Improvements And Changes

It is almost 1 month to the day after UIA ended active service. I know I said I'd not actively update, but I'm a prefectionist! I've fixed many, many, many links (there's got to be a better way!) and upgraded the site so it loads faster still (I like speed, cope).

There are no new issues, although I've been receiving them from Apple I've not decided if I will post them. I might after May 5th, when a large project comes due. I'll have a few days rest after it goes live.

This is to say I am not saying I WILL put up those articles, but I am not ruling it out. (I'm a sucker for keeping stuff up-to-date.).

Date: March 29, 1997

Final entry. Well, we all knew it would, someday, come to an end. This release marks the last supported update to UIA. I will not be releasing any further updates. If the Admins decide to keep the content, I will fix link errors and such, otherwise...

My new passion will come online, to the public, April 9th. I will be posting a notice on the mirror sites (although the firewalled sites will likely not carry it). Questions, comments, etc can be forwarded to the normal email addy.

Date: March 24, 1997

After having made an announcement that Apple would drop Opendoc and other good projects, I have completely lost confidence in Apple Computer, Inc. The Macintosh will survive, yet I believe the company Apple Computer, Inc. is dead.

I, myself, will now be working the graveyard shift at my place of employment. What this means is likely more timely updates, as the timing of the Apple emails leave me w/ little time to get to this stuff.

Having said that, I am off today and decided to put in some time in HTML land, so here's the latest update.

To make matters more complicated (when is life ever simple or stable?) yours truly will be carting his carcass 8 miles due north west of my present haunt as I get an apartment of my own closer to work. This dislocation's exact date has not yet been determined (no, I am not talking about Apple's product dates!), but you'll hear it here first when I know. Obviously, this could very well create some delays in service as I get phone service installed and all that neat stuff...

Date: March 14, 1997

New issues and buggy fixes abound. Been insaley busy w/ work and other stuff which is why I missed last week's update.

Date: February 28, 1997

While I listen to Strauss, it is 3:30am EST. I am taking major time from sleep to get this update out and done. It hasn't been a great last two weeks for work. First, there's my keyboard. You might not already know, but I've had persistent and continual problems w/ my Apple Adjustable Keyboard (what I'm typing on now). Great 'board, but every one ever made in the US has a manufacturer's defect. So, Apple replaced it, now they're giving me $114 for it cause I'm sick of tired of dealing w/ it. (I'm not paying to get it fixed!)

Anyways, then I bought a Kinesis Ergo 'board, very expensive. Suffice to say, I still don't have a working board cause of horrid problems, enough w/ that...

Time hasn't been on my side, nor System 7.6, nor BBEdit (I nuked, accidentally, my BBEdit folder. This is very bad as my over 100 Macros went w/ it :( So, this, along w/ massive work hours and other projects, is why I've not updated for two weeks, however...

THANKYOU WAYNE! I'll be short, Wayne Brissette and his Tiggers are just awesome. Check out the latest articles, they rock. Very useful, I've already used one article 50! (yes I said 50) times since its release!

Bad News, the Florida and PAGraphics mirrors have been removed from the mirrors list due to out-of-dateness (stifle, it is late). I'm still in contact w/ one admin, we're trying to get stuff up-to-date and it might return. BTW, I'm always looking for sites volunteering space! :)

Finally, there's updates to the page about my Mac... whoopie.

Date: February 14, 1997

Unfortunately I didn't get product specialist this time around at work, oh well. However, UIA has been a joy to do lately, as I've reduced time to ship from 1 hr per week to 35 mins. Thanks Wayne & Co.

Here we've the new dailies, that's about it.

Date: February 10, 1997

After I shipped the last update I became aware of persistent and nagging problems related to transporting files across file systems. The MacOS, when loading or serving pages is not case-sensitive, UNIX, however, is. When performing a routine check of the Wire mirror I encountered several problems. Further checking with BBEdit revealed even more problems related to a broken template.

All the problems I discovered have been fixed! The navigational graphic and previous/next links were the items affected during the October, November, December, and January daily issues. To my knowledge no problems remain.

Date: February 7, 1997

Isn't life grand when you get everything better than ontime?! Wow, life is good. Anyhoo, it is February, and we've new articles to post. Also, I've updated the sitemap and TOCs so you see February. This time I promise I've not missed anything.

Thank you Brian Rowan of Hampton-Sydney for calling me and getting us squared away w/ the FTP server, we cannot live without Brian and Mark (Dodd)'s FTP servers.

Date: January 31, 1997

As is my custom these days, I'm working on UIA late at night, about 3am EST. We've a whole host of new issues from Apple posted here. Apple is being (thanks for listening) proactive w/ MacOS 7.6, listing any known issues along w/ workarounds. As we know, cleaning up the OS willl break apps that depend on a dirty OS (eg, accessing variables those apps aren't suppose to). If you're using or going to use 7.6, read up!

I'm getting updates everyday, thanks Apple.

The sitemap is now in browser safe color format, meaning it'll actually be viewable on other platforms than a Macintosh. I viewed it from work and, EWWWWW, It looked crappy.

Other than that, see you next week....

Date: January 28, 1997

Morning folx. Once again, I'm up at hours I'm suppose to be asleep at, the curse of the vampire I'm told.

Noticed problems w/ the January 1997 TOC, minor ones but bugs nonetheless, they're fixed. Also revised the homepage slightly to update the news, I don't like those 'bullets,' as I call them, to age long. Also added new user quotes See you Saturday...

Oh, here's a winner: seems I've been accussed of shameless self-agrandizement. I agree, and you're just finding this out now....?

Date: January 25, 1997

Morning folks. Truly, it is 1:47 am. Once again Wayne Brissette needs to be acknowledged. I've one of those problem emails, my server likes to chomp mail messages from LARGE lists (big TO: fields). Well, when I mentioned it to Wayne he came up w/ a solution at an insane hour and in insanely quick fashion. As I've not asked Wayne if I can reveal the solution I'm not going to, but it is good to know it exists.

Moving on, UIA is up-to-date as of Friday, January 24th, 1997. Yes, that's 1997, not, as one viewer judiciously pointed out, 1996! The month of checquary (if anyone can give me the TV Show reference I'll put them on the homepage) is alive and well! The page that describes my machine received needed updating. I'd thought I changed it previously but actually didn't, so ignore that recent note.

What else? Well, still no formatting changes. Not that I've had time, but I've also not seen a need. Someone convince me otherwise?

On a personal note, yours truly co-hosts Critic's Corner, a weekly reviews conference on Community.Apple, w/ AWWCChoo. Stop by every Wed @ 10pm Eastern (7pm Pacific) and see what's going on. Next week is my turn, I'll be reviewing Lynda Weinman's and Bruce Heavin's <coloring web graphics>.

'Til next week...

Date: January 20, 1997

Kudos and thanks to Wayne Brissette again. I've been so pressed for time I can never get on during non-upgrade hours. Wayne emailed me the dailies for last week personally.

I fixed a formatting snafu w/ the January '97 TOC, I really do need to watch those HTML tags.

Date: January 15, 1997

Time has been at a premium lately. Remember when I said about a new sidebar format in December? Well, I scrapped it.

There's new articles, the 1st of 1997 and a straggler from December 20, 1996. (thanks Apple for telling me I missed it!)

There's some fixes, Jeff Baitis (jbaitis@montana.com) altered me to some link problems. I've fixed those, thanks Jeff.

The sitemap is updated to account for 1997 articles and the FAQ includes some new Q&As. Also added a few new quotes to the user quotes page. There's also various fixes to numerous to count but essential nonetheless.

Otherwise, UIA is essentially uneventful. There's some VERY good articles in these new ones answering questions people have asked me. FYI, I do pass along queries to Apple as "suggested to cover" NOT as questions to be answered: this is not a support desk! Speaking of which, anyone want to hire a pretty darn good Macintosh guru for tech support?

Date: January 2, 1997

Happy New Year folx. UIA hasn't changed a bit, for the most part. Due to time constraints and no real pressing need I've not implemented some changes I had planned. Sometimes it is best to know when to leave well enough alone! Considering I've had no real complaints, I'm going to stick with the present format. Of course, suggestions are always welcomed.

What has changed note: I'm removing support for HotSauce as noted on our home page. I made this decision after several attempts to update the XSpace failed miserably. I don't believe in placing a shoddy product into public view, especially not with my name on it and one that gets this many viewers. Until HotSauce has better tools, simplier, more robust tools and better documentation it will remain off this site. Obviously, you're free to offer assistance in this matter.

Date: December 21, 1996

Some new issues. The Xmas season ushers in that unusual time when all companies go underground, it seems nothing is happening. Don't believe it, they're just not talking.

Moved the September updates to the oldnews page, where they belong. Also placed horizontal lines between the updates notices for better visual clarity.

Next week's update will completely replace the archives, I'm instituting a new sidebar format for better navigations. We might experience some problems in the transition, so please bear w/ me. (hey, life w/ a full-time job limits my time).

Date: December 14, 1996

I must say I really enjoy my new job and am learning oh so much, like Windows 95 (ok ok ok, a guy has to pay the bills!); however, as I'm spending a great deal of time educating myself for job related items I've less and less free time. UIA will continue, just don't be surprised if I'm a tad late w/ updates. Update for newest issues.

Date: December 6, 1996

The XSpace is now up-to-date. Also, I've gone to all the major search engines I previously listed the mirrors with resubmitted the URLs so they're updated (where applicable) and deleted old URLs for JHU and Michael Grinner's mirrors (recall, we changes directories?)

Finally, I want to thank Wayne Brissette for getting the mirrors listed on Apple's page. Thanks Wayne for making sure it got done.

I'm missing the Thursday and Friday issues for this week due to connection problems with Apple's server. It seems the 'route to host' doesn't exist.

Date: November 28, 1996

Fixed a problem w/ October 22, 1996 article. Thanks to the user who pointed it out.

There's new issue in this release as well as some important publication information on the homepage. Please do read.

Finally, we've a new HotSauce logo (yes, I know the XSpace is out-of-date, I'll update ASAP). Credit Apple Webmaster Heidi Wyckoff for providing the animated GIF.

Date: November 23, 1996

I've rectified problems the the geographic map on the Mirrors page making it larger so you can actually read it. I've also updated the sitemap to make it more presentable, add additional pages, etc. Hope you like the new one.

Date: November 22, 1996

Life is finally starting to settle down after the move. There's new articles, some typo fixes. Oh, and a FAQ.

Date: November 11, 1996

Lots of new stuff. I've been getting incredible amounts of feedback and I've tried to respond to all of you but life is hectic. I'm moving, etc.etc. etc., enough, on w/ the UIA.

I've added a number of quotes from users. Who, exactly, has toured our humble alleyway might surprise you, it certainly surprised me!

Whoa! We appeared in an addition of MacWay (thanks Guy for the quick turn-around), had some distinquished visitors, and we've been awarded the "CLICK Cool Site Award," really cool eh? What is "CLICK Cool Site Award" you ask? Check it out:

Been doing some incorrect attributions in the past, Wayne Brissette emailed me to say:

[T]he Information Alley is from the Tech Info Group, not the Online Delivery group. Charlie McCabe's group provides the hardware and technical know-how for the Web Servers, e-mail lists, etc. However, his group doesn't do any content creation. That is left to us the TIG, or 'Tiggers'.

Sorry for the confusion and thanks Wayne for the information.

Date: November 10, 1996

I've solved the problems w/ the XSpace directory. I want to thank Lee Slone and R. V. Guha. Mr. Guha's careful assistance solved the many problems I was experiencing w/ creating a protable directory.

Having said that, if you try to access the XSpace directory from Cyberdog 1.1 or 1.2b2 your machine might freeze. Cyberdog runs out of memory, the answer is to increase the memory partition about 500K and you'll be fine (worked for me).

Date: November 9, 1996

There's a good deal in this weekly update.

1. I've gone through and fixed the bi-weekly previous and next buttons. You're now able to start at May 1, 1995 and go straight through to November 7, 1996 (if you had the time).
2. I've added the "greetings pages" from the bi-weeklies in a nicer format, one I considered for past upgrades but never used.
3. I've removed the Listen Up plugin declaration from all level 1 pages, there were a number of complaints. Seems UNIX Netscape and other non-Netscape browsers that support Netscape plug-ins aren't smart enough to realize the user doesn't want to be told they don't have the same plug-in trillions of times.
4. Added new dailies.
5. I'm aware of problems with the HotSauce directories and am working on it, no telling when I'll get it fixed.
6. Next week's update might be late as I'm moving.
7. Some have commented not all mirrors are up-to-date, please bear with us. This is all done on a volunteer basis and installing this big an update is harder and more time consuming then you might think.
8. I agree, the sitemap image is ugly, but I'm working on it.

Date: November 5, 1996

The first posting of the update resulted in a very good debugging session. Special thanks to Michael Grinner and Mark Dodd for pointing out a number of errors. I've corrected them all. I've also, finally, been able to grab the newest dailies and have posted them.

So..

1. Changed all wrong spellings of Feburary to the correct February (Grinner)
2. New issues give us november96.html (Grinner)
3. Updated problems w/ early prototype using infoalley.html for infohome.html
4. Added HotSauce icon to homepage.
5. Added Last Updated line to homepage.
6. Added update.html and oldnews.html.
7. Updated .MCF files.
8. Fixed errant links problems I noticed.
9. Fixed wrong URL for Grinner's site on Mirrors page (Grinner).

Date: November 4, 1996

On Sunday monrning I received a paniced message from someone "Where's the Info Alley, it has been over 2 weeks!?" Actually, it had only been 10 days, but who's counting?

Here it is, the largest update to the Info Alley I've ever done. There's new everything, new graphics, layout, navigation aides, searching aides, and other useful and some not-so-useful features. Here's a short run down:

1. Introduced the new side bar based layout w/ 8 major sections.
2. Reformatted all pages to new format.
3. Corrected errors in older html.
4. Created MCF files for HotSauce.
5. Create site map.
6. Established navigation aides to iterate within levels only.
7. Checked outside links from Alley to other sources, all should work correctly as of this date.
8. Redid the entire tree structure. Maintenance improved.
9. Added new includes.
10. New footer
11. New nav section.
12. Rationalized icons.
13. Added support pages.
14. Added surveys centralized under Feedback & Contact area--Browser Survey, General Feedback, Link Problems, To See surveys.
15. Cleaned up Mirrors page to remove old, obsolete mirrors and update subsription info.
16. New Graphics introduced.
17. Intiated usage of Remote Link Checker in BBEdit.
18. Moved outdated changes to oldnews page.
19. Translated all Table of Contents.
20. Cleaned out directories for old, unused files.

Old: Improvements and Updates to the HTML Information Alley

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