Updates
10/21/2006 - Changed Linky so that the Earlier & Later navigations buttons are switched (Earlier now on left & Later now on right). There is a conflict in conventions of books going left to right to go forward in time, and a weblog which is browsed backwards in time.
10/20/2006 - Link re-organization! I wanted to add a few, but ended up doing more than that.
09/18/2006 - Mucked around with the wiki a fair bit the last few days. It actually works pretty well, and has now been configured to ignore known spammers and know the appropriate timezone. Strange to be back in the land of editing PHP files.
09/16/2006 - Installed MediaWiki for my USD classes. Not sure what it'll be used for, and not publishing the link at this point.
- Updated my online resume.
- Updated and then removed the menu link for the WebDesign section. I don't need any more web design business right now.
09/15/2006 - Boo! I'm not dead, just in San Diego. Go figure. Upgraded to PHP5. Broke all kinds of stuff. Pretty much all the games and all the picture collections. Meh.
- Ok, the photos are now working again.
- Removed the shoes from the front page (old Marathon link)
- Upgraded Wordpress to 2.0.4.
11/27/2004 - Happy Thanksgiving! No mini-turkeys for the web site this year, but I did finally go through and post my pictures of Zion Park. From my vacation there a couple of months back.
10/18/2004 - Completed a little project I've been working on for the last few months.
09/26/2004 - Initiating the DNS change to DreamHost. Note that there are some problems, I know that Puzzle, LightsOut and TnT all have script issues, but DecryptoQuip seems to work just fine, and since that's why most people are here, I'm moving now and fixing later.
09/11/2004 - Changing Ardenstone from FutureQuest to DreamHost. Lots of search and replace for PHP includes, but not too much else (huzzah). So far. Haven't examined the more CGI intensive stuff (decryptoquip, linky, etc.). If you're shopping for hosts, FutureQuest has a much better community, much better help but costs more for less features. If I had more money, I'd be very tempted to stick with FutureQuest because I tend to prefer good service, but the cost/feature (mainly SQL) is enough to combine a couple of accounts over to one at DreamHost.
09/06/2004 - Photos page was down for a while, but it's back up now. Almost all the pictures are of Emily and I. Given our divorced status, this does things like freak out girlfriends, so I keep debating on whether to take the whole section down, or just leave it up as an acknowledgment to the highlights of my past. For now, the latter wins. I also added my vacations to Las Vegas and Michigan.
05/27/2004 - Turns out I'm walking a marathon. Put together the pages over the last few days, and just put a link (a sneaker on the home page) to them now.
04/30/2004 - Updated my resumes. Wouldn't you like to hire a hardworking, technical support person with expert computer skills and several years of experience? Go check it out.
06/14/2003 - Removed wedding bells from front page. (subtle, no?)
04/14/2003 - Shooting for XHTML 1.0 (transitional) and CSS. Equally amazing, there is nothing black! (well, the homepage, but besides that...) Side menu that stays with you unless you're using a standards-ignorant browser (re: any Internet Explorer currently on the market, alas). Does the menu on the left not stay with you as you scroll? You should take a look at Mozilla or some other standards compliant browser.
- Going through some of my projects and converting them to XHTML. Nice to see some old, butt-ugly code.
04/13/2003 - Rewrote and updated the WebDesign page.
- Big ole' site/layout change. More later...
01/26/2003 - Posted pictures from New Year's Eve 2003.
01/25/2003 - Posted pictures from The Winter Hike in Hocking Hills. I've also been toying with a redesign of the site using CSS and being a lot more accessible.
10/06/2002 - Changed the WebDesign page to include references to HarrisonWest.org as well as looking a hair more professional. Coming soon (I think): pictures from our marraige on the beach of Kauai!
09/01/2002 - Rewrote my links page. Inspiration from a mythical encyclopedia, so go figure.
04/06/2002 - Tweaked the navigation menu. Whichever section you're in will now be centered and made bold. The RESUME link floats around to fill the slot for whatever section moved to the center.
- Added year to all my updates on this page. Some had them, most didn't.
04/01/2002 - Finally took the time to update the look and feel of Ardenstone.com! The old navigation system is gone, replaced by a new bar of stars (reversed from my home page) as well as a newer look up top. It's kind of snazzy, and I'm going to change the navigation wheel so that the center entry is the current section. Nifty stuff!
03/07/2002(!) - Woah, been a while since I updated. Well, I've done a few things in the last few months. Bought a new house and posted some pics. Also spent a large amount of time (that should have been spent unpacking) re-writing The Center for Effective Discipline's web site. It's at www.stophitting.com, so visit and marvel (or make snide comments, whatever).
09/24/2001 - Quick update of my resume. Also changed links of my Tcl/TK Tutorial for Non-Programmers using a perl script and some elbow grease.
09/14/2001 - It took almost a year of me wincing every time I checked the site logs and seeing that someone has visited CryptoQuip to make me rewrite the stupid thing. I just changed the interface a little, but rewrote the back end entirely. It seems to fully work now, and if you go back and change your mind it actually corrects everything it should. Also the table listing what you've already guessed only shows what you've tried, instead of the entire alphabet. For those who don't know, CryptoQuip encodes a random phrase and then you try and decode it. What could be more fun? Stop pointing and laughing at me...
09/12/2001 - Finally made time to finish out the descriptions of my Hawaii photos.
09/07/2001 - The first pictures from Emily and I going To Hawaii have been posted. The descriptions aren't complete, but the photos are up. Note that they're using a new, improved PHP script utilizing linked lists to make re-ordering vastly easier. I also used a perl script to output the names of the 57 photoes and their accompanying object creation code (about 450 lines I didn't have to type by hand). Cool stuff. For those of you who don't give a fig, just look at the pretty pictures.
09/03/2001 - I finally fixed the stinking Madu shield bug in T&T!!! I was using an fread call, and for some reason it wasn't always returning the correct file size and so chopping off the last bit of the character. Switched to fgets instead. Life is grand.
08/12/2001 - Mucked around with shopping in T&T. It works, except for Madu's (and I assume Viking Shields) eat the previous armor entry. Very weird and very frustrating.
- Added a few new levels to Lights Out. I should add more, but I'm tired of coding.
07/15/2001 - Over the last two days I've spent too much time on the T&T Game. It's now slated to be a character generator and solo game. The character generator is done, you can now save the character (up to five per login). Hence this means you now have to log in and create a user account, and then it uses sessions to keep track of you. I suppose that shopping will come next, so you can take your shiny new character and get him/her all spiffed out.
07/11/2001 - The T&T character generator is now in stable form. Now to add sessions and session variables.
07/10/2001 - Started work on my Tunnels and Trolls game-to-be. I'm starting simple; with a character generator.
07/04/2001 - Posted a much nicer version of the Summer Gather of Earlham Friends. Smaller pics and a quick PHP wrapper to make things interesting.
06/22/2001 - Important (but fairly quick) updates to the Shadowrun Character Generator. I also played a bit in the Fae.
06/21/2001 - Added a bunch of pictures of the Summer Gathering of Earlham Friends. They are just a bunch of large photos with no zippy framing program. This to come soon, along with a great reduction in their size.
- Also updated the Shadowrun Character Generator to include Resources.
05/22/2001 - Changed my 404 File not Found error page. FutureQuest's was ok, but I didn't like how it looked with my page.
05/20/2001 - I have been researching SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) for my front page. I like the stars, but I wish they didn't look like crap as they expand. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out how to make the embedded SVG graphics have transparent borders, or they would be up already! If you're interested in SVG, here are two links that are very handy:
W3C's Specifications at: http:/www.w3.org/TR/SVG/
Adobe's free SVG web-browser plugin: http:/www.adobe.com/svg/distribute.html
05/13/2001 - Time for a web site OVERHAUL! For a picture of what it used to look like, click here. The new home page has stars that expand in a randomly generated line. A little PHP and a bit of CSS. Also changed my colors to be black and white.
- Bah, just spent a while changing things so that my homepage loads in Netscape and Opera. I am currently fairly annoyed at how Opera renders the menus. It was worse before I added the [brackets] into the link, but it's still ugly.
05/07/2001 - Started to work on a Shadowrun Character Generator using JavaScript. Not sure how long this will take, but it is a good excuse to start learning a new language.
04/23/2001 - Added levels 10 through 18 in Lights Out.
04/14/2001 - Changed the code around for Lights Out. Added the ability to choose different boards. So far, I have only implemented the basic 3, solitaire (one in the center) and random.
- Added all the levels up through 9. Also changed copyright.
04/08/2001 - Finished writing Lights Out. This is a simple game that I learned from my palm pilot. I actually started working on it a few ours ago, technically yesterday, and now it's time for bed.
02/24/2001 - The last handful of days have been spent creating a PHP implementation of Puzzle!. This is just another version of that game where a picture is cut up into squares, and then mixed up, and you have to move them one at a time and try to reassemble the picture. Maximize your screen to get the entire picture and header on at once, or else you'll have to scroll down each time it refreshes.
02/09/2001 - Dang security. Spent a couple of hours tonight fixing the Fae security, which was registering a bypass attempt when you actually did follow one of the Fae folk. I'm just clever enough to be dangerous... Also fixed a randomization error (ie: it wasn't random) so now you might actually get more than the 1st secret passage if you find one.
02/07/2001 - The Fae folk have completed two (count 'em 2) secret passages! Hopefully, more to come soon. It took a bloody long time to create a stable, random base for this whole silly thing, but it should be very easy to implement more. If you happen to stumble into the Fae, and it tells you that you've found and incomplete passage, please send them a telegraph to let them know! If you still have no clue what I'm talking about then poke around the web sight, keep your eyes peeled, and you're sure to see one of the Fae eventually! (Note: No, you probably won't. I disabled them in a website revamp a year or two after this post)
02/06/2001 - Created a script to show photoes in a slideshow format, complete with Next, Previous and a menu option. Implemented this with pictures of our vacation to Key West. There are about 50 pictures here, but no text. I'd like to remedy that in the near future, but we'll see if I'm that motivated.
- Ok, it's now bed time (or perhaps a bit later) and I've rewritten the script so that short descriptions (the size of a normal ALT tag) are used as the ALT tag and the menu choice, instead of picture name. I really need to learn how PHP does two dimensional arrays. I had to use a total hack (adding 900 to the number for the description) and it mucked up my math later on.
01/28/2001 - Implemented a little security to keep the Fae (somewhat) hard to find. If they complain about invaders who've cracked the code, I'll tighten it later, but it's enough to keep the casual wanderer out. Of course, the whole point of the secret passages is to go somewhere, but the Fae folk are an unruly and easily distracted lot, so we'll see if they ever add any destinations.
01/27/2001 - The Fae folk have begun creating secret passages throughout Ardenstone.com! Eventually, if you can find one, you'll be able to follow them through to whatever treasures or mischief they create. For now, run after one to send them a telegram.
01/09/2001 - Using Adobe Photoshop 6 and images swiped with Emily's new, snazzy digital camera I've posted a short series of Photographs of our (small) New Year's party.
01/05/2001 - What have I been up to for the last month? Not too bloody much. Holiday crap, etc. and creating a set of PHP scripts so that a friend can have an online journal. And damn are they cool. If you want to check it out, go to www.squarecat.org/journal/Website was up for a year or so, but not longer.
11/25/2000 - Working on the CryptoQuip area some more. Added the actual CryptoQuip section, which takes a random message (from a file, which can be added to via another web page) and encrypts it before feeding it to DeCryptoQuip, so you can try and solve it.
- DeCryptoQuip needs some work. Added a section that shows you a table of your guesses, but if you guess the same translation letter for two different encrypted letters it lets you, and then changes them both if you change just one later. Will fix when I have a chance. Bah!
11/24/2000 - Uploaded my newest footer image. A neat zig-zag line. 
11/20/2000 - I just spent two hours bashing DeCryptoQuip into near pefection. Or at least stinking-coolness. The pull-down menues adjust to the user's history of choices, and it can now accept percentage signs, single and double quotes. Being somewhat new to the PHP world, I'm still impressed with some of the tangled logic that can be achieved in one, self-referencing page.
- Also switched those stupid stars for funky, hard-to-recognize turkeys!!! 
11/17/2000 - Removed the data for the Hooks and Cast of Characters from the WWW directory structure. Hopefully this will make things more secure, as I don't have world readable, writable and executable files sitting around for anyone to muck with. Thanks Justin and jbroder for your help!
11/15/2000 - Created the Hooks section to the Shadowrun section of my website. This is a guestbook-like page that lets us add hooks to the list so that an aspiring GM can pull one and run with it!
- I've decided to let the general public run amok in the Shadowrun area! My main concern is people tearing up the cast of characters, so I implemented some very ad hoc security on that section. Chances are, if you're not one of the group, you won't be able to get in. Or my script doesn't work :) I hope to allow people to log in or browse anonymously sometime soon.
11/14/2000 - Pictures of our halloween costumes are up. Huzzah!
11/12/2000 - Ooops, added a link to the Photos section on the homepage.
- Added Edit functionality to the Cast of Characters in my Shadowrun area. This area isn't public yet, but I'm trying to fix a few security issues so that I can make it so.
11/11/2000 - Create the Photos section. This will contain whatever photographs I feel someone out there might want to see. First up are pictures of our cat, Sebastian.
11/09/2000 - I've changed my colors once more. This time purple text with a black background. New title picture as well. While first making it, I blurred a bit to smooth the edge. It blurred to much, but I decided to go for it. Now it's all fuzzy, and I'm not sure I like it or no.
11/07/2000 - 11/06 - Changed my colors back from Halloween. Alas, no more bats. Trying out little stars. Or are they explosions? Heck I can't tell. I liked the bats better. Maybe they'll be back soon... 
- Also modified a set of Sebastian pictures. I'll try to get them up soon.
10/29/2000 - Created showPic.php for the friends section of the web site. There are a bunch of photos of groups of people, and previously they had just been linked to directly. Now, the links are to showPic.php and pass the title and filename of the picture, and it displays them along with the standard header and footer, as well as a link back to the main friends page.
- Created this page!
- Added the updates section to my homepage.
- Added the red bats for Halloween. 
10/28/2000 - Changed all my colors for Halloween!
- Added a section to my footer PHP script that shows when the currently-viewed page was last modified.
- Decided to make Anatomy of Ardenstone.com which will show y'all how I work my magic. In other words: how to easily steal my very limited knowledge of PHP. Of course, I'll have to put something here before you can do so.
- Changed my header so that you can pass it the title. This allows me to shove everything from the initial <HTML> through </HEAD> into the header, and hence be lazy and not type it in everytime I create a new page.
10/08/2000 - Messing with PHP, so made another link on my projects page. Environmnet variables, etc. for now.
- Added PHP.net link to the links page. Spent entirely too long trying to find a picture for it. Stole and edited one from the Evil Walrus.
10/01/2000 - Brought over the friends gallery from my old site, and re-arranged it so that it's by person and not just two huge pages.
10/07/2000 - Started converting my project pages over to PHP, as well as doing some cleanup.
09/30/2000 - Added an updated version of my resume.
09/29/2000 - Moved my project pages over and added a link to my old site at Earlham College.
09/28/2000 - Bought a year of hosting from Future Quest.
- First pages put up. Decided to use PHP instead of straight HTML so that I can adjust the look and feel of the entire site at once. Using one header (background and menubar) and one footer (copyright and end tags) in almost every page.
09/27/2000 - Ardenstone.com given to me by Emily, my girlfriend at the time, for our anniversary.