Boogenstein.com

My USA so far

After following a link on Eric Meyer's site, I found myself at Matt Haughey's blog. He has a small map showing which states he has been to and I thought it a good idea and have done the same. I chose not to include states in which the only time I have spent was at airports as it seems like cheating! I don't think I'm doing to bad for a newly imported Brit! I'll admit that a couple of the states were driven through rather than visited properly. I did, however, have a very good look through the car windows at them! It raises the question of how much time one has to spend in a place to say you've been there? Where does one set the borderline? Maybe I should limit the states to those that I have taken a pee in or maybe eaten a meal. Should drive through joints count?

I have spent time in the blue states.

Style changer

If you are not happy to see the navigation of this page on the right, where I like it, you can change it! Scroll down and choose 'Left Nav' from the short Styles menu. If you want to read without the background image try 'Plain'. When time allows there will be a number of different layouts to choose from but for now the 3 will do. We found that it might happen that upon your initial visit to this page, you might not see any styles at all. To remedy this, just scroll to the bottom and click on one of the style links. I am working to fix this minor irritation.

As usual, Internet Explorer doesn't show the page as intended and I will make no apology for it. IE users are falling behind the rest of us as our browsers are improved on a regular basis. It is going to be a couple of years before a new browser comes from Microsoft and you'll have to buy the operating system to get it! Every day that goes on, more sites are springing up with features that work best on anything but IE. Do yourself a favor, move forward voluntarily rather than being pushed. After a day or two of learning all the options that your new browser brings, you'll be wondering why you never made the move sooner. Tabbed browsing? You might try to tell me that you can get it for IE and you would be quite correct. To do it you have to download and install a new front end for the behemoth that is IE. You'll have to learn that too. Grab a copy of Mozilla or Firebird, even Opera is better, hell the last Navigator will do. You'll not regret it!

As it stands I will continue to design my personal pages to suit myself. If you don't like it, see if I care. Pages for others are always made to work in all browsers, but not these. If it looks funny on a low resolution, increase it for 'tis great here!

Enjoy

Macs

Macintosh computers are a pain in the arse!!!
A Mac G4 has joined our collection and is getting my goat!
We have 3 PCs that all get along just fine on our wireless network, sharing our DSL connection. Robin's and mine are older and not worth upgrading to XP so we chug along merrily using ME. Our machines are both maxed out when it comes to memory and both could do with replacing. Jake has a newer XP powered unit that is a little slow, mostly due to operator errors. Like I said, they all work and have no problems communicating.
In comes Mr G4. To connect to the rest and the internet we need an 'Airport' card that should link in the the network, according to all sources of information. I ordered the card from Apple and now find myself growling as a registered Mac user! 2-3 days for delivery they said and charged me for the pleasure. They sent me a tracking number for use at the Fedex website and I was surprised to find that it was shipped directly from Taiwan. Less surprising was the fact that it took 7 days to get here. At least Apple refunded my shipping charges! It is here! I have followed the instruction for installing it and have been mightily impressed with the way a G4 case opens up for access. It looks very pretty too! And that is where we stand now. A G4 with an Airport card from Taiwan that seems to be unwilling to join in with the rest of the network and become a usefull member of the household. Of course the Mac help files are next to useless due to the fact that PCs don't exist in the high-fallutin' woild of Apple! A search online shows that there are thousands of happy Mac'ers who had no problems setting up these pigs!
I know the solution: Beer and sleep! If it does ever work I'll post some more comments from its horrible black keyboard. TTFN!

Wanton destruction for money

I received this today in an email. Check out these ASSHOLES for more information! Everything below is as it was sent to me (with a little formatting!):

****************

Please read and weep. As it says below, Tuesday will see the destruction of Sun Studios master tapes for memorabilia. There is a contact below for the group that is doing this, and I hope you'll contact them and let them know what you think. Also, FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH MEDIA ACCESS, this is a story worth publicizing.

Folks, this is the real deal. There is a group that controls many of the original Sun Sessions master tapes - the tapes that recorded Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison and others - that is planning to CUT UP THE TAPES AND SELL THEM AS MEMORABILIA.

They plan to start cutting the tapes at a press conference on Tuesday. I don't know if they can be stopped, but at the very least these people should face a public reckoning for their actions. I strongly, strongly urge everyone but especially those with friends or connections in the media, to contact news organizations to get this story told. The people doing this do not want the world to know until it is too late and they can start making money by destroying an important American cultural artifact. If their "press release" was ever released, I do not believe it got very far. The details are attached below.
Several friends and I have attempted to contact major news organizations about this. I have made some inroads but no breakthrough. If you can do anything to bring this story to light, please do it. Time is running out.

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Media Advisory for Tuesday, January 27th

Witness the Official First Cut of the Original Sun Sessions Master Recording Tape of Elvis Presley

Two-Inch Segments from the Original 1954-1955 Studio Recording tape, beginning with "That's All Right," the Song that Propelled Elvis's Career, to be Cut, Certified, Numbered and Mounted on Commemorative Plaques and Sold to the Public.

* * *

Music Industry Artists and Veterans will witness this First Ever Cut of a Certified Elvis Presley Original Master Source Tape Recording

Graceland's Elvis Presley Enterprises to Receive Plaque Number (1)

WHAT:
The official first cut of the original 1954-55 Sun Sessions master recording tape made by Elvis Presley and his band. Master Tape Collection, which unearthed and preserved this initial original source recording of Elvis and his band, will officially cut, certify, number and mount each 2" segment of this Sun Sessions Master Tape. Each segment will comprise an authenticated collectible limited edition plaque licensed by Elvis Presley Enterprises.

The master tape has been authenticated by recording industry experts, and historians Tony Bongiovi and Jim Czak, and is licensed by Graceland's Elvis Presley Enterprises. Those attending the invitation-only news conference in New York will bear witness to the very first cut of this master tape and will hear, first-hand, the off-the-record conversations between Elvis, his band members and engineers from this historic recording.

WHEN:
Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 11:00 a.m.

WHERE:
NOLA RECORDING STUDIOS
111 West 57th Street - 17th Floor Penthouse (between 6th & 7th Aves)

WHO:
Mike Esposito, President, and Master Tape Collection
Tony Bongiovi, Record Producer, Authenticator
Jim Czak, Owner and engineer, Nola Recording Studios
Joe Franklin, radio personality
Cousin Brucie, CBS FM radio personality
Joey Reynolds, radio personality
Pete Davidson and Todd Morgan, Graceland's Elvis Presley Enterprises
Rock musicians and personalities to be named later

Bashing Penguins

Ever wanted to clobber a penguin?
Me too!
Here is a good place to do it.
I have seen this game elsewhere but with this link it is full screen!
My best? 593.5

Keyboard

Having been encouraged by 'Wificus Maximus' I have at long last disconnected my old British keyboard and hooked up an American unit. This will initially make my typing even slower because I can't find the symbol keys so easily. My old keyboard had been through the wars and the markings were barely legible. I do like the fact that I can see the letters now! This keybard is likely to be an interim solution because I do not like the key action on it so as funds become available I'll be looking for something new. Something with programable keys because I do miss the British currency sign! She hates my old mouse as well but that can wait!
Robin, are you happy now?

Mars

This is fascinating. Check out the NASA Mars exploration site. I could spend hours there..............

Software

Yo all, just thought I'd share this with you. Having been playing with this stuff for quite a while and having tried a great deal of different software, I thought it time to mention a couple of faves:

AceFTP - This is the first ftp program that I have been truly happy with. It covers all the bases that bother me and makes it very easy to change permissions on files, unlike some others. When working with scripts, the installation instructions often tell you to chmod a certain file to 755 or whatever. There seem to be 3 methods commonly used to do this. One is a box with check marks in it. Another is just with the numbers themselves . The last uses a series of r's, w's, x's and dashes. AceFTP shows the last method in the normal view but when viewing properties it uses both the others. This means that however the author has written their instructions, I can do it without looking for manuals. For my limited budget it has another bonus, they have a free version which works just great for me! Get it here.

Topstyle Pro - For editing style sheets I have found nothing better. They do a free version but I found the need to upgrade was too strong. Prior to doing this I tried just about every alternative out there. Some were OK, most were pitifull to say the least. When the built in CSS editor in Adobe GoLive 6 does a better job for you it becomes obvious that the software is not up to par. The new version from Adobe might well be as good as they think and I'm sure that the new Dreamweaver is good as well. The trouble is that neither of these new programs will run on my old computer and even if they did, who would buy them for me? The only answer for me was to go with Topstyle and, having mastered its quirks, I'm pleased that I did. If you want to play, try the 'lite' version for free. If you are serious about CSS and can't afford to work with the big names, Topstyle Pro will soon become an old friend. Get it here.

Total Commander - For zipping and unzipping files and just doing other fun stuff with files and folders I find this program hard to beat. Annoying wizards? None! Gay GUI? Nope! Effectiveness and practicality? In abundance! Unzip multiple files with ease at the same time. It also deals with those strange compressed files that one encounters from time to time. It also does encription and FTP to mention just 2 of the many features. Windows Explorer? Once you get used to this you'll never need it again! Get it here.

Accidental Hacker!

A funny thing happened today while I was working on a clients site. I have just started using a new ftp program and when I added the login detail for the site in question, I mistakenly forgot to add the full path provided to access the site. When I connected to the server, imagine my surprise when I was faced with a complete list of all the websites hosted with the company! Not only that, I could go in and add/edit any of the other customers pages! Most of the sites are personal, some of them for businesses including at least 1 bank! I saw enough to realise what was possible and who it could be done to. Not wanting to hack the server in the first place I logged out and reset the details on the ftp program. I logged back in and found myself where I wanted to be but upon clicking the button that takes me up a directory I was able to go right back to the complete set of site folders!
What is your opinion? Should I keep quiet and pretend that I never found this out? Should I contact the hosting company and get them to fix things? Should I go to the press and spill the beans, effectively closing this company down for good? Should I have a little play with other peoples sites?
The last question is easy to answer as I have no intention of spending time in a cell, having a record etc. What about the others though? Let me know your thoughts.............

Photos

The major change that is underway is that all the photos on this site are being gathered up and presented in the form of galleries using a PHP script. The reason for this is that I have so many photos to display here but up to now each addition has meant creating a new page and small version of the photo. This takes considerable time to do. The script in question does all this for me and even handles the uploading of the images. For the present, my main aim is to get all the photos online with a whole heap of new additions. Once this is done I will work on the layout of the galleries.
You can add comments and even vote for your favorite snaps! If your clicking finger is tired you can even view a slideshow of the gallery you happen to be in. It is even possible to send e-cards using the entire collection, though why anyone would want to do this is beyond me!
Check out the progress here!
Oh, and before I forget, If you have a photo that you believe should be a part of this collection, please email it to me.
There are almost 300 more photos on this site using this gallery than there were just a few days ago

The script in question is called Coppermine. It is an opensource PHP script that uses MySQL for its backend. It has a couple of easily over-ridden limitations but these are being dealt with by the development team as I type.
Prior to trying this script, I downloaded and installed a couple of others of the same genre. They were all capable but lacked usability and the ease of installation was not impressive either. Coppermine was a doddle! Configuration is a breeze and adding photos takes no time at all. The code it generates is not Standards-Compliant but this is all down to the templates. I am starting to look at the existing templates and am planning my attack on them! If your server has all the (very basic and common) requirements, I can thoroughly recommend this script. It turns your site into a more dynamic and varied environment.
To the team at SourceForge.net - You guys ROCK!

Changes

I am amking some fairly drastic changes to some parts of this site. During this process you might find links that point to non-existent pages. Rather than update the pages that I have in mind, one at a time, I am doing the whole lot in a radical change of the underlying structure. I am sorry if this causes any problems but if you don't like it - Tough Luck! The changes will streamline things and result in easier navigation and more pleasing look (To my wacked out eyes at least!).
Stay Tuned

You might also have noticed a slight change to the menu on the right. As part of our business, we have decided to seperate our personal sites from the more serious shit. To this end tiedyedragonfly.com has become the main business site. Donkeysandwich.com has been added to the mix and will be used for testing and development purposes. We also plan to use it for stuff that has no suitable home. In effect, donkeysandwich.com will be both a lab and a scrapyard! Robin's personal site has been reconfigured and given a new home at robinsoup.com.
This concludes the serious stuff!

Did you hear that Michael Jackson has lost his contract with Pepsi?
Apparently he was caught sucking on a Squirt!