About the site
The site is coded – as far as possible – in semantic XHTML 1.0 Strict, and uses (mostly) valid CSS2 for design and layout.
It has been tested on the following browsers and platforms:
- Internet Explorer 5.5 and above
- Firefox 1.0 and above
- Firefox, Opera, Camino and Safari 1.2 on Mac
It categorically does not work on IE5 due to that browser’s poor support of PNG transparencies and the z-index property. Plus nobody uses it anymore anyway.
The content is managed by the excellent Textpattern system, which I can’t recommend enough, with a little help from the following plugins developed by some of Textpattern’s legion of fans:
ajw_comment_num,ajw_if_comment_ownerandajw_technorati_tagsby Andrew Waer for nicer comment styling and Technorati taggingczj_if_comment_cookiesmakes the comment form able to remember youdru_random_textis used to add the random song lyric to the homepage titleglx_codemakes Dunstan-style downloadable code snippets;glx_gravatarandglx_this_commentare also by Johan Nilssonhpw_most_popular_articlesby Adrian Duffell creates the list on the homepagejfx_deliciousby Joerg Feuerhake is used to create the del.icio.us bookmark linkknd_flickrby Lachlan Laycock pulls in my latest Flickr photo (doesn’t work in IE5.5 for some reason though)- The excellent
nhn_livecommentpreviewby Nils Hörrmann powers the live preview on commenting ob1_title(Henrik Jönsson) handles the more complicated page title requirements of the Projects sectionpfa_beginningby Philip Ashlock makes it easy to output an excerpt of an article- A somewhat hacked version of
rei_recent_commentsby Reinier Ladan is used to show the latest commenter on the homepage header - Rob Sable’s
rss_admin_db_managerandrss_suparchiveare probably the most useful plugins anyone can have - And finally,
zem_contactcreates the contact form, although given the fact that it doesn’t seem to work I may have to replace it with a hand-rolled one instead
I use Shaun Inman’s Shortstat visitor tracking system, which I have amended to suit my own purposes (see my related blog entry here); I am also developing my own version of Shortstat (read all about it here).
About Me
The Watchmaker Project is the weblog and online project playground of internet know-it-all and web designer Matthew Pennell (odd name for a site, neh? Find out why it’s called what it’s called).
For a long time I felt that I needed to sort myself out a website, and I think it’s primarily for two reasons – mostly to showcase stuff that I’ve done or am working on, but also to give me somewhere to rant and rave and let off mental steam. There’s always been far too much going on in my head, so the theory is that if I can offload some of it here, I might be able to reclaim some intellectual real-estate for other projects.
If you’re at all interested in knowing about Matthew he’s 31, tall and skinny, married, and is employed as a Senior Web Designer. His favourite colour is green, and the way he spells ‘favourite’ and ‘colour’ should tell you that he is from the UK.
Get in touch online
MSN: kindafunnylookin[at]hotmail.com
AIM: MatthewPennellWP
ICQ: 319059744 (although it never seems to work very well)
GoogleTalk: matthewpennell[at]gmail.com
Weirdos trying to sell stuff (or themselves) will be blocked very quickly…
My Amazon Wishlist
For the benefit of family and friends, here is my Amazon Wishlist – if you’re going to buy me something from it, please order it via the wishlist to avoid any duplication. I promise I won’t peek.