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TRICKS OF THE TRADE
TOTT News
Here's the section that tells you all about the developments on TOTT - from the new year to now. In case you're wondering, the January to September News have now been archived. Click on "The [month] News Archive" to see them (should you wish to).

WARNING: On some of the older news articles, the links may not work, due to restructure of the website.

1st JANUARY - 7th JANUARY

HAPPY NEW YEAR! But more than that, I've finally passed:

THE BIG 3000!

Well, I got there eventually... although not before the expected deadline. Well, that's what comes of expecting too much... But anyway, thanks to everyone who's visited to bring up this gargantuan total (Next step - 4000! I wonder if I can make 5000 before 2002 starts...)

Onto more pratical matters: I now have tips for Hogs of War on the Playstation in Playstation Tips and Cheats (Err... well, where else would they be?). No cheats though - sorry, cheat fans... And finally, I've archived the October News. And don't start saying "Ooh, Goodie!" sarcastically please.

29th JANUARY - 4th FEBRUARY

Okay, okay, I'm sorry... I haven't done any work for three weeks. It happens. During the week I put it off to the weekend, but on the weekend I'm too busy to get it done. Strictly speaking, I'm too busy now, but I'm doing it anyway - I gotta stop the rot...

Still, hopefully the waiting's paid off, because I now have a full page devoted to Hogs of War. If you do happen to have this swilliant (pardon the pun) game, then hopefully you should find help there... so let's go smoke some bacon!

Counterwise, I'm past 3300 - and yes, Dan's now past 5000. What's his site got that my three haven't? Eh?

26th FEBRUARY - 4th MARCH

I know, I know... but at least this week there's some pretty major changes. Following the referendum, I now have a new, improved Contents table on the main page, complete with handy JavaScript features - mind you, you've probably already seen it. I also now have JavaScript-enhanced contests lists on quite a few pages - and expect similar updates on the other pages as time goes by. I'll try to get a couple of pages done per week - so at least that means there should be regular weekly updates.

On a similar vein, I've also made changes to the main page in that a lot of the pre-amble's gone out of the window - it seemed to be slowing getting to the actual main site down a bit.

That's the biggest thing, but there are a couple of others. I've increased my How To Annoy People section so there are now 52 things - one for each week of the year! And there's more stuff on Hogs of War - although I've still got a it of work to do there. I've made a couple of slight changes to the Maths Homework Help - expect more later...

Finally, the counter's now past 3800, so it's still ticking along nicely... and PLP's past 1000! There's something to congratulate it on...

12th MARCH - 18th MARCH

Yes, yes, I know. But it was only one week this time, and I really have been rushed off my feet lately. Frankly, I have no idea when I won't be - perhaps in the period between leaving school and starting college. Well, you never know...

I think the counter's past the big 4000 now (look, I'm not going to bother with a big graphic this time, okay?) but it's not working (I think I know how to fix it, though...) - so I'm just guessing.

On a lighter note, the England cricket team narrowly won their fourth test series in a row. Phew - it was close. I was biting my nails during the fourth innings...

Website-wise, I've done yet more work on the Hogs of War page - including the testing out of a new technique - style sheets. If you go there, you should find all the paragraphs fully justified. I hope you like it!

2nd APRIL - 8th APRIL

Two weeks, this time. But I've got a new counter to replace NBCi. It's counting from 4000, which I think I must have passed by now...

Well, I do have a new computer now. Bad news? Off-Peak Freeserve won't work on the new computer, so I'm still writing from this one. A Problem, you might say...

I suppose it isn't all doom and gloom. After all, I've finally got a program that can do the "transparent image backgrounds" trick - Corel Photo-Paint 8. Trouble is, it's on the new computer, but as mentioned before, I still have to update my website from this one. Oh well, could be worse: all this really means is just a lot of disk-swapping...

9th APRIL - 15th APRIL

Counter past 4100, but in the race against CORPRAL.com I think I'm scuppered, as Dan's now passed 10,000 hits. How does he do it? Even if you put TOTT, PLP and MW together, there's still a massive shortfall.

Still, now I've got a new counter, I may as well issue myself a challenge. It is this: to reach 5000 before Dan reaches 15,000. Shouldn't be too hard, should it? After all, he'll have to add 5 times as many hits as I will...

By the way (although if you're a regular Boarder, you'll already know this), Annon is Daniel Byrne. I thoguht it couldn't be Dai Rees - the style was too educated (No offence Dai, but there's a big difference between Annon's writing and your childishly BIG capitalised text).

Improvements wise, I've added new JavaScripted menu systems to a couple more pages. That's all, though. :-)

21st MAY - 27th MAY

Yeah, well, no point moping about it. I've got rid of all those "SORRY I MISSED A WEEK" things... they were beginning to depress me. Fresh start, eh?

Speaking of which, you should've noticed the new colour scheme for the tables. A change is as good as a rest, and the borders seemed a bit "rigid" to me. The colours may look a little pale, but I think pastel shades are a little easier on the eye - important when you're staring at the screen a lot (anyway, if you want violent colour clashes, PLP's got enough to last you a lifetime).

Not much new content-wise, however. Never mind though... when the hols start I'll begin doing a total revamp of TOTT and PLP using some of the features of our more recent browsers (although I'd better check what browsers people've got before I start doing big changes...)

The counter's not doing too bad, approaching 4700... but Dan beat me in the can-I-make-5000-before-he-makes-15000 battle. Ah, well... I must work out how he does it!

28th MAY - 3rd JUNE

Well, the election's approaching... and what annoys me is that i'm not allowed to vote. Okay, most 16-year-olds aren't at all interested in politics, but I am. I think people should be given a "political IQ" test at 15 - those who pass get the right to vote at 15, those who fail have to wait until they're 18. Sounds fair enough to me... although an extreme situation would be that everyone has to pass a political IQ test before they can vote, which might not be such a good idea.

Big changes to the Tips and Cheats sections... both are now split into A-F, G-M, N-T, U-Z and seperate pages for Sim games. The Theme Cheats page has been removed, as it doesn't exactly play a major role in the site, and its cheats have been absorbed into the Cheats N-T page. While reorganising, I also found a few "untidy" sections that could do with reorganising, so hopefully you should soon see the benefits. Oh, and if you spot any broken links created by my reorganisation, don't hesitate to tell me about them.

All three sites could do with a major overhaul, really (I'm particularly interested in implementeing style sheets on all the pages). There's quite a lot of loose HTML code hanging around (particularly at PLP, the foundations for which were laid in my "who needs decent structural integrity?" period) and, frankly, things could get ugly. Well, there's the holidays...

The counter's past 4800, over 100 hits in a week, which isn't bad at the moment. I do know that Dan gets two hits every time someone visits his site because of the "welcome" page, but there must be something else as well...

18th JUNE - 24th JUNE

THE BIG 5000 passes by. Sorry about the missed weeks, but with exams... you know how it is.

Anyway, you probably know about Cybertack axing its free boards. I've therefore got new ones with Boards2Go, and they're fairly customisable - using their Header tool, I've got the music and the logos in, so it's an improvement over Cybertack's boards. Sorry if any threads got cut short by this move: I hope you can pick up where you left off. Oh, and it's anti-flood (you can only post a message every 60 seconds, so bombing takes ages).

25th JUNE - 1st JULY

Yay, the exams are over! Well, now the pressures of education are eased for a few months, it's time to start overhauling the sites, with particular reference to style sheets and Javascript, in order to create a trim and efficient "standard" by which to run my sites. Hopefully, over the next few months, updates should increase and become more regular, and content should improve. With all my new PlayStation games, I really must get a few more TNT tips and cheats for PST&C. I should also be able to respond more rapidly to queries on the board and via e-mail with more spare time on the 'net.

I've also got to think about the Homework Help section. It may be worth changing it to A-Level as, like me, most site visitors are just starting at college. The drawback is that the subject range will be limited to Maths and Science; one solution may be to perhaps "sub-contract" to people doing other college courses.

But enough pondering on the future; back to the present. The counter's past 5500 (Amazing!!!), and I've added a few more "How to Annoy People"s, including a whole batchload from Lee Johnston. And a bit more on the new board; as well as being anti-flood, it only displays the last 50 messages, improving download time (Note for new readers - I was frequently criticised for not emtying the old TOTT board out often enough). I hope you like it; and if the music on the board annoys you, that was Whitney Clark's idea.

13th AUGUST - 19th AUGUST

Damn, looks like I was wrong about the more regular updates - less regular, if anything! Well, two holidays (Devon and Manchester) followed by a couple of weeks of inactivity can take their toll. Rather annoying, really... Never mind, though: the counter's zoomed past 6200 in my absence, which ain't bad!

I've done some work - a couple more PlayStation cheats and HoW tips. Thanks to a dead handy cheat code in LMA Manager 2001, I've managed to make the virtual QPR perform much better than the real one - gaining promotion as opposed to relegation, and winning the FA cup!

I've also removed the Watchdog page. It was a nice idea, but I never did anything with it, so it's now binned. There've also been various cosmetic changes here and there, but that's about it.

27th AUGUST - 2nd SEPTEMBER

Well, college approacheth - I dunno when I'll get a chance to update, really, but I'll do my best. After all, someone with 7 A*s (yeah yeah, brag brag) should be able to manage work and website at the same time, shouldn't they? (Paul, you couldn't even manage this website on its own...)

Yeah, well ++++ you, Mr. (Brackets). I've got the winning entry from the NASA comp. loaded to the site (two weeks after I promised I'd get it up, but that's another matter...). It's not as full of technical details (zzz) as some of the other entries, but it's light hearted and (hopefully) engaging. Note: to return to the TOTT Main Menu after visiting the entry, you'll have to take the manual root. I haven't got a linkback there yet.

I've also moved "How to Annoy People" into the Jokes section. The reason? Well, the Miscellaney box was getting a tad crowded, and HTAP took up two lines. There's a lot more room in that column now.

Please note that TOTT and its daughter sites may be moving soon as my dad's looking into NTL. The new address will probably be along the lines of http://homepage.ntlworld.net/our new user name. Sorry for the inconvenience... it'll be a shame to leave Freeserve in some ways. They've provided a good long period of calm after Global Internet and Tesconet. But it'll be good to have the Internet on the new computer...

8th OCTOBER - 14th OCTOBER

Bye, 6800. These gaps are getting a tad ridiculous, but just be thankful that I've got time to update at all - and that every time I do update, at least it's quite a big one.

By now, you should have noticed at least one major difference - new music! For many, this will be a welcome change... unless my musical tastes are once more rather "antiquated"... but see if you can spot all the various tunes - Calypso Trinidad (the old BBC Cricket theme), Our House, Let Me Entertain You, Morning Glory and House of the Rising Sun.

I've also done some structural organisation, to save space on the main menu. Tips, Cheats and the Garage are now all sub-menus of PC Games (evenin' all... ahem), the Downloads sections are now all on one page... etc. I've also "hidden" the Homework Help section, and I'm going to produce a new version for the A-Level course in due time. Stay tuned...

Finally, I've done a bit more on the Hogs of War page, having made some breakthroughs (instead of being stuck on Mission 19, I'm stuck on Mission 22...)...

15th OCTOBER - 21st OCTOBER

Nothing major, just a few tweaks - the biggest being a new section on How to Annoy People dealing specifically with being a passenger in a car. Still, at least I managed to update twice in a row - and it's half term next week, so I might just make it three in a row!

The new music appears to have gone down well (at least Ben likes it, he told me it was "fantabulous work" which is a feather in anyone's cap), although the acid test will be the likes of Dan Byrne - a compliment from him would be pretty good given the open website warfare of recent times.

Speaking of Dan and his "[CORPRAL] - the only way" scheme, I've come up with a saying to hit back in the form of "TOTT - there is a fourth way..." :-).

10th DECEMBER - 16th DECEMBER

Well, another one of those "long periods without updating". Still, I've now got the Internet on the new computer, which might prompt me to do more regular updates. I could try making it my New Year's Resolution: "Get TOTT and PLP back to full strength, and see if you can do something about M:W".

Just a few tweaks here and there really - I've added a few more cheats for LMA Manager 2001, kindly supplied by John Brown (I'm pretty sure it's him, anyway), and I've also done a bit more "table modernising" in the more outlying regions of the website (such as the Tips and Cheats pages).

Not much else really, but Merry Christmas (just in case I don't update between now and then) and (for all those at Gorseinon College) good luck with the exams!

17th DECEMBER - 23rd DECEMBER

Well, that's the exams over and done with - and only a couple of days to Christmas! Very little to report really, just minor alterations and repairs here and there, but I just thought I'd mention that I'm off to Manchester for Christmas next week, so an update, while not impossible, may be unlikely (I should be back by Saturday).

31st DECEMBER - 6th JANUARY

Happy new year! Sorry I didn't update last week. I know I could've, but I've been playing Civ III, MS Train Simulator, and all my other Christmas prezzies a lot since I got back from Manchester. Anyway, I think I've calmed down enough now. Let's see if I can get TOTT, PLP and M:W working again as my New Year's Resolution (did M:W ever work?)

My first "new broom" of the year is, as you have probably already noticed, a new logo which looks a bit more like a CD. And, as usual with me, it's going to be "phased in", starting with prominent pages like the main page and this one. The old logo has been with me through thick and thin, so I am slightly unhappy about parting with it. But then, it does (did?) look more like a polo mint than a CD-ROM (which is what it's meant to be). If you've any comments on the new logo, then either leave them on the board (preferrable) or e-mail me.

Anyway, how about a review of the year? Hmmm... at the start of the year, I was wondering if I'd make 5000 by the end. Well, I've exceeded 7000, so I've done better than anticipated there. OTOH, traffic has definitely slowed in recent months, probably due to irregular updates. If 2000 was TOTT's golden year, then 2001 was probably silver. A lot has happened this year - a new look, a certain amount of rationalisation (z? s? z? I dunno). But the site seems to lack a certain vitality that it used to have...

That's enough pondering. My message to you is: Have a Happy New Year, have good luck sticking to your resolutions (I know I'll need some), and I hope you all do well in whatever it is you want to do (unless it's something like murder).

7th JANUARY - 13th JANUARY

Well, there goes 7500 (admittedly with a bit of help from counter-boosting, but hey, who doesn't do that?), and I've now got the new logo on the vast majority of my pages. And... that's it, really.

Oh yes - next week, a new page'll be arriving - A Potty History. I thought that, seen as TOTT's now entered its... well, it's at least its fourth or fifth year (to be honest, I can't remember much about TOTT in the pre-Freeserve era), I thought it was about time that I wrote a little something documenting how TOTT has developed over the years... it'll probably bore you out of your minds, but I'm putting it in anyway.

14th JANUARY - 20th JANUARY

Well, A Potty History hasn't arrived, but that's mainly because I've been doing a lot of work on my Hogs of War page, and... umm... that's it. Well, I've done a bit over at PLP... and I've decided that it's better to do things "little and often" (a la 2000) than have major events separated by huge gaps (a la 2001).

21st JANUARY - 27th JANUARY

Still no sign of A Potty History, but I've done a bit of work on the Links and Credits pages (I'm afraid those kind of pages [Links, Credits, All About Me, E-Mail Me, etc] tend to get a bit out of date, as they're not part of the site's central "hub"). Hey, be fair, at least I've managed four updates on the trot!

18th FEBRUARY - 24th FEBRUARY

Well, there goes the resolution, but it was fun while it lasted. Anyway, I've added a lot to the Hogs of War page (including a freshly annotated version of Iain Noble's HoW Game Guide), and a few more jokes, etc. That's it, but at least its something. In the meantime, 8000's been and gone... well, not bad...