About D's Simpsons Sofa-rama

Q.	What dose this do?
A.	It's my own, personal, non-commercial, non-profit-making bit of fun. It's an index of all the different things that happen to The Simpson's sofa during the opening credits. As a side effect/added bonus I also made note of all the things Bart writes on the blackboard and took some screenshots to boot.
Q.	Why did you do this?
A.	It's my own, personal, non-commercial, non-profit-making bit of fun. It's an index of all the different things that happen to The Simpson's sofa during the opening credits. As a side effect/added bonus I also made note of all the things Bart writes on the blackboard and took some screenshots to boot.
Q.	Sofa-rama?
A.	Made up word. (Other than it being a real Spanish word) - but in this case, I made it up, Sofarama - meaning "emcompassing of the sofa". I added the hyphen because if I ever make a logo, I think it'd look better. But I'm weird like that!
Q.	That's a very geeky thing to "want" to do, isn't it?
A.	Yes, but I'm a geek.
Q.	Figures....
A.	Thanks, now do you have any real questions?
Q.	Okay grumpy! Yes, I do as it goes.... Did you use any special tools?
A.	Yes, I used Photoshop for all the graphics work - what little of it there was. I should have really gotten something a little more sensible for the image processing/resizing (using Photoshop just to resize a BMP and convert it to a PNG is somewhat overkill ( "Do not use a cannon to kill a mosquito." -- Confucius (c. 551-479? BC) , Chinese sage. ) but I liked to touch up any pixels that got snarfed in my hi-tech image grabbing system.
Q.	Hi-Tech image grabbing system?
A.	Yeah, you'd be well impressed. An old (and has previously died and magically started working again) WinTV card, a large pile of home (and friend) recorded VHS video casettes. The WinTV card lives in my PC as I'm waiting as I use it as part of a different project.
Q.	So you just snapped the screenshot and moved to the next episode?
A.	That would have been the sensible way to do it, yes, but I watched each episode too. The date the file was uploaded to the database, that's when I watched the episoded.
Q.	So if I averaged 20 minutes per episode and multiplied that by the number of episodes you listed in a single day I'd see how much time you wasted on this?
A.	Very good! I'm glad to see you're paying attention. I'd account for 25 minutes per episode, personally, as it takes time to do the upload (for which the episode is paused) and I find episodes take about 22 minutes, beginning to end, to watch, without pausing.
Q.	Geek!
A.	Hey, we already covered the name callings, remember?
Q.	Oh yeah, sorry.... What about the xHTML, did you write that by hand?
A.	No, I cheated. Lots. I used DreamweaverMX and the PHP is based around the PHP4/ADODB stuff from PHAkt from Interakt with my own additions.
Q.	You mean you changed the comments?
A.	No, for example, the database connection stuff is all Interakt's stock but many of the pages perform multiple purposes depending how they are called (view.php for example, generates all the various viewstates in browsing episodes - that's all mine) and, as far as I know, PHAkt has no image/blob processing parts so I had to write all of that from scratch. Including the image upload handler, etc.
Q.	So you do know what you're doing then and not just some point+click chimp?
A.	Tools have jobs, they make our lives easier. If there's a shortcut/tool I like that saves me time and does a good enough job as not to hinder me then I'll use it, yes - so in that case I am a point+click monkey. I rarely stay with/leave unchanged the output but for this project I have tried to keep my modifications in such a manner that the HTML can still (in the most part) be modified by DreamweaverMX without breaking the PHP.
Q.	Let's see the source then?
A.	And you call me a geek! I've not released the source yet, as there's a couple of "security by obscurity" holes that I need to patch first - but as soon as that's done, and I've tidied up the admin interface, I'll upload it all for you, mkay?
Q.	I suppose that's fair....
A.	Any more?
Q.	Oh yeah, what does Fox think of this? Isn't that pile of copied VHS illegal?
A.	I'm yet to hear from Fox about the screenshots, but if they ask, I'll pull them down - this is only a proof of concept/self-set homework assignment for me - I'm not out to upset the makers of this fine comedy.
Q.	And your VHSpile?
A.	Isn't copied, why did you think it was? If you look I got lazy and stopped editing out the station logo's and PG-TV symbols very quickly so surely that shows you that I'm not rich enough to own either the DVDs or, infact, know anyone with the DVDs that I could have borrowed.
Q.	Okay, that's all for now....
A.	Right-ho, byebye then!
Q.	What, no tea, no tear-ridden good-byes? Geek!
A.	Oy! I won't invite you back you know....

What dose this do?

It's my own, personal, non-commercial, non-profit-making bit of fun. It's an index of all the different things that happen to The Simpson's sofa during the opening credits. As a side effect/added bonus I also made note of all the things Bart writes on the blackboard and took some screenshots to boot.

Why did you do this?

Sofa-rama?

Made up word. (Other than it being a real Spanish word) - but in this case, I made it up, Sofarama - meaning "emcompassing of the sofa". I added the hyphen because if I ever make a logo, I think it'd look better. But I'm weird like that!

That's a very geeky thing to "want" to do, isn't it?

Yes, but I'm a geek.

Figures....

Thanks, now do you have any real questions?

Okay grumpy! Yes, I do as it goes.... Did you use any special tools?

Yes, I used Photoshop for all the graphics work - what little of it there was. I should have really gotten something a little more sensible for the image processing/resizing (using Photoshop just to resize a BMP and convert it to a PNG is somewhat overkill ( "Do not use a cannon to kill a mosquito." -- Confucius (c. 551-479? BC) , Chinese sage. ) but I liked to touch up any pixels that got snarfed in my hi-tech image grabbing system.

Hi-Tech image grabbing system?

Yeah, you'd be well impressed. An old (and has previously died and magically started working again) WinTV card, a large pile of home (and friend) recorded VHS video casettes. The WinTV card lives in my PC as I'm waiting as I use it as part of a different project.

So you just snapped the screenshot and moved to the next episode?

That would have been the sensible way to do it, yes, but I watched each episode too. The date the file was uploaded to the database, that's when I watched the episoded.

So if I averaged 20 minutes per episode and multiplied that by the number of episodes you listed in a single day I'd see how much time you wasted on this?

Very good! I'm glad to see you're paying attention. I'd account for 25 minutes per episode, personally, as it takes time to do the upload (for which the episode is paused) and I find episodes take about 22 minutes, beginning to end, to watch, without pausing.

Geek!

Hey, we already covered the name callings, remember?

Oh yeah, sorry.... What about the xHTML, did you write that by hand?

No, I cheated. Lots. I used DreamweaverMX and the PHP is based around the PHP4/ADODB stuff from PHAkt from Interakt with my own additions.

You mean you changed the comments?

No, for example, the database connection stuff is all Interakt's stock but many of the pages perform multiple purposes depending how they are called (view.php for example, generates all the various viewstates in browsing episodes - that's all mine) and, as far as I know, PHAkt has no image/blob processing parts so I had to write all of that from scratch. Including the image upload handler, etc.

So you do know what you're doing then and not just some point+click chimp?

Tools have jobs, they make our lives easier. If there's a shortcut/tool I like that saves me time and does a good enough job as not to hinder me then I'll use it, yes - so in that case I am a point+click monkey. I rarely stay with/leave unchanged the output but for this project I have tried to keep my modifications in such a manner that the HTML can still (in the most part) be modified by DreamweaverMX without breaking the PHP.

Let's see the source then?

And you call me a geek! I've not released the source yet, as there's a couple of "security by obscurity" holes that I need to patch first - but as soon as that's done, and I've tidied up the admin interface, I'll upload it all for you, mkay?

I suppose that's fair....

Any more?

Oh yeah, what does Fox think of this? Isn't that pile of copied VHS illegal?

I'm yet to hear from Fox about the screenshots, but if they ask, I'll pull them down - this is only a proof of concept/self-set homework assignment for me - I'm not out to upset the makers of this fine comedy.

And your VHSpile?

Isn't copied, why did you think it was? If you look I got lazy and stopped editing out the station logo's and PG-TV symbols very quickly so surely that shows you that I'm not rich enough to own either the DVDs or, infact, know anyone with the DVDs that I could have borrowed.

Okay, that's all for now....

Right-ho, byebye then!

What, no tea, no tear-ridden good-byes? Geek!

Oy! I won't invite you back you know....


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