'Bred Crumbs
08.04.02
Welcome to 'Bred Crumbs 2.0. Not a drastic change, but a significant one behind the scenes. Here's what's different and why, from general to technical:
Crumbtrols. The new feature on the left lets you pick from a small assortment of font faces and sizes, in case you don't like what I like. The changes affect only the main, center content. You can also choose whether you want links to pop a new window or not (the default is not). Your chosen preferences are saved via cookie. If you hate or fear cookies, don't click a button. More about that later. Also, your preferences won't apply to older 'Bred Crumbs pages, but they do work on the 'Bred Box.
Design changes. While the main motivation for this version was to meet Web standards (more below), I also decided to spruce up the design slightly, mainly by finally vanishing my previous visual rendering of "crumbs." They always interfered with the page architecture, and they looked like popcorn anyway. Also, a slight change in the link color scheme, a little more color all around, and a cleaner separation between center well and margins.
Browser compatibility. I've become a strong believer in Web standards, which browsers are finally starting to support. Modern browsers, that is. The dinosaur that is Netscape 4 still wanders out there, and coding for it means multiple versions of pages, intricate scripting, or old, bad code. The other choice is to code to standards knowing that it will take only a little easily changed tinkering to make the same thing show up the same way in all modern browsers, and let the luddites fend. My choice: bye-bye Netscape 4.
Those of you who cling to the old tools can still see the content of the site; but the layout is bad, and the toys don't work. I could explain more, but too many others already have.
JavaScript and cookies. Anyone who knows my views on Web matters will be shocked that I'm using these. But though I've historically reviled them for different reasons, they were the most effective way to accomplish the Crumbtrols, which were something I very much wanted to add here. My hatred of all the sites riddle with JavaScript errors, and of the millions of unannounced cookies that marketers cram onto our hard drives daily, remains. But I can live with using cookies here because (a) I plainly announce their presence, and (b) I make them avoidable. If you don't click a Crumbtrols button, you don't get a cookie.
If you want to know more about the technicalities of the site, check the updated "about the site" section. I've tried to test things as much as I can, but mistakes seem inevitable. If you find something that doesn't work right, and I've said it should, please let me know.
· · ·
If you plan to see Signs and haven't gotten there yet, here's a pointer for you. This is not a spoiler, just a detail to alert you to that will enhance the enjoyment. In the scene where the dad and the kids are looking through a book, and they start showing closeups of the pages, read the captions of the pictures. Humor awaits.
My spoiler-free review: Signs was very entertaining, suspenseful, and well acted, and M. Night Shyamalan's skill at building stories backward remains masterful. But the movie was less satisying than either The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable – less visually interesting and with a less buyable payoff.
Features
