Are you single? Do you want to find a soul-mate?

[veryscarymary]

I have had to remove this posting.
Thanx

[hiwayracer]

Okay sorry never knew that???? but it is still spam......

[paulzon]

DIE SPAMMER DIE!!!

I know how annoying "spam" can be. But with all due respect Craig, Mary IS a statcounter user, and whether she is "spamming" or not, she doesn't deserve to die! ... this is a nice forum, which is populated by polite people. So we really shouldn't be posting hateful messages like this!

Regards,

Paul (www.zonicweb.net)
Museum Of Bad Album Covers (http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/)

[hiwayracer]

appologies as i did not even check out the site and by by no means was it ment to be taken litreally.

[veryscarymary]

Hiya,
Just to clarify. Yes, I am a statcounter, and I've found it VERY useful in my work. Because of it I now take all sort of currencies on my site, as I found that I was having hits from all over the world.........I hear what you say about spam. This is a genuine message, that has only been posted here, because, as I say, this remedy is now in a new format, and I need to have it trialed. In the past I've used friends, clients and family but I thought, for a change, I'd use the statcounter forum, as you seemed a nice bunch of people, that had helpful solutions to others problems. I'm not having a 'problem' but I do need 7 people to take the remedy, and report back their findings. I do a lot of research and sometimes it's necessary to be open to a wider audience. Statcounter has members from all over the world, hence my post, so that I can have a variable response.
Homeopathy is a little difficult to explain in a few words and I tried to keep my posting friendly and to the point. If anyone has any further questions I'm only to happy to respond!
All the best
Mary :)

[hiwayracer]

Once again.

I apologise.

:oops:

I jumped the gun rather quickly with out even checking out your site. :oops:

[Arne]

I hear what you say about spam. This is a genuine message, that has only been posted here, because, as I say, this remedy is now in a new format, and I need to have it trialed.

Ok, so your intention with your post was not spamming. But I do understand why "hiwayracer" believed it was spam (even if only posted here), as I also belived it was:

1. Your very first post in this forum
2. The subject you choosed (gives a "smell" of spam)
3. Even the way you writed the content "smells" spam
4. The site is really on http://uk.geocities.com/veryscarymary

Then there is #5 on my list. Three big images in the post, is not really nessecery and even annoying when the total size for them is approx. 175 kB. They where really not needed even if a small image in the sig don't hurt anybody. You have the same images on your site and you really should optimize them.

So, I don't blame "hiwayracer", not even now I understand what your "message" is about. But that can be because english is not my native language :roll:

[paulzon]

Arne, I understand your concerns about "spam" and the format of people's messages here, but you are trying to turn this forum into some kind of "Police State" with your criticisms. I am sure that both Mary and Craig realise that they they were perhaps a little hasty in their postings (as I am too sometimes :wink: ). But for the last time, it is obvious that Mary is not some kind of hardcore spammer, she does not deserve to die, Craig has been a gentleman and apologized for his haste in posting, and we should now be extending the (metaphorical) hand of friendship to Mary as a new user of the forum!

She is not posting endless messages promoting ****ra / Gambling / whatever, she is just looking for a few people for a trial, Craig is a very helpful member of the forum who has been getting (justifiably) angry about the REAL spam that has appering in these forums of late, and I think that we should all just calm down and make Mary feel very welcome here now that the initial misunderstanding is out of the way.

Mary, I truly hope that this hasn't put you off from using the Statcounter forum, and I for one would like to offer you a warm welcome here. Arne, please "lighten up" with less experienced users of the forum, this is a "Lounge" section of a forum, not a Jakob Nielsen lecture on website usability! ... At the moment you are just scaring off new users with your ogreish ways!

Regards,

Paul (www.zonicweb.net)
Museum Of Bad Album Covers (http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/)

[paulzon]

Mary,

Arne is right about your images though, they have much too large a filesize for your website, and they will take a lifetime to download if someone was using a slow connection. I could rectify this for you if you wanted? ... it would only take a minute!

Regards, Paul

(www.zonicweb.net)
Museum Of Bad Album Covers (http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/)

[Arne]

Arne, I understand your concerns about "spam" and the format of people's messages here, but you are trying to turn this forum into some kind of "Police State" with your criticisms.

Paul, I do understand she is not a spammer and I did not belived it when I wrote my post erlier. So I don't see my post as criticisms, only explaining why some of us get the impression. That explanation I hope can save her and others from getting accused as spammers when are not.

I only wish that I had remembered to wish Mary welcome to this forum to, now when we have sorted this out! I'll do it now and apologize if my previous post is taken as a criticisms. There is only nice persons around here, even if some of us over react from time to time for obvious reasons :lol:

Welcome Mary, to the forum!

[paulzon]

Arne,

Perhaps I was being a little harsh in my previous message, but only because I thought that you were being that way with Mary. I don't mind your posts, you know what you are writing about and they do make sense in a perfect world, but my point was that they may be a little "frightening" when they are directed at a newer user :wink:

Regards,

Paul (www.zonicweb.net)
Museum Of Bad Album Covers (http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/)

[donecweb]

Welcome to the Statcounter forum veryscarymary.

I saw your post and the method of witting hurt you instead of helping you, unless the notoriety turns things around and makes search engines take note of the post. :lol:

I would suggest to others posting here or in any forum don't make your first few post look like advertising instead look around and make a few comments first.

veryscarymary your site has over 473kb of images on your home page and this will surely make loading your home page too slow for a dial up user.

Again Welcome.

[veryscarymary]

Dear DONec,
Thank you for your message. I will look at the file sizes for my pictures and reduce them. I've got a broadband connection and unfortunately I forget that some peole still dial-up. Thanx for the input, I will make some changes.
All the best
Mary

[paulzon]

Dear Mary,

Your images are "sorted" now! ... and I have e.mailed the compressed versions to you. They look exactly the same in terms of "quality", but the filesizes are only a tiny fraction of what they were before!

Regards,

Paul (www.zonicweb.net)
Museum Of Bad Album Covers (http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/)

[veryscarymary]

Dear Paul,
Thank you VERY much for that. I've uploaded them to my site. Does that load easier now?
Just to let you know I'm disconnecting my computer this weekend as I'm moving house on Tuesday, so if anyone is still interested please get back to me quick as next week I'll be using Internet Cafes and won't be on broadband again for a while............plus I'll be up-to-my-ears in boxes!!All the best
Mary

[graham35]

Paulzon wrote
Dear Mary,

Your images are "sorted" now! ... and I have e.mailed the compressed versions to you. They look exactly the same in terms of "quality", but the filesizes are only a tiny fraction of what they were before!

Paul, what do you use to compress your images - this information could be useful to lots of us "would be web builder"
Thanks

[paulzon]

Paul, what do you use to compress your images - this information could be useful to lots of us "would be web builder"
Thanks

I use either Adobe "Photoshop", Macromedia "Fireworks", or "GIMP" (which is a free image editor).

I would recommend "Photoshop" for high quality still images, designing website templates etc, "Fireworks" for it's integration with "Flash" and "Dreamweaver" (which are the animation / movie / web page applications that I use), and GIMP if you don't want to spend thousands of £££'s, $$$'s etc on software!

I use them all for compressing images, but if I remember rightly I did Mary's images in GIMP, as it was the quickest to start up, and makes rather a nice job of "crunching" images in general.

Finally there is "Paintshop Pro", but I am no expert on this as I haven't used it for years. Perhaps someone else could fill you in there!

Hope this helps!

Paul (www.zonicweb.net)
Museum Of Bad Album Covers (http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/)

[paulzon]

Hi Mary (and all)!

I have "zizzed" up your image a little in Photoshop, and you can see the "before" and "after" versions below. I have posted it in the forum for the sake of Graham, so he can see a little of what PShop can do. Just download it from here if you want it!

As you have Photoshop Mary, I used "Lasso", "Contrast" and "Unsharp Mask" for future reference.

Regards, Paul (www.zonicweb.net)
Museum Of Bad Album Covers (http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/)

http://uk.geocities.com/veryscarymary/mary.english.jpghttp://www.zonicweb.net/images/mary-english5.jpg

[Arne]

Finally there is "Paintshop Pro", but I am no expert on this as I haven't used it for years. Perhaps someone else could fill you in there!

I have used Paint Shop Pro for years, and allmost only that, for images. Still using PSP 6 since I don't see need to upgrade. Cheaper than Photoshop and I belive you can still do anything with PSP that you can do with PS.

Compressing JPG files is very easy with PSP, just hit the "Save Copy As" button and choose the grade of compresson you prefer from "Options" and you get a compressed copy for your website! Just did that with Mary's photo that you uploaded as a 23.64 KB. My copy is now only 13.77 KB with my default compresson factor at 20 :lol:

http://hem.bredband.net/b450204/mary.english.jpg

[The Gent]

Dear Paul,
Thank you VERY much for that. I've uploaded them to my site. Does that load easier now?


Er ... No. The height and width attributes are wrong. It still looks like the older image as well, are you sure you have used the correct one?

[Arne]

Dear Paul,
Thank you VERY much for that. I've uploaded them to my site. Does that load easier now?

Er ... No. The height and width attributes are wrong. It still looks like the older image as well, are you sure you have used the correct one?

Well yes, the "mary-english.jpg" image on the site is the same as before (107.95 kB and 262 x 277 pixels in width/height).

It's non of the images posted here on the forum, named as "mary.english.jpg" and "mary-english5.jpg" (note the differences in file names). Since the picture on the site is only 119 x 120 pixels, the uploaded copy should be the same height/width insted of the bigger image shrinked to that size. Here is a ready to upload image, now only 3.73 kB :wink:

http://hem.bredband.net/b450204/mary-english.jpg

[paulzon]

I have used Paint Shop Pro for years, and almost only that, for images. Still using PSP 6 since I don't see need to upgrade. Cheaper than Photoshop and I belive you can still do anything with PSP that you can do with PS.

Well I have used PSP6 (an old version from years ago), and with all due respect Arne, there is no way that you can do the same amount with that as you can with the full edition of Photoshop, that is why Photoshop is used by nearly all imaging professionals, and not PSP, which is only a tiny fraction of the price. If you don't believe me ask anyone else who works with images professionally on a daily basis! ... Having wrote this, I am sure that the latest version of PSP is fine if you just want a basic package at a budget price.

Compressing JPG files is very easy with PSP, just hit the "Save Copy As" button and choose the grade of compresson you prefer from "Options" and you get a compressed copy for your website! Just did that with Mary's photo that you uploaded as a 23.64 KB. My copy is now only 13.77 KB with my default compresson factor at 20 :lol:

Well yes, that is much the same as Photoshop, which was was the template for other image editing applications which followed in it's wake. "GIMP" (which is what I used to compress them is much the same too). As for the image you processed, you have compressed it much more than I did, which is why it looks "grainier" and less well resolved (especially in a lower screen resolution like 800x600). My aim was to compress the image without losing any noticable "quality".

Mary, "The Gent" is right. As I mentioned to you earlier, altering the size at which the image is displayed in your HTML editor will NOT reduce the filesize of the image, you must do this in your image editor.

Regards,

Paul (www.zonicweb.net)
Museum Of Bad Album Covers (http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/)

[Arne]

I have used Paint Shop Pro for years, and almost only that, for images. Still using PSP 6 since I don't see need to upgrade. Cheaper than Photoshop and I belive you can still do anything with PSP that you can do with PS.

Well I have used PSP6 (an old version from years ago), and with all due respect Arne, there is no way that you can do the same amount with that as you can with the full edition of Photoshop, that is why Photoshop is used by nearly all imaging professionals, and not PSP, which is only a tiny fraction of the price. If you don't believe me ask anyone else who works with images professionally on a daily basis! ... Having wrote this, I am sure that the latest version of PSP is fine if you just want a basic package at a budget price.

Well, I was refering my old PSP to comparing version of Photoshop as I remeber it. :lol: The price was even more a fraction of the price for PS then, and since there is nothing I need in an upgraded version of either PSP or PS I'm still happy with my old PSP.

I'm sure you can compress image files in Photoshop, but it seams like a lot of users have problems with it, because I see a lot of large and uncompressed images on sites where Photoshop has been the image editor. :wink:

[JWJ]

I have used PSP since version 2 and recently upgraded from PSP7 to PSP8. It does some very technical stuff that is far away from anything I'm ever likely to need. That said, I am not in a position to judge whether they meet the requirements of professionals not being one myself.

I have always heard great reports from people who use Photoshop and I would love to try it for myself one of these days. I guess there may not be a huge difference between these products at basic user level and that we each prefer what we have always used. Anything new takes a while to get to grips with and that can colour (no pun intended :) ) our opinion. Mind you, if it's true that we only get what we pay for then Photoshop must be far superior to PSP. If I ever get to try it I'll let you know.

[graham35]

Paul - Thank you for the info and also to the other people here - and even veryscarymary don't look so scary now, she is looking good for ~~##;';# (25)

I have just ordered photoshop elements 3, I reckon there will be enough on that for me to try out, I also downloaded a copy of "Gimpshop" http://plasticbugs.com/index.php?p=241 the other week and had a play around with that for a while - found it a bit crude but feel that I could get to grips with it after a while - and I liked the price 00.00.
I use easy thumbnails http://www.fookes.com/ezthumbs/index.php?2.8 for my thumbnails and compression - that works a treat and its free (I even sold the idea to Christina)
Anyway like I said, thanks for the useful info guys

[veryscarymary]

HI Guys,
Thanx for all the useful tips. You're right Gent, I haven't loaded the piccie onto my website, I just uploaded it to the server so it would be smaller here on the forum first, then when I have time I'll change it on my website. As you'll know, web-building takes time, and if I settle down to change things, then the phone goes and a client needs me, I'm stuffed. I have to prioritise. I also visit clients in their homes (hence Heals on Wheels) so web-building/editing happens late at night, when I get home.
As I've already mentioned, I'm moving house on Tuesday, which means most of my house is now in boxes, and on Monday the plug is pulled on the computer server..............then who knows what. :shock:
NO COMPUTER FOR AT LEAST A WEEK.......Imagine that. rein,zero,nil, nothing.......!! I sometimes wonder how we all managed before computers. 15 years ago you couldn't 'post a message' and get bunches of people to help, you had to use the phone or ask a mate......or (god forbid) write a letter.
Think of all the things you CAN'T do, without your computer....it's a scary thought,
All the best
Mary

[paulzon]

Paul - Thank you for the info and also to the other people here - and even veryscarymary don't look so scary now, she is looking good for ~~##;';# (25)

I have just ordered photoshop elements 3, I reckon there will be enough on that for me to try out, I also downloaded a copy of "Gimpshop" http://plasticbugs.com/index.php?p=241 the other week and had a play around with that for a while - found it a bit crude but feel that I could get to grips with it after a while - and I liked the price 00.00.


No problem Graham!

I tried the latest version of the "GIMP" last night, and it is MUCH more extensive than the previous version which I was working with.

Unlike Graham, I installed the conventional version, along with all the additional plugins / scripts etc, and for a "free" program (I left a donation though) it is absolutely astounding, and I would recommend it to just about anyone!

Graham, I don't know what the "Photoshop" style version is like, but mine wasn't "crude" at all, it was very sophisticated. The only things I noticed were that the install may be just a little complicated for a real "newbie" who is used to just sticking a disc in their drive and clicking a few buttons, but it was still quite easy. Also I keep getting prompted to stick a disc in the drive when I start it up (haven't got to the bottom of that yet).

I am currently working on a "GIMP" animation of blocks flying through space with some nice, pretty colours on them!

Arne, you should give it a try!

Long live "Open Source" programming!!!

Mary, don't forget that you have a choice of three images now of your lovely physog! there's the "original" version (24K), the "improved" version with richer colour and extra sharpness (24K also), and Arne's heavily "crunched", low bandwidth version (14K) ... Good luck with the house movin BTW!

Regards,

Paul (www.zonicweb.net)
Museum Of Bad Album Covers (http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs)

[veryscarymary]

Hello Friends,
I am all moved in now. Even got myself back onto the Internet, sadly only with dial-up, but that will change in a few weeks. :)
Further to my original posting I DO STILL NEED some volunteers, so if anyone is still single and looking to start a new life, please get in touch.
I can't edit my webpages just yet, as dial-up is too slow to make the changes I need.
Hope you're having a good summer, we're having storms here in Bath (!!?), what's the weather like your end?
All the best
Mary

[paulzon]

Welcome back Mary!

I hope that you are enjoying your new home.

The weather is erratic over here (in London). I expect that you're praying for thunder if it's stormy over there! :wink:

Regards from Paul

(www.zonicweb.net)
Museum Of Bad Album Covers (http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs)

[veryscarymary]

HOORAY!!!
Back onto broad-band AT LAST. I can surf the Net AND answer the phone, joy joy joy!!
I can also adjust my website as you all so helpfully suggested. Being on dial-up was a nightmare, so I'll have to make my site more dial-up friendly some time this weekend.
As I'm now settled again I still have to trial my new product, so please don't be shy to ask me more details if you need to,
All the best
Mary