Month: February 2015

New Omniglot design

By Simon

My redesign of Omniglot is now complete, except for the homepage. All inner pages are now aligned to the left, and have drop-down menus at the top, which should make it easier to find your way around, and should work well on all sizes of screen. Initially I tried to keep the central alignment, but couldn’t work out how to centre the menu, so gave up on that. Then I realised that the left alignment gives more flexibility, which is one of the goals of the new design. I’ve also finally finished converting the whole site to HTML5 – this doesn’t change the look of it, but does make managing it easier, and streamlines the code.

I have been working on a new homepage and am trying to come up with a fluid design that works well on all screen sizes. You can see what I’ve done so far here – this page is changes frequently as I try out different layouts and adjust the contents and images.

Does the new design work for you?

Have you spotted anything that could be improved?

What do you think should appear on the homepage?

Un sabot de Denver

By Simon

Wheel clamp / Sabot de Denver

I discovered yesterday that in French a wheel clamp is known as a sabot de Denver (“Denver hoof/clog/shoe/boot”), and wondered what Denver has to do with wheel clamps.

On Wikipedia is explains that such devices were first used in Denver, Colorado, and are known as a wheel boot, parking boot or Denver boot in the USA. The wheel boot was invented by Frank Marugg in 1944 and first used in 1955 in Denver. One type of wheel clamp used in the UK was originally called the Preston, after Trevor Whitehouse, the inventor’s home town. They were first used in 1991 [source].

Are they used in other countries?

If so, what are they called?

Just popping out

By Simon

A interesting English expression I’ve noticed in novels I’ve been reading recently is the verb to pop, which is often accompanied by prepositions such as out, in, round and down, and preceded by just.

For example:
– I’m just popping out to the shop, do you want anything?
– I might pop in at some point for a peek at your pictures.
– I popped down to the pub last night.

It usually means to go somewhere for a short time and then return to wherever you were. In some contexts drop (by/round) can be used instead of pop: “Do pop in / drop by if you’re free this afternoon”, for example.

Words can also just pop out without you thinking about them first, e.g. “I didn’t mean to say that – it just popped out.” [source]

Are there expressions in other languages that have a similar meaning?