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The latest revisions to this web site appear below:
Shrunk the page headers slightly and changed from white to blue for no particular reason.
I've had a request to increase the size of the small photos on the home page, (the "This Week" page). I've done that, but it's a trade-off, just like everything in life, compromise, compromise. By increasing the photo size that also increases the page load time. The solution was to decrease the number of small photos to keep the load time short. So instead of small photos there are just text headlines in some cases. Next...
Sorry folks... but Canadian news will now be presented weekly instead of daily. OKthePK mobile news for smartphones is no longer available. I've had to cut down my work load... and try to get a life.
Here are some visitor statistics for the year 2012 collected by the OKthePK server that you may find interesting, or not... Total number of web site hits during year = 1,942,481 Busiest month of the year = October Browsers reading this web site:
The first upload of this year includes all the recently constructed HTML 5 pages. I had missed the search results page earlier but that too is now HTML 5. The web site appears substantially the same in four browsers, Microsoft Internet Explorer, FireFox, Google Chrome, and Opera. If you're using Apple's Safari browser please advise me of any anomalies, perhaps I can correct them.
Way back when, I don't recall how many years ago, HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) became popular. It was simple, easy to learn, and compact, saving bandwidth with each small file holding a web page. One of the early complaints was the difficulty in displaying where text and images appeared on a web page. This short coming was soon solved when the table tag came along providing many ways to position text and images. Then some genius decided that the mark-up (WHAT text and images are displayed on a page) needed to be separated from the presentation (WHERE and how the text and images are displayed on a page). The resulting solution was CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). So now simple HTML was complicated by the addition of CSS, a new language to be learned. However, even after the introduction of CSS each new version of HTML, up to 4.01, generally still had the ability to place text and images where you wanted without the use of CSS. A web page designer could avoid using CSS entirely if they chose. Then along came HTML 5 and all that changed. In HTML5 the presentation is totally separated from mark-up so a web page designer is now forced
to use CSS.
Below is my Reliability History chart from the Action Center which indicates some of the problems I've experienced since upgrading to Windows
8. The red dots with an X indicate critical failures of Windows 8. In some instances when there is a critical failure the "blue screen of
death" appears and all current work in progress is lost as the computer shuts down. There will be no warning to save your work! The yellow
triangles indicate a warning but the system seems to remain stable when that occurs. The blue dots indicate the operating system has taken some
action, such as updating Windows Defender, and have no apparent effect on computer use. The chart covers the period from 14 Oct 2012 to
9 Dec 2012. The large increase in critical failures began with the installation of Windows 8 on 27 Oct 2012. Since then there has been an
improvement but critical failures still occur.
This annoying Windows 8 Internet Explorer browser version 10 error message:
Windows 8 Internet Explorer browser version 10 produces this annoying error message continuously.
Changed the lead story photograph on the mobile page to full screen size and moved the headline text beneath it.
ATTENTION Windows Users: DO NOT UPGRADE to Windows 8. The operating system is unstable on a PC and may crash or freeze up
the computer at any time. The big blue screen of death has returned! Too bad... Windows 7 was very stable. Over time Microsoft will most likely
fix these problems but waiting to upgrade would be a wise choice.
Today Microsoft Windows 8 Pro Version 6.2.9200 Build 9200 was installed and updated running Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 Version 10.0.9200.16384. OKthePK pages were specifically designed for Microsoft Internet Explorer version 10 running on the Windows 8 operating system. They will display properly at 1920 x 1080 or 1176 x 664 resolution. Other browsers, operating systems, or resolutions may be problematical. If you have a problem please contact me. Happy Halloween... Boo !
To reduce scrolling of the Home page news article photos and links are now side by side in pairs. Tightened up the header and menu spacing on each page as well.
Most noticeable change is the "Ballast" background. Text is slightly larger as Cascading Style Sheets are now employed on all pages.
Replaced the Download button link to a Wallpaper of the Month page.
Modified the CSS code to set the base font on all pages.
Rebuilt the Site Map page making it more interactive and perhaps more interesting. Added a second link from the home page to the site map marked "Explore this web site".
For consistency sake added more "Up" buttons to several pages and removed all the images from the About page. Thought the Up button was too large and distracting so reduced its size.
Changed the footer on all pages to provide an "Up" link to the top of the page and a Home page link.
Added a more effective free web site search feature by Free Find on the right side of the Home page. The old search function by FusionBot.com has been removed from the CPR Set-off Siding Latest Updates page.
Added "Up to top of page" links to Yesterday's news page. Changed link colours on all pages except Home page and Mobile pages to make them more readable. Added Canadian flag to header on all pages.
Well... it's a new year, so time for a change. It's obvious the Christmas holiday web site couldn't remain throughout the new year so there are
really only four revisions to the web site. Rather than having one large photo for the lead news article all the news articles show a photo on the
homepage along with their respective title. Click on either to read the article. This forced various icons and logos to move to the right side of
the page. The third revision changes all page background colours from blue to grey. The fourth revision involves the mobile page. The large
opening news article photo has been replaced by a smaller photo to match all the others appearing there.
Snow falling on the Christmas web site home page has accumulated on several of the hyperlinks. A Christmas tree appears to the left side of the
screen while a gift marked "Do NOT open before December 25th !" will be found at the bottom of the page. Santa Claus has advised you
really should wait until December 25th before clicking to open this present.
The Mobile news page was modified today. Large headline text now precedes the first photograph. Pressing on either the photo or the headline
text will open the news article. Each story below the first article now includes a small photo along with the story title. Pressing the photo or
the title will open the appropriate news article.
The "This Month" page was updated to match the latest changes. Added a link at the bottom of the "Home" page to this page then placed a link on the "Sitemap" page to this page. Added the QR code image to the bottom of the Home page with an appropriate link. Added a link from the Sitemap page to the QR code page.
Web site design rule number two, consistency. Since the menu buttons were moved to the top of the Home page yesterday they now appear in that
same location on all other pages too. Also, the button colours have been reversed. Buttons now turn grey when the mouse pointer hovers over them.
After clicking on a particular button upon arrival at the appropriate page the button remains grey to indicate it is inactive.
If you have visited this web site regularly perhaps you noticed the size of the photograph on the home page increased in size over time. (In
the last iteration it went from 588 pixels to 640 pixels wide.)
William C. Slim - Car Knocker - "I love the smell of creosote in the morning".
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