If you don’t read this whole entry, please at least read the last paragraph.

I realized, last summer, that web design is simply not very rewarding. The problem, at this point in time at least, is that when you design web pages, you’re at the mercy of Microsoft, or whoever it is who makes the most popular browser. Commercial browser makers simply aren’t keeping up, and old bad browsers are being replaced by new old bad browsers. The latest is Internet Explorer 6, which won’t be updated until 2005. Honestly, I would consider waiting around if it were likely that things would pick up again then. But the new browsers won’t support the current standards any better than the current browsers supported the old standards when they came out, and users won’t switch or upgrade for years. The designers will all be so happy to drop their old hacks and tricks and make use of the new fancy features and updated standards, until they hit the new browser bugs, and have to come up with new hacks and tricks.

Browsers are getting better, but not as fast as the rest of us are. I don’t want to spend my life waiting for technology that my job relies upon to catch up with me.

That is the explanation for the lack of updates in the past months. It is also the reason why I’ve stopped writing JavaScript and brushed up on C++. Since the last update here, I’ve been programming games. It’s more fun and a lot more rewarding. I’m not giving up web design completely. I’m just putting it on the backburner for now, and I’m sure I’ll return to it from time to time.

I might post some of the games I’ve written here later; but don’t expect that to happen any faster than anything else does around here. =)

By the way, check out justice4pat.com. Here’s the story: the guy who hosts my website designed and hosted a website for the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, and maintained it with his own money for a couple of years. At that point, he told the county that he was unable to continue hosting the website out of his own pocket without some sort of compensation. The county refused to compensate him. After two years of asking for help and recieving nothing, he had to shut the site down. The county’s response? They charged him with four felonies and siezed his equipment. Does this sound absurd to anyone else? Please, help give Pat Richard a hand.

Posted at 2 AM on March 9, 2004