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« Archive of the web site updates and improvements over the years »

Changes to Ackadia made around 2001

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1st October 2001
Added a fantasy crossword

Added "alts" - my RPG / D&D characters. Includes a few decent drawings too


28th September 2001
Added a new Gems section (six pages) in the reference area. It also includes tables for Forgotten Realms gem prices and far more.

Added Domain codes - Just where is "www.go.to" ? .to = Tongo


25th September 2001
Somewhat behind at the moment, what between returning to college and following the escalation following the senseless destruction at the World Trade Towers and Pentagon.
I will finish the primarily overhaul within a day or so, though the validation and link checks will likely take several weeks to complete
Here's where the revision is up to, from a code point of view at least!


(2004 - removed table) Sections revised and Verified as HTML 4.01 were:


But not the archives, for obvious reasons.



August 8th
When I am done in a few weeks (sigh!) the entire site will compatible with all but the oldest browsers.
I'll add information and links anon, but basically the Cascading Style Sheets have been validated and the home page has been through the treadmills and back.

That lot done, I will begin bulking up on the content Smiley Smiles!

August 8th
*MUTTERS*
Re-doing the entire lot!!!

August 5th
Now there's a thing!
Re-did the Main Menu for it's HTML4.01 badge, then I tried to get one for the News page and run into a tricky problem. The URL's to many of the stories use "illegal codes", specifically the ampersand: &. This is a CGI scripting problem and easily fixed by said software engineers, or avoided altogether by more experienced scripters.
The solution when adding such a link is, as below, to change it from   ===&===   to   ===&===

W3C.org

"A URL for a CGI program that uses `&' as a separator, such as "http://host/prog?x=1&y=2". This is a common problem: the inventors of CGI didn't think things through very carefully when they decided to use the '&' character as a separator between CGI arguments, because '&' has special status in HTML. One way to get around this is for the author of the CGI program to use a different value between arguments, like ';' or '|', which would allow the link to be coded as <img src="http://site/cgi?opt1=val1;opt2=val2"> or whatever."

HTMLHELP.com on ampersand in URL's

Another common error occurs when including a URL which contains an ampersand ("&"):

<!-- This is invalid! --> <a href="foo.cgi?chapter=1&section=2">...</a>

This example generates an error for "unknown entity section" because the "&" is assumed to begin an entity. In many cases, browsers will recover safely from the error, but the example used here will cause the link to fail in Netscape 3.x (but not other versions of Netscape) since it will assume that the author intended to write &sect;ion, which is equivalent to §ion.

To avoid problems with both validaters and browsers, always use &amp; in place of &:

<a href="foo.cgi?chapter=1&amp;section=2">...</a>




August 4th, like 3am turned!
Well, that was a ()!
I concentrated on the home page and CSS and tweaked the life from it, but could I get it to validate as pure HTML4.01? Not a chance. After a LOT of frustration, I solved it. The META code for the "we are kids friendly" ICRA Content Rating had an illegal character that was messing up the HEADER, which is turn beggared the CSS and the BODY. Once the BODY was messed...

*Breathes loudly in exasperated relief*
Anyway, now that the home page is squeaky clean I can work on the rest of the site.

Netscape's old 'Net Garage' also gave the home page a clean bill of health :


*I'll likely re-do the graphics in a month or so, make them smaller.
**Go figure, ignored my name and pulled up xDSL, a generic for covering all DSL's!

It was a humbling experience, but I even managed to get an "all clear" from Net Mechanic too - for the Home page at least.

*Ackadia, ADSL & Ackerley aren't errors here, though I am VERY surprised at an industry standard like ADSL !


For the home page initially, here's the net result, as far as visitors go :



August 4th

Well that was depressing!!!

Ever looking to improve things I ran CSE HTML Validator Pro v4.52 (trial) over the home page... and took a battering. So I fixed it all up perfect and ran it over another, online validator - Netscape's old 'Web Garage. And took another kicking!

I'd be depressed except, for the most part virtually all the errors were caused by Javascript generated by the suitably expensive professional standard - Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev!

Sooo, I now have to re-edit the source code on every page and, while I'm at it, learn Javascript to a decent level. *Sigh* Back to the drawing board.


August 3rd

Added System Architecture
With the graphics, this is a fairly large file at some 500k (100k text), but will certainly be of use. I took an NVQ networking course a few years back and this was one of the projects.
I still remember the lecturer saying : "But we only wanted about four pages!
To which I replied : "You can sod off, it was sixty odd pages before I edited it down!"

Anyway, it covers the basics of the history and system architecture of the PC from year dot to the end of the twentieth century. Old hands will recall the joys of SIPPS and RLL's, the rest of you can save a few hours scouring the net for this info. The links at the end are useful too.


August 2nd

Revised (and essentially added) Search Engine Promotion.
This page will likely be sub-divided into five sub-sections later on. The page incorporates the old search engines section and takes you through the joys of adding yourself to the 19 main search engines.

Not withstanding that I was coding the page I was going, but it took over two hours to enter the details, largely because the designs are so naff! Hopefully you will find it less of a minefield with the use of this page.

I am genuinely inclined to think search engines are a waste of energy unless you are a corporation willing to pay the big bucks to buy a high rank in the top six engines!

I'll cover promotion IN DEPTH later

OK, I've re-coded all the pages. Just got to replace a few button and I can get back on track to filling this site with content.


August 1st

Added the Homepage Archives which shows how site has been updated over the years.


End July

Added a "New Links" page.
I'm forever reading about and visiting new sites, some of which are truly excellent. And naturally I copy the URL to whatever scrap of paper I have handy and file it away. Can I find it again... Sooo, all the new URL's I like will go to this page and, all being well, will be moved to the relevant pages - or erased. I'll also sort out an appraisal system.
(Addenda June 2003) This Links-new page has since been integrated).



July 2001
Playing around with trial versions of various Macromedia products and am impressed. I guess in takes a week or so to master the complexities of Dreamweaver and Fireworks, but I think I like the results thus far. As yet I've limited it to the Home page.   When I'm happy with it I'll (manually) update the rest of the site with the same changes.

Two days later...
OK, It seems fine, so I'll going to bite the bullet and add this javascript enhanced menu to the rest of the site. As there are quite a few pages all told, it might take a few days mind. Do please let me know what you think.

I have noticed occasionally that with MS Explorer the media player pops up to play the (tiny) .wav file but as this isn't consistent I'll reserve judgment. It seems to be related to page load times so I have moved the embedding code to just below the menu system and this appears to have solved it.

Incidentally, the graphics for the menu take up some 38kb. That's about 4 seconds on a 56kb modem and while larger than I'd like, I believe it's still acceptable.   Yes, I can make the graphics far smaller, easier to load, and less obtrusive, but the way it is makes navigating the site easier.   When I've re-done the sub menu's for the five main topics it will be a dream.   As ever, comments and input are always appreciated.



April 2001
Decided to bite the bullet and redo the entire site, using cascading style styles.   Some of the uglier button links will go (like the html ones) and I'll make the site more, wotsits, word for clothes, ah, yes, much more uniform.   A touch of java and flash will appear on the odd page, but that's as far as it goes. As ever, adverts will never find a home here :)

The mainstay of this months work has been on the Wishlist for a tasty computer and on a helpfile FAQ for the (once) awesome Faerun Multi User Dungeon (www.faerunmud.org). (Addenda 2005: I am now helping with the Arantha MUD

(Addenda: Due to legal reasons, Faerun MUD is now Rauvyon and even better than ever for the re-coding.)
(Addenda 2: Due to personal reason Rauvyon sadly shut it doors a year or so later. If you are one of the lucky ones who recall Faerun in it's heyday you will be please to know a number of it's players builders and maybe even IMMs are working on a new MUD to open around September 2003. Wander over to Arantha for more info.)


March 2001
Playing around with style sheets and that at the moment, tossing in a bit of java, here an there.     I have also started looking at various Macromedia products including Flash and Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver's nice, but I like hand coding. I can see some Flash graphics enhancing the odd page at some point mind.

Expect to notice changes across all the pages from April, kids holidays aside.