Okay - I made another change to the way commenting works. I've done away with having to log in, and added a CAPTCHA (Wikipedia entry), instead. Basically, a CAPTCHA is one of those pictures of a random string of characters that users have to type in to be able to leave their comment. It's based on the fact that people are pretty good at reading these things, while computer programs aren't. So, only people should be able to leave comments, and not the automated spam programs. Previously, I had experimented with making users register with Typekey before leaving comments, but I know that I personally won't leave comments on many blogs that require logging in just because I'm too lazy. And since this blog is anything but popular, I doubt many visitors would want to take the time to log in just to leave a few lines of feedback. The Typekey registration did work to eliminate spam comments, but I didn't get any legitimate comments in that time, either. (I'll just assume that it was the login requirement keeping commenters away, and not a lack of interest.)

Posted by Jeff on Wednesday, Aug 2 | Permalink | Comments (26) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, I fell a little behind in keeping up with my goal of at least one update per month. I've actually been spending much of the time that I'd normally devote to this site writing essays. Normally, I add my essays to this site, but for various reasons, I'd rather not do that with these. But, in the interest of adding something to this site so that it can continue to grow, I've added four photos to the Miscellaneous page of my Photo section. They're pictures from a day trip my family took about a year ago to Palo Duro Canyon, just outside Amarillo, TX. I'd originally intended to make a whole new section for those pictures, but once I got to looking at them, there really just weren't enough good ones. And while I was at it, I updated this section to my new format, where clicking on a thumbnail takes you to an html page with the picture on it, instead of linking directly to the picture. I hadn't done it before because there were only two pictures, but now that there are six, I figure it's worth the improved navigation.

Posted by Jeff on Thursday, Jun 22 | Permalink | Comments (24) | TrackBacks (0)

I finished the project noted in the previous update - updating my Aircraft Image Archive in the same way that I updated my photo galleries last year. The pages have been updated so that when you click on one of the thumbnail images, it takes you to an html page with the picture on it, instead of linking directly to the picture. While I was at it, I added navigation links to the bottom of each thumbnail page, so visitors won't have to go back to the main archive page every time they want to go to the next page in a category. This update also coverred my AeroDesign© East 2001 page. Anybody looking at the Aerodesign page needs to be sure to see this picture of a wing tip vortex - a little out of focus, but still very cool.

Posted by Jeff on Monday, Apr 24 | Permalink | Comments (23) | TrackBacks (0)

I've begun a project to update my Aircraft Image Archive in the same way that I updated my photo galleries last year. The pages are being update so that when you click on one of the thumbnail images, it takes you to an html page with the picture on it, instead of linking directly to the picture. The reasons for this change are explained in the 18 July 2005 update, but basically it's for improved navigation. While I'm at it, I'm slightly changing the order in which the images appear. The first time I made the page, everything was sorted alphabetically, but that puts things like "C-130" ahead of "C-47," and "F-101" ahead of "F-14." So, while still in mostly alphabetical order, I've modified it a few places to follow the proper numerical sequential order. So far, the completed pages include all of the alphabetical listings, and the jet fighter listings in the categorical section. I won't post another update on this until all of the categorical listings have been updated.

Posted by Jeff on Wednesday, Apr 12 | Permalink | Comments (24) | TrackBacks (0)

I made a few changes last week that I'm just now documenting. First off, I did a slight bit of reorganization. I created a How To page, with directions for various projects. Some of these projects were previously listed on my Misc page, but I figured this new organization made a bit more sense. I added a link to the How To page to the main menu in the left hand column that appears on all of my pages, and removed the Mp3 entry from that menu, and moved it to the misc page. I figured there was so little content on the Mp3 page that it wasn't worth having its own entry in the main menu. In the new How To section, I created two new pages, Potato Salad Recipe and Wacky Cake Recipe.

Posted by Jeff on Tuesday, Feb 21 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)