Thursday, September 29, 2005

Launch of Comments Blog

I've just sent an email. It went like this:

To: samdavyson.comments@blogger.com
Subject: Launch of Comments Blog
Message: This is a new blog, with a new publishing method. You email in the
posts. Simply send your comments to samdavyson.comments@blogger.com.
That is how I posted this post!You should know that the subject of your email will become the post title and the body of the message becomes the body of the post. Also
note that comments are immediately published.

It was automatically posted and published to the new Comments Blog where you can now see it.

Anyone can post, just whip and email to samdavyson.comments@blogger.com.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Statistics Page

I have just created a Statistics Page. The page opens up my statistics to visitors to the site buy providing some login details for StatCounter.com. It is a special account though, you can view the stats but change nothing. Site statistics another page that falls nicely into the "Site" (aka. Grey) division of the site.

Interestingly I have not yet made the main site page, but I'll do this when I have finalised the content for it. At the moment it looks as if it will include everything that is not yet properly filed, including this, this, this and maybe even these.

It would also be good to get Magic Maths linked in somewhere. If this goes through it will cause knock on effects in the Web Directory which currently houses my other sites.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Aluminium in More Dimensions

On my blog I recently wrote about changes to the redirect system that is the basis for my Aluminium Site. Today I have implemented another few changes.

I have built a further version of the website, this time for the ever-popular (or not) 1280 by 1024 resolution. I have then created duplicates for each of the sub pages so that for instance 1280uses.html takes you to the 1280 by 1024 resolution page with the Uses page loaded in the frame. This follows the format used with (for example) 1024uses.html and 86uses.html. Having these pages is important to be able to redirect users to a specific page and a specific resolution at the same time, this is often used when a user has found the site through a search engine (when often the pages inside the frames are directly linked to).

To finish it off I have updated all of the redirect scripts used on the site to incorporate this new dimension. Thinking for the future I have already added a clause to the scripts to allow for even bigger resolutions. Although I have no computer on which to create a version for the site, users with mammoth (bigger than 1280 by 1024) are taken to a page which warns that the page that follows may look a little small & weird. They then proceed to the new 1280 by 1024 version.

Thanks to StatCounter (my post & update) which helped me spot the growing screen size.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Nick & Steve Pages

Two new pages have launched today (one, two). They join the list of items that don't fit into any of the colour catergories so they are filed in the grey "Site" section with now higher folder other than themselves.

This is a growing problem, but I think I am going to sick with it. I will maybe add a list of these extra tid-bits to the Archive Page in a grey "Site Styled" box.

Anyway, the pages are about Nick Margerrison & his producer, Steve Strange.

They both use the brand new all-style sheet.

// Update: Looking for Nick's New Blog? - It's here.

New Feedback via PHP

I have made a secondary feedback page that is independent of a remotely hosted service. This page is identical is every respect to the original except it uses a PHP script hosted on this server (here) to send the information on the form to my inbox.

It is mighty clever, and it was created with a little help from Forms To Go.

At the moment I not implementing this as the main feedback form just yet (as I have a few little bits to sort out first) and the original one is still up, but if you want to try the new one it is at 153rd.com/sam/feedback/test.

Friday, September 23, 2005

AS Chemistry Cards Addition

There are two new cards in the Module 2 AS Chemistry Revision Cards section. Once again they are old cards converted to the new text format.

View the cards themselves here and here.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

AS Chemistry Flow Chart

I have updated the preview on the chemistry flow chart as well. I had previously had an automatically resizing image pwered by a JavaScript that I'd written. It was not 100% effective and often the image ended up blurred.

This time I have scalled the images and now I present both Colour and Black and white previews side by side rather than having a JavaScript code to switch them.

AS Maths Summary Sheet Preview

I have modified the summary sheet page to include a small preview of each of the available sheets. Using the same box on all of the sheets I think the overall effect is fairly nice.

I have cased them in a "whitebox" class like I used for the C4 Integrals and have used a table to keep the images for the B&W and Colour versions seperate.


Finally I used an outset attribute for the border to give it the feel of a screenshot.

AS Chemistry Cards Format

Recently I published loads of revision cards to cover some of AS Chemistry. They were made up of images that were scanned in and then uploaded to the web. The overall interface wasn't great.

Today I start a new programme in which the text of cards is uploaded and positioned in much the same layout (using extensive CSS) as on the original cards.

These look much better than the other cards and although so far I have only done three I am very pleased. Take a look and see what you think.

A2 Physics Notes

Just added a whole new programme of Physics notes to the A2 Section of the website. This is the first item in the A2 area.

I am creating the notes when I finish each chapter in the course. At the moment there is currently one chapter available and I am supporting two formats: Word and PDF. The layout of the notes is mainly plain text with some diagrams drawn in Word and some equations from
MathType (my post). The notes for the first chapter done cover 3 pages.

The first five should be done by Christmas and the rest by the Summer inline with my exams timetable

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Launch of Site Update

This is a record of all the changes and updates to the site. When something is added or changed it will happen here first.

The creation of this blog is partly to prevent my other blog getting covered with posts about my own site.

Links in this blog will be coloured using content from my All Style stylesheet in accordance with the area to which they correspond. The colours of the titles of the post have also been matched up.