rips…

…and other disturbances…

no time for web design testing?

Time and time again I land on sites with web designs that break apart in browsers when subjected to the slightest amount of stress. By “stress” I mean: setting font-size option a little higher in my browsers, so I can read what's written. I apply the same, fixed, settings to all sites, and for the record: the deviation from defaults is so small that they don't affect this site at all.

I'm not talking about “the minor disorder” that can and will affect any and all web designs if/when end-users actually use their ability to change such regular settings in browsers to suit their own needs, but about design-breakages that makes sites completely unusable.

Entirely new sites and designs break in ways that indicates that the people behind them started in web design yesterday … well, maybe they did but one should't think so when reading all the nice things they have to say about themselves and their experience in the field of web design. To me the result is what matters, and I'm definitely not impressed.

stop, test and fix.

Problems with weak web designs should really be a thing of the past, as we have all the tools and methods we need to make things work reasonably well in all major and most minor browsers, at our disposal. Some quick testing across browser-land, and minor adjustments in accordance with web standards and good practices, is all that's needed in most cases. Why it clearly isn't done is beyond me.

Whether something others have created looks good or bad, doesn't really matter to me. Whether it works or doesn't, does matter. I'll take an un-designed, flat-looking, site with accessible information and uncluttered functionality, over the most designed, easily broken and generally dysfunctional site, any day.

whose fault is it anyway.

Many of those responsible for the end-result are really not to blame, as their job is made all but impossible by people elsewhere in the chain.
Pity those hard-working people at the end of the design-chain can't add a disclaimer: pointing the blame where it belongs.

Too many at the end of the design-chain seem to have no idea about browsers though, and don't seem to wanna leave their own sandbox no matter what their “work” comes out as at the user-end.
Their disclamer should rather be: “sorry about the mess but I have no idea what I'm doing and I can't be bothered to find out how things work”.

To an end-user it doesn't matter who's to blame for weak designs though, as she only have to leave the site if it doesn't work for her. So, weak designs are really only a problem for those who own such sites.

meanwhile, back at the farm…

It's maintenance season around here and we're focusing on the pastures. At irregular intervals we have to make sure all parts of our field-drainage system work well, and fix or rebuild those parts that don't. It is natural to carry out larger drainage-maintenance in the somewhat dry season, since the machines we use for such operations are most effective when they have a dry surface to move around on.

The regular users of the pastures in need of maintenance – the cows, are of course elsewhere during the operations. Our farm may not be large by any standard, but we have enough green spaces to keep our four-legged inhabitants occupied with their preferred pass-time activity – grazing – well away from open drainage-ditches and machinery.

Weather permitting, the maintenance work will go on all summer.

sorry, no milk today…

A group of workers in the milk processing plants are on strike over retirements deals. To us this means we have to pour out tank-loads of milk, since the milk truck doesn't come around to pick it up as they can't process it while the strike lasts. Shiiiiit.

Even more shiiity is the fact that the dairy industry keeps on feeding us updates with wrong information about which routes they'll pick up milk on as normal and which ones that are halted. Means we have to use time and energy on figuring out what's going on, and store milk that is to be poured out anyway. Obviously those in charge in the dairy industry don't care about avoiding such minor inconveniences on our part, or maybe they have no idea about what's going on since the information they publish is still wrong long after we have established the true facts and taken our measures.

As everyone should know: you can't turn a dairy cow's production “off” and “on” at will. This means when she's in production she'll deliver her quota at milking time two times a day, no matter what. For the record: our best cows are in peak production at the moment.

So now we're helping to feed a hungry world by attaching a hose to the milk tank…

…pulling the plug…

…following the milk on its short route across the sunny and warm farm yard…

…and making sure the white stuff is spread well into the for now pretty dry Norwegian soil.

I'm sure the local microbial life will make good use of our delicious milk, but somehow such a solution doesn't seem quite right these days. Anyway, where the milk goes isn't our choice to make, so I'll leave further thoughts about the whole mess to others.

By the way: our calves don't mind drinking milk produced by their mothers. However, the small creatures can only consume so much in a day and we can only store so much milk for so long for our calves.

The same goes for the rest of us – people, cats and whatnot. This despite the fact that we prefer the real stuff produced on our own farm, over the finished product sold to the public.

sincerely 

Hageland 11.jun.2008
last rev: 11.jun.2008