Sam's Laser FAQ Local Installation (original) (raw)
Sam's Laser FAQ, Copyright © 1994-2021, Samuel M. Goldwasser, All Rights Reserved. I may be contacted via theSci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Email Links Page.
Version 1.57
Copyright © 1994-2021
Samuel M. Goldwasser
--- All Rights Reserved ---
For contact info, please see the
Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Email Links Page.
Reproduction of this document in whole or in part is permitted if both of the following conditions are satisfied:
- This notice is included in its entirety at the beginning.
- There is no charge except to cover the costs of copying.
Table of Contents
Introduction
This document outlines the installation procedure to create a local browser accssible copy of Sam's Laser FAQ: Safety, Info, Links, Parts, Types, Drive, Construction - A Practical Guide to Lasers for Experimenters and Hobbyists. It consists of a set of HTML files and associated schematics, diagrams, and photographs.
Note that Sam's Laser FAQ is constantly evolving. While having a local copy is convenient and provides for fast access, you lose the benefit of always having the very latest version at your fingertips. Keep this in mind before you go to the installation effort only to find that your copy is out-of-date even before all the bits have settled into place. :)
Basic Installation
Important: Silicon Sam's Technology Resource (SSTR, all-faqs.zip) does not include Sam's Laser FAQ (laserfaq.zip) in its distribution. Therefore, Sam's Laser FAQ must be loaded or updated separately even if you have installed SSTR.
The following assumes a first time install of Sam's Laser FAQ:
- See Home and Mirror Site Locations to identify a site with a ZIPPED version of Sam's Laser FAQ.
- Download laserfaq.zip either into a new directory or into the same directory as SSTR (or a new directory if you don't have SSTR) and decompress it (unix unzip or DOS PKUNZIP):
- Extract all files: unzip (or PKUNZIP) laserfaq
- Extract selected files: unzip (or PKUNZIP) -x laserfaq file1 file2 ...
- Directory of laserfaq: unzip (or PKUNZIP) -v laserfaq
(Answer 'yes' or 'all' to any duplicate file queries.)
The file "laserfil.htm" contains a summary of all the HTML, photos, diagrams, and schematics which constitute this release.
- To set up a remote link page to the Laser Equipment Gallery, create a new directory (in the same directory that you just decompressed into) called "laserpic" and move the file "laserpic.htm" to this new directory and also make a copy of it there named "index.html". CAUTION: If you actually have the Laser Equipment Gallery resident locally, then you DON'T need or want to do this - but you should have figured that out by now!
- If Sam's Laser FAQ is not in the same directory as your Homepage and/or SSTR, use a text editor to replace all instances of the strings "index.html" and "sammenu.htm" in the files: "lasersam.htm" and "laserpic.htm" with links to appropriate places.
- When "lasersam.htm" is accessed via a Web browser, everything may be viewed directly. To bypass the Welcome Page, link to "laserfaq.htm" instead.
- Your browser needs to be configured properly to make sense of the many ASCII diagrams, schematics, and tables. See the document:Suggested Browser Settings for font and other related information.
- The file "emaillnk.htm" contains a redirect to email links for the Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ authors (Sam and Fil), as well as the general Feedback Form. Edit this file if the location of the email contacts page should change in the future.
I routinely test all of this on Unix (Sun OS/Solaris), Linux (Redhat), and Windows (Win98, WinME, Win2000, WinXP) using both Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. Please let me know if there are any problems.
Icons and Links
Two sets of icons are included for linking to Sam's Laser FAQ from your own Web pages (lasersam.gif and laserfaq.gif, 64 x 64 pixels) and from Windows (lasersam.ico and laserfaq.ico, 32 x 32 pixels). (The fabulously detailed graphics on laserfaq.gif and laserfaq.ico will even help you to remember how to connect a helium-neon laser tube correctly!) For example:
- To create a link to Sam's Laser FAQ from an existing Web page, use a text or HTML editor to add the following lines to it:
- Sam's Laser FAQ
- A Practical Guide to Lasers for Experimenters and
Hobbyists.
This will add the icon and create hot links to "Sam's Laser FAQ" as long as it is in the same directory with an appearance similar to this:
* [Sam's Laser FAQ](lasersam.htm) [ ](lasersam.htm) \- A Practical Guide to Lasers for Experimenters and Hobbyists.
Edit as appropriate for your complete path if located elsewhere. - If you are running Win95 or above (I don't know if this works for Win3.1x), the .ico format icon files can be used when accessing Sam's Laser FAQ from a folder or the desktop.
To add a link from the Windows desktop directly to the Sam's Laser FAQ Table of Contents, surf over to your copy of "lasersam.htm" and press and hold the left mouse button while dragging the local "Sam's Laser FAQ" hot link to the desktop. (These are the ones just below the "Welcome" heading and near the end of lasersam.htm.) Create a shortcut there and then edit its properties to use the icon of your choice! (You can do the same thing with any of the other hot links instead if you do not intend to maintain a local copy of Sam's Laser FAQ.)
- Back to Sam's Laser FAQ Install Table of Contents.
- Go (back) to Home and Mirror Site Locations.
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