Before I started my blog, this was the section where I kept track of changes to the website. For a little while, there was some overlap between this section and the blog, but now, any changes to the site are tracked only on the blog. To see newer updates, visit:
Blog - Website Update Category
Links to Past Years
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008 - 2011:
16 February 2011
I've gotten permission from The Skeptics Society to post one of their old articles on this site. The article is The Double-Blind Gaze: How the Double-Blind Experimental Protocol Changed Science. If you've never read this article before, I highly recommend that you do so now. It focuses mainly on medicine, but also shows how it can be difficult to determine the truth of reality, and why the scientific method is so important.
5 November 2010
I've added a new recipe to my How To page - Shoo-Fly Pie. It's a Pennsylvania Dutch dessert made with molasses. I grew up eating store bought shoo-fly pie all the time, but you just can't find it even a couple hours outside of the Pennsylvania Dutch region. This recipe is my great-grandmother's. My mom brought it with her when she came to visit this past weekend. (She also baked a few.)
17 September 2010
I've added a new recipe to my How To page - Beer Margaritas. They really do taste better than they sound. If you've already seen the Irmarita recipe - that's still my favorite margarita for taste, but it takes a bit of time to mix up and blend. The beer margaritas are very quick and easy to make, and still tastes better than using a margarita mix.
20 August 2010
Well, I've pretty much abandoned my old goal of updating the static pages at least once per month. My blog has really taken over as the main source of new content for this site. Still, some content I want to publish still belongs with the static pages, and I've just put up something new - another factoid page, Factoids Debunked & Verified, Part V. This one deals mostly with geography. It's a fairly even mix of truth and falsehoods.
12 June 2009
Wow, I've really fallen behind in updating my main site. I've just been really busy, so I've focused what little time I do have to work on my blog. Last month, I finally did get around to putting some new info up on the main site. I updated my tutorial for X-Plane, UDP, and Visual Basic, for X-Plane version 9. There are a few changes between versions 8 and 9 of X-Plane that affect network communications such that methods in the old tutorial wouldn't work anymore. Hopefully this new tutorial will help at least a few people.
10 December 2008
I've made a new factoids page, Factoids Debunked & Verified, Part IV. As usual, only some of the claims are true, while many don't hold up to investigation, and are either misleading or outright false. At least it's better than the previous factoid e-mail I received.
For anyone keeping track, you may have noticed the lack of an update to the non-blog portion of this site in November. Actually, I did make one, but it was too small to merit it's own mention here - I put up a new picture of me and my wife on the About Me page. So technically, I've still maintained an update per month average. I'd like to get at least one more substantive update before the end of the year, but December's looking pretty busy.
31 October 2008
It looks like I've just squeaked by getting an update in for this month. In fact, I've made a few changes (though a couple are very small). First, I've updated my Programming page with the latest version of my Circle Gradient Pattern Generator. This new version makes animations, not just still images. In a related update, I've added a couple of those animations to my Artwork page, including YouTube versions that loop when you play them (just add &loop=1 to the src link in the embed tag). Unfortunately, part of the way I control the animations right now is through actually changing the code itself, meaning that an executable version for my Downloads page is still a ways off. Hopefully I'll get to it eventually.
For a very small update, I've added a few new quotes to my Quotes page - one by Douglas Adams, one by Mark Twain, and one by Jean Giraudoux. I don't really expect most visitors to this site to look at that page, but it's a nice place for me to keep them for myself.
11 September 2008
Just a small update - I changed the intro on my homepage. For posterity's sake, here's the old intro:
Hello, and welcome to jefflewis.net. This is my own little corner of the web, where I can show off some of the things I've done, as well as hopefully provide some useful information. I've even included a touch of information about myself (After all, this is a personal web site).Well, I think the new one sounds better.
This site began as just a few pages back on my school account years ago. Since then, it's grown in fits and spurts to what you see today, going through a few face lifts along the way. But keep in mind, this is just a hobby. I've got a job and a family to keep me occupied, so the website takes second stage. I will try to put up new content on a regular basis, hopefully at least an update per month, but I'm not making any promises.
But anyway, here's my site. Take a look around at the different sections to see what you see. I've got the 10 most popular pages from the month listed below, if you want to see what other people come here to look at (they're not necessarily my favorite pages, but I figure they're popular for a reason). At the worst, it'll help you kill a few minutes of time.
22 August 2008
I've put up an updated Photo Page Generator, version 2.3, on my Programming page. I reinstated the ability to generate lists to put in drop-down boxes for slideshows. I also added the executable version to my Downloads page. On a related note, I added a slideshow to my Florida Photos page. While I was updating the Programming section, I decided to make a few tweaks. Now, when you follow one of the links to view the source code (here's an example), it has a little description of the program at the top, followed by the source code below. I also went through each of those pages to make sure that they were valid html code (mostly replacing "&" with "&", and "<" and ">" with "<" and ">".
With this third update for August, I'm up to 8 updates this year. That's got me caught up with my update per month goal. Now let's see if I can keep it up for the rest of the year.
8 August 2008
Well, with the mention in my last update that I hadn't updated my list of 10 most popular pages since the end of March, it got me feeling a little guilty. So, I went looking through my server logs, and came up with new top ten lists for each of the months that I missed (the older months can be found here). I was a little surprised, actually. My Autogyro History & Theory essay is still the most popular page on this site, but one of my blog entries from about a year ago, A Skeptical Look at Masai Barefoot Technology Shoes, is starting to gain popularity and close the ground to the autogyro essay. Another surprise is the blog entry, Legalizing Homosexual Marriage, Part II. It's an essay I originally wrote for this site way back in 2005, and reposted on my blog in 2006. And now, all of a sudden, people have started reading it. Going back over it now, my views have changed a bit, but I still think it's a pretty good essay for religious people to read. There are a few other blog entries, such as this one, Physical Comparison of Humans to Other Animals, which have also started gaining more popularity as they grow older. I guess it just goes to show that if you concentrate on putting good information into a site, even if it takes a little while, and without any real advertising, people will eventually notice. So, I guess it's time to get back to creating some of that good content, and quit with the updates like these.
7 August 2008
Boy have I've been neglecting the non-blog portion of this site. I just completely missed another month, to make 3 months of this year, so far, without adding any new content. And I haven't updated my list of 10 most popular pages since the end of March. Well, I've finally gotten around to making something new - a Florida Photo Page, showing some pictures from my latest trip. This trip was spent mainly relaxing on the beach, so unfortunately for you, that means there aren't that many photos worth showing to the public. There were a few good ones, though, so it's still worth checking out. I also added the appropriate link on the main Photos page.
27 June 2008
I've been neglecting this main part of my website a little too long, but I've finally made an update. I got another factoid e-mail in my inbox that was just too ripe to pass up, so I now have Factoids Debunked & Verified, Part III. This was one of the worst factoid e-mails I've ever received. Usually, there are at least some germs of truth. This one seems to be fabricated through and through.
30 April 2008
I've added a few recipes to my How To page. This time, however, I've added enough that you can cook a full meal. Start with an appetizer of Pico de Gallo & Guacamole (if you live in Texas, United carries some really good fresh made tortilla chips). Move on to the main course of 3 Cheese Chicken Enchiladas with Cream Cheese Sauce (or Red Beef Enchiladas if you're a little short on time), with a side of Mexican Rice. For the perfect drink to wash it all down, make a pitcher of Irmaritas (better than Margaritas).
27 March 2008
I've added a new recipe for Easter bread to my How To page. This is the recipe my mom made while I was growing up and passed on to me. Other than that, there's no deep family significance - I think she got it out of a cookbook, which got it from a convent in Pittsburgh. And I realize it's a little late for this year, but honestly, it was while my daughter and I were making the bread this past weekend that the thought occured to me to add it to this site.
14 March 2008
A very small update for today, but an update, nonetheless. About a year ago, when I decided to sell my RX-7, I made a note of it on my RX-7 page. However, when I did sell the car, I forgot to update that page to say so. So, I've removed the note about the car being for sale, and added a paragraph explaining that I sold it, why I sold it, and that I still like it.
1 February 2008
Well, what with my normal procrastination, and then getting sick right at the end of the month when I would have been working on it, I missed making an update to this website in January. But at least I'm not too late. Anyway, I've updated the page, X-Plane, UDP, and Visual Basic, for X-Plane version 8. I revised the section on single precision floating point values, correcting a slight mistake (not knowing about significands, so using the term mantissa to mean both mantissa and significand), and hopefully adding a little information to make it more clear on how to go about the conversions.