Athena - Good news????

[BR]

I can't stand it anymore [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]
You said "Sorry for the absence... I hope you've heard the good word about the forums.... news is.... there is good word...."
I heard over in the Xara forum that Xara.com may be hosting the Xara forum and maybe some other forums as well. Will they be taking the Painter forum along for the ride???

Also; been having my own computer problems as well, as I'm sure everyone does. Why is it that it seems I spend half my time making my computer work instead of working on my computer. Just installed Netscape 6. Had high hopes for this version as they said it would be small, efficient, and moduler like the programs of old, but it's not that small, not that scaleable, and certainly not efficient as it started out a bit quirky and then went downhill. Won't even look up a URL without an exception right now. And it's all over my hard drive like IE. Anyway, [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img] wouldn't recommend installing it on an NT machine right now till next update. And whats with that; patch, patch, patch. I know, I know, must be hard coding for all the variables, so why not simplify some, set some standards so everyone can enjoy.

Sorry folks [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
BR....

[BR]

I can't stand it anymore [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]
You said "Sorry for the absence... I hope you've heard the good word about the forums.... news is.... there is good word...."
I heard over in the Xara forum that Xara.com may be hosting the Xara forum and maybe some other forums as well. Will they be taking the Painter forum along for the ride???

Also; been having my own computer problems as well, as I'm sure everyone does. Why is it that it seems I spend half my time making my computer work instead of working on my computer. Just installed Netscape 6. Had high hopes for this version as they said it would be small, efficient, and moduler like the programs of old, but it's not that small, not that scaleable, and certainly not efficient as it started out a bit quirky and then went downhill. Won't even look up a URL without an exception right now. And it's all over my hard drive like IE. Anyway, [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img] wouldn't recommend installing it on an NT machine right now till next update. And whats with that; patch, patch, patch. I know, I know, must be hard coding for all the variables, so why not simplify some, set some standards so everyone can enjoy.

Sorry folks [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
BR....

[athena]

BR and all,

(wow i've never seen a posting vaporized into the ether before...my previous post is toast [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] I tip my hat to you, Infopop .... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] )

I can't explain the situation much better than Chris Dickman did in his letter to the moderators. . . and since none of what I'm quoting seems top secret I'm going to quote the pertinent stuff directly from the letter.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Greetings:

I wanted you to know, before I made it public on the site, that the i/us Forums will have a new home some time before the end of December. Some of
you are already familiar with Xara Corp., as users of one of their graphics applications, such as Xara 3D or their superb Xara illustration program.

Xara was the first application that we sold on i/us, and we have continued to sell Xara products and support the Xara user community. We've always enjoyed working with the folks at Xara, not only because they produce great products, but because they are genuinely concerned with ensuring customer satisfaction -- something we all wish was a more common phenomenon.

You may have heard that the i/us site itself will be shutting down at the end of the year, and indeed this is true. However, we have worked hard to find new homes for the many content areas that made up our site, and we're happy to say that NavWorks, the XaraXone and most of the others will still be available at new locations. The XaraXone, for example, will be hosted in its entirely by Xara. Xara will also be hosting the current Forums -- all of them, not just those devoted to Xara. (Athena's emphasis)They see the value in maintaining the current wide variety of different discussion topics and in fact have plans to expand them. I'm confident that under their management, the Forums will continue to grow and provide even more value. They plan to manage them as i/us has, in a completely hands-off manner, with no "company line" jammed down people's throats. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


(In case anyone is worrying about my sense of privacy. . . I do keep private things private... it's just that this part of the letter pertains to all of us.. .and it is SO well said . . . )

Chris answers the when and the how of the move


I'm copying this posting to clipboard... . .so info pop server probs don't toast another post..

As always, your trusting moderator,

Athena

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]


Three Cheers for XARA! Our Painter Forum and all the others have been Rescued... Long live XARA!

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[ghi stecyk]

miz hatton

hey, good news....?

i have a question: what kind of hardware/software is needed to create and maintain a forum such as this one? are moderators privy to top secret information provided only to them by the i/us illuminati? do you have late night rendezvous with chain smoking old guys? are we, the participants in this forum, nothing more than naive players in some grand scheme for world domination?... or am i just taking this thing way to seriously?

stecyk66
[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

[athena]

I was kinda hoping there would be a big parade or party announcing the news so i kept mum. . . (sorry . . . I didn't mean to upset anyone. . . but surprises are MOST fun when they are kept secret I really didn't mean to insult anyone's intelligence here. . . .I just get playful every now and then)

But Break out the champagne! The forums have been rescued. . ..

RE: Hardware/Software question

i-us had been renting this Infopop service from OpenTopic since August of 2000. In web design terms. . . I would call OpenTopic an ASP (Application Service Provider) this is a way for a software developer to distribute the cost of developing a web program or service. . .over a large number of smaller customers who, by themselves, could not have afforded the cost of buying the service/programming necessary to run such a service.

So what is going on here hardware software wise . . . is that OpenTopic owns some servers (or more accurately has access to some servers). . . possibly Unix servers .... more likely. ..NT servers... where they run a database application of some sort.. . the form you get to make a posting is the place where the information is entered into the i-us database of messages. We see this database displayed as our forums . . .

If you had a website and wanted to use a forum/bbs program like the one here at OpenTopic. . . you would look up the prices you would be willing to pay to have them run such a beast for you or you could try the UBB program . . .which I believe still requires you to have access to your own server space (the space could be rented) and/or a CGI bin .... (I may be blowing smoke on this one. . . will look into it)

I went into such detail here, Stecyk66, just in case you or others were remotely curious. . . .

hope it helped. . . (hate to think i muddied the waters. . .)

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Athena

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[ghi stecyk]

and spoken in that wonderful lone gunman vernacular too! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
well i'm not much for champagne, but maybe i'll open up my new bottle of single malt scotch instead! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]


stecyk66

[BR]

Athena
Good to hear the Painter forum is going along. Keep us posted, if you would, with any news you hear. Don't read-in much at the Xara forums as I don't use Xara, but it certainly seems an active, friendly place. Hopefully this forum will pickup speed in that direction as it is now afforded the chance. Always liked this sort of format, leisurely posting and reading with images allowed as examples, better than receiving 300 emails at once. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

stecyk
Hey, if your serious, don't be so serious. I believe message boards are just cgi/database thingies. Most are just let loose to run, but then some use moderators/editors to tow the company line by deleting posts or freezing threads, or even banning users. They can get out of hand! Everyone seems so sensitive these days, and if something can somehow be taken the wrong way, it will be. Jesum crow! sometimes I can take a half hour, re-reading and re-writing a simple email response, so as to make sure not to offend. Then sometimes I don't. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

Athena - Stecyk
I've been pretty busy lately, and I've been dying to jump in on one of the many philosophic/religious "openings" that have been offered up. Maybe now we have the time to wind a thread around it and tie in Art.

Yes veronica, there really is such a thing as "Web Time".

BR....

[BR]

Speaking of web time and taking so long to write right, seems you folks made a couple posts while I was busy with the above. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img]

BR....

[chris-dickman]

Athena is right on the money with her comments about the Forums, they'll all live on, in their current form, thanks to Xara. I'll post an "official" announcement about that here soon.

<blockquote>
<font color=green>Chris Dickman</font>
http://www.i-us.com/images/sig.gif
</blockquote>

[gmotto]

Hi Folks,
Lets talk about “Good News� first. The news from Chris D. is indeed good news. There seems to be a small core of us that have been sticking it out and contributing to this forum. I am sure that the other groups also have their core groups. I was concerned about loosing contact with some good people. I have stated before, I resist changing states in most things. I am glad to know we are going to be together for a while.
I have more good news, at least for me. After ten days of looking a blinking light on my desk I am happy to announce that my e-mail address is changed to gregmotto@home.com. The blinking light was a cable modem that didn’t work. This high-speed modem has given me Whiplash several times in the last two days. I downloaded a 19M patch/upgrade for Illustrator in less than 3 min.

Athena,
Thank you for your kind words,regarding my work.In answer to your question of why I painted “End of Days�. The reason is that for some time I have been thinking about how very temporary we really are. We as a species, as a society, as individuals are at best transient. All of the Things we build in homage to our own ego’s can not and will not last forever. We would be in a terrible mess if they did. I guess that the picture is a reminder of our limited tenure in the Eyes of Time.

BR,
Thank you also, I appreciate the critique, your observations on what and how are right on. The pearls are a remnant of a lens flare but I didn't use Blade Pro on this just sort of tweeked until I got a texture I liked.

[This message was edited by Monastic Bat on November 30, 2000 at 06:26 AM.]