RSSSite News Archives
September 09, 2009
Just so you know
I'm working on the new site whenever I have a moment. Slow going, apologies.
Posted by eerie at 11:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 07, 2009
Rediscovering the Redesign
I was poking around today on my laptop and came across a number of half-finished mockups for Aqoul's new design. Here's one approach, very modern and clean. Might implement it if I ever get some free time...
By the way, Christmas with the Euro was wonderful. More details to follow.
Posted by eerie at 11:56 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack
June 07, 2008
Aqoul 4.0
I believe we are now entering Aqoul's fourth redesign (ex Newsroom, which has been revised about five times). I found an amusing mockup from 2006 in the archives, and another entry with links to the Wayback machine.
Clearly we've come a long way from that hokey default template. Aqoul is occasionally mistaken for an actual news publication because it doesn't have a "bloggy" feel. I'd like to continue in this direction and make the site even more newspaper-like. Perhaps resembling the New York Times, which has a very elegant look.
Posted by eerie at 08:55 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
August 31, 2007
Blast from the Past
In case you didn't know, old versions of Aqoul are archived on the Wayback Machine. Have a look: July 28, 2005; December 27, 2005; March 29, 2006; November 4, 2006.
By the way, we hit our two year anniversary in early July.
I've just updated the Newsroom per Lounsbury's feedback. Random blogosphere glurge (automatically pulled from Google Blogsearch using a long query) has been relegated to the third column where it will undoubtedly be less offensive. Also planning to build Ibn Kafka's new home this weekend, but not sure what the domain should be: ibnkafka.aqoul.com or obiterdicta.aqoul.com?
Posted by eerie at 08:26 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
July 09, 2007
Aggregator 4.0
As mentioned in July's new month post (well below the sheikh-kittens, which are still bloody hilarious), I have modified the Aggregator (now called the Newsroom) to fetch a special search string from Google and display the latest blog entries about MENA and Islam (updated hourly). The pre-selected blog feed is still there, but I think this new feature will expose us to other interesting blogs and provide us with hourly snapshots of blogosphere chatter on the above topics.
Most of the entries so far are predictably tiresome. Unsurprisingly, blogosphere chatter about MENA and Islam is largely boring "counter-jihad" material, often recycling tired old myths and misconceptions (as opposed to focused criticism sans gross generalization/hysterics). There are also some extremely well-organized activist sites with call-to-action newsletters, blogs and formal mandates.
Feels a bit like I just woke up and found myself in V for Vendetta.
Posted by eerie at 07:50 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
December 22, 2006
Away
Family things for the next few days, won't be around much (Muslim or not, one can still take advantage of statutory holidays). Also, my internet seems to be fucked, making simple things like Aqoul housekeeping terribly frustrating. I'm largely restricted to the physical universe until things are fixed. Boo.
Actually, IM appears to be working fine, in case someone has an urgent problem (and thinks I might care).
Posted by eerie at 03:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 22, 2006
Blogging, Anonymity and Public Debate
Further to Abu Aardvark's notes on the MESA blogging panel, thought I might offer a few observations of my own on blogging, shaping public discourse (or wanking on as the case may be) and using pseudonyms instead of real names online.
Continue reading "Blogging, Anonymity and Public Debate"
Posted by eerie at 06:55 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
October 12, 2006
Brainstorming: Encyclopedia Islamophobia
A few days back, I wrote about my fieldtrip to the Right Blogosphere and discussed the possibility of having a section on 'Aqoul dedicated to addressing myths and misconceptions about Islam and the Middle East. No apologia or glossing over of real injustices, but in fine Aqoul tradition, an emphasis on the interests at play sans tedious moralizing and emotive blather.
Continue reading "Brainstorming: Encyclopedia Islamophobia"
Posted by eerie at 06:31 PM | Comments (19) | TrackBack
September 05, 2006
Bloody RSS
I really hate it when good blogs have shitty RSS outputs. It's not hard to push out well-formed feeds, people! It's not as if you have to peck out the XML yourselves!
Bastards.
Yes, I'm rebuilding the Aggregator. No, it's not fun.
Of course, comments/suggestions are welcome (from those of you who actually make use of it).
Posted by eerie at 09:28 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 28, 2006
Weekend Observations & Site Updates
Had the unfortunate experience of hanging out at an extremely snobby upscale club this weekend (with Kitten, of course). Cover charge was twice the going rate, which resulted in a room full of young male lawyers (wearing, of all things, business shirts untucked over jeans) strutting around and checking out women (who were in turn preening and likely hoping to get noticed by rich professional males).
Now Kitten and I are both fairly successful young women, so we are not impressed by boring, witless men who announce that they are one of 500 associate attorneys at a giant lawfirm, and then wait for the dull thud of women falling at their feet. Why, I actually expected someone clever and interesting to approach us, only to be terribly disappointed by a pretentious wanker chatting us up about "wine culture" because we looked like the sort of women who could recommend a good red (having only recently taken up this activity, I am hardly in a position to be making recommendations beyond "disgusting" and "tolerable").
Continue reading "Weekend Observations & Site Updates"
Posted by eerie at 05:57 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
August 19, 2006
Some Changes (Updated)
I will be adjusting the 'Aqoul front pages to 1024px or floating width this weekend, so please ignore any strange behaviour (design-related) on site.
I may also implement pantom's earlier request to turn all the top banners into hyperlinks. If you guys have any other suggestions for improving the site, feel free to leave a comment here.
Update: New front page (in progress) is now available for viewing and comment.
Posted by eerie at 09:45 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
July 09, 2006
A small note on comments
After inspecting the spam filters on 'Aqoul, it seems that the system has been performing in a manner that can only be described as "vengeful" over the last week or so.
I have recovered most of the lost comments and will turn down the settings a notch to minimize false positives. Send me an email (eerie at aqoul dot com) if your comments aren't showing up.
For those who simply can't figure out the three-letter passphrase, you'll just have to pray that I notice you amidst the thousands of gay porn and fertility drug comments sent to the junkpile every week.
Posted by eerie at 09:50 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack
June 25, 2006
Comments: New Feature
Actually, not new but I've finally implemented it under the new version of MovableType. The anti-spam Turing test kitty has returned and is being tested on all the 'Aqoul blogs. If anyone notices strange behaviour during commenting, please send me an email.
Hopefully this fix will eliminate the spam problem and address the issue of blocked Saudi IP addresses.
Posted by eerie at 10:48 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 08, 2006
I am brilliant, yet stupid
After 3 hours of coding and debugging (well, mostly debugging and cursing), I finally fixed the "Categories" flyout menu on the 'Aqoul main site. As Dubaiwalla pointed out earlier, the original flyout was longer than the screen and prevented users from clicking on the lowest menu options. This occured because the subcategories (e.g. Levant, Gulf, North Africa) were rendering as top-level categories. A known bug, but I was hell-bent on launching over the weekend and didn't feel like fixing it.
The imperfect flyout menu started annoying me this evening, so I decided to muck around with the code instead of reading about the Tea Sisterhood. It turned out to be far more complicated than I expected, in large part due to MovableType making things "easier" by consolidating multiple functions into a single tag. Unfortunately, the pre-packaged functions were totally wrong for my purposes and I had to write them out in long form using more cumbersome tags.
The reason I am brilliant is because the code is now "blog-agnostic" and will automatically render the correct flyout menu for each sub-blog, without any extra work. For example, if you run a search from my blog and hover over the Categories flyout on the search results page, it will show my categories, not Aqoul's.
Well I think it's brilliant. Especially after all that goddamn work.
However, the book deadline is fast approaching and I'm not even half done. Ergo, I am stupid for wasting so much time on the flyout menu.
Posted by eerie at 11:03 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
May 05, 2006
'Aqoul Redesign - Mockup (Updated)
Working on a mockup of the new front page, available here. Input is welcome.
I know some of you are going to start whining about the new fonts, but it's still early. Plenty of time to lobby for your preferences.
Update: I've uploaded a test page to the server.
Update 2: I've applied the new design to 'Aqoul. Sub-blogs will follow at some point in the future.
Posted by eerie at 08:20 PM | Comments (26) | TrackBack
May 02, 2006
Ripping off an ancient tradition
While there is little need for a "New Month Open Discussion" on my personal blog, feel free to introduce yourselves, ask questions or whine about trivialities.
The real purpose of this entry is to solicit input on a potential redesign of the 'Aqoul main page. My general intention is to give readers a glimpse of the entire 'Aqoul site by displaying the latest blog entries from 'Aqoul, Lounsbury (and perhaps even eerie), Aggregator headlines and the most recent title from Books & Media. The front page would also be much wider to accomodate extra content, ads, etc.
Not entirely sure how I'll pull this off (XML comes to mind) but that is largely irrelevant at this point. What I would like is some feedback on the idea, suggestions for improvement, that sort of thing.
Posted by eerie at 07:23 PM | Comments (29) | TrackBack
