Well, for some reason that I have been unable to ascertain, my old hosting service is no longer around. I found out this out as I was updating my CV, and wanted to make sure that the URL was still working. And to my shock and horror, it wasn't! So anyway, since I am in the middle of things, I decided that a Web presence is necessary as a marketing tool, or at least, to show that someone with my name does actually exist. Well, I could be the fictional protagonist in a really elaborate hoax....

Anyway,  I was shopping around for some free Web hosting, with the important requirement that no banner ads should appear on any of my pages in any form. There are some dubious one I must say, where the main page of the site doesn't even look legitimate. Others like the Webhostplanet family (yeah, there's a bunch of different sites with exactly the same layout etc., duh!) don't engender much trust - while the opening page says no ads will appear on your site, the small print says that by signing up, you give them permission to place ads. Huh?!

Finally, I settled on Zymic Webmaster Resources. To be honest, I'm still holding my breath on this one. I have transferred everything over, and my site is now running at http://jpstbcj.vndv.com/. However, FTP uploading wasn't smooth with many failed connections, and the URL itself sometimes requires multiple refreshes before it finally loads. It also blocks mp3s (fair enough), so my slideshows are muted till I figure out a way around this. Many of the transferred files are also smaller than the original, so without further testing, I'm assuming that the host is running some kind of compression; this might also explain why the page loads rather slowly. I'm no techie, so I'm just doing some deductions here. Whatever the case, the forum posts suggest that this vndv domain might be new, so I hope these are teething problems that will soon be resolved. In the meantime, I once again have a little corner of the WWW to call my very own.:))

Ok, I must admit that I've finally outdone myself this time: my site is finally viewable on both IE and Firefox, yes! *pump fist* Granted there are still some quirks, but at least the pages LOOK alright.

As people who know me are aware, I hate to be defeated by technology. After all, why should human beings succumb to something that they invented, right? So, after many sleepless nights, I initially came up with the idea that Firefox's was unable to interpret the colspan tag, which would explain a helluva lot of things. Naturally, several Web forum pages later, I realized that this wasn't the case. Nonetheless, it suddenly dawned on me that the reason Firefox was messing up my pages so badly couldn't lie with the software, and the problem must be with my coding instead.

This line of thought led me to W3C Markup Validation Service, which my site went on to fail as miserably as her owner did his driving tests. As it were, my hand-coded fare was breaking all kinds of HTML rules, and if I could forget to close a couple of tags here and there, there must be serious missteps elsewhere. A couple of searches later led me to Dirk Paehl's page, where you can find a handy tool that (is supposed to) make your HTML codes W3C complaint. Now, this is what I call a good use of technology, for it was only 2 clicks later that my pages were cleaned up, and now appear, as they were meant to be, in IE and Firefox. (To make a bad pun, I must say that the "extended" version in Firefox sucked). Now, I say supposed to because my site still fails the online validation test, but I don't really care now that everything looks alright at least.

On a final note, I must say that I noticed a lot of sad people out there who were desperately struggling with CSS because some techie told them that tables are meant only for tabulated content, not structure. How stupid is that? It's like saying that water bottles are only meant for water. If you ask me, I say that if something can be put to use in more than one way, then take advantage of the flexibility man! I mean, if you can't figure out pure CSS but already know how to use tables as a design element , why should it be "wrong"? I think that people who say that tables MUST only be used for data presentation are nuts. Sure, there are many good reasons why CSS is better, but in the final cost-benefit equation, I'll probably lose more years of my life learning pure CSS than if I just used tables, even if I have to make changes on every page (which is an exaggeration anyway, provided you used tables with CSS).

Sadly, it appears that there are many people who are so enamored with following rules that they lose sight of the bigger picture. Certain things can be sacrificed after all, depending on your requirements. So, for who I believe are the minority of people who read my site with a PDA or mobile phone, well then, it's time you got yourself a notebook or something my friend.

Ok, for all those Firefox users out there, which includes myself, too bad folks. Unfortunately, my very finite knowledge of CSS usage has meant that I have failed in porting my site over to the new format of CSS and div tags rather than CSS and tables. For anyone who is even interested in why this is necessary, here is a good article to read about the whole debate.

While my increased understanding of what needs to be done means a front end application would probably be the missing ingredient to success, since learning to do this hardly counts as productive work in my case, my poor site will just have to sit all out of whack for those of you who have abandoned IE. Which makes me wonder why Firefox, amidst all the praise for it, refuses to acknowledge the existence of a single line that imports my table style sheet, and which would solve everything. This bit of coding is apparently non-complaint, and was tossed away when a Web standard arose, in 2001 I think. What's the phrase...throwing the baby out with the bath water is what best describes it I say. God forbid the day techies rule the world...please just let them play in their little virtual online communities.

Ok, my strictly no frills and IE-compatible site is now online! It is accessible at the following URL: joseph.where20.info. My thanks to everyone who has made suggestions; I'm sure you'll be able to see where those have come to realization. Anyway, this site is strictly old-tech, which means you're going to have to email me for anything. It's going to be a rather static site anyway, since research ideas need to foment slowly. Furthermore, I'm not one who wants to spend time moderating comments and all that anyway, and I'm content to have the global community just be...out there. I mean, for those who already know me, you'll realize that I'm somewhat of a recluse anyway. Nonetheless, I am considering using this, MY SPACE I to do some work-related blogging, which will mean that to read it properly, as has been feedbacked to me, you'll have to sign up with MSN. Bummer.

Whatever the case, as sparse as she is, this is my baby, yeah! Programmed line by line to the very finite ends of my knowledge of HTML in notepad. It's like how some landlubbers need to be in touch with mother earth to feel tangible and real. The intent here is not to reject newer advances in technology, or Web 2.0, but to exert the kind of rigor that an auteur would; it is said that there was always intent behind each character, no matter how minor, in every scene of a Kurosawa film. If there was a bald bystander, there was a reason. If a dog scampered past, it has to be read contextually within or without the boundaries of the film. If it rained, it was probably meant to evoke an emotive state of sorts. Similarly, the control I have been able to wield over every nook and cranny has meant that every element of this site was created purposefully with artifacts that are of special symbolic to me. Personally, I think that the design of a home page triumphs over functionality if there is a conflict between the two. My anti-establishment nature has also meant that just because no one else is doing it does not suffice as sufficient cause for me to abandon my individuality to a pre-determined template. Oh, I'm no advocate of nihilism, but being a humanist, I'm afraid that at any fork in the road, I would rather make the biggest colossal mistake of all time than to be one with the masses, especially when the masses, as far as my unreliable senses of the empirical world suggest, are in agreement. The trick of course is to be able to repent, which is where a dose of humility is always necessary, and which should be the case, for there is little (if anything) in this world that warrants self-aggrandizement. And ultimately, as someone once said, and this is not verbatim, "Home is the place where you can always return, and where they can never turn you away." This is my little corner on the WWW, and she is where I'll always feel at home. So welcome to my cartoony little corner of the Web (yes, academics are like little children, so be gentle...), low in functionality, but where a part of me will always reside.

To the stars, despite adversity.