About Image Effects

Of course, within a month of me making that decision and a very cool logo, MacroMedia released their new web page authoring package, which was also called Dream Weaver. After a short bout of confusing people as to the contents of my page, I renamed again to Image Effects, in the hope that everyone will understand this. For those who are interested to know what the Dream Weaver program is all about (especially if you found my site based on its old name), try the Macromedia web site. People who want to see the old Dream Weaver logo can find it at the end of the Glow Technique.

Image Effects is finally quite successful. Alas, it is not the cool site I hoped Dream Weaver would be, but I can't be bothered to rename again! I hope that one day I can create a new logo as cool as the Dream Weaver one. Meantime, I hope I can develop this site in the future to be even more useful for you, the readers.

Image Effects was originally created on my IBM/Cyrix 6x86 P120+, with 48Mb of RAM, 6.1Gb of total hardisk storage, quad speed CD-ROM drive, 4Mb S3 ViRGE/DX graphics card, Epson Stylus 400 colour inkjet printer and... er... a SoundBlaster 16 (but that doesn't have anything to do with Image Effects!). It runs Windows 95 OSR2. This setup doesn't rock anymore, but it was still quite good for pushing pixels around.

Alas, I suffered from the death of part of my computer (the motherboard or processor), the upshot being that I am now using a K6-2/350MHz instead, with 64Mb of RAM. I also acquired an HP Scanjet IIcx A4 flatbed scanner (SCSI version) thanks to a Christmas and a cheap deal. This scanner is showing some problems now, but it still competes with the modern scanners. It does need it's own computer trolley though. (Seriously - it's that big!)

All my artwork is created primarily using Micrografx Picture Publisher. The original version of Image Effects was created in PictPub version 6.0, because it is so user friendly, fast and powerful. I have since upgraded to Picture Publisher 8.0, and with the addition of the K6-2, this can do some really cool stuff. Some extra support is provided by Corel Xara 2 for drawing shapes. Also, for the first time, I cheated on the front page and created the logo and control panel using Xara. (But I do know how to do it in Picture Publisher I swear!)

All HTML is hand-coded by me, using Jan Goyvaerts' EditPad - a good Notepad replacement. For testing purposes I use Internet Explorer 3, Netscape Communicator 4.7, and my browser of choice, Opera 3.61. This gives me a good spread of test browsers, so I can tune the page to work in all three. Mostly.

It typically takes about two hours to create one tutorial page, once I have the basic structure sorted. This includes time to devise content and structure, write the text, do test graphics, create the real graphics, and test the links. It's more involved than it sounds.

Special mention also goes to the program IrfanView - this is a small, fast, incredible image viewer program by Irfan Skiljan - and it's freeware too!

At the time of writing, the hosting situation for this page is a bit confused. Dream Weaver originally started on Prohosting, but then moved due to poor performance (since improved). Fortune City was the next stop for a long while, until in January of 1999 Fortune City had a disk failure, and Image Effects was wiped out. Due to a combination of dodgy FTP clients, poor performance from my University network, and Fortune City's unreliable efforts, I didn't manage to get most of Image Effects uploaded until March of the same year. I mostly gave up on Image Effects at this point, especially in light of more important activities, such as passing exams, getting a job, moving house, and going on holiday.

Now, about one year on from the fateful disk crash, I've updated vast swathes of Image Effects, and moved it to Freeservers, in the hope that they will be more reliable (plus their adverts are quicker and less obtrusive than Fortune City's).

Finally, this page is optimised for 16-bit (65000, high-colour) displays. Although many of the graphics are 256 colour GIFs, few of them have been made to use "browser-safe" colour palettes, so if you are viewing in 256 colours or less, this page may look a bit messy. Sorry. I am currently moving pictures to browser-safe palettes as I create them.

This page also looks better in resolutions bigger than 640 by 480 pixels - however, I am trying to make it more friendly to low-resolution-display users. If you have a problem related to using a particular screen resolution, let me know.

I hope you like this site.

My name is James. I'm currently 22 years old as I write this (11 January 2000). I've been a computer freak for many years now, but really got into image processing of photos when I still used an Amiga 500 (not an ideal platform for this task). I got into photography a few years ago at Univeristy, when my girlfriend of the time taught me how to use her old SLR camera - which is now mine!

I studied Computer Science/Software Engineering at the University of Birmingham, and graduated with a first class degree with honours. (Just boasting there.) 8-) That was last summer.

I am currently working for a telecommunications company, and am (in name) a Software Design Engineer.

My hobbies are basically computing (most aspects), photography, and web page design, so they've been wrapped together to form this web site. One day I would like to have a job in web site design, so I can exercise my creative side. Meantime, I'll have to make do with coding.

I also read science fiction books - Isaac Asimov's robot stories being a particular favourite. I'm also developing a taste for Vampire stories. Now if I could just find a nice gothic woman to photograph...

I don't have any pets, and I won't name my car. Does this make me odd?