My Homepage Is Finally A Success

[utapaortnab]

Howdy all Forum Members,

I was NEVER online until I bought my first Gateway Computer in early 2000. Shortly after, I became so distraught by my not having the computer skills to find information I wanted while surfing, or to re-find it when I needed it later, I talked a friend Frank Picchoine into putting a personalized website up for me to keep all my newfound "treasures" in.

I thank him for his ####, but as he had NO time to make updates to include additional information/urls, I began looking for another avenue to collecting and saving all information I found of interest to me that I thought might have some interest to others.

In 2003, I met a man named Mike Newman, who shared my interest in a homepage that would have the information from my old website AND be upgradable to include updates/additions each month.

What the finished product looks like is:

http://homepage.mac.com/mgnewman/KenLat/

You can page down the left hand column subheadings to find topics of interest to you, then click on any/all URLs under that subheading and find a wealth of info within one place (and if you bookmark my homepage, it will always be there easy to find when you need any info about any subheading later).

Little did I know how many people would actually access the homepage until Mike added a "counter" at the bottom left hand corner (looks like a globe with a cn on it). And if you click on Summary and all titles below it, you can tell exactly how many from all walks of life and areas of the planet are.

As of today, we are getting an average of 44 hits/day. I never envisioned that it would ever be that popular. I noticed, when looking at the counter, some of the active members of this forum have accessed it. I'd like to ask those who haven't yet had a look at my homepage to do so, and those who have would post a reply here or bc me and let me know what you think about the homepage and any suggestions for improving it.

My target audience was all those that "regularily" visit Thailand and all active duty, retired and veterans of the military. I have large sections of info under the titles Asia, Bangkok, Books, Hotels, Pattaya, Philippines, Thailand, Travel, and Weather that might be of interest to ANY of our members here, and if any of you have URLs on any of those subheadings I've missed, PLEASE let me know so I can add them.

I also have the largest subsection on Military of anyone I know. just FYI.

Hope y'all can give me some additional URLs I've missed and also hope you enjoy the Homepage.

Just last year, I also started puting out a daily column called THIS AND THAT.

You can access it daily at http://kenandlat.diaryland.com

Let me know if you have any quizzes, quotes, jokes, interesting articles, etc. that you think I could use for my daily column.

Thanking you in advance,

Ken Bower

San Antonio Texas

35 trips to Thailand so far since 1971

Next planned trip Oct/Nov 2005

[JimGant]

Ken,

Obviously you've spent a lot of time with this -- and I instantly bookmarked it, as just browsing you're index showed many links of interest for later perusing.

But, I spent my time here at NKP, but didn't see anything about that (Udorn, Utapao, yes). I may have missed it, as the logic of your index is not too apparent (at least to me).

But, congrats on your time and effort.

[Jockstar]

Hey ken just read the post about your grandparents. Brought a lump to my throat. Is your grandad still alive? Peace to them both.

[Joey Boy]

Ken,

Obviously you've spent a lot of time with this -- and I instantly bookmarked it, as just browsing you're index showed many links of interest for later perusing.

But, I spent my time here at NKP, but didn't see anything about that (Udorn, Utapao, yes). I may have missed it, as the logic of your index is not too apparent (at least to me).

But, congrats on your time and effort.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[medicinebox]

Lots of links........ Lots of links.......... Lots of links.

Say maybe you could make some money out of this.

[buadhai]

the logic of your index is not too apparent (at least to me).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm the one who put the index together. If you have some suggestions on how to improve it, please let me know.

The idea is that the links are grouped by topic. If you click on a topic in the frame on the left, you will jump to that section of links in the frame to the right.

[udon]

Mike, Lots of good links, can I suggest getting rid of the frames?

It's a bit like looking thru a letter box.

[buadhai]

Mike, Lots of good links, can I suggest getting rid of the frames?

It's a bit like looking thru a letter box.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK, but if I eliminate the frames, where do I put the menu/index?

The list of links is so long that I figured frames was a good way to handle the menu, but I'm certainly open to suggestions.

[udon]

Put all the links in 3 or 4 columns on the first page, if that's practical.

[buadhai]

Put all the links in 3 or 4 columns on the first page, if that's practical.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Could do, but that would eliminate the menu. How would people locate a particular topic or group of links?

For example, now if you want to look up links on "Laos" you scroll to "Laos" in the left frame, click on "Laos" and the right frame jumps to the section on Laos.

Maybe put in a "search" box or something?

[dclaryjr]

Howdy all Forum Members,

What the finished product looks like is:

http://homepage.mac.com/mgnewman/KenLat/

I was reading this post about an hour ago before I clicked on this link. Forgot where I started!!

Pretty amazing collection of links.

[dclaryjr]

Ken,

Obviously you've spent a lot of time with this -- and I instantly bookmarked it, as just browsing you're index showed many links of interest for later perusing.

But, I spent my time here at NKP, but didn't see anything about that (Udorn, Utapao, yes). I may have missed it, as the logic of your index is not too apparent (at least to me).

I didn't see any NKP stuff either. I was supposed to go there TDY from Udorn, but the C130 never made it off the ground that day. When were you there? I partied with a few guys from the 6908th Security Squadron when they shut them down and moved them to home of the 7th Rock and Roll Freak Show!

I just spent a half hour looking at Udorn stuff linked from Ken's site. There's a great site by a guy who was stationed at URTAFB the same time I was down the road at Ramasun Station.

There's also a site that lists a gazillion bars in Udorn with descriptions of each. I thought that was interesting because when I first got my orders for Thailand while stationed in Berlin, I guy I worked with had just come back from consecutive tours, and he drew my a map of Udorn with much the same type of information.

[lopburi3]

NKP or Takhli. But this seems to be a personal list rather than an attempt to cover all items under each heading. As such there will be gems and dogs.

It is a great collection of links but as with any such list it is subject to change. For Chiang Mai none of the links deliver what is expected:

Chiang Mai Online gives us Worlds Ways

Chiang Mai gives error

Chiang Mai Mall gives inactive

Johni's Chiang Mail gives John's Life in Thailand

But that aside it is a good read and well worth the bookmark. Thanks.

[minbari73]

Hiya, nice collection of links there Ken/Lat !

One suggestion...

Frames = bad

I had a spare hour tonight, so I took your site and completely revamped it, similar to my personal links page here:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~minbari73/

of course I don't have quite the number of links you've accumulated

If you like it, let me know and I'll email it in zip form and remove it from my site.

It does need more work - such as making the actual links page smaller than 490k, perhaps breaking it into smaller chunks...might take a few more hours LOL

http://members.iinet.net.au/~minbari73/kenlat/

Hope ya like it!

BTW I scored more left wing than Ghandi on Voter Guide, but I decided to do it anyway

[Kan Win]

Ken,

Thank you for putting my photo link on your WebPage.

Win13’s Photos of Thailand.

I have changed my main page, as I have new camera now.

I have two sub-directories on this site. On the left is my old camera and on the right hand side my new camera.

Can you please change this to:-

Win 13

so that visitors to your site can choose which pages to go to.

Good Luck

Yours as always

Kan Win

[britmaveric]

Hiya, nice collection of links there Ken/Lat !

One suggestion...

Frames = bad 

I had a spare hour tonight, so I took your site and completely revamped it, similar to my personal links page here:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~minbari73/

of course I don't have quite the number of links you've accumulated

If you like it, let me know and I'll email it in zip form and remove it from my site.

It does need more work - such as making the actual links page smaller than 490k, perhaps breaking it into smaller chunks...might take a few more hours LOL

http://members.iinet.net.au/~minbari73/kenlat/

Hope ya like it!

BTW I scored more left wing than Ghandi on Voter Guide, but I decided to do it anyway

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Much better - too bloody jumbled on the original site!!

[buadhai]

Point taken.

I will retire March 31st. Sometime after then I will take the time to create a no-frames version of the site and work on organizing the URL's within each section.

In the mean time, we appreciate notice of broken links or links with inappropriate link titles. I do run a link checker, but, with so many URL's it is very resource intensive and doesn't find every one.

I'm surprised at the anti-frames bias. I find having the menu (index) separate from the content to be both intuitive and convenient. Obviously, I'm a lone wolf here....

[Thaddeus]

Hello Ken

My PM's got deleted in the other place when it went through an upgrade ... and this is just an apology for never getting around to Newton-Le-Willows.. it's only around the corner and I have no excuse ... unfortunately, now I am running out of time

[dclaryjr]

Point taken.

I'm surprised at the anti-frames bias. I find having the menu (index) separate from the content to be both intuitive and convenient. Obviously, I'm a lone wolf here....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're not. I think frames work great in this instance.

[buadhai]

You're not.  I think frames work great in this instance.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is there something I could do to avoid the "cluttered" look that seems to annoy some people?

Different type face? Columns?

[udon]

Yes & yes.

minbari73 is right on the money!

[Darknight]

/moved to internet , computers forum