A redesign in the works for Thinkpads.com?

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benz · #16 Post by **benz** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 8:44 am

daaaaaaaamn that image is hot....but i bet you will hear some complaints from the ppl who dont like images (hell im on an OLD dell here at the lab and its slowing things down)

fox_napier · #17 Post by **fox_napier** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 12:08 pm

Hot picture Bill, but I preferred the toucan better. It was more of your signature sales mascot, sitting atop all those thinkpad boxes. On a more practical note, it will be harder for those of us at work to read and contribute to thinkpads.com forum since the image is not work-safe.

#18 Post by **BillMorrow** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 1:46 pm

i put the bird back..

never thought of the blue laws and porn thing on business computers..

sorry guys..

i got/get so much complaining about the toucan i thought "THIS will make them stop"..
well, it did and didn't..

so the bird is back and i apologise to any who did NOT get a big laugh..

ian · #19 Post by **ian** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 1:50 pm

Sad you had to bow to pressure from what, I feel sure, is a minority. Sad too that people have so little sense of humour.

G-Man · #20 Post by **G-Man** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 2:07 pm

Well, I'm going to miss her.

But the bird is nice too. It fits more to the style of this forum. Maybe we can find a nice bird anim too...

Regards,
G-Man

#21 Post by **K. Eng** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 2:19 pm

Glad to see that the Toucan is back

I got a big laugh from the other picture, but it really doesn't fit with the character of ThinkPads.com.

The birds are notorious Bill. Some lunatic on AnandTech even claimed that his friends who purchased T30s from you a few years back found feathers in the open RAM slots...

benz · #22 Post by **benz** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 4:44 pm

It was fun while it lasted, but hey, that bird is unique. You can't beat it.

While I'm at it, it would be nice to somehow know (either by looking at the poster's signature, or clicking on his/her profile) what exact model they have....this would also help in diagnosing questions posted without having to first ask more about his/her system....

#23 Post by **BillMorrow** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 6:46 pm

it was a joke..!
it was fun..
i'm still looking for a bird in a leather corset with stiletto heels..
i TRIED to get one to pose butt they don't like the hose..

and

they DO find a feather with many new thinkpads, but not inside the machine..
(unless these [censored] birds are getting out and into MORE trouble, when i'm not looking)..

so, there is now a new logo courtesy of erik..
thanks erik..

but beware of my rather off center (eccentric) sense of humor..

remember, bird feathers with a new thinkpad.. ?

so the logo might change from time to time, for a few hours at a time..

#24 Post by **erik** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 6:54 pm

morrow wrote:so, there is now a new logo courtesy of erik..
thanks erik..

this should look a tad more professional, keep the office jobs of those with cubicles, and keep nonny's superfast 14.4 connection happy -- not to mention nonny herself.

but, i will miss that animation though...

-erik

G-Man · #25 Post by **G-Man** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 9:56 pm

This new logo is just perfect. Congratulations Bill and Erik. Is it a T40 or a R50? It looks a bit thick, so I think it's a R50. Probably Erik knows it.

Thanks guys,
G-Man

#26 Post by **JaneL** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 10:03 pm

Great new logo - love the subtle screen!

G-Man · #27 Post by **G-Man** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 10:30 pm

By the way the screen must be a FlexView, since you can see the bird from this wide angle.

Regards,
G-Man

#28 Post by **erik** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 11:38 pm

G-Man wrote:This new logo is just perfect. Congratulations Bill and Erik. Is it a T40 or a R50? It looks a bit thick, so I think it's a R50. Probably Erik knows it.

it's an R50, but only because it was the closest image to what i already had concocted in my head. as soon as i get tired of looking at it then i'll send bill a new one to keep stuff fresh. the next one may be an s30 since most don't know what one looks like.

G-Man wrote:By the way the screen must be a FlexView, since you can see the bird from this wide angle.

but if it's a 14" is it still flexview? lol j/k

nonny wrote:Great new logo - love the subtle screen!

thanks! i thought about you when i made it -- it's only 7k!!!

-erik

#29 Post by **JaneL** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 11:43 pm

>thanks! i thought about you when i made it -- it's only 7k!!! :P
>

LOL Thanks!

#30 Post by **BillMorrow** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 1:41 am

nonny is the resident house mother..

JaimitoBond · #31 Post by **JaimitoBond** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 6:20 am

morrow wrote:OK, so ya don't like the bird, huh..!!!

heres a pic of my wife..!

You always have a thing for redheads

Bob Collins · #32 Post by **Bob Collins** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 9:33 am

Bill, loved the gal walking, too bad it had to go.

Anyhow, how about a series of Thinkpad images that change every time a user refreshes the screen? You could do a time line as it were and show all the oldies and newest versions.

It should not be too hard to assemble a bunch of images and prepare them. I shall even volunteer my time to make all of them if you like.

Just my 0.02
Bob

#33 Post by **BillMorrow** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 10:57 am

bob..

thanks for the offer..

my only concern is d/l time on nonnys cell phone connection..
and others with slow/neanderthal era connections..

how would it work..?
would it be one huge gif file or a series..

remember, i am NOT good working with this PHP stuff..

Bob Collins · #34 Post by **Bob Collins** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 11:13 am

Bill,

Glad to offer/help if possible. In a typical web-page settings, you would make a list of images that would be available and the web server would grab one of the images and use it. I would make all the images the same size, so each image should be the same size in bytes. Only one image would be sent to the user at a time.

We use one on some of our pages using asp. I am looking up some based on php. I am sure there is something. Let me get back to you.

Basically, you would have all the notebook images in one folder, and the content rotator would randomly grab an image from the images folder and place it in the html sen to the user. It would not be one huge image sent. It would be the same as it is, except each refresh of the page would give a different notebook.

Bob

Bob Collins · #35 Post by **Bob Collins** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 11:29 am

Bill,

This is the code.

Code: Select all

<?
$codes = array(
    "<A HREF="http://forum.thinkpads.com/index.php"><IMG SRC="image1.gif" BORDER="0"></A>",
    "<A HREF="http://forum.thinkpads.com/index.php"><IMG SRC="image2.gif" BORDER="0"></A>",
    "<A HREF="http://forum.thinkpads.com/index.php"><IMG SRC="image3.gif" BORDER="0"></A>"
);

shuffle($codes);
$i=0;
$number=1; while(list(, $code) = each($codes)) {
       if ($i>=$number) { break; }
       echo "$code";
       echo '<BR>';
       $i++;
}
?>

Basically, you would have a series of images image1.gif through whatever. Then the php engine would grab a random imagex.gif and place it in the code and send the page to the user. It should be no difference to the user and almost nothing to the server's overhead.

Let me know what you think.

And Erik, if you want some help on locating images, or if you would rather take care of the images, let me know what you need to help.

Bob

#36 Post by **erik** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 11:56 am

Bob Collins wrote:Anyhow, how about a series of Thinkpad images that change every time a user refreshes the screen? You could do a time line as it were and show all the oldies and newest versions.

that's a good idea but gets into a bandwidth issue for those who are still on dialup or, worse, on 14.4 (via radio packets) like nonny. not only do you have to load a new image every time but you also increase page size due to the added php code necessary to rotate the images -- albeit the code isn't very large.

the above image is only 7k and i encourage keeping all future submissions at a maximum of 12k or below.

we'll see what bill has to say since it's ultimately his decision -- with possible additions from our "den mother," nonny.

my 2 cents come from 5 cents that bill donated to me yesterday via email. bill is now left with 3 cents which he may distribute freely.

-erik

#37 Post by **BillMorrow** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 1:47 pm

i'll try it and see what happens..
tonight..

thanks to all for all the help and suggestions..

dcdomain · #38 Post by **dcdomain** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 2:49 am

The new image is pretty slick and professional looking. Love the subtle bird. The image rotator I used on my chapter website was a random PHP script I found online... it has been working pretty well.

In the image source link, I point to the PHP file and it basically loads a random image (any name) from a specified folder...

#39 Post by **BillMorrow** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 8:50 am

did not have time to try it last night..
but i WILL get to it, ASAP..

#40 Post by **erik** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 10:18 am

bill, i can make a bunch of images (within reason, of course

) so the script can rotate between models.

i'll see what i have in my thinkpad photo archive. i've saved hi-res images from corporate and never had a reason to use them until now. lol

-erik

Bob Collins · #41 Post by **Bob Collins** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 6:47 pm

flatdraft wrote:bill, i can make a bunch of images (within reason, of course ) so the script can rotate between models.
-erik

Erik, let me know if you want some help beyond the "within reason" part of the image making, I would be glad to assist.

Bob

lilserenity · #42 Post by **lilserenity** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 7:15 am

I don't mind helping out with PHP/MySQL - got about 4 weeks experience behind me, but I used to program C and had great proficiency so PHP's syntax is a piece of piss

My website is mostly PHP'ified with MySQL in there powering the diary, reviews system, chatroom, and all the rest of it.

Well worth learning, and if you have done C programming before, then definitely worth having a go at, it really expands a website's horizons.

void main()
{
puts("Vicky\n");
}

Or should that be just echo now

#43 Post by **erik** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 5:24 pm

dcdomain wrote:I think I'll have the time in about two weeks to redesign it. I'll do it for free since all you guys are a swell bunch. But in terms of maintaining it... I don't know if I'll be able to do that.

if you can't maintain it then it needs to be constructed so that someone can. if it's constructed in xhtml/css with an asp.net or php backend pulling from an sql database, then it will need an administrative intranet programmed so that bill can keep his site up-to-date on his own. otherwise, it needs be done in old-school html so that bill can understand what's going on and update it in frontpage (no comment) or notepad.

dcdomain wrote:Of course I can just cheat and make it a Blogger of some sort so Bill can update it easily. My fraternity's news page is built around a blogger while everything else such as the rosters section is built with the traditional backend.

thinkpads.com needs sections for tech, faq, news, special deals (weekly, monthly, etc.), about, contact, and more that i can't think of right now. e-commerce ability would be nice to see if bill's open to taking orders via the web.

the bottom line is that the most important factor of updating thinkpads.com isn't to make it look better, it's to make it function better. looking better is but a product of the beast.

dcdomain wrote:Bill how do you feel about that? And for the rest of you, anything specific you are looking for? Any websites out there you want emulated?

picking a design first and trying to fit the information within a design is the backwards way to construct a site as large as this. many steps need to happen before a design is even remotely conceptualized.

but, this is just my 2 cents. i've only been doing this for 14 years.

-erik

tselling · #44 Post by **tselling** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 7:41 pm

Why do we need more than the one Thinkpad image? I read this forum for the messages, not to look at the forum image.

I have to say I thought the naked woman was very inappropriate and was glad to see it go. There are sites men can go to to get that sort of thing. IMHO a site about thinkpads is NOT one of them. I also read the forum at work... so all the work reasons apply as well.

Lets just keep the image a simple thinkpad since the image is not important to the forum.

#45 Post by **erik** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 9:12 pm

tselling wrote:Why do we need more than the one Thinkpad image? I read this forum for the messages, not to look at the forum image.

actually, i whole-heartedly agree. i don't mind seeing it change once in a while (like maybe once per month) but agree that we're here for the content and not the fancy image at the top.

if bill is ok with keeping the header image static then i don't mind submitting a replacement every two weeks or so. my goal is to keep it appearing as professional as possible and keep everyone happy at the same time.

-erik

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