Wednesday, May 19, 2004


new look & wily e. coffee

i'm no christian dior, but welcome to the new look of bccy. we're taking another step here towards modernity: xhtml, css, web standards, and valid code.

web hacks are for, well -- web hacks.

lemme note:

  • comments will be down for a day or two while i get the comment code up to xhtml compliance;
  • the advanced search page will then match the rest of the new design;
  • still tweaking the link styles -- this idea that the visited links should be larger, not just a different color, was suggested to me, but i'm not sure i'm liking it;
  • a small style tweak to my images is also needed for full xhtml compliance;
  • have finally abandoned old browsers, as well as those that represent less than 3% of my audience. sorry. i used the code in the old design for about a year (thanks, al sparber!) to support several older browsers, but now the time has come to say "farewell, netscape 4.79!"
  • please note i haven't fully tested this site on macintosh internet explorer versions. more tweaks may come from that experience.

otherwise i feel like i'm almost good to go here.

responses to the new design so far have been mixed: one person really likes the look; others have deemed it "too new age-y." one diplomatic soul said politely, "i hate to be a stick-in-the-mud, but. . ."

please email me over the next few days to register your feeling. if everyone truly despises this new design, i'm open to going back.

usability arguments will help bolster your opinions on this, no doubt (hint)! i don't think the present design weighs 8 pounds, or offends feminist sensibilities. . .

(note: as a post-feminist myself, those who know me are well aware i still derive great joy from referring to my friends as "skirts" or "twists." if i really admire you, i'll call you a "tomato." please accept this all in the humorous spirit in which it is intended.)

and while everyone knows i won't be a part of any revolution where you can't dance (no, not that one; this one!) or eat chocolate, on a more serious note:

"in the morning mist, peruvian farmers come down from the mountains on horseback to sell their coffee beans to local intermediary buyers, willing to take whatever price they are offered."

these "intermediary buyers" are often the local lyin', cheatin' coyotes, the bane of many a struggling coffee farmer's existence. but in remote rural areas with little transport and bad roads, uneducated farmers are reduced to dealing with these coercive hoodlums.

as if the world-price depression known as the coffee crisis wasn't bad enough, the corruption and intimidation many of these coyotes employ towards coffee farmers should be a crime.

as an article today states, not only do the "intermediate buyers" rip off the farmers, but they ruin the quality of the coffee by carelessly mixing bad beans with good. now however, some farmers are organizing, trying to fight back. . .

posted by fortune | 8:42 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments