Many of us are sick of overdesigned web pages. There are obvious reasons for the web being so complex:

• They want to make people spend more time on their websites, so they buy more stuff.
• They want to modern, into it, you know cool, whatever the heck that means.
• The Rapp Road Reason: Buy new! Consume! Dump old in Landfill! Capitalism at it's finest.

This sites uses mild CSS/CSS2 on my webpages, just for styling purposes, and some HTML 4. All modern browers work great, such as Internet Explorer 5, Netscape 6, and Konqueror. We also ignore older browsers as programming for them me want to pull out my hair with all their bugs. Note how my webpage loads fast on IE 5 even over a modem connection, unlike those corporate sites. My secret was: spare the pictures, and the crap. Just give me the content and decent styling.

With all my simplicity, I'm still a perfectly compentent webdesigner. I could make webpages that look like those commerical sites, until the cows come home, and beyond. But you don't want that, and I don't want that either. I want to put a distinctive look on my site (compare dell.com and ibm.com and tell me if they look like they came from the same rather sad corporate 'kit'.

This site takes many hints from useit.com for my design: it seems to work perfectly for what I am, and what I want to say. Simplicity is the key to my message, while our technocratic world may be very complex, broken down it's not all that complex.

It's not shinny, it's not new. I've been scratching my head for a long time, trying to figure out how to improve on this design: but in my opinion, this design is the ultimate design for my webpage. It just fits right. This is probably why I have kept it for over a year and a half. It just feels so good, it's so trademark me. If every website could remember the concept of simplicity, and design like mine, the web would be a lot nicer place.

The HTML specs don't say that every webpage must be layed out by some humongous table. Such specs actually frown upon using tables for layout purposes. There is nothing wrong with having a white background on your webpage. Nowdays it's quite interesting and different, because we live in such a world of the polluted world wide web. Likewise, not every webpage needs to be an index to your site: you only really need one of those. The rest can be rather sane pages that give you primarly content.

Preform work in the background using server side scripts instead of javascript. Javascript may be used in moderation, but most of the time it's rather dangerous. Java is terrible, but for the most part is the thing of the past. A simple rule is: server side you have total control. It is a lot more efficent to run processes server side, as servers are designed for rapid running of scripts unlike browsers which much first download them.

It is sensible fundamentally reject some forms of technology. You should reject technology that increases dominane over us or pollute our digital and real world. By avoiding creating webpages that take a minute to load, you will make the world a much nicer place to surf. That will not end world hunger, but it will save your users some time.