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Frequently Asked
Questions:
How much stuff does it take to make
a web site like this?
This site currently consists of 2
CLASS files, 379 GIF files, 1 ZIP files, 156 MID files,
346 HTML, 230 JPG files, 1 DOC file, and 6 TXT files;
which total about 25.2 MB of disk
space.
What are those strange characters on
your menu?
I am studying the Japanese language.
I am just beginning, but I thought it would be fun to
have a greeting in Japanese and to add Japanese to the
titles in my menu. The character set I used is called
Hiragana. Hiragana is the first character set that
children learn in school. To see the characters on the
menu properly, you need to set your browser for
Japanese and have a Japanese font
loaded.
How can I set my browser so I can
see the Japanese characters?
I use Netscape so I can only tell
you what I did with regard to Netscape. First you need
a Japanese font. Fortunately there is one available
from Microsoft. MS Mincho is a True Type font and is
available for download from Microsoft and is available
as part of the Microsoft Office Japanese Support
package which is on the Microsoft Office CD in the
Value folder. The file name is JpnSupp.exe and when the
file is executed it installs automatically. Remember,
before and after you install anything run your virus
checker. Now that you have a font there are some
options to set in Netscape. In Netscape, under View,
highlight Character Set and select Japanese
(Auto-Detect). Under Edit, select Preferences. In the
in the left column of the Preferences box select Fonts.
For the font encoding, select Japanese. Then for both
the Fixed and Variable Width Font, select MS Mincho.
You may want to change the font size after viewing to
suit your preference. MS Mincho will provide both a
Western font and a Japanese font so you will be able to
see both the English and Japanese content of web
pages.
Why did you move from Geocities to
Crosswinds?
I moved in at Geocities because I
liked the neighborhood idea. Though the neighborhoods
still exist, Yahoo seems to be down playing them. In
addition, I joined GeoPlus last year to get more space
for my web site and so my visitors wouldn't be bothered
by the pop-up add's. This year, when I inquired about
renewing my GeoPlus, they told me they changed the
policy so they now only accept payment by credit card.
Since I did not want to give them that information and
I still want those features I decided I had to move.
Crosswinds has no limit on disk space and they don't
force add's. I am giving up two things. I won't have
counters on my pages here at Crosswinds because it
looks like the available counter services do force
add's, but I must follow up in more detail to see what
the options are. Crosswinds is just getting started on
a library of CGI scripts. Until they have a Post script
available my forms in my Parlor will be broken. This is
the same site as I had at the old address with the
usual monthly batch of improvements and additions and I
intend to keep building it. In the two and one half
years my site was at Geocities I had 16,709 visitors
enter my front door and people read pages from my site
59,025 times. As I removed the last pages from
Geocities on 28, August 2000 the front door counter was
at 18,088.
Why aren't there any photography
links?
There are tons of references on the
web to a wide range of photography topics that are easy
to find and the idea for this site came in the context
of my being a transgendered
person.
Why doesn't the site survey form
have a "Clear" button?
Since there isn't a text input box I
didn't think there would be a need. The selection for
any question can be changed as many times as you want
prior to clicking on the "Send" button. Clicking the
"send" button forwards the current set of answers you
have selected to me.
Why aren't there any equipment
reviews at this site?
There are lots of organizations and
people who have the time and money to continually buy
all the latest equipment and write about it. Sure, some
of the people writing the reviews will have different
priorities than you do. That's why you should read
several reviews if you want someone else's opinion at
all. Yes, I read reviews; when something costs a lot I
want to know all I can about it.
What software do you use to make
your web site?
I use Paint Shop Pro and Animation
Shop by Jasc (currently version 5) to edit my image
files and create my animated .GIFs. To create and edit
HTML and JAVA files I use Programmer's File Editor
32-bit Edition by Alan Phillips. This is a plain text
editor with nice features for editing a bunch of files
at once too. In 2003, I started the huge task of updating
my web pages to conform to the updated standards. If
I did this by editing the pages manually it would take
a long time and be prone to errors. I decided to use a
tool called Tidy to help with this. I am tidying my pages
a few at a time as the occasion presents itself. This
page has been tidyed.
The links at the bottom of your screen will take you to the main topic areas