Online Rifleman
Last month, I changed my subscription to American Rifleman to receive issues on the Internet. I just got the email notifying me that the March Issue was ready to be viewed. All I had to do was click on a link in the email, input my member ID and name plus entering an authorization code which was printed graphically on the authorization web page. Clickable image: User Interface.
After using the interface they provide and browsing the magazine, I am glad that I converted to electronic issues for several reasons. First and foremost, I have no magazines stacking up in the garage that have to be sanitized (i.e. shredding personal information printed on the address block) before recycling. Next, All the text can be brought up in a window where I can cut and paste items such as “Armed Citizen Reports” or other text that I would like to share with others via email or on this site. Not the last of a list of nice features is the absence of the binding crease in two-page graphics - you see the whole image sans creases and staples.
I am also a life member in the American Radio Relay League (Amateur “HAM” Radio). I sent an email to them earlier today asking if my monthly copy of QST could be delivered electronically. I am waiting for a reply, but I suspect they do not have the means yet. I cruised their member services website and could not find anything about electronic publication.
Another thing I wanted to mention is the on-line tool that I developed for embedding Flash objects on our websites. I upload the object to the server and then specify the URL of the object to my on-line tool, which then generates a JavaScript Embedded in PHP script, plus the JavaScript that I use to invoke the object instance in the web page. All I have to do is input the required parameters, hit ‘generate script’ and copy/paste the code it generates to the server and the embed tags in the post. Flash, produced this way, seems to work with most of the browsers out there, although if it works with IE and Firefox/Mozilla then that’s 95% of the users that come to this site. If you DON’T have JavaScript enabled, you won’t see the animation.
Here’s an example. I wrote a script to randomly display some quotes from one of my favorite movies, “Blazing Saddles.”
Time flies - when you’re having fun. And the last couple of years have been just that - punctuated with some consternation, some disillusionment, some anger and plenty of outright joy and satisfaction.