Earths Daughter

I've worn glasses since 5th grade, because I couldn't see the blackboard in class, and squinted a lot. I was told at the time that I needed them because I sat too close to the TV and read in dim light. I don't know if those reasons are still considered accurate or not. Of course, at the time, people thought harmful rays came from TVs, and it was bad to sit too close to them, lol. At first, I was told I only needed to wear my glasses so I could see at school, but I could see so much better with them, I started wearing them at home, too. Eventually, my eyesight got so bad that I started just wearing them all the time. I have been putting off getting a new eye exam for a few years now. The last time I went, I commented that I was having trouble reading with my glasses on, and usually took them off to read a book. They said I might need bi-focals, that I was borderline on that. So I got normal glasses and just take them off to read. But I'm afraid if I get another eye exam, they will say that I need bi-focals. I'm afraid I will look like an old woman if I wear them. I can read a computer screen better with my glasses on than I can with them off. Probably because I use 1024x768 screen resolution now. I do have a tip to prevent eye strain on the computer, though. When you're reading and writing a lot of documents in notepad, wordpad, or whatever, just change the background to a very light blue or green (I prefer blue). A very pale background lets the text stand out in good contrast, but it produces less glare off of the computer screen. Also, close the curtains in the room in the daytime, to cut down on glare. The less glare you have, the easier it is to read for long periods on the screen. I just have a CRT monitor, too.As for whether or not you look better without glasses, maybe, maybe not. I've gotten so used to wearing them over the years, that I don't even think about it anymore. I do know that some frame styles look bad on some people and other ones look good. So just try on a bunch of different styles until you find one that looks good on you. And I once met a woman who had very nice looking glasses. When I complimented her on them, she thanked me, and explained she wore that type for practical reasons. It seemed she needed very thick lenses, and she had found a way to make them look attractive. She got a small frame style that did not have any frame on the bottom of the glass. The top shape of the glass and frame was three-sided, like the top half of a cell in a honeycomb, but stretched out sideways. Then she had the bottom uncovered part of the lenses cut to match the top, so it looked like a hexagon that was wider than it was high. Then she had the bottom cut part of the lenses tapered and beveled, like a jewel. They looked really nice, and because you could see the bottom of the lenses, and they were tapered, they did not look like they were very thick. I didn't even realize how thick they were until she pointed it out. When I get to the point where I have to wear really thick lenses, I'm going to try to get some like she had.

Maybe they're just doing it for free publicity, and intend to drop it after a while. They may even be doing it to try to get one of the big companies like Microsoft to buy them out for a bundle. If they want to sell the company, that would be a pretty good move. And since .gifs are public now, I doubt anybody that bought them out would keep .jpegs proprietary. If they're serious about the lawsuits, though, there may be some sort of law about letting things get into general public use for years, then suddenly demanding patent license fees or royalties for it.Many years ago, there was a pencil and paper RPG company (the one that made and owned Dungeons & Dragons) that came out with a RPG based on the first Indiana Jones movie. They copyrighted a whole bunch of game terms at once, and while they were at it, they slipped in the word "Nazi". It got by unnoticed, and for a while, TSR games actually owned the copyright to the word "Nazi"! Then some people who played the game noticed the little copyright symbol next to the word "Nazi" and checked to see if they actually had copyrighted it, or it was just a recurring typo. When they found out it was copyrighted, word got out, and it was challenged, I think on the fact that it had been in public use for so long, and the copyright was revoked. So maybe something similar will happen here, I don't know if they can use the same law about public usage or not. I think I may still have a copy of that game or a module for it lying around somewhere. Maybe it's a collector's item now? Lol.

I clicked on the link in your sig yesterday and ended up checking out your sets until I was too tired to stay up anymore, lol. Otherwise I would have made a few first posts on the forum. I love your web stes! I used to look for sites like yours just to admire the beauty of the sets. You can definitely make better sets than I can. One of the reasons I decided a long time ago not to do a site like yours was other people could and were doing them better than I could, lol. This was my favorite site back in those days, I can't believe I still remember the name of the designer, I haven't looked at that site in years. I did just check to make sure the site still exists, though. She does the most beautiful work. Your site reminds me of hers a little bit. Marvelicious Graphics She gives a few graphics tips and some interesting info on roses and Victorian stuff, and has a fairly large page of links to other graphics sites. If you're not already familiar with her site, you'll find it very inspirational! BTW, she also started out offering free graphics sets as linkware, then added some exclusive sets for sale on her site, and still has both kinds, the free ones keep the traffic coming in. You could easily do the same thing.

Hi folks. Just wanted to introduce myself here. I'm interested in computers, computer graphics, and enjoy surfing the internet to learn new things. I guess I would be called an intermediate computer user. I'm self-taught, having done a lot of reading on and off the internet over nearly 5 years, and it seems like I have tinkered with every piece of software I've ever installed on our computers. I've mostly been interested in studying web design. I'm trained as an Interior Designer, and a lot of that training carries over to designing web sites, believe it or not. I've been wanting to do a website ever since I got on the web, as it's a creative outlet, and I'm a frustrated author besides. The problem is, I'm a serious procrastinator, and I preferred researching building a website to actually building one. I have changed my mind on the type of web site I wanted to do several times over the first few years, as well. When I first started using the web, there were a lot of personal sites that were basically nothing more than a bunch of links to something the site owner was interested in. So at first, I wanted to do a links site with a bunch of links to different kinds of hobbies. Then I decided to narrow it down to just hobbies I was personally interested in. Then I decided to do a clipart site with a bunch of images I found all over the web. I wasn't worried about copyright, as I saw so many sites like that, it seemed everybody just "borrowed" clipart from wherever they could find it. But I found so much clipart, I decided to focus on just one type of clipart - darker stuff. Goth, skulls, blood, monsters, etc. because I'm morbid, and I like that kind of thing, and at the time, I couldn't find a big site that specialized in that sort of clipart.But as I looked for good dark clipart, I kept seeing the same stuff over and over on so many sites, I thought I should have more than that. So I started checking out computer graphics programs and did some background tiles myself. Then on to buttons and dividers, and fonts to make cool buttons with, etc. After a while, I got more interested in fooling around with graphics than actually putting them on a website, and I was hooked. The more I got into graphics, the more I realized just how much time and hard work people had put into doing their own original stuff. Then I thought about all those sites that "borrowed" other people's hard work, and realized it was a bigger deal than I had first thought. So I decided I would only use my own original work on my site. Anybody that thinks it's all right to "borrow" other's work without asking, try making some of it yourself, and you'll understand why it's such a big deal.So then I decided I would make a web site where I offered matching web page sets: background; dividers; buttons; etc. But the more I looked around the web, the more sites I found that offered better stuff than I thought I could make. Also, I liked making stuff that people wouldn't necessarily want to use on their own sites. Then I got into fractals, and didn't care what they might look like on a web site, I just liked doing them. Also, I had done a lot of reading on web design, promotion, etc. and realized there was no point to making a site like a bunch of others already out there. My interests have changed over time, partly from reading so much on the internet. At one time, I also was thinking about doing a webmaster resource site. Then a site with tutorials and tips for absolute newcomers to computers and the internet. I used to hang out in chat rooms a lot, and met people who didn't even know how to cut and paste, or use notepad, or what defragging was for. A lot of people don't even know how to maintain their computers. I got into looking for ways to make money on the internet, getting paid to read email, surf, stuff like that. So I was thinking about doing a "How-To" site on stuff like that, mostly to get referrals for those programs. At one time, I had even decided to make some porn sites, just to make money off of. Then I started hanging around adult webmaster forums and reading up on it. And I realized the success stories of people making a ton of money off of porn was because they got into it early before so much free porn was available, and they had very little competition back then. After the early sites, competition became very fierce, and those people had to spend 50-70+ hours working a week to make money off of porn. I also read at various sites that making and running a really good web site takes a lot of time, so you had better pick a subject you were very interested in and liked/loved. As a woman, I was never very interested in internet porn, I just thought it was a "gold rush" sort of thing for making a ton of money, lol. So when I realized how much time I would have to put into making a go of it with porn, I quickly lost interest, lol. But the more I read about making money on the internet, the more I wanted to do a site on general internet business, so I changed my mind yet again, lol. But as I mentioned above, I eventually realized there was no point in doing yet another site like so many others out there. Especially since I would have to put a lot of time and work into it. I wasn't really that interested in making a business site, I just wanted to make money off of making one. So I finally started thinking about what kinds of sites were out there. Which ones are popular and why, and what kind I had not seen as much of. I started thinking about what I was really interested in subject-wise, especially stuff that I could not find several big or popular web sites about. And I decided my favorite thing to do on the web is actually researching information. I could not find anything on the web at first, and it frustrated me. So I learned to find things for myself, and got very good at it. Now I have the attitude that the web has anything you want, if you can just find it. With the attitude of "it's out there, somewhere", I kept getting more and more into searching for things and finding them. I think searching the web for stuff is like a treasure hunt. It's fun, interesting, entertaining, and rewarding. But I quickly found out most people don't have that positive an attitude about searching for things on the web. A lot of people just use Google, and if they don't get very relevant results right away, assume it's not there, or just give up from frustration.People that I hung out with in the chat rooms would look for info on something for months, give up, and ask me. I would have a bunch of sites for them in a few hours or less. I realized that search engines like Google and others concentrate so much on trying to index everything that they have a little bit of everything, but not a whole lot on any one thing. For finding stuff, they're like a Jack-of all-trades, they know a lot of general stuff, but they don't specialize in being really good at any one thing. For a serious search, they can usually provide a good starting point, nothing else. That's when I found out about vortals (vertical portals). And decided to do one of those. With the way I like to do in-depth searches, it's a perfect thing for me to do, and I'll enjoy it. Also, the web needs more really good vortals. A lot of them are way too small to be considered a serious resource. A huge number of new web sites are put up every day, some of them very good, but people just can't find them.That's when I started reading up on CMS's, and found out about Xoops, which is Open Source, so it's free. I'm not a programmer however, so it seemed a bit complicated to use. Then I read about Fantastico, and realized I needed a host with it installed. Money has been really tight since my Fiance died, so I can't afford a paid host, So I looked for a free host with Xoops and Fantastico, and here I am, lol.I realize this post is long and detailed, but I thought somebody else might be able to take advantage of my trying to figure out what type of web site I wanted to do and why I want to do it. I'm guessing there are a lot of people out there that want to make a web site, but haven't really figured out what and how yet. I think I'll do some sort of basic tutorial on that in general for the tutorial section. Now I'm wondering how many people will actually read this whole post, lol.