Design Issues and CSS

i'm just beginning to venture into the fabulous world of web design. what a headache it is.

aside from the problems associated with Internet Explorer 6's buggy implementation of css, i have no access to a mac. so, i can't troubleshoot the design for mac browers easily. i don't want to give any visitors to the new site for this blog the technological finger. plus, i like macs and wish i had one.

i'm a bit of a control freak where the design is concerned. i'd like the majority of visitors to the soon-to-be new home for this blog to see the design as i envision it when they load the page. hence, i'll do some ugly html hacking in combination with browser sniffing to make it work in as many cases as i can.

then, there are the cases where this will not be possible, mostly for people with old browsers. i know some designers choose to ignore anything prior to Internet Explorer 5.x and Netscape 5.x, but what the fuck is up with that? some people can't afford to upgrade their ancient hardware to run modern browsers. i take the technological divide seriously. so, i'm going to uphold the ideals of the school that believes content is more important than presentation and that accessibility trumps all.

since i went back to school for a computer science degree, i have come to appreciate backwards compatibility. i just finished a hardware architecture class about intels' 80386 processor, the 32 bit wonder. they designed it so their chip could run older software designed for 16 and 8 bit systems. this design decision was probably responsible for intel's astounding commercial success. it made it less cumbersome and expensive to upgrade from older hardware, a natural incentive to purchase their chips.

the whole point of HTML and the web was to make it easy to share information. web design has certainly come a *long* way since i first encountered it ten years ago. the focus then was on content. when the web became commercial, everyone went gaga for visually appealing, complex designs. i love a good, sleek professional design, but design shouldn't get in the way of the content. so, i think just for the sake of being a geek, i'll even make the new site accessible for text-only browers like lynx. i mean, how can i develop an enormous and adoring fan base that lives for my every word of wit and wisdom if i don't put the welcome mat out for everybody?