03/05/07

3/5/07

Fixed the email address issues - you can now send us email using the various links on the site.

2/25/07

There is an update on the Kit-O-Mat project on my waterfront section of the layout.

12/30/06

I've revised the recommendation section by simplifying the ratings to either "Recommended" or "Highly Recommended".  I came to the conclusion that the numerical ratings where overly precise (two decimal points???) and where contrary to the stated goal of the page - which is to only rate kits that I would recommend.  I also added a review of the Kit-O-Mat product from KingMill Enterprises.

A link has been added to Gary Courtemanche's Blood Sweat and Tears Railway website on the Related Links page - check it out.

12/29/06

There are a couple of project updates in the Construction Journal.  One is a 1/35th scale military diorama and the other is a build update on my first custom laser kit using the Kit-O-Mat from Kingsmill.  I really like the beta version of the Kit-O-Mat software and predict these custom laser kits will be the wave of the future in the hobby. 

12/23/06

I've decided to remove my blog for data security reasons.  It seems the comment section was getting a lot of activity (over 300 posts/day) from, shall we say, less than virtuous posters.  This caused two rather bad events - the first is that when reviewing the top search strings for my site, I was a bit shocked to see some of the search phrases that were leading people to our humble and family oriented site.  I then reviewed some of the comments and saw that they we're links to sites that were not acceptable.  The second reason was that the volume of spam postings along with something called "hot linking" was dramatically increasing my CPU usage from an average of .10 minutes a day to over 100.  When the blog was deleted, the problems went away.  Had this spamming not been corrected, my ISP bill would have gone ballistic!

This is the second time I've had to disable an interactive feature due to internet idiots.  I'll try to put a response feature back if I can get comfortable with the security issues.  If I can't, there's always our email address, bosco@clarksville-balt-and-ohio.com

I've added two new pages to the site, a guestbook (which is currently unavailable, per the above) and a construction diary.  The construction diary will allow me to provide quick updates of current projects - which was the primary role of the former blog.

Lastly, in a rather lame attempt to teach my son some economics, I've allowed some commercial aspects to seep into the ole CB&O website - we're trying out the Amazon.Com associates program which provides us a small commission for purchases via the Amazon links we have on the site.  We are trying to limit the items to just model railroad books and such.  I'm also trying to keep the banner adds under stated - let me know if you find them annoying.

11/29/06

Finished up my first pass of the review and comment section.  I've also redone the blog section.  I'm not sure how long I'll keep doing the blog with a comments area as I keep having a hard time keeping the internet marketing idiots from bombarding the comments section with annoying solicitations written in amazing bad English (even worse than mine!)

11/28/06

Making some minor tweaks here and there and will hopefully get the blog up and running.

11/27/06

The bulk of the FrontPage re-write has been completed so I've published the web site.  I'm still working on the blog and some inter-active functions so there will be a large number of updates over the next few days.

11/20/06

Big changes to both the format and programming of the website as we've finally moved from Microsoft Publisher to FrontPage!  Publisher was a simple way to get started on the web, but it had a lot of issues - including not allowing Mac users to view pictures.  FrontPage, while still part of the Bill's Evil Empire, will hopefully allow us some more flexibility to add features to the web site.  As my son ages (he's now 11), his interest in trains slowly diminishes, but his technology interests grow - hopefully having more bells and whistles to play with on the website will keep him interested!