[I was thinking of getting some screenshots together, but wasn't in a position to do so. If you think these would be helpful, let me know.]

First impressions: wow.

After playing and thinking about it for a while: not completely sold.

I like the fact that the MySpace Profile Editor (henceforth referred to as MPE 'cause I can't be bothered to type it all out again) is at least "integrated" into MySpace. All of the other solutions require you to insert the generated code into one of the boxes in your profile. And unlike all of the other solutions, the MPE does exactly what I briefly - in an earlier blog - complained that none of the others did: allow changes to each individual section of the profile rather than doing the same thing for everything (although it allows global changes, too, if that's what you really want.) Colours, backgrounds for the page, backgrounds for each box, lines - all supported and with a rather effective (though sometimes a little cumbersome and initially confusing) interface.

I feel as if I am becoming more and more in the minority - I happen to like Internet Explorer. I have Mozilla Firefox and Opera installed, but I only use them to make sure any web pages I create are compatible or if I absolutely HAVE to. So you'd think I'd be ecstatically happy that they are currently supporting the MPE on IE only. But that's not so.

Having recently worked so hard to ensure that my web code works on the majority of platforms, it is becoming second-nature and so when I see that things aren't supported by the major browsers, I become a little suspicious. And indeed, if you look at a profile changed by the MPE in something like Firefox, there's a good chance it won't look the same.

That needs a bit of explanation. Colours, lines, pictures... all of the basic elements, even being able to tailor individual boxes, appears to work across all of the browsers. However, the MPE goes further than any other and introduces a whole raft of effects such as being able to rotate the boxes, blurring, embossing and otherwise messing around with the way the box is displayed - all of very limited appeal if you want to make your page even remotely readable

These are cool new features and I'm sure that in the rush towards individuality people will start to (over)use these features with alarming and increasing rapidity. But I can also see how that will make the majority of MySpace completely inaccessible since you simply won't be able to read the text (without which MySpace is rather pointless???!?) And also, the method by which the effects have been generated make use of system calls embedded only within Internet Explorer - which is what I meant when I said the pages may not display correctly. Rotations are ignored, blurring goes out of the window and all of the other effects are lost.  (Which actually isn't a bad thing in the long run IMHO!!)

So what's the upshot? MySpace should abandon the use of these new features. They don't add ANYTHING useful and without great care can make a page badly unreadable. They should be keen to promote the fact that no other editors treat the boxes individually. And they should sell the fact that you don't have to have all that weird code stuffed into your About Me box, or those annoying banners.

Personally, I shall continue to make my changes by hand simply because I am confortable doing so, but even if all you want to do is change some colours and put in a background image, I think the MPE is better than most of the older editors out there.

Well done MySpace!

I've never considered writing a blog before. I consider myself boring and consequently I see no reason to bore other people with the drivel that comes from me. In many ways, I am writing these things for me (mostly) and I am still struggling with why I don't just ramble on in a diary instead. Perhaps I hope that even one person may get some tiny twinge of pleasure or enlightenment from something I've written? Who knows? Certainly not me!

But despite the few blogs done so far, one thing I've noticed is that within a very short space of time after submitting it, people read it. And that's the purpose of this entry. I can't even find my OWN blogs with the Search feature and I doubt for one moment I'd appear in the Top Blogs list, so how the hell is it that people know about and choose to read my blogs? If you can tell me, I'd be very grateful for the info!

Before I begin, this has everything to do with the 7th and final HP book, but I have no intention of revealing any details or plots or ruin anything for those of you who have yet to read the book.

I walked to my local shop today. I had intended to read while I walked and only the rain stopped me. I put away the book and grabbed a brolly instead. It was a shame, but then I only bought the thing earlier this morning, so no great loss as there are several more hours left of the day and its not going anywhere.

Two things bugged me as I waked. The first was the knowledge that countless people are intent on revealing the ending or in other ways ruin the experience for the rest of us. I don't know all of the details, but I am reliably informed by the media that some group or TV station or similar in France managed to get hold of a copy of the book in advance of the release date (midnight last night UK time) and announced some of the more important details. I've only read 50 of the 600 pages so I can't tell whether this was just the UK press getting worked up over nothing, but if true it really pisses me off that the few can so happily bugger around with other peoples happiness.

The second thing that occured to me is that had I been able to do as I had planned and had been spotted walking along with my nose buried in a large and conspicuous book, I may have had derisory comments or looks directed at me. I am more than happy to admit that I am fast approaching my 50's and I adore Harry Potter. Ever since I got into the series (from around the time of the 3rd book) I have been aware that the series was heading towards a final end. Its not like a TV series that has been trying to keep going but has been cancelled before its time. Ever since the success of the first book, it has been common knowledge that Harry Potter was to have seven outings and no more. I will regret its passing like that of an old and valued friend.

My mother who believes that HP isn't high-brow enough. But where JK isn't necessarily the best wordsmith this planet has ever known, she does something that I wish I was able to do even a tenth as well - communicate an idea or an emotion effectively and succinctly, and be able to do so across all ages. How many writers can speak to children and adults alike with ease? I suspect precious few.

When I was buying my copies this morning, I looked around at all the other people queuing up with Harry greedily clutched in their hands and I saw people of just about every age, race or sexual persuation (OK, maybe that last one is near impossible to be certain about :-) It is a global phenomenon the likes of which we are unlikely to see for many many years.

I'm proud to consider myself a Potter fan. I'm sad to think that I have a mere 550 pages left before all I have is re-reads (and I finished my last re-read of the first 6 books just last week) in order to keep the Magical World around me. So in the meantime, I am avoiding the TV and the radio, and taking it steady. I could have this book read by tomorrow, but I'm kene to ENJOY the experience and not rush it.

So a quick finger up to the French (I suppose I really should find out exactly who they were and stop sounding so unbelievably badly informed) people who blurted out even a bit of the plot, and a scowl at any who feel it ludicrous that an old geezer like me could like what some consider a "kids book", and a freindly wave to all you like-minded Potter freaks out there. See you at the end of the book! :-)

No-one likes the default way that MySpace is presented it seems to me. Either they don't like the colours, or the arrangement, or the font... and after all this time, given that not a single person who's had a MySpace account for more than 30 seconds has left it as the default, you'd think that dear old Tom would build in something a little more helpful in that area. (See below for update)

Mind you, if you know where to look, there are a plethora of sites that help you to define a bunch of code that quickly and effectively changes the look and feel of your profile page. And my first attempts at making changes relied on those sites, too. Then I started looking in more detail what was being provided, which is when I realised that I could do better.

At the end of the day, all of the sites that churn out this bit of code that everyone chucks into their About box does the same thing - a global replace of the styles for each box, all of the fonts become the same colour and type, and most people seem to choose the most amazingly dumb background which, together with the choice of font colour, usually means that the text (which is what everyone wants everyone else to read) becomes unreadable.

Now I'm not going to say my profile page is the prettiest, or the best-looking, but I'm willing to bet that few pages are as well-considered. For instance, I like the fact that most of the boxes in the default layout have a heading with a different-coloured title background. The typical customisation sites lose this. Although I have not chosen to do so (on the basis that without some level of conformity, a page could look truly dire) with my method I could make each of the boxes (or at least most - see below about the crap main code) a different font, background, border etc.

Of course there is a downside to doing it my way. The other day I looked at the page and one of the boxes was completely screwed up. It seems that our Tom is fiddling with the underlying code and since I am being very specific, any changes may very well have some kind of unexpected effect on my code.

If you know HTML/CSS well and, as I mentioned briefly above, you have ever looked at the source of the profile page, you'll see how utterly shite the coding is. Classes on some items but not on others. The use of Tables for formatting even though it has long been considered bad practice. The multiple use of IDs (you're only supposed to have one use of any ID per page.) Start tags that don't have an end. End tags that don't have a start. Illegal names. And so on. It is because of this that I can't introduce a heading bar on the Friend's Space box, for instance. I could go on, but if I haven't already bored you I'm sure I'm in danger of doing just that very soon.

In any case, there's no reason why you can't adopt some of the same techniques I've used on your own page if you wish. Of course I'd like a tiny mention if you do, but there's no copyright or anything so carry on. And if you need me to explain anything, feel free to drop me a line.

Until next time!

Oh, one quick PS. I wish I'd never set up a URL for my profile. As soon as I'd done it that stupid URL box appeared. Accordingly, I hunted high and low for a way to hide it - and I found one. The only trouble was that the method used left a huge gaping hole where the box used to appear and was extremely obvious. Because I wasn't happy with this gap, I spent some time trying to get around it, but I didn't get the results I wanted, so either one of Tom's latest changes has made this easier, or else I was being extremely dumb first time around. In any case, here's the code you need to add (preferably at the start of the Style block) if you want to hide that URL box neatly:

.userProfileURL{position:absolute; left:0; top:0; visibility:hidden; height:1px; color:transparent;}

Enjoy!!

Oh, PPS. Tom, if you're reading this, I'm up for a job in your Web Development department if you've got any vacancies!

Addendum... I was looking for something completely unrelated but bumped into MySpace's very own Profile Editor (beta, of course!) and perhaps this explains the latest changes to the underlying page structure?? Check it out if you want here but I think I'll carry on being a loner!! ;-)