Calling Bob Fortune for WhoZat?
EMRR
Just wondering if you are still maintaining WhoZat along with all your other
rocketry efforts? I've tried to reach you several times since August but to no
avail, so I assume 1 of 3 things:
1) Wrong e-mail address
2) I'm "kill filed" for some unknown reason
3) Cyber-police are confiscating my WhoZat emails to you
I don't believe #1, would love to hear about #2 and would never ignore the
possibility of #3. But, bottom line, I just wonder what is happening with the
db that you started.
Regards,
Nick
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es-sence(es'uhns)- the basic, real, and invariable nature of a thing.
Andy Eng
buddies cutting a deal with the Russians for motors. That or maybe
Sorac'ing out in the desert? Haven't heard from Sue McMurray in
awhile either--She's probably in the movie somewhere too...
Just guessing...
Have a Happy Turkey day!
Andy
bob fortune
Killfiled? No way, Jose.
I just got stuck when I was unable to figure out a way to automate the
entry process yet keep editorial control. The problem with this kind of
database is that it can get out of hand if done automatically but I
never found a program or a person who wanted to go to the trouble of
developing an easy to use system. I didn't have any trouble maintaining
the site till it became cumbersome when I had to manually install the
entry, make a thumbnail of the image, update the index, ftp the thing
and set the permissions, then go back and fix what didn't work. Phew,
that's a huge time sink. It was fun for a while until I got people who
changed their website or email address or personal information - like, I
mean, can you believe it some people wanted to change stuff? : ) Since
it _has_ to remain a dynamic site it requires constant care and feeding,
but the level of care just got to be too great so it now languishes in
static splendor.
What it really needs is a better search format and presentation. Seeing
the varied entries with no particular rhyme or reason keeps it
interesting but a pain to search or find pertinent info, kinda like
looking at a torn up encyclopedia which someone tossed in the air where
"whale" might be found next to "ice cream". I imagined a searchable
database where the user could look through an index or type in a keyword
or name. A page would be generated with the result of the search plus
any close matches with a bunch of additional entries that don't fit any
particular pattern or scheme just to keep things interesting. The
historical and fictional rocketeers would be added as developed or
contributed so something new would await the user every time it was
accessed. These entries could be generated by anyone who happened along
and wanted to make an addition. Let's say Joeseph Blow felt like making
bios on all the soviet cosmonauts, there are no Soviet cosmonauts in
whozat but they sure would be fun to see along with their pictures. Or
maybe someone else felt like developing entries for all the fictional TV
rocketeers or the rocketeers of science fiction. It could be a wildly
huge and entertaining database but it's beyond my skills or amount of
time I can contribute.
The basic problem is entering a profile, do you control it by password?
by cookie? by email address? How do you keep out the riffraff and cybergraffitimeisters?
What I envisioned was data entry script that would ask:
Name
Address
email address
website URL
Image or Image URL
200 word bio
professional or rocketry affiliations
and allow for automatic update of the database after going through a
human editor. Unfortunately my web skills are limited to
see_spot_run.html type pages. If you or anyone else has any ideas I'm
all ears.
Bob
bob fortune
>
> My guess with the recent Aerotech fire, he's off with his CanSat
> buddies cutting a deal with the Russians for motors. That or maybe
> Sorac'ing out in the desert? Haven't heard from Sue McMurray in
> awhile either--She's probably in the movie somewhere too...
>
> Just guessing...
>
> Have a Happy Turkey day!
> Andy
>
Hey Andy,
Boy, wouldn't that be fun to go to Russia with enough rubles to buy a
containerload of motors? Lots of them are works of art besides being so
powerful.
Something in a similar vein, I did get to play with the
guidance/aerodynamic control/warhead (inert and spent) section of a
sidewinder over the weekend. What a clever piece of technology. The
thing has this gas generator which is just an end burning motor. The
exhaust is piped into air cylinders that move the canards in one
direction or another, really a clever system that's intricate and robust
all at the same time. I would love to have a couple of them.
Bob
Kevin Trojanowski
Pester me sometime around January; I may be able to create a quick &
dirty VB app to allow dynamic generation of the pages. Yes, someone
will still have to enter it, but it would make editing & maintenance
easy. Click a button, it spits out the pages, then you run a script to
FTP 'em to where they belong. Or, I may be able to automate the FTP, too...
-Kevin
EMRR
END of THREAD!
Nick