So, here I am, finally fixing a bug I had with the drop-down menus on the re-development/re-design of my website.
Thinking to myself "awesome, it's working!"

Only to load it in internet explorer, and it's screwed.

Me not knowing all that much about CSS and DIV's, I am a little stuck on how to fix it.

Anyone care to help?

Please? lol

And an example..

I've been trying to find a decent CMS (Content Management System), for free.
Luck? Not much. Possibly I just don't know the right places to look.

I also wanted a decent blogging system, so I opted for WordPress,
and thought I'd look into making my own theme for it, to match the website I had created.

Two words = MIND FUCK.
Please excuse the language.

I'd rather pay someone else to do it for me.
And I may just do that! Haha.

Downloaded MYOB Accounting Plus "try-out", to see if I can crack it or find serials for it to make it the full version, I hate paying for software, hehe..

And I got the best downloads speeds I've ever had.. Lmao..



Wo0t!

Every time I start up my computer, it makes one hell of a horrible, extremely loud noise..

Hear it for yourself:
d530c-noise.mp3
*Make sure you turn your speakers up a little.

So I decided to take the covers off and have a look to see how bad the dust situation is..

And my god, all of the fans are full of shit, especially the Power Supply.
Now I'm not about to go out and buy a new power supply, is pointless when I want to get a completely new computer anyway.
But we just have to hope that the power supply doesn't shit it's self in the meantime..

Some pictahs for you to looksies at, lmao..

I've come into work today, despite my broken leg, because we're bloody busy, and help is needed, and also the work computer has some major problems.

It's infected with a shitload of Malware, Adware, and Spyware.
And also a few "Fake Adware" that tells you you have an infection, just to get you to download their software.
There's around 300 infections, bad I know.

I don't get any of this sort of shit on my personal computer at home, and I go to shitloads of "dangerous" websites all the time, downloading cracks and whatnot.

I use Norton System Works for my Virus Protection, and Ad-Aware for my Adware/Spyware protection, both at home, and here in the office.

Unfortunately I can't seem to remove the worst of the infections, it's a pain in the ass, and I'm getting complaints left right and center from my mum (my boss). As the "IT Manager" here, I'm meant to be able to fix all of this shit, and I'm unable to.

If anyone is more clued into these sort of issues, and is able to give some help or advice on how to fix these problems, and know of better programs to use, that are sure to fix these problems, the help would be greatly appreciated.

Please help! Hehe.

Thanks,
Nate.

Today I posted an article on my personal blog about the Artician customisation system, and just how bloody cool it is.

It includes a very short video (around a minute and a half - because it takes less than that to customise your profile!).

Check out my blog post!

Whilst on my daily rummaging around MySpace trying to find something actually interesting about it, I came across a link to the 'MySpace Profile Editor'.

I thought to myself "Oh, MySpace is stepping up in the world, let's check it out."

So I did. Well, at least I tried to, I went to the page, and what did I get?

"We're still in Beta, so this feature currently only works for regular MySpace profiles in Internet Explorer. If you're using another browser or are a band, filmmaker, or comedian, stay tuned. We're working on it!"

But it gave me a link to a shitty MySpace profile with a redundant looking alteration to the default layout, that gives you a long list of links to "tutorials".

Awesome aye?

What did I do then?
Reluctantly opened Intercrap Explorer and checked out the 'Profile Editor' that way.

Believe me, it's nothing special.

All it does, is let you select, and change alterations of the yet, you won't believe it, the DEFAULT MYSPACE LAYOUT!
Oh my fucking god, I am so impressed.
Not.

Although I spend most of my time making div overlay layouts for my myspace profile, I much rather spending time on here, Virb, or even though there's no customisation, on Facebook, because there's some pretty cool applications on there that occupy me most of the time.

I know this blog wasn't all that informative, but what the hell. I needed to have a little rant about the utter crap-ness of MySpace.

Over the last couple of years I've made some basic Flash Banners to put on my websites, MySpace profiles, etc.

Occasionally I've been asked how I've made them, and haven't really been bothered explaining, or showing my friends how I've made them.

So I thought I'd start by making a simple tutorial.

Now, I'm a little old school, and still use my trusty PaintShop Pro 7. Although I do find that PhotoShop renders JPEG & GIF images better. So I usually do a dodgy and create my images in PaintShop Pro, save as PSD files, and save the JPEG or GIF from PhotoShop.

Recently I made a Flash Banner with the text "_nateous", my nickname on MySpace, scrambling around, so to speak. I guess I'll just use this as an example today.

As I'm not so proficient with PhotoShop, I'll do this in PaintShop Pro, would be easier if you were using it also.

Creating Images in PaintShop Pro
Creating the JPEG images we'll use in our banner in Adobe Flash CS3

[indent]Firstly, open PSP, and create a New Image with the dimensions of 400px by 74px (width by height).

Your image should resemble the figure below.


<img src="http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg207/nateflorey/flash-fig1.jpg"; />
Figure 1.

I tend to save my files after each step. Makes it easier to go back to in case of a crash (happens to me a lot due to me using a PC). Save your banner as <b>mybanner.psp</b>.

Now selecting your Flood Fill Tool, and choosing your colour using the Colour Palette.

I've chosen a grey colour (#444444), though you can chose whatever colour you would like.

Then click on your image and flood fill it.

Your image should resemble the figure below.

<img src="http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg207/nateflorey/flash-fig2.jpg"; />
Figure 2.

Now making your "scrambling text".

Select your Text Tool.
Click on your image and the Text Entry box will appear.

If possible, copy the text options that I've done, but you may change the text to suit you.

<img src="http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg207/nateflorey/flash-fig3.jpg"; />
Figure 3.

Position your text wherever you would like it to be, I have chosen to centre it vertically, and horizontally.

Now that we have our desired text, make the background layer invisible, and Merge the text layer into a Raster Layer. All done by right clicking the selected layers.

<img src="http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg207/nateflorey/flash-fig4.jpg"; />
Figure 4.

By now, your image should look like this.

<img src="http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg207/nateflorey/flash-fig5.jpg"; />
Figure 5.

Making sure you're on the text layer, using your Selection Tool, select the letters of your text individually, moving them randomly in your image area.

You should get something like this.

<img src="http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg207/nateflorey/flash-fig6.jpg"; />
Figure 6.

Now make your text layer invisible on the layer palette, then duplicate the layer by right clicking the layer and selecting duplicate. A visible duplicate of the text layer will appear on your image.

As below.

<img src="http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg207/nateflorey/flash-fig7.jpg"; />
Figure 7.

Now repeating the steps in Figure 6.
Using your Selection Tool, select the letters of your text individually, moving them around once again.

<img src="http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg207/nateflorey/flash-fig8.jpg"; />
Figure 8.

Now save your image.

Go to File and select 'Save Copy As'.

Save it as <b>mybanner1.jpg</b> making sure the selected save format is JPEG or JPG.

Once saved, go back to your Layer Palette, make the current Text Layer invisible, and make the other Text Layer visible.

Then repeat the 'Save Copy As' process, naming the file <b>mybanner2.jpg</b>

And it's done, all your images are complete. The next step is making the flash file in <b>Adobe Flash CS3</b>.[/indent]

Creating your Flash Banner
Creating your Flash Banner in Adobe Flash CS3

[indent]Now for making the final product in Adobe Flash CS3.

Open Flash and go to File > New, select <b>Flash File (Action Script 3.0)</b>

At the bottom of the screen in the Properties section, there's a button with the dimensions of the file.

Click on the button and change the dimensions of 400px by 74px (width by height).

Now go to <b>File > Import > Import to Libary</b>

Select your two JPEG files (mybanner1.jpg & mybanner2.jpg) and click Open.

The files will then appear in the Libary list to the right of the window.

Click <b>mybanner1.jpg</b> and drag it onto the design area of your project.

To ensure the image goes directly into the middle, change the X & Y parameters to 0.0 px, as shown below.

<img src="http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg207/nateflorey/flash-fig9.jpg"; />
Figure 9.

In the Layers and Timeline area of the window, create a second layer.

By default, the second layer will go above the first layer, that's ok.

On the second layer timeline, right click on the second timeline square and select Insert Keyframes.

On the first layer, right click on the fourth timeline square and select Insert Keyframes.

<img src="http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg207/nateflorey/flash-fig10.jpg"; />
Figure 10.

Highlight both frames on Layer 2 then drag and drop <b>mybanner1.jpg</b> into the design area.

Repeating the X & Y Parameter corrections to 0.0 px.

It would be now a great time to save your project.
Save it as <b>mybanner.fla</b>.

On the menu bar, go to Control > Test Movie.
It will bring up a window showing your working flash banner, it has also saved the flash movie file (<b>mybanner.swf</b> in the same directory that you saved your .fla project file.

And that is your Flash Banner finished![/indent]

The _nateous Flash Banner
The completed product

[indent]Download at your will:
(right click and save as)

<a href="http://ugeeka.crittercomfort.com.au/artician-virb/tutorials/flashbanner1/mybanner.swf"; target="_blank"><b>mybanner.swf</b></a>
<a href="http://ugeeka.crittercomfort.com.au/artician-virb/tutorials/flashbanner1/mybanner.fla"; target="_blank"><b>mybanner.fla</b></a>
<a href="http://ugeeka.crittercomfort.com.au/artician-virb/tutorials/flashbanner1/mybanner.psp"; target="_blank"><b>mybanner.psp</b></a>
<a href="http://ugeeka.crittercomfort.com.au/artician-virb/tutorials/flashbanner1/mybanner1.jpg"; target="_blank"><b>mybanner1.jpg</b></a>
<a href="http://ugeeka.crittercomfort.com.au/artician-virb/tutorials/flashbanner1/mybanner2.jpg"; target="_blank"><b>mybanner2.jpg</b></a>[/indent]