About this site...

I guess the big thing is that there are no tables used in this layout. All the tags are used the way they're supposed to meaning the menu is a nested list tag and uses Javascript and CSS to show the dropdown. There are multiple reasons for this; first of all using a table-less approach allows me to quickly edit the site. I don't have to worry about column widths and row heights when I add new information; the CSS and divs should expand to fill in the gaps. Secondly using a DIV/CSS approach usually results in smaller pages which load more quickly. I chose to make the logo as a button so it's not a CSS background image. The logo was designed by Arvind Singh and represents multiple things such as having two designations and then the theme of the logo itself is technical :) Many thanks to Arvind for that. There are some flaws though, the background image to the drop-down menus is a transparent PNG more specific it's an alpha-transparent PNG so users who use IE will see a transparent menu while other users (Users of Firefox, Safari, Opera, Netscape, K-meleon, Konqueror and other modern-day browsers will see a translucent backdrop.

I often get asked why does this browser-war matter? Why not simply design only for IE since "everyone uses it". The translucent drop-down menus is just one example of how out-dated IE is. Being a member of IEEE, a standards organization, and developing webpages and programs has continually reminded me the benefits of having standards. IE is NOT standard; this means the programmers chose to follow certain conventions but not all. Following standards doesn't mean that you should stifle creativity and innovation rather creativity should build upon existing standards. To put it another way: you can have any flavour of bubble tea you want but if you don't have sago it's not bubble tea!

The other most frequently asked question is why not use Flash? A long time ago I used to have a Flash-driven website where the entire thing was done up in Flash. I have worked over 5 years with Flash and Actionscript, teaching, and creating various things from presentations, websites, and even games. The best quality about Flash is the fact that it looks the same on all browsers; you, as a designer/developer, don't need to worry about if it looks the same on a Mac, Linux, or PC. That being said I find it very difficult to quickly update any Flash website. If I want to put new material up I would generally need to go back to my development computer and run Flash whereas with an HTML website I can update from anywhere as long as I have a text-editor and an internet connection. That being said there are multiple things on this site that are done in Flash like the math lessons and e-cards :)

Where did I learn all this "stuff"? I got interested in the web back in the late 90s when I saw a simple webpage/website. HTML is great because it allows anyone to look at your source code. After looking at a few sites and their source code I picked up HTML and over time just got more acquainted with it-learning how to make it do what I want (yes I went through the Frames and Tables stage :P). I started to get into Flash heavily while I was working for a science and engineering camp as the co-director in charge of computer and electronics technology. During that time with the help of sites like Flashkit and simply just playing around with the program I learned Flash and then started to develop a program to teach kids how to build Flash applications and games. Actionscript was easy to pick up after knowing Javascript and some basic programming concepts.