The Format
Optimal Viewing Requirement
This website has a requirement of 1024 x 768 pixels for optimal viewing. Use of 800 x 600 pixels will result in a much poorer display. Hopefully someday this site will be adaptable to both resolutions, but for now, it just ain't that way. You can change the resolution by hitting the 'START' button on your computer, choosing 'SETTINGS', then choosing 'CONTROL PANEL', then choosing 'DISPLAY'. Choose 'High Color, 16 bit', then set the arrow to '1024 x 768'. That way you'll get the most out of this site; you can always change it back when you move on to your next site visitation. Most sites are designed for optimal display at 800 x 600 on Internet Explorer or Netscape. Let me go on record for saying these words: MS Internet Explorer sucks. And you can quote me on that. Download Netscape now if you don't have it already. It'll change your whole internet experience. My own father uses MS Explorer at low resolution, and he loves it that way! Unfortunately (and I have BELLOWED this to him), he isn't getting all he could be out of the internet because the displays usually come out looking like sh*t. If you change the resolution on your screen to the optimal setting and the images still come out looking badly, you probably need a new graphics card for your PC (these are very easy to install if you have a free PCI slot on your computer). Diamond Software has proven to be a leader in video/graphics hardware. Egghead Software stocks Diamond products for cut-price.
Layout
The layout of this internet website was designed and constructed by me, Andrew Szym...it was designed completely from scratch and he assumes no responsibility for accidents that may happen upon these premises, as stated in the Disclaimer. If you're interested in learning how to build a nice-looking website, I suggest you turn to a little book called HTML 4.0 for the World Wide Web by none other than Elizabeth Castro (no relation to that Cuban guy with the moustache and the cigar...at least not that I know of!). She's written a very nice book that helped me a lot when I was first learning the basics of HTML building.
Editor
Does this site have a copy editor? Nope! The site was designed with the aid of Arachnophilia 4.0 HTML editor, which was created by Paul Lutus, a fine scientist in his own right. This editor is freeware, or in Paul's own words, 'careware'. It makes an HTML writer's life much easier. Not that the CEO's at Geocities would know, of course. Thank you, Paul, for your timeless contribution.
From my computer to yours
All pages on this site are .html or .shtml files (I don't use .asp or other formats). They're written up, then uploaded to my server (hosted by Super-Nova Web Hosting Service) using Cute-FTP 4.0 (FTP = file transfer protocol). When this website was located at Simplenet Web Hosting, Cute-FTP was used to transfer over all the files to the virtual domain www.mtmshow.com. And the entire site was relocated in a matter of about ten minutes. Cute-FTP is a fine program...but in order to unlock all its nifty features (like the one I just mentioned), ya gotta register your copy.
Security
This site is not a "secure" site, by definition. Secure site URLs are usually preceeded by the letters 'https' instead of just 'http' (the 's' stands for 'secure'). Secure sites are usually only those where the user is asked to enter in some confidential information about themselves (such as a credit card/bank account number). This site (except for this page you're on right now) does have an application called 'Disable Right Mouse Button'. It is used to prevent users from stealing text and images off this site. Of course, each page of the site can be printed and there are certainly ways to go about lifting text and images off of mtmshow.com, but by disabling the 'quick click and save' feature, it makes it far more difficult. The reason we have disabled this feature is not to be jerks. No. The reason is twofold. First, we don't like legal beagles and other authority figures from TV networks/law offices who come poking around various sites just to see what's up...and then maybe they can hire one of their lackeys to go through and copy everything here just to keep on record for a future date when they "might need it for reference/evidence" for...whatever purpose. Secondly, we LOVE everybody else!! We want you to keep coming back and looking at stuff here over and over again! If you copy it all for yourself, that's no fun for you or us.
Typeface/Background
The typeface currently in use is called Garamond and is available with most Microsoft Office packages (it's been around since at least 1995 and is a fairly standard font). The base font size used is '12'...you can make it larger or smaller as your optical nerve demands by adjusting your preferences in Netscape or Internet Explorer. The other rounded, cartoon-like font seen on the main page and on the titles of each page is called Comic Sans MS. It is also a very common 'fun' font that can be found in any number of places.
The name of the gray background used on the left-hand and top frames is called "gray spec". The one below the typeface you are reading right now is called 'gris' (French for 'gray'). I lifted it off another website (I have no remembrance of which one I got it from) in September, 2000 because I got sick of the white-on-black look that had plagued this site had for over a year. Most sites on older TV shows (pre-1970) do well with b/w, but mine suffered tremendously with a black background and white text.
Clickability
The image map on the splash page and some other maps on the site were made using Mapedit, a simple and easy-to-use program written by Thomas Boutell. Way to go, Tom.
How'd you get those TV images?
The screen captures seen on this site were taken using WinTV screen capture hardware from Hauppauge Software. That's right, ya gotta hook up your VCR to your computer in order for it to work. For anyone interested in designing a site that covers an entire television series, this is the tool to have. As you can see, the beautiful stills WinTV captures add a LOT to this website. I credit WinTV for launching this website above the mundane...and you can quote me on that one, too. There are a number of far more expensive packages out there that your local computer store will push at you incessantly...WinTV is around $100, which is a big-time bargain. I believe you can also use WinTV to do videoconferencing and other nifty things.
That "Mary Tyler Moore font"
It's all over the place. It's on signs, and it's on billboards. And it's a very cool font. It has several different names, one being 'Carnati SSi'. It can be found on a number of "Most Popular Fonts"-type compilations, which are available usually on CD Rom and can be purchased from your local computer store and most online computer supply companies. For legal reasons, we can't include it here for download, but we can email it to you upon request.
We hope you enjoy your visit at www.mtmshow.com and if you have questions, don't hesistate to contact us.
