This is the very first Disney Experience screensaver! Being busy with Doorless Chambers, I naturally wanted to experiment with something related to the Haunted Mansion.

The screensaver works on all Windows systems, 95 through Vista (sorry, no Mac versions). I don’t know the system requirements, so performance may differ from PC to PC, and I cannot diagnose errors.

Filed under: Project
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I know I just posted an update, but I found a work-around to my PHP problem (I love the Internet sooo much!). I found a way to please the PHP gods and still use absolute URLs in an ‘include’ script. For those of you who are interested, I was originally using this code: <?php include('http://www.disneyexperience.com/disclaimer.txt'); ?>. But by using this code: <?php include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] .'/disclaimer.txt'); ?>, everybody’s happy. In fact, I was able to replace the errors using the ever-so-handy Edit>Replace method. So, everything should be back to normal now. But, keep an eye out for anything that I may have missed, will ya?

Now on to far more pleasing news. This year, the Disney Experience is participating in the Doorless Chambers event. In fact, I’m the one putting this all together. Doorless Chambers is a free online trick-or-treating event for the entire Disney fan community. It’s like when this site releases a Disney Halloween treat every year, only you travel from site to site, and it lasts for a full week (October 25-31).

If you have a Disney fan site, you just might be eligible to participate as a member of the Neighborhood. But, there are some strict Rules & Guidelines that you have to follow. If you have questions, ask, and if you’re not sure if you qualify, sign up anyway. You just might get accepted.

So far, we have sites like DoomBuggies.com, TellNoTales.com, Haunted Dimensions, and Virtual Magic. But whether you apply or not, you can grab one or more linking banners to help spread the word.

Filed under: Personal, Review, Website Update
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The site has been working very strange today, and unfortunately, I didn’t know about it until late yesterday evening. It seems certain PHP codes have decided not to work with absolute URLs. This is causing a lot of unwanted page effects, such as missing page information. As far as I can tell, the search engine and paper model pages are completely out of commission at the moment.

I will be hand-changing code on nearly 200 pages, changing absolute URLs to relative URLs. It’s not fun, but it has to be done. Everything should be up and running in 1 or 2 days.

If anyone has any knowledge of the PHP ‘include’ script, and why I can no longer use absolute URLs, please let me know if there’s a reason for this insanity or if there’s something I can do about it.

Filed under: Website Status
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Next year is the 10th anniversary of the Disney Experience. I’ve been thinking of what to do to commemorate the occasion, but I haven’t settled on anything. A new site design? Special downloads? I do know that I want the celebration to last all through 2009, and I do want to include guest interaction/participation.

One idea that I’ve been kicking around is releasing 10 brand-new guest-chosen icons each month. Maybe even guest-chosen wallpapers, too. Hmmm . . .

Filed under: Special Event, Website Status
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Summer is already shaping up to be adventurous, whether you prefer to either follow a tattered map in search of buried treasure, or explore booby-trapped temples. So . . .

Here is the latest set of system icons (72 in all), inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean attractions and films.

Filed under: Customization, Icons
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You don’t need a pact with Davey Jones to sail this ship. Paper model designer uhu02 (real name unknown) created the Black Pearl, and he has graciously allowed a link to be posted to his Blog. The site is in Japanese, but you can easily find the model and the PDF link.

Filed under: Paper Models, Papercraft
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Since we’re on the subject of paper models, there’s a WALL·E model available. Unfortunately, it really isn’t up to par to be added to the Disney Experience. What I’m really waiting for is the completion of Rebostar’s WALL·E, which is more accurate and far more detailed. I don’t think Rebostar has worked on the model for some time, and I’m getting antsy for just some sort of update on the project. If something doesn’t happen, I may decide to do my own WALL·E model.

I generally try to avoid creating models that others have made or are creating unless I know I can do a better job. Becky is working on a beautiful Cinderella Castle, so that model has been crossed off of my design list. And, of course, Ray Keim has designed all of the Haunted Mansions, so I don’t have to touch those (whew!).

There’s also a Stitch model floating around in cyberspace, but again, it really isn’t up to par. It may be added if I ever get desperate for new material, but I still have a long line of my own models to release (and a long list of future models).

Filed under: Paper Models, Papercraft, Review
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