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I've burned through a good section of the science fiction/fantasy section of the library, but that's about it (no magazines, essays or such).
If you think it will help, Y!M: jms_blkfox

Gratia.

It looks like there's a pretty good difference, I'm getting 3/1000 sec. for the include() and about ten times that for the db query, with only a small difference between writing the new file & the straight query.  I have a semi-legit excuse to screw around with something that's already works, not a bad way to start the week.

Given the size of the database I'm using, it can take PHP a little bit of time to build the page.  I thought of this method: Check the timestamps on the database & parsed.html, if the database is more recent create a new parsed.html with the guts to the table.  Then dump parsed.html into the table.

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$fmtime1 = filemtime( "../../parsed.html" );
$fmtime2 = filemtime( "../../database.db" );

if( $fmtime1 < $fmtime2 )
{
$fh = fopen( "../../parsed.html", "w" );
$db = sqlite_open('../../database.db');
$sql = "SELECT * FROM database";
$res = sqlite_query( $db, $sql );
while( $row = sqlite_fetch_array( $res ) )
{
$line = "

" . $row['col1'] . "

" . $row['col2'] . ""; fwrite( $fh, $line ); } fclose($fh); } include( "../../parsed.html" ); ?>

First, I've never used the PHP fopen/fclose routines before, so are there any special hazards to watch?

Secondly, is the difference between reading a file and reading a database enough to make this worth using?

The CSS doesn't work though (that's what's imagesofeden.xepher.net is using right now).
http://omega0.xepher.net/stuff/test2.php <-- using CSS
ALIGN may be depreciated now, but is was valid up to HTML 3.2 so you can be pretty sure it will work provided you don't try to do something fancy (works in FireFox 1.5, Opera 9 and IE 6 at least).

I admit it's dirty/cheating, but it's the lesser of the ugly methods.

Try placing the newsbox inside a centered HTML element like http://omega0.xepher.net/stuff/test.php

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I believe the left/right setting on the newsbox is similar to that for the IMG tag--it pushes the element off to one side so that there's room for text next to it.

There are probably a few other ways to do it, such as sticking it into a table cell and playing with the width parameter to get things lined up.

Thank you.
Hopefully I shouldn't be a bother, I used my screw-up-from-not-following-instructions-well-enough up early this week (and after that I still have the "I'm not going to touch that--I have no idea what it does" to keep me out of trouble, at least until I find documentation).

I hope my bit & pieces will turn out to be a worthwhile addition here.

The poke cometh!

I really need to write stuff down; appologies on the lateness.

Still interested bump.

!...many thanks!  That was surprizingly quick and painless.

Well I can't think of anything remotly clever, so I suppose "omega0" (unless digits pose a problem, then "omega") does what's needed.

Gratia

You realize that Altermeta is down indefinately and its archive is now hosted on another web server.

I knew it was in stasis, but I havent been doing any checks other than a quick once/month to see if any thing changed.  Can you get me the new archive URL?

Still-Intested Post.

Kind of pathetic though that I only managed 3 updates to the site since the initial post.

http://www.freeoldies.com/index.php?lang=us  Is pretty good at listing old games & where to find them, as well as indicating which ones are still held by a company & where to purchase them.

In most cases though, you can usually find a remake somewhere that has no strings attached and plays nice with a newer OS (sadly I've yet see a good Keen remake though).

http://savi.cis.drexel.edu/~strom/params.html  I probably should name it "sort list" rather than "options."  It doesn't do everything you mentioned, but I have to leave something for the next time I feel like fighting PHP.  As for the key, I'll have to give it some thought (too early in the morning for me to think of something).

I'm in no hurry & it's pretty hard to complain when someone is running a free service.  Maybe by the time the holding pattern clears I'll have some slightly better content too.

A few things hit to bring this to my attention again and I'm finally on enough caffeine to beat the nervousness, so here goes:

The largest thing I would use the webspace for a webcomics list/database & associated materials that I've built.  My shtick being I read every webcomic on the list (or have read for the concluded ones) so each one is at the very least legible (and enough to keep me reading, though that's not saying much).  Also it contains information like Updates/week and a degree of anthro content.
The list can be viewed here: http://savi.cis.drexel.edu/~strom/comics2.php  (the server has been flaky of late, if the database goes dead I can put up a plain HTML version).

I've been starting to add extra content to these pages approximately weekly.  Late last year, I did a series of short fragments of writing discussing a few points that made webcomics more pleasant to read. http://savi.cis.drexel.edu/~strom/writing.html  This year I have tried writing short pieces pointing out small and relatively unknown webcomics of notable quality.  http://savi.cis.drexel.edu/~strom/w_intro.html

More in line with Xepher's normal content, I also am trying to write more substantial material.  Picking out my personal favorites, there's a short story written for transformation-based content: http://spots.flatland.com/jms/w_tf_5.html and I've been keeping up with the RUET story contest.  This one isn't too bad: http://spots.flatland.com/jms/w_tf_6.html

A few other highlights.
Quite old, but not terrible: http://spots.flatland.com/jms/w_es_0.html
Two more recent bits: http://spots.flatland.com/jms/w_tmp.html, http://spots.flatland.com/jms/w_rw_0.html

And that's about it, one Xepher.net hosting application without the start of a webcomic.

Website:
http://savi.cis.drexel.edu/~strom/comics.html for webcomicy things.
http://spots.flatland.com/jms/index.html for the rest.
E-mail: j-strom@verizon.net