GerbilMechs.com - Lookin' ugly until Morgion takes command...

6.25.02 (Morgion):

Have I mentioned that I don't like Opera? No?! Well, then let me elaborate. I hate Opera. Not the opera, but Opera. Although I'm probably not fond of opera either... but I digress.

My web/graphics design job requires me to make web pages. That's the simple part. I get to make graphics along with the web pages; hence, the "graphics" component. That's uber-fun, so I don't mind that at all. However, there is an element in design that's not intuitively obvious... especially to you CS majors out there. After you've made something, it's generally a good idea to see that it works.

Unless you're a consultant. Then you just take your money and run before whatever you made stops making sense, or falls down, or implodes, or rips a hole in space/time, or turns your attempt at an omelet into a runny-yoked, chared-scrambles, magic-smoke-producing abomination. Turn on the stove fan, genius.</self-deprecation>

Anyway, testing. Testing websites means making sure they look good / function in a variety of browsers on many different platforms. Except Lynx or emacs; get thee to a nunnery! Modern browsers are pretty-well made; they're frickin brain surgeons compared to dunce sitting in the corner with the pointy white hat, AKA Netscape 4.x.x. Microsoft has actually done a good job of adhering to rendering standards: surprising, but true. No longer do I shout, "Damn you Netscape!" Even it knows what it's doing, and aside from some DOM scripting issues, it plays very well with anything developed and previewed with IE.

Then there's Opera. To all of you elitist geeks that use it, I'm sorry. To those that whine and complain that ecommerce sites "don't work" as you're viewing them in Opera, screw you. In a friendly, non-offensive way. :-) The site works fine; the designer wisely decided that people need to get out of the dark ages and download a new browser that understand what's happened to web dev standards in the last 3 years.

Oh, your version of Opera is that new? See honey, then it's just dumb, OK? Now go play in the dirt. So your tables look a little bit off, and you can't view animated graphics in rollovers. "I don't need to see all of that flashy crap," you might say. Fine. Then don't get on my case when your lame rendering engine balks on my pages.

If you want single-window / tabbed browsing, use Mozilla. It's not slow. Unless you're machine is weak and not 1337. Then I have no pity for you. :-) Go play a game of 1000 Blank White Cards. Or arouse your trousers. *snicker*

After reading my comments, some friends at work said I was perhaps a bit harsh in my treatment of CS majors and their likelihood to test things. I apologize for any feelings I may have hurt; it pains me deeply to think I may aleinate the target market of this comic with my remarks. My statement was not screened by a smarmy panel of marketing experts, or tested in a long, drawn out, and ultimately ambiguous focus group. I did not submit the proper documentation (with cover sheets) to the Research and Policies division of GerbilMechs (LLP), and I am to be held solely responsible in any litigation that may ensue. Now, since I am in the midsts of crunch time and have many action items on my task sheet, I must return to plaguing my CS coworkers with my MIS tendencies. :-)

GerbilMechs 004 : Where? Wai?

25Jun02 (Monthenor): Hurrah for plot! I'm trying something new yet again with this comic, and no, I don't mean that I forgot to draw people's mouths when they're speaking. That's just me being forgetful. No, I mean this is the first comic to actually be drawn on one piece of paper. All the other have been sketched on at least two sheets, then composited and scaled in the GIMP. I was worried that doing it the "all-or-nothing" way wouldn't leave room for speech balloons, but it turned out pretty damn well. I only lost the feet at the bottom of panel 5, and I've already made sure it won't happen again. So what does this mean for GerbilMechs? It could mean cleaner-looking comics, with better sense of place and timing. It could mean that Wai is VERY important to GMechs. It could also mean the advent of our Morgion-born comic submission/posting system. Oh wait, no it doesn't :P In meatspace news, Achaea still holds a deathgrip upon my waking hours in a way I have not seen since the MUD Edge of Time (to anyone who played that MUD, SARDONYX OWNZ J00! [<>]). I defeated Castlevania 64 with Reinhardt, stomping what seemed like TEN different incarnations of Dracula, the goofiest of which had to be SPOILER the 50-foot tall millipede-dragon that breathed fire and threw sand ENDSPOILER. So now I'm going to run through with Carrie and see what all I missed. I hear her stages are cooler. Oh, and the beta hotseat version of Tryslmaistan Chess from Unicorn Jelly is also pretty neat, in a Sir Bombalot kind of way. Ooooo, before I forget. I'd come back on, let's say...Saturday? Saturday work for you? There might be something you should see here :) UPDATE 26Jun02 UPDATE: After the firestorm of controversy from Morgion's comments, which was in fact more of a matchbook of controversy, I feel I must make my opinions of Mozilla known. Y'know, because I have a webcomic and therefore my opinions are ultimately MORE qualified than yours. If you're such hot shit, why dont' YOU have a webcomic on which to speak your mind? Anyway, what I'm saying is that Mozilla 1.0 blows goats. Not even attractive goats. We're talking big, stringy, mountain-dwelling wild goats that aren't getting it at home and thus seek out the trashiest of web browsers to satisfy their goatly needs. I tried to explain it to Morgion yesterday in the car and all I could recall was a vague feeling of disgust. However, last night I tried again and remembered exactly why I hate Mozilla so much: not only is it slow (by my own rudimentary measures), but the Preferences control panel is completely oblivious to my mouse clicking. I cannot expand any tree of settings, nor can I leave the default options page. This limits my Mozilla customization experience to "setting my home page", an act which is thrilling for the first couple hours or so, but afterwards quickly loses its luster. Now remember, this is the vaunted 1.0 release, a browser which was supposed to (I'm quoting from their own ad copy here) "revolutionize the Internet", "provide an viable alternative to IE", "comply with all W3C standards", and "change the oil on your car." Mozilla might well be a good replacement for IE...I wouldn't know. But my version of Opera5 with all my settings is a damn sight better than the gimpy default install of Mozilla 1.0. Also, I still have to take my car to Amoco to get its oil changed. So Mozilla has been a big disappointment all around. I will sum up: Mozilla can lick me, 0p3Ra 0w\|\\|z0Rz j00. See you on Saturday! Oh, Morgion? Yeeeah...see, we're putting cover sheets on all our Research and Policies reports now. Did ya get the memo? I'll see that you get a copy. And I'm gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Saturday, so if you would be here about, say, 9, that'd be greeeeat.
6.25.02 (Morgion): Have I mentioned that I don't like Opera? No?! Well, then let me elaborate. I hate Opera. Not the opera, but Opera. Although I'm probably not fond of opera either... but I digress. My web/graphics design job requires me to make web pages. That's the simple part. I get to make graphics along with the web pages; hence, the "graphics" component. That's uber-fun, so I don't mind that at all. However, there is an element in design that's not intuitively obvious... especially to you CS majors out there. After you've made something, it's generally a good idea to see that it works. Unless you're a consultant. Then you just take your money and run before whatever you made stops making sense, or falls down, or implodes, or rips a hole in space/time, or turns your attempt at an omelet into a runny-yoked, chared-scrambles, magic-smoke-producing abomination. Turn on the stove fan, genius.</self-deprecation> Anyway, testing. Testing websites means making sure they look good / function in a variety of browsers on many different platforms. Except Lynx or emacs; get thee to a nunnery! Modern browsers are pretty-well made; they're frickin brain surgeons compared to dunce sitting in the corner with the pointy white hat, AKA Netscape 4.x.x. Microsoft has actually done a good job of adhering to rendering standards: surprising, but true. No longer do I shout, "Damn you Netscape!" Even it knows what it's doing, and aside from some DOM scripting issues, it plays very well with anything developed and previewed with IE. Then there's Opera. To all of you elitist geeks that use it, I'm sorry. To those that whine and complain that ecommerce sites "don't work" as you're viewing them in Opera, screw you. In a friendly, non-offensive way. :-) The site works fine; the designer wisely decided that people need to get out of the dark ages and download a new browser that understand what's happened to web dev standards in the last 3 years. Oh, your version of Opera is that new? See honey, then it's just dumb, OK? Now go play in the dirt. So your tables look a little bit off, and you can't view animated graphics in rollovers. "I don't need to see all of that flashy crap," you might say. Fine. Then don't get on my case when your lame rendering engine balks on my pages. If you want single-window / tabbed browsing, use Mozilla. It's not slow. Unless you're machine is weak and not 1337. Then I have no pity for you. :-) Go play a game of 1000 Blank White Cards. Or arouse your trousers. snicker After reading my comments, some friends at work said I was perhaps a bit harsh in my treatment of CS majors and their likelihood to test things. I apologize for any feelings I may have hurt; it pains me deeply to think I may aleinate the target market of this comic with my remarks. My statement was not screened by a smarmy panel of marketing experts, or tested in a long, drawn out, and ultimately ambiguous focus group. I did not submit the proper documentation (with cover sheets) to the Research and Policies division of GerbilMechs (LLP), and I am to be held solely responsible in any litigation that may ensue. Now, since I am in the midsts of crunch time and have many action items on my task sheet, I must return to plaguing my CS coworkers with my MIS tendencies. :-)