![[Logo: Airliner and sea gull photo overlayed with text - www.AerospaceIndustry.info - Ancient Dream To Modern Reality.]](../../Images/Logo.jpg){kind=logo}
About This Site:
- Goals
- Operator / Webmaster
- Site Layout Modified - October 5, 2005
- Background Images, Text, and Effects
- Links & Information
- Fees, Funding, & Advertising
- Copyright
- Translation
- Disclaimer
This page was last updated on July 1, 2010.
Goals:
- AerospaceIndustry.info's short-term goal is to help you quickly find aerospace-industry-related information, products, and services regardless the depth of your prior industry knowledge.
- The long-term goal is for AerospaceIndustry.info to further people's awareness and understanding of the industry's global production nature and its political, social, and economic ramifications.
Operator / Webmaster:
Hello! My name is Tom Connor and I operate, maintain, and update the AerospaceIndustry.info site. Currently, it's a hobby, though that may be subject to change.
From January 1987 until my voluntary retirement in September 2008, I worked for the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Division of International Prices, helping to produce the import and export price indexes for the United States. I was a Senior Economist and Industry Analyst working in the Machinery Section and the aerospace industries were my main assignment for more than 21 years.
The Harmonized System is the main classification nomenclature used in the production of the import and export price indexes. The Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) for import statistical classification and the Schedule B for export statistical classification are based on the Harmonized System. I attended Harmonized System training sessions presented by U.S. Customs Service attorneys prior to the Harmonized System being adopted by the United States in 1989. Through training and subsequent research, I became officially recognized as the Classification Systems Specialist for the International Price Program in December 1996. I was responsible for advising program management and staff in the National Office and in the BLS Regional Offices nationwide regarding statistical classification issues with respect to NAICS, SITC, End-use, and the Harmonized System, covering the entire product universe, and regularly consulted with colleagues at the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis regarding these classification systems and their concordance files. I was leader of the BLS International Price Program's Classification Team from its formation in 2004 until my retirement in September 2008.
During my time with the BLS Division of International Prices, I became interested in web pages to efficiently organize, disseminate, and retrieve information. After gaining sufficent knowledge of HTML coding in 1999, I joined the team responsible for the development and maintenance of the International Price Program's intranet, continuing in that capacity until my retirement.
I'm proud of my government service and of the fine group of civil servants and contractors with whom it was my honor and privilege to work.
Site Layout Modified - October 5, 2005:
I decided to change the AerospaceIndustry.info site layout to eliminate framesets and frames, switching to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) defined page layouts. I found framesets and frames left something to be desired with regard to navigation and made site maintenance a bit complex. Even more important, having a both a frameset page and a content page to go into the frameset limited the usefulness of the site statisitcs, reducing the data available for actual pages being viewed to only a very few of the most popular pages.
After some experimentation, I was pleasantly surprised that the CSS defined layouts resulted in what I believe to be a better appearance and organization for the entire site. I was, however, a bit disappointed with the varying degrees of standards compliance of various browsers such that IE interprets the CSS quite a bit different than say Firefox.
The new page layouts should make it easier for visitors to navigate and find pages of interest. The site statistics should also improve so I may better evaluate the site and target improvements more effectively.
I encourage any website or page developer contemplating the use of frames to investigate the use of CSS page layout instead. The World Wide Web Consortium recommends using CSS layout as an alternative to frames, citing a number of problems associated with framesets and frames. If you still have a preference for frames, please read the information available on Supporting Good Frames:
Background Images, Text, & Effects:
- The header displays the site's logo image on the left with the site name and navigation links on the right. Dark-blue text floats over a fixed-background image of clouds as you scroll through the page. Page text will display over a light blue background if your browser is set not to display background images or if the image is slow loading. The header and footer background color is a medium shade of blue.
- Those familiar with AerospaceIndustry.info prior to July 30, 2005 will notice that the rotating background images of aircraft are now gone, as is the recommendation to use an 800 X 600 monitor resolution. The background images were meant to enhance the site theme but became more of a detraction as most computers and monitors being sold over the past few years recommend higher resolutions.
- Pages are backward compatible to a fair degree, meaning most pages will degrade gracefully when viewed with older browsers. Please let me know if you have any suggestions to improve backward compatibility. Content should also be legible on text-only browsers and testing on the Lynx browser has shown formatting to be acceptable. I took great pains to get the Unit Conversion page to look fairly good in the Lynx browser but it may not look very good in graphical browsers lacking table support.
- I write all code for the site's pages exclusively in Notepad. Refining the AerospaceIndustry.info site allows me to learn and experiment with various web page and database design and construction techniques.
- As of this site's opening in February 2004, I was just beginning to learn a little about JavaScript. Pages on this site make use of JavaScripts but most of these scripts were written by others and made freely available on the Internet. Authors of scripts obtained from Internet resources are credited in the applicable page's source code. In certain cases I have made minor modifications or extensions to these scripts to tailor them to AerospaceIndustry.info's presentations.
- The Unit Conversion page presents a modified version of the JavaScript "Conversion Maestro" table written by Alan Simpson - www.coolnerds.com. Alternative unit conversion Internet sites are listed for those users with browsers that don't support JavaScript.
- Several other JavaScripts were obtained from The JavaScript Source web site:
- The Unit Conversion page presents a modified version of the JavaScript "Conversion Maestro" table written by Alan Simpson - www.coolnerds.com. Alternative unit conversion Internet sites are listed for those users with browsers that don't support JavaScript.
Links & Information:
- AerospaceIndustry.info pages have navigation links in the header, footer, and left-hand column. There are also jump links back to the page top following various sections on longer pages so navigation features remain easily accessible. Pages with three columns have main content in the center column with links to related topics and information in the right-hand column.
- AerospaceIndustry.info mainly provides links to other sites where information is available, including links to economic statistics and international trade information, aspects of the aerospace industry lacking on most aerospace Internet portals. Check out the links on these pages:
- Clicking on links to sites external to AerospaceIndustry.info will cause those sites to open up in a new browser window. This distinguishes content provided by other Internet sites from AerospaceIndustry.info's content.
- So as to avoid conflicts of interest while I was employed at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I offered neither opinions nor analyses on AerospaceIndustry.info. Since I retired in September 2008, I may decide to provide my own opinions or analyses on this site in the future. Links to other sites that offer opinions and analyses do not constitute an endorsement of those sites, their opinions, or their analyses. For that matter, links to any site do not constitute an endorsement of any kind.
- AerospaceIndustry.info would like to establish reciprocal links with other aerospace-related web sites. Webmasters may freely establish links to AerospaceIndustry.info. Please submit aerospace-related links or suggestions to improve the AerospaceIndustry.info site to the Webmaster.
- It is necessary to have the free Acrobat® Reader® installed on your computer to open and view linked documents that are in portable document format (.pdf).
Fees, Funding, & Advertising:
- At present, no fees are charged in association with use of the AerospaceIndustry.info site.
- All AerospaceIndustry.info expenses are paid from my personal funds.
- AerospaceIndustry.info does not accept paid advertising or outside funding of any kind.
- To help AerospaceIndustry.info users efficiently locate information, I added the customizable Google Free web search with site search on August 8, 2005. The search box with the Google logo is a trademark of Google Inc. The Search links on any AerospaceIndustry.info page will take you back to the AerospaceIndustry.info Home page where the Google Free search feature now resides.
This feature offers a choice to search AerospaceIndustry.info or to search the entire Internet. When a search is performed, the results are returned on a page customized with the AerospaceIndustry.info logo. The results page also includes advertisements. AerospaceIndustry.info does not have any control over the advertisements presented, does not endorse any products or services advertised, and does not earn any revenue associated with such advertisements. For more details about this search service, please see the Google Free Terms of Use and the other information associated with Google Free.
- I believe the privacy of visitors to the AerospaceIndustry.info site should be protected. At this time, AerospaceIndustry.info does not use cookies so the only way personally identifying information would be obtained is if you send e-mail to the Webmaster. AerospaceIndustry.info does not sell identifying information and will not otherwise disclose any information that would identify any site visitor without their permission unless legally required to do so.
Copyright:
- AerospaceIndustry.info mainly provides links to other sites where information may be found. AerospaceIndustry.info does not have any rights to any content available on other web sites. Please check the copyright © disclosures of web sites you visit from the links provided by AerospaceIndustry.info.
- The AerospaceIndustry.info web site and its content are the copyright © of Thomas E. Connor. Obviously, this copyright © does not cover the following: links or names of links to external sites; third-party trade names or trademarks; content or code expressly made freely available for copying over the Internet, the Unit Conversion table for example; or any other content considered to be in the public domain.
Translation:
- A translation link is available on every page to serve visitors whose native language is other than English. If your browser is not capable of interpreting JavaScript then you will see a text link rather than the graphical link with country flags.
Disclaimer:
- The "About This Site" information and the design and content of the AerospaceIndustry.info web site are subject to change at any time as circumstances may allow or require.