Minor Site Update: Website 23.1

I’ve just launched a minor update to Off on a Tangent, which brings the version to 23.1. Here are some of the things that have changed:

  • Style Changes: I already have a working design for my next major redesign, Website 24 . . . but it’s taking longer to develop than I expected. Since I’m already rolling out some of its style language in other places (like the Off on a Tangent Facebook page), I might as well do the same here on the site as part of this smaller update as a stop-gap until Website 24 is complete. It’s bluer and anglier.
  • Gallery Improvements: My photo galleries have been running on Thickbox for quite a while, but it’s no longer in active development and lacks a lot of modern features. I have switched to a newer lightbox system called Colorbox, which looks and works much better. For example, you can now progress back and forth through a gallery with the arrow keys.
  • Improved Mobile Sizing: The major mobile platforms finally decided to handle page sizing and zooming about the same as one another, which allowed me to remove a lot of annoying hacks and fix some odd behaviors. Things should work smoother in many of the supported mobile browsers now.
  • Bugfixes and Enhancements: Lots of other little things. For example, I can now include a ‘Last Updated’ date (in addition to the ‘Posted’ date) on selected entries—particularly ones that have undergone repeated updates as part of a breaking news situation. I’ve also fixed a quotes positioning bug in the sidebar that occurred on short pages, and a mobile caching bug that resulted in the mobile site not always displaying new posts right away.

As always, please let me know if you see any bugs or odd behavior in any of the supported desktop, tablet, and mobile browsers.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.