Timewaster's Guide Archive
Departments => Webcomics & Free Stuff => Topic started by: Spriggan on July 13, 2004, 09:33:45 AM
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Thought since this was the place for peoples sites I'd thow this here.
Mustard you've got a problem on your site with the new mailing list page. All the menu item links are messed up, it's trying to send you to a new place within the mailing directory.
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I know it, but I'm too lazy to fix it right now... The only computer I have an FTP program on also only has a dial-up connection. It's so slow that I hate to work with it. I'll fix it eventually.
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Incidentally, it's robisonwells.com. The robwells.com site is about some guy and his dogs.
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you can FTP from most major web browsers. just type in
ftp.robisonwells.com (or whatever your ftp server address is) and once it finds something, open the file menu and chose "login as"
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Hmm... I just tried to it, using Explorer, but I couldn't see where to login.
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the file menu of the browser should have a "login as" option once you've gone to that address.
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You almost got it right, Eric. Try this:
ftp://robisonwells.com
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Well, I can pull that up, but it doesn't give me any login options in the file menu (or elsewhere).
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Oh yeah, I forgot that part. You actually have to put your username and password in the URL to do something like that. It's kinda weird. Anyway, if your username and password were rob/wells, you'd put in:
ftp://rob:[email protected]
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That's really bizarre. I always get the login as an option in the file menu when I browse to ftp sites.
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That's just because you're cooler than me, SE.
Thanks Tage. That pleases me to no end.
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Ya, I know that it's not robwells.com, but I'm lazy so I shortened it. It must also have to do with the browers you're useing Mustard. On win 2000 with IE I get the login at your site.
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As a note, someone recently told me that they couldn't access my site with the most recent version of IE.
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well they're smokeing something then. Becasue I designed it with IE in mind. It was probaly something to do with their ISP or PC.
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Well look at that. It's been 24 hours since I discovered I could FTP from this computer, and I still haven't fixed it. Maybe today. Maybe not.
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what are you doing? Wasting time?
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Well, I'm working. But only in the loose sense of the word.
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So I read this summary on the website...
Before he gets a chance to meet Rebekah after the concert, however, she is kidnapped. He sees the abductor fleeing from the concert with Rebekah in tow, but in an attempt to apprehend them, Eric gets severely wounded.
Well, hilarity ensues, and one page is far too short to summarize everything. Suffice it to say that they end up on the run.
Oh, and did I mention that this is also funny? Not slapstick-funny, but funny nonetheless.
Also: It's the first book in a series of three, which follow the story of Eric and Rebekah and the terrorist plot they have discovered.
I have to say that last bit about "severely injured, hilarity, terrorist plot, and funny" was a bit strange to read.
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Yeah, it's a little different. I'm not sure quite how well it will go over. It's not funny in the sense that it's a parody of the spy thriller genre. The humor comes from the fact that it's first person, and the main character is a regular joe -- thrust into a terrorist plot. The humor isn't based on funny situations--just on the things that go through his head.
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I give it a roaring huzzah. And that each of us will be buying a copy.
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So, like I mentioned before, I'm overhauling my site. Most of the changes are made now. (I still haven't done anything with the main page, because I can't figure out how to move the blog.) Anyway, if you'd like, take a look and give me a little feedback... I'm moderately happy with it. (It's certainly an improvement over the crappy old site).
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The FAQ colors need to be changed, I think the orange and Pink look horrible.
Besides that, ya, the new laouts are much nicer. If you want to e-mail me the main page's php I'll tell you how to move it.
Oh, and you should invest in a flash stick, you can get 128 megs for about $30. I know EUOL uses his to back up all his books, and they aren't magnetic so you don't have to worry about them getting wipped easly.
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Treat them nicely though...I see too many dead ones at the helpdesk, mostly from people removing them without shutting them down or dropping them and causing internal damage.
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I actually have a flash drive -- I just hadn't been backing anything up onto it. I always back everything up, but I do so to combat human error, rather than computer failure, so I just back up to other places on the PC.
But trust me -- it's not going to happen again.
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I fixed the FAQ color. Thanks Sprig.
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That's a lot better.
also, send me the index files so I can help you move your blog. Or I can give you a version of Monkey Blogger (what EUOL uses).
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Alright, so take another look. I've got the main page up and working, and the blog seems to be okay. I wish I knew more of what I was doing, but this seems alright.
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I like the new site a lot better. Looks less cheesey
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one thing, though. The order of the left hand navigation links varies. That was kind of... odd. sometimes books is on top, sometimes it's down low. and maybe I just saw it wrong, but it doesn't look like all the links are available from the main page.
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I don't know about you SE, but I always like to read text over pictures. Yeah, definately love it. That's my only gripe. Homsar, I had my laptop's hard drive die way back in may. I finally, days before Nano, got a new one.
Oh yeah, I also wanted to say to Hom, so you'll have two books out before EUOL even has one, huh? Now who's the major awesome?
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I don't know about you SE, but I always like to read text over pictures.
That's one of those things that I can't figure out. It looks just fine if your browser is maximized, and your resolution is set at 1024x768. Otherwise, the formatting is screwy.
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And yeah SE, I need to put the links in the same order on each page. That was just me being lazy.
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I realy like the new main page design Mustard.
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"My cookie!" awww. that's sweet.
As a father, I'm allowed to say stuff like that.
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Wow, I really like the new site design too. Did you do that yourself, HoM?
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Yep. Just don't look too close at the code. It was entirely trial and error.
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If anyone is interested, the first chapter to Wake Me When It's Over has been posted on my website.
www.robisonwells.com/WMchapter.php
It will be in stores in less than a month!
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That's one of those things that I can't figure out. It looks just fine if your browser is maximized, and your resolution is set at 1024x768. Otherwise, the formatting is screwy.
Just noticed this. It's an easy problem to fix, the reason why it's doing this is becasue you've listed the things on the right (the text and page headder) first, so if you look at the table as code only as you resize the page the browser moves the items in order that they were first listed. So the items on the right (since they're the second column in your row) get pushed down. To fix it just switch the locations so the items on the left are in the first column and the items on the right are second.
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Huzzah!
Well kids, I have just returned from the publisher and have a box full of books. And really, the cover doesn't look as bad as I thought it would.
Covenant is doing an end-of-the-year inventory, so that might slow distribution a bit, but they should be in Seagull stores by next Wednesday at least (Jan. 5th). The other chains (Deseret Book or Barnes and Noble or Walmart) take a little longer since they have to run everything through a central distribution center.
So buy buy buy! Give them to all those people that you forgot about at Christmas.
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Someone should buy me one for my birthday. (11th)
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I think everyone should buy you one for your birthday. They should all buy you several copies.
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So by "I have just returned from the publisher and have a box full of books" you mean that we can now start requesting you to send those of us unfortunate enough to not live near such a prolific author a copy of the book signed?
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I'm good for a copy. (Though, it's only fair. After all, I'm expecting you to buy mine, and it will cost about twice as much....)
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EUOL, I want a hardcover 1st edition copy in Russian, and I will wait for the English paperback. =P
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Gemm,
I'm not sure if the Russian will be a hardback or a paperback. Either way, I'll make sure you get one.
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Heh, I'm mostly being silly, but that'd be pretty cool if you could get me a copy of it. It'd be even better if you could sign that one in Russian too. ;) But I'll take the English one signed just as well.
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Mustard are you going to be signing in the area again?
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HoM, are you going to be helping with the moving on Saturday? If so, bring a signed copy and I'll buy it off you.
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Yes on both counts: I'll be there on Saturday, and I'm also doing signings. My signing schedule isn't firm yet, but it'll be every saturday for most of January, February and March. The coolest part is I have a signing in Idaho Falls, so this is an INTERSTATE BOOK SIGNING TOUR!
I'll bring a couple of books tomorrow if anyone wants to buy them. And Gemm, I'm pretty sure I have your address still -- I'll ship you a signed copy.
For anyone who wants to buy a signed copy from me, they'll be $11. ($15.95 msrp.)
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Not to begrudge saving $4, but wouldn't it be better for your sales if I picked one up at Seagull or something?
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Yahoo, I don't have yours, anywhere. What did I do last time? Just wrap $11 in some paper and mail it to ya? I forget. email me with details at zkaveney @ [google . com ] . Ok.
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Buying it at Seagull would be much better. I'm just happy to comply either way.
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Oh, good, then I won't feel guilty about going to Seagull.
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Okay, I know that this isn't really a topic that you guys are that interested in, but this took a long time, and I need to brag.
In an effort to increase traffic to my website, I created the LDS Fiction Review Database, basically just links to every online review I can find -- currently there are over 600, and I'm only about half-done.
Let me know what you think: www.robisonwells.com/reviewlist.php
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well, on your main page, you should REALLY say that the link is on the bottom-left instead of the bottom right. Because, y'know, that's where it is.
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Judas!
Fixed.
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The links (ie letters and numbers) should be smaller, they should fit into one row at the standard resolution (1024x728) and if you can for 800x600.
Also the purple border around them is kinda ugly, you should probaly just change the color of the text instead.
Also the database should be searchable by both title and author and you should have a search box. Both are simple enough to do if you're storeing all the reviews in a database or XML file.
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Rob, I just noticed that in Mozilla, your main page text spreads itself out over the pictures on the right. I don't know why it would do that, but you might want to look at it.
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Are you sure it's the largest?
I remember seeing other databases of LDS fiction. (I might be thinking of LDS SF/F databases but I thought I'd ask.)
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Sprig: Yeah, I'm going to change the size of the links, but I like the border.
And it's not searchable because it's not currently a database -- it's just a bunch of links. I don't know how to make a database.
Tage: I know about the Mozilla problem, but I have no idea how to fix it. Anyone have any ideas?
Skar: It's the biggest I can find. There are more reviews at both AML and MLDB, but both of those include non-fiction, and non-LDS works by LDS authors. If there's a bigger one, it's not easy to find via google search (i've been googling lds fiction reviews for the last two weeks, and haven't seen anything comparable).
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the border dosen't fit with the look of your site (and is also a tad amatureish) but it's upto you.
To make a database you probaly should ask Tage, or install PHPMyAdmin to your site. I'd be happy to actualy do the code for you if you wanted such features.
As for the mozilla problem, from just browseing your site's HTML it's fairly obvious the problem is caused by very bad codeing, and Mozilla is very strict on how it reads HTML (unlike IE) so it's casueing it to freak out. For example you've got 2 <body> tags are don't close either one of them as well as nested <td> tags which not all are closed either.
<td align="left><td width="400"> should be <td align='left' width='400'> don't know why you've got <td><td width="500"><td> when there are no <tr> tags called nor a closeing to either of those TDs. On top of that you've got like 4-5 tables being called and not closed.
You don't have a style attached so what's the purpose of <div id="desc">?
you should also need to add </body></html> at the end.
These are all from just scanning over the source. You're site's code needs a major overhaul.
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Well, as I've mentioned before, I code via trial and error. I know very little html, and I just fiddle until it looks right.
Thanks though, I'll try to clean that stuff up and see if it helps.
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If you need help just ask.
Also you're not useing the <dd></dd> tags right (for one they need to be closed like everything else) and secondly they are supposed to benested inside <dl></dl> tags. If you just want new paragraphs use <p></p> instead. <dd></dd>tags are used with <dt></dt> and the <dl> tags to create list types with indentations and other effects, not for paragraph breaks.
You can enter this code into a HTML file to see what it does.
<dl>
<dt>test</dt>
<dd>Stff and stuff</dd>
<dt>test 2</dt>
<dd>Stff and stuff</dd>
</dl>
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Thanks. I'll work on it.
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HOMsar seems more the type of man to ask for help after he's given all he needs. Just my inclination of what I was amused to eat lunch with. Of course, that's about an hour of being with him.
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I must admit that I don't know what that means.
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Gemm said it. Which, y'know, means that most of us didn't.
Unless you're talking about what SPrig said. Cuz Gemm didn't say that. and it's something we may be able to explain.
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No, I was talking about Gemm. I guess I shouldn't try to understand -- just sit back and enjoy the performance art.
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Would you like an interpretive dance with your smothering smoothie?
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oo! oo! I would!
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Can it be interpretive of EUOL's musk-lines?
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Well kids. Things have gotten very interesting. Without getting into a lot of details, some BYU professor sent me an email last night filled with a lot of false praise and a few veiled threats. It's weird.
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I'm assumeing this is about your review database? Too bad he has no legal ground to stop you since you're not reprinting any reviews on your site and there's noting illegal about posting links on a website.
edit: Ya I just checked out that guy's site, he's blowing hot air out his rear since he's doing the same thing as you. I say you crush his puny BYU site! Go for the Eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!
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Right. Actually, his problem seems to be that I'm competition for his Mormon Literature Database (which I'm not).
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Go for the mormon eyes boo! RAAARGH
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Go for the eyes!
Anyway he's only got a handful of fiction articles on his site. I'm sure you can send him a very witty reply that politley tells him to go jump off a bridge.
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you should just ask him what Jesus would do in this situation.
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I don't know if it's the same guy, it sounds like the style of the guy I'm thinking of. I had a run in with a professor at BYU who had a mormon lit dbase.
I first ran into him when I sent him an email calling him to task for putting up fliers stating that Inscape was BYU's only fiction magazine. His only reply was a tangential suggestion that I should not be jealous that Inscape got more money than TLE. He didn't reply to any more of my emails after that and continued to put up the fliers. I started ripping them down because, hey, that's just who I am. ;D
Later he sent me a query about an essay of mine that got published in TLE, fact-checking basically. I think he wanted to link to it in that dbase of his.
Searching for the emails...
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More importantly...
What Would Chow Yun Fat Do?
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Yes! Or Jet Li.
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Well, all was resolved. I wrote an email, and then Fell edited it to make it nice, and then I got a nice email in return.
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darn. I wanted there to be blood.
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Did you use your influence with EUOL to stage a BYU assassination?
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My ninja monkeys were willing to reduce for reduced rates!
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What was the guy's name?
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Gideon Burton
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Yup. That's the one.
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Skar - check your PMs