New, improved, useful OSID Database

[Therx]

Hi Guys,

You may have gathered I'm redesigning my site. The new site is up at http://users.jc-hosting.co.uk/therx/. It is not finished but the OSID is. By signing up you can add fields to the DB yourself allowing it to become a database with all the required fields. Currently it has very few but I'm relying on you to add what you think is nessacery. Please post comments back here.

Pete

[Solar]

One - *please* don't use settings that make links change their width on mouseOver(). That's *terribly* annoying when the link line breaks at a different place whenever your pointer crosses a link...

Two - you'd have to do quite some gathering yourself before people consider your DB a ressource worth checking / filling out. All I found is "Therx" (your own project); adding to that would feel... pathetic.

No offense intended.

[Therx]

Sorry for my rage

Let me rephrase myself.

Please do add your OSes. If noone does then it will be a chance wasted. I know it currently has no OSes but if everyone helps by adding theirs then eventually we will hopefully be able to stop threads which ask how people do things because it will all be there in the OSIDs

For those who don't know what this is all about here is the original discussion:-
http://www.mega-tokyo.com/forum/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=2941

[Therx]

Anyone know of a reliable free web host which allows PHP with mail() and access to MySQL servers (freesql.org). Mine has been down about 5 times since sign up yesterday evening alone.

No I have two locations:-

http://users.jc-hosting.co.uk/therx - Fast but Unreliable
http://therx.t35.com/ - Reliable but Slow

They both run off the same database so you can use either

[Whatever5k]

Therx, the reason I am not using your OSID data base is that _both_ servers are **much** too slow. You should really consider to choose a fast server.

[DevL]

Therx, add any and all OSes you can think of and find on the net, move to a faster server and then re-announce your OS database. That might make it more interesting for people to grow and use it.

[Therx]

Therx, add any and all OSes you can think of and find on the net,

How can I add info about all the OSes?
1. I haven't got the time to go finding about all the OSes when to get answers I'd have to read ALL the source code.
2. If I got it wrong then I'm sure that it wouldn't go down well

move to a faster server and then re-announce your OS database.

Yeh, I know this is a problem. The therx.t35.com server isn't actually that slow. But I need a different server anyway because t35 restrict files to 250k which means some files from my OSDev lib can't go up.

That might make it more interesting for people to grow and use it.

I'm not sure if you get the idea. I'm not the main benefiter if this all works. You guys are. Think about it how many posts do you get saying 'How does your OS do this?' Once all the fields are added by the users to the OSID then all anyone would have to do is search through the OSID (yes the search does work but its pointless for 2 entries), find an OS which does it their way then follow the link to the OS's webpage and take a look at the source code to see how that person does it. Then the forum would not be clogged up with repetitive threads.

Site Update:- I have transfered the OS Library to the new site although some files aren't there due to the file limit see ^^^. The therx.t35.com server seems to have speeded up a bit so that shouldn't be to bad. The search function now works and the newsgroup section shows the latest 10 posts to alt.os.development. What I still have to do is:-
-Get a quicker server without file limits. In the near future I may be able to do this over my ADSL connection.
-Add more documents to the library
-Implement the newsgroup reader properly and allow the search to look through the newsgroup.
-Implement the part of the members area which allows you to add documents.

Any entries to the OSID would help a lot.

Cheers

Pete

[Curufir]

Good work, here's feedback:

Gripe 1:
It's tacky and horrible to change font/capitilisation on rollover (Should be in the web design hall of fame in the "Things to irritate your visitors" category). It'd be much neater if you just change the background on the menu item to a different colour. #80D2C8 might work well.

Gripe 2:
I know it isn't a perfect world, and correct english isn't a requirement of dazzling content, but at least make sure the homepage msg is correct. It shows professionalism, like you actually care about what you're doing.

Code: Select all

Well its here in part. Many sections are uncompleted but I've decided to launch the OSID so that it can hav a head start to develop fields, entries etc. Please help add fields because if everyone waits for someone else to do it, it will never happen. I hope you enjoy what I've done so far. Pete

Rewrite (And I'm gonna look seriously stupid if there's something wrong with this one ;D):

Code: Select all

Well it's here in part. Many sections are incomplete, but I've decided to launch the OSID so that collection of entries and extension of the information fields can begin straightaway. Please help make the project a success by creating an entry for your OS and adding any information fields you think are useful.

I hope you enjoy what I've done so far. Pete

Ok, I'm seriously bored and needed something to do, so feel free to ignore both those suggestions.

However don't ignore this one, namely that when I hit signup I can't signup and if I can't signup I can't make an OSID entry.

[Tux]

Let me just add somethings:

1) OSdev is:
CODE = 99%
GRAPHICS = 01%

So try to make a site that does that.

2) I hate registering to use a site. Why? I rather spend the 20 seconds working on my OS then registering.

3) Add old OSes.

4) Use of non-existant OSes.
I may register 50 OSes and say they are all mine. You should make a way so that the user has to have a working version before entering the name.

Bye!

[Solar]

How can I add info about all the OSes?
1. I haven't got the time to go finding about all the OSes when to get answers I'd have to read ALL the source code.

Now come on. Even if you just make a list of all the OS names you can find (hint: look at the "OS Names" thread in here...), that would be an incentive for people to enter additional info on any system they know about.

2. If I got it wrong then I'm sure that it wouldn't go down well

It would motivate people who know better to correct it. But as long as your OSID DB is empty, it will remain so...

I'm not sure if you get the idea. I'm not the main benefiter if this all works. You guys are.

Just like with every new project popping up and promising to write up the next great OS: Unless you have something to show, no-one will turn up to add to it. Linux is getting added to because there already is something there. Therx isn't added to so much since there isn't much there yet.

You have to do some initial work, just like Linus did...

[Tux]

Exactly what you said Therx, I agree.

[Therx]

To Curufir: Thanks for the grammer correction :-[ also I'm sorry about the signup because the jc-hosting server was down yesterday(apparently because it was international website defacing day or something) I couldn't upload the updated script. It should now work. I will change the links.

To Tux: The reason for registering is because I thought it would be better if only the OS owner could update their own OS and also it deters people from fiddling with the OSID slightly. Also the site is mainly code not looks. The HTML template for the whole site is ~2kb where as the PHP which runs the content is ~25kb. There is also a limit of one OSID per email address so there shouldn't be a problem of more than one entry per user/

To Solar: Do you hate me or something

The http://users.jc-hosting.co.uk/therx/ host is back up and runs much quicker it also hosts all of the OS Library. If its not up the backup site therx.t35.com will work slowly.

Thanks for the support

Pete

[Solar]

To Tux: The reason for registering is because I thought it would be better if only the OS owner could update their own OS and also it deters people from fiddling with the OSID slightly.

It also disables people from correcting other people's entries. Who would be qualified to make the Linux entry? Who the AmigaOS entry? Who the Windows entry? What if the person making the first entry for some OS defaces that OS, and the people actually doing the project can't correct that entry?

There is also a limit of one OSID per email address so there shouldn't be a problem of more than one entry per user

Well, Pype would surely enter his Clicker. But I'd call him qualified to comment on my project just the same...

To Solar: Do you hate me or something

No.

I have no problem with you, or your idea of the OSID database. I just see a few flaws in the concept and want to point them out.

Note that I never said "this sucks", or "what a stupid idea". I pointed out where I thought the concept could be improved to the point where it could actually take off.

Sorry if you felt offended.

[Therx]

The information provided won't be opinions. It will be the factual things like 'This OS uses paging' etc. which enable a user to find an OS with the feature that want to research and look at the relevant source. For this reason closed source OSes like windows won't be included.

What if the person making the first entry for some OS defaces that OS, and the people actually doing the project can't correct that entry?

If this happened then I would simply delete the user and entry from the mysql database. In the future I may make it so I have moderators who can do this via the members area.

Pete

[mr. xsism]

hello therx,
nice layout. I like the saying too - "opening doors, closing windows".

I'm kinda al around against having my project specs hosted at a foreign site, but i will add HALFix to it.
vote for it if you like it at the osdev ring.

YOur servers being slow is only at first. Maybe it is your php code? Might want to look it over.

Regards,
mr. xsism