webgyrl

Timur! That is great news Best of luck with it. I'm trying to break into the Indie film scene myself (as an actress/vocal talent). It's a lot of work! It is so wonderful that people like you make such great films and have avenues to promote them and bring them to a wider audience. Let's hope this opportunity opens a lot of doors for ya! Peace, Natalie

I have been trying to download that compression program, but each of the mirror sites I have tried to access just freezs up my browser. Anyone know of a reliable download site for this program? Thanks, Nat

Nat, LINUX is an operating system. Red Hat is just one version of Linux. Apache is a web server program that runs on Linux and other operating systems. Jus trying to help. Bruce, Thanks for schooling me! I really appreciate that you take time to explain stuff like that because it really is helpful to know. Nat

Snipe, I promise mums the word to your publisher! Thanks for all those awesome links! Nat

Thanks for the suggestion Gonna check it out.

I don't even have a clue how I got in DMOZ- there's 3 listings for me! How did that happen? Nat

I've been perusing the links above. Question: How would one set up a site like the http://www.phpfreaks.com site? They seem to have a login process where you give your username and they autogenerate a password. This is a database driven site. How would one set up something like this? I know... it's probably a HUGE question. Sorry Nat

When did Amember's free program go to a 30 day trial? That is bad news Is there any other way to do a members only forum that allows users to create their own user name and password that doesn't require the purchase of a program/script? Nat

Marcel, I am not sure how you can do what it is you want to do. It seems like you would need some kind of script to perfom the function. I tried to do it to one of the picture on my hard drive, but the image would not show for some reason. You have a very nice site BTW. Where did you get the JavaScript code for your navigation system? I'd love to find out and use it in the futrue. It's excellent. Hope you find a solution to your issue. Natalie

Rob, Thanks for clearing that up. I knew the servers were LINUX, but wasn't sure if Red Hat was the same as Apache. I'm kinda unschooled as far as all that goes. Oh dear, I have SO much to learn! LOL Merci, Nat

Gabe, Just wondeirng about that program you used. It says it's for Apache servers... does that mean it only works for those servers or could I use it in general to help the d/l time for the sites I design and maintain? I have got to trim a lot of fat it seems- my analysis shows slow d/l times for 56k and under. Nat

Kasey, Thanks for the clarification on where the CSS coding can go. I am actually in the midst of learning CSS and have a few books. Just taking it one bite at a time for now! I haven't heard of SLAC. You are right about Los Altos being mucho $$$$! In fact the whole Bay became waaaaay to expensive after a few years of being there. My apartment in San Jose went from 1300-2200 per month in only 18 months. I lived all over- Cupertino, San Jose, Fremont, San Rafael and then finally in Rohnert Park in Sonoma. I left in 2001 because I was doing more concerts on the East Coast and it just became silly to have an apt. in CA and keep commuting to the East. So- here I am in the cold by the Atlantic. Gotta be where I gotta be for now tho. I do hope to go back to the Bay some day. It would be fun to have coffee and chat about how much TCH rawks! And it's so funny you mentione the daffodils off Page Mill.... i nearly got myself killed there picking some of them. Ha Ha! I am such a silly! I learned my lesson about picking wildflowers off freeway exits! It sure is pretty over there. Thanks for the help! Nat

Gabe, I am on a terribly slow dial-up connection and it loaed with lightning speed! YAY I was reading stats the other day and over 80% of the worlds internet users are on 56K or below connections. Only 16% use DSL/Cable or better. Those are worldwide numbers. It blew my mind and made me think a lot about my future designs! Thanks for the link to that program. Nat

Blackcat, The online services that I have used in the past proved to be very problematic. The translations from one language to another usually are quite non-sensical. If you just want people to get the 'gist' of what your site content is, then the online translation method may work, but if there is some material there that is important, it may be best to actually have the content translated by a professional translator and then put up a seperate English version. The thing with transation is that a lot of the time people use slang or ways of phrasing that make total sense in your native language, but when translated to another language they can mean something totally different. For example... here is what I just typed above translated from English into several other languages using AltaVista's Babelfish translator ( babelfish.altavista.com/ ) English To Spanish: Los servicios en línea que he utilizado en el pasado demostraron ser muy problemáticos. Las traducciones a partir de una lengua a otra son generalmente absolutamente absurdas. Si usted apenas quisiera la gente consiguiera el ' gist ' de cuál es su contenido del sitio, entonces el método en línea de la traducción puede trabajar, pero si hay un poco de material allí que es importante, puede ser el mejor hacer que el contenido sea traducido por un traductor profesional y después poner realmente para arriba una versión del inglés del seperate. La cosa con el transation es que los muchos de la gente del tiempo utilizan argot o las maneras de expresar esas tienen sentido total en su lengua materna, pero cuando están traducidas a otra lengua que pueden significar algo totalmente diferente. The Spanish version back to English: The services in line that I have used in the past demonstrated to be very problematic. The translations from a language to another one are generally absolutely absurd. If you as soon as you loved the people it obtained ' gist ' of which is his content of site, then method in line of translation can to work, but if there is a little material who are important, can there be the best one to cause than the content is translated by a professional translator and later to put really for above a version of the English of seperate. The thing with transation is that many of the people of the time use jargon or the ways to express those have total sense in their maternal language, but when they are translated to another language that can mean something totally different. As you can see, the discrepancies can change the meaning somewhat... and this one wasn't bad at all. Check out this example (I took some Spanish language text from Yahoo Mexicco) Original Spanish: Seis detenidos por envío aéreo de 120 kilos de cocaína a México Bogotá, 3 abr (EFE).- La policía colombiana capturó hoy en el aeropuerto de Bogotá a seis hombres que gestionaban el envío a México de 120 kilos de cocaína escondidos en varios equipos de soldadura, informaron los responsables antidrogas de la terminal Babelfish Translation to English: Six stopped by aerial shipment of 120 kilos from cocaine to Mexico Bogota, 3 abr (EFE). - The Colombian police captured today in the airport from Bogota six men who managed the shipment to Mexico of 120 kilos of cocaine hidden in several equipment of weld, informed the antidrug people in charge into the terminal Another... Original Japanese Text: 中国人不法入国、日本語学校経営者は「蛇頭」の大物 　東京・新宿の日本語学校「新東京語学院」を舞台に、８０００人もの中国人が不法入国していた事件。手引き役で、同学院を実質的に経営する吉田勝則被告（５６）は、警察が５年近く前からマークしていた在日「蛇頭」の大物だった。（読売新聞） Japanese translated to English via Babelfish: The Chinese illegal entry, as for the Japanese school proprietor great Tokyo & Shinjuku of the "snake head" Japanese school "new Tokyo language study institute" in the stage, the incident where 8000 human thing Chinese have entered illegally. With guidance part, Masaru rule Defendant Yoshida who manages the same institute substantially (56), it was the great man of the resident "snake head" which the police has marked from nearly 5 years ago. (The Yomiuri Shimbun Company) So, as you can see, meanings of things can be greatly misconstrued using these generic translators. Your best bet is to get someone to do an old fashined translation if the content of your blog is very important to you and you want others to understand it properly. Good luck, Nat

Just wondering how a TCH Customer would go about getting a password to enter this forum. Thanks, Nat

Thanks Bruce! Nat

Kasey, Just a quick question regarding this: Do I have to put this CSS style in a seperate style sheet from my sitewide text stylesheet or can it all go into the one main CSS style sheet? I have just started using CSS and have it on only one of my sites, but it really only styles the text. I created the sheet in Dreamweaver MX. I didn't see that Dreamweaver had any styling 'wizards' for other elements, but I just got DW MX and am still learning it. I guess I would have to hand write the CSS for any form elements? Is that correct, or is there a program that would help me do that better? Thanks for that very helpful info you posted Nat PS: Are you in Los Altos? I used to live in the Bay Area- even took some classes at Foothill College in 1998. I miss the Bay SO much!

Cool! Thanks Don!

Thanks for those links Jim!

Ahhhh! I just found SAMS CSS book... will look into the PHP one. SAMS seems to have an excellent series. Thanks for the suggestion! Nat

HC! You are right... I ask rather multi-part questions that never seem to suffice a simple yes or no! I have SO many questions! I appreciate your very detailed and thoughtful answers to my queries! I have learned a lot by gleaning the info from your postings here on the forums and I am glad you are around to share your insight and knowledge! Thanks Thanks for clarifying that CGI is strictly an interface.... Perl is the coding language... I wasn't 100% sure what the CGI part was, though I knew it stood for Common Gateway Interface. I was a tad confused... especially considering when PHP is mentioned it is not mentioned in conjunction with CGI. Does CGI still factor in when working with PHP coding? Is the code just a matter of personal preference? From what I have read, the PHP advantage is that it is server-side code and more browsers can interpret it. Please correct me if I am wrong in my assumption. I went to my local bookstore yesterday and found a few books. One was on Perl/CGI and PHP... it seemed to list a lot of coding excersizes, but didn't get too much into explaining WHEN to use either code or the advantages of one over the other. I am still perusing the books to see which ones are worthy of a purchase. As far as SQL goes... I have never used a database in my web designs. I really want to learn how to do this in case I am ever asked to desing a site that requires a database. I have just stepped up my web design and started my own little side-business. I come from a more Graphic Design/Visual background and am not a hard core coder/programmer. I am terribly unversed in how code works and what it all means, but I am very interested in the science behind the codes I currently plop into my designs. The whole database world and interactivity on the web interests me very much. I think a practice project is something I need to do to learn. Like you, I learn best by doing. I will PM you and take you up on your offer to help. I am not even sure where to start with building a database and being able to use it via a web interface. I feel that it is something I must learn, and I am a sponge for information and practice. Thanks for your great summation and for offering your wisdom to me. I appreciate it. Thanks, Nat

Hey gang! Thanks for all the great suggestions, links and snippets of code. What happens to a CSS designed forms when someone is using a browser that does not fully support CSS? Does the design default to the older standard colors and formatting or does the form become unstable in any way? Bruce, sorry for posting this in the wrong place. I wasn't sure where to put it... also the PHP thread. Thanks so much for moving the topics. Now I know where those kinds of things belong! You guys are all so helpful and I really appreciate your input! Nat

I've always wondered how people customize their forms to integrate them into the design of thier sites. For examples of what I am talking about check out these sites: www.popyoularity.com/variables/newsection.shtml www.starshrine.com/ If I find more examples, I'll post thm. Basically, how do you create other kinds of buttons used to submit forms and unify the color scheme of a form or use dotted lines instead of solid ones. Thanks, Nat

So, I've been doing some further research into CGI and PHP scripting, trying to make sense of it all! Big task! The thing that got me into doing deeper research was the whole issue of databases, specifically SQL. It seems that PHP and SQL are mentioned frequently together and that writing scripts to call actions from the database in PHP is what the trend is. Now, I am totally new to a lot of this harder-core scriptng, programing and database stuff. I am trying to do a lot of reading up on the matter... but I figure it is always best to go to those who have had 'real world' experience in the matter. For those here who do script writing, what makes you choose to write one over the other as it pertains to CGI/Perl or PHP? Is it a security issue that prods you to use one over the other or an end user issue? And for those who have databases set up here using mySQL- how does that work and do you know of any tutorials that would help me learn how to set up a database. I'm interested in simple database type things and when you would use an SQL database and how you would link it to web interactivity. For isnstance, a lot of message boards seem to run off databases... they store info and generate passwords and the user can select a user name etc. On the 'back end', how does this work. Sorry if this is a question with too huge a scope. I'm open to book suggestions that cover these topics... so if you know of any good ones... holla! Thanks, Nat

Jim, Thanks for that info. Is there a Spam Assasin tutorial of any sort? Thanks, Nat