Babble v1 190

babble-digest Monday, February 9 1998 Volume 01 : Number 190

In this issue:
Creating channels
Re: Putting a signature on a site
Countdown Javascript
Re: babble-digest V1 #187
Preload Script
Re: GIF Export
Re: Putting a signature on a site
That great, great site
IE 4.01 Pop-Ups
re color mappings in IE
Optimizing for the Aol Browser
Re: Creating channels
Java versions of Plug Ins
Re: Optimizing for the Aol Browser
CSS compatibility issues

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 04:15:59
From: Benjamin Sabini <archer@swlink.net>
Subject: Creating channels

Hi all,

Is there a book regarding learning creating Active Channels or Netcaster ?

Thanks in advanced
- ----
Benjamin Sabini
archer@swlink.net
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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 11:30:29 +0000
From: Paul Frost <paul@hpromo.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Putting a signature on a site

In message <f06773c.34dcde49@aol.com>, TheGilster@aol.com writes
>Dear List,
> I am designing a site for an insurance company and the president (aka my
>mom) of the company would like to have a brief note on the core page and have
>her signature on it. Is there a danger to putting someones signature on a
>website? Also, could anyone send me some links of sites that do have
>signatures of CEO's on the web so I can format the letter to that.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Gil Kruger
>
Yup. one of mine does. well, it has my signature on it. but rather than use my
standard credit card verification thing, i did a football style big signature

"don't know about you but i am un chien andalusia"
Paul Frost 'Webmeister' <giggle/apologies>
www.phw.co.uk Priority Healthcare Wearside
paul@hpromo.demon.co.uk Sunderland, UK
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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 13:57:28 -0500
From: Craig Swann <info@wyrd.com>
Subject: Countdown Javascript

Hello fellow babblers, long time voyeur....

Thought maybe one of you may have seen a countdown javascript. I can't
find one anywhere. Just looking for something that will count down to a
specified date.

Any help would be appreciated large!

Craig

mailto:info@wyrd.com
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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 13:12:57 -0600
From: vince burkhead <hello@mergesolutions.net>
Subject: Re: babble-digest V1 #187

- ------------------------------

Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 15:24:10 -0500
From: "Joseph Reger, Jr." <reger@reger.com>
Subject: RE: preload Script

Vincent,

We have a preload script that we use on our site to preload every
image file on the site all at once. I'm not exactly sure what you're
looking for though. Are you looking to only preload the next page in
the tour? Our script looks through our image directory and finds all
of the .jpg and .gif images. It then creates an .html page with all
of the images on it resized to 10x10 pixels. We've found that people
with slow connections really appreciate the option to explore our
site at high speed.

Feel free to check it out at http://www.webville-usa.com . The link
to the script is on the second page near the top. If it's what you
need I can post the perl code for it... it's very small and quick.

Let me know.

Joe Reger, Jr.
http://www.webville-usa.com

Joe,

Thank you for your response. That is a sweet gif animation, wavylogo.gif,
very clean, very nice. The flow of your site is very professional as well.
And I am not easily impressed.

Anyway, I am looking only to preload the next subsequent page in the tour,
I am using a single image per page for both my animation gallery and my
image gallery. I suppose I could preload ALL images in each gallery on an
intro page describing this to the user and to ask them for patience, or
page by page. Yes, please post the Perl code for me with some info on how
to utilize its control (I dabble with some javascripts, but have no Perl
experience)

Thanks in advance.

http://www.mergesolutions.net

Vincent Burkhead, Principle @ Merge Solutions
URL: http://www.mergesolutions.net
email: hello@mergesolutions.net
"don't start vast projects
with half-vast ideas."

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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 14:09:50 -0500
From: "Joseph Reger, Jr." <reger@reger.com>
Subject: Preload Script

I had a few people request the preload script so I'll just post it
here. I'm using it with the latest version of Perl 5 on an Apache
server. Have fun. I hope it's useful.

Joseph Reger, Jr.
http://www.webville-usa.com

- ----------------------------------------------

#!/usr/local/bin/perl5

#Written by: Joseph Reger, Jr.
#1997 Atlanta, GA

alarm (600);
$HOME = (getpwnam("www01650"))[7];

print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n";

print "<body bgcolor=#000000 text=#ffffff link=#ffffff><center><font
size=+4> p r e l o a d e r </font><br><table width=50%
border=0><tr><td><font size=-1>Take a few minutes to preload all of
the images on this site. When you're done (6-8mins at 28kbps) all of
the images from the site will be cached in your browser and you won't
have to wait for anything. You'll know it's done when the little
animation in the upper right corner of your browser stops
moving.</font><br><br><font size=-1><a
href=\"http://www.webville-usa.com\">When it's done, click here to
begin.</a></font></td></tr></table><br><table width=50%
border=0><tr><td>";

opendir(IMAGESDIR, "$HOME/www/assets/images");
@allfiles = readdir(IMAGESDIR);
closedir(IMAGESDIR);

foreach $data(@allfiles){
print "<img
src=\"http://www.webville-usa.com/assets/images/$data\" width=25
height=25>";
}

opendir(IMAGESDIR, "$HOME/www/assets/auto_generated_images");
@allfiles = readdir(IMAGESDIR);
closedir(IMAGESDIR);

foreach $data(@allfiles){
print "<img
src=\"http://www.webville-usa.com/assets/auto_generated_images/$da
ta\" width=25 height=25>";
}

print "</td></tr></table></center></body>";

- -------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 11:51:43 -0800
From: Todd Crummy <todd.crummy@nightonthetown.com>
Subject: Re: GIF Export

There are a many good plugins for this kind of thing. The two I use the
most are the SmartSaver 2.0 GIF & JPEG plugins from Ulead
(www.ulead.com) and WebVise from AutoFX (www.autofx.com). The
SmartSaver plugins are really cheap (I think $30 for both), but in my
experience they make some of the smallest browser safe GIFs around.
WebVise includes some more advanced features (which it should, since
it's $129), including a great dithering engine, a sophisticated JPEG
compression tool, and a hybrid color palette. Of interest to you might
be it's "web adaptive palette," which uses the standard 216 browser safe
palette and then adds 40 image specific colors. This way people at 256
colors don't have to see a lot of dither, and those with higher bit
depths can see a richer image palette.

Hope this helps...

Todd A. Crummy
Webmaster

http://www.nightonthetown.com/
The Guide to Las Vegas Entertainment

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 21:17:14 +0100
From: Pascale Camus-Walter <camwal@cybercable.tm.fr>
Subject: Re: Putting a signature on a site

>Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 19:21:42 -0500
>From: Dana Adams <dana@studiowerks.com>
>Subject: Re: Putting a signature on a site
>

>Why bother? Why must you have a signature? And to show "what???" -

>
>A signature is in reality an anachronism.

I cannot understand how a designer can speak in such a manner from a signature?
Isn't that the first (and sometimes the last) design everybody makes in
his/he life?
It makes a good contrast in a site with typography, logos, photos, and will
ever look different from anything else.
So why not use it simply as an element of design rather than considering
it as a moral problem?

Pascale Camus-Walter / Strasbourg camwal@cybercable.tm.fr
Il est plus facile de rayer l'obscurite que la lumiere. R. Juarroz
+---------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
artKfee: http://www.cybercable.tm.fr/~camwal/
The Waltercolour studio: http://geocities.datacellar.net/SoHo/Gallery/5806/
apastras: http://web.superb.net/apastras
+------------------------------------+----------------------------------+

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 23:11:30 +0200
From: hennerich@superonline.com (Karl Heinz Kluter)
Subject: That great, great site

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

- ------=_NextPart_000_0017_01BD34E6.E3DEE500
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Hi, y'all babblies

had a nice weekend?
Relaxed? Because this link
given by Tari (thanks Tari!)
http://www.projectcool.com/
and from there to theVisual Thesaurus
(the best I've seen so far)

made by http://www.plumbdesign.com/thesaurus/

will make you mouth watering

a heep of mail I can see going towards babble

Sunshine from the Aegean coast of Turkey

Karlheinz Kl=FCter

http://www.jazzpages.com/KarlheinzKlueter

http://www.bodrum-info.org/

"Kunst ist schön, macht aber viel Arbeit." (Karl Valentin)

(Art is nice, but is a hell of a job)

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 15:53:32 -0800
From: Ben Curtis <quixote@wenet.net>
Subject: IE 4.01 Pop-Ups

This may have to do with the problems jEsTeR was having last week.

Yesterday one of the tech-heads at work called me up in a panic, telling me
that my new JavaScript pop-up window code was breaking IE. This was the code
that I checked on all JavaScript enabled browsers (yes, even Opera) for a week
before posting, with positively great results so I was taken aback. Errors?!
*My* code? Never!

Turns out he *just* downloaded the newest version of IE for PC (he sez it's
4.01, but the "about IE" claims it's still IE 4.0), and no matter where we
went (Yahoo, Cnet, a bunch of different scripts at JavaScript archives, and so
on) all the pop-up window JavaScript created an error. "Unrecognized
Implementation" or some such non-sense. This browser just doesn't recognize "window.open()"

So, since a lot of you use the window.open command to create a new window, I
am wondering what sorts of errors you may have encountered, and whether you
have come up with a viable work-around until Microsoft fixes its bug.

~~
__________qp_______________________________________________________

Ben Curtis "A thought
once put to words,
mailto:quixote@wenet.net loses its true essence.
http://www.wenet.net/~quixote But what else can we do?"
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------------------------------

Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 11:36:26 +1000
From: Caleb Fuller <email@calebfuller.com>
Subject: re color mappings in IE

Jonas Tahardi wrote:

>I have a problem trying to matching a photograph (jpg) to the background
>color (#FFCC33).
>The page look perfect in 24 bit and 8 bit both in IE and NS, but at 16 bit,
>it look terrible in IE but normal in NS. I tought both NS and IE use the
>same browser safe color (the color-cube), but apperently @ 16 bit they are
>mapped slightly off.

This seems to be a bug in IE...I have noticed it happens with large blocks of
solid color, particularly in JPEG files, even if the color is one of the
'browser safe' colors. Under the browser preferences, changing view pictures
from 'better' to 'fast' helps as it stops dithering. (warning kids, don't try
this in 256 colors - it looks terrible). I don't think there is much else you
can do as the fault is (yet again) with the browser, and it applies to both IE
3 and IE 4. I don't think the Wintel versions have the same problem - though
I'm sure with the multitude of PC video drivers, it must crop up in some combinations.

Caleb Fuller
analog creations | digital media
email@calebfuller.com
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------------------------------

Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 20:10:15 -0500
From: Gil Kruger <gkruger@cybernex-im.net>
Subject: Optimizing for the Aol Browser

Dear List,
I have developed a site that looks and works fine in IE4, NS3, and
NS4, but there are problems of the appearance of the web site in the Aol
browser. Can anyone provide me with information and links on fine
tuning my web site?

Thanks.

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 17:00:04 -0800
From: "Lawrence Lee" <tomalak@dsoe.com>
Subject: Re: Creating channels

Microsoft Sitebuilder Network will give you everything you need to know
(with links to other resources as well as stories/tutorials) regarding
Active Channels.

http://www.microsoft.com/sitebuilder

Both "push" technologies aren't that difficult to implement after going
through the documents provided by Microsoft/Netscape. It might help to find
someone that's implemented a channel and then get feedback on any problems
they encountered (not covered in the docs).

Later,
Lawrence

- -----Original Message-----
From: Benjamin Sabini <archer@swlink.net>
To: babble@highfive.com <babble@highfive.com>
Date: February 8, 1998 3:46 AM
Subject: Creating channels

>Is there a book regarding learning creating Active Channels or Netcaster ?
>

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 22:39:34 +0000
From: Michael Wade <mbwade@visi.net>
Subject: Java versions of Plug Ins

I think that having a Java version of Flash or one that does streaming
audio would be spectacular, as it would mean so much for the web. I am
only worried about compatibility issues. We all know how horrible it is
between browsers now. Imagine how long something like JAVA plug ins
would take to download.

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 20:19:49 -0800
From: Ben Curtis <quixote@wenet.net>
Subject: Re: Optimizing for the Aol Browser

Gil-

Last month I began working with AOL on the website version of one of their
content areas. Do you want to know what their own design criteria are for
web-browser compatibility?

"All web pages must be entirely viewable on a 800x600 screen, and fully
operational on Netscape 3 and above, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 and
above. Essential funtionality may require JavaScript to be enabled on the
client. Some content may require the Real Media, Flash, or Shockwave plug-ins."

Pretty high standards for a company whose customers are statisticly less
likely to upgrade than the average internet user. Rumor has it that they
would have demanded N3+ and IE4+, but they had to include IE3 because that's
the integrated browser in use for the latest release of PC AOL.

One should keep in mind, however, that my company is deliberately at the
forefront of what AOL produces, and all AOL users are encouraged to go to
keyword: ASYLUM rather than to venture to www.asylum.com Maybe since their
users can access via an alternate method, they aren't thinking about
dumbing-down the website for the AOL browser. But, if AOL designs for IE3,
should you be concerned about designing for the AOL Browser?

~~
__________qp_______________________________________________________

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 19:43:31 +0200
From: Armand Niculescu <armand@starnets.ro>
Subject: CSS compatibility issues

Greetings...

Now I understand why everyone (or at least most of you) stay away
from the Style Sheets. Making something work is damn hard...

Anyway, here are some questions regarding how browsers do (or rather
don't) follow the W3C standards.

1. Does NS4 understand letter-spacing? On IE4 it works...
2. Can NS4 render a fixed background? A trick, maybe?
3. At least, can NS4 clip layers? For animation, that would be nice.

I'm afraid I already know the answers, but still, I have some hopes
for a clever trick.

4. Is IE3's (partial) support for CSS1 good for anything?
Pages that look great on IE4 and NS are so messy in I3 that I quickly
decided to disable styles in it with a script.

See ya,
Armand.

------------------------------

End of babble-digest V1 #190
****************************

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