Optimal Web Viewing

This site is best viewed with the following:

• Internet Explorer 5.0 and above.

• As large a monitor as possible (19" to 21" is ideal)

• Screen resolution set to 800 X 600 or higher(1024 X 768 is better)

• As speedy a connection as possible. See "Bandwidth Philosophy" below.

Basically the site was created for viewing with Internet Explorer. The site can be viewed using Netscape, but has not been optimized for Netscape. Also the site was made to be viewed on a monitor with at least an 800 X 600 resolution. A higher resolution is better, but depending on how large your monitor is, higher settings may not be reasonable. For those of you that have never set your resolution, it's a setting you can control that makes all the windows and print appear smaller on your screen. In this way you are able to see more because windows now have more space. At the same time words become smaller, so it's always a bit of give and take. Higher resolutions are best for larger monitors(17" and up). Whether or not you run a Mac or a PC should not matter, however the site is not regularly checked for it's consistency on a Mac.

Bandwidth Philosophy

Admittedly the site can be a real monster if you're accessing it through a dialup modem. The pages which are particularly cumbersome are the monthly tournament write-ups with pictures. Pictures take up most of the size. These pages can take up to 5-minutes(Las Vegas page), however there are several reasons I have decided not to worry about the way these pages are generated. First of all, if I were to break the pictures up onto several pages, or have the results on a different page than the photos, It would require downloading two separate pages, then likely bouncing back and forth as you might want to see everything at once. By having everything on one large file it makes it easier to simply get the download going then go off and have a cup of coffee, returning 5-minutes later with no more downloading required to view everything. Secondly, as bandwidth broadens over time we will doubtless not find the size of these pages such a burden. 

Photo Philosophy

A few years ago I decided to offer blow-ups of every photo. I settled on 320 X 240 for the smaller version and 800 X 600 for the enlarged version. 320X 240 is a size which still affords good detail, it's also a size I feel will one day be accommodated on mobile web devises. As for the large versions of images, although 640 X 480 is currently more accepted as the standard maximum size, I believe that 800 X 600 will become more accepted as people begin buying larger monitors. 

All Pages Upgraded for Ease-of-Use

Recently all pages prior to 2003 were updated to simplify the image-viewing experience. In 2003 a new way of handling large versions of the pictures was developed. It used to be that when clicking on the photos to view the larger versions one had to leave the web page to visit the single file, only to have to reload the tournament page upon return. In 2003 the new technique made it so that clicking on an image opened a new browser window, a display window showcasing the larger version. The new effect was a dramatic time-saver, for once the tournament page was loaded, there was only minimal bandwidth overhead associated with conjuring the larger images. The main page was still there. Because people so much preferred this new way of handling the images, all older pages have now been updated with this feature. See a complete list of pages with enlargeable photos.

Future Will Catch Up

The site is currently a bit of a bear, however in a few years the technology will grow to accommodate the standards to which it has been built.

Browser Cache

This a problem you'll not know about until it's too late. Browsers like to try and save you downloading time by storing web sites you visit. When you visit a page, your browser will check it against your history and if you've visited that page before, instead of going out and re-downloading the page anew it will display the file it saved on your computer the last time you visited that page. Sometimes this is a good feature and can make web surfing less time-consuming, however, it assumes that pages never change, and most web pages do change daily. Most pages on UCGC.org are updated regularly. If your browser fails to re-download the fresh pages you'll continue only to see the old version of the files and not what's currently on the web site. For this reason, it's best to set your cache so that the browser updates at least every time it starts. 

Here's how to remedy this problem:

In Microsoft Internet Explorer:

1. In Internet Explorer select "Internet Options..." from the "Tools" menu.

2. Under the section "Temporary Internet Files..." select "Settings...".

3. Under "Check for newer versions of stored pages" select "Every time you start Internet Explorer". That's it! This will not hurt or change anything in a bad way. What it will do is ensure that you will be viewing current information, and not the stale things persisting in your computer.

In Netscape:

1. From the "Edit" menu, select "Preferences".

2. In the small window "Category" , click "Advanced".

3. Then click on "Cache".

4. Near the bottom is a multiple choice question: "Document in cache is compared to document on network". Select "Once per session". 

Tired of the same old banner atop this page? Well Change It!

The above procedure won't always remedy the banner cache issue. The banner changes regularly, about once per week. The problem exists in your computer's browser. It's serving up the cached the image file and isn't updating the page as it should. To flush out your old cache, simply hold down the "Ctrl" key and while the key is still depressed use the mouse to click on the "Refresh" on your browser.

Web Site Down

Sometimes the web site goes down. It usually goes up again in a few minutes, but sometimes it takes a while to notice and might be down for a few hours or even, on occasion, several days. If this happens there's nothing you can really do except send an email to Aaron to make sure he knows it's not running. Sorry!

NCGA - Associate Club Web sites

• On October 23, 2001 -  9.4% (56 of 596) of Associate Clubs had web sites.

• On February 4, 2003 - 10.2% (115 of 1130) of Associate Clubs had web sites.