The works and musings of an american fiction and technical writer living in Milan, Italy • Updated: Oct 05, 2008 - 5:39PM • 8527 hits past day
Die young, not early.
Site Plans
Below is a list of plans for this site. These are problems that need to be resolved, improvements to make, and other development ideas. Click on the heading of an item to see an example of the problem or area of the site involved.
This is just the start of my list. However, please email me if you know of any problems not listed here or have recommendations to improve the site.
Completed Site Plans
Below is a list of recent site plans that have been completed. That doesn't mean that there isn't more than can be done in these areas or that more problems weren't created in the process. Please let me know if you have some suggestions to improve these areas or see problems that have resulted from these changes.
When a user clicks on a photograph to enlarge it, a separate box is opened which displays the image file only. Also, it does not allow for whether the image is portrait or landscape sizing. Instead, I want to open a new web page which displays properly the image and which will provide text describing the photo, as well as a close button.
There are several articles that do not have abstracts, brief descriptions of them yet. These appear when you views a list of technical articles before choosing one to read. All of the articles for some of the categories have abstracts, but not all articles. There are a couple dozen left to be written.
If allowed, I'd like to add the text from the first edition of MySQL in a Nutshell. I suspect there may be a problem with the copyrights providing the whole book. However, I might be able to provide one SQL statement or function at a time along with the syntax, description, and examples. I could provide this text in search results and as an additional resource for technical articles.
My book, MySQL in a Nutshell is written in DocBook XML. I'd like to make parts of it available on this site. I was thinking of adding some XML tags to be able to extract the syntax and the explanation of the syntax for each SQL statement and function. Possibly, I could do a combination of the syntax and an example of its use instead. These components would be shown only in the search results of the Articles Search pages. I can implement this idea easily. I'm just concerned about the copyrights and what my publisher might say about this idea.
To improve performance of the site and to make viewing a photo album more agreeable, for many of the albums the best ten to twenty photos have been marked and only those selected photos are displayed unless the user chooses to view all. Many of the albums have not been set up for this new feature yet.
May 2008
Unfinished Site Plans
Below is a list of site plans that have not been completed.
At this point, the site map page is not automatically generated, per se. That is to say that when a new page is created, an entry must also be manually made to the table containing a list of pages on this site. The site map page is generated from that table, but not automatically updated.
There's a problem with searching for photographs. For some of the results, the site address returned are not correct—they're missing the parent or grandparent directory in their file path. The script either needs to test for the possibilities, or the hierarchical organization of photo albums and sub-albums needs to be reorganized.
Several profile pages have been created for regular topics and people mentioned on the site. Some have been started, but need more content. Many have no content.
A photograph album map of Milan has been set up and many of the key locations of Milan have been photograph. However, many locations still need to be photographed and added to the site.
Where a user navigates to a page which no longer exists—this can occur when following an old link from a search engine—the user is sent to the main page automatically. This can be confusing to a new visitor. Instead, an error page should be created telling the user of the problem and offering them other alternatives.
There are some problems with the documentation pages. The scripts and the data associated with them are complex. The problems need to be solved to make the pages more usable.
For technical articles, a section has been added to the right margin to list Other Resources. These include links to documentation pages and related articles. Only a few articles have other resource links. More need to be added to the database.
When I first came to Italy, I began building a web page of brief notes regarding the Italian language to help me learn the language. It's grown to many pages and has become something much bigger than I had envisioned. However, pursuing the line it has taken, it's incomplete. I need to fill in major sections missing. Additionally, it has become cumbersome and needs to be broken up into multiple pages and the text needs to be moved into the MySQL database—it's basically flat HTML at this point.
In October I bought a video camera. I want to be able to add videos to my site. These would be short videos of places I regularly visit and things in my life. I need to prepare my site to handle videos properly.
Site Plans
Below is a list of plans for this site. These are problems that need to be resolved, improvements to make, and other development ideas. Click on the heading of an item to see an example of the problem or area of the site involved.
This is just the start of my list. However, please email me if you know of any problems not listed here or have recommendations to improve the site.
Completed Site Plans
Below is a list of recent site plans that have been completed. That doesn't mean that there isn't more than can be done in these areas or that more problems weren't created in the process. Please let me know if you have some suggestions to improve these areas or see problems that have resulted from these changes.
Better Photo Enlarge Box
When a user clicks on a photograph to enlarge it, a separate box is opened which displays the image file only. Also, it does not allow for whether the image is portrait or landscape sizing. Instead, I want to open a new web page which displays properly the image and which will provide text describing the photo, as well as a close button.
Article Abstracts
There are several articles that do not have abstracts, brief descriptions of them yet. These appear when you views a list of technical articles before choosing one to read. All of the articles for some of the categories have abstracts, but not all articles. There are a couple dozen left to be written.
Text from Nutshell book
If allowed, I'd like to add the text from the first edition of MySQL in a Nutshell. I suspect there may be a problem with the copyrights providing the whole book. However, I might be able to provide one SQL statement or function at a time along with the syntax, description, and examples. I could provide this text in search results and as an additional resource for technical articles.
Excerpts from Nutshell Book
My book, MySQL in a Nutshell is written in DocBook XML. I'd like to make parts of it available on this site. I was thinking of adding some XML tags to be able to extract the syntax and the explanation of the syntax for each SQL statement and function. Possibly, I could do a combination of the syntax and an example of its use instead. These components would be shown only in the search results of the Articles Search pages. I can implement this idea easily. I'm just concerned about the copyrights and what my publisher might say about this idea.
Select Photos
To improve performance of the site and to make viewing a photo album more agreeable, for many of the albums the best ten to twenty photos have been marked and only those selected photos are displayed unless the user chooses to view all. Many of the albums have not been set up for this new feature yet.
Unfinished Site Plans
Below is a list of site plans that have not been completed.
Automate Site Map
At this point, the site map page is not automatically generated, per se. That is to say that when a new page is created, an entry must also be manually made to the table containing a list of pages on this site. The site map page is generated from that table, but not automatically updated.
Photo Search Results
There's a problem with searching for photographs. For some of the results, the site address returned are not correct—they're missing the parent or grandparent directory in their file path. The script either needs to test for the possibilities, or the hierarchical organization of photo albums and sub-albums needs to be reorganized.
Profile Pages need Content
Several profile pages have been created for regular topics and people mentioned on the site. Some have been started, but need more content. Many have no content.
More Photographs of Milan
A photograph album map of Milan has been set up and many of the key locations of Milan have been photograph. However, many locations still need to be photographed and added to the site.
Need an Error Page
Where a user navigates to a page which no longer exists—this can occur when following an old link from a search engine—the user is sent to the main page automatically. This can be confusing to a new visitor. Instead, an error page should be created telling the user of the problem and offering them other alternatives.
Documentation Pages
There are some problems with the documentation pages. The scripts and the data associated with them are complex. The problems need to be solved to make the pages more usable.
Other Resources for Articles
For technical articles, a section has been added to the right margin to list Other Resources. These include links to documentation pages and related articles. Only a few articles have other resource links. More need to be added to the database.
Fill In Italian Language Page
When I first came to Italy, I began building a web page of brief notes regarding the Italian language to help me learn the language. It's grown to many pages and has become something much bigger than I had envisioned. However, pursuing the line it has taken, it's incomplete. I need to fill in major sections missing. Additionally, it has become cumbersome and needs to be broken up into multiple pages and the text needs to be moved into the MySQL database—it's basically flat HTML at this point.
Add Video Files
In October I bought a video camera. I want to be able to add videos to my site. These would be short videos of places I regularly visit and things in my life. I need to prepare my site to handle videos properly.