One of my sites...

[SmackDaddy]

...but this one is the first I have hosted with Insiderhosting:

www.pctoolbin.com

I am not a php guru, but like the idea of a php "portal" system such as what I am using. It is called "Xoops" and integrates a lot of good features for the creation of an "online community" of sorts. (www.xoops.org is the page for them).

I am finally pleased to have a host who's server response times have been brilliant as of late!

[CrimsonScythe]

Hi SmackDaddy,

I like the design of your page! :) Clean and simple! Did you make that design yourself, or was it a premade Xoops theme?

The first thing that striked me was "Hmm... What's the purpose of this site?" I would suggest you put up a short description on the top saying what "services" you provide, or what the site offers.

Just my $0.02. :)

-Thomas

[SmackDaddy]

Yeah, I had an info block set up for that, but some thought I should just put it in the FAQ or as a link to a "About Us" page.....whatcha think?

As for the theme, it is a third-party pre-made theme for Xoops, but...I am in the process of "tweaking it" to change how it looks for this site.

Thanks for your $0.02. :D

[CrimsonScythe]

I don't know how xoops work, but for postnuke you can do this:

1. Set up a description in a block.
2. Put the block on top in the middle column.
3. Set the block invisible for the users that are logged in.
4. Also put the block in an About Us page so that everybody can look it up at any time.

This way you can explain the purpose of the site without annoying your regular users who come for the hardcore news ;)

Regarding my 2 cents, do you have an account number where I can transfer them to? ;)

- Thomas

[SmackDaddy]

Thank you very much for your suggestion.....I am going to implement that right now....

Xoops was created in the same vein as PostNuke (which I used to use) and PHPNuke.....but I find it easier to use/set-up/deal-with (mainly as far as templates go).

[CrimsonScythe]

Nice :)

I haven't looked too much at xoops. I know that in postnuke, there aren't any easy way to create your own theme, you have to code them yourself.

Is there a lot of modules to xoops?

- Thomas

[SmackDaddy]

There are enough modules that I have seen, and more in development all the time. Xoops is only about 6 months old or so and still has evolved into something that IMHO, rivals postnuke and phpnuke....which is why I switched.

The IMDB module and weather modules on your site have been ported over to Xoops as far as I know....

[CrimsonScythe]

Ah, I didn't know that it was just 6 months old!

BTW, my IMDB and Google search aren't modules, but just static html in blocks :)
I can give you the code if you want it...

I just checked xoops.org, and there seems to be a weather module available! (The last two.)

http://www.xoops.org/modules/mydownloads/... (http://www.xoops.org/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?cid=18&min=20&orderby=titleA&show=10)


-Thomas

[CrimsonScythe]

I just checked your site out, SmackDaddy! All I can say is: Sweet!!! :D

-Thomas

[SmackDaddy]

Thanks for the compliment and thanks for stopping by. Check in on us from time to time........ ;)

[Tal]

OK, I love the stock ticker, everything else looks good. The one thing that I don't like is the fact that I have to scroll on an 800x600 screen size. I think that I read somewhere that 80% of people on the internet use that size resolution. Otherwise it is a nice site, I like the forums, they load really fast (I wonder why) .

[SmackDaddy]

Hmmm.....must be a fault of the theme I am using or the fact that the stock ticket takes up 555 pixels (note to self: make ticker smaller)...almost all the other themes shrink or expand to fit the user's screen resolution......

Will try to shorten the ticker.....and see if that stills causes the scroll effect.....

As for the forums....they are based on the phpBB 1.4 code essentially but in XOOPS is called newBB, so there is not a whole lot of fluff to deal with as far as code goes, which probably helps speed things up....

Thanks Tal!

(EDIT: Shortened the ticker from 555pixels to 355pixels....now, you should have no horizontal scrolling (at least in IE6).....please let me know otherwise!)

[Tal]

Perfect it works for me now with no scrolling. :)
Happy Birthday!!!

[CrimsonScythe]

Sorry to say this, but I liked your web site before you brought in that non-working Java applet... It probably works if you have an older version of Java, but not with the new one. One word of advice: Never use Java applets unless it serves a specific and important need that cannot be solved with other technology!

Java applets are bound to cause problems, besides being slow to load (takes time to start up VM) and taking a lot of resources. For some very strange reason, they often won't work on all browsers, even though one of the features of Java is that it's supposed to work on all platforms.

Anyway, that's just my 2 cents (http://justmy2cents.com/)...

PS! A very late happy birthday to you!!!

[SmackDaddy]

Thanks for the input Crimson........if you can find me a free non-Java stock ticker, then great.......but I have not found one. And have not heard of any problems with anyone else....you are the first....or at least the first to speak up. *grin*

The "specific" need it's filling is showing the latest stock prices for stocks IT people would be interested in.......

I am all ears if you can find me one though.....thanks.

[CrimsonScythe]

:)
The ticker would not display in IE at work, and in Opera both at work and at home. I do some Java development at work, so I know that it should not be a browser issue, but as I mentioned, I find Java applets rather unpredictable... (Read: Java applets are evil) ;)

In order to find you a more reliable stock ticker, I tried to search for both Javascript and Flash tickers, but I came out empty. The Javascript tickers I found did not follow the standards, of course, and would only work in IE. Remarcably, I was not able to find any ready-to-go Flash tickers either, which is rather weird since it is not a difficult thing to make. (I have made a news-ticker once, but the problem, as I see it, is the backend. This is because the data has to be pulled from an external source at given intervals. If anyone knows how to do this, I would love to help make a decent ticker) ;)

Anyway, if you haven't got any other "complaints", you should just continue to use the one you have. :)

- Thomas

[SmackDaddy]

Would love it if I could find a flash one........I am going to work on trying to integrate it into the site somehow without it being on the main page.....site's only 2 weeks old and is developing into something different week by week........which is why it's a good thing this is more of a hobby than anything.....*grin*

Thanks for you input.....really.

:)

[Chris]

As long as you have fun. That's the important thing. If you're not having fun it's going to turn into a living hell for you.

[SmackDaddy]

Chris....fun is the key word! *grin* And so far....so good. hehe

Well, due to many comments from people, I have updated my site a bit further.....I have put the stock java stuff on it's own page.....as well as made a "bandwidth monitor" for my "toolbin tools" page.....

Thanks for all your comments and criticism......

[josh]

A flash ticker would be pointless also.

You don't want to integrate flash into a 90% static website.

But of course if you know how to layer, then it wouldn't be bad. Sometimes when a swf doesn't load, a blank box is put there. This would cause customers to look down on your website.

As for the resolution thing. You shouldn't have to worry about resizing, even though that is easier, you can insert a PERL script that takes the browser settings, and configures your site to that. You have to slice the images a certain way, but it works great.

My example is tomler.com. This banner only fits to a 800x600 resolution, it will not change because we are still working on spanning the tables.

I did the banner, and a programmer of mine built the script to allow the banner to change to the screen resolution. Try it out.

[harmonic]

another trick is to tile a background using tables, and use percentage widths.

see www.blizzard.com