your input wanted: g33kflat

[whetu]

www.g33kflat.orcon.net.nz

Go nuts, make any changes to the code and then email it to me whetu69@ihug.co.nz

The real help I'm looking for is testing at different resolutions (especially higher res) its optimised for 1024x768, looks ok in 800x600, but in my testing at 1280x1024 it looks absolutely naff. Any assistance in that regard will kick ass. The other point of concern is how it looks in other browsers... I've noticed the site has a few quirks under Mozilla and Opera:
Mozilla: main iframe does not show, there is a irritating gap between the top image and the horizontal line below it, menu mouseovers dont work.

opera: the same gap appears between the top image and horizontal line, menu mouseovers work BUT when clicked, they stay in the on state.

earlier tonite i noticed serious issues under mozilla and i've taken steps to correct them... this is a real learning curve...

I know it wont look as intended outside IE at 1024x768, If any of you can provide help in this area, that would be most appreciated.. i'll even give you a mention (wow.. how generous ;))
Basically I'm a webdev n00b, so be gentle.. and remember... its better than 99% of geosh*ties sites out there ;)

Any other suggestions about site content is welcome (this is the easy one) If you have an idea, just throw it up here.

Cheers all

[Wibber]

uh my mozilla f*cked so don't take what I say as worth a kettle of fish, but I got no mouseovers and the links don't work.... oh and mailtos ewwwwwwwwwwwww :(

[KingJackal]

Res scaling and browser compatibility are hard to do. As in VERY hard to do. And the solutions always involve significant eye candy sacrifice.

Most professional web developement firms won't bother - which is why the majority of corporate sites just won't work under much other than IE, and looks crap away from 800 or 1024 res'.

At the end of the day, and dude dumb enough to open your site at 2048 res just AIN'T gonna get a pretty picture. The sheer amount of visual information needed to fill large screens is just too much - otherwise small res' are swamped.

After all, even 1600x1200 gives your 4x as many pixels to fill as 800x600. 4x is a big gap.

Browser Compatibility

It sucks, but if you really give a sh*t, no Java, Javascript, Jscript, C#, or anything else along those lines.

HTML and CSS are about the only 2 languages with an even CLOSE to consistent implementation across the board. And even there, W3C specs fail to stamp out all variance, even between the major browsers.

Your best bet if you want to use scripts is to keep their information irrelevant. Example:
www.L3.net.nz (http://www.L3.net.nz/) :p :cool:

The animation in the top-left is a Javascript - but if it doesn't load, it doesn't matter. You'll just get a black square there. The page will still be aligned. You'll still be able to browse the site, and you'll still 'get' everything I want you as a site browser to understand.

...of course, this severely limits you. You'll have to be immensely creative ( more so than I've been ) to get a really cool-looking site without any scripting.
BTW, the L3 site should work in IE3+, NS3+, Opera, Konqueror, and d@mn near anything else that pretends to be a browser ;).

Res scaling

Well - easy for me to test this :D. Even at 1600x1200, you get a good idea.

I'm not so proud of the L3 site in this regard - I have 1 or two issues which WILL be tweaked soon. ATM the site is less-pretty in more than 1280x1024, and less than 640x480.

Note that it STILL WORKS JUST FINE, though....

While we're at it, have a look at the photo's page. I'm a little proud of that. Try re-sizing the screen. The descriptions stay with their images, yet the images slide out to fill the screen. And NO scripting.... just the full power of CSS :D.

*realises he had better just shutup NOW before this turns into a CSS fanb0y <RANT>*
:rolleyes:

Anyways - I might throw a scalable and compatible framework up to show you where it could go. Though pretty graphics aren't my domain at all ( all the L3 graphics credit has to go to SSnake, for example ;) ).

[whetu]

just the kind of response i was after kj.. now just let me sleep for 8 hours, rub my eyes, read it again and take it in :D

another issue i've noticed under opera is the main iframe doesnt take up 100% of the table cell vertically... any of you peeps with opera go there and click on "more cams".. ack

an idea that is going around the flat is to do the left navigation bar in flash.. kris is whipping something up... If we do stick with the onmouseover buttons we'll have to implement an image preload script.. ugh.. more coding when i have no idea what i'm doing :rolleyes:

suggestions about site content that have arrived:
recipies - i'm taking this as stereotypical IT g33k student food... how to make gh3tto eggfooyung out of noodles and scrambled eggs hehe etc

events - hmmm "today we put in a lightbulb" *imagines anyone insane enuff to look at the site gasping in amazement* HOWEVER Tijs and myself are considering holding a lan here in a few weeks.. we could perhaps make it a regular thing? If that were the case that could come under an events section OR it could have its own section (i dont think we'd have much else in the way of events apart from a pornathon and playing hacky on the backyard)

[mird-OC]

iframes are a ***** to get working, especially cross browser... it's best to avoid using them if at all possible due to the fact that they will cause you grief. if you can manage to scab some php-enabled webspace then things would get much more interesting ;)

[whetu]

hehe here i am throwing together a site hackishly in html (combination of frontpage and notepad... yes there is a lot of notepad time in there) and youre suggesting php?

looks like google time for "php for beginners" ;)

next question is i wonder if orcon supports it :p
www.g33kflat.orcon.net.nz/phpinfo.php apparently not

[SecretSquirrel]

Umm I'm guessing you fixed most of it?

Everything looks identical apart from the slight gap between the title and the main body of the page.

Also, the update part of it is annoying as sh!t, it seems to me to be refreshing the entire page, not just the pic?

[whetu]

the webcam iframes are set to a 30 second refresh... tho i found that kris had set his to 5... under IE it does make the click sound.. and yes I get pissed off with it too... i'm the dev and i have it open 24/7. I set kris' refresh back to 15 seconds... under mozilla and opera i cant hear any click sound when the refresh goes...

the only other refreshes i've put in are 5 minute refreshs on each of the flatmate pages (updates the pic and it was helping me sort out caching problems that you tend to get from orcon when youre on a proxied and webcached connection like i am)

oh... if you didnt know ss, an iframe is like a page embedded within a page... so each time one of those iframes refreshes, its reloading a page, so it will seem that way (i think thats right)

[Artifice]

mate, that picture of steve is some sick ****. :barf:

[whetu]

which one? the one here
http://www.g33kflat.orcon.net.nz/steve/index2.html
is not steve... thats a chick i found on hotornot.com, needless to say, i gave her 10 for effort :D

if its not that pic than the official statement of "yeah.. steve.. he's the flat psycho" applies