About "Our Gabriel.com"

"Why did you create this site?"

After the experience of our pregnancy with Gabriel, I was looking for a way to communicate my thoughts and feelings. My wife felt a strong need for people to know that we had a son, that he had died, and that he had a name. With my computer backgroud, making a website was a good way for me to find a way to express what I was saying.

"This is a dot-com site... what are you selling?"

This is not a for-profit enterprise. I chose a dot-com ending because it is the default when people put in "ourgabriel". I have no intention of selling anything on this site.

"Why doesn't this site look right on my browser?"

This site was written from scratch using HTML 4 (Transitional, aka "loose") and Cascading Style Sheets. Why? Because CSS is the best way to format pages consistently, and it reduces file size. (I considered using HTML 4 "Strict" but found that too restrictive.) Unfortunately if you are using a really old browser, you might not get to share in the fun. The question which faces people making web-sites is, "Do I a) write correct code and rely on web browsers to interpret it correctly, or b) write several different versions of code for every browser that was ever mass-produced?"

Imagine this: You want to send a birthday card to someone. Sure you could send a note on plain white paper and black ink, but you want it to be a little more "spiced up".... So you design a card and mail it to someone, only to find out that they can't read it because they don't have a mailbox and only accept telegrams. This is analogous to what web pages are like: every time you want to design something, you have to think to yourself "Does this person only accept telegrams?"

Well, for good or bad, I decided to design pages for people who want more than just telegrams. As far as I know you will still be able to read these pages with an old browser, it just may not look very good.

Given that browser upgrades for Netscape, AOL, and Internet Explorer are free, there is really no reason not to upgrade. If you have older hardware and find the newer versions of these browsers are too slow on your machine, may I recommend you try the slim-but-wonderful Opera browser?

I do not require any particular browser (that is, I do not use any features which only exist in Internet Explorer, etc) because the web should be the place where it doesn't matter what browser you are using IF: A) You are using a standards-compliant browser and B) the web page is also standards-compliant. For more information on this idea please checkout the AnyBrowser campaign.

If you would like more information about why, please goto the Web Standards Project browser upgrade initiative page and read their press release.