Alerts

The IE bug was of such critical importance that Microsoft have released the patch for it immediately rther than waiting for their regular update schedule. If you are running Windows then you should install the IE update now if you haven't already done so.

The major security hole recently discovered in Internet Explorer means that Microsoft is recommending that all IE users make sure that they upgrade immediately to IE8. They also suggest that who can't upgrade from IE6 change the internet zone security setting to High. Some security companies are recommending abandoning Internet Explorer completely.

Both versions of my form2mail script and also my Guestmap script are now available with support for four languages - English, Dutch, French, and German.

In order to streamline the purchase process for people purchasing my scripts and ebooks I have removed the intermediate step that requests for a confirmation that the person intended to make the purchase before sending them the file. The purchased file will now be sent immediately that Paypal confirms the transaction (note that echeck transactions still take several days to clear).

I have been reviewing a lot of the prices that I have listed on this site for the various scripts that I sell and other work that I offer to do. For those located outside of Australia there is good news. While just about all of my Australian Dollar prices have increased slightly the change in the exchange rates has meant that many of the US dollar prices for those same items are now less.

The one type of security software that you need to be most careful about when attempting to locate the most suitable software to use on your computer is anti-spam software. Even legitimate security software providers who produce excellent software for all your other security needs may be lacking in this area. A lot of so called "anti-spam" software is actually responsible for generating a significant fraction of spam emails be sending out its own spam supposedly to "authenticate" the sender. Unfortunately since most spam spoofs the sender email address this results in your generating spam to send to an innocent third party whenever you receive spam. Help stop the spread of spam by NOT using such a program. Many people will have their anti-spam program set to automatically discard such authentication spam and so the end result of using such a program will be that you don't receive spam, you don't receive legitimate emails, and the only effect your having an email address at all is as a relay for spammers to further clog the email system with spam.

The new version two of my Password Protection Toolkit is now available. It doesn't include all that I had originally planned to add to version two and so is still more of a toolkit than a complete solution. The table in the database now has four extra fields to record when a member first joined and the IP address they joined from, when they last logged in, and an option for an administrator to set up different home pages for different members.

The new version has at least included all the code for the new fields I wanted to add to the table. Hopefully the remainder of the functionality that I had hoped to add will be added in version 2.1 within the next few months.

A number of people using my form2mail script with the optional file upload module are having problems wih a server upgrade to PHP5. This relates to a PHP field called register_long_arrays being turned off.

There are two ways you can fix this - the easy way if you are still within 12 months of when you purchased the script is to download the latest version which has the fixes applied. The hard way if you are outside of that period is to change all the references to $HTTP_POST_FILES in efopt.php to $_FILES and remove the global statement. Some versions of the script also have a typo in efunc1.php which references $x_FILES instead of $_FILES.

I first wrote my form2mail script several years ago and it underwent many changes over the next few years. It hasn't seen any changes for about a year now but the wait for updates has passed. Version 4.0 of the Advanced form2mail script is now available with new features allowing you to format the page that displays the error messages as well as the opportunity to blacklist email addresses from being able to use any of your email forms should you need to (as I have done for AOL given that they send out bogus spam reports).

I have updated the colour scheme for the site once again. The blue background behind the content has been made lighter once again (hopefully making the content easier to read). I have also changed the colour down the borders to one that is not quite so bright. Finally I have fixed the background image behind the header to correct the gradient.

I have had my internet access back now for about a week after being without it for several weeks due to a lightning strike. I am slowly catching up with all the things that I have fallen behind with. Apologies to anyone who is still waiting for a response but I will get caught up eventually.

A bolt of lightning on the last Friday of October killed my internet connection ( and lots of other electrical items). I am still waiting for the insurance to sort it out. Meanwhile I am borrowing an internet connection to perform minimal updates and read emails. Apologies to anyone whose award submission or question has not yet been answered.

If you have emailed me in the last three weeks and have not yet received a reply, it doesn't mean that I have ignored your email. I just have so much going on at the moment that I have fallen behind in answering emails.

As I now have a new blog at felgall.net I have decided to reuse the old one I had built into this site to display important alert notices on the home page.

My Word - August 2007 :

Finding web sites that actually offer electronic books that attempt to teach anything to do with HTML appears to be rather difficult. There are plenty of web sites around that provide information on HTML and how to use it but very few that offer the information in a format specifically designed to be printed out as a book.

In those instances where eBooks dealing with HTML are available (at least in so far as those that I have been able to find are concerned) the eBooks deal only with how to do specific things with HTML which are mostly related to marketing electronic products online. In addition the eBooks appear to have been written by people who themselves do not understand HTML properly and so these eBooks are mostly filled with information that is many years out of date if it was ever valid information in the first place.

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In looking around the internet to see what is available in some areas I frequently sign up for free membership of selected member only sites. Some of these sites confirm your email address by emailing you the password to use to get access. The problem is that some of these emails neglect to provide a link to the site that the password is for which tends to make the password rather useless. Something to think about if you ever set up a members area on a web site and intend emailing the password - include a link to your site in the email as well so people know where to use the password - otherwise the email is just junk.

I have replaced the menu bar at the bottom of the header block so as to make the menu more accessible. Instead of displaying a link to the sitemap when JavaScript is disabled the menu bar now always displays the same main categories in all browsers (except Netscape 4). For all popular browsers except for IE6 the menu should still operate with JavaScript turned off. Clicking on the menu headings will bring up a list of all of the menu entries except for those that require JavaScript. The menu bar will remain visible with JavaScript enabled but will scroll with the page if it is disabled.

I have added a new College to the places that I teach at as well as offering an extended version of the "My First Web Site" course. The Bankstown Community College is offering my course there over eight weeks instead of the six weeks that I run it for at Macarthur. The extra two sessions allow even more time for getting your site set up properly with my assistance.

If you live in Sydney then you might be interested in attending one of my computer classes. The information on classes that I am running in term two is now listed.

While there are still a few things to be finished off and lots more ebooks and software to add - the Member's Area is now ready for you to join.