I spent a couple of hours last night trying to figure out server-side includes so I could do browser detection and serve a different stylesheet depending on the platform and browser being used. I'm sure that's a pretty simple thing to a programmer, but it took me awhile to get my mind around it. I think I've got it working--it's also a difficult thing to test, really.

All I really wanted to affect was Mac IE 5.0--for some reason Microsoft decided to make IE 5.0 for Mac display fonts much larger than intended, so something designed to look nice on the PC platform (Netscape and IE do display things differently, but they're not noticeably different) looks pretty good on Netscape for Mac, but looks awful on IE for Mac. It looks like it's been designed for children.

And of course, now that I have a Mac, and in my opinion IE is much better on the Mac platform than the new versions of Netscape are, it stares me in the face every time I open one of my own sites at home.

So I finally figured out how to handle it, by figuring out which browser and platform each viewer is coming from, and giving a different stylesheet to the Mac IE users, so that the apparent type size will be approximately the same as it appears on other platforms and browsers. All the rest get the regular one, and if the type size is too small for some people, they can still enlarge it through the browser.

Sort of geeky, but fun.

I've been playing with the Willa and Bob Sims this week, some. They really need a bigger house, mostly because they need a second bathroom. They spend way too much of their time trying to maneuver past each other in the one that they have. I may have to add on to the house or something--the whole house is just sort of weirdly arranged anyway. Of course, it's the haunted house next to the graveyard, so I suppose that's to be expected.

They did finally get a second computer, so now they don't have to fight over it. Willa got her iMac (the blueberry one) and Bob has some sort of generic PC-clone. Now they can sit upstairs and work (or mostly play) on them at the same time.

They keep getting the call asking if they want to adopt a baby, but I keep turning it down. It's just so much responsibility and work; it's not really worth it just for the tax deduction.

They also bought a new gas grill for the patio, and they've been grilling every chance they get. If I don't tell them specifically to prepare a real meal, they're out there grilling--even for breakfast. The problem is that hamburgers, while fun to cook and eat, aren't as satisfying as meals cooked inside on the stove. And they eat them off of paper plates, so there's more trash to clean up and take out to the curb, which brings their energy level down even more.

It's pretty interesting, really. The more I play it, the most I find myself making correlations to things in my own life. Sometimes useful ones, like the fact that a tub bath will get you just as clean, but also gives you comfort, unlike a shower, and some pretty silly ones, like waking up and thinking I'd like to stay in bed a little while longer, just until my green energy bar reaches its maximum length . . .

I found out how to get my Buddhist monks into their monastery even though they didn't have any money--you just build the "family" first, move them onto the empty lot, then import the house onto the lot, and voila, they're living in it, and they didn't actually have to buy it.

I'm still working on the monastery, though, or temple, rather--I wasn't completely satisfied with the decor that was used, so I'm redoing some of it, and furnishing it. I'll take some pictures once it's finished. There are two monks (one of which, the elder, is the teacher) and two children--monks in training, I guess.

I haven't decided yet if I'll have them go out into the world and work or not; if they don't, I'll have to figure out something for them to do all day. Gardening, maybe. And I need to get them a bookcase, so they can study cooking, before they burn themselves up in a kitchen fire. So many things to think about.