“You’re not in Kansas anymore…” has been the subtitle to this website since its inception. It seemed a good expression of the comparison between Leavenworth, Kansas (a mainstream community, pretty well known around the country) and Leavenworth, Washington (offbeat, not so well known), with a little word play thrown in.

“You’re not in Kansas anymore…” has long been resident in our modern-day lexicon. A paraphrase of Dorothy’s admonition to Toto in the flim “Wizard of Oz”, it’s most often uttered when one encounters an environment that’s all-at-once spectacular, larger than life, and uniquely different.

Spectacular, larger-than-life, and uniquely different? Leavenworth, Washington, definitely. The movie, hopefully, since I’m looking forward to seeing it.

You might check out the Blog Articles that are open to comments at the bottom of their respective pages.

Just so you know…

• Comments are moderated prior to going live. If your post is profane, indecent, selling something, or just generates bad mojo, then don’t expect to see it here.
• Blog Articles automatically close to comments after one year.

Thanks!

11worth Design

This means the opportunity to do some summer-style things around the home turf, last-but-not-least getting ready for the 2009 Mike Utley Foundation DAM2DAM Thumbs Up! Bike Tour. This event, commonly called the “Dam2Dam”, is just about the year’s last century ride for us in North Central Washington. I’ve done it now for three years, and this will number four. I’ll put an update here after I complete the ride.

Look around the web and what do you see…various and sundry ads here and there, touting products, services, and events. Some are catchy, some intrusive, and some worthy only of a fast “back” button.

A static banner ad for the August, 2009 Salmon-chanted Evening.

A properly-designed ad announces who you are, what you’re about, and why you deserve further contact.

A Good Ad Goes a Long Way

Medium-size animated banner for 2009's Wenatchee River Salmon Festival, custom-designed for the Leavenworth, WA Chamber of Commerce website.

I’ve lately designed client-requested special-event ads for the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce and KOHO Radio websites. The goal was to provide event access information in a friendly, informative, and unobtrusive manner. Examples are shown on this page.

You be the judge…I think we succeeded nicely.

Response-Oriented Ad Creation

Are you interested in similar banner ads for your event, promotion, or business? 11worth Design can give you a variety of ad choices. You can choose large, small, animated, or static ads. The goal always remains the same…providing your visitors or customers with the best possible first impression of your event or business.

Contact 11worth Design for more information!

Large-size animated banner for 2009's Wenatchee River Salmon Festival.

For those who may not know, a web browser is computer software that displays internet websites on a visitor’s computer. Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox are commonly-used web browsers.

Just what is “Cross-Browser Compatibility”? Simply stated, it’s the ability of a website to display and function properly in a variety of commonly-used web browsers. This is very important to a website owner that wants to reach the maximum intended audience. Unfortunately, a website doesn’t always look the same in all web browsers, since browsers don’t always agree how the code should be interpreted and displayed.

11worth.com in Internet Explorer 6

11worth Design and Cross-Browser Compatibility

How does cross-browser compatibility apply to sites developed by 11worth Design? First of all, this site, 11worth.com, is designed to display the same in current browsers such as Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8, Safari, and Firefox.

Now for some history…

Internet Explorer 5.5

11worth.com in Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer 5.5 was in vogue when I started designing web sites, and there was a tendency to make things work only in IE5.5. The percentage of visitors using other web browsers was very small, and relatively few people were affected. I hand-coded my sites to W3C standards anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal as long as the code validated.

11worth.com displays reasonably well in Internet Explorer 5.5, save for the horizontal menu display. The menu is still functional, however the look is different. A small price to pay for such an old browser.

Internet Explorer 6 (and Firefox, and…)

11worth.com in Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 6 came along, and for the most part there were no changes necessary from IE5.5, assuming one stayed with Microsoft’s web-browsing creations. Other browsers began competing directly with IE6, however, most notably Mozilla Firefox. Internet Explorer was no longer the only browser in town.

Code that validated and made IE6 look good didn’t do as well in Firefox, sometimes to the point where Firefox wouldn’t display properly at all. It was back to the drawing board. Turned out IE would display code by its own rules. Firefox, on the other hand, was a standards-compliant browser from the ground up, and therefore displayed the same set of code the way it was meant to be displayed.

11worth.com in Firefox 3.5

So…I began to produce websites that used valid code to display properly in both IE6 and Firefox. It was often challenging, to say the least.

Internet Explorer 7

Then came Internet Explorer 7. It was again necessary to adapt code, because IE7 came with its own set of rules. What a surprise. In this case, sites that displayed well in IE6 didn’t do as well in IE7, since IE7 was designed to be more standards compliant than its predecessor. IE7 and Firefox, for the most part, behaved the same (notice I say for the most part…if you code web sites, you know what I mean).

11worth.com in Safari 4.0

Internet Explorer 8 and the “Wayback Button”

Time to relax since all is now good? Think again. Microsoft came out with Internet Explorer 8, the “end all and be all” of browsers. They have a button in the toolbar that when clicked, puts IE8 into IE7 Compatibility Mode. The need for such a button says it all. One must make selective use of Compatibility Mode to make those older sites look good.

Why? IE8 again changed the rules (at least as far as IE7 and below goes), which often requires code tweaking in IE7 (and below) to render well in IE8.

Fortunately, at long last, IE8 appears to be the most standards-compliant Microsoft browser to date. Coding for IE8 and Firefox is just about the same. Looks good in Safari as well. Woohoo!

Still, the primary goal is having any website display properly without having to use that dreaded “wayback” button…

W3C-Compliant Code Makes Better Sense

The bottom line is this: Writing W3C-valid code for display in the latest web browsers is THE only way to go. Relying on non-compliant code puts a site owner at the mercy of the next browser version “upgrade”.

W3C HTML Validator

How do you tell if a website is W3C-valid code? Access the W3C XHTML Validator to find out.

You can check this website’s page-by-page validation by clicking the “XHTML 1.0″ link in the footer menu.

I can quickly create a dynamic WordPress-powered web site that will serve as a flexible public information platform and management tool.

Wildland Fire in the Urban Interface

Sites are designed from the start with the following capabilities:

• A content and navigation framework that can easily expand as an incident grows.
• Unlimited page and category creation.
• Team capability to create and update site content in real-time with username and password access.
• Dynamic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that gets the site indexed rapidly.
• Ability to link to external resources, such as news media or outside agencies.
• Ability to solicit, accept, and display public comments and inquiries (this feature can be enabled or disabled, and comments can be moderated prior to display).

Now retired, my unique background in public service included:

• Incident Command System (ICS), including participation in Unified Command as search and rescue and emergency evacuation notification and implementation liaison.
• Fire Base Camp and Helibase security
• Forest Patrol
• Search and Rescue (SAR)
• Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)

My training included:

• Wildland Fire in the Urban Interface
• Fire Cause Determination
• Intermediate Fire Behavior

The above experience gives me the ability to understand wildland fire terminology and concepts, which greatly facilitates communication with the management team.

Can I be of assistance? My schedule is flexible during the fire season. Contact me for more information or if you have any questions. Thank you!

Matt Fields, 11worth Design

The sun breaks through the clouds at Lake Wenatchee's South Beach in February.

The State of Washington is considering closing the park due to the recession as a money-saving measure. This is good and bad, I suppose. Those of us “locals” will still have day-use access, but the campgrounds and similar facilities will be closed, which is ironic since it’s almost always full of vacationers during the summer.

The decision is not yet final, and hopefully the park will remain accessible as it has been in the past. Time will tell…

Update 9-21-09- The park remained open as usual, and all was well, at least for this year. M.F.

Icicle Spring

Yesterday was a good day. I went up Icicle Rd., which follows the Icicle River just west of Leavenworth. It’s an ascent the entire way and a good workout. A fun descent on the way back out makes it all worthwhile.

Climbers were parked in clusters alongside the road adjacent to popular routes, and the campground host waived as he continued on to the newly-opened-for-the-season Eightmile Campground. Random sightseers slowly drove up and down the road.

Multiple locations allow one to get off the road and hike down to the river’s edge. I stopped at a few to get some camera shots.

All in all, a very good ride.