frozen coagulated culture

It’s not nice to make fun of folks who are probably trying hard but just haven’t quite figured out the way some things should be done. So I guess I should feel pretty guilty about posting this link to ten of the worst websites you will ever see. On the other had, some of these pages really are too amazing to miss.

Click the image to visit the original post at blogstorm.

The NYT Magazine published an interesting photo series showing people together with their on-line avatars.

Via Exploding Aardvark

Some of the better timelines on the web:

• Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline of Art History
• University of Texas anthropology department World Cultures Timeline
  
• Timeline index

The Met’s timeline is especially good. The last one is just a directory of timelines, some of which are good, others less so.

As I refine my timeline of the Maya I may need to make it interactive at some point.

Pretty funny, if you’ve been following the uproar surrounding Google Street Views at all.

Source of image (detail above): http://www.guiabuscadores.com/blog/2007/117/.

Someone has hacked my Buried Mirror site’s administration page. Grrrr. I will not name this person or show a screen shot of what was done — this kind of hacker will get no publicity from me.

Working on a fix now … Okay, now fixed.

I’ve created a new stripped-down sidebar for my html pages. The way this evolved is approximately like this:

1. I began with a relatively simple sidebar
2. I fell in love with whatever my current content was and added it to the sidebar, creating a monster sidebar with many items
3. I simplified the sidebar, adding intermediary navigation pages
4. The new version

The problem with version 3, according to my current thinking, was that I was both helping too much and getting in the way too much. By trying to direct visitors I was getting between them and their target content. And, trying to be cute with cryptic descriptors, I was mystifying and obfuscating.

Most people today are target oriented. They’re mostly not likely to wander around a site gazing at its wonders like tourists (although I hope there’s still a little of this). I’ve decided that most people can find stuff if left on their own. Through the home page, the sitemap, and the search function, they should get where they want to be without my guidance.

I’ll slowly replace the old version(s), beginning with the more popular pages. You can see the new navigation now on my section about getting a book published.