Webmaster's page

Derek Harris

Experimental page, some elements may not appear as intended!

Xmas 2007

Sadly my idea that members other than me might contribute to a regularly updated blog have come to nothing. So I guess I have the choice of either getting rid of this blog altogether or claiming it as my own, effectively making it an editorial, the online equivalent of (the poor relation of) Tony Roberts' excellent, 'The Editor's Bark' in our newsletter, 'Lowdown'. I doubt that I have enough of interest to say but here goes. From now on the blog is 'The Webmaster's Howl'.

Our 'unofficial' visits to the Midland Branch  Fun Day and Basset Hound Club Championship Show at  Bickenhill

I began this website following a casual remark at the picnic in June, making the mistake of asking Tony, the editor of LOWDOWN, if he was going to produce a web version of the magazine. He said "I'm not, why don't you" or was it "But you could", such is his optimistic view of life. Naturally, if I continue with the website, I am hoping that he will at some point allow me to steal lock, stock and probably barrel from the magazine itself. In the mean time I have plundered it just slightly and await my summons for breach of copyright.

No summons and I now have my hands on Tony's master computer file from which was produced the wonderful Summer 2008 branch magazine. I have also added more information on coming events and added a page of show results, both of these may be found in the magazine. However most of the magazine will remain in print form only for the time being. Those wanting to read it will have to acquire a copy, the easiest and best way to do this is to join the South East Branch of the Basset Hound Club and if you have any interest in basset hounds then you must read the current issue. Follow the links on this site for your application form.

The basset used to produce the content icons, is Jean & Dusty Miller's 'Cassius', photographed at Bickenhill. Handling him is James Gwynne.

My experience of producing websites is limited to what you see here and to three I did earlier, as they say, one, just a few very brief pages, for the accountancy firm where I worked, that was removed from the net as swiftly as me from their office, one showing a few photos taken by me, mostly a long time ago, along with paintings etc. similarly ancient, www.derekharris.co.uk and one which attempts to promote my wife, Miranda's paintings.

The latter is www.mirandaellis.com. Although it has a tendency to languish  from neglect, in my defence this is in no small part due to lack of Miranda's cooperation, with luck you may catch it showing up to date information, anyway it will, I hope, give some kind of a glimpse of her wonderful paintings.

I have a few ideas in mind to expand the site. Do you have an article you would like to see online? What about a Members Page, is there anything you would like to see on our site? What about a page containing a photo of every branch member's Basset Hound?

It appears that some people have had difficulty navigating the site, maybe because they don't realise that the images to the left are a clickable table of contents, to help with this I have moved the menu system from the bottom to the top of the page, actually I have made major changes to the menu system, see below.

For those taking a 'technical' interest in the site's progress  Despite a preference for frames pages I have once again eliminated them, largely because Google, which now rules the way people use the internet, has the annoying habit of referring searches to a single frame. Frames pages are not officially sanctioned by the web although they can be seen on many websites, that of the Basset Hound Club for example where again some specific searches on Google will lead not to the frames page but to one of its constituent pages. One of the main reasons for my preference for frames pages is that by using them I could put the header menu and the side contents bar into a separate html files, which could be called to each frames page. This meant that any changes to the menu or contents need only be made once for them to become effective on all pages. Losing this was a major setback. However I have made a breakthrough by learning how to call pages into a window within a page and so now have been able to return to the happy situation of being able to make single changes to the contents that become effective throughout the whole site, a major saving of time. The new header menu is a java script file, which again as a single file can be brought into each page. I have tried to maintain a consistent style across the site but have as yet been unable to learn the secrets of style sheets, the addition of these would, I believe save more time and help with style consistency as the site grows.

After a few minor tweaks I am now reasonably happy with the way the site displays on Safari and Firefox so am hopeful that Apple users can view it in much the same way as those with Microsoft Internet Explorer on a PC. I have removed the health warning from the home page, however there are a number of sound clips on the site which only play in Internet Explorer.

I hope that it will prove of interest to return to this site as I hope to add to and improve it as and when I find time, it will be in its nature to be a constantly changing beast.

Unfortunately the simple visitor counter I installed early in the life of our website ceased to function and emails to its source were never answered. The new counter above and on the features header page begins from the evening of the 18th July 2009. Unfortunately this means that the totals are not as impressive as they would have been but the counter itself is much more sophisticated, providing various statistical data. Scroll between different pages by clicking on the area at the top of the counter window. Some of the data is not wholly accurate, for example it appears to believe that I am in Abingdon, I am not, I guess that is where my ISP's computer is. It lists Europe as a country, perhaps it knows something we don't.  However the data is nevertheless interesting. The new counter was more elegant but the subscription ran out and I didn't renew it!

 Crufts 2008

My first visit to Crufts!

Click the small images once for a larger version, double click to return page to its original state.

As for me, I am Derek Harris, a branch member with an undistinguished history in Art, specifically painting, which I studied, if that is the word, I doubt whether the essence of painting can be taught, as I doubt, even whilst I try to reconcile myself to a Kantian rejection of scepticism, much else,  and I don't recall much teaching of anything during my time at the Camberwell School of Art and Crafts, as it then was, although perhaps that is not entirely fair. Following art school a working life spent as the worlds most reluctant accountant, not as odd as it seems, just a continuation, more or less, of what I'd done before, before art school that is, the less being that post art school I dealt with the accounts of painters and sculptors, a few galleries, some writers and the odd musician, very different from the costing office I had worked in before. Basset Hounds came into my life with 'Orlando' who was acquired by my soon to be mother and father in law in the late 60's and it was then that I decided that if I ever had a dog of my own it would have to be like him. However it wasn't until mother in law, whilst queuing at her bank, spotted a Volvo with a basset hound as its radiator emblem and started up a conversation with its owner, that we acquired Mango the first Basset Hound of of our own. However not until after I had been vetted by his breeder extraordinaire, Veronica Ross....to be continued.

'Cocoa Bean' with her friend 'Sun Ra'

I would welcome any comments, good or bad; naturally good are more welcome than bad, although hold back on sycophancy, does that presume I believe there is something to flatter, whatever; I would like to know where I have gone wrong, so please email me with anything useful by clicking on the icon on the right.

The sound clip heard with this page is an excerpt from 'Dog' a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, set to music and performed by Bob Dorough .

Click on the sound control below for the full version.
Introduction by Bob Dylan.

'The Webmaster's Howl'

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