INSTRUCTIONS

- automatic fade -

Once the script is in motion, faces are randomly selected from a pool and exchanged at short intervals. This will continue indefinitely until you stop the auto-fade or exit the page. Instructions on manual control are given below.

Some of the faces exist in more than one version, but exact duplicates are prevented from reappearing until all available images have passed. Presently there are over 100 individual faces in the repertoire, with more being added at regular intervals.

Currently the script essentially tries to average about 11 or 12 seconds of overall transition time between successive faces when in automatic mode. I'm still trying to determine an optimum transition time: too fast and the eye loses any sense of sudden perceptual shifting; too slow and the strangeness is lost.

Some older computers (like mine, cough) may have trouble keeping up the pace though. In these cases, you may be able to lower the demands made on your computer by resizing your browser window to make it smaller: this reduces the canvas area which needs to be redrawn by the computer with each fade increment.

Note that the page will reload any time the browser window is resized, so that the script can re-initialize its variables relating to browser dimensions.

Watching the images crossfade in real-time is always fascinating, but the real fun begins when you stop the auto-fade and manipulate the different settings by hand. Here's how:

Note that you must stop the auto-fade before any of the other key controls can be enabled.

If you're having trouble remembering all of the keystrokes and you'd rather keep things simple, you can still get way too much fun for free just by limiting your key manipulations to the following 3 keys: the SPACEBAR (stop and resume auto-fade), and the LEFT and RIGHT arrow-keys (adjust fade value manually).

When using the PageUp / PageDown keys to load a new image into one of the slots, the face is selected at random from those remaining in the pool. If nothing appears to have changed, it's because you're at one extreme of the fading scale (eg 100% or 0%), and you've loaded the image into the other slot. Preview the other slot by pressing the arrow UP or arrow DOWN key to visually confirm the intended change.

As you manipulate the controls, the current state and fade-value of the page will be displayed in your browser's status-bar (if you have the status-bar enabled) at the bottom-left of your browser window. Please note: your status-bar will not be visible when viewing in full-screen mode (F11).

- note to users of Netscape 4 and Opera -

Sorry but you get only half the fun! Because your browser doesn't recognize the opacity property, you won't see the faces actually crossfade into each other - instead the images simply wipe across the screen in standard slideshow fashion. Manual controls are also disabled as these are ineffectual in absence of the fading process. Now you know what you're missing!!

- note to MAC and Unix/Linux users -

Unless I am mistaken, I believe that browsers based on the modern Gecko engine and which also implement the opacity property are able to execute the crossfading feature regardless of which operating system is used (though implementation of the opacity property in Gecko is somewhat problematical to begin with). This includes Netscape 6 and up, recent Mozilla builds, K-Meleon and possibly Phoenix and other offshoots of Gecko.

However, it appears that the eligible versions of Internet Explorer can crossfade on the Windows platform only, but not on the MAC.

I'd appreciate any feedback on this, so if you're using one of these platforms, and you'd like to report on whether Blinky's got along well with your browser, I can be reached at the e-mail cited below.

PROBLEMS?

Sure, we've all got problems. Would I come up with something this twisted if I didn't have problems? But if you encounter problems on the page which aren't covered here, write me and I'll see what I can do.