The Hobby Webmaster Blog

The new Mixer in a Box Blog is fully operational at this time. I may investigate adding a few pictures, or I may put up a gallery on the main site. I did complete the template work and learned a bit more about working with the WordPress theme. I also added a new info page with links to my other sites and the developer’s SAC site. I included also a system integrator’s site that offers packaged SAC systems. My vision for the service offered by Mixer in a Box is more of a custom build site than a packaged system site. One of the attractive features of the SoftWare Audio Console system is that you can use the same mixer with full features with inputs for just a few items on up through 72 full stereo channels. It just depends on the hardware that you select. It is possible for a solo or duo act to go out with a laptop and a few inputs and have the full quality and features that are enjoyed by a full concert system. I invite anyone who is interested in live sound, digital audio, or computers to visit the blog and site.

I have initiated a new blog in conjunction with the Mixer in a Box site. The blog details the gigs that I do with the Software Audio Console. I have one more show to log to bring the blog up to date. Adding the blog creates an RSS feed in conjunction with the site, and blog posts are indexed by the search engines. I just added the nav links to the Mixer in a Box site today. I also worked on the blog page to give it the Mixer in a Box family look. I have a bit more to do to complete that project as I am using a white background for the title section of the header block that I have not yet incorporated into the design. Working with the blog template is not as straight forward as working with a straight page.

When I put up Mixer In A Box I also bought two .info domain names. When I put up the site I forwarded these sites to Mixer In A Box. I suspect that they may not get indexed without an actual page associated with the domain name, so I put up pages with tickler information and linking to Mixer In A Box. These .info domains are Cheap Digital Mixer and Live Sound Computer. I hope that this will improve the possibility of traffic from these sites so that they fulfill their intended purpose. Since the three are a family of sites I used the same design for all three sites.

These sites all promote mixing live sound in a virtual environment using the SoftWare Audio Console software package. The SAC systems allow you to mix live sound on a computer with all of the features of a big digital hardware console. This could be the wave of the future as far as mixing live sound is concerned.

I have begun an update to the AudioArt sound site. I had put up a blog over the winter and used a different design for the blog. I thought that it looked good, so I have begun updating the old site to match the blog. I did not use my standard parts in the original design, so the update is not just a matter of changing the css file. It will be a bit of work this time, but then if I choose to change a skin it will only be a matter of updating a couple of files. I am doing some redesign as well as the cosmetic changes. This should make site navigation a bit easier. Overall I think that this will be a step in the right direction. If you want a preview just go to AudioArt Sound.

I was adding some pages to the new site today. It is best practice to use an unordered list for menu items. I had done that for vertical menus but not for horizontal menus. I thought that since I was making some changes that I should learn how this was done. I have not used unordered lists much, but I had a good idea of what needed to be done. I changed the list display to inline and sure enough, the menu displayed almost right. The only problem was that the unordered list introduces an indent, and this was causing the centered display to be not quite centered. I did a web search and found a solution without any problem.

The same solution will help with the display of my vertical menus. I had tried a negative margin to correct for the indent. This worked fine in FireFox, but I forgot to check it in Internet Explorer. Someone pointed out to me that the menu was cut off in IE. I have not tried the fix yet, but I think that it will take care of my display problem with my vertical nav sections, too.

I have a new website up on the web. There is still a good deal of work to do on the site, but it is up there and waiting for visitors. The site is http://www.mixerinabox.com/ if you would care to check it out. I also purchased to .info feeder domains that are now set up to redirect to the site. They are  http://www.cheapdigitalmixer.info and http://www.livesoundcomputer.info. This site is about the Software Audio Console or SAC system. I have built one and put it into service. I offer to assemble systems for those that don’t feel competent or do not have the time to do it themselves. Please stop by and check out the newest member of my family of site.

I will probably add a new site to my stable in the near future. I have assembled a tool for my business, a Software Audio Console. My primary business is in the field of sound reinforcement. The Software Audio Console, or SAC system, is a full featured virtual digital mixing environment that runs on a Windows PC. I have used the system for my last two contracts and intend to use it as my primary console in the future.

The new site will offer the service of a system integrator. I will offer to build SAC systems to those interested in owning the system, but who do not feel competent or do not have the time  to assemble their own system. This would allow me to indulge to of my areas of interest, building computers and producing sound. I will keep you posted on developments and show off the new site if I decide to put it up.

The comment spam rate has decreased a great deal. I now stand at 96,770 comments marked as spam. There was a time where I was seeing several attempts a minute. It has now cut back to a few attempts a day. The anti-spam software tool in WordPress is a lifesaver. I probably would have taken down the blog if the tool was not included in the package.

Today this blog logged its 50,000th attempted spam comment. This is a spambot in high gear. Usually if you refresh the comments page after a few minutes the number of comments marked as spam will have increased. The software catches most of them. I have added a few IP addresses to help the software (and myself) out so I very seldom have to check a comment.

It appears that the spam count will cross 20,000 within minutes. Luckily, the software is catching most of them without bothering me. Go WordPress!!