What's New

It's been a long time since I've updated anything on this site. For the time being I have added a link (as seen above) to the top of all the important pages that may be arrived at through a search engine. It struck me that it would make life a lot simpler for those who visited this site in this way to just be able to find the front door with one simple mouse click.

One reason why I haven't really put the effort into maintaining this site (not that there is much that needs maintaining) is that I haven't really had any feedback from visitors here. I watch my hit counters count up the number of visits I have each day yet no-one seems to want to tell me what I'm doing wrong - or right, for that matter.

I have noticed my site being linked to by another fan of Miss Turlington at The Art of Beauty Fashion Model and Celebrity Picture Gallery. This link has provided me with a few hits since it has been available and I have put a reciprocal link on my links page.

Since I got back from the Soft Cell concert in London I have had various things to do which have prevented me from updating this site. For those interested, pictures, chat and links to reviews can be found here. (This link will open in a new window.)

One of these many things has been to learn Dreamweaver UltraDev. I hope to add some interactivity (search by picture type, year, etc.) at some point. I am not sure on the workability of this since I am using FortuneCity free space and the chances of having server-side software to allow the use of ASP, JSP or ColdFusion is, to say the least, miniscule. However, there may be some workaround in the form of linking to another host the does include these features and then pointing the results back here again. If anyone knows of a free host that includes ASP, JSP or ColdFusion (especially ColdFusion) would they please let me know here.

I hope to add some more pictures I have to the galleries. Since the amount of images on this site totals more than 650, I would first have to sort through them and determine the duplicates before adding them. I have an idea of some that I definitely know are missing and I don't know how I could not have included them.

Also, I plan to include a much more expanded section to accompany my Removing Adverts section. I know that, from my hit counter statistics, not many people use this section. However, for myself more than anyone else I plan to make this site as complete as it can be to satisfy my craving for perfection. - After all, this is a public website and no-one should make available something which isn't up to at least some standard to which others can aspire. The new section will list and give information on what I think (from years of experience on the Net and otherwise) is the best software for the getting, sharing, manipulating and viewing of images to which this site is dedicated.

I uninstalled Netscape v6.0 which, for some unknown reason, I had installed in the mistaken hope it would actually be bug-free and worth using. The result is that now I have Netscape v4.7. (Even getting it was more hassle than it should have been with Netscape's insistence on using "Smart Update".) After a quick visit to their FTP server all is well again. Now I have previewed parts of this site in both Internet Explorer and Netscape.

The most immediate change has been to remove the scrollbar in the left frame of the main Java menu. I had previously rearranged the menu to not take up quite so much space as it had done before. This, at least, will go some way towards keeping the overall theme of these pages closer to what I originally intended. Any users with a resolution of 640x480 (and there have been some, though very few) may have difficulty in using the main Java menu when the Galleries are selected and expanded. For this, the alternative Java menu is still available which is more compact than the main menu. Failing all else, the HTML menu is still there for those who have problems viewing applets or have Java disabled, though it will have the ugly grey scollbars in non-IE v5.5 browsers.

I will be looking through the rest of the site in both Netscape and IE to compare any differences. I also intend to check the site using other browsers (e.g. Opera, which features quite highly in the statistics) but there are some that I have no access -WebTV being the main culprit. Also, v4.0 and earlier IE and Netscape browsers I have no real solution to using on the same computer I have newer versions installed on. Any feedback with descriptions and/or screenshots of any problematic areas are appreciated so I can make this site bug free on as many platforms/browsers as possible. Similarly, I would like feedback from those who have high-resolution displays. - Do the tables render correctly or fall to pieces on a larger screen? (I am designing for 800x600 as a target resolution.)

Firstly, thank you to the second person who has cast their vote in my Poll.

The masses have spoken! Well... Two of you have, anyway. You overwhelmingly voted that you would prefer to have direct links to the images, rather than have them open in an HTML page. The HTML pages, as were originally created, are still there but at the bottom of each is a link to a page of just the filenames. From there, a simple right-click will allow anyone to use their favourite mass downloading software to catch all links in one fell swoop.

I listened to your requests and I have delivered. This operation was a massive and tedious job (creating 22 new gallery pages, typing filenames and linking all 657 of them) and in return I would like some signatures in my Guestbook. I would also like to hear any other comments in my Forum. This isn't much to ask for all my hard work - I just want to know what you all feel (this site has broken the 500 unique visitors mark) about this site and where I can take it.

Thank you.

Created a new Java menu for you to play with. It's a little bit more compact than the current one but may be slightly more confusing in its usability. The new menu can be found here, any questions, thoughts or comments on either menu system can be posted here.

Note:

• For some reason, it still shows up as unregistered.

Not really new - more of a request, really:

I asked a question on my Feedback page as to whether or not I should change the galleries so each picture would load on its own or, as is the case now, on a page. If you don't see the significance of this - it's so users with software such as Mass Downloader, NetAnts, etc. can right-click on the page of thumbnails and download all in one go. At present, this method would download only the HTML pages - not the images themselves. This change would obviously reduce the time it would take to save every single picture drastically. You all know what I mean - click the thumbnail, wait for the page to load, right-click the picture, save-as... Well, if you want this quite a massive job (more than six hundred images to relink) pushed to a higher priority, then you could take part in my anonymous Poll and tell me which areas of the site need tightening up. The more people who vote, the better things get prioritised.

For returning viewers, you will already have noticed what's new here. - The What's New page now has a new location. I thought that if you weren't reading this page where it was originally (and you weren't - only 44 out of nearly 450 visitors have ever looked at this page), then placing it here might inspire you to give me some feedback.

When the page reaches a certain limit I will move older news to another page and start afresh. Where that limit is - I don't know yet. Since I am using a cable modem, maybe dialup viewers could give me an idea when this page becomes to slow to download.

Converted all Dreamweaver layers to tables. This means that if the text in the right frame seemed to collapse to the left-hand side (version 3.0 and below browsers), then converting the layers to tables will keep the same layout but increase compatibility for the older browsers. Judging by the statistics, many of you are using version 3.0 browsers.

I still have not had any feedback from Netscape, Mac, Linux or WebTV users on the compatibility issues. Come to think of it - I haven't had any feedback! Come on people! - I know you're all looking through this site but no-one's helping me out. I would like to hear your thoughts on the site - improvements, content, usability, etc. Get posting!

Made some cosmetic changes to the Java menu to match the rest of the site. Turned off the "metallic" look and resized it. I also reorganised the galleries layout to minimise the need for scrollbars. The end result is no scrollbars in a fully maximised browser at 800x600 (the resolution most people are using, according to my statistics). I think it also looks much cleaner and neater - what do you think?

I'm also thinking about redesigning the Java menu using a different applet. I would like to have all the galleries in one single submenu, as opposed to the new redesigned layout I have just made to avoid scrollbars. Do scrollbars make any difference? Tell me in my Forum.

Found some problems with scrollbars appearing due to resizing of the Java navigation menu. The scrollbars were always present in the HTML navigation menu but I couldn't avoid that since some people might not be able to see the Java version. The scrollbars themselves weren't actually a problem - it's just that they were there - and they are very ugly! I changed the colours to fit in better with the overall colour scheme at this site, so at least they are as unobtrusive as possible while still providing the necessary functionality.

NOTE:

• The coloured scrollbars will only work in Internet Explorer 5.5

Yay! Two reasons to celebrate:

• Hit the 100 visitors mark for my first ever website!
• Someone completed my Feedback questionnaire - thank you!

Found new incompatibilities:

• Some browsers (mainly Netscape) display a scrollbar in the navigation frame
• The Java navigation menu still doesn't seem to work correctly on Netscape
• Netscape doesn't work, or so it seems

Since my posting on Usenet earlier today, there has been a huge increase in traffic to this site. While this has been very satisfying for me to see, from the statistics I have noticed few people have taken the time to visit the Guestbook, Forum or Feedback areas. I would like to stress that the more people who partake in returning feedback, the better this site will become. In particular, the Feedback area is where I urgently need some posts. If you want this to become the best Christy Turlington site on the Net, then please help me make it as good on any browser/OS as it is on mine.

Also, I noticed a few Mac users looked at this site - would be interested to know how it looked on their OS.

• Added a feedback form to help in my design of the site and for future improvements.

• Just found a weird problem: The thirtieth (last) thumbnail in galleries 3, 4, 5, 7, 19, 20 and 21 will not display properly. Also, in every gallery, the thirtieth thumbnail has a link border around it. Hmm... Working on it.

• Tested some compatibility between IE and Netscape, added a new alternative navigation menu link from the front page if users are not able to see the Java menu. Since no-one has yet signed my Guestbook or posted in my Forum (boo-hoo, mainly because the search engines will not have not found this site yet) there have been no reports yet of incompatibility issues. I imagine the main ones will be the Java menu and the use of Dreamweaver's layers. The menu issue is resolved with the new alternative menu, while the layers issue will be resolved shortly. Anyone wishing to inform me of further issues can leave a description, along with their browser, OS and any other info they feel would help me to make this site useful for anyone, in my Forum.

• Spent the day submitting the site to as many search engines as I possibly could. Then my eyes burned out from looking at the screen.

• Created the site, organised content and uploaded within about four or five hours.