New look, new mission

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

May you go back to Iraq and send us as good reports as you have done till now.

I’m really concerned about all these Bush X Middle West conflicts and think it is too difficult to find good analysis on that subject.

You make the difference…

Thank you very much.

Hi Chris,

Wonderful site redesign (or “reform” as they say here in Japan)! It really is much cleaner and brighter somehow. The graphic at the top is especially nice too, with some Iraqi people, and… we get to see you with those cool Matrix-style shades. ;-) Did you draw the script for the title too? Very nice.

Couple of suggestions, if I may…

1) Though the comment windows seem fine, with the text and dashed line stretching all the way to the borders, but with other popup windows like the list of contributors. can you make them resizable?

2) As nice as the new design is, and don’t know if others are affected by this, like on Macs or in Linux, but I now have to scroll horizontally to see it all. It would be much easier to view if the site’s pages could resize themselves into whatever size browser window a viewer had. Is this possible with the new B2I? Btw, I’m using Windows XP, and this occurs with MSIE 6, Mozilla 1.5, Firebird 0.7 and Opera 7.01.

Many thanks, and a happy holidays to you too!

Ron

Hi, Ron—

Thanks for the advice. What browser are you using, because all windows are resizable and the page should be expanding dynamically to fit the window. What’s your set up?

Hi Chris,

Thanks.

As I mentioned, I’m using (English) Windows XP, and the horizontal scrolling occurs with MSIE 6, Mozilla 1.5, Firebird 0.7 and Opera 7.01. The only way I can seamlessly view B2I’s pages without scrolling back and forth is to completely get rid of my bookmarks panel, which I like to have on the left side in any browser. I know that the main content is in the middle, which I have no problem reading, but sometimes I do like to take a peek on the right side, and that’s where the horizontal scrolling comes in.

It’s not a high priority with me; I just thought I’d bring it to your attention. I would be curious, though, if others are experiencing this too or if there’s something quirky with my setup outside the browsers. How is it on the Mac?

Thanks again.

Ron

It’s not easy to figure out what you intended, because you’re using both a stylesheet and inline styles. But this alone :

div id=”Layer2” style=”position:absolute; width:175px; height:115px; z-index:2; left: 650px; top: 180px;” class=”navbar”

pretty much guarantees that you’ll get a horizontal scrollbar on a 800x600 screen.

The best reference I know of on column layout using CSS is at http://glish.com/css/ - probably you want their “2 columns, ALA style” layout.

FWIW, I’m using 1024 x 768 resolution.

Interesting. My screen is 1280x1024. If I resize to 1024x768 still no scrollbar, but it appears at 800x600 - which is what I expected from a quick scan of the CSS.

Hm. I’m loathe to use percentages as the shaded area of the banner is part of the background image, and if I start using percentages, the left column, which is aligned with the backgrond image will shift. I’ll play around and see what I can do with it. When I look at my logs, however, I find that the vast majority of people using it are on IE 5.5 or 6 and using 1280 screen width or better. Not many are still using 800 x 600. I’ll see what I can do, however.

Chris,

I decided to change my resolution (17-in. screen) to 1152 x 864 (from 1024 x 768) and can now read B2I’s pages without any horizontal bar. A bit of getting used to but doable. With change on my mind, I also switched from IE 6 to Firebird as my main browser and enjoy the experience so far. I recommend it for anyone wanting a lighter, slightly faster browser, that blocks popups as a default (though you can set it to add sites you want popups from).

I’d say that if most users are reading B2I at higher than 1024x768, then they’re probably seeing it OK. Sorry to bother you with the issue.

Now back to Iraq…

I know your area of expertise is northern Iraq, but would you happen to know anything about the southeastern Iraqi city of Samawah, such as its relative safety? This is where the bulk of the Japanese SDF soldiers will be deployed. Other than being a Shi’ite town, I imagine, I’ve read/heard nothing about it in US or UK media, and there’s very little discussion of it in the English press here in Japan. Since the decision to send the 1000+ contingent of soldiers to Iraq was made with very little debate by lawmakers, most of the Japanese public seem resigned to a typical “sho ga nai”, or “well, it can’t be helped; there’s no use complaining” kind of attitude.

Thanks.

I like it very much indeed ~ I think it’s a super idea to have your photo included at the top; a face to associate with the content (and such a very young-looking, clear-skinned face it is!) I have no problems with scrollbars or such. I hope everyone whips out their donations and sends you over there NOW!

I love the redesign.

I know I’m always the nitpicker, but you’ve still got this in your introduction: “You can see the progress I’ve made in rasing funds further down under ‘Coalition of the Willing.’ Thanks, everyone!” You’ve changed it, though, and there is no longer a link to the Coalition of the Willing, simply a “Click here for a list of the contributors.”

Legacy sucks. ;)

Chris,

I heard you on Air America the other day. I thank you for giving us additional unconventional coverage of this war. Thanks so much.