthwhile text, this is an on-going battle against the teeny-boppers who are so enamored of presentation style...content now takes a [way]back seat.

MommaBear

When I've whacked a few bugs out of it, it may become visible in Netscape again (I didn't try it with Netcape--just Opera and IE).

But you might also consider getting a copy of Opera, which is free.

You are using "blocks" (div - that comes with the MT default template). IE for mac interprets the positioning data differently. Relying on the default "relative" will cause part of it to disappear. That and the scripts from my hit counters were major bugaboos in my (More Than Zero) MAC and Netscape presentation.

As for pre-5 versions of IE and Netscape, only a browser sniffer and tables will help you there.
Cheers.

Some comments, intended to be constructive.

Your blog doesn't display in NS 4, so I'm using IE 5. Looks nice enough in IE, but I'd prefer to view in NS.

Being of the fundamentalist backward compatibility persuasion, that any website sufficiently well designed will be readable with Lynx, I'll add my faint voice for doing something less fancy. As an old Scottish engineer used to say when evaluating designs, "too many moving parts."

Yeah, I know, fat chance. Oh, well. I'll keep reading anyhow.

The form refuses to post without an email address. I really don't mind you, Rand, knowing my email address. I do draw the line at having my email address splatted onto the web as nekkid prey for spam spiders though. Hence, this bogus one, as a test.

One question: after clicking "preview", I get the formatted entry, but with only one button, "post".
Seems odd that one apparently can't correct any errors before posting. Are there more bells and whistles waiting in the wings to complete the new commentary form?

I quite using Netscape after 4.7--it was so buggy that it wasn't worth fighting Bill Gates any more. But the latest version of Opera (6.0) seems nice. You might give it a try--it's free if you don't mind ads in the upper part of the window.

I've reset it to allow comments without name or email (if for no other reason than I had the same concern that you did about putting the email address on an accessible web page...)

As for being able to edit comments, I'd have to hack the basic code to do that. It's uncommented, terse perl. I'll say no more...

But you can always use the back button for editing if you don't like what you see in preview.

Thanks for the feedback.

Now you are visible and readable in NS 4.
Whatever you did must have been the right thing.

The comments section is readable in NS 4, but posting isn't possible due to the buttons not working as well as being placed strangely, over the text. They disappear if one "selects" the text beneath them. Maybe that's one of NS 4's bugs. However, the site including comments, seems to be entirely readable in NS 4 now.

Using "back" after "preview" also works, and the text in the comments form remains present (in IE 5).

Cool.

HTH