This 'n' That

Today, I'm just going to ramble. I've had a bad cold with the works since the weekend and I'm now just beginning to feel a little better. And I really don't feel like working hard on any graphics today.

I was checking out some stats on this blog and noticed that someone was looking for linkware with fishing boats. They found my blog post about the boat near Skagway, Alaska, wallpaper, but for some reason Goggle search did not list the actual post, which happened on September 5, 2006. So all the person got to was the main page of this blog that only has the most recent blog posts. I don't know where the problem lies since I recall most posts are searchable in Google by post date/ title.

Then I got to thinking, the wallpaper image really could make a nice header web page graphics set. That's getting off on a different tangent. Or maybe not.

Anyway, when I go through the stats page for Arride Graphics, sometimes I get ideas for the next web page set or desktop wallpaper. Just by viewing what people are looking for. Maybe the graphics won't be for the person who was searching, but it could be for the next person who's searching for the same thing. It can happen.

Also, I've amended the template for this blog by reversing the order of the archives so that the most recent month is on top. That may have helped the boat-linkware-seeking person, maybe.

Lastly, I mentioned previously that I'd stop reporting on the milestone visitors. That was a mistake. It will continue. I said awhile ago (last year?) that I'd stop reporting on my web host's downtime. Overall, my web host has been pretty good with uptime (97-99%). That's why I'll stop reporting it.

New Spacey Desktop Wallpaper!

I really spaced out today, literally. I mentioned on Wednesday this wallpaper will debut today and I forgot to upload it until I saw something else. Well anyway, here it is.

It is an image, actually multiple images on the left side, of Star V838 Monocerotis. I obtained this public domain image from the HubbleSite.org. Here's the blurb accompanying this image:

"The red supergiant star in the center of this image brightened suddenly for several weeks in 2002, illuminating dust that may have been ejected from the star during a previous explosion."

Awesome! And so are the desktop wallpapers I made of this photo. Three sizes to download from the Wallpapers II page. Choose one size which will open up in a new window. Large images, so be patient while it loads in your browser window.

Visitor 12500!

I knew this person was coming but I didn't know how soon.

This visitor comes from Escondido, California, on January 9 using a Windows XP computer and surfing with Internet Explorer 6.0. He or she was using the MSN search engine looking for floral wallpaper and found the Big Orange Flower. But I guess it wasn't the right flower.

Better luck next site... Thanks for dropping by anyway and keep us in your bookmarks.

(Did I say I wasn't going to report these anymore? Well, the next milestone will be the last I promise.)

I will announce the latest desktop wallpaper on Friday.

New Double Border Background Graphic!

"Snowflake" is the latest double border background I'm offering this year. It's not a set, just the page background graphic. (There are other snowflake background graphics as well as a set at Arride Graphics to check out.) This one has a light blue border background on two sides with a single style white snowflake. You can use this background graphic on a winter sports page, a holiday page or a general web page.

I made the snowflake using a dingbat font called "Snow" from the P22 font foundry. It was a freebie giveaway and you can get the font too.

All details about the background graphic as well as the dingbat font can be found on the sample page. Go to the Double Border Backgrounds page to view the thumbnail image and sample page link. Be sure to use the username and password on that page after you click on the thumbnail image.

Site Changes for 2007

Besides a change of look for this site, I will be implementing new policy changes with regard to the linkware web page graphics offered. I will also begin offering an exclusive set once a month.

The change in the policy for the linkware web page graphics include making the linkware sets free of charge for all, whether the intended use is for personal, non-profit, commercial or professional web sites. The backgrounds only graphics will also be free of charge to all. Background tiles have always been free, so there is no change with that. Everyone still will be required to provide a link back to Arride Graphics with either the provided link graphic or a text link. All copyrights will still belong to me and/ or to anyone whose art or photo I use.

Those linkware web page graphic sets that are available for purchase on a non-exclusive basis will still have the same fees as before: $15 per set per site for personal and non-profit use and $35 per set per site for commercial or professional use. This is per site not per page. You can use the graphics on web sites with one to 100 or more pages; the fee is the same. Copyrights are as described above and linking back will be required.

With regard to the exclusive sets, right now I plan to charge between $150-$300 for each set, regardless of its intended use whether personal, non-profit, commercial or professional. The fee and fee range may change at any time. Copyrights are as described above and linking back is optional.

I am also looking to add another payment processor, most likely PayPal, so that you have another option besides Kagi (whose name means "key" in Japanese but they're not a Japanese company; a little trivia FYI).

All of the above changes will be rolled out in the first quarter of 2007, barring any issues with software, hardware or otherwise.

Other Page Links:

Fees
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Linkware portal page

Above pages show current information not 2007 information.

New Desktop Wallpaper!

I couldn't let November go by without offering something, so here's a desktop wallpaper to chase away the winter blues. Yeah, I know it's not quite winter yet in the Northern Hemisphere, but it sure feels like it.

This wallpaper is of the shoreline at high tide at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach, California. It's not too far away from Half Moon Bay on Highway 1, subject of another desktop wallpaper on page 3. At low tide, all sorts of marine creatures that inhabit the tidal zones can be viewed, such as sea urchins, anemones, starfish, crabs, limpets and more. To read more about this fascinating park, go to its webpage at the San Mateo County Parks web site or visit the Friends of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve's web site.

To download a desktop wallpaper in one of three sizes, click here.

Visitor 12000 Acknowledged

Just wanted to take the time to acknowledge visitor 12000 who came on November 20th via the MSN search engine. He or she was looking for floral desktop wallpaper in 1024x768 resolution despite the fact that their computer (or the computer they were using) was only 800x600. They were surfing with Internet Explorer 6 on a Windows XP computer. The visitor hails from Kuwait.

Thank you for stopping by! Hope the Big Orange Flower desktop wallpaper was just what you were looking for.

Another New Top Header Set!

This is an exciting set which has nothing to do with Halloween. It's a set I created for a personal web site and decided to release here because it's that cool. My web site deals with a certain online web host's webpage builder and the photo I used from Morguefile reflects the technical nature of my site. It is actually similar to what I have now but without the hands and in a totally different color scheme.

The photo is from member "justcola" of a keyboard in shadows. I don't know if he/she used a filter or maybe a paint software to color the photo but it's in blues. I thought the photo was so good I downloaded it knowing I'd use it for a set, whether my own or for Arride Graphics. I ended up doing both.

So, check out the set yourself. I call it "Coolin'" and it's set number 308. Go to the Top Headers page to view the thumbnail and click it to go to the page itself. Remember to use the username and password provided on the page. It'll open in a new window.

Enjoy!

New Halloween Side Border Backgrounds!

You know, I'm sure I made these two backgrounds last year but since I got started so late I didn't release them then. You now have the chance to make a neat Halloween web site or web page with either or both of these side border backgrounds that I call "Jolly Jack One" and "Jolly Jack Two."

These two backgrounds feature a smiling jack o' lantern on the left side on a black background, natch, with tiny pumpkins rimming the border. The difference between the two backgrounds is Jolly Jack Two has a couple of sinister glowing eyes peering above the jack o' lantern. The choice is yours.

View the thumbnails and access the backgrounds on page 5 of the side border backgrounds section. These are linkware so please link back to Arride Graphics on every page the background is used by either a link button or a text link. Thank you!

New Top Header Set!

As I mentioned in the previous post, this is one of two sets I was working on in September which I call "Watching Grass Grow." It was created from three photos by two photographers who offer their wares at Morguefile, one of my favorites places on the 'Net to obtain free or inexpensive stock photos.

This set has the three photos as a top header and comes with two custom color tiles that match the colors in the photos. The dark tile is not exactly black and the light tile is not exactly white, although you can substitute standard web-safe color codes for the graphic tiles if you wish. There are no other graphics such as navigation buttons, bullets or page dividers. All of the graphics are zipped up for you and have no watermarks as in the page sample.

For personal and non-profit web sites or users, except web designers or developers hired to create those web sites, it is free of charge. For professional, commercial or hired web designers/ developers, there is a small user license fee. Please see the Fees page for prices. Everyone must read the Terms of Use page for details before downloading this set.

All copyrights to the photos belong to the photographers.

Click here to view the thumbnail image of "Watching Grass Grow" and see the download page at the Top Header Page.

Visitor 11500 and Upcoming Graphic Release!

I've been anticipating visitor 11500 since earlier in the week as I saw the count get closer and closer. This visitor is from Clarkton, North Carolina, USA, and uses Windows XP with Internet Explorer 6.0. They came searching for background tiles on Yahoo! Search in the wee hours of the morning today. They didn't stay long -- I guess they didn't find what they were looking for here. I hope they bookmarked the site or the page anyway. Thanks for stopping in nonetheless!

I'm working on a couple of sets at the same time and thought I'd be able to release at least one today. I don't think it'll happen, so I'll save them for release in October. I'm really excited about one of the sets and I think you will be, too. It's a top header set that I call "Watching Grass Grow." If I wasn't releasing it for you, I'd use it myself on my site or one of my other web sites or blogs. It's that cool. Look for it in the coming week or so.

New Double Border Background Graphics!

Double border background sets have been offered on this site for awhile. Now, I'm offering just the backgrounds. (Why didn't I think of this before?) The first offering comes in five colors for the borders with decorative black squares on each of the two borders. They're 1000 pixels wide and 24 pixels high, optimal for use in 1024x768 resolutions pages with slight bother for those with smaller and higher resolutions. People with smaller resolution monitors will have to scroll to the right if you've got content there and people with higher resolutions will see a repeat of the left border.

Check out the double border backgrounds now. I'll continue making a few more of these graphics for your web pages.

New Desktop Wallpaper Revisits Alaska!

This month's first offering is a desktop wallpaper of a boat just outside Skagway, Alaska, taken off the cruise ship my hubby and I were on while on our first cruise aboard a large ship ever. You may have seen another wallpaper of Glacier Bay, Alaska, on the third wallpapers page made from another photo from the same trip.

Back to this photo, our ship left dock in the early evening and this boat was right alongside for awhile. I'm not sure whether this is a fishing boat or one of the Coast Guard boats. Anyway, the original photo was treated to Virtual Painter's airbrush effect. I tried them all and liked this one. Kind of gives it a dreamy appearance.

Comes in four sizes, count 'em! Click one of the sizes that best fits your monitor's resolution and set it as desktop wallpaper. Remember, don't use this for your web pages because it'll load so darned slow it'll upset your visitors. It cannot be altered, i.e. cut into smaller pieces to be put back together either. Read the Terms of Use for details.

Site Down

As I write this around 11:30 a.m. PDT, my site is unaccessible. The reason why I write this now and have not reported these occurrences in awhile is that I'm trying to upload a new Resources page with the font used in the latest set. I discovered my error of omission earlier this morning and am trying to correct it. So I will wait. Perhaps later today whatever problem that's causing this downtime will be corrected.

I will no longer report these downtimes because they're usually so short in duration.

Two New Desktop Wallpapers!

Forgotten and quietly awaiting their debut are "Supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud" and "Liquidamber in Autumn," two new desktop wallpapers that I had finished some time ago, I think. "Supernova..." comes in four sizes and will most likely be the last of the space-themed wallpapers that I'll issue. The image comes from my usual source, GRIN. "Liquidamber..." comes in three sizes and is a photo of a young liquidamber tree in my parents' back yard. At first I thought it was a Japanese maple tree but upon closer inspection, it looks more like the leaves on the mature liquidamber tree I have in my front yard.

Enjoy these wallpapers!

Supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud is on the Wallpapers 2 page.

Liquidamber in Autumn is on the Wallpapers 4 page.

New Interface Set!

At last! I was able to finish this set I started in July and wanted to release then but didn't get around to it. This latest set uses a navigational interface graphic. Primarily neon green on a black background, it looks totally out of this world with the swirling lights. The image was photographed by "ppdigital" (Darren Hester) and uploaded to the free digital stock photo site, Morguefile.

Copyright to this image remains with "ppdigital" even if it is changed from the original full photo. All pieces of this set are invisibly watermarked. The visible watermarks on the sample page graphics are not on the graphics in the zip file. I have not enclosed the html page in the zip file. But if you need to view how the graphics are set up, you can "View Page Source" or "View Source." Then you can copy-and-paste the html for the page onto Notepad or similar or your web page editor. If you do that, please, please, please delete all of my text including the copyright notice and the Sitemeter script at the bottom of the page before you even put a line of text or photos for your own web pages.

This set is free of charge for personal or non-profit web sites/ users but commercial or professional web sites/ users and web designers/ developers need to pay a user fee via Kagi, my payment processor. While the set is zipped for your convenience, if you cannot open zipped files with WinZip, PKZip, Stuffit Expander or similar I can send the pieces by e-mail. Just e-mail your request using the form on the Contact page or e-mail your request directly using the address on the same page.

View and download Neon Green Abstraction here. Click on the thumbnail image and enter the provided username and password in the popup window.

Visitor Number 11000!

While the hubby and I were away on vacation, visitor 11000 stopped by on the 15th. This visitor had JavaScript disabled so I'm unable to tell how long he/ she stayed and where he/ she went other than to the first desktop wallpapers page. Visitor 11K is from Clarkston, Michigan, and uses a computer with MS XP and IE 6.

On another note, it looks like I probably won't have enough time to complete the set I promised. Been so busy after coming back home from vacation, it's like I never left! Maybe I'll make it, maybe I won't. We'll see...

New Summery Wallpaper!

I'm getting psyched for vacation! Here's a desktop wallpaper featuring footprints strolling across sand.

This wallpaper was made with Paint Shop Pro 7 and tubes. Comes in three sizes; choose the one that fits your screen resolution best. All free!

Remember, these aren't for web pages as they are each one huge graphic and will load exceedingly slow for any user not on a high-speed internet connection. You don't want to lose any visitor and create a bad rep for yourself and your site. Desktop only!

Check out the thumbnail and download here.

End-of-the-Month Notes

I wanted to release a new linkware web set today but don't have enough time to do it. So it will be released sometime in August. It's a really cool interface set and worth waiting for!

I will be unavailable from August 9 through August 23. If you need to contact me, go ahead and send that e-mail. If received before or after those dates, I'll reply as soon as possible. I don't intend to check e-mail during that period though. Work never interferes with play!

Contacting Me

If you need to contact me, whether it's about one of the graphics you downloaded or about this site, you can use the form on the Contact page. The form will send me your note to my e-mail address.

Now, my e-mail address is not in the form of my name at arride.com or webmaster at arride.com at all. I do not use my domain. Instead, I use a webmail service provided by Fastmail.fm with the domain of allmail.net. If you write to me, please include allmail.net or my full address in the whitelist or filters of your webmail or e-mail client so that it does not get deleted or sent to the junk mail folder. You should review your junk mail folder regularly anyway so that legitimate e-mail does not get removed accidentally.

The reason why I'm writing this is that a person named Eve contacted me via the form and I sent an e-mail back to her the same day, but have not heard from her. I've sent two e-mails in total within a week and I'm afraid both of them have been junked. So this is a public message to her.

The following is my valid e-mail address, coded to deter 'bot harvesting. I willl put the same link on the Contact page for anyone not wishing to use the form.

Email Arride Graphics

Click the above to send me e-mail using your e-mail client. Otherwise, please use the form on the Contact page.

Credit:

E-Cloaker from Codefoot - an e-mail address or text encoder using unicode