When is there a better time to join a site and start a journal than when there are more than 540 non- bot visitors with unique IP address out of ~3000 total visits in the last 24 hours. 20 different epeeps signed on in the last 24 hours.

>>Posted By: paul

The site should be much faster now. I fixed some old problem code from 2003 that was still floating around undetected by scrutiny. Anyways, you should notice a big speed increase in accessing the journals and modules.

>>Posted By: paul

Does anyone know anyone else who they can enourage to start a journal. I would like to get more people. Anyone have any ideas about how to go about that.

>>Posted By: paul

I have corrected the login issues by switching the login back to cookies. You can rest assurred you will not be logged out now, unless you log yourself out. The biggest probem with this is the security issue that you are not being logged out when you leave the site or after a period of time. If you leave the site logged in, anyone that visits it on your browser will be able to tamper with your journal.

[c]Do not leave your journal logged in when you leave your computer, unless it i syour personal computer that only you access![/c]

Email paul if you have any questions.


>>Posted By: paul

Not only can you now choose between month or journal mode, you can also choose the media format. The month also sticks now as requested. Please go through and get rid of any old crap you don't use on your journal. Like if you tripple uploaded some file.



>>Posted By: paul

[size=m]Stylebox[/size]
The stylebox has come a long way since its beginning. It now works as intended on firefox and explorer. Simply select the text you want the tag applied to and click the style and the tags are neatly fitted around the outside of the selected text.

For example, if you want to click make a word bold, highlight the word and click the bold style in the stylebox.

[size=m]Media Library[/size]

The image library has been majorly upgraded and is now called the media library. I need to make a new button. The major differences are that:

[list]
You can preview and delete all types of uploaded media.
You can view by journal content or by month uploaded so that you can finally find all those stray media files that are not in your journal and delete them.
I added a select / deselect all checkbox.
The media library now works for the news journal too.
[/list]

This is the new sound file icon in the media library. If you see one of these if it means there was a sound in your journal entry or in your file directory. By rolling over the icon, it plays the sound on your journal. If you click it it inserts the sound code into your journal. Images work like before and flash files also are previewed like images. They have a flash icon that when clicked inserts the code into your journal.



>>Posted By: paul

I finally added the help files and search. You can access it by clicking on the help link at the top of the page. I will be adding to as the week goes one but their are already 22 topics. You can also search for specific words.



This will lead to the eventual redesign of the front page, now that none of that information needs to be there. I will be adding new modules and features that you can access through there.

I also redid the image upload system, so please tell me if you have any problems. It should be much faster now.

>>Posted By: info

Resizing photos for you journal is easy. But first you need an image editor. Seeing as not everyone has photoshop I will give the instructions using GIMP - a free opensource image editor found here .

The gimp is great. It is just like photoshop, looks very similar but costs nothing - not to mention it runs on every opertaing system. Mac and Linux users can follow the instructions at install GIMP or perhaps some mac or linux users of the site can post more detailed links and instructions in this journal entry. It will eventually be moved to the help files.

Here are the instructions to get the most current version (2.2) installed on windows.

1. Download GTK -
2. Download GIMP -
3. decompress (unzip) both files and run both installers. Make sure to install GTK first.
4. launch gimp and accept the license, keep clicking continue till the dialogues go away.

Here are the steps to resize an image using GIMP which will work with any operating system.

1. Once GIMP is running choose file-> open from the gimp menu and browse your computer to find your image.

2. At the bottom of the window where your picture opens find the drop down menu with percentages, click and make sure it is at 100% so that you can see your image at its true size.



3. Next to resize your image, select "scale image" from the "image" menu.



4. In the pop up window you can now set the height and width of your image. The journal cannot have images above 400px wide so you might as well set the width to 400. The height should automatically adjust. If not make sure to click the little chain betwen then. Then click the "scale" button



5. Last you have to save the file. Choose "save a copy" from the file menu. from there give the file a name make sure it has the". jpg" extension you started with and hit save.



6. Now a little box pops up asking you about the quality you want. the higher quality the bigger the file and the longer it takes for people to load on the web. Generally you want as small a file as possible without it looking shitty. If you click the "Show preview in image window" box you can see how the image looks at the current quality level and ajust it to be as small as possible without looking bad. Generally under 30k is good.



7. hit OK, after you do this you will have have a new resized image saved to your computer. now upload that image to your journal and you should have no problems.

Additional Notes: The GIMP is a full image editing program with hundred of tools and features. feel free to experiement with it. An easy tool to use is the paintbrush.. It looks just like a paintbrush and lets you paint on your image before you save it. Once I get the help system going I will add lots of other tutorials like this with video.

If anyone needs help with this feel free to contact (e:paul).

>>Posted By: paul >>Updated By: paul 12/28/04 21:53 >>Updated By: paul 12/28/04 21:54 >>Updated By: news 12/28/04 22:01

While packing to move I also found some of the old estrip banners.





and the original default face.



>>Posted By: paul >>Updated By: paul 12/28/04 13:20

I am just documenting the new winter colors for winter 2004 before I forget and only have half screen shots like last years blue winter theme. I also added code support for themes, so hopefully it will change a lot more and eventually I will offer multiple skins. In the mean time if you want your own look for your journal you can always use the API . Just click on the link at the top of the page. You can view my example at



>>Posted By: paul