This document was first completed on Sunday, November 18, 2012 and was most recently revised on Friday, December 29, 2017.
Preserving the Old Definitions
I believe that old definitions are important because the meanings of the words change over time. It's important to know what the words meant when old documents, such as the U.S. constitution, were written. However, old dictionaries are rare. Also, mine is falling apart. The paper is brittle and breaking. The pages are falling out of the binding. The binding itself is coming apart. I decided many years ago that I needed to preserve the information. At the time, the best that I could do was to make a copy of the dictionary, which I did. I still have the copy.
The First Attempt at Computer Files
Sometime during the early 1990s, I decided that it would be easier
to make copies of the information if it was in the form of computer files.
There were several advantages to that, such as being able to make the information
available to other people. In 1993, I began the project of transferring
the information into computer files. I began scanning the pages of
the dictionary into TIFF files and using OCR software to create text.
However, the problem of making sure that every character was correct required
that I compare the OCR output, character-by-character, to the original.
I had to have 100% accuracy, or the result wouldn't be credible.
The project proved to be impossible. I suspended it indefinitely.
PDF Files
In 2007, I acquired the Adobe Acrobat software and became able to make
PDF files. After that, I resumed work on the project. Instead
of scanning the pages of the dictionary into TIFF files, I scanned them
into PDF files. By using the PDF files, I eliminated the problem
of OCR errors and assured that the results would be accurate. I believed,
at the time, that there were two disadvantages to the PDF files.
One is that the files are not searchable. However, the definitions
are in alphabetical order so it shouldn't be too much trouble to find the
definition of a particular word. After all, that's how it works in
a paper dictionary. The other disadvantage, as I believed at the
time, is that information can't be copied directly from the files as text,
like you can do with HTML files. I believed that it was necessary
to read it and type it, or maybe copy it as an image and use OCR software.
I eventually discovered that there's a text select tool.
Synced Free Web Hosting Service
I began to build the website on Saturday, April 28, 2007. However,
I ran short of disk space on my office computers and, consequently, on
Wednesday, May 16, 2007, I postponed further work on the project.
On Thursday, April 3, 2008, after acquiring some additional hardware, I
resumed work on the project. I located a free web hosting service,
Synced Hosting, and began to upload the website, file-by-file, as I scanned
the sections for each letter of the alphabet. I uploaded the last
files on Monday, May 19, 2008.
IsMyWebsite Free Web Hosting Service
On or about Tuesday, July 1, 2008, Synced Hosting vanished without
warning and without a trace. I spent almost a week finding a replacement
free web hosting service and getting it to work. On Monday, July
7, 2008, the website was up-and-running again, at its new home, the IsMyWebsite
free web hosting service.
On Sunday, July 27, 2008, I added to the website a file of miscellaneous definitions called, creatively enough, Miscellaneous Definitions. Many of the definitions are from dictionaries other than Bouvier's Law Dictionary. However, it's a useful collection of definitions so I decided to included it anyway.
During the last few months of 2008, the IsMyWebsite free web hosting service began to take some of its sections out of operation. On Thursday, December 25, 2008, I began to move the website from a section that was being taken out of operation, to a new section. Since it was a free web hosting service, and I was using free subdomain names, the address of the website changed.
Sadly, they had neglected to provide sufficient space for such a large website. As a result, it wasn't until Monday, December 29, 2008, that I finally got the entire website successfully uploaded to the new location. I converted the previous website, at the previous address, into a forwarding page and left it there for as long as the free web hosting service maintained that section of its addresses. I don't have the remotest idea when it finally vanished.
On Friday, July 3, 2009, I added one other little dictionary to the website. It's called Milam's Dictionary of Distinctions, Differences, and Other Odds and Ends. On Friday, January 14, 2011, I removed it from the website and moved it to Pharos. I still occasionally make additions to it.
On Thursday, May 22, 2012, I organized several collections of information into a new website, The Sovereign's Library. I retained the Bouvier's Law Dictionary information as a separate website, but linked to it from The Sovereign's library. I also transferred Miscellaneous Definitions into The Sovereign's Library as a separate item from the Bouvier's Law Dictionary information. In addition, I moved Milam's Dictionary of Distinctions, Differences, and Other Odds and Ends from Pharos to The Sovereign's Library.
AXSpace Free Web Hosting Service and FileDen Free File Hosting Service
During early 2012, the reliability of the IsMyWebsite free web hosting
service began to deteriorate. By early September of 2012, my website
was noted on the IsMyWebsite free web hosting service as being suspended.
That might have been a spurious message because nothing else on the free
web hosting service worked. I'd seen free web hosting services die
before and that appeared to be a typical example of the death throes of
a free web hosting service. I didn't receive any replies to my inquiries.
I soon gave up on that free web hosting service and located a new one,
AXSpace.
I jumped through the usual hoops and by Saturday, September 15, 2012, the website was operational at its new address. As usual, I had to transfer links in my other websites from the address at IsMyWebsite to the new address at AXSpace.
There was one important difference in the configuration of the website on the new free web hosting service. In the past, I had uploaded the PDF files as part of the website, onto the same free web hosting service as the website. However, the difficulty of finding a free web hosting service with a sufficiently large file size limit seemed to be getting worse. This time, I located a free file hosting service, with a sufficiently large file size limit, and put the PDF files there. That allowed me to use a free web hosting service with a much smaller file size limit, making it a lot easier to find a suitable free web hosting service.
IsMyWebsite Free Web Hosting Service, Reprise
Early in November of 2012, the AXSpace free web hosting service disappeared
without warning and without a trace. At the time, the IsMyWebsite
free web hosting was being reconfigured, with the promise of future operation.
I waited with baited breath and, even as they were undergoing their startup
throes, I was uploading the website. I uploaded it, and tested it,
in bits and pieces, as the new service failed and resumed operation over
the weekend of November 17 and 18, 2012. By Sunday evening, everything
seemed to be working well.
MightWeb
As the size and complexity of my websites, and the number of them,
increased, the problem of maintaining links in the ever changing world
of free subdomain names eventually became overwhelming. I started
renting actual domain names. Now, people talk about buying domain
names but that's a misnomer. Since you have to keep paying for them
every year, you aren't buying them. You're renting them. In
November of 2013, I started using a paid hosting service. The name
of the service was ImbaHost which eventually changed to MightWeb.
Since then, I haven't had any problems with thousands of links that I had
to change every time that a free hosting service died.
In December of 2017, I transferred all of the information from The Bouvier's Law Dictionary Website into The Sovereign's Library. I left the previous website in existence, with a forwarding address.
In Closing
I'm permanently unemployed. Contributions are welcome.
I prefer cash. For checks, money orders, or PayPal payments please
inquire.