ERIC HALL - WEBSITE EXPLANATION AND DISCLAIMER

ABOUT THIS SITE

The original purpose of this site back in the mists of time was purely some kind of self-satisfaction. I'd just started studying with The Open University and part of our T102 project at summer school was the building of a site. Just three simple blocks and a small amount of text. I was so fascinated by this that I went home, downloaded a few pages of "build-your-own-website" from somewhere on the net, and that was that. And, like Topsy, it "just growed" from there.

Originally, I talked about the farm I'd just bought, and my plans for it. Once I mastered the idea of an index, I added a page about some of my old cars. Nowadays, I use it as a means to enlighten the general population about the places I visit on my travels in the same way that I used to when I had a captive audience of 50 people on a Shearings coach, as well as to talk about politics and history, subjects that have always fascinated me.

There are also several pages devoted to my rather weird lifestyle, that should keep you entertained for a while.

As for the farm, I talk (at great length) about the things I've been doing, my plans for the future, and what I'm going to do with the collection of vehicles I'm amassing.

Another use for this site is to display my photos and my articles. Everything on this site is available for use elsewhere provided that the appropriate licence has been obtained, and I'm quite open to granting licences. If there is anything that you would like to use for your own purposes, whether private or commercial, then read this.

The site is revised regualrly, as you can see from the information at the bottom of the page. If it's a minor revision (correcting a mistype or whatever) then I just go ahead and doing it. If it's a revision that involves the adding of new material, then I update the "page last modified" for the relevant page, and update the "site last modified" for the entire site. And if you can't see the entries, you need to enable Javascript on your browser.

You may be wondering how it is that is seems to be that the "page last modified" is more recent than the "site last modified". If this is the case, I bet you are almost certainly a North American. The configuration of the date is in British notation (dd mm yyyy), not in American notation (mm dd yyyy). So if you see a date of, say, 03 04 2006 it means the 3rd of April 2006 - and this comes before 02 09 2006 - which is the 2nd of September 2006. Clear?

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

One thing I like to do is to interact with my audience. You have probably noticed that I have strong views on many subjects, and I love people who also have strong views, even if they disagree with mine. So if you know how to debate and know how to present a coherent argument without resorting to name-calling and insults, then I would really like to hear from you.

E- if you want to engage in debate. You can also me if all you want to do is to chat or to have a moan about the state of the world.

I'm currently using a Yahoo blog to have a good moan and rant. Come along and add your own views. But keep it clean, please. It's a family show.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

This website is completely hand-coded (no programs such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage) using Note-tab lite as a text editor. Note-tab lite has three big advantages over Notepad -

the facility for multiple windows - so you can have several documents open at once
a split window - which is absolutely essential for copy/paste functions
you can build your own clipboard library - which means that if you use some block of text on a regular basis, you can save it in your clipboard library so that when you need it, two clicks and its there. You've no idea how much time I've saved with this

The lite version is free. Once you've tried it, you'll never ever use Notepad again.

It's checked over on Firefox and it all works perfectly there. Why Firefox? I hear you ask. Well, apart from the fact that the interface is designed so much better than any other browser, then there's "tabbed browsing". No more page after page after page of Internet Exploder - just one page with a lot of tabs.

Firefox is also free. Download it and try it out.

When it works on Firefox, I upload it to the web, where I can check it out on Opera, Netscape and Internet Exploder to make sure it all works. If it doesn't work, then either I've forgotten or you have just found a bug. me to let me know.

But BEWARE. Internet Exploder has a bug known as the "peek-a-boo bug"

This means that it cannot handle *.css correctly. And despite every attempted patch known to man (and to some women as well) Micro$not cannot fix it. This means that sometimes you click on a page and half the text is missing. Then you have to scroll back up to see it. This is a Micro$not problem - contact them, not me.

There are of course cynics who suggest that Micro$not do it deliberately so as to discourage people from using *.css, seeing as it was developed completely without any input from Gates. Of course they wouldn't do that. You can show Gates how much you care about his incompetent technicians by downloading Firefox. This will make the problem disappear.

However, I like to engage with my audience and I would welcome any comments or observations. with anything you would like to add or like me to consider. I would like to think that my site corresponds as much as possible with modern technical issues, and any input is appreciated.

ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT

This site was originally designed in 1997 when there were no accessibility issues at all and we were all naive and did things as we liked with no regard to our audience. Today, things have changed. I look at some of the things I did back then and in those days I was delighted. Today, it makes me cringe.

Nowadays, the greater part of the content is accessible, thanks to relative measurements, alternative text for the images, and the like. And I'm slowly going backwards to make sure that the older stuff is similarly treated. If you've come across something modern that doesn't accord with accessibility guidelines, and I'll correct it. If it's something old, you have my assurance that I'm dealing with it.

A note about the images though. I've set them up to optimise on a screen set at 1024x768, for two reasons - namely

there is no assured way of setting relative sizes for images well, there is, but when you see the code you have to write in order for it to work, and there are over 20,000 images on my site, then you will understand why I haven't gone down that route. I mean, sometimes I have to eat and sleep. If you know of a sure-fire way to do it with two or three lines of code, then me and I'll gladly do it. Otherwise, if it is really getting on your nerves, and I'll show you how to do one, and then you can do the other 19,999 and return them to me when you've finished. That way, you will be delighted to know that the site conforms to your requirements. But like I said, until this problem is resolved, there isn't a lot I can realistically do about it, and the photos need to be large enough to bring out their features and so visitors can see what it is they are supposed to be looking at.
and why that particular screen resolution? Well, 53.45% of the visitors to my site use it. A further 25% use a larger resolution. The site is still perfectly visible on 800x600 (19.6% of the visitors) but you need to scroll a bit to see the images - that is until someone offers to help out with the relative-sizing of the images

CONTACT DETAILS

Usually I spend my time commuting between my home in France and my other home in Belgium, depending upon whatever it is I'm doing and what projects I have on the go at the time. Otherwise I might be in the UK (but not if I can help it) or in North America somewhere.

The easiest way to contact me is to , and this address is monitored more-or-less on a daily basis. There is no quicker way than this.

For written communications, I have access to an interfax, the number of which is 070 407 584 from Belgium, 0032 70 407 584 from the rest of Europe, and 011 32 70 407 584 from North America. The email address to which this is linked is however only accessed about once per week.

If you have MSN Messenger, you can add my contact details - which are Erichall@lycos.com. If I'm on-line, then MSN is usually on. I record my conversations on MSN and review them regularly. There is a great deal of information that comes my way via MSN, most of which I would otherwise forget.

Apart from that, you can see if I'm away from home by looking at my blog, where I post details of my travels.

As you can see from the above, I spend a great deal of my spare time (which is becoming less and less these days) travelling around Europe and North America. A lot of this time is spent either taking photographs of things that fascinate me (like there are nine buttons on my jacket but I can only fascinate) and dictating my thoughts into a hand-held dictaphone (and you can't use my dictaphone, use a pencil to dial the numbers) - and then even longer putting it up on the web for people to view, read and generally criticise.

I'm delighted if people so like my writing and my photography that they would like to make use of them for their own purposes. Many of my photographs and a great deal of my writing already grace more than a few websites and magazines.

You should be aware that everything on my site is subject to copyright. Therefore, if you would like to use any of the material, you must with the details before you do so.

If your purposes are private or for non-profit ventures, then I will gladly give my permission provided you acknowledge the copyright and hyper-link to my site. You may not, however, go ahead without receiving my permission.

If those purposes are commercial, then with the details, and if you say the magic words, I may let you publish extracts from this site or to let you have a copy of the original high-quality digital photograph without label.
"Stop messing around, Eric. You'll be well paid"
"Ah - so you know the magic words then!"

Please don't use the e-mail addresses on the images as they may well be out of date. here instead.

Most of the photos from February 2007 onwards were taken with my new Pentax K100D" Digital SLR at an impressive 3008x2004 pixels. So if you don't see what you want in a shot, ask me to look to see if I've cropped it. And if you do see what you want in the distance, ask me to zoom in for you. I'm not proud.

THE CAMERA

For anyone who's interested, the original camera was an Olympus OM10 with a whole series of interchangeable lens until about 2000 and then a Fuji Finepix 1400 that I bought on a whim from an end-of-series sale. This lasted until about 2003 - but then I dropped it.

It was rather unfortunate that at the time I was in a hurry and I had very little cash, so a bargain basement end-of-range Fuji Finepix 2600Z was all I could afford. It did a job for me and kept me on the road. I had my value for money, but it wasn't all that much money that I paid. For night-time use and range of settings for photography in the dark - well, what do you expect for the price I paid for it? You don't pay bus fare to ride in a Rolls-Royce. Nevertheless, it certainly makes a change from the days when I used to get some delightful reproductions from an eleven year old Brownie.

In fact, thinking on, I should mention the early photographs that you'll see on the site. Anything before 1997 was taken with my ancient Cosina SLR that I bought second-hand in the late 1970s. What a superb camera that was when you consider how old it was, how long I had it, how much use I had from it and how much I paid for it.

January 2007 has seen me fulfil one of my long-felt wants, as I've bitten the bullet and bought a digital SLR - a Pentax K100D after much gnashing of the teeth and discussion in Rhys's photography forum. The lens that comes with it is much better than I expected for an inclusive low-end kit, but it's an interchangeable lens, which means that I can change it for something magnificent as soon as finances allow. W

You can tell my gradual advancement through cyberspace. My earliest images on the web were 640x480 at about 60% compression. These were the days of 28k dial-up modems and 640x480 resolution to save on memory and download time (I wish that every other image poster on the net would do that). Later, this increased to 800x600 Format and 40% compression, as download time and screen size increased. Today, the size has increased to 1100x725 at 15% compression. This is because in January 2007, over 80% of my visitors are using a screen size of at least 1024x768. It is possible to obtain a full-size high quality image of any of the photos

NOW THE FOLLOWING POINT IS REALLY IMPORTANT

That is that on my travels and in my notes "I call it as I see it". So if I've called someone a "right miserable old sod", that's because that's how I found him. Maybe he's usually a really cheerful person but his mum died that morning.

Or alternatively I've praised the cooking in a restaurant, and that's encouraged you to go there, and you find it disgusting and get food poisoning. Well, so they changed the chef, or changed the owner in the meantime and didn't tell me.

That's life.

But anyone who thinks they've had a raw deal over something I've written, then about it and I'll gladly put your comments up next to mine. Everyone has the right of reply. Only thing I'll do will be to edit out the "cuss" words.

There's another thing you can do. if you would like to correct anything I've written, or you would like to add something. Your comments will be especially welcomed if you have some local knowledge or can add some local colour to whatever it is I've written.

MORE IMPORTANT DETAILS

You've probably (hopefully) seen via this site that I have a great number of talents to offer the outside world, and I am always on the lookout to improve the health of my bank balance. I can

design websites
take photographs
edit photographs
work PSP thoroughly
write (and write and write and write and write etc.etc.)
review the writings of others
talk to and interview people
undertake research
restore old cars
lecture on Renewable Energy, as well as giving consultancy advice
discuss and debate contemporary politics
discuss and debate history and historical subjects
ditto geographical subjects
act as a tour guide with the minimum of training
drive cars, buses and trucks on a professional basis
as well as having ... er ... certain other skills which entitle me to undertake certain other avenues of employment not open to the majority of the population

And that's not all that's not all for around his neck was a big black chain, and hanging from his chain was a big black ball.

Some, if not all of these talents you can probably find a use for in your own organisation.

So, if you think I can bring my own brand of individualism into whatever it is that you or your organisation is doing or trying to do, then I have to say that I'm always open to offers, wherever in the world you might be situated. with your proposition, no matter how absurd or bizarre it might be.

In fact, the more absurd or bizarre it is, then the more likely it is to appeal to me. You've no idea how boring early retirement can be until you try it, and I could really fancy starting a small war or something similar, just to relieve the monotony of my sad existence these days. I'm sure I've plenty of talents that could easily appeal to you.

AND FINALLY

If you've really liked what I've written, then remember that this website is really my only certain source of income. That's why I get totally miffed if anyone lifts any of the content. If you don't have any money of your own and are wanting to use anything for your private purposes, then the least you can give me is some recognition and acknowledgement. If you're earning money from your site, then no reason why I shouldn't be entitled to a share. But before you use any of the content for any purpose whatsoever, then you need to read this.

That notwithstanding, it would be nice if you appreciated my work so much that you wished to express this appreciation in a positive way. If you go to the home page you'll see the sponsors of this site. You can make a purchase from them via my link, or even make a donation to my account.

A substantial donation means that I would come to your home town and write about it in my own inimitable style. An even more substantial donation and I promise that I will stay well away.

Now if you are still here, click on the "back button" on your browser to go back to the story.

But if somehow you landed on this page, go to the home page and help yourself to a likely-looking page.

Have fun, and thanks for visiting. I appreciate it.

This site is divided into three sections.

Choose a section from the links below

LIFESTYLE

TRAVEL

VEHICLES

MY ON-LINE MEDIA STORE

HOME PAGE

There are more links at the top and bottom of each page.

These concern the administration of the site, but you should visit them just the same.

SITE
SPONSORS

Please read this section if you would like to use any of my work for your own purposes.