Yay! I wanted to redesign the homepage of my website and I have managed to do it!
It only took about 25 solid hours of work. 
What I wanted to do was to programme the page so when the mouse was rolled over an image on the left of the page, a larger image and some text appeared on the right side, in a separate box. Usually rollovers (as they’re called) are replacing one image with another image of the same size, and they often use javascript, which is a low level code* that I haven’t mastered. And it would take hours to learn that language, so I didn’t want to go down there. 
So the first thing I had to find was the geekie term for what I wanted to do. After trolling through a dozen or more fora, I get the impression it’s only possible in java. Damn. I try someone else’s java solution and it doesn’t work. 
Then I stumble on the term ‘disjointed rollover’. Wahay! Now I can seriously google for an answer. And, yep – some geek out there has worked out the solution in plain old html, using sylesheets. 
Once I’ve got that, it’s just a simple matter of adapting it. Bit by painful bit. For ten hours. 
Oh, and redoing eight images – but that’s a breeze: a mere hour or so. Not counting the hours I spent a week or so ago, when I thought this up, chasing a few more images and playing around with them. 
But, hey, it’s done. And I’ve mastered a bit more html in the process. Me now a half-geek. 
*computer languages range from low to high level. The higher the level, the more similarity to English rather than a string of symbols.
5 Comments
Half geek? HALF geek… *snort*
There is no point in trying to salvage your coolness by trying to let everyone think you are only dipping your toe in the pool of geekdom. You’ve emigrated, you’ve left the land of the normal folk and entered Geekworld and we may never get you back…
Now.. I’m off to discuss how frikkin excellent the new Star Trek movie I’ve just seen was. *looks at you pointedly* It is NOT a geek film.
Heh. You think ST isn’t geeky? My ex-partner had books on the subject that gave the technical specs for the Enterprise, or picked out all the continuity problems of each episode in the original series.
The fact that I have a book that has the schematics and blue prints of the enterprise is neither here nor there, that does not make me a geek. It makes me a well informed fan. *sticks out tongue*
Having the blue prints does not make you geek. Only needing them in order to prove your point about a fine element of The Enterprise’s design to a fool who dares argue with your far superior knowledge – that’s what makes a geek.
Trust me, I married one.
Gods – there are more geeks running around this world than I would have believed.