Website Feature. Error Capture and Reporting Upgrade. We now do a better job tracking what site one was headed for and supply a site-specific error message, including the site's topic areas to which to branch. (posted by Chris Ogden)

Website Feature. Navigation Links for Non-Forms Browsers. Believe it or not, some people have not upgraded to browser versions that support forms. While they'll miss out on the coolest parts of the site (ie, searching for and posting information), we've added a page footer with text links to the site's various areas. We don't bother you with the links if you can see forms. (posted by Chris Ogden)

Homepage. Multimedia, Update. Well, our experiment in having the home page welcome users with a Quicktime audio was not a total success. It seems that for Netscape 2.0 Windows users (and maybe others), the embedded Quicktime file triggers a very scary warning dialog. It says something to the effect that there is "possible security hazard here that could cause malicious programs to be executed on your system." Well, needless to say, we would never knowingly send a malicious file, but we figured the warning might scare some people away from the site. Thus, we've removed it for all but Macintosh users (who don't have to worry about such things because its so much more user friendly). (posted by Chris Ogden)

Website Feature. Error Capture and Reporting. This weekend we created another InfoMatters' web builder module. This one automatically intercepts bad link errors and records the source, the destination, browser, etc. in a database and sends an email to the site's webmaster. As a result, the webmaster is alerted instantly to bad links and can take the necessary steps to fix them (in fact, in the first three hours, we found out about two bad links on this site!). We'll be providing this module for free to webmasters soon. Sign up for the InfoMatters Mailing List and make a note in the comments if you'd like us to let you know when it's available! PS. Try error pages on Microsoft's Web server. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/userfriendly/ and see what we mean... (posted by Chris Ogden)

Website Feature. Tunes. Late one night at the office, we were a bit punchy and without "tunes." As a result, we added some eclectic music files to the site. These MIDI pieces may be accessed from the bottom of each page (ie, "Serenade Me"). Note: you may be prompted to download the necessary plugin (free) to play them. After installing them, you may need to quit and restart your browser. The good news is that then you'll be able to play all sorts of cool music and sounds as you traverse the web. (posted by Chris Ogden)

Homepage. Multimedia. In our experimentation with optimal sound compression algorithms for the web, we made the home page speak. It's a very short Quicktime file that "welcomes" visitors (posted by Chris Ogden)

Change Notifier. Automatic Notification When a Page Changes. Thanks to Netmind's great free service, there is a link at the bottom of every page ("notified") that will allow you to register the given page to automatically receive an email when the page is changed. (posted by Chris Ogden)

Rate-A-Page(tm). Rate-A-Page(tm) System Up and Running. Help us determine proportionally where to invest more resources to increase content and/or features by ranking the site's pages in terms of both subject matter and content. (posted by Chris Ogden)

Website Mechanics. Oops- GBS pages haven't been loading over the last two days. We made some major structural changes during the last few days and as a result, all of the non-database served pages stopped displaying Tuesday. It's fixed now.
Sorry for the inconvenience! (posted by Chris Ogden)

Website Mechanics. Sporadic Availabilty We've been hammered by almost 100,000 hits a day over the last few days and it seems there is a problem with one of our Ascend Routers which has resulted in sporadic periods of server inaccessibility. A new router will be here tomorrow which should result in uninterrupted service. Sorry for any inconvenience. (posted by Chris Ogden)