Design History |
- 2022
-
- 29-Mar - Brazil added as a new country as first pins showed up.
- 2021
-
- 31-Dec - YE stats. 2161 pins registered while 608 are flagged as Missing. Got 31 new pins this year (searchstring 'm2021').
- 25-Feb - Category named Xtra.Brooch sub-divided into sections.
- 24-Feb - Category named Software.Mainframe sub-divided into sections.
- 16-Feb - New category added named More.Certification to capture just the certification pins participants received after having passed an exam at the end of a class.
- 29-Jan - The values for the Country field in the Pin Details window were uniformly changed from Worldwide to Multiple countries for pins which were issued in more than just one country.
- 2020
- 31-Dec - YE stats. 2109 pins registered while 591 are flagged as Missing. Got 7 new pins this year (searchstring 'm2020').
- 30-Dec - List of countries in the country-navigator (at the top) adjusted. Countries having issued less of 10 pins are grouped together in the new view called Countries.More.
- 23-Dec - New entry named Frames added to the main navigator on the left-hand side showing an overview of all framed pin sets which were issued by IBM. The list offers a preview of each pin frame and a link for further information including larger pictures. All entries of these pin frames were removed from the view called Sets to avoid redundant information.
- 16-Dec - Title for pin details window changed from My IBM Pin - Fact Sheet to IBM Pin Details
- 16-Dec - Year format for field Date Got in Pin Details window changed uniformly to Mmm yyyy
- 02-Dec - Category Sports.NLB renamed to Sports.MLB which captures all pins from the American Major League Baseball consisting of the two groups Hall of Fame and Special Events.
- 24-Oct - All Country Views now offer a link at the end which allows to toggle between all pins and just the missing pins.
- 11-Apr - Homepage logo in the upper left corner is now a hypherlink and leeds to parent site which just shows the logo.
- 09-Mar - Country-view USA finally restructured. All US pins grouped by category; pins in the category "More.NCat" are grouped by theme-sections.
- 28-Feb - Homepage mypins.de is online for 20 years. 2065 pins registered.
- 26-Jan - Preview method in view named "Listing" re-programmed. No additional frameset anymore. Now using same preview method as in the other views. Disadvantage: now takes a little longer to load, but still acceptable.
- 2019
- 31-Dec - YE stats. 2057 pins registered while 549 are flagged as Missing. Got 17 new pins this year (searchstring 'm2019').
- 18-Nov - Country-view created which lists the IBM pins where the country is unknown - coded with ??.
- 17-Nov - Main category "e-business" moved as a sub-category into the "More..."-category.
- 16-Nov - Country-view with French pins restructured to show the pins by category or theme.
- 01-Nov - View "Hot Wanted" pins in the left menu removed as it was not successful.
- 12-Oct - Country-view for France being restructured. French pins will be shown by categories and sub-categories. This is a mid-term activity and might last several months. Same action is undergoing for the US.
- 18-Aug - New sub-category Software.AIX created. AIX pins from Software.Other category moved there.
- 16-Aug - Category More.IBM Logos restructured.
- 13-Aug - New category Events.SE created to group the pins from Systems Engineering symposiums and forums.
- 10-Jun - The category More.IBM Club Paris merged into the the More.IBM Club category.
- 09-Jun - Category More.IBM Club restructured. Club pins are categorized now by country and for France even by city.
- 21-May - New category Events.Insight created to group the pins from the big data conferences. They were called "Information On Demand (IOD) until the year 2013. From the following year the name changed to "IBM Insight". This new category shows the pins from both conference types.
- 18-May - Option implemented to filter only the missing pins per category. There is is link below the pictures. Just done for the categories Software.DB2 and Events.Insight; others might follow.
- 14-May - Link to closed guestbook in homepage footer removed.
- 19-Apr - New category Hardware.Office created to group the pins covering the topic of office automation like punch card machine, typewriter, phones, etc. These kind of pins were transformed from the category Hardware.Other.
- 06-Apr - Header lines in category files expanded with a link called "HOME" to open the main site. This is in special helpful when a direct category link was opened, which just shows the category content without the frameset of the full site.
- 2018
- 31-Dec - YE stats. 2000 pins registered while 517 are flagged as Missing.
- 05-Jun - Mass-update applied to all pin description files. The field for the country now offers the link to the specific country view (if country is known).
- 18-May - The search function now shows the quantity of found pins also in the info message above the pin pictures.
- 14-Apr - New counter provider. Before: sharelook.com. New: onlex.de. The old counter provider stopped his business without warning.
I did not realize this immeadiatly so the hits to my homepage were not logged for a few weeks. The new counter was activated with
a start value of 23500.
- 2017
- 31-Dec - YE stats. 1950 pins registered while 491 are flagged as Missing.
- April - JavaScript logic removed from htm-files which show the pins by category and replaced with simple html and css commands. This is smarter programming and allows to run the category file alone without the frameset. Just the categories showing more than 100 pins remain in the old style.
- 22-Mar - All small pictures (.gif) were uploaded in 120 * 120 pixel size (they were mostly 80 * 80 before). The filesize is rougly 70% bigger but due to faster network connections nowadays the graphics should load quick enough. The advantage is mainly that the small picture is shown larger and prettier in the pin details window. The large pictures (.jpg) remain at 350 * 350 px.
- 2016
- 31-Dec - YE stats. 1900 pins registered while 459 are flagged as Missing.
- 24-Dec - New email address set
- 01-Oct - New category Sports.NBL created to capture the pins which were issued for the US National Baseball League Hall Of Fame (HOF)
- 23-Feb - Width of panel showing the categories at the top extended from 635 px to 690 px to avoid a line break (due to Ireland addtion)
- 23-Feb - Country-view for Ireland added.
- 15-Feb - Width of searchfield extended. Size changed from 16 to 18 and maxlength from 30 to 40.
- 06-Jan - The small pin pictures will from now on (> #1820) be stored in 120 * 120 px instead of 80 * 80 px unless I do not have good source material. This new dimension has the disadvantage that the file-size gets bigger but this is a good compromise and line-speeds are faster nowadays.
- 2015
- 31-Dec - YE stats. 1783 pins registered while 352 are flagged as Missing.
- 28-Dec - New category Xtra.3D created to group pins which have a 3-dimensional shape. It is a little hard to draw the border as there are more which are just a little 3D.
- 09-Aug - New category Software.Mainframe created to capture pins which clearly belong there and not just in Software.Other. This is now better in synch as there is an equivalant category under Hardware.
- 2014
- 31-Dec - YE stats. Forgotten to capture.
- 26-Sep - New category Xtra.Outside created to capture pins which I do not consider being part of my collection
- 20-Aug - The pictures for all WTHPC pins from the 1960th to 90th are based now on one template file. It contains the master photo for the pin and on different layers the digits for the decade and the year. Not 100% perfect but best and sufficient result so far.
- 03-Jul - New category Events.Innovate created
- 09-Apr - List of missing pins is growing so I only show the smaller gif-files in the list but the larger JPGs will be shown when hovering the picture
- 29-Mar - Two new sub-categories created. Hardware.System i and Hardware.System p. The pins which I added here were previously stored under Hardware.Other
- 2013
- 31-Dec - YE stats. 1387 pins registered while 119 are flagged as Missing
- 2013 - Category views optimised through the year
- Jun - Some categories having many pins show the little pin pictures first (gif-format 80 px) but when hovering a picture the larger version (jpg 350 px) pops up. This speeds up the picture load but lets the pins look a little unsharpen.
- 2012
- 31-Dec - YE stats. 1307 pins registered while 77 are flagged as Missing
- 30-Dec - Base script input_ok amended with hoverbox module to show all pins in bigger size and allow the display of the JPG on mouseover
- 28-Dec - All scripts for Pictures, Traders, Missing and Hot Wanted now use the hoverbox module; pin nunmber included in UL-tag
- 25-Dec - Pin pictures in search output now show a zoomed picture of the pin
- 01-Oct - Category Country xFR continued. It shows a list of French pins with detailed pin information in French language
- 27-Jun - Large pin pictures in reduced size (130px) shown in Missing category
- 04-Apr - Pin category showing the 100% club pins print years in red when missing
- 15-Mar - Pin category showing the 100% club pins extended with table for pins from the 1950th
- 2011
- 31-Dec - YE stats. 1245 IBM pins registered by YE including 54 which are tagged as Missing. I will continue to add one more pin roughly by week also in the year 2012.
- 08-Jul - small pics created from large pics using a batch routine. Small ones unique in 80*80 stored as GIFs. Some small pics still needed like in the Animations category
- 04-Jul - Starting to replace the little pin pictures with smaller versions of the big pictures (#1224)
- 25-Jun - Searchfunction now shows the large pictures as most of them are in the newer format
- 22-Feb - hoverbox code works fine and will be implemented in more categories from time to time
- 19-Feb - Code removed in pin_miss file which asks for amount of pins to be shown.
- 18-Feb - CSS-module installed to zoom a pin picture on mouseover. Module is called hoverbox. It was only implemented in the Olympia.Barcelona category so far. The function works fine now in my favorite Firefox browser and now also in IE.
- 31-Jan - Pin 0215 replaced; it was another version of the black LA pin but the difference to #0216 was too small so that another LA pin was registered under #0215
- 20-Jan - Category More.Pink Panther removed because nearly all pins sit also in Software.OS/2
- 03-Jan - Large pictures now shown in Xtra.Needles category
- 2010
- 31-Dec - YE stats. 1188 pins registered while 42 are flagged as Missing
- 25-Dec - all pins which are sitting in a category now have a link in the category field in the pin description file
- 04-Dec - toggle function small / large images implemented in e-business category
- 03-Dec - ALT-attribute for img tag added to all sites showing the large graphics
- 28-Nov - some values for category field in pin description files converted to hypherlinks
- 28-Nov - color for vlink changed in all pin description files; from 404040 to 606060
- 27-Nov - Facebook Like button added to pin_main.htm; main window showing 2 random pins
- 11-Sep - new category Software.CICS
- 02-Feb - new category Events.Albuquerque created to capture the pretty pins from the balloon festival
- 2009
- 30-Dec-09 - new Sports category Games to category navigator
- 30-Oct-09 - new country South Africa added to category navigator
- all pin description files will get the pin number and description as the window title
- new main category called Xtra to group pins by special kinds
- main window now shows 2 IBM pins in parallel. Screens nowadays are wide enough so that it should fit in most cases
- ongoing improvement of pin pictures; new pin photos on new background design
- Several minor updates applied
- 01-Jan-2009 - mypins.de relaunch of Version 3. During 2008 I decided to modernise the current version of my site presenting My Private IBM Pin Collection.
- The navigation needed some improved touch. I searched the web for several navigation menu providers. There are zillions of offerings to implement a pretty menu structure but nothing really made me happy. There are so many disadvantages in all of them that it took a very long time to decide for a simple and easy piece of code. After having done my decision I did the necessary customisations. The navigation menu for the pin categories now offers a few more groups which are much easier to maintain than before.
- The frameset has also been changed. Four frames stay existent - the top for the search and the categories, the left for the base navigation, the main for the content and a small footing frame.
- To emphasize the design change I also changed the color scheme. Color codes for green / cyan have been replaced by shades of blue.
- Technically speaking I removed all graphical buttons. They have been much harder to maintain, they have been slower than simple text and they do not change their size when users like to zoom in or out. The new navigation menus use simple CSS code.
- I tested much with the standard browsers. Finally I decided to beautilize the look and feel for my preferred browser Mozilla Firefox. My site still requires framset support and JavaScript. My major visitors and myself are happy with this since many years.
mypins.de - homepage version 2.0 - active until 31-Dec-08 >>> DATA AND LINK REMOVED
- 07-Oct-2006 - Background GIF for pin details does not repeat anymore
- Problem was the background picture for the pin details repeat when calling the site from outside mypins.de. That has been solved by adding a parameter to the CSS description file.
- 05-Sep-2006 - Pin numbers now have 4 digits; additional minor changes
- Pins now have a 4-digit number. Pin numbers smaller than 1000 will get a leading zero. All files have been aligned.
- Guestbook has been closed. The old entries have been stored in a PDF file and can still be viewed.
- Email adress published as picture to avoid capturing and to reduce spam.
- 27-Nov-2006 - New subcategory Linux created under Software
- 30-Jun-2001 - Relaunch, mypins.de now in a new design
- List of changes - reasons for the update
- To have a search function was my primary reason for the update... a vistors wish is often to find a specific pin as fast as possible
- Because of a better webdesign skill things could be done more comfortable... better programming...
- Ideas in mind should become reality... and it was time for a new dress
- List of changes - layout
- Frames rearranged... top frame now uses the whole width... bottom frame as well... bottom frame needs less space... categories and subcategories in two subframes
- Color scheme changed from mainly shining blue #0000FF to a three color scheme containing a very dark blue #141790, a dark cyan #00C0C0 and a bright cyan #00FFFF... detailed window now with background bitmap in color wash
- Vertical scroll bars in master frame now adjusted to color scheme (IE 5.x only)
- Main categories always accessible in top frame... PIN Cats button removed from left frame
- List of changes - functional
- Search function programmed... set into top frame... entered searchstring will be checked with pin subjects and hits were shown in main window... any string can be entered... text or numbers... is not case sensitive... pin numbers will also be found...
- Hot wanted category become a master button and shall show others what I am also looking for...
- Categories have been reorganized to suit the huge amount of pins which are existing... some categories have subcategories... color mode is vice-versa... subcats will be shown below main cats... info message gives an overview what kind of pins are stored in the cats...
- Some pin description pages are having a link to a similiar pin which allows a direct switch...
- Pulldown list showing pin descriptions removed from top frame... functionality included in PIN List...
- List of changes - others
- The biggest problems were to write the code in that way that IE and NS do understand it...
- Site has been optimised for IE 5.x using a screen resolution of 1024 * 768...
- Site works fine as well at 800 * 600 but support for 640 * 480 has been withdrawn...
- List of changes - open things
- Pin descriptions do not always show the correct categories... to be done...
- Many pins do also have a detailed picture but not all... will be done from time to time...
- Description of many pins is still shown using the old font... old=Times New Roman... new=Arial...
- Known Bugs
- NS only
- Search image and input field not fully left aligned
- Font type and font size in search results not customisable
- Tricks
- Preload of background image used for PIN Details in left frame in invisible area...
- Preload of detailed pin picture in PIN Details window... assuming that text will partly be read first the detailed picture has been loaded in the background and will appear very fast because it will be loaded from cache...
mypins.de - homepage version 1.0 - active 28-Feb-00 - 30-Jun-01 >>> DATA AND LINK REMOVED
Update history from 28-Feb-2000 up to 30-Jun-2001