Pages to visit

This is a collection of references, picked up from many sources, which look worth a visit. The comments are generally copied directly, without any guarantee that they are correct; "I" does not usually refer to me in these notes. I have visited some of the sites but most are recorded here for future reference.


Index


HTML tips and tricks

Reference works

Maybe a mite expensive, but Ian S Graham's HTML Sourcebook, Second Edition gives a complete guide to HTML 3.0 and explains how to write HTML in a well thought out way. ISBN 0-471-14242-5 Published by Wiley Computer Publishing Take a look at http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/

Teach Yourself html Publishing on the World Wide Web ISBN 0-340-67035-5 at UKP 6.99 is cheap, well-indexed, well-illustrated and written in jargon that is easily understood.

I found Creating Webpages for Dummies was a good way to get started.

http://www.futuris.net/nickp/tags/forms/ will tell you everything you need to know about forms and their use.

Paul Messick has a book coming out (Maximum MIDI: Music Applications in C++, pub'd by Manning). The exact release date hasn't been selected yet, but expect it in stores mid-1997.

Beginners guide to HTML http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Field/5675/index.html

http://www.corbin.demon.co.uk a page of HTML hints and tips.

You could probably do with the QUE Book 'Creating your own Web Graphics with Paint Shop Pro' by Andy Shafran ISBN 0-7897-0912-0 which you can ship in direct from the USA at http://www.Amazon.com for US $44.44 delivered (c.f. UK cover price of GBP 32.99). Or buy it in PC World.

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Real Audio

Software to take advantage of LiveAudio can be Downloaded from: http://www.realaudio.com/hpproducts/encoder.html. Encoding files http://www.demon.net/www/realaudio/encoder.html. RealAudio FAQ's and Help http://www.realaudio.com/help/FAQ/

Information on Real Audio can be found at http://www.demon.net/www/realaudio/

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Counters

<img src="http://www.taunton.demon.co.uk/cgi-bin/count?dd=A" alt="COUNT">
<img src="/cgi-bin/count?dd=B&ft=1" alt="counter">
Visit Davie' Demonic Counter Digit Display at URL http://www.zzapps.demon.co.uk/DemonicCounters/ for more details and a list of styles available.

Only one counter is available per user. For example if you have a counter on each of your web pages (index.htm(l) and linked pages, then all pages will show the same number <IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/count?&dd=A&ft=1&frgb=000" ALT="Page Counter">
This is a general counter for any WWW page. The breakdown of this file is as follows:

SRC="/cgi-bin/count?
chooses the CGI script
&dd=A
This is the style of the counter. Where 'A' is written this can be replaced by anything from A-Q. Trying different ones gives different results.
&ft=1
This is the frame thickness of the counter. The larger the number the larger the frame will be. Again this needs to be experimented with.
&frgb
This denotes the colours used. In this case Red, Green and Blue are set to zero.
ALT="Page Counter"
Simply gives a text message whilst the images are loaded, this is good practice.

Try this to get a hidden counter. <img src="/cgi-bin/count?sh=F" alt="COUNT">

How can I see how many hits I've had but not increment the counter? To do this access your page like so: http://www.<nodename>.demon.co.uk/count.txt

Found one great new webcounter with more then 70 styles at http://www.netpromote.de/countus

Counter: insert this code between the <BODY> and </BODY> markers on your page. This page has registered <img src="/cgi-bin/count?dd=B" alt="(turn on images to see the counter)"> hits.

To see how many hits but not increment the counter, access page like so: http://www.<nodename>.demon.co.uk/count.txt

Multiple counters via JavaScript at http://www.czmedia.demon.co.uk. It comes with instructions and is free.

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Guest Book

http://www.smsltd.demon.co.uk/links.htm

http://www.centrum.net Domain name lookup failed.

Guest book: http://www.lpage.com offers unlimited use

Try the Java applet logger.class from :- http://www.czmedia.demon.co.uk/logger.html Instructions and the applet sendhit.class are available from http://www.whtworth.demon.co.uk/sendhit.html For details on Javascript check out http://worf.ubalt.edu/~abento/797/javascript/javascript.html

For GSM, PGP and Real Audio info and direct downloads visit my Web site. http://www.lorry.demon.co.uk (I will know if you visit as my Java logger will tell me.)

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Images

Transparent Gifs http://www.davent.demon.co.uk/transpar.html

Converting wmf to gif: VuePrint by Hanrick http://www.hamrick.com/

An ever-growing collection of 100x100 256 colour tessellating background tiles for web pages. http://www.skoardy.demon.co.uk/bsoup/index.htm

http://www.skoardy.demon.co.uk/bsoup/

JPG is generally better for photos an things with smooth colour gradients (Better than GIF, FIF and COD are better than JPG) GIFs are better for flat colours (logs cartoons etc), if they have an appropriatte pallette. See: http://www.demon.net/www/faq/webgraphics.html The general rule of thumb is to use the JPEG format for photo- graphic images, and GIF for line art, cartoons, icons, etc.

Image maps: a fully featured HTML editor like Hotdog pro, can create image maps etc. Grab a copy at http://www.sausage.com

Slides to CD - The images will be Kodaks PCD format. Each image will be stored using five different resolutions. You will have to convert them to JPG yourself. You can have an entire film put on CD at the time of processing for about 25p each, or individual images at about 40p each afterwards. I have used Supersnaps for this. Prices? I'm currently getting charged 45p and 65p respectively. Jessops Photocentres will transfer your pics onto cd using jpg or some other format if you wish. They find that the Kodak format takes up more space than you need.

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META tags and search engines

http://www.direbeats.demon.co.uk (URL no longer valid) eg of META tags to give some keywords for the search engines. It also pays to have some meaningful body text that has key words embedded in it.

http://www.digital-cafe.com/~webmaster/set_old.html If I have got the right URL this describes some experiments in gaining higher visibility on the various search engines. Its useful, and readable stuff.

You can stop robots from visiting your web pages by including a robots.txt file in the root directory. This is especially useful if you include listings or mirrored technical data. See http://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/robots.html

Visit site http://www.submit-it.com. Once you fill in the necessary information they will register you with several search engines.

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PGP encryption

Look at my Homepage http://www.lorry.demon.co.uk for a down to Earth explanation of PGP.

PGP isn't just for encryption, it's for digitally signing things too (see http://www.ifi.uio.no/~staalesc/PGP/ for explanations and pointers to many utilities)

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Frames

Bearing in mind some browsers do not support frames, is it perhaps best to avoid using them so that more people can see the site? You can overcome this problem by designing two sets of pages. One set for frames and the other without. You then include the < NOFRAMES > element within the < FRAMESET > tags like this:
< FRAMESET ...>
< FRAME ...>
< NOFRAMES>
Sorry, your browser does not support frames, please <A HREF="indexnf.html">click here</A> to go to our non-frames section.
< /NOFRAMES>
< /FRAMESET>

A "how to do frames in HTML" guide: Rich Rutter's "Sizzling HTML Jalfrezi" at http://www.woodhill.co.uk/html/html.htm or... there's some excellent tutorials on frames, tables etc. at http://junior.apk.net/~jbarta/

The books HTML for Dummies and HTML by example both tell you how to do frames.

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Tables

Tables in tables http://www.charkim.demon.co.uk/hamsters.html

To put an image on one side of the screen and a block of text of similar dimensions alongside it: use a table with 1 row and two columns. Look at: http://www.bradleycvs.demon.co.uk/

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Access control and Security

Sausage Software's new program LockOut, try before you buy at: http://www.sausage.com.au/lockout.htm

First Virtual for buying, without problems so far: http://www.fv.com (link no longer valid).

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MIDI files

HTML command for using a midifile in a homepage http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/1553 http://www.liveupdate.com

MIDI files on web page: Put this in your html file. < P>< CENTER>< P>< EMBED src="whatever.mid" height=15 width=51 autostart=TRUE loop=TRUE volume=55 controls=smallconsole>< /EMBED> < bgsound src="whatever.mid" loop=true>< /p>

http://www.woodhill.co.uk/html/html.htm seems to be very simple to use and has few examples to try out (play MIDI needs autostart="true").

< EMBED SRC="file.mid" HIDDEN=TRUE NAME="Sound1" MASTERSOUND> Check out http://www.astilla.demon.co.uk for a demo

Just type < BGSOUND SRC="file.mid"> and it works but BGSOUND is Microsoft only, use EMBED for both Netscape and IE.

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Styles

The definitive guide to web stylesheets http://www.stevewri.demon.co.uk/ Domain name lookup failed.

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Scrolling

Scrolling text into your status bar, http://www.atay.demon.co.uk(link no longer valid)

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HTML editing

I manage 150+ pages of the soc.culture.scottish FAQ with Q-HTML at http://www.scot.demon.co.uk/q-html.html At only 29K it'll only take a few seconds to download for evaluation.

Many of the answers you may seek appear at: http://www.demon.net/www/homepages

There is also an FAQ produced by Chris Wood http://www.ccgadv.demon.co.uk/faq.htm (or maybe http://www.ccgadv.demon.co.uk/dhafaq.htm) and posted (approximately) weekly to demon.homepages.authoring.

demon homepages with ratings http://www.brains.demon.co.uk (link no longer valid)

Parallel Dimensions? http://www.parallel.demon.co.uk

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Forms

For email responses some authors might use a line like < a href="mailto:newbie@aycliffe.demon.co.uk">Dive talk< /a>
< A HREF="mailto:jerry@aycliffe.demon.co.uk">Mail me!< /A>

Handling forms and posting the results of a form to a mail address is a piece of cake when using Demon's Homepages. using: FORM ACTION="/cgi-bin/mailform" METHOD="get" This accepts ANYTHING that a form throws at it. It never fails. It is EASY to use.

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Uploading pages

http://www.aerosoft.com.au/netload auto upload facility. NB the remote directory is the full demon path ie for me it is /u/demon.co.uk/m/a/d/madhippy

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Software

Operating systems

http://www.ftech.net/~horizon/richard/harold.hts has lots of bootable operating systems.

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Winsocks

The winsock (Windows Sockets) handles communication between your computer and others. Have a look at the alt.winsock FAQ for more: http://www.well.com/user/nac/alt-winsock-faq.html

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Turnpike

Turnpike 3.03 will be available Real Soon Now. An "ANNOUNCE" message will be posted to the Turnpike newsgroup when it is available, and you can check http://www.turnpike.com/whatsnew/ at any time. ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/mirrors/turnpike

Colt Romp delay problem with NT went away when I turned the software compression option off.

Turnpike allows use of the same news, mail and address book files on W95 and NT4. Load Turnpike onto each drive. Point one of them at the database on the shared drive, at the Turnpike log-in screen. Press the 'Paths' button and point the top box at the appropriate drive. It should automatically update the other 2 for you. This arrangement even worked fine with different versions (3.0x) on the two OS's.

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Mailing lists

I run the brass band mailing list using Smoflist software. E-mail tim@smof.demon.co.uk

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E-mail

You may be able to find an address in http://www.whowhere.com/ Enter the name of the person you want and if you are lucky the email address will be on the database.

Killing email: If you are using Win95, you could try Mike Mann's ScanMail, which works well in conjunction with Turnpike: http://www.kempston.demon.co.uk/scanmail/ (freeware).

Rapid fire FTP client (only sends a file if it changes) http://www.sausage.com/gatling.htm

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Windows 95

There is a really good faq on the demon ftp site under win95 area, covers eg conversion of dial up to 32 bit.

A good website with a wealth of information on speeding up and improving W95 can be found at; http://www.creativelement.com/win95ann/index.html

Three good sites to visit http://www.windows95.com well laid out ideal for adding utils/themes etc to w95. http://www.filez.com (link no longer valid) excellent site for tracing an individual file name eg cybercom.drv gave me the address of the ftp sites for this file. http://www.nucleus.com/~kmcmurdo/logos/ nice bootup/shutdown screens for win95 (some animated)

Machine automation tools on (auto update of pages) http://www.windows95.com/apps/auto.html most of them are either freeware or shareware.

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Windows NT

NT4.0 Service Pack 3 is out at the following address (18MB!). ftp://198.105.232.37/fixes/usa/nt40/ussp3/

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Browsers

Reading the browser cache: http://www.evolve.co.uk/unmozify a program called unmozify will search through cache files easily. Please remember to register (it's cheap). also a small free utility on http://www.tima.demon.co.uk/freeware/qbr1.htm (named qbr1.exe)

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Image manipulation

Free download of Paintshop Pro http://www.idiscover.co.uk

Paint Shop Pro V4.1 (Win95 only) http://www.jasc.com/

Creating graphics Paint Shop Pro is an excellent application and is available as shareware. You can get it at http://www.windows95.com or http://www.tucows.com or latest version direct from Paint Shop Pro's own site: http://www.jasc.com. Checkout http://www.babylon-6.demon.co.uk/

GIF Construction Set at http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/alchemy.html. It is shareware also look at the (free) MS offering at: http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/gifanimator.htm

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Security

A security flaw has been found in the Windows 95 / Windows NT 4.0 version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer v3. The effect of the flaw is that it is possible for a webmaster to put a link on a web page, and when you click to follow that link, a program is executed on your machine without you being given the opportunity to veto this. Almost all users of Internet Explorer on Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 will be at risk from this security lapse. Microsoft "strongly recommends that users download the fix to protect their computers". "A malicious coder", they say, "could potentially take advantage of the breach to access a user's PC." More information is available from the Microsoft site: http://www.microsoft.com/ie/

I don't know where the PGP homepage is but if you go to the SHAREWARE.COM http://www.shareware.com and search for PGP it'll tell you where you can download it.

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Hardware

Sound Card

Pin out connections for the 15 way D connector on the sound card http://www.servtech.com/public/jglatt/tech/pc_intfc.htm

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Music

Music online

If you like music, we invite you to take a look to our Homepage. http://www.worldonline.nl/~jdenh/

Check out my new and improved Midi page!! http://www.vianet.net.au/~jessie

Now over 10000 midi files on one site!! Of course, it's totally free!! http://www.vipxlnet.com/rmartel/index.html

See my midi files of Shostakovich's op. 87 at http://www.GeoCities.com/Vienna/5619

The Electronic Hymnal: download a sample of the hymnal at http://www.cartex.com/hymnal. Volume 1, a collection of 100 great hymns, the cost is a nominal $12.

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Sequencers

Cakewalk home page http://www.cakewalk.com by e-mail at: sales@cakewalk.com Cakewalk has their own news group. Go to news.cakewalk.com

Steinberg: http://www.steinberg.net/

Microsoft has a great program out called Microsoft Music Producer. It is a beta and times out on 1 May 1997. If you want a good Mid fast, this program (I hate to say it) is great. for examples, check out my homepage. http://members.aol.com/okswolf

The MIDI EDITOR: download (demo version) at the following address : http://perso.magic.fr/llebot/welcome.htm

SOUND2MIDI by Audioworks http://www.audioworks.com/ and "Autoscope" by WildCat http://www.wildcat.com/

Try Noteworthy composer (cheap midi sequencer) at http://www.ntworthy.com

Which sequencer? Cakewalk is more popular but MasterTracks is a bit easier to use. I've used MT Pro6 for years and love it. Try PG Music's Power Tracks Pro.... a killer sequencer and only $29! There's also Winjammer... a nice shareware sequencer... follow the links from my homepage... http://www.savannahdigital.com/esh/

Very few sequencers will work under NT; load Win95 to drive Cakewalk! Cakewalk 4.5 (comes woth 5.01) runs fine under NT4. Cakewalk 3 works ok.

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Copyright

I was looking for information on MMC when I came across this. http://home.earthlink.net/~mma/smf_usco.htm (Copyright information for midi info)

The Internet Legal Resource Guide, search for copyright on http://www.ilrg.com for copyright guidance, not specifically on MIDI, link to the Library of Congress Copyright office: http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright

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Technology

An advice column on music technology issues http://www.music.org/sqk_blat/

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Learning to play

I am currently using Musicware Piano. This is a piano course which includes sight reading. I have never taken piano lessons before and this is a great way to learn. Take a look at the demo version: http://www.halcyon.com/musicware/

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Communications

Telephone directory information

BT Phonebase Customer Support Group Tel:0800 919199 -->>>> This is a VOICE number NOT a DATA number. Fax:0114 2773923 Call them and ask to register, It's free, but you will need a standard terminal package, with VT100 emulation. e.g. Hyperterm.

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Net telephony

There is information on net telephony in Part 2 of the FAQ for this newsgroup, posted here fortnightly, or fetch it from see it ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/doc/faq/disn/disn2.faq or see it on the Web at: http://www.psp.demon.co.uk/newuser.htm.

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Internet services

I've come across a site that allows you 2mb of space for personal use free of charge - no catch The address of above:- http://www.geocities.com/homestead/

You can have your own Browser Redirection, Random Image, FormMail, Random Link, Credit Card Verifier, or Redirection script, all without any CGI code on your server. Check it out at http://www.terminalp.com/free-cgi/

Join The Demon Users Webring .. a chain of Demon Customer Homepages http://www.carwyn.demon.co.uk/webring Part of : http://www.carwyn.demon.co.uk

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Fax

FAX/email: The program is available from: http://www.compulink.co.uk

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News reader

News Rover http://www.NewsRover.com

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This page was last updated 19 August 2000

Brian Maskell