• Less Is More Edition: May 2001
• Editor: don@arkvalwebworks.com
• Publisher: Arkansas Valley Web Works
• http://www.arkvalwebworks.com/ 

1. What’s Up?: Less Is More

2. Web Page Help: What I Mighta Said

3. Promotional/Advertising: Publisher’s Pipeline Software Deals

4. Web Issues and Stuff: Searching Tips

5. Web Humor and Entertainment: Mountain Scenes

6. Ark Announcements: Graphics Station Updates

7. Both Sides Of The Coin, (Words Of Wit And Wisdom)

I told my gal, "Don’t you love me any more?"

She said, "More or less."

I said, "Which is it, more or less?"

She said, "In your case, less is more."

The guest was disgruntled, and he sent me an email message to prove it. He said he was looking for free graphics to use on his web site and had navigated to the GIF Links section of Graphics Station wanting to check out some of the listed sites. (Note: As of now GIF Links no longer exists. See Ark Announcements).

"I was greeted by one pop-up window after another," he said. "It’s very unprofessional and I won’t ever go to their sites or yours again."

What I said? Well, I explained politely that I was sorry for the inconvenience the pop-up windows had caused him and that advertising was the means by which those free graphics were usually made possible.

After answering that email as "professionally" as possible I happened to be discussing the matter with an associate. We both had to agree that over use of pop-up windows was an annoying practice.

"I just close them as fast as they open and go on my way," I said, "If I really want their secret content that much I just get it and then close everything."

"You can just close the window of the site where they originated and that does the same thing," my associate said, "and if they make you that angry you can get a program called CrushPop that will eliminate them."

"I wish I’d known that a couple of weeks ago," I said, "I would have told that irritated guest."

http://megasolutions.hypermart.net/CRUSHPOP.HTM is one link where to get it free, or do a search for CrushPop.

I didn’t actually install CrushPop on my system, although my friend said that he had it installed and it worked just fine.

Install it at your own risk though, I assume no responsibility for any problems of any kind. Just to make sure I don’t make anyone else angry, that previous disclaiming sentence would seem the "professional" thing to say.

It wasn’t what I said by golly, but it was what I mighta said.

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A client was looking over my shoulder as I was doing a search for a java script I was wishing to use on her site. I was lucky this time and found it with relative ease.

"How do you find things you’re looking for on the web so fast," the client asked?

She seemed impressed. People who work with computers and the Internet know that modesty is always the best policy since anything that can go wrong will.

"That’s not always true," I said, keeping the modest motto in mind, "but there are some simple things I habitually do when doing searches."

First I go to my search page and choose an engine I want to use, http://www.arkvalwebworks.com/assorted/search.htm.  I may have to use several engines to find what I’m looking for and rather than searching for their bookmarks I just open new browser windows. (Some people want to keep the same browser window open and they can do that too by clicking on the icon to the left of the text listing).

In the search box I enter general information, followed by more specific information, followed by even more specific information separated by commas. For example: real estate, Colorado, Rocky Ford. There are hundreds of thousands of real estate web sites so it is essential to make your search specific.

Those same key words, real estate, Colorado, Rocky Ford will produce different results with different search engines as well. Try several. Personal favorites are Infozoid, AltaVista, Lycos, MetaCrawler, Husky Search, HotBot, and Northern Light.

Another helpful way to search involves the use of the words (or, and, not), called boolean operators. Check out http://library.albany.edu/internet/boolean.html for a good explanation on their use when doing web searches.

Additionally, when possible it is always best to be as specific as you can and take into account the sheer volume of information available on the web. For example, a search for Taciturn Tales usually produces results that link back to my site with amazing frequency. Guests from all over the world like to read those short antidotes; and the tales have an unusual enough category name that visitors remember those words when doing searches. Thus the keywords Taciturn Tales gain in link popularity and the whole site benefits because of more traffic.

So if you’ve getting bogged down with the search engines, experiment with the techniques mentioned above. Those little search tips will help you find what you’re looking for.

Those of us who live in Colorado never cease to marvel at the beautiful scenery that is so abundant here for us all to enjoy. Through choice or necessity some of us make our homes elsewhere, but memories of spacious skies and purple mountains majesty still remain with us.

Folks who have never been lucky enough to visit the Centennial State are usually awestruck when they first view our beautiful landscapes and meet the free spirited people who live here.

My friend Bruce Yoder has graciously allowed me to display some of his photography in the Wallpaper Pics section. He has a marvelous gift for being able to capture nature’s beauty in his photography.

It seems fitting to pass those good feelings on to others, and so the Mountain Scenes in the Wallpaper Pics has been updated with new entries to view and save.

So feel free to adorn your desktop with pictures of Colorado’s majestic mountains. They’re magically nutritious for frazzled minds.

The long awaited, much anticipated, anxiety related Graphics Station CD is almost ready to be released. It has been a long time coming and lots of work (and I do mean lots of work). What will it contain you ask? I’m glad you asked that question.

Drum roll please, ah um (clean throat). The Graphics Station CD will contain 504 graphics sets. There are 42 sets each of aqua, blue, brown, green, grey, maroon, orange, pink, purple, red, tan, and yellow. Each set contains one standard background tile, four and in some cases five, left border style backgrounds, one blank 468X60 banner, one blank 128X128 square banner, one blank 88X31 micro banner, one blank 88X120 vertical banner, one blank 400X40 old style banner, and one blank 234X60 half banner.

Each set also contains one blank button, and buttons with the words Home, Email, Links, About, Guestbook, Contact, Download, Freebies, Site Map, Back, Next, Top, and Frog Smoochers. How did that last one get in there?

Just kidding about the Frog Smoochers thing, but you get the idea. I had to draw the line somewhere or it could have gone on forever; but custom buttons will also be available to those who purchase the CD, and at discount prices too. (More on that later).

Guests are invited to view and use any of the graphics sets now presented in Graphics Station on their own personal sites. A link back to Arkansas Valley Web Works is encouraged and appreciated but not mandatory. Please follow the other "rules" listed on the Graphics Station main page on my site.

Well back to work. I’ve got some problems to solve to make it perfect and easily viewed in a browser. A respected role model would have said, "It is not whether you encounter problems, it is what you do to solve them."

I always try to keep those encouraging words in mind when confronted with disgusting dilemmas. Now where did I put that hammer anyway?

"Love is a grave mental disease."

Plato. (427?-348? B.C.

"Plato is a bore."