A new look for CTA Tattler
I've been writing CTA Tattler for just over two years now. And I think it was starting to show its age.
So working with my crack Internet consultant -- my brother Dan X. O'Neil -- we've come up with a site that's a little more user friendly and provides loads more content.
Two new cool additions to the page are the CTA Headlines From Yahoo and the feed from Flickr's Chicago Transit Authority photo group. Good stuff there.
You might also notice I hosting Google ads also -- as an experiment.
I hope you enjoy the new look. And many thanks to Dan for his site development efforts.
Looks horrid on Safari. Blog posts are in a very narrow column and the Flickr photos column has a very intense red background.
Posted by: Kevin | June 27, 2006 at 08:05 AM
If you experience this "weird red right column/ posts are in a narrow column" thingy, or any other layout wonkiness, just hit refresh once or twice. It's just a browser cache issue. Let us know if refreshing doesn't clear up the issue. See a screenshot of this page in Safari on Mac here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juggernautco/176266742/
Posted by: DXO | June 27, 2006 at 08:48 AM
All I get is a long, narrow column of text down the left side of the page. 80% of the page to the right of it is blank. Either something's wrong on my machine, or I vote "no". Sorry.
Posted by: Joe Hollenkamp | June 27, 2006 at 09:28 AM
Interesting... while clearing the cache didn't work, hitting reload twice in a row seems to have done the trick.
Posted by: Kevin | June 27, 2006 at 09:29 AM
I love the new look! Overall it looks good on Opera 9.0. The only thing that was off was the page that came up when I previewed my post. The left part of the screen was empty and my post appeared in a very narrow column in the middle. Is that a problem with typepad or the Tattler?
Posted by: Vanna | June 27, 2006 at 09:35 AM
FYI - I disabled PithHelmet for ctatattler.com and it stopped looking wonky in Safari. So if you have a Safari "enhancer" you might want to exclude this URL from its influence.
Posted by: kerry | June 27, 2006 at 09:35 AM
Joe-- try refreshing
Kevin-- glad you're good now
Vanna-- thanks for the Opera report. the "preview comment" thing is definitely a bummer-- it's a problem on all browsers. will try to fix today
Kerry-- try putting your Pith Helmet back on & see if it had anything to do w/ the fix
Posted by: DXO | June 27, 2006 at 09:44 AM
am I the only one not experiencing all the problems everybody's talking about???
Guess its a good thing.
Great look, kinda confused me at first but now I get it. Love the pics but still hate the pink line. I gues 25 years of living in a pink bedroom will do that to you.
Some people look at me strange when I tell them about the CTA tokens and those thinner than air paper transfers. The tokens were so high tech in the early 90's.
Posted by: cmama | June 27, 2006 at 09:57 AM
I'm on IE and all I've got is a super thin line of text down the left side. 85% of the page is blank. I don't like :-( I've hit refresh several times...still just text on left side!
Posted by: LadyDay | June 27, 2006 at 10:19 AM
I see everything perfectly, Kevin! It looks great! Bravo to Dan O.
Posted by: Kimberli | June 27, 2006 at 10:23 AM
Looks great, Kevin (and Dan)!
Posted by: Kevin O'Reilly | June 27, 2006 at 10:26 AM
I'm using Firefox and everything looks fine to me.
Posted by: Cheryl | June 27, 2006 at 10:57 AM
Hey LadyDay, What's up with your cancelled CTA card? Haven't heard an update yet.
Posted by: cmama | June 27, 2006 at 11:53 AM
Looks great. Kudos. And I hope those Google AdSense pennies trickle in for you. :)
Posted by: Brian | June 27, 2006 at 12:17 PM
Ahh yes cmama! Today is the 27th...I put my request for a new card in on the 9th. I STILL do not have a card! I am so angry right now! To make matters worse my 7 day pass expired at 4:24p on friday and I was getting on the bus right at 4:24...the damn bitch driver made me pay $2.00 anyway! grrrrrr
Posted by: LadyDay | June 27, 2006 at 12:30 PM
Looks good to me!
Kevin: If it's CSS caching issues that are biting you, append "?reload" to the CSS URL. This will force browsers to reload the CSS (without actually changing the file to which it's referring).
See e.g. http://justinfrench.com/index.php?id=67
Posted by: tom sherman | June 27, 2006 at 12:43 PM
Looks good in Safari & Explorer. I don't have a cache issue because I use the "reset Safari" thing at least once a day. Good for clearing out unwanted persistent cookies and other internet spyware. Evidently it makes browsing better too.
However, the new regime seems to have deleted the links out of the comments. Was that deliberate, or did it only copy the text and not the html?
Posted by: Thomas Westgard | June 27, 2006 at 01:53 PM
Tom, can you please give me a "for instance" on "the new regime seems to have deleted the links out of the comments."
Thanks.
Posted by: Kevin | June 27, 2006 at 02:03 PM
I can't read anything either. Using Safari. Narrow column on the left. Wide column, mostly blank in the middle, narrow RED column wth small green lettering on the right with Flickr photos. PLEASE FIX!!!!
Posted by: Lydarose | June 27, 2006 at 02:10 PM
I added the "?reload" thingy to the css URL (thanks, Tom). Should help. Again, the issue should be resolved by refreshing the page, closing/ opening browser, etc.
Posted by: DXO | June 28, 2006 at 08:09 AM
The new design looks great--even if it is largely derivative from derivative works!
I guess Dan offers "truth in advertising"!
Posted by: asasdfrm | June 28, 2006 at 09:40 AM
Definitely the more I look at the site, the more I like it. It just takes folks a while to adjust.
Posted by: tom sherman | June 28, 2006 at 10:14 AM