Dr. Jim's personal Sinclair showcase

Show us what you're working on, (preferably with screenshots).
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TMD2003
Rick Dangerous
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Dr. Jim's personal Sinclair showcase

Post by TMD2003 »

There were some Spectrum-related webpages that I hosted some of my own stuff on, and it's about time it had an extensive rehash. So, over the last week or so, I've finally done it. Why it took me 12 years to start the project I will never know, but that's probably just explained by being me. I may not be fast, but I get there in the end.

I call it Spectribution, and it features:

- Every program I've written that has found its way onto the internet, whether it's given a full article on ZXDB, posted on the BASIC Dumping Ground, or just confined to this one page. It's anything from "quick and potentially useful bits and pieces", to the mighty Corona Capers.
- The "enhanced" type-ins that wormed their way onto WOS and ZXDB a while back (because I think WOS had an appeal to find some type-ins that had been done circa 2004 or so, and I offered my modified versions, seeing as that was what was available). These are being deleted here, and I'm hosting them on Spectribution instead, for those that are curious. I might package them all as a microdrive compilation at some stage.
- Some character sets and UDGs I've made over the past 20-odd years, some of which are from popular(ish) games, and which I didn't rip directly from the code, I made them all manually with screenshots and converting the pixels to binary. One of them (the Mighty Musical Character Set) can be found on the BASIC Dumping Ground.
- An archive of QL type-ins, divided into games and demos/utilities. I think this is useful seeing as we have no way of knowing if the Type Fantastic will ever be updated again, or if ZXDB (and maybe WOS) will start indexing QL software.
- Links to everything I've ever submitted to the RZX Archive.
- Everything you ever wanted to know (and a lot you didn't) about my history with Sinclair computers.

Things I plan to add when I get round to them:

- An archive of all my first forays into machine code;
- An archive of ZX80 type-ins - though this may end up becoming me sending all the ZX80 type-ins I have to Peter, Einar and the rest for proper preservation here - I get the impression that ZXDB hosting ZX80 titles is a relatively recent development. There are already quite a few at The Type Fantastic, and the archives for Sync have loads of them, only one of which has been typed in, and I'm going to take that on as a project at some stage.
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
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PeterJ
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Re: Dr. Jim's personal Sinclair showcase

Post by PeterJ »

Excellent stuff [mention]TMD2003[/mention]. My only small suggestion would be to sort yourself out an SSL certificate so the site uses https. Don't know who you host with, but they should be able to set you up with a free one from LetsEncrypt.

Nice work sir!
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TMD2003
Rick Dangerous
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Re: Dr. Jim's personal Sinclair showcase

Post by TMD2003 »

PeterJ wrote: Sun Oct 18, 2020 1:57 pm Excellent stuff @TMD2003. My only small suggestion would be to sort yourself out an SSL certificate so the site uses https. Don't know who you host with, but they should be able to set you up with a free one from LetsEncrypt.
I'm hosted with UK2. Will I need a separate SSL certificate for every different URL I have with them, or just the one for the whole webspace?
PeterJ wrote: Sun Oct 18, 2020 1:57 pmNice work sir!
Have I earned myself a corned beef sandwich? It'd go well with my home-made mushroom soup.

I mean, I could have made one, but I'd rather keep the two tins of corned beef I have for slightly special occasions, and tonight I get to open a bottle of home-brew cider. That and a corned beef sandwich would be an extravagance.
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
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PeteProdge
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Re: Dr. Jim's personal Sinclair showcase

Post by PeteProdge »

TMD2003 wrote: Sun Oct 18, 2020 2:00 pm
PeterJ wrote: Sun Oct 18, 2020 1:57 pm Excellent stuff @TMD2003. My only small suggestion would be to sort yourself out an SSL certificate so the site uses https. Don't know who you host with, but they should be able to set you up with a free one from LetsEncrypt.
I'm hosted with UK2. Will I need a separate SSL certificate for every different URL I have with them, or just the one for the whole webspace?
No, just for covering ANYTHING on rickdangerous.co.uk

I recommend going to https://www.sslforfree.com/ - it's what I use for my domains. It's a bit intimidating to a newbie who's only just above the Wix/Squarespace level of website creation, but you (and others here) at IT literate, it'll be an easy, if boring, chore!
Reheated Pixels - a combination of retrogaming, comedy and factual musing, is here!
New video: Nine ZX Spectrum magazine controversies - How Crash, Your Sinclair and Sinclair User managed to offend the world!
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PeterJ
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Re: Dr. Jim's personal Sinclair showcase

Post by PeterJ »

Look like UK2 offer one with their hosting [mention]TMD2003[/mention]

https://www.uk2.net/knowledgebase/displ ... +In+cPanel
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TMD2003
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Re: Dr. Jim's personal Sinclair showcase

Post by TMD2003 »

This is all good news. Presumably I'd still be able to post remote images that were hosted there (say, the way I've done on the BASIC Dumping Ground) - am I right?
PeteProdge wrote: Sun Oct 18, 2020 2:37 pm It's a bit intimidating to a newbie who's only just above the Wix/Squarespace level of website creation, but you (and others here) at IT literate, it'll be an easy, if boring, chore!
I'm certainly above Wix/Squarespace, but nowhere near the level of, say, the maintainers of this site - or WOS, for that matter - or even a site for a small business that needs to look flash to draw people in. Everything you see on Spectribution ultimately derives from the HTML I wrote on Notepad for the original Rick Dangerous Resurrected in 2000, just with the addition of some CSS along the way. Usually, I don't write pages from scratch, I'll adapt what I've already got and build from there. But I'll certainly never need something that writes the HTML for me, I just look things up when I need to know about them, and keep it basic but functional.
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
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TMD2003
Rick Dangerous
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Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2020 9:23 am
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Re: Dr. Jim's personal Sinclair showcase

Post by TMD2003 »

It is done. rickdangerous.co.uk is now an HTTPS site, until... about mid-March. I will probably still be living in Nottingham when I have to renew it.

But such is life until I'm more financially solvent, and that will probably not happen in this half of the decade, or maybe ever...
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
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TMD2003
Rick Dangerous
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Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2020 9:23 am
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Re: Dr. Jim's personal Sinclair showcase

Post by TMD2003 »

Eish!

A certain state broadcaster of ours is promoting the day Blue Peter discovered the internet in 1995. Look at the face DLJ is making. "This is witchcraft and I don't understand it, but I've got to look professional for the camera... sort of... can't hold it in..."

I am reacting much the same way. ZeroSSL is telling me I can't have any more free certificates, despite also telling me that the current certificate has expired. I will check again tomorrow when it's the 18th, and if it's still saying the same then I will have to conclude "that's your lot, for ever". So I looked at Let's Encrypt again... and the "getting started" page is unhelpful. If I scroll down I find UK2 isn't on the list of hosting providers that is directly linked to obtaining Let's Encrypt certificates, and "manual mode" is absolute gobbledegook that only those with a Masters or more in computer science will understand.

I may have to wuss out on this one and hand over some more cash to UK2 so that they can do auto-renewing certficates for me. This has the stench of failure about it that is unlikely to be viewed favourably by computer nerds, which events like this (and my failed hard drive in January, which I still haven't tried to fix) remind me I am not.
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
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