TECHNICAL NOTES- It was sometime in 1998 that I started to think about creating a website because I had so many Petrolia and area photos. I had always noticed that people were interested in looking at them. I wanted to share them with as many people as possible.

        My first computer (about 1987) was a used Commodore 64 (like everyone else at that time). It didn’t do much and my kids fooled around with it a bit and it was basically a glorified calculator. During that time I had gotten various toy computers from Radio Shack that had simple games and math teachers that the kids liked a little better. Not until 1992 did I get our first real computer a 386 from LECRON. It cost me about 2000 bucks. It had 3 MEG of memory and it cost 75 bucks per MEG after that. I bought extra so that we ended up with 8 MEG. Not much by today’s standards. Shortly after that we got our 486 from LECTRON and it was a little better and had a little more memory. The kids played games on it and we calculated our mortgage on it. The boys had a friend called Christopher Hill who was a bit of a computer expert and he was a huge help in getting us to know this computer that lived in our basement.           

       I had purchased a modem for our computer  that was a 900 ( remember those?). This enabled us to access local bulletin boards. Bulletin boards were a pre curser to the internet. People made pictures, games, and ads available on their computers. You had to have their phone number and simply called them and you entered their computer to see what they had posted. These numbers were available at computer stores and news letters. I think it wasn’t till about 1994 or 5 that Ebtech introduced the internet in Sarnia and we had to jump in. It was awesome. Almost as quickly as you bought a modem it was obsolete. We had every modem between 900k to 56000k. I don't know if I miss floppy discs or not, but not computer related I do miss 8 tracks.

         At that time the Internet was not as big and people that had their own website were few and far between. It was in 1996 that I got my first scanner and started scanning and adding pics to my computer. I scanned hundreds and hundreds of family pics and numerous other pics for myself and others. Most people didn't understand the need to scan pictures to put them on the computer, probably because they didn't have a computer.
         By 1999 and 2000 I started seriously toying with the idea of a website and a friend of mine, Dan Solway and I started to fool around with the idea and by early 2001 it started to take shape. Even at that time most people thought that a website was something for professionals in industrial and entertainment uses. Most folks didn't understand how it worked. Now with Facebook, Ebay and MSN etc. most people use a computer and understand the technology much better.

        Today petroliaheritage.com has gotten so huge I sometimes don't even know what is on it.

I am asked all of the time how it is done. I have found that the 'ThumbsPlus 5 Program' is an invaluable tool for photographic maintenance. It is not too complex and works great for enlarging/reducing pics and enhancement. Most of the newer pics have been shot with various digital cameras but any more my iPhone works just fine.

           For all of the vintage shots I have used the Epson 1250 Scanner and even some were garnered from negatives & slides a feature that this Scanner does quite well and I recommend it for this and other basic scanning needs.  Also the Mustek1200 Pro is utilized for larger super-sized pics and legal sized documents. Netscape 6.2 and FTP has always been utilized for posting. However by mid 2012 I had to update with a new computer and installed Windows 7 and immediately found that my old friend Netscape 6.2 was not compatible. I found Seamonkey a program that bought the Netscape Composer program from Netscape, that works very well for composing. And yes I know there are many composer like programs and yes I have tried them all. (don't like them)

         Like most people who work a lot with computers I hate to change programs but in this case had no alternative. My FTP program is still the same and all is well. As a service provider I use Globat. They are very cheap and do not penalize for bandwidth use. I haven't really had any serious problems with them.

            As far as picture quality, I leave certain pictures high resolution for your pleasure. Most books that I scan and post are not museum quality and are not for museum or other applications. My pictures and books etc. are presented here for your enjoyment and all of my fans are happy with that. If you want museum quality scanning and pictures you can go ahead and spend thousands as I have over the years on pictures and books from every possible source. You can also buy computers and very expensive legal size scanners and create museum quality copies. Otherwise come here and enjoy what I have posted for you.

Policy on using pics and or text from this website. It is impossible to protect anything on the Internet. Credits to Petrolia Heritage or Martin Dillon. This website is here for you and use anything on it that you want. Those that try to protect items on the internet are whistling in the wind and are clowns. I have installed banners on most enlargements as I have found what are called ‘Stock Photo Sites’ that have downloaded some of my pics and then post them for sale on their sites. That is not what my pics are posted for! Even though my pics are to be shared I do not like these carpetbaggers that sell them'.
         It is no secret that your editor is a computer geek and a geek in every other aspect. I go to all of this work so I can simply share my pics with you. Find something that you like to do and just go for it! Put it out there and share it with the rest of the world. If I can do it, so can you.
 

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