I have been reluctant to attempt scripting a scroll bar for a very long time now. But after thinking a bit lately about the slider object I had just completed, I realized a scroll bar was in reach. I finally got it! I have been using a scroll bar script from the good Doc Ozone for a few years now on my bio pages. But it was scripted a while back and some newer browsers were beginning to behave not so well with it. (I'm sure the Doc has an updated one) But I used the need to bring the bio pages up to date to help motivate my new scroll bar code. There are probably a few glitches left in it but I think it's really close to what it needs to be.

One of the other goals I have is to get *every* page on bugimus.com XHTML 1.0 strict compliant. Each of the bio pages are now so. The only exception to this goal will be an archive section that will be defined soon that contains a look back at all the stuff I've done. That's should be an interesting section to see how things began and how they progressed up to the present... scary too ;)

You can see the new scroll bar and bio pages it in action here:

Bugs, Wella, Kianna and Sheena

I cleaned up the the new imagePop code a bit. I noticed that the Firefox method of computing window chrome I was using was off by 6px in the height. I am now using outerHeight and innerHeight for the computation and that is giving correct results. I added a few more features to the demo page that reflect these mods.

It turns out that the mods needed for Opera 7 were minimal. Opera 7 uses the same event handling as Mozilla. Try the bugSlider using Opera from here: bugSlider.html

Kianna's auntie got this first cool photo of her on October 30, 2004 at a family gathering. The second is Snow White of course for a night of trick or treating at the shopping mall. The third photo is how she was dressed for Wella's 25th high school reunion in San Diego, November 13-14.

It looks like we have a real ham on our hands here.

I've made a lot of progress on some DHTML programming over the last week. With the advent of Firefox 1.0 final, I decided to turn more attention to making my bugLib scripts compatible with it.

One thing that I am particularly happy with is my new image popup script. It now works with Opera 7 and Firefox 1.0 The coolness of this new version is that is computes the window chrome of the popup window so I can fit the window the exact size of the image it contains. I need to do this because if you're using a WinXP system, you will notice my old popup script sizes differently depending on what theme you're using. The new XP themes have bulky window chrome and they are different dimensions than the windows classif look. Anyway, that is no longer a concern with my new popup code.

Give it a try here: http://www.bugimus.com/dhtml/bugLib/bugLib1.0_Test/imagePop.html

Another bit of progress comes with the new slider button I've crafted. Not only does this nifty little object work nicely in IE6, but I've got it working perfectly in Firefox and I will soon have it compatible with Opera 7. I really like this one and I plan on implementing a brightness and contrast control box to my homepage. It will be a demo kind of thingy but I can see how this slider can be used in quite a few other ways. My long term goal is to emulate a winamp kind of device on my dhtml section. It will look and feel just like one of those intricate skins that I love so much in winamp. It may not have a lot of practical use but it will look sweeet if ever I can pull it off.

Try the bugSlider out here: http://www.bugimus.com/dhtml/bugLib/bugLib1.0_Test/bugSlider.html

Well, the 2004 US election has now been decided. President George W. Bush has been elected to serve our country for four more years. I am personally very happy with this outcome. People who know me understand my positions on this pretty well.

The main thing I have been concerned about has been the threat of Islamist terror both to the US and our allies. I believe the best way to deal with that threat is to face it head on and without any appeasement. I simply didn't think John Kerry had the determination to take that position. Bush was really my only realistic choice when it comes to this issue.

The second issue that I felt was very important is the economy. President Bush has done a very good job of keeping our economy from getting worse. At the beginning of his term he had to deal with a recession and it has now improved. I believe this is partly due to the market doing what it does on its own but I also believe it was helped by Bush's economic policies. I believe the president has the ability to nudge the economy one direction or the other and I want a president who will nudge upwards. Again, John Kerry would certainly have raised taxes and I just can't see how that would be good for the economy and so my choice was clear.

I have several online friends from around the world who are very upset with President Bush for not following the wishes of their countries. I can only tell them that it is critical that our leaders do what is "right" and not what is popular. This is a judgement call no doubt but that is why it is vital that the president possess good judgement. President Bush has done extremely well given what he had to deal with coming into office. A taking economy and the worst terrorist attack on our citizens ever were the overriding concerns. He has dealt with both of these effectively. There is a tremendous amount to be done and he is by no means without flaws but given the circumstances I believe we are very fortunate to have him as our president. So to my friends, I can only hope that they will be the ones to reconsider whether or not consensus is really the best way to determine our course of action as a nation.