LoTtD=List of Things to Do
News Letter
Current Status = Done (April's done anyway)
Notes: Currently reformating the old Newsletter. I still need access to the new FTP, so I can upload pictures for the newsletter.
(1/25/07) Been emaling everyone in the YSDev list to get more info on things News Letter related... My attempt to be self seffectiant in terms of News Letter content has failed... Not that I was putting much effert into it, after all this isn't my website alone, it's everyones.... I've managed to trim the News Letter down and have added more Ads and such... But thats about it... I need more content and or another deticated writer. Otherwise, this new release of the news letter will ultimatly end as it's predecessor.
(1/30/07) Alot of new informations from YSUO is being gathered and such. But none of it makes any sense to me. I need to go home an take screen shots of a few things for the news letter, gather a few graphics, ect.... But it looks like the news letter, at this point, even with it's major cut back, isn't going to happen... I simply can no do this myself as the 1st is coming up quickly... So unless I have a big creativity moment between now and Friday at the latest, the news letter isn't going to happen. I wonder.... If there's anyone out there willing to help out with the news letter, help write stories, ect? Maybe do some research... ? I'll bounce the idea off everyone this comming weekend... Still want to give the Feb news letter a chance...
(2/7/07) Need to verify that resumes@yserbius.org is valid and forwarding to everyone or atleast me so I can check it. Also need store@yserbius.org to forward to info@tigereyegfx.net instead of tiger-san@tigereyegfx.net as anyone working on the news letter will be given access to info@tigereyegfx.net as alot of resources and such gets sent to that email addy. Most of the gaming, and such news I get comes into that email addy. So it's a valuable source of information.
(3/15/07) Email sent to everyone, requesting a new Reporter for the Ys.org NewsLetter. Doesn't look promising. I have a but load of resources we can use to fill out the new newsletter, but I can't commit all the time needed to write an entire newsletter. We need at least onemore deticated person to help write the news letter. With this quarter coming to a close, it doesn't look like it'll happen within the next two weeks or so. Slo will be adding new emails for me to use with the newsletter, wiether they'll get a workout is another story.
(3/28/07) Since Jim's updated the website, I can start writing news again for the home page. Though that may not actually occure untill early next quarter some time. I'm activly thinking about the newsletter now, and trying to figure out how I want to attack the mammath task of getting a template started. Still no reporters are interested in working on the newsletter, which is kind of a dissapointment and slightly depressing. But still, I feel if we can get one going again, active interest in the site will grow again. Next Quarters List of things to do will be slightly diffrent in how I handle it, so people can actually SEE when I updated it last instead of actually having to scan the list for recent entries. I have created a new template for the Newsletter. Hopefully by next month I'll have a new, working newsletter.... Just need bodies to help fill in the creativeness.
(04/04/07) Aprials newsletter is done and sent out. Hopefully I'll be able to keep ahead of the game, and get enough stuff to pile up and so I never run short on available content. YSUO stuff is still the only thing I can't redaly get my hands on. So, for now though I have a good stock pile to keep the newsletter filled. I just hope we get somone else to help with it... Looks kinda one sided to have ONE person writing most the articals. Sidd will pretty much be able to handle the YsUO aspect of it, but still... 5 other columns that one person writes? Not ideal... But it'll have to work till we get somone else...
3D Animation
Current Status = On Hold
Notes: My trip to the library this past weekend went undone as I was feeling pretty crappy and had no motiviation to do anything but sit on my arse and play KoTR.
(3/6/07) I recently got my hands on Anime Studio Pro. I've been toying with animation through Flash, but coming from what I know on skeleton animation vs. 2d frame by frame, I can relate better to Anime Studio. I only glaced at it after installing as it was pretty late. I'll try and spend some learning time over the next few weeks, see what I can toss out. I've also been learning Adobe Premier Suite Pro. I'll be recording Emily with a lightsaber hilt which I hope to actually give her one on screen. Been reading tutorials on that over the last week and I found a pretty easy to follow one for n00bs of Adobe After Effects. So we'll see how that goes.
(3/10/07) I managed to get Emily a lightsaber and animated it and everything (http://www.tigerforce.net/media/EmilySaberSmall.avi), and it looks awsome. Giving me some much needed experiance in Video editing. Still need to get to a library and pick up a 3DS Max book and see if I can get my learn on.
(3/27/07) I snagged myself a copy of Animation Studio Pro like I mentioned, and got to start on working on the pieces needed to fit into the studio. It's very time consuming to gather the needed artwork, but hopefully one I get enough pieces to work with, I can import and animate them.
Relaunch of YS Store
Current Status = Done 1/17/07
Notes: Store is limited as I'm not going to pay per month to have a Premium Store. I had done it last year in hopes to get more traffic and such. But no good. If it starts paying for itself in the future, I'll upgrade, but not till then. There's only one design available in any of the goods. But, better then nothing I suppose. If we can only get more people interested in it. Will think about some kind of marketing plan. Link added to the Forums as an Outside Link.
(1/23/07) Sent out a coupon code for people who want to spend some hard earned cash on some Ys.org Swag. Hopefully it'll work.
YsEnt.com
Current Status = Pending CMS Review
Notes: Flash intergration was disasterous, since realizing friggen IE hates Flash now days. I hate IE. Looking for a new CMS to manage the content and services. Leaning towards Joomla at the moment. Need to read more: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,102558.0.html and http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,81058.0.html
I may update TigerForce.net with Joomla! 1.5, when it's available to see how it stacks up. Then install it on YsEnt using the Template we paid for a few months back, if its compatable. The Book Slo sent me, may be implimented next quarter as I attempt to make a custom template.
(1/17/07) I attempted to install Joomla! on my site (http://www.tigerforce.net) and subsequently broke it in short order. LOL It started asking me questions I was unprepaired to awnser, so... Will try again tomorrow when I get to work as I can only access that info from work.
(1/18/07) Finally got Joomla! installed on http://www.tigerforce.net. Its purrrrrdy lookin. Will see what it can do and get the old information imported from my MySQL backup. Joomla looks pretty interesting, bugs and all. The FTPLayer of Joomla1.5 is broke at the moment, which appears to be a hosting problem rather then a Joomla one, or atleast a combo of the two. Version 1.5 is only in Beta, but its more secure then 1.4 and hopefully will be entering Beta 2 soon which will have some corrections. The only problem I see right now is the lack of Template selections and the FTPlayer malfunctions. Without the FTPLayer enabled, it's more secure, sure... But you also can't add custom modules or third party ones. Which, is good if ya need to continue security, but kinda sucks if you want something cool on your site. And, also since it's only Beta, third party modules are kind of rare and buggy. Contimplated switching to the current stable release which does have some updated security, but from what I've read, 1.5 is still, far more secure. The book Slo provided still is relevent to 1.5 and will help with building a template should I choose to make one. Right now though, I don't have the time.
(1/19/07) Day three of installing Joomla.... Reserves are growing low.... The others have begon to fight amongst themselves, and there's no end in site to the tra.... Oh, wait.. .Everything works?!?!? (Angles sing and praise the servers) Ok, so most everything is back up and running...Ok, well... I THINK I got most of the old content and user logins working. No template yet though as I may take some time and actually design my own. Don't know yet, will have to see how time goes for me the next few weeks.
Right now, some things don't work and arn't as I'd like them. Random Images arn't back yet, neither is the Art Gallery, which I think will be moving to CopperMine and also there are no Media files. Not that those were downloaded very much... Eh... Will need to find some other way to serve those to people, should they actually want to DL them. As the weekend progresses updates and corrections will be made.
(1/20/07) Coppermine Installed and all, or atleast most, of those images are up and running. User Logins were migrated to Coppermine without much problem. FavIcon updated finally and custom Error Pages were created. Tigerforce Bio's were added and Registered User Menu updated with new links. Still tryin to figure out how I can keep anyone from browsing to the URL directly... For example, If I can create an .htaccess file that resricts anyone from browsing to the URL directly... I wish I could rename the Coppermine index.php file to something else, then just have a normal crappy html file to catch anyone trying to surf there... For some reason, the HTML hierarchy isn't working on my server or something bypasses it... Prolly HTAccess... Not pressing, but something I'd like to change if I can... That way, in order to see the link you have to be logged in, and I can make the URL anything I want... Huh... Will need to think about it... Today's my Friday, and my weekend is wide open, so I hope to get a new template designed and uploaded... I hope...
(1/21/07) I spent half, if not more of the the day trying to learn how to make my own template and learned absolutly zero. The more effectiant way to make a template requires no less then total understanding of CSS and some basic, if not moderate knowladge of PHP. All I ended up completing, was messing up the website so it looks totally ****ty. It didn't help, that two diffrent Joomla Template Tutorials were diffrent. I found out after 3 hours or work, that the first tutorial I was using, didn't actually work. Argh! I then decided to go back later in the day, and see if I can just modify the base template in Joomla. Yeh, I could... And did to some degree, but not am I not happy with the template, I did learn that the base template is way to trimmed down, for what I want and need. There are complete sections missing in the template, that can not be utilised because their not present. Very frustrating and I'm back to square one. I just don't have the time or knowladge right now to learn a new programing language to the level I'd need to do custome templates. Modify them, sure I can do that as long as the setup is already the way we or I want. Oh yeh, and my past Mambo template, is not compatable with Joomla! 1.5. I don't know about the one we baught for ys.org yet. Will test it later.
(1/23/07) Learned an important lesson lastnight... Don't use the nightly build of Joomla! 1.5... And, when changing Joomla Installs.... BACK UP the DATABASE! Argh... Set myself back several hours of work with that stupid mistake. *sigh* Ah well, live and learn. Anyway, TigerForce is up and running again and will be in full swing soon. Then I'll work on YsEnt.org.
(1/25/07) Emailed Slo for Login information to: YsEnt.com cPanel Login and URL, Ys.org FTP Login,YsEnt.com FTP Login and Ys.org Front Page URL (I think I know the Login). I need this information before I can update YsEnt.com, well, I need the YSEnt.com info anyway.... Ordered a Security check of Joomla! 1.5 from http://www.acunetix.com/security-audit/... But, regardless of their findings, I think I'l luse the more stable Joomla! release for YsEnt. When 1.5 DOES become stable, I'll upgrade YsEnt.com. Template.... Since Joomla 1.0.x shouldn't have a problem being compatable with the template we baught, I'll just use it. I also found the dotProject, which has been upgraded... Weither it'll work this time around or not, has yet to be seen... I tried to install it on TigerForce.net and broke it within 10 mins of installing... LOL Though I think the reason for that was I was meddling in the DB, rather then making changes through the site...
(1/30/07) Sent out a mass email through Joomla 1.5... Apprantly it spammed everyone. I haven't heard from everyone, but people I'm close to here say they got multiple copies. 7-12 per, so far... Whoops... Hehehe.... So, no mass emailing through Joomla 1.5 just yet... I hope 1.0.14 (or whatever current stable version is out there) works better. Still no FTP access to YsEnt.com.
(3/26/07) Jim's workin on gettin us access to YsEnt.com and other server information so we can get to helpin him. There's a problem with one of the attachment phpfiles which he's currently trying to get fixed from the hosting company. Right now too, updating anything is on hold. I'm confident though that Mambo will be a good choice, much more secure hopefully then PHPNuke and other CMS's.
News Letter
Current Status = Done (April's done anyway)
Notes: Currently reformating the old Newsletter. I still need access to the new FTP, so I can upload pictures for the newsletter.
(1/25/07) Been emaling everyone in the YSDev list to get more info on things News Letter related... My attempt to be self seffectiant in terms of News Letter content has failed... Not that I was putting much effert into it, after all this isn't my website alone, it's everyones.... I've managed to trim the News Letter down and have added more Ads and such... But thats about it... I need more content and or another deticated writer. Otherwise, this new release of the news letter will ultimatly end as it's predecessor.
(1/30/07) Alot of new informations from YSUO is being gathered and such. But none of it makes any sense to me. I need to go home an take screen shots of a few things for the news letter, gather a few graphics, ect.... But it looks like the news letter, at this point, even with it's major cut back, isn't going to happen... I simply can no do this myself as the 1st is coming up quickly... So unless I have a big creativity moment between now and Friday at the latest, the news letter isn't going to happen. I wonder.... If there's anyone out there willing to help out with the news letter, help write stories, ect? Maybe do some research... ? I'll bounce the idea off everyone this comming weekend... Still want to give the Feb news letter a chance...
(2/7/07) Need to verify that resumes@yserbius.org is valid and forwarding to everyone or atleast me so I can check it. Also need store@yserbius.org to forward to info@tigereyegfx.net instead of tiger-san@tigereyegfx.net as anyone working on the news letter will be given access to info@tigereyegfx.net as alot of resources and such gets sent to that email addy. Most of the gaming, and such news I get comes into that email addy. So it's a valuable source of information.
(3/15/07) Email sent to everyone, requesting a new Reporter for the Ys.org NewsLetter. Doesn't look promising. I have a but load of resources we can use to fill out the new newsletter, but I can't commit all the time needed to write an entire newsletter. We need at least onemore deticated person to help write the news letter. With this quarter coming to a close, it doesn't look like it'll happen within the next two weeks or so. Slo will be adding new emails for me to use with the newsletter, wiether they'll get a workout is another story.
(3/28/07) Since Jim's updated the website, I can start writing news again for the home page. Though that may not actually occure untill early next quarter some time. I'm activly thinking about the newsletter now, and trying to figure out how I want to attack the mammath task of getting a template started. Still no reporters are interested in working on the newsletter, which is kind of a dissapointment and slightly depressing. But still, I feel if we can get one going again, active interest in the site will grow again. Next Quarters List of things to do will be slightly diffrent in how I handle it, so people can actually SEE when I updated it last instead of actually having to scan the list for recent entries. I have created a new template for the Newsletter. Hopefully by next month I'll have a new, working newsletter.... Just need bodies to help fill in the creativeness.
(04/04/07) Aprials newsletter is done and sent out. Hopefully I'll be able to keep ahead of the game, and get enough stuff to pile up and so I never run short on available content. YSUO stuff is still the only thing I can't redaly get my hands on. So, for now though I have a good stock pile to keep the newsletter filled. I just hope we get somone else to help with it... Looks kinda one sided to have ONE person writing most the articals. Sidd will pretty much be able to handle the YsUO aspect of it, but still... 5 other columns that one person writes? Not ideal... But it'll have to work till we get somone else...
3D Animation
Current Status = On Hold
Notes: My trip to the library this past weekend went undone as I was feeling pretty crappy and had no motiviation to do anything but sit on my arse and play KoTR.
(3/6/07) I recently got my hands on Anime Studio Pro. I've been toying with animation through Flash, but coming from what I know on skeleton animation vs. 2d frame by frame, I can relate better to Anime Studio. I only glaced at it after installing as it was pretty late. I'll try and spend some learning time over the next few weeks, see what I can toss out. I've also been learning Adobe Premier Suite Pro. I'll be recording Emily with a lightsaber hilt which I hope to actually give her one on screen. Been reading tutorials on that over the last week and I found a pretty easy to follow one for n00bs of Adobe After Effects. So we'll see how that goes.
(3/10/07) I managed to get Emily a lightsaber and animated it and everything (http://www.tigerforce.net/media/EmilySaberSmall.avi), and it looks awsome. Giving me some much needed experiance in Video editing. Still need to get to a library and pick up a 3DS Max book and see if I can get my learn on.
(3/27/07) I snagged myself a copy of Animation Studio Pro like I mentioned, and got to start on working on the pieces needed to fit into the studio. It's very time consuming to gather the needed artwork, but hopefully one I get enough pieces to work with, I can import and animate them.
Relaunch of YS Store
Current Status = Done 1/17/07
Notes: Store is limited as I'm not going to pay per month to have a Premium Store. I had done it last year in hopes to get more traffic and such. But no good. If it starts paying for itself in the future, I'll upgrade, but not till then. There's only one design available in any of the goods. But, better then nothing I suppose. If we can only get more people interested in it. Will think about some kind of marketing plan. Link added to the Forums as an Outside Link.
(1/23/07) Sent out a coupon code for people who want to spend some hard earned cash on some Ys.org Swag. Hopefully it'll work.
YsEnt.com
Current Status = Pending CMS Review
Notes: Flash intergration was disasterous, since realizing friggen IE hates Flash now days. I hate IE. Looking for a new CMS to manage the content and services. Leaning towards Joomla at the moment. Need to read more: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,102558.0.html and http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,81058.0.html
I may update TigerForce.net with Joomla! 1.5, when it's available to see how it stacks up. Then install it on YsEnt using the Template we paid for a few months back, if its compatable. The Book Slo sent me, may be implimented next quarter as I attempt to make a custom template.
(1/17/07) I attempted to install Joomla! on my site (http://www.tigerforce.net) and subsequently broke it in short order. LOL It started asking me questions I was unprepaired to awnser, so... Will try again tomorrow when I get to work as I can only access that info from work.
(1/18/07) Finally got Joomla! installed on http://www.tigerforce.net. Its purrrrrdy lookin. Will see what it can do and get the old information imported from my MySQL backup. Joomla looks pretty interesting, bugs and all. The FTPLayer of Joomla1.5 is broke at the moment, which appears to be a hosting problem rather then a Joomla one, or atleast a combo of the two. Version 1.5 is only in Beta, but its more secure then 1.4 and hopefully will be entering Beta 2 soon which will have some corrections. The only problem I see right now is the lack of Template selections and the FTPlayer malfunctions. Without the FTPLayer enabled, it's more secure, sure... But you also can't add custom modules or third party ones. Which, is good if ya need to continue security, but kinda sucks if you want something cool on your site. And, also since it's only Beta, third party modules are kind of rare and buggy. Contimplated switching to the current stable release which does have some updated security, but from what I've read, 1.5 is still, far more secure. The book Slo provided still is relevent to 1.5 and will help with building a template should I choose to make one. Right now though, I don't have the time.
(1/19/07) Day three of installing Joomla.... Reserves are growing low.... The others have begon to fight amongst themselves, and there's no end in site to the tra.... Oh, wait.. .Everything works?!?!? (Angles sing and praise the servers) Ok, so most everything is back up and running...Ok, well... I THINK I got most of the old content and user logins working. No template yet though as I may take some time and actually design my own. Don't know yet, will have to see how time goes for me the next few weeks.
Right now, some things don't work and arn't as I'd like them. Random Images arn't back yet, neither is the Art Gallery, which I think will be moving to CopperMine and also there are no Media files. Not that those were downloaded very much... Eh... Will need to find some other way to serve those to people, should they actually want to DL them. As the weekend progresses updates and corrections will be made.
(1/20/07) Coppermine Installed and all, or atleast most, of those images are up and running. User Logins were migrated to Coppermine without much problem. FavIcon updated finally and custom Error Pages were created. Tigerforce Bio's were added and Registered User Menu updated with new links. Still tryin to figure out how I can keep anyone from browsing to the URL directly... For example, If I can create an .htaccess file that resricts anyone from browsing to the URL directly... I wish I could rename the Coppermine index.php file to something else, then just have a normal crappy html file to catch anyone trying to surf there... For some reason, the HTML hierarchy isn't working on my server or something bypasses it... Prolly HTAccess... Not pressing, but something I'd like to change if I can... That way, in order to see the link you have to be logged in, and I can make the URL anything I want... Huh... Will need to think about it... Today's my Friday, and my weekend is wide open, so I hope to get a new template designed and uploaded... I hope...
(1/21/07) I spent half, if not more of the the day trying to learn how to make my own template and learned absolutly zero. The more effectiant way to make a template requires no less then total understanding of CSS and some basic, if not moderate knowladge of PHP. All I ended up completing, was messing up the website so it looks totally ****ty. It didn't help, that two diffrent Joomla Template Tutorials were diffrent. I found out after 3 hours or work, that the first tutorial I was using, didn't actually work. Argh! I then decided to go back later in the day, and see if I can just modify the base template in Joomla. Yeh, I could... And did to some degree, but not am I not happy with the template, I did learn that the base template is way to trimmed down, for what I want and need. There are complete sections missing in the template, that can not be utilised because their not present. Very frustrating and I'm back to square one. I just don't have the time or knowladge right now to learn a new programing language to the level I'd need to do custome templates. Modify them, sure I can do that as long as the setup is already the way we or I want. Oh yeh, and my past Mambo template, is not compatable with Joomla! 1.5. I don't know about the one we baught for ys.org yet. Will test it later.
(1/23/07) Learned an important lesson lastnight... Don't use the nightly build of Joomla! 1.5... And, when changing Joomla Installs.... BACK UP the DATABASE! Argh... Set myself back several hours of work with that stupid mistake. *sigh* Ah well, live and learn. Anyway, TigerForce is up and running again and will be in full swing soon. Then I'll work on YsEnt.org.
(1/25/07) Emailed Slo for Login information to: YsEnt.com cPanel Login and URL, Ys.org FTP Login,YsEnt.com FTP Login and Ys.org Front Page URL (I think I know the Login). I need this information before I can update YsEnt.com, well, I need the YSEnt.com info anyway.... Ordered a Security check of Joomla! 1.5 from http://www.acunetix.com/security-audit/... But, regardless of their findings, I think I'l luse the more stable Joomla! release for YsEnt. When 1.5 DOES become stable, I'll upgrade YsEnt.com. Template.... Since Joomla 1.0.x shouldn't have a problem being compatable with the template we baught, I'll just use it. I also found the dotProject, which has been upgraded... Weither it'll work this time around or not, has yet to be seen... I tried to install it on TigerForce.net and broke it within 10 mins of installing... LOL Though I think the reason for that was I was meddling in the DB, rather then making changes through the site...
(1/30/07) Sent out a mass email through Joomla 1.5... Apprantly it spammed everyone. I haven't heard from everyone, but people I'm close to here say they got multiple copies. 7-12 per, so far... Whoops... Hehehe.... So, no mass emailing through Joomla 1.5 just yet... I hope 1.0.14 (or whatever current stable version is out there) works better. Still no FTP access to YsEnt.com.
(3/26/07) Jim's workin on gettin us access to YsEnt.com and other server information so we can get to helpin him. There's a problem with one of the attachment phpfiles which he's currently trying to get fixed from the hosting company. Right now too, updating anything is on hold. I'm confident though that Mambo will be a good choice, much more secure hopefully then PHPNuke and other CMS's.