pbolduc

Good Topic Majestic, I would respond here, but I basically have done so in God's Role in Natural Disasters in response to your last post there. http://forums.xisto.com/topic/81244-topic/?findpost=1064283559 I'm sure as time goes on I'll be putting in my 2 cent here. PS. I haven't had much discussion with hashbang except in response to his post. pete

Majestic, I first would like you to know that I appreciate you. Although we have extreme differences in beliefs, I feel that there is an eternal reason for our discussions. It was kind of you to go more indepth about your background, especially in an open forum as well. I feel I owe you the same. There is a truth out there, there has to be. Either God exists, or He doesn't. Either there is but one God, or there are many, or none at all and we came from some soup on a rock billions and billions of years ago. You were partly correct about me growing up in a "religious' background. I was raised Catholic. I, like yourself, could never understand the "don't do as I do, does as I say" mentality of the grown ups around me. Early on, from 8 or so, I considered most all Christians I met hypocrites, still do for that matter as you will see. When I was 18 I moved away to take a job in another city. While there I started to go to a multi-denominational "Christian Coffee House". When they found out that I was a disgruntled Catholic, all the various denominations pulled on me to join their church as they do. This confused me even more. I couldn't understand their intensity in degrading the other faiths. In an earnest effort to conform, I would read the Bible. My goal was to see what the Bible had to say, and join the faith that matched the Bible. It is God's Word after all. The problem was, however, none of the doctrines being thrown at me matched the Word I was reading. They each had some basic truths, according to what I interpreted, but made cheap excuses when questioned about the questionable, at least in my mind, doctrines they brought forth. One day, I threw my hands in the air and prayed (yelled) a simple prayer in frustration. Basically I stated that I was confused from all of this, and that it was my desire to only know God's single truth. I didn't want what others believe to be truth, or even what I thought to be truth. I wanted to know His single truth and if He didn't give it to me, I would walk away. Well, experience since has taught me that God does not work in our time, He works in His perfect timing. The truth didn't come and in a few short months I found myself in the Navy, enjoying life on the wild side. Wine, women, song, and social drug use (pot) became not only the order of the day, but drove my life. I enjoyed being single, traveling to 57 countries, meeting foreign women, and the constant partying. While I did manage to advance in the Navy and keep the two seperate. After my honorable discharge in 1981, my dad and I opened a housing maintenance business servicing an Air Force base in Florida. By this time my parents were converted Catholics, (professing Christians) and although I had noticed a change in their lives, the doctrine they preached at me was the same old canned doctrines I had heard earlier in my life. By this time I was married. My parents fell in love with my wife (wife was not a Christian). It was as if, because I would not conform , my parents kind of disowned me and adopted my wife. (That is the way with most Christians are, they kill their wounded). As time went, 1989 or so, on things in my relationship with both my wife and parents dwindled to nothing and I found myself divorced, gave her absolutely everything but my baseball cards. I tried to get back in the Navy, but that was the time of the military cutbacks and they were not taking vets with more than 8 years separation. I missed it by 2 months. I bought a car for a dollar from the recruiter, took my sports cards and traveled the country doing baseball shows and partying. Within a year the sportscard craze had all but died and my income died along with it. I found myself in the state of Maine with no income in the dead of winter. In all of this time, although I never really acknowledged Him, I never denied God, nor His existance. I just believed, like so many others, that I didn't matter to Him. He was too busy to concern Himself with me. One day, while in my hotel efficiency, I litterally cried out to God once again for Him to reveal His truth to me. I had a good self-pity party, got up and went about my life, not really believing He even heard my prayer, much less answered it. I went down to Florida where I met my present and last wife. She, like myself, was basically unencumbered and we decided to travel out west. I eventually got a job as a reporter for a locally owned state wide newspaper. I was assigned the political beat focusing on the many unconstitutional laws that are being usurpped on us all. It didn't take me long to come to the realization that what I had been brought up to believe about this country and our government was a hoax. (another subject all together) I began to wonder if there was any truth, anywhere. The things I was finding out about our governement as I did the research for my articles made me ill inside. After a long discussion with my wife, we decided to take the summer off (1993 or so). we ended up on a Dude Ranch in the Gila National Forest. They were just opening and I contracted with them to plumb the shower house. We were there several months living in a real Tee Pee. It was cool. It was here that I decided to really make an earnest effort to seek and find out if God existed or not. I picked up my extremely dusty Bible and began to read. I simpley opend the book to a page and read. The first verse I read was Jeremiah 29:13 "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." This verse shot through me like an arrow. I had from time to time been seeking God, but not with all of my heart. Soon after that, I was reading in 1st John 2 where in verses 26 and 27 it says "These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." I have shared all of this with you to make this point. What modern day Christianity professes, and what is actually in the Bible are two very different and distinct things. When I write in these forums concerning the things of God, it is not to try to convince anyone. We all go through life's experiences and draw our own conclusions. All we can do is share these experiences with others. What I have found to be truth is God's Word. When one finally gives in to the pressure in his or her own heart to seek their Creator, they find that He is true to His Word. You will find Him when seeking with an earnest heart. He will write His laws and precepts on your heart. Once God has begun to write His truth on your heart, there not only is no denying it, you do stand as the bedrock under the stream, solid, strong, and not wavering. Yes as the water rushes over you, you are worn smooth, but isn't that how the beauty of a precious stone is brought out, in a tumbler with water? You do not need books or man to teach you the truth. You do not even need the Bible. What you do need is an earnest heart to find it. And you need to search in the area where it lies, with the Creator. If you have never gone directly to the souce, I strongly recommend it. It truly will blow your mind. It did mine. Do I know the entire truth, absolutely not, however, I do not with absolute certainty that I am seaching in the right place. Just as the treasure hunter becomes certain he has found the wreck he has been looking for when he finds the ship's bell, so is it when God writes His first truth on your heart. pete PS. My wife read part of your post and she comment on her own on how well your post was written, I agree. It is late here so I'm not going to proof this, I still have work to do. Please forgive any typos you may find.

There is a difference between "a need" as you put it, and wondering why. As stated in my second reply in this topic. The why is simple, and while I recognize your perspective on the matter (a non-believer), as well as your right to believe in what you want to, I still must state that our purpose for existance is we were created because it pleased God to do so. No other reason. It is impossible to belive in a grand design, if you do not recognize a Creator. In fact, one has to make great efforts to justify in there mind the non-existance of a Creator. Why, simply because we were created for the sole purpose of fellowshipping with God, in His presence. The problem is that most do not ever take the time to try to know God on a personal level. Its kind of like a neighbor I had across the street from my first house. He was an older man with whom, for the first three years, I had never even as much as said hi to. I judged him from a distance. I figured he and I had nothing in common, so why bother. Late one night a drunk drive hit my mailbox, he completely demolished it and got his car stuck on the remaining post. In the noise and confusion, my neighbor came to see if he could help. While there was little conversation that night as we got the car off of the post, we had used his floor jack and the next day when I returned it, over a cold soda in his yard, we got to know each other better. To make a long story short, that man was one of those guys, although they are few and far between, who left a mark on you. He became a good friend and confident of mine and knowing him changed my perspective on life, even before I became a believer. The point being made here is that most treat God in the same manner as I did that man. The pre-conceive that God has nothing to offer them, so they ignore Him. Yet, just as that old man made a make on my life, God is waiting and ready to make a mark on their life, if they would only let Him. yet they run from Him. Personally, I think they are arrogant ones, to deny the existance of the Creator, when His creation is not only all around them, but they themselves are part of the Creation as well. The Bible says thinking themselves wise, they become fools. Not having a Christian upbringing is a good thing. As stated above in reply #1 there are over 20,000 professing Christian faiths out there. That's 20,000 man-made perspectives of God's single truth. The Word of God tells says let each man work out his own salvation with fear and trembling. We need not that man teach us, but the Spirit, that teaches truth, and does not lie. In Genesis, it says that God destroyed the World (Noah's Flood which most evolutionist deny ever happening) because whatever man could conceive in his mind, he could do with his hands. In other words, man had reached a point where they felt they didn't need God any longer. They could save themselves. A pretty big slap in the face, the created telling the Creator He was no longer needed. PS. I think you writing abilities are quite good. pete

Yeah, she informed me it wasn't a p**n site. lol She is quite a woman... be lost without her. I realized about the pop-up... am too cheap to send in the money for that download. There are some good image fades though. Thanks again to all for your perspectives. pete

Thanks to both of you for viewing. My wife has been trying to get me off of the dark backgrounds for years. I appreciate your opinions. I don't know why the applet seems to keep running. Any ideas? I click the applet and got the same window. Never realized it before. It was generated with a free code generator and pop up link must be hidden in the generated code. Thanks guys.

Here is a javascript that pre-loads the second image just above the link itself. You place the code for each link where you want the link to go... nothing in the head tag. <script language="JavaScript">SecondImage00='image1.gif';</script><a href="http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/; onMouseOver="{OrigImage00=img00.src; img00.src=SecondImage00} " onMouseOut="img00.src=OrigImage00"><img alt="" name="img00" border="0" src="image2.gif" width="0" height="0" Â onLoad="TempImage00=new Image(0,0); TempImage00.src=SecondImage00"></a><script language="JavaScript">SecondImage10='image1.gif';</script><a href="http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/; onMouseOver="{OrigImage10=img10.src; img10.src=SecondImage10} " onMouseOut="img10.src=OrigImage10"><img alt="" name="img10" border="0" src="image2.gif" width="0" height="0" Â onLoad="TempImage10=new Image(0,0); TempImage10.src=SecondImage10"></a> You can add as many links as you want you just have to change the image number shown below in red: <script language="JavaScript">SecondImage10='image1.gif';</script> <a href="http://www.domain.com//" onMouseOver="{OrigImage10=img10.src; img10.src=SecondImage10} " onMouseOut="img10.src=OrigImage10"> <img alt="Alt Text Here" name="img10" border="0" src="image2.gif" width="0" height="0" onLoad="TempImage10=new Image(0,0); TempImage10.src=SecondImage10"></a> It is easier than it looks... I use the find and search in my editor. image1.gif is the url of the image you want when the mouse is over the link. image2.gif is the url of the image you want when the mouse is out. If you use it and have any problems just let me know and I will help. pete

If you are tired of providing your clients with weather feeds that take visitors off of their site or slam their site with ads, I finally found one after searching for hours. Here's a link to a FREE php script that pulls the feed directly from any airport in the world to your site. It is easy to customize and has simple, well documented installation instructions. http://www.mattsscripts.co.uk/mweather.htm hope you find it helpful... a good one for designers to archive as you will most likely need it some day for a client. Check out Matt's other free scripts as well. pete

I just posted a simple designer site, you comments would be appreciated. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Please feel free to critique any of the completed sites as well. Also would like your opinion on the header of this site under construction (load time) http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ The links are broken coming off the page. Thanks, pete

The large image as a header is not necessarily a good idea. The page takes way too long to load. Although the site does look good, the impatient public will not stick around to see it.Check out the link given by jipman. (Great Link by the Way) . It show script problems, The index page had something like 109 syntex errors.Don't get discouraged, your are definately on the right track.pete

The site looks good. There are a few broken image links on it. I, like Nils experienced a non-stop loading. This could be why there images didn't load. Checked out your design rates. I don't know where you are from, but they seemed considerably low.over all the site looks good.

I agree NilsC, the rating system works well. We only have to use it. I think it is good to let those who have helped you know. I don't think a response to any particular topic deserves a +1 simply for responding, but if the reply helps you, or they have shown an earnest effort they do deserve a positive point. As stated in the forums before, the reputation apect of this site allows the newbies to see who, and where they can get help.One thing that I have yet to come across in the forums is the reasons for giving a -1 or negative point. This should be addressed. I do not think simply for disagreeing with an individual about any topic or constitutes a negative point. We all have the right to disagree.However, I do think that the following would constitute giving a -1:1) Spamming the boards with useless or copied posts.2) The use of fowl language in a public forum.3) Degrading implecations towards another member.4) Continually providing false and inaccurate information, especially in the scripting area. Countless hours can be lost due to having an inaccurate script and not realizing it.I am sure there are more good reasons for giving a negitive point...What do you think?pete

We do not need science, proved or disproved, to have a reason to believe in God. the Word of God tells us that the very creation itself speaks of His existance. Regarding astral projection, it most likely is possible. That is not to say that we should be delving into these areas. There are a lot of things that take place on the spiritual realm which, I believe, God never intended His people to mess with. An interesting fact to consider is why are we here in the first place? Being a believer in a creator, God, I have to lean to what the Word of God says. The problem here is that most fail to take the time, or put forth any effort to settle the matter in their own mind. You have to take it back to the Garden of Eden to fully grasp why we are here. Prior to the expulsion from the Garden, man, (Adam) walked in the presence of God. It was God's intent for us to fellowship with Him, in His presence. Sin caused the division between us and God. But God, knew before hand and had already established a plan of redemption, which came in the form of Jesus. We were never created to seek after the things of this world. (i.e. money, big houses, fame, etc.) We were created to fellowship with our Creator in a Garden where all of our needs were met. Nothing more and nothing less. The Bible tells us that the will of God is that we know Him. Not know of Him, but actually get to know Him personally. Those who think that God is too busy to care about them are gravely mistaken. He has the hairs on your head counted. He knew of you before you were conceived, in the whomb, and now, right where you are. You may not know of, or believe in Him, but He is not only aware of your existance, it is His will that you come to know Him, personally.

I first would like to thank both hashbang for starting this topic and for management for allowing topics concerning God in the forums at all. In viewing the responses it is clear that there is wide range of perspectives concerning not only the topic of God's hand in natural disasters, but if there is a single God at all. If you were to scan the conversation between MajesticTreeFrog and I concerning the big bang theory you would come to realize that I DO believe in a single God, who created the entire universe. In order to discuss the topic at hand, one has to express whether or not there is a God at all. After all, if there is no God, then obviously He wounldn't have a hand in natural disasters. Not coming from a religious background, (non-practicing Catholic) I, as a young man had no real basis to establish a belief system. I felt like OpaQue... There truth of the matter is that most of us realize there is a higher power of some kind out there, but we never take the time to try to find out who or what this power is, nor do we make any efforts to get to know and understand this power. The sad part is most totally reject the possibility of a single God mainly because we live in a society that teaches a "unity in diversity" philosophy when it comes to religion. The resault is we all end up creating the god we want to worship in our own minds. We find a piece of doctrine and if it fits in the doctrine we have made up, be choose to believe it, if not we reject it. That is why in the US alone there are over 20,000 registered religions that proclaim tha Jesus Christ is Lord. Think about this for a moment. There are 20,000 religious doctrines (man-made opinions ) each attempting to understand God's single Truth. No wonder there are so many seeking the truth in other places. Over ten years ago I made the decision to search for myself to see if there was a single God or not. In the Bible it states that if we seek God with an earnest heart, we will find Him. As one of the posts stated in so many words, it would be impossible for me to convince you, or anyone for that matter, that there is a single God. Why? Because it is a matter of the heart. God promises us that He will write His laws and precepts on our hearts, not our mind. God is ever ready to touch our hearts. However, He does not want our servitude out of force. That is why He gave us the freedom to either choose or reject Him. If we seek Him earnestly we will find Him, and His single Truth, if not, we will accept whatever thruth we make up in our own minds. Before one can truly give their perspective on whether or not God has a hand in natural disasters, they must first decide whether or not there is a God or not in their own mind. If their conclusion is that there is no God, then the answer is simple, No. However, if they find that there is a single God, then they have to refer to the Word of God to understand His nature in dealing with mankind and the sins they commit. In reading and studying God's Word, it is plain that God does, in fact, take an active role in dealing with, not only in our personal lives, but in nations as a whole as well. As a result of personal study in God's Word, I do believe beyond any doubt in my mind that God does take an active role in events like the disaster in Asia. His word is full of examples of His nature in regards to sin against Him. While I am not saying God brought this actions against these people, I am not saying He didn't either. In considering the facts, that part of the world is basically pagan. Whose to say that it wasn't God taking action on a land that has rejected Him for so long? I don't know. Here's some food for thought for those of you that might say; "I can't believe in a God that would do such a thing." Such a statement indicates that you are one of those who are establishing your own doctrine and creating in your mind the god that you want to serve, and not the God of creation. If there is a single God, which I believe, and He spoke all that is into being, which I also believe, then it is His creation to with as He pleases. Who are we, the created to dispute Him, He holds our very next breath in His hands.

I'm in need of a drop down menu script. The one I am currently using was written to work in both ie and netscape, but does not work in firefox. I new at installation that the author had stretched the rules abit to make it work, but didn't expect firefox to come out. I don't care what language it is written in as long it works If you have ie you can see an example at: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ I would appreciate any help you can recommend pete

Great site... Thanks for listing it.

Have you read the entire tutorial, or did you get to the css and figured you had a better way? Not everyone out there is as advance as you apparently are in scripting. As I stated, there most likely is a better, more efficient way to accomplish the intent of rolling the background of while at the same time rolling the link as well. If I have the wrong code, enlighten me. I do this for a living and time is money. I didn't use the because it doesn't allow for color and I want to show where the changes needed to be made. Not everyone uses the same code to create sites, some of are self taought and have had learned to improvise to accomplish what we needed to. As stated, not everyone is as advanced as you must be. If an individual only knows html, then the script I posted is easily adapted to what they know and accomplishes the task. If you know a better way post it so we all can learn. That is why we all come to this forum... to learn. P.S. Don't swear at me again. How old are you anyway boy? About 19 or so and think you got the world by the tail. Grow up

Good point on the webmail... never thought of it, but you are right. Thanks for the input. Since I've yet to learn php, I'll have to go back to cgi thanks, pete

Seems like alot of unecessary scripting. The above script is for just two links while the original: <style type="text/css"><!-- a:link {color: #FFFFFF; font: arial; font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: none} a:visited {color: #FFFFFF; font: arial; font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: none} a:hover {color: #FFFFFF; font: arial; font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: none} a:active {color: #FFFFFF; font: arial; font-size: 13pt; text-decoration: none} --></style> is short and quick and covers all links on the page. In addition r3d's script still doesn't address the data cell roll-over which is the base reason for the script in the first place. This is not a *BLEEP* for tat situation here. I am not trying to defend my script. I am sure there is an easier way to accomplish the task. The important thing here is that the script presented is correct in order to prevent a newbie from spending countless hours trying to figure out a script that wasn't funtional in the first place. No doubt, using three different languages (HTML, Javascript, & CSS) to accomlish a single task might seem to be a bit much, but each section is short and easily understood, even for a newbie, hell, I wrote it when I was a newbie. pete

There are lots of way to skin a cat. The code example above, provided by r3d, is set in the achor tag would control the link roll-over itself. It would allow for a different set of colors to be used on another set of links somewhere else on the page, providing you write another CSS script for the second set of links with different id's. This is handy if you have links set on different color backgrounds on the same page which is common. If not, the original script will work just fine, or at least it has for me. r3d's addition does not change the data cell background, however, which is the part of the script that would resemble an image roll-over. The data cell background roll-over part of the script would remain the same, but be sure not to use the same ids as the anchor tag ids. Thanks for the input r3d, that's what these forums are all about, pete

Perhaps this is what he was saying? <script language="JavaScript"><!-- purpose = "mailto:"; username = "usernameHere"; siteURL = "siteURLHere"; linkName = "Contact Us"; document.write('<a href=\"'+purpose+username+'@' + siteURL + '\"style="text-decoration: none;"> '+linkName+'</a>'); // End --> </script> This script works the same and I guess it would be a little bit more secure pete

Thanks for the link. This is a serious problem on the internet. Assinine individuals who would invade your privacy with spyware and harvesters ought to be lined up and shot.

I too like javascript. It is extremely versital. You can accomplish just about anything with it. When to use it? Well, I use javascript on just about every site I build in one form or another depending on what it is I am trying to accomplish. Primarily I use it from graphical effects such as random image and html.It works well for image roll-over scripts, although I mostly use a text roll-over script like the one in my tutorial I post on creating a text roll-over verses an image roll-over.Javascript works well for creating code generators. I often write a code generator in javascript to create additional pages for my client's site so that they can add pages and text themselves and not have to pay me to do it for them.Combined with SSI, javascript can be as powerful as any other language allowing you to create pages on the fly depending on user interaction and it can write to and retrieve from a database.As I have stated quite a few times, I am self taught and I found javascript to be easy to comprehend and implement. I will always use javascript in my design, but as I am finding out, languages like php are more stable, while offering the same, if not more versitility.pete

This is true, however, the script is quick to set up and does accomplish the task at hand. IT SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR COLLECTING SECURE INFORMATION such as credit info and the like. While I really like javascript, I am coming to realize the power of php. Before becoming a member here, I never even knew what php was. My goal in posting here is to help others as much as I can with the little I know. I am totally self taught and understand the frustrations of trying to learn. This is the first forum I have ever been associated with. I appreciate you pointing out any aspects of any of my posts that may be accomplished in a better way. That's how we all learn. If you would, please point out more clearly exactly what the risks are in using the script I posted so we all will have a better understanding. I have used the script and it functions well. Thanks, pete

The site is an on-going project as the client's money comes in. That is why it is still using the ip address and there are broken links. If you go back to it you will notice that the images change each time the page loads. Refresh it a few time to see. Thats a great script, not my original, but modified. The page is table-based designed to be functional with all monitors. Although there are not many left, there are still people using old monitors 800 x 600 and such. Thanks for the point Pete

What are you trying to accomplish? If you need specific information you would have to create a user input form. Personally I like to use javascript to accomplish feedback forms as there is only one line of script to deal with in addition to the actual input form. Here is a simple script with a basic form: <FORM ACTION="mailto:yourusername@youresite.com" ENCTYPE="text/plain" onSubmit="return checkForm(this);" method=post> <table border="0" width="500"> <tr> <td>First Name: Last Name:<br> <input type=text size=20 name="FIRST"><input type=text size=20 name="LAST"><br> Address:<br> <input type=text size=45 name="ADDRESS"><br> City:<br> <input type=text size=26 name="CITY"> <br> State: Zip:<br> <input type=text size=2 name="STATE"> <input type=text size=5 name="ZIP"><br> Phone: <input type=text size=26 name="PHONE"><br> Email: <input type=text size=26 name="EMAIL"><br> </td></tr></table><br> <INPUT type=SUBMIT value="Submit "> </FORM> You can add as many fields as you need to to get whatever information you need. If you want to protect the email address from harvest robots, it can be used in conjunction with the email protector script I posted yesturday in the Designing and HTML thread. If you decide to use this script and need some help just ask. pete