HTM Handbook for Bloggers and CyberDissidents - Download - Release Notes - Usage Recommendations

HTML HANDBOOK CONTENTS

HTML HANDBOOK: Top Contents Expanded Contents

Release Notes and Usage Recommendations
HTML Version Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents
Version 1 Revision 1.0 Single Document
November 2, 2005

RELEASE NOTES CONTENTS

DOWNLOAD

HOW TO INSTALL

DOWNLOAD METHOD
"SAVE AS..." METHOD

FILES IN THIS RELEASE

BACKGROUND
DEVELOPMENT

WEB DEVELOPER FIREFOX EXTENSIONS

DOWNLOAD FIREFOX EXTENSIONS
DOWNLOAD FIREFOX
DOWNLOAD MOZILLA

TESTING

Windows Testing
Linux Testing

The Spinning Orbs
The Throbbing Heralds

THIS PAGE: Top Contents

BACKGROUND

Reporters Without Borders (Reportieres Sans Frontieres) released the pdf Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents online in late September, 2005. Shortly thereafter, the individual articles became available on their site, www.rsf.org.

After the pdf was released, and before I noticed the individual articles had become available in html format, I decided to create an html version. This is it. I did it without specific authorisation. Any flaws in it are mine. I did it because I felt strongly that an html version which preserves the flavor of the book, properly extended onto the media of the web, could be of great value, as well as a source of aesthetic pleasure for the target audience(s) of the original publication: Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents. And others as well.

This is the first html release. There are a few rough edges. My intentions are to update it whenever possible, so long as my meager resources remain available. Please send any updates, suggestions, tweaks, rants, etc. to me at dredeyedick at gmail.com . I would especially like current information regarding the list of jailed Cyber-Dissidents in Appendix VI, as I have worked nonstop on this html version since the RSF pdf release, and do not currently have an internet connection of my own (so my email can only be checked when I can manage to borrow online time from someone else), and thus have not had the time or opportunity to bring this list of the status of wrongfully incarcerated Persons up to date.

DEVELOPMENT

Development was done on a Windows 2000 Professional (Service Pack 3) PC (or Win2k) with 128 MB of memory running at 633 Megahertz using Mozilla Composer, with a small amount of work done on a Windows XP (Home Edition, Service Pack 2) machine.

In both cases 800x600 screen resolution was used for the most part, and immediate testing was done on Internet Explorer Version 6.0 on Win2k, and on an older network-attached laptop running IE 5.5 on Windows 98 SE. The rationale for the 800x600/IE ongoing developmental testing/debugging was that this is what most Users use. My own preference, and usual environment, is 1152x864 or 1024x758. So as milestones were reached, I switched to the next most common resolution, 1024x758, and tested there.

Why mention this? Who cares? I just mention it because it means that I went to great lengths to ensure that the resultant document will render properly, and be attractive to view, while preserving as much as possible the flavor and style of the original pdf document RSF released in late September. Bringing this to the medium of the web, I felt a need to add something not able to be conveyed on the printed page...hence the animations, spinning Orbs and throbbing Heralds.

WEB DEVELOPER FIREFOX EXTENSIONS

http://www.chrispederick.com/work/firefox/webdeveloper/

Eminently worthy of special mention are the incredible and totally useful tools provided by Chris Pederick in the form of his Web Developer 0.9.3 Extensions for Mozilla Firefox. I used it to test different browser screen sizes (640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768) to see how the rendered page would look, to extract links, and to keep the coffee hot and cigarettes lit while development took place, among other vital tasks. Thanks Chris. Here's something back.

If You would like to download the Firefox browser, click this image...

If You would like to download Mozilla, click this image...

Click to download Mozilla from http://www.mozilla.org/download.html

TESTING

Testing Criteria

    1. Does the page render properly?

    2. Does it look okay at the chosen resolution?
       (i.e. 600x800, 1024x768, etc)

    3. Does text flow around images properly (Is it still
       readable?) when the window changes from full screen
       to a floating window? How about when the window is
       resized?

    4. After the window is resized, is the text obscured
       by any of the images around it?

    5. Does the animation work?

Please note that all of the text not contained in transparent tables (Table of Contents, Expanded Table of Contents, and Appendices Contents) exist on the same level on the page - z-indices were not consciously used. So...

In 640x480 resolution some text may be covered up by images if the image is on the right of the text on the page. If the image is on the left, the text simply flows around it, and a scroll bar appears at the bottom of the browser window. That is the only issue I have been able to pinpoint using 640x480. Otherwise, it is readable - not pretty, imo, but still viewable.

Windows Testing

This version has been tested on WinXP/IE6, WinXP, Win2k/Firefox 1.06 and 1.07, Win98/IE5.5, Win98/Firefox 1.06, Win98/Opera 6.04 Build 1135, and Win2k,Win98/Opera 8.0 . Opera 8.0 seems to have some problem following the anchor tags - clicking on a link sometimes works, sometimes takes You to the wrong section, and eventually after a bit of this, settles down on dumping You at the very end of the file, no matter where the tag points.
:-|

Internet Explorer will show a large amount of blank white space below the title and cover graphic at the top of the file, before displaying the gray "September 2005 ISBN..." part of the page. This is to be expected - a side effect of the proprietary, non-open standards-compliant nature of Microsoft product. I have no inclination to dive into the code to change it, or figure it out at the moment - it's more important to just complete this release. This blank space does not appear in any other browser so far used in testing. Only in IE. (Note: Mozilla Composer was set to use CSS positioning rather than HTML.)

Linux Testing

SuSE 9.3 testing hasn't been done yet.

On Redhat 8.0 with lots of patches (on a really bloated and slow Microtel with a VIA chipset)

Linux Kernel 2.4.18.24.8.0,
Linux Kernel 2.4.18.26.8.0,

...the following browsers have been used in testing this release of this document:

Mozilla 1.0.1 (Mozilla 5.0, X11, Linux i686;en-US;rv.1.0.1; Gecko/20021003)
Galeon (GNOME) 1.2.6
Firefox 0.9.3 (Mozilla 5.0, X11, Linux i686;en-US;rv.1.7; Gecko/20040803)
Konqueror 3.0.3-14 Red Hat (Using KDE 3.0.3-8.3 Red Hat)

ISSUE/BUG/FEATURE:

IF Your Linux box is as overloaded, bloated with software, and slow, (as mine is) You may think this version of Konqueror does not render animations correctly; It does. In most cases, anyway. There are 2 reasons it might seem it does not.

The machine doesn't have enough disk and/or swap space, for the amount of software installed and/or the number of processes currently running;
The html file is unreasonably large and the sheer number of animated images are unable to get sufficient time-slices from the cpu to display for the time intervals specified in the gif animation frame.

Konqueror renders the throbbing Heralds animations just fine.

Also, if the Konqueror window is resized too narrow, any graphic on the right side of the page will obscure the text to it's left - but this is true of other browser's, too. EXCEPT - Konqueror will obscure text *even if* the text is in a table set to allow the page background to show through. Mozilla on Win2k won't. To see this, look at the Extended Table of Contents, then resize the window to make it overly narrow. The mouse image should appear with the text on top of it - not underneath and invisible.

Otherwise, as far as rendering and tags and such, this version of Konqueror does just fine so far as I've had time to test it (not much). I know of no other problems with it.

FONTS

Font rendering will of course depend on Your browser settings, and what fonts You have installed.

The entire document specifies Lucida Sans Unicode, except for the Appendices - Appendix I and II use Arial (found on most Windows installations and versions).

Getting the proper size involved a lot of wrestling partly due to my unfamiliarity with the peculiarities of Mozilla Composer, and it's interaction with Internet Explorer 5.5 on Win2k in 800x600 resolution.

Fonts will appear larger in IE than in Mozilla or Firefox - this is normal (I think) and can depend on IE settings. Even so, my rationale was that legibly large is better than illegibly small in IE.

In Firefox or Mozilla, when in 1024x768 or higher resolutions, adjusting the text size with Ctrl-+ and Ctrl- - is recommended.

FULL SCREEN: Recommended Viewing Mode

The HTML Handbook appears best when viewed in 1024x768 or greater with the browser window maximised (better) or in full-kiosk mode (best) (Use F11 to toggle on or off) in Mozilla, Firefox, or Opera (when on Windows platforms). Use Ctrl-+ or Ctrl- - to increase or decrease text size in Mozilla or Netscape or Firefox on any platform.

SCREEN COLOURS

This version of the HTML Handbook specifies that the background should be white, to wit:

<body

 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"

alink="#ff99ff" 

link="#000099" 

vlink="#33cc00">

Be that as it may, testing has shown that in some cases if the browser preferences specify a default page background color other than white, then the page's background will be that color. This occurs even if the browser preference is NOT set to override page color specification. This is true for Opera on Win2k and Linux, and for Mozilla on Windows.

So tell Your browser to default to a white page background, and not to override the page's settings.

This is important for proper viewing because for a couple of reasons, the most compelling of which is that all of the animations use a white background color, and the spinning orbs will appear to be spinning on a white square otherwise. :-|

NAVIGATION

The utmost care has been taken to provide convenient navigation. In the Table of Contents, Expanded TOC, and Appendix Contents, everything is a link. Page numbers and Article titles point to the relevant article, and the Author's name points to either their Blog, Website, or Email address.

Each article section is separated by a navigation bar. The link above the line will always return You to the top of the article. The links below, to the top of the document, to the Contents, Expanded Contents, or to the top of the Personal Accounts section. No "previous article" link has been provided but might appear in the next revision.

I have found that with the existing navigation tags, my destination is at most two, or in some cases three clicks away. If I need to backtrack to the previous article, or two articles back, I can click on the link above the navigation bar nearest me to go to the top of the current article, then click the link at the top right of the page to go to the top of the previous article. And so on.

Email Addresses

Every email address in this document has been intentionally obscured to minimise spambots' scooping up the printed text. This has been done with the link itself, as well. As a result, to email someone You must click on the link "somebody at someplace" which will put You in Your email's compose mode with the address copied into the "To:" field - and the address in that field must be changed from "somebody at someplace" to "somebody@someplace" .

In other words, You have to edit the email address - substitute "@" for " at " in the address field. Otherwise, it won't work. 'nuff said.

SPINNING ORBS, THROBBING HERALDS

All Orbs and Heralds, and the other art created for this html version are linked from the images themselves. Click on any Orb or Herald to bring up a page with all of them - there are 91 in all. They can be found in the separate file OrbsAndHeralds.html .

The Spinning Orbs

All of the orbs were created from the one above the Table of Contents. Here's the origin of that one: In the mid 1990's I put Redhat 5.1 on a Dell Inspiron laptop, my work machine at the time. It came with some wallpapers, and there was one, purple-cloud like tile I liked. I modified it a bit, then used the GIMP to animate it onto a spinning globe, a 10-frame animation.

To make these orbs, I exported all 10 frames, then made modified copies of each, several variations, using Paint Shop Pro (an older version). Then each variation-set was re-imported into the animation software, ULEAD's (WebRazor Collection) Gif Animator. Once each was appropriated tweaked, it was saved in optimised form.

The Throbbing Heralds

To make the Heralds, I started with the lackluster Red one in the middle of the collection - the original. I created that about 8 years ago when I set up the art gallery, now at geocities.com/dredeyedick/ (hit blue hand-fwd for thumbnails). The pulsing orb at the top of the site is the original.

It is a piece of the Mandlebrot Set created/imaged with the DOS version of Fractint, then wrapped around a sphere with Paint Shop Pro, then animated with an older version of ULEAD's Gif Animator (called "PhotoImpact GIF Animator, back then).

Using this original, each frame was exported, and the same process was followed as described above for the Orbs.

I hope You like them. I'm releasing them for anyone to use or improve under the Gnu Public License. If You make any interesting variations, send me a copy to dredeyedick at gmail.com.

FILES IN THIS RELEASE


FILENAME	CONTENTS
index.html	The Handbook 861Kb
handbook.html	The Handbook 861Kb
lopwscic_102105.html	Bennett Haselton's article "List of possible weaknesses in systems to circumvent Internet censorship", snapshot taken 21 October, 2005 - 38Kb
rtl_102105.html	Paul Baranowski's reply to the above article, in html format (The original is a pdf file), snapshot taken 21 October, 2005 -46Kb
OrbsAndHeralds.html	Animations created for this html release. Includes animated "Personal Accounts" art from the pdf, and the Frontispiece "Connexions," an animation of a brain cell's synapse 3-D image. - 157Kb
ReleaseNotes_HBCD_110205.html	This file.
The Handbook's images	There are 212 image files, comprising 8.67 MB (9,093,671 bytes) required by index.html or handbook.html. Another 4 or 5 files are included in OrbsAndHeralds.html.
Orbs And Heralds images	There are 108 Orbs and Heralds, The Frontispiece, and Person Accounts art animations. Additionally there are 3 versions of the Tiananmen Demonstrators' "Goddess of Democracy" image.

HOW TO INSTALL

This is one, very large html file. Loading it into your browser will take some time on a dialup connection. So it is recommended to put a copy on your local pc. There are a couple of ways to do this, Download, and "Save as".

DOWNLOAD METHOD

Download HBCD_10_110205.ZIP and place it into an empty directory.
Unzip it into that directory.
Point your browser at that directory and load "index.html" or "handbook.html" .

That's it. All links are relative, and expect the local files and images to be in the same directory.

"SAVE AS..." METHOD

Load this document into your preferred browser (browser must be able to save html pages), such as Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, Netscape, Konqueror, Galeon, Safari, or IE.
Wait until the file is fully loaded. (On a dialup or wireless connection, go get a cup of coffee. When You return, it should be done, i.e., wait 6.5 Megabytes)
Click on the File Menu.
Click on "Save as...", or "Save Page as..."
When the File Save Dialog Box appears, click the file type drop-down list box under the filename field. Choose "Web Page, complete. (This will ensure all the images are saved).
Navigate to the directory in which You want to save the file (an empty one is preferred). On Windows platforms, do this by noticing the directory You are in currently. At the top of the File Save Dialog Box, notice the current directory name in the field "Save in..." at top left. Use the 3 buttons to the right to put Yourself where You want to be, creating a new directory using the new folder button (in the center of the group on Win2k NT, and W98SE...it's the button showing a folder with slight sparkle lines at the upper right).
Click in the filename field and type the filename You want to give Your local copy of this handbook. [NOTE: You *must* save the "Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents" file using the name "index.html" if You want the links back to it from the other files in this set to work when using this method. OrbsAndHeralds.html, lopwscic_102105.html, ReleaseNotes_HBCD_110205.html. and this file, all refer back to the handbook as "index.html". Likewise, all of the html files in the set that You choose to save should be saved in the same directory, because they expect each other to be there. All of these other files should be saved using their original names as well, preserving case in Linux/Unix systems, because links from the Handbook to them want them in the same directory it lives in. The file "handbook.html" is a spare copy of index.html, and there are no links to it from any of the other files except this one.]
Click "Save" or "OK" or whatever button the browser uses to go ahead and write the file on the disk.

That's it. Using this method, all of the images will not be in the current directory. They'll be in a subdirectory under the chosen directory named [filename_files] where "filename" is what You typed in the File Save Dialog when saving. In saving the file the browser rewrites the links appropriately.

Using this method, You will not have several of the files included in the zip file download. You will have to repeat the steps above for each of the other html files in the table, namely OrbAndHeralds.html, this file, lopwscic_102105.html, and rtl_102105.html.

DOWNLOAD

Click any of the orbs or links below to download the HTML Version Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents:

CIVIBLOG	DEMOCRACYWALL

thewall.civiblog.org/rs f/	www.democracywall.org/rsf/

CIVIBLOG:

http://thewall.civiblog.org/rs f/HBCD_10_110205.ZIP

DEMOCRACYWALL:

http://www.democracywall.org/rs f/HBCD_10_110205.ZIP

--

Rest in Peace Rosa Parks
-30-