Design History

2012

• xx-yyy - zzz

2011

• 31-Dec - 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 - 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

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

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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

Update history from 28-Feb-2000 up to 30-Jun-2001