New Blog!

Well, I finally did get a new blog setup, at blog.MinstrelMike.com.

With this post, I thinking of trying to trick BlogSpot.com into redirecting a bit more directly (w/PublishToFTP, you can specify a redirect URL, but it MUST include a "page" (ie: index.php), and I don't want to SHOW that in the address bar!).

So, here (since there's not enough room in the "Title" field) I'm going to try a JavaScript redirect (explicitly set "window.location")!
See if BlogSpot will auto-edit it out?

Blogging Elsewhere Soon?

Well, looks like it's been over a YEAR (!) since my last post ...
Dunno what to say.
Lots happened, most of little or no significance.

In the meantime ...

Did get a domain-name to play with: www.MinstrelMike.com.
Started playing with a few new web experiments ... Experi.MinstrelMike.com...

Thinking about setting up a blog there: Blog.MinstrelMike.com ...
Currently, considering/investigating WordPress ...

Seems like an "integrated" blog would be more "branded", associated w/main site, easier to find, with more control ... Not to mention more of an "educational" experience in learning to set it up, etc.

More later, I suppose ...

QBTK Layout

So ... Back to this, again ... Finally.

Below is the initial concept layout for a Text-mode Graphics based Klondike solitaire game programmed in Quick Basic (QBTK) ...

As you can see, I guess I finally got SOMEthing figured out accidentally! I had some difficulties getting the HTML layout to show up correctly in this blog (Problems Posting HTML for QBTK Layout).

The trick, apparently, was to use the PRE tag along with explicitly specifying the FONT FACE (Lucinda Console, the only mono-spaced of the few "Web-Safe" fonts?). Prefixing the whole bit with these two tags allowed me to cut (as before) directly from the QB display, and paste into Notepad, with out the "line-drawing" characters getting out of alignment when rendered. Then, as before, putting the color changes in manually.

Got wized up, headed in the right direction, by that most useful of ALL websites: Wikipedia. Looking at the source for this page gave me the clue: Box Drawing Characters.

Next, I plan to clean up my experimental code which eventually generates something similar to the following, reorganize the useful bits into functionally decomposed routines, then maybe start in on actual game logic. It's going slowing, in small bits, because I'm not really concentrating, and I'm going for a two-fold nostalgic kick here: 1) make it LOOK like some of the old stuff, and 2) program it kind of like I might have when I didn't know any better.

╔════════════════════════════╗
║Deck  draW    Suite Stacks  ║
║┌──┐        ┌──┐┌──┐┌──┐┌──┐║
║│  │ New    │  ││  ││  ││  │║
║│  │   eXit │♠ ││ ♥││♣ ││ ♦│║
║└──┘        └──┘└──┘└──┘└──┘║
╟────────────────────────────╢
║ 0   1   2   3   4   5   6  ║
║┌──┐┌──┐┌──┐┌──┐┌──┐┌──┐┌──┐║
║│  ││  ││  ││  ││  ││  ││  │║
║│  ││  ││  ││  ││  ││  ││  │║
║└──┘└──┘└──┘└──┘└──┘└──┘└──┘║
║┌──┐┌──┐┌──┐┌──┐┌──┐┌──┐┌──┐║
║│  ││  ││  ││  ││  ││  ││  │║
║│  ││  ││  ││  ││  ││  ││  │║
║└──┘└──┘└──┘└──┘└──┘└──┘└──┘║
║  1   2   3   4   5   6   7 ║
╚════════════════════════════╝

R.I.P. Spock The Cat

R.I.P.

Spock The Cat

Thursday 26 November 1992 - Saturday 23 September 2006

Friend, Veteran WatchCat, Proud "Old Style" Siamese
Kitten of Jin Ling and Forest, Last of the Litter

Bye Bye, Baby Cat

Unobtrusive Hit Counter

On Tuesday, I did some searching on hit counters, and started playing around with the free ones from FusionFlux. Finally got them to appear on this Blog as I wanted.

Well, I'd actually like to have the counters themselves on two lines, to the right of the logo, but I'll work on that later.

They also have a free "visitor online" counter! Check them out here: Free.FusionFlux.com

Sent an email to them, asking how you could "reset" the hit counter. No reply so far.

Problems Posting HTML for QBTK Layout ...

I mentioned that I have a layout for my little QB Text Klondike game ...

I've been trying to arrive at an HTML version suitable for posting here.

The big problem seems to be in HTML coding to force a) a specific font, b) and/or mono-spaced font, c) arbitrary ASCII codes w/in that font.

Since I already have a QB experimental going, which includes a test layout, I thought that the simplest way would be to cut/paste that from the (command-line) QB display, into another program (say, MSFT Word) which would accept the "upper" ASCII for the box characters, AND the colors, then export back out to HTML ...

So far, so good. But THEN, the HTML result of that, would NOT display as expected in a browser: despite explicitly specifying my mono-spaced font of choice (LucindaConsole 16pt), it seems to display proportionally-spaced, NOT lined up correctly!

The only way that seems to "work", is to paste the layout (losing the colors) into Mozilla Composer, manually setting the colors, then extracting THAT HTML code. The resulting HTML file displays as expected in my Firefox, Mozilla, and IE5 browsers, but the code seems excessively dense and complicated, with all of the explicit ASCII characters specified, and specifications for colors, etc. Trying to simplify it, and/or break it up into smaller chunks, breaks the line-breaks mostly. Apparently, there are some contexts within HTML where "implicit" line-breaks (in the "code") translate to "rendered" breaks, and some contexts where they do NOT (and require explicit "br" tags). I guess I don't know enough about HTML coding yet to understand.

However, so far, I haven't been able to get THAT HTML to display as expected when pasted into a new post here on BlogSpot. Of course, the first thing is to remove some of the HTML tags that are explicitly not allowed, like "html", or "head".

I'll keep at it if/when I feel like it.

Uploaded a Photo

I finally found a photo to upload for this Blog ...

It's several years old, but I pretty much look the same (sigh), except for several new pounds, some of which is probably just hair (I currently have a full beard and much longer hair).

Attempted Cancellation StoresOnline

Well, I attempted to cancel my StoresOnline accounts today.

Basically, the instructions were, sign/date "Notice of Cancellation", then either 1) FAX it, 2) mail it (or deliver it), 3) email request ... I did ALL three. And before the deadline of "three business days" at midnight.

We'll see how that goes ... Not sure how I'll know everything's cool again, until maybe they send me back my down-payment check, or I see a no-longer-authorized debit. Haven't checked to see if my accounts are disabled yet.

StoresOnline - Not Convinced It's a RipOff, But NOT Convinced It Could PAY For Itself Either!

Well, just a quick comment about the StoresOnline workshop I attended last Friday.

Basically, I went not intending to buy anything, but of course, I got sucked into it. Even worse, financed by them!

However, there IS a three-day cancellation clause, which I intend to invoke. I figured, maybe I'll just signup, get access, try to immerse myself for a few days, see if I can make a go/nogo decision.

I'm still not sure it's so much of a rip-off, seems like it COULD work, but so far, I don't see any likelyhood that a "storefront" could pay for itself anytime soon, or even service it's own debt.

Much more detailed information about one of these workshops at Martin Lee's AbrahamClub Blog ...
He does SUCH a great job of describing it, that I can't really add any more, offhand.

More later, probably my experiences trying to get OUT of this!

Stores Online Workshop

Well, nothing much to report about the QB Text Klondike project ...

Although playing with BASIC again is reminding me of the old days. One of the first "non-trivial" programs that I ever wrote was a blackjack card game, in BASIC "text" mode, on a Timex-Sinclair. Maybe after I get the KBTK going, I'll do a similar blackjack.

Gotta try to go to bed early tonight. Planning to go to one of those StoresOnline "Internet Marketing Workshop" all-day deals tomorrow. And it'll take almost two hours to drive there; registration is at 8:30am!

The main reason that I'm even going is that the guy at the "preview" show (more locally, a couple of weeks ago), promised to basically give back your $20 "processing fee" plus gas money if you stayed through the whole day. And, since I've got nothing much better to do (being unemployed means that my time is worth considerably less than my money these days), I figure, why not.

Also, they claimed that all of the "marketing" techniques they teach you in the all-day show can be used on ANY website, not just the ones hosted by them; no proprietary software. We'll see how that works out. I figure if I learn anything legitimate, it might be useful someday.

I've read of lots of complaints (if you Google them, excluding their OWN sites, that's mostly all you find), and I'm sure it'll be a LOT of high-pressure sales pitching for their products, hosting, etc. (seem VERY expensive to me). Maybe I'll accidentally get something out of it.

I'll try to remember to post back with my observations and opinions on this! Of course, they won't allow any recorders, etc. !

QB Text Klondike

Well, at least I did get STARTED playing with this idea, of programming a text-based Klondike solitaire game in QB ...

I've pretty much got an initial iteration of the "board" layout/mockup done. Verified that QB can in fact, relatively easily, do what I want to do, display-wise, and look the way I want it to look. My experimental code, like this, winds up being stacks of straight-through trial-and-error stuff sometimes (such as trying out different "card" sizes for Klondike to see how it looks on the screen), then when it gets to be a more "working" program, I branch off a version and cut out all the garbage (saving a copy just for the archives and occasional reference).

Next, time to think about the actual overall organization of the code; I plan to be at least a bit structured, and not just straight-lined spaghetti-code. Don't think there's much opportunity for OO-type structures using QB. Even if this proves to be an interesting experiment, I doubt I'll be looking to extend the mainline logic, etc. to say, a GUI interface. There's plenty of those out there already :) Although, one of my nephews has been bugging me lately about trying Flash programming ...

QB Klondike ?

Well, maybe I've finally thought of something to put in this blog! Never got around to a few other items that occurred to me, maybe I'll do it this time!

I'm kicking around the notion of programming a VERY simple text-mode Klondike solitaire game using QB (Quick Basic) ...

All started with my getting addicted over the past several days, to my Mom's little hand-held electronic game. This is basically "text-based", has a little LCD screen with various "template" figures on a overlay, so that to display a card, it just puts up the "value" (say "A") and "suit" graphic (don't think I can do this in here? picture the ASCII character which shows up as a little "spade" symbol) within the little lines of a card already on the template...

As I'm sitting there playing it, I'm wondering "what kind of processor, and how much memory does this thing have?" I bet I could do something like this in BASIC!

So, that's how it starts. Wonder if it'll ever get much further, much less finished?

I've started trying out layouts and mockups just to see if it might look decent.

Anybody even vaguely interested in hearing about this latest time-waster?

Spell-check Blog Description?

Minstrel Mike's Musings

Jeez ... Just noticed that I mis-spelled the words "stumbled"
and "ought" (as "stumbed" and "aught" respectively) in the
description of the blog ... (the BlogThis! spell-checker didn't
offer the correct word on the "stumbed", and missed "aught"
completely, since it actually IS a word, just the WRONG one)

Let's see if THIS works ...

THEN I'll fix the description, maybe ...

'Course, We Gotta TEST it First!

Hokay, just call this a TEST post! Bloggity blog blog bloggity blog! ... blog...