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Episode 6

20th June 2001

Summer's here, where's the coke? Whoops! Look what I went and did. In all the hullabaloo with summer's return and whatnot, I completely forgot that the day I got my holidays was HTMLSource's first birthday! How very fitting.

Now let us take a moment to reflect on everything I've achieved in this short year..... umm... yes.

So now, I have a good 3 months to work real hard on my web efforts. The 'Source will obviously be the main focus, since it has the most potential; but I want to try out some other designs I've been concocting over the last few weeks, for a bit of variety.

I've started already, with a follow on to the introduction to CSS, Advanced CSS. I should get something else done today, I have a few in the planning stage.

Hopefully this break will relax my tired head. Reading through the last few updates there, I feel myself being a lot more negative than usual. I need that to go away fast. Which is why I'll be spending my summer liberally playing computer games, designing websites, and drinking Coke. This is undoubtedly the best plan of all time.

22nd June 2001

Yeah, alright so I didn't get anything else written that day, but hey: today I wrote Writing for the Web. Pretty nice. I also managed to sell my soul and buy a lovely new mobile phone. It's amazing how quickly you can make the transformation to that knob who constantly takes his phone out of his pockets to check if his cool dude friends have sent him any new messages. Gah.

27th June 2001

I spent all morning today designing » RareNet 2001. It is (» again) a redesign of the site » RareNet.com, which as you can probably see, is in dire need of a new face. I'm really pleased with it too, hopefully they'll read their email this time, and tell me if they like it. Good experience, anyway.

Also, I completely remade the special characters page by ripping off some code from » WebMonkey, so there's now about 4 times as many characters there.

29th June 2001

Ahh.. summer weather. It's dull for so much of the year here that you can forget how uplifting a great day can be. I'd feel even better if I wasn't mildly hungover, but that's okay. Also, it is now officially 2 weeks until I'm 18; whereupon I can legally drink, so that's a major milestone. It really sucks being the youngest in a group and missing out on the over-18s drinking fun. Ah well, not long now. Also, there's a new tutorial doing the rounds; yes that's right! Nesting Tables. Great.

3rd July 2001

Whoo! I'm certainly on some sort of 'content drive' at the moment. Look at all of these: Inline Frames, <meta> Tags and Extreme Optimisation. Didn't I tell you this page would cry out with stuff? Didn't I??
Ross Shannon: a man of his word.

5th July 2001

There are now... hmm... at least 5 other sites on the net calling themselves HTMLSource in some way. And every one of them have appeared after us. Kelloggs don't lie kids: we are the Original and best. Anyway, I doubt any of them will pose any sort of problem to our growing success. It's just annoying to see the genius of my site's name bastardised in this fashion...

Aaanyway, I spent a harrowing hour putting together the Full Text Formatting List. I think I'm going to design something else tomorrow; I felt a sudden wave of boredom come over me this morning when I was working on this, so a short-term change might get me back in the mood. Maybe I should use more graphics...

11th July 2001

Man, site promotion can be a bit depressing sometimes. See, the thing is, much of it depends largely on the intelligence of other people. I think you can see where frustration may creep in. I swear, if another rubbish site wants me to add a reciprocal link just to get added to their index, I'm gonna kill somebody.

Yeah, ok, I'm having a crappy day. Plus, I got the first bit of negative feedback today, from some guy who reckons my listbox navigation is a bit rubbish. Hello? Hmm.. is he right? I know how I could replace them, but I'd rather not. He also says I 'rely' on them, betraying the fact that he is an idiot.

I'm nearing 130 links, but Google hasn't yet added them all to the index. Keep them coming though guys; there's nothing like seeing happy readers linking back to HTMLSource. I got myself into the top ten at AltaVista for 'html tutorials' too, which was the easiest thing ever, apparently. Oh, and I wrote some more stuff too, which I'm sure you're over the moon about. CSS and Links and CSS and Cursors.

13th July 2001

Hahaha.... yes! I'm finally 18! I've waited so damn long, and now it's finally here.... ahh. Hmmm.. what's that? Pub o' clock? Ok.

Time to hit the old aprés rasage and get jiggy with it, whatever the hell that means...

15th July 2001

"Yes indeed!" I could get used to all this partaying. Yeah, whatever.

Look! The newest tutorial is divs and Positioning. Nicely done. I also modified my stylesheet to make things look swisher, and updated the homepage with a new featured article. Finally. It's surprisingly hard to write those 50-word description things. Never again.

I've also at last started using examples in the tutorials, like this one. Cool new link class for them too.

Keep your email coming, children.

17th July 2001

Hmm... now I face a tough decision: new stuff or better old stuff? All the oldest content needs a good edit, with links to related new articles. This wasn't possible before since, somewhat less than paradoxically, the new stuff hadn't been written back then. Yes.

I need to rewrite all the keywords, descriptions and titles for the whole site too. Ugh. That's a few days' work right there. I'm also running out of tutorials which I want to write, and I'm being left with ones that I have to do, to make sure the site is as comprehensive as possible. I've filled in most of the gaping holes, I think, but some sections still need a bit of work. Back to work for me...

19th July 2001

Following a reader request, I've written some flippy Image Rollovers. It's been so long since I did them myself that I — shock! — had to sit down and figure the damn things out myself from some old code. I got it to work though, due to my envy-inducing genius.

In other news, » thecounter.com has gone to a paid service, which leaves me completely in the dark as to how many visitors I'm getting and where they're coming from. Highly frustrating. Looks like I'll have to find something else to fill the void... A guestbook, maybe?

Also, I finally added a new link to us animation — JoinUs. I had the idea for this one about half a year ago, but never bothered my ass to make it up. It's rough at the moment, as the scan I used was in bits, but you get the brilliant idea. I'll fix it up whenever I have a couple of hours free...

20th July 2001

The long-ignored images section has thankfully now been added to with Single pixel images. Nice and simple, but probably some real good advice. As always. I also gave the HTML Tag Reference a good clean-up, aesthetically and, you know, stuff-wise too. Finally, it now looks sharp.

21st July 2001

Right, I'm getting rid of those JavaScript link boxes. I know, I know; I take criticism badly, but I'm glad of that. It means I can filter out rubbish that I'm not quite aware of myself. I've had some reservations about them for a while — they created all sorts of spacing mess-ups — but now that someone else has mentioned it, their time has come. It's going to take all day to replace them, but at least I have the box that's going to usurp their place designed. Looks good too. Man, that link to us animation I put up the other day is really rubbish...

22nd July 2001

Well, that certainly took longer than I expected. Whew. I sure wish I had decided on it before my stupid 'content drive'. Ah well, it's done now, and I have never felt better about having my name to this site. HTMLSource truly is a thing of beauty. Also, I think that's the last dubious design element left, leaving me free to like my site, and concentrate on delivering decent content.

Page Navigation:
Inserting an Image | Linking Images -Second level links, too!- | Basic Attributes ]

Thank you, whoever that guy was who criticised those list boxes. You truly are a king among men. And then there's me.

24th July 2001

Episode 5 draws to a close. It was quite a good one, actually, what with our success in that competition thing, and my memories of the Leaving Cert. I wrote the first tutorial since that larger-than-you-think navigation redesign the other day, CSS and Borders. Those new page navigation boxes truly are the greatest things ever.

27th July 2001

Right, I'm off. On holidays, of course. Hopefully Portugal will be as swish as its flag suggests. I'll be gone for two weeks, so you'll have to make do with the content I have up, which as I just realised today, is a 'heck' of a lot. I mean, look at this thing. I know I can count on you all to leave me some decent emails over the break. Opening an Inbox to a pile of spam is quite a depressing experience.

Also, I've written yet more stuff — Tables Accessibility and the excellent Rounded Table Corners. See you all soon.

13th August 2001

I'm back, baby! 110 emails? Oh man! Goddamn spam, I'm never telling anyone my email address again; but still there were a few genuine emails in there which is great. I got some praise, and some minor corrections, and visitors have increased since I've been gone, and it's all good news really. And since then, I've gotten even more, including my first marriage proposal. Hey hey!

So, the holiday? A good one, by all accounts. But 36 degrees in the shade?! Is this some sort of sadistic joke?? Here are a few things I learnt while I was away: Dolphins are cool, and go-karting is the most fun ever. Great.

17th August 2001

Man, things have been a bit crazy around here for the last few days. I got the results for the Leaving Cert (real important exams), and I got my place on the Computer Science course in college! Huzzah! What a relief! Despite my "meh" attitude to the whole thing, it sure would've been crappy if I hadn't gotten away with it. I'd have to go back to school and repeat, and that would most definitely blow. This website almost cost me my future — I'm pretty sure I spent more time working on it than studying — during the exams. Crazy!

But the whole saga is finally over, and all my friends made it too. I don't think there are many that didn't get what they wanted. And since then there have been two parties and I'm suffering from some severe sleep-deprivation, but that hardly matters.

Back on the results, I didn't quite get the results in certain subjects that I wanted — I didn't get an A in Art or Geography, for some reason; but, far more important to me at the moment, I did get an A1 in English. That's full marks, man. On a scale of vindications that I've received, this is a 10. I've had my English teacher put down my literary efforts for the last two years, and now I come away from the exam (the one I cared most about, by far) with top marks. Haha, great.

So, what have I been doing for the last few days on HTMLSource, in the hangover lulls? I wrote a huge article explaining HTML 4.0. That took two days of research and writing, so I think it's enough. I'm going to have to get it into the Open Directory to justify the time it took. Still working through the backlog of emails, I wish I hadn't promised replies to them all. Bah, I suppose it's the least you deserve for getting in contact. I'd appreciate more feedback though, and less questions and praise, despite the obvious benefits of the latter. Anyway, time for the pub.

19th August 2001

Have you seen that new virus doing the rounds on the net? I don't know what it's called, but it really should be something like 'Idiotcatcher 2.0'. Honestly; you've have to be pretty dense to open a file that comes with a message like that, from someone you've never heard of, when those are the first two signs of a virus. I'd bet that the hacker was just proving a point.
"Why are you so depressed, Tommy?"
"People are so stupid, I hate them."
"People aren't stupid!"
"Right, I'll prove it."
And little Tommy certainly did that. Now, I don't know how it works, but I assume you need the recipients address saved on your computer for the file to send itself. I have received the thing four or five times. This means that my readers are idiots too. Maybe not them all, but some of them are. Tsk, after I go to so much trouble to attract only a high-class clientele. You make sure you don't fall for it yourself.

23rd August 2001

I've been doing a bit of a clean-up around the site today, and probably for the next couple of days. You know: checking links, adding bits and bobs to content, modernising, and looking for spelling mistakes. I found a horrifying number of them too. Not since I used homogenous instead of indigenous in my Leaving Cert English exam have I been this embarrassed...

25th August 2001

Hello everybody. How are you all? Good. Looking forward to some new tutorials, eh? Well, there are a few things getting in the way of that at the moment. I'm currently giving the existing site a really thorough edit and improvement. It has increased in size so fast that I just don't want to let it get away from me, you know? So all that is taking ages as I add in more cross-links, new sections to pages and tweak the existing stuff. I added an awards page too; relatively empty at the moment, but once I go back and collect more of the awards I've won recently it'll grow. Also see Link Requests.

I've also managed to get slightly addicted to a wonderful game called The Sims. No doubt you've heard about it. It's been lying around on my desk here since Christmas and I've never just sat down and gotten into it. The rest of my family have gone to Spain for a week (apparently forgetting to buy me a ticket), so I now have all the time I want to play it without my brother constantly wanting his 'go'. A fine game it is too. Will Wright may not be Peter Molyneux, but that might not be such a bad thing...

30th August 2001

Haha — great news! Remember back when I got my exam results a little while ago? Er... you do remember, right? Anyway, I got an A1 in English, which was pretty great. That means I got a mark somewhere between 90 and 100% in the test. So today I was allowed to go in and see the paper. I had a look at the mark. Ooh, full marks in paper 1. I read through it, impressive, had a look at some other papers. Then found paper 2 and looked in the top corner.

style="margin: -1em">I got 100%

Perfect. I did not lose one mark out of four hundred over the two papers. I'm not sure how uncommon this actually is, but I can tell you, it's pretty funting amazing! I mean, to get full marks in Maths or something, while fantastic, is achievable; but English... This is just unreal.

Oh well, time to ward off my disbelieving friends. Haha, how chuffed I am!

1st September 2001

My God, a week into the shuffle-up and I'm still only half the way through it. I'm not even writing a lot of stuff, I'm just reading and fixing the odd mistake up and getting some ideas. The rich hyperspace that is HTMLSource is now much better linked together, which is good. Extra info about anything is never more than a handily-placed hyperlink away.

I'm doing this in stages, so stage one is mistake-checking. Stage 2 will be testing, with old browsers and things. Stage 3 will be the most radical change you're going to see. I'm going to get rid of the stupidly named wikid files. If that wasn't a carry-on from the glory days of » EarthSource I don't think I would have included it at all. I'll move all the downloads into a start here page. Then, the cool links and wikid files boxes in the navbar of the tutorials will be merged into 'Further Resources', or something.

I might even resurrect the HTMLSource: Directory idea. After coming across a fair few crappy webmaster's directories on my promotional travels, I really don't want to be the webmaster of one of them. I guess my directory would have a natural advantage, being linked from a parent site like HTMLSource, but it's still a risk.

I also finally got my hands on the brilliant Half-Life; finally. It's great fun too. That's going to slow down the work, of course. Still, I've got about two weeks before college starts, so I'll definitely have it finished before then.

style="border-top: 1px dashed #99c; padding-top: 0.5em">But wait, there's more: Episode 7.