The English Master - Site Acknowledgments

Site Acknowledgments

The design and construction of this site was completely done by me and by myself, so to speak, as I was starting up on a shoe-string budget and did not want to start off behind the eight ball of venture capital. However, there are a couple necessary facets of the site I, for the most part, cannot take responsibility for having done.

I did not write the scripts that control the automated/interactive features of the site. I downloaded the scripts from web sites where their authors were offering them up for free. Without the features these scripts provide, the English Master as you see it would not have been possible. Also, any graphics on the site, for the most part, were downloaded from sites that provide them free of charge. I would now like to thank these people who I have never met and may never meet, but without whose "donated" work I could not have created the English Master web site and recognize their respective sites.

First and foremost, special thanks goes out to Vittal Aithal the author of the script "Soupermail" which is the form-processing script being used for the e-mail forms of the Proofreading and Translation Services, for the forms of the Bill Processing pages, for the Word Search game of the On-line English Class, and for the Résumé Maker. His was the first script I ever configured. It is without question the best free, CGI-based, form-processing script available. As implied above by the various ways I am utilizing it, it can handle just about any kind of form you cook up. As for giving me assistance, Vittal went over and above the call of duty to a degree that a thank you message, such as this, really is insufficient. His replies were always prompt; his answers always thorough.

A special thanks is also to go out to Emad Fanous the author of the Password Protection and Logging script being used to protect the pages of the On-line Classes and the Translation Club. His is with little doubt the best free password protection script available. It is fairly easy to set up, and though it is only CGI-based, it provides some nice features and surprisingly good security. Emad, also, was very helpful and expeditious in responding to my questions.

A huge thank you to Corey Chapman, Jay Silverman, Tim Ceuppens, Jeffrey Gelens and all the rest of the creators and developers of the absolutely fantastic YaBB forum program is also in order. It is really unbelievable that they provide this software completely free of charge. With all due respect to the rest of the software authors acknowledged on this page, this one takes the cake... and some when it comes to freely-available software on the internet. It is easy to set up and yet very customizable and the handful of times I ran into problems, they were taken care of in a jiffy by way of their help forums. The YaBB forum program is the best there is and it is the backbone of our "Let's Talk English" forum.

Also, kudos to the wonderful folks of Logos.it for providing, at no charge, the code to call their new on-line dictionary, which is used in various areas of the site and is particularly useful to the students of the On-line Classes. They have been extremely prompt in responding to my queries, but that is just the beginning. The Logos team has its heart in the right place; its eye on an admirable vision, and its nose to the grindstone. The creation of their dictionary database is being done by way of a unique, collaborative effort based on sharing, trust and enrichment rather than greed, hidden agendas and the bottom line. Yet, in the end, odds are their dictionary will be the most comprehensive translation dictionary on the internet.

Other script authors/computer programmers to whom I am very grateful:
PERL
Matt Hughes, the author of "PerlTest", the unique script being used for the homework assignment pages of the On-line Classes and the test page of the Translation Club.
Bruce Gronich and Christine Hunt of "BigNoseBird.com" for their guest book script, BNBbook. Their guest book is actually being utilized as a message board for the students of the On-line Classes.
Matt Hahnfeld of "EverySoft.com" for his chatroom script "EveryChat", which is in use at the On-line Classes and the Translation Club.
Fluid Dynamics Software for their "AXS Site Tracking System" scripts, which provide an extra level of security for the On-line Classes and the Translation Club.
Ronald Schmidt of The Software Path for his Crossword Puzzle script, which is being employed at the On-line English Class. He was very helpful and expeditious in responding to messages.
J.R. Greer over at Albedo.net for his Hangman script. It is used as a feature of the On-line English Class and the Translation Club. It is also used in the Free Word Games section of the site. He, too, gave prompt assistance regarding his script.
Neil Skirrow and his members administration and directory protection script "Locked Area Lite," which makes use of .htaccess technology and can be downloaded for free at LockedArea.com. Besides effective assistance provided via the message board, Neil himself is very attentive in offering assistance.
Jason Silver of CrookedBush.com for the very affordable registered version of his "Crosswords" script, which is up at the Free Word Games section of the site. A factor that makes him a cut above the rest... he makes himself available for technical support by telephone.
JAVASCRIPT - (all of these were free downloads and are used in various areas at the site unless specifically mentioned)
Alex Tu for "Automatic Pulldown Menu"
Erik Bosrup for "Overlib"
Quak Zhixuan for "Rainbow Text"
Michael Tartaglia for "Typing Test," which is being employed as one of the Free Word Games.
Other anonymously written free scripts: "Write and Slide", "Directional Buttons", "Refresh Button" and "Auto Tab"
FLASH
Novel Games for permitting web sites to link seamlessly to their flash games without charge. Two of the games on our free on-line games page, known on our site as "Wordsmith" and "Ghost Attack Typing", are provided by them.
AND
Huge thanks must go out to the "Java Script Source" and "The CGI Resource Index" who make all of the scripts that went into the development of this web site oh so accessible.
Yahoo! Korea for making the code to their on-line translation dictionary available for free. The search box appears at various areas of the site and is particularly useful for students of the On-line Classes.
All of the above are made available for free (download) by their respective authors.
I would also like to thank Microsoft for their development of the, although not free, very easy-to-use, user-friendly and beginner-accessible FrontPage Server Extensions, which are used for the Q & A Service submission form.

Though I developed a few of the GIF and JPEG images at the site myself, most of them were downloaded from the following sites World-of-animated-Gifs.de, World-of-ClipArt.de, Free-Clip-Art.com, ClipArtConnection.com and Gifworks.com. These sites provide Clip Art and Animated GIF's without charge and without hassle. The images provided hereby bring the English Master site to life, and not just as decoration. The images typically serve a purpose, whether as icons or by clarifying function pictorially. Besides making the site more pleasing to the eye, they make navigating it a little easier.

Also, I did not do the bulk of the translation of the site from English to Korean. That was virtually completely done by my wife, Yoo-jin. I want to thank her for that, but, moreover, for her sincere belief in me, for the unwavering support and encouragement she gave me during this whole process, including when things looked quite bleak, as well as for putting up with my wide-ranging moodiness throughout.

In a similar vein, I want to thank my mom, Joan E. Stegeman, and my dad, the late John M. Stegeman, for letting me be my own person and raising me to be confident, persevering and compassionate, traits without which I would not have taken on this kind of project.