The spectaculr eclipse that wasn’t

A brief media circus has predictably developed around the partial eclipse visible this evening in France. Sensationalist reporting always “forgets” to mention that a partial eclipse is completely unremarkable, not really even worth viewing, even with overpriced, scarce, special viewing glasses.

The problem is that since the sun is so bright, even if just a sliver of the sun’s surface is visible, the effect is much the same as if there were no eclipse at all. Sunlight gets a bit dimmer, but nothing else changes. This is in dramatic contrast to the spectacular appearance of a total eclipse, when the moon completely hides the sun.  The difference between total and partial is like night and day, in more ways than one.

The last total eclipse in France occurred in 1999, and it was a memorable, once-in-a-lifetime treat for those fortunate enough to observe it. The next total eclipse visible in Paris won’t be until 2081. Partial and annular eclipses occur more often, but they are always disappointing, no matter what the media claim.

Handcrafting my web site

I’ve been tinkering a lot with my web site lately—I find writing code to be relaxing, and it helps relieve stress.

My personal web site has been around for thirty years … and it looks it. I’ve never felt any need to change its design: the design works well, even if it’s far from fashionable. There’s a table of contents on the left, and content on the right, plus a banner at the top. Simple. Nothing moves or slides or jiggles. There are no pop-ups. There are no ads. The site is not monetized. Visitors are not tracked. There are no sponsors. I’m not selling anything. I don’t ask anyone to “create an account” or “choose a subscription plan” just to look at the site.

Most of the site content is text, but the two sections that receive the most visitors are the Paris photo gallery and the (Paris) street scenes gallery. The photo gallery is unusual in that I provide extensive descriptions of what each photo shows—something that many web sites can’t be bothered with nowadays. My site can be visited even with JavaScript disabled. It looks the same on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. It can even be navigated with a text-only browser such as Lynx—how many sites today can say that?

I don’t have to ask visitors to accept cookies because I don’t use any. Likewise, I don’t have to ask them to accept tracking pixels or other spy gadgets because I don’t use any. They don’t need to “choose their ad preferences” because there are no ads.

I still have a crusty old feedback form, and a guest book. They don’t seem to get used much.

Behind the scenes, there’s a mountain of code, and I typed every line myself. I’ve built my own content management system, as well as a ridiculously elaborate user account management system, with roles and keys and access control lists that would make a Multician proud … even though I have only two user accounts (one user account, one administrator account). It has been fun to write.

Amazingly, the site receives up to ten thousand visitors a day, but at least 75% of those are not human, i.e., they are bots, spiders, crawlers, scrapers, scanners and evildoers, and the like. I estimate that perhaps several hundred to a thousand real people visit on a typical day.

I derive significant satisfaction from the fact that the entire site is handcrafted by yours truly. There isn’t anything on the site that mystifies me, because I don’t use anything created by anyone else. I know why, for example, particular icons appear in particular positions, because I put them there. I even created the icons.