New Look . . .

[Dianne Lewandowski]

The web site is getting a fresh look.  Some links may not work as we change files from one server to another.  Our database site will suffer some growing pains.  Please be patient during this process. 

The forum will get a face-lift as well as an update to the software.

We'll let you know when the process is completed.  At that time, notifications of broken links and other problems will then be appreciated.

Cheers!  Look forward to seeing you in 2010!

Dianne
Kanen5 Designs

[gortmertl0]

Congrats, Dianne (and Tom).

The color scheme make for a very nice reading experience.

Gary

[Dianne Lewandowski]

My pleasure!  And your comment is much appreciated.

[MusicallyInspired]

I like it!

[Tom]

I like it, too.  Dianne's doing all the work while I play around on Facebook. 

I'm also helping by transferring all the files from one server to another.  I've been using a second hosting company (primarily for MP3 storage) for many years, and now I'm getting rid of them; everything will now be contained on the QuestStudios.com server.

[Marten]

Liking the new color scheme here.

[Ari]

Very Sleek! 

[Dianne Lewandowski]

I just discovered that IE 6 and 7 have a problem with png files.  Anyone see gray blobs on this page?
http://www.queststudios.com/QuestMusic/kanen.html

png does a much better job of transparencies.  Too bad Microsoft has such a difficult time keeping up.  I use ver 8 and it's fine.

[Ari]

Yeah, in IE6, the star at the lower right corner of the screen has a gray "blob" surrounding it, that Firefox interprets as transparent.

[Rhizome]

Unfortunately, IE6 never had support for transparency on PNG files and 7 was mostly broken. Even more unfortunate is that 20-30% of IE users still use IE6. 

Chrome, Firefox and Opera should be fine.

[Dianne Lewandowski]

I changed the nav_rollover and star to gif formats <sigh>.  Not quite as nice for the star graphic.  Thanks for the input.  I found coding from Microsoft for a possible work-around, but it was not a "definite".  It's hard when designing to keep in mind all these outdated programs that people cling to.  Tom noticed the problem on his work computers, which are running old versions of IE.  There's quite a few "bugs" in IE that Microsoft has never addressed.  That makes learning CSS and XHMTL that much more difficult.

Thanks for the input!

[Laust]

Looks very pleasant. Now that the layout is being worked on, may I suggest that the post-preview page's background color be changed to something a bit lighter? It's a bit hard to read the text in a preview, in my opinion (and shouldn't it be the same color as a regular post's background to really be a preview?).

Maybe no one previews their posts since no one else has mentioned it (it was true for the old color scheme as well)

[Dianne Lewandowski]

How is the preview background now?  I can only go so light because it affects the borders surrounding the tables. I could change the darker table backgrounds to a lighter color, but I rather like the look as it is . . . providing, of course, that it works for everyone.

[Laust]

It's great now - looks like a normal post in fact - which I suppose is the whole point of a preview

I'm actually somewhat surprised, that this color has to be set manually and isn't merely inherited from the colors used as post-background in regular threads.

[Dianne Lewandowski]

I try not to second-guess the gurus who put these CSS and PHP files together.  I'm studying all of this, so maybe one day I'll come up with my own answer to it.

Glad it's working for you.

[Dianne Lewandowski]

The site has been completed to the best of my ability to find every page.  I did find three pages of music files that didn't get transferred to the database (Joomla) pages last spring, so if it's your fancy, check out Sorcerian and Silpheed for some new stuff. 

If anyone finds broken links or other problems, please contact me at:  dianne@kanen5designs.com

[gortmertl0]

Dianne / Tom --

Thanks for the heads-up on the Sorcerian files.  I had downloaded CD1 #1-#25 back in 2008, not realizing that there were more tracks to be gotten!  I downloaded them all, including the ones I already had.

Unfortunately, Windows Media Player [9 Series (my desktop) & 11 (my laptop)] states that the following tracks are not recognized as valid to play:

CD 1 -- 02 / 09 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 16 / 19 / 20 / 23 / 24 / 27
CD 2 -- 44 / 52

Windows Media Player 9 gives me an "Unable to initialize a file" error; more info states that:
"0xC00D001F: Cannot find the file
Windows Media Player cannot find the file. If you typed a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in the Open URL dialog box, ensure that the file name is spelled correctly and the path to the file is correct, and then try again.

If you clicked a link on a Web page, the link may not be valid.

Error ID = 0xC00D001F, Condition ID = 0x00000000"


Windows Media Player 11 states the following:
"Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file."


Strange thing is, WinAmp 5.552 appears to play the tracks just fine...


Is there any way to re-encode the files as MP3s or possibly OGGs?  I don't know if you still have the original files or if the MP3s were sent to you directly from Ignacio Ferreyra.  I can do it myself, but I know there will be some sound losss/degradation converting MP3 -> WAV -> MP3/OGG.


Thanks for any help you can provide!

Gary

[Marten]

Very thorough reporting, Gary!

Could you try running "mp3val" on the files?  That might give some information on why WMP is choking on them.  It might also be possible to repair the files without re-encoding.

http://mp3val.sourceforge.net/

[gortmertl0]

Greetings, Marten!

I analyzed the files using MP3Val, as you suggested.  All thirteen tracks had the same problem, which are summarized below [ X = CD#, either 1 or 2 ; YY = Track # ; ZZZZ = # of MPEG frames ]:


**************************************************
Analyzing file "C:\...\SOR_CDX_TrackYY.mp3"...
WARNING: "C:\...\SOR_CDX_TrackYY.mp3" (offset 0x0): Garbage at the beginning of the file
WARNING: "C:\...\SOR_CDX_TrackYY.mp3": VBR detected, but no VBR header is present. Seeking may not work properly.
WARNING: "C:\...\SOR_CDX_TrackYY.mp3": No supported tags in the file
INFO: "C:\...\SOR_CDX_TrackYY.mp3": ZZZZ MPEG frames (MPEG 1 Layer III), no tags, no VBR header, CRC
**************************************************

All files were able to be rebuilt:

**************************************************
Analyzing file "C:\...\SOR_CDX_TrackYY.mp3"...
WARNING: "C:\...\SOR_CDX_TrackYY.mp3" (offset 0x0): Garbage at the beginning of the file
WARNING: "C:\...\SOR_CDX_TrackYY.mp3": VBR detected, but no VBR header is present. Seeking may not work properly.
WARNING: "C:\...\SOR_CDX_TrackYY.mp3": No supported tags in the file
INFO: "C:\...\SOR_CDX_TrackYY.mp3": ZZZZ MPEG frames (MPEG 1 Layer III), no tags, no VBR header, CRC
Rebuilding file "C:\...\SOR_CDX_TrackYY.mp3"...
FIXED: "C:\...\SOR_CDX_TrackYY.mp3": File was rebuilt
Done!
**************************************************

All thirteen rebuilt files are now working with Windows Media Player 9 Series.  I have not tested them on WMP11, but in light of the success with WMP9, I have no reason to believe that they won't work with WMP11, either.

What a terrific program!  Thanks for the help, and hopefully you will be able to rebuild the questionable Sorcerian files on Tom and Dianne's server(s).

Thanks again, Marten!

Gary

[Tom]

I only received the MP3's from Ignacio Ferreyra so I'm in the same boat as you.  I'll search for and try using the "MP3Val" program on these files, and if successful, I'll reupload the MP3's.

Thanks very much for the information!