The new format for the blog (being under AKCS-WWW) has now been "in force" for a couple of weeks, and I wanted to update everyone on some of the new features - and how you can make them work for you.

First, the format and available services are virtually identical to what you had available under Serendipity, which was the former blogging software in use here.  However, there are some very real differences in terms of user experience - all of them which I believe you will find useful.

• The system is much faster, especially from mobile devices.  One of the goals for The Ticker and Tickerforum was to make the system usable even from slow connections.  While I understand that everyone seems to believe that "we all have fast broadband to our house", it simply isn't true.  Further, a lot of people read during a commuter train ride where they're on a mobile link (more frequently a phone handset nowdays) and those sometimes are "3g" and sometimes are not. AKCS is optimized to deliver a high-performance experience no matter what you're using, and the differences are not small.  If you have an EDGE (2.5g cellular) or better connection the forum and Ticker experience should be more than satisfactory in terms of performance.
  
  
• The full-text search capacity of the forum is now enabled.  You used to have to know to put "&" between search terms; not any more.  The system now understands that if you say "frick frack" you mean "frick and frack" or "frick & frack" on it's own.  You can, however, use "|" (or) if you'd like.  In addition if you're signed in (more on this below) you can use the top link and then click the "Search" button and use the full capacity of the forum's search engine - that was formerly unavailable.
  
  
• Clicking a category limits display to that category immediately.  If you see something in "Administrative" and want to see only items in that category, clicking the category name will tell the system that's what you're looking to view.  Clicking the top-level banner ("The Market Ticker") will always return you to the top page with all sub-division categories turned off.
  
  
• If you want instant notification of new posts to The Market Ticker there are two ways to reliably get them: You can point an RSS reader at the top page of The Ticker and it will find the RSS feed point for the area.  Note that while there is no little orange box, the code is still there - and modern browsers with "internal" RSS capability, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and others should automatically "light up."  The other option is to "Follow" the Twitter login "Tickerguy" - all new Tickers are immediately "Tweeted" with the subject and a link.  The former practice of using a hashtag has been removed due to a handful of spammers trying to harass people.  Just follow my login ID for Twitter if you're interested in that form of notification.
  
  
• All comments are now "inlined" with the Ticker itself.  The login ID and passwords are the same as they are for the forum.  Implementing "cross-domain" logins has been asked for - I am not intending to do it, as doing so would require me to load some sort of persistent code on your machine - a severe security risk - for you.  As such just sign in a second time and click "Remember Me" if you wish to comment.  For those who are not interested in commenting and only wish to read, you do not need a forum login.  However, having and using one allows the system to keep track of the former responses you have seen and "fast forward" you to the first new response to a given Ticker.  The choice for those who wish to be "read only" is yours.
  
  
• I have done my damndest to handle various browser CSS (Style Sheet) problems, but there are some that are simply intractable.  Internet Explorer 6 is one of those.  If you're suffering with that piece of trash, consider loading Opera.  If you can't due to corporate or government security restrictions, I've done what I can - which unfortunately means that quoted text will not appear "correctly" (nicely inset with a border.)  In addition IE6 has a propensity to decide that the entire right sidebar should not be rendered properly at all, and that appears to be determined by whether I have an italic in the wrong place in the disclaimer!  Yeah, it's that quirky.  Seriously folks, Microsoft has always sucked to some degree, but this particular brand of suckiness is unique to them and rather extreme.  I understand that some people are literally forced to deal with this trash for various work-related reasons, and I've done what I can to get around it.  Send a box of used dogfood to Steve Ballmer in appreciation if you're forced to suffer under his thumb.
  
  
• You will notice that over time the topics will tend to have little "icon-style" images loaded with them.  In addition, the image gallery for various Tickers now have some with borders, and some without.  The system has become "intelligent" as to how it displays images.  Those with borders are clickable - the border indicates that there is a larger (perhaps much larger) version available by clicking that image, which will pop up a new window with it enclosed.  If the original loaded image is narrower than the preset, this option is not presented (since there's nothing larger to give you.)  The software is also intelligent enough to interface properly with various cache systems around The Internet (including on your local browser) and as such will not reload an image down the pipe that you've already got, no matter how many times it is used.  As such display performance is much-improved.
  
  
• Because The Market Ticker is now entirely contained within AKCS, including images, the entirety of the Ticker is now also under the replication system.  This means that in the event something catastrophic happens to the colocated machine in Asheville NC nothing should be lost, as content (including images) is replicated here to Niceville within literal seconds of being originally posted.  In addition, the performance improvements to the system mean that it can now handle about twice the former user load without having to add hardware.  As readership grows this will help maintain system performance - an important factor for both you and I.

There are more improvements coming over time - the AKCS software is continually in development, and on average I'm posting 2-3 small code "commits" a week, and typically one large one on a monthly basis or thereabouts.  Much of the codebase changes are invisible to users, but all are intended to dramatically improve the user experience.

Thank you for being loyal Market Ticker readers over the last three and a half years, and I look forward to continuing to publish articles in The Market Ticker that you find both topical and interesting in your daily economic and political life.