The Experiment Lab

Change is Good. McDonalds, however, is bad.

2004-11-16T10:38:00.000+01:00

I'm not quite sure on the subject of this post, I blame it on this pretty-near escatic mood that I've managed to get myself into - Hooray!. I'm sitting here in the College Library listening to my Samsung MP3 player (The FootHold) and reading my '2004 Private Eye Special Edition' while writing this up, so I feel quite proud.

I feel I must make something clear, this website will NOT work in I.E at all. Have a look at it in there, it honestly is crap, there is no other way to say it.
However, I have stumbled onto a possible answer to the problem, basically I'm going to steal off with the code for The FootHold and then *completely* re-edit it to have the same'ish layout and colour scheme as this website currently holds, I'm also going to work on getting the flash animation to appear at the top of the screen... but that's unlikely.
Anyway, I reckon that I might just be able to complete this transition in one of my Web Design Lessons, so that is what I'm going to do this week, unless I'm ill again, so check back soon and the side-bar might be working!
Until Then,
Martin J.
PS:
Addressing the I.E users:
I do honestly apologise for this website not working correctly in your browser, however, have you considered using Firefox? I know I do keep going on about it but it truly is a fantastic programme. If you are interested but don't want to download it until you know more then you'll be glad to know I am *actually* working on a full review to fit in The FootHold before the end of November.
Addressing the Firefox/Mozilla users:
Well done. Spread the word!
Addressing the other browser users:
Hey! If this website works in your browser could you please just leave a comment telling me which browsers this website works in? If any of the browsers are free-ware then I'll probably end up checking them out myself.
- - Thanks Guys and Gals! - -

Will disaster mean abandonment?

2004-11-13T16:03:00.000+01:00

I think bloody not.

I'll explain (quickly, before my head explains in severe migraine related pain), recently I discovered that neither of the two new blogs (that's this one and The Foothold) actually work in Internet Explorer. While that may be incredibly funny when you think about how much I endorse Firefox it does mean several bad things... qwhich are quite obvious and I won't insult you by mentioning them.
So yea, if your using Internet Explorer I apologise profusely if it is messed up, but could you *please* do me the favour of sending me a comment to describe how the site appears in the different editions of I.E so i can work on the prob?
Cheers guys and gals,
Martin J.

Exactly whats so good about a silver lining?

2004-11-05T18:16:00.000+01:00

I feel like I've let all of you people down recently, I've hardly updated anything it seems.
Well, you're actually very wrong indeed!
Recently I've been experimenting in the creation of menus to display information, specifically I wanted to reduce the size of the side-bar in The Foothold by putting my contact details into a pull-down menu. The result is below:

While it shows I've managed to cannabalise the basic code it doesn't show much else. I've tried everything I know to format the containing text but noghting works at all! I'm afraid for the time being I'm going to have to resign to this format and leave it at that, however I will endevour to ask in Web Design next week.
That's all I have to say about things at the moment I'm afraid, tune in soon and I might try dilly-daddling in some risque things...
Have fun,
Martin J.

The roots are flowering!

2004-10-30T10:24:00.000+01:00

Remember back when I announced the growth of my Blogger-world? Well, now the growth is definitely starting to look likes something very orange and very, very cool! .... Hmmm, actually that doesn't sound that tasteful imagery at all!
Onto the subject though, The Collection {Point has now been forgotten and left stranded in the streams of time. There will not be any more updates on it at all, while the idea was good my expertise are not, so when I have a few spare minutes I'm deleting all the Blogs that went together to make it and remove some of the images from puresource
However, The FootHold has finally sprouted into something foxy! I decided to use the Firefox template (Again through Blogger-templates.blogspot, is there anything those people can't do?) because a) it's stylish and b) my plans for a framed page crashed because of reasons posted in the last update.
Additionally, this new Blog has taught me how to update my linking capabilities to include opening a new window. While that might not sound much, I think it's quite an achievement. However, I must use this new found power for good, for with good HTML capabilites comes more critical reviwers :P...
That probably makes no sense to you guys, but no matter, I'm happy and at this moment in time that's all that matters ^_^.
Have fun ye all!
Martin J.

Evolution starts with subspecies

2004-10-27T09:58:00.000+01:00

At this moment in time the two new Blog do exist. However, one of them will not exist for long.
I have decided that, for the moment, my technical knowledge is not significantly brilliant enough to warrant the use of a router page and as such soon 'The Collection Point' will cease to exist.
On the other hand, 'The Foothold' is finally undergoing serious development and consideration. I worked for an hour with frontpage yesterday to attempt a frame site, once I realised I had to create an individual blog for each of the individual frames and feed them into the host page I thought that everything would be alright. You never can be sure of anything.
I'd failed to factorise the damned Blogger-toolbar into my ideas, so eahc frame/column and a squashed up toolbar eating up the credibility of the design layout.
So, for the moment I'm very annoyed with Frontpage and as such will not use it for at least two days now!
Last evening I also spent another hour searching for templates that I might use, I found three brilliant candidates, but unfortunately I couldn't get any to work! Which was a real shame because I actually did come across one with the three-column format that I'm after! Damned Karma!
Anyways, I'll give template-hunting another go today and maybe post thumbnails of my favourite ones on here... wow, that might mean this page once again has purpose!
Until the next template,
Martin J.

Templates Are Go.

2004-10-25T10:56:00.000+01:00

I've found a positively ace website this morning, it is full of templates that enable an easy-to-comment system with individual identification and frames and all stuff stylish.
Unfortunately I could never use one of those templates as my posts are too long and it would destroy the proportions of the frames what with the columns and all.
However, I'm leaving the address under this line (or paragraph, we never no how long I'm going to babble on for...) so you can all have a looksie:
http://www.enetation.co.uk
Until Then,
Martin J.

Has justification ever existed without a lie?

2004-10-23T22:44:00.000+01:00

I admit I'm a bit behind schedule with what i said I would do. However, that is, in my case anyway, a good thing. Anything I rush into without thought, preperation and tardiness seems to fall from my grasp, it's like when i *try* to hold the sand in the grains are too small and individual and they fall... but when I come to it as it comes, when it's natural, the sand becomes positively unnatural and doesn't fall due to the effects of gravity..... Well, I suppose that's -an- explanation for whats happened.
Another is that i haven't finished the two new blogs yet. I'm afraid the design of the first has taken longer than I predicted, it's in a state that I feel you won't die from laughing at it, just injure yourselves slighty, so I'll post a link: http:///www.thecollectionpoint.blogspot.com.
At the moment I'm working with photoshop to spruce it up a bit and add some metallic effects to it, if possible. I eventually hope to install Java Script, but nobodies offered to teach me about that as of yet, so alas, we are stuck with pixalated jpeg's.
As for the other Blog, the more diverse and less egocentric Blog, I haven't even begun on that! I have a week off College (but mountains of homework...) so I'll work for a couple of hours on routing for a nice template somebodies hosting, but if not I'm afraid it will be a framed page designed on Microsoft Frontpage - and you have no idea how much that pains me to say!
Until then,
Martin J.
PS: To anybody who ever reads this Blog, I wonder one thing. Well, two, but one's more important than the other.
Should I make all my posts available through the frontpage, or does it do more justice to have but 10 of the most recent posts and the rest accesible through the archives? It does concern me, because I realise that by limiting the number of posts I am affectively decreasing the amount of displayed work, but through over presentation is traffic lost? If anybody has any ideas please comment! Additionally, if the commenting system isn't working, please email me at Infernal_temptation@hotmail.com ... I'm deliberately not leaving another mailto: link here as it annoys me when my computer tries to open email programmes which I simply don't use... but that's more of an issue for the other Blog, so I'll go do some work on that now...

A tree. A forest. A wilderness. The roots keep on growing.

2004-10-17T12:39:00.000+01:00

I didnt think ti was possible, but I have become ambitously over-confident in the titles to these blogs, I'll have to keep them more article relevant (and I'll explain why soon!)
Just a quick line to say I'm feeling a lot better and Happy: I'm feeling a lot better and am quite happy now!
Onto the experiment!

Recently I've been thinking, it does happen occasionally, this Blog is about the internet and what II -intend- to do on it. However, to even access the internet I need to use my computer (and trust that Microsoft Windows XP is in a good mood) and I mess about with my computer quite a biot nmore than with the internet... and a lot of these things I do to my computer are internet-based, downloads being a priority here.
So, I thought to myself, why not have yet another blog based on how i experiment with my computer?!
That's what I'm going to eb doing tonight people, designing *two* more blogs and getting them active before 11 o'clock because I have college tommorrow. I'm not going to tell you exactly how these sites will be constructed yet as it depends a lot on the blog-tagging system... but watch this place, I have a feeling something might happen!

Until then,
Martin J.

A template, a style. A Fake.

2004-10-16T12:30:00.000+01:00

Today I am not happy.
Well, it's not quite as simple as that.
I'm not happy at all, in fact, I'm feeling quite useless... I mean, I'm surprised this blog hasn't exploded in a shout of disgust what with my record of destroying everything else I come into contact with... But enough on that, some car might take pity on me later today and all will be resolved.

Until then, I have to continue... I want to continue. I just want this stupid universe to understand that I am actually in love and it should stop throwing crap at me, I don't mean to be a stupid as I am... I'm sorry...

On a slightly delieriously less unhappy slant, work is underway on a new template for this here blog. The flash object is staying here for the moment, but that will change when I've done a bit more of my ICT graphics course and perhaps when I learn how to do some flash animation myself.
Apart from the flash object, the general colour scheme and the attempt to use adsense, everything else is up for a re-haul. I'm working with frontpage to design a dynamioc webpage layout, lord knows how I'm going to edit that to appear in blogger... Maybe I could get soem help, but as if anybody wants to speak to me... what? What's that shiny thing on my shelf?...

Yeah, dynamic webpage templates, this here blog *is* going to have columns, it's going to have tables and it might one day have a darned plot! Actually, speaking of such, maybe every 'complete re-haul' I should create an entirely new blog... well, I suppose the more diverse the roots, the more I'll infect, corrupt and dismarry... why can one person suck so much?

Until then, whether it be in plywood or not...
Martin J.

Strictly Come, Striclty Go. No returns.

2004-10-04T01:14:00.000+01:00

This poor little blog has been without much attention really, I think it should be treated to a new template! Unfortunately I really don't have that much time to search for one nowadays, so I'm asking anybody who knows any good templates or has any good suggestions as to what I can do, PLEASE TELL ME!
I really ought to explain why I have so little time nowadays, it's because of that thing we students like to call hell. Well, not all students, I suppose it's just the ones who go to King Edwards the Sixth and *don't* walk around with their eyes shoot and their fingers in their ears shouting "We're not singing any more! We're not singing any more!"... I really do wish they'd stop singing and die, though that may be asking to much, so instead I'll just forcefeed them all a few hundred laxitative pills - that'll cheer me up!
Anyway, there is actually a decent amount of work at college (at the moment), the only problem is I can either do it happily *or* I'm ripping my hands out of my knees trying to work out what to do with a cubic equation... I need a maths tutor!!!!
Oh, I've just realised this isn't the sort of blog I'm supposed to write this in, pretty soon I'm going to have to work on a rehaul on 'The Blog Of Royalty' with Stephanie... so, onto an experiment post!
You'll all notice that I have sold out all my morals and started publishing ads, banners and all sorts of logos on here, but I promise that I'll only publish the ones that will get me money or when I'm putting my hand into propaganda. You should notice AdSense from google somewhere on this page, but the code moves around quite often (I would say 'to keep you on your toes', but it's not like anybody actually reads this!) , also you'll notice a Firefox banner just above the Blog Description.
Firefox IS great. There really is no other way to say it. It has built in pop-up blockers and has a stylish logo - what more could you want? Okay, admittedly I don't think Firefox is that adaptable (skin wise), so if you like the idea of a pop-up free web browser with customizable settings I reckon Mozilla is your best bet. They're both free, which is good news for all, and you'll be able to find both through that button (me thinks...)

Until Then,
Martin J.

Every time there's an excuse there's a flying pig...

2004-09-22T18:02:00.000+01:00

This Blog really hasn't seen any updates or changes recently, and after a split-seconds thought I have confirmed that there has not been a single change in over five days!
However, that's probably good news for all of you lot and Blogger as it means you have less to read and laugh at and Blogger doesn't have to upgrade it's servers on my account... awww, I'm such a sweet dude!
Ah! But that's all going to change soon! Mwuahaha!! I have now subscribed to the 'Web Design' enrichment course at college so pretty soon I'll know some proper HTML and not all this nonsense of just surrounding everything in <'p'> and <'/p'> !!
Lol... Anyway, just wanted to post to make sure you don't think I'm either dead or buried under in homework, I actually haven't got any!!

Until Then,
Martin

Was it traffic or was it a diversion?

2004-09-19T18:12:00.000+01:00

Whoa! his blog hasn't seen a post for an entire week! That's not to say it hasn't been used though, in fact, much the opposite.

Over the last week I've been trying to set-up a website/blog (as if there's a difference...) for Steph so she can host her own fanart and fanfiction and all the rest of her work, which is absolutely outstanding I might add!
While randomly searching for another template to start editing in this blog I discovered a really cool looking Pirates of The Carribean template and automatically thought of Steph - the rest is history!
Well, actually it wasn't quite so straight forward... When I came across the website I immediately presumed that the author was transmitting *just* the standard code and I'd have to translate it into Blogable Code myself. So that's what I did for the next 5 days, but after several feverish paddy's in relation to the image justification I decided to go look at the authors site once again, and what do I discover? I'll tell you what, just below the thumbnail image were several customizeable options that (once selected) spurted out perfectly formallated blogger code!
Arrggh!!!
Lol... So I've been spending the last two days trying to tidy it up, and it's still not perfect, I mean, the background doesn't tile correctly and there's these *really* annoying white lines that have appeared from NO WHERE and on top of all that, comments won't work for it at all... but hey, I'll sort it out... eventually....

That's All Folks! (I used to be able to say that in Spanish... I can't believe i forgot how!)
Martin.

PS: For the moment Steph's site can be found at Stephs Fandom but that could change very soon.... it all depends on what my darling Steph wants i s'pose ^_^

Work without end and Play without a stop.

2004-09-11T09:05:00.000+01:00

I'm actually very pleased about this post, it means that I have fully contradicted myself in my blog description and as such have fulfilled my role as both a liar and a worker. For you cannot have one without the other.

This Blog has only existed for one whole week, but it's gone through a heck of a lot of changes (in my eyes anyway). Most of these have been chronicled in my previous posts or just don't warrant mention for their simplicity, or the fact that I messed them up.
However, I feel I must once again mention the "On this Day" hack. After much confusion and many paddy's with my computer I gave up trying to edit the code on my own and turned to the creator, he (I believe he's a he, if your not then I apologise profusely and have probably risked a prejudice law suit or something) not only sent me an email in response to my comment but *even* updated the code on the "How to" website! So eternal thanks to him/her!

I've gotta be on my way now for a job fair.

Weary we are of dissapointment

2004-09-07T14:26:00.000+01:00

Okay, I've set up the 'previous posts' code (as if it needs any mention...) now.

However, there is one problem with the Previous Post funtion. Whenever you access a post of a very short length (this one for example) the side-bar extends below the normal page set up, this means that it dangles into the grey bit.

I mention this simply because it's basically one of the pet hates I listed just previously and didn't want to appear a hypocrite.
I'll *try* to work this out, but due to the nature of this template I fear I'm going to have to cheat and edit all the posts to include hidden characters extending to the end of the sidebar... This means I'll be looking for templates with *two* sidebars next time, I think.

Marin.

With ease comes boredom.

2004-09-07T04:16:00.000+01:00

Last night I went hunting for new blog templates, not for inspirational purposes, but just for a background to work up from (again). Instead I've wasted about four hours of my very very cheap time and developed a tonne of new pet hates!

The template I used last night lasted for all of 10 minutes, this wasn't so much the fault of the designer, rather due to my lack of HTML knowledge. I would have included a link to the host page, but I decided as I didn't actually incorporate *any* of their code into my blog I shouldn't bother :P.
Today I've spent virtually two hours trawlling through Blogger.com (using the "next blog" button at the top left) to try and find something that calls to me...
I have found plenty of things that call to me, it's just that what they call usually resembles, "crap blog!". Here's a list of the things really hate:

Changing the pointer. I can understand this if you have an original cursor icon you want to show of (God knows Microsoft need some...) but by changing the icon to a cross-hair or the diagonal-resize symbol does nothing but confuse me.

Internet quizzes, Internet Quizzes, Internet Quizzes! Honestly! Some times I wonder whether people are blogging or just hosting Quiz-repositories! Okay, I admit that the *occasional* quiz/interactive board can be interesting, they have to be actually relevant to the blog, when they increase the side bar length to beyond that of your post-index you really do have to start wondering.

Backgrounds. Hmmm, this is probably going to expose my stupidity again, I don't mean the anime things people have behind their text (some of these are absolutely fantastic! One day I'm going to go hunting for anime blogs and give you all the lovelly reviews that you deserve :)! However, people that use images behind text without adding a watermark (transparency) effect are *immediately* turning people of your site) but when they create a tiled colour effect in the margins - I almost submitted a request to one blog to use their template before I saw their background load!

Okay, I know I'm not really in the place to complain when my blog looks like a nursery project, but please, if your reading this, don't fall into the above traps! They aren't just my pet hates, read blogger/website etiquette pages and you'll see what I mean!

Anyway, I'm going to go back to hunting now I've had my little moan.

Marin.
PS: If you have a template without all those annoying features that is something special, then please leave a comment and a link, I really want to advance my knowledge about HTML and all that... -and- you can tell I'm a polite young man who'll leave all credit to the original designers!

It's alive! The Morals are alive!

2004-09-06T09:13:00.000+01:00

I've finally reached a point where I'm not completely embarrased by this Experiment and will shortly be adding links to this Blog in my many other internet-based recesses, until then I thought I might update you on how I have updated so far.

While searching through Blogger Knowledge I discovered an interesting hack for the "date" field, namely, a link to a BBC site that shows interesting historic events on the day in question. There are further two links after the BBC link, however, I suggest you don't bother with them as the second one does not work and the latter is found in a more appropiate area of the site. Unfortunately this prooves a weakness in my knowledge, I am completely unable to edit the java script that provides these links, though I will put resources towards finding a solution.
Additionally, I've added an entirely new section to the right-sidebar, a link section. It might not look like much (and, lets face it, it *really* isn't that much) but I thought they were appropiate dedications and many more will be listed as I become aware of them! In reference to this, I may look into editing the "link-tags" at some point to change their colour etc.

Marin.

PS: I have virtually given up on the Flash MX front, after realising I wouldn't have any where to post the animations (should there existance actually ever come about :P) I have decided to half-look for already hosted animations and apply for there use on here.

A refit here.. some miscellanious code there...

2004-09-06T06:46:00.000+01:00

Well, I have had a mini fit this evening! The entire template collapsed on me for *no* apparent reason at all, but all is well again now.
Very few changes to be honest today, actually, I'm not even sure if there have even been any after the complete rehaul!
In light of this, I'm quickly going to go hunting for some mini-advancements so that I can claim at least some progress today!

Marin.

PS: My attempts at Flash MX are pityful, I have another 29 days left of the trial though, so I may give it another attempt in the near future!

The trainings comming along... just need to find the potty now.

2004-09-05T21:06:00.000+01:00

Well, I've spent a whopping 2 hours on this thing and barely a thing has changed. Ah, well, that's where your wrong my friend! I've scoured the knowledge centre for hacks and refixes and tried and tested a few and just left tit-bits of data in my code for some...
That probably doesn't mean a lot, and it doesn't, but I have really put some toast-grease into this website! I think the main change you'll notice is the archiving system that doesn't work... I've contacted Le Blogger Central about that, so pretty soon that should be working, if I can't get it to work in the next week though I'll temporarily substitute it for the pull-down database (though that itself has some teething problems).
I'm going to go have lunch now, afterwards I'll attempt to get this new FLASH MX thing to work.

Marin.

A new day and a new slice of toast

2004-09-05T09:01:00.000+01:00

Well, I believe I have renovated the general template to the best of my ability (that being the ability I can exercise in the space of two hours while yawning my face of) and am posting this post in hope of prooving the reforms to this kindly denoted template.
I bid thee a good nights sleep and leave you with the news that I hope to edit the archiving system tommorrow.

A blog into a new beginning...

2004-09-05T07:32:00.000+01:00

You may well have heard that the internet can do a great many things other than allow you to shop for fatty foods without having to move further than the front door to allow the Tesco's delivery person to enter but there are a great many uses for the net that lie out there - get-rich-quick-schemes and massive porn repositories being prime examples.
However, I hope to be learning a much more dedicated and discilpended qi of the internet, my friends, I am attempting to learn HTML... if not only to give me something to do, but to contend with my brother :P.