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Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 6:18 pm
by Jones'n4chrome
Good job Sharkey, that's a long days work. Camellia looks like she is eating good, she looks much better then when you got her.
Merry Christmas. Chuck

Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 6:45 pm
by Sharkey
What you are seeing is mostly winter hair growth, she looks like a miniature wooly mammoth without the tusks.

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 12:57 am
by Rudy
Sharkey, you look to be in good shape yourself. I didn't know that Camellia was a small horse. I guess that one picture that you once posted of you sitting on her was NOT a Photoshop trick.

I would have had fun with the burn pile. There is one over here and I keep asking my friend when are we going to light it off. It is a collection of tree branches, paper, cardboard, and leaves. It should be fun when we get it going. I have a 12 volt pump that we can use to extract some diesel from my bus. Thanks for the idea.

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 1:10 am
by Rudy
I must reciprocate. Here's a goofy picture of me taken inside the bus while we were still building the inside of it. I am holding one of my favorite Streamlight flashlights.

Image

Today is December 25. Merry Christmas.

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 2:23 am
by Dennis The Bus Dweller
Merry Christmas Rudy

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 2:32 am
by Dennis The Bus Dweller
Finely the boss shows his face. It’s really great to put a face to the shark avatar. We've already met your better half. Merry Christmas Sharkey

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 8:09 am
by Jones'n4chrome
Thanks for the pic's guys. Sharkey I wasn't sure but I thought that pic was of your friend Thomas? is it you?

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 4:32 pm
by Sharkey
OK, so don't anybody panic!!! I have edited the scripts so that old messages don't get erased after 20 minutes. In fact, they don't get erased at all. This means that the last 100 chat messages are there to view, even if it's days later This means that you'll have to read the date and time stamps on the user join/logout in the list of messages to know if you are reading old messages or a current conversation when you first log in. But it also means that you can "camp" on the chat by posting a message saying when you are on and when you'll be back, and that message will be readable to anyone else who drops in.

I've also upped the maximum number of characters in a message to 255, which is the upper limit unless I want to do a bunch of complicated database conversion.

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 4:45 am
by Sharkey
Still fooling around with the chat, trying to get it tweaked into a shape that I like.

The latest development is that the page refresh rate is now user-selectable. One complaint that I heard from several users was that they were not happy with the refresh rate of the message list, it was refreshing too quickly. Now you can decide how many seconds it takes to refresh the view, in any increment from 1 to 99 seconds.

For now, this settings has to be adjusted through the database. Eventually, I hope to have a "Chat Preferences" section in the user profiles so that each of you can select and adjust the rate to your liking.

The default value for chat refresh is 10 seconds, as it was before, so if you are satisifed with that interval, nothing needs be done. If you would like to change your setting, either email me or make a post here and I'll make the change for you.

I have set my own refresh rate to 20 seconds, and it seems better.

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 3:26 am
by Rudy
Sharkey, The Stop Refresh feature is just the thing we needed. I used it this morning and was able to read all the prior posts. Very Cool! I would think that you could leave 200 on the "read" portion. It is fun to go back and read them. Also, the 20 second refresh timing is a good idea. Thanks for figuring it out. Rudy

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 5:52 am
by Sharkey
Having two topic threads on the subject of chat is getting confusing, I'm going to continue to post updates in this thread.

There is now a link in the left panel of the ChatBox labeled "Stop Refresh" that allows you to stop the refreshing of the list of messages. This will allow you to read the past 200 messages without the annoyance of having the page refresh and make you lose your place.

Note that this "reading" page will not show you any new posts since you began reading it, that's what the refresh does, without refreshing you are reading an archived history, not a current conversation.

In order to view newest messages or post a new message yourself, use the "Restart Refresh" link in the left hand pane and you will be sent back to the live chat page, which displays the last 50 messages.

There are still some bugs to work out, when you leave the live chat, the system will make a message saying that you "have joined the chat", and giving the date and time. This is some leftover code that I need to hunt down and see if I can disable, perhaps tonight.

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:00 am
by Rudy
Sharkey, I know that I did post to the other thread about the Chat, this morning. I will constrain the posts to here. I did direct readers to this thread to see the latest updates.

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:57 am
by Jones'n4chrome
Cool, I know this may sound redundant, but thanks again Sharkey for all the hard work you into this site. You too Rudy.
Chuck

Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:10 pm
by Sharkey
Another night of code hacking.

The latest is that the chat link and list of chatters using it (if any) is now displayed in the left hand menu of the forum, meaning that you can keep an eye on the status of the chat while reading or posting messages. Remember that you have to be logged in to see these menu items.

To join the chat, simply click any of the text under the "Chat" menu item.

It couldn't be simpler (unless you're the guy who has to write the code...)

Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:32 pm
by Sharkey
This ought to give Rudy a big, orange stiffie....

The latest code changes to the chat have enabled users to have their user names appear in COLOR.

While this might seem a bit useless except for appearance, I think it might make reading and replying to chat messages easier because if each user chooses an individual color, then it will be more apparent who posted what.

There's an entire range of colors available. I've created a page that displays them and allows you to click a color to select it's name. Once you have decided on a color, click it, then select and copy the name of the color and either email it to me, or post it here. I'll edit the database and your new color will appear next time you chat.

There's no reason that several users can't share the same color, so don't feel like you have to make a big effort to come up with a unique color. In fact, if you decide to not decide, the black default color will continue to work just fine.

Eventually, I will create a field in the user profile that allow you to select and change your username color at will. For the time being, I'll just edit the database by hand, so let those colors roll in.