What is this ?
Well, it's a bit of a building site at present.
(Date started 17Oct99.)
Where you see this little digger, it means that there is heavy site construction going on and you won't find much there - but you can always look if you want to.
Actually, any engineers amongst you will realise that the digger needs some redesign itself.
But the digger is needed to dig up a spade, which will indicate that only light construction is going on !!
In its present primitive state, you will have stumbled upon this by accident. You will probably find it very boring. However, if you wish to comment on anything, or help, please email me. Also I have put in a counter just to see how many accidental/stumbling visits have been made.
For reasons that will become obvious, e.g. to make some information available to those in countries where computer facilities may be limited, I shall try to design a large part of this web site so that memory needs can be a minimum. One way is to limit the length of pages. Another way is to try to limit the memory needed by images.
Maybe there are those reading this who know far more about this than I do. But - at the time of writing 30Nov99 - I shall be looking at the relative merits of GIFs and JPEGs in regard to memory required, and for different types of graphic. For example, whether or not different compression techniques vary in their effect between images that start their life as paintings or colour photographs, say, and those that start life as line drawings, such as my little digger.
Another thing that has annoyed me with some sites is the way you are reading one page, you click to another via a link for more detail, say, but when you return to original you do not return to where you left it. I know it will take a bit more effort but, in many cases, I shall try to provide the return link. Well, NO ! Come to think of it you can't. You may arrive at a particular destination by clicking on any no. of links. The only way of knowing where to go back to where you left from would be to have a nifty little bit of code that records the last link clicked on. Perhaps, also, it could be useful to record several links before that as well.
Note world is delicate, basically a physical system, only scientists and engineers can create systems to help "protect" it. The job of Lawyers, Accountants and Politicians and Businessmen should be to help responsible scientists and engineers in this regard. Am I speaking as an idealist ? Yes, I am - unashamedly.
Site History.
Acknowledgments.
In its present primitive state, you will have stumbled upon this by accident. You will probably find it very boring. However, if you wish to comment on anything, or help, please email me. Hmmm ! I'm not sure that the email link is working yet. Also I have put in a counter just to see how many accidental/stumbling visits have been made.
In the for Sale section there will be such diverse items as surplus Acorn User CD's and Cover Discs and Welsh Lamb.
And matters of Sustainablity of our fragile planet that inevitably raises issues to do with both Politics and Religion.
The following notes are for my own purposes as prompts as much as anything. But if you have comments, well, go ahead. But please try to be constructive !
Co-operation/Networking - Programs I find hard, difference between HTML, StrongEd, !Zap
some areas where I may be able to help - mathematics, converting practical engineering type problems into BASIC programs. Informal advice on Patenting, Patent Specifications and writing them.
(Aim to make this site available to people with limited computer facilities. e.g. click if you want only line drawings - that should take up less memory - or if you desire no graphics at all until you have seen the gist of the article etc. This is mentioned in John Alldred's Fresco: Introduction to Web-Authoring - intro/html )
(Special messages, for people who need up-to-date information relevant to this site. For example, updating the price of lamb.)
( Several sorts of co-operation including networking and co-operative computer programming and research. Some people reading this may want to use someone else's website as a starter for their own. I am certainly open to ideas, assuming it does not result in something against the rules.)
I have been very fortunate to have lived in close touch with the countryside all my life. It was a privilege to take part in hay-making and harvesting with horses. I love horses.
But there is more on my life and Family on this link.
The following is meant to be a counter !! What I haven't discovered yet is whether or not it is reset to zero whenever its web page is uploaded having been, say, updated.
For constructive comment or criticism, or just because you want to, please email me at johnolan@argonet.co.uk.
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