The Astronauts - Technical Stuff
These are brief notes about the various technical issues that have arisen from creating this
website. Please feel free to comment on anything I have mentioned here (or forgotten)
HTML
I started writing HTML in Notepad, soon got fed up and switched to Netscape Composer. However,
that's not so impressive either. After much searching, I found First Page 2000 which is free,
so worth every penny. It is an HTML editor with a built-in browser so you get wysiwyg facilities
without loads of bloat and it doesn't trash your own HTML either. There's loads more, built-in
javascripts etc, which I've hardly touched as yet.
I try to test everything with Netscape, IE4, and IE5, which is all I have available. I also
try some of the on-line validators. Some of the table stuff doesn't work too well with
Netscape, but it seems presentable. I'm not sure what happens with non-visual browsers.
I keep away from frames as they seem to upset some people. I'm mainly trying to get the
information resource up and running - tarting it up can come later.
Images
I've got a mixture of images that I've either scanned in myself on an HP 6200 or scrounged off
the net. It's a bit random as to whether I use gif or jpeg; as I get time I will try to decide
for each image individually, finding the best compromise between size and quality. I've got
hold of some image crunchers that can greatly reduce image size. I've only got an old
28.8k modem so this matters to me. Oh, and Microsoft Paintbrush and Photo Editor are quite
handy for simple things.
Sounds
I've got some RealAudio and MP3 files that I've pinched from other people. I'll do more
myself once I can work out how to generate the files and what the best format is. Let me
know if you can help here.
Internet
I've got free web space from UK-Online, which is apparently owned by EasyNet. Thanks folks.
The Astronauts.org.uk name is paid for, but automatically redirects to UK-Online. That means the
web site can be moved at any time without anyone really noticing. However, UK-Online have
been good so far, giving me extra space when I needed it, etc. So no problems there.
Also, I've been using Crystal FTP. This is also freeware; a very intuitive Windows ftp client
that has very handy features for maintaining web sites, such as a directory comparison tool and
queued file transfer.
Acknowledgments
Most of the stuff I use is freely available. I try to remember to give credit, but if you
think I've forgotten something let me know. Here are some of the free web sites:
UK-Online - free email and web-space. http://www.ukonline.co.uk
Evrsoft - First Page 2000. http://www.evrsoft.com/
Clip Art Warehouse - http://www.clipart.co.uk
eXTReMe Tracking - http://www.extreme-dm.com/tracking/
Crystal FTP - http://www.casdk.com
Tucows (loads of freeware and shareware for just about anything imaginable) -
http://www.tucows.com
Webmaster's Color Lab - http://www.visibone.com
Audio files - Acid Stings and Tim ?