random tidbits.

LoJack for Laptops

This is an interesting feature on LoJack for Laptops, a theft recovery system. Of course it only works when the computer is on-line (which with wireless could be often I suppose), unless you believe that there is a third way that they won’t disclose (maybe a cell phone dial out?). Someone who actually takes your computer with the intent of taking data off of it (read: sophisticated criminal) would be smart enough to rip the data in an off-line mode or through an insecure wifi connection and be long gone. However it may get your machine back when some person high on dope swipes it for a quick street sale.

Random Surfing: Art Site

I happened on to a site yesterday in random surfing that discusses contemporary art. Now I know absolutely nothing about this subject, so I read on a bit. Something about the clean lines of the site, and the picture in the upper left made the site inviting for me.

In further reading I happened onto her story from 2004 about a young lad at an art auction. She was bothered that a young person would be given discretion to bid at the auction. A couple of things struck me as funny. She wonders if the people had too much money. A funny assessment from someone who is the curator of a private art collection. It strikes me that one who keeps someone on staff to manage his/her art is certainly one with a whole lot of extra money lying around. She also makes many assumptions about the lad. How do we know that the parents have not attended many many auctions with him previously. Maybe he has earned the money he is bidding with from prior auctions and resales. Perhaps he knew the value of what he was bidding on quite well because someone else obviously was willing to pay more for it. Who’s to say, it may even have been a ploy to see if people would respect the young lad and not outbid him out of respect for his youth. I know the answer to none of these things, but I do understand that things like this are likely situational and what may be right for one kid won’t be for the next.

The last observation before departing this site is that it appears to be one of the very many blogs now abandoned on the net. What is to become of them? Free blogs, free blogs, come and get your free blog … and when you quit using it … it just sits there abandoned. Has she moved elsewhere? Is she well? Did somebody see the great picture in the upper left, fall in love with it, and whisk her away romantically? Guess I’ll just have to wonder as her last post on that site is in September 2004.

Making the most of CSS

I’m always on the lookout for new ways to tweak CSS for design purposes. The more you can rely on CSS to drive layout, versus images, tables, etc. the faster your site is going to load and the more you’ll distinguish your site from others.

Mandarin Design is one such site that is pushing the CSS envelope. An exploration of their site reveals a whole shebang of excellent tips, tricks, design ideas and style guidelines. I haven’t come close to checking everything out, but here are a couple of notable articles:

Continue reading Making the most of CSS…

The ESP Game- fun time waster

The ESP Game claims to be labeling the web. It is a “game” where you see images and with a partner have to guess words in common. They disallow certain words for most images, including often the obvious words. The tricks seem to be to guess the word in the top left if it isn’t taboo, color if it isn’t taboo, shape if all else fails. Think of similiar words that aren’t taboo. Kinda fun I guess … but not productive … so I better finish this so I can get back to it.

Google Calculator

Google has a calculator built into it’s search engine. I never knew that. If you type “meters in mile” for example, it will give you the answer. You can also type typical math problems such as (2*4)+9 and the answer will appear.

You can also ask it to return definitions. Type “define: google” for example, and you get the answer. It appears as though a “:” is mandatory to see the results in the “definition” format.

Because I use firefox browser I always have the google seach bar on my browser … so I doubt I will “reach” for start/programs/accessories/calculator much in the future … and I never did reach for the dictionary, just ask my teachers.

Electronic Elections

As the US prepares for a national election this week, I wonder how much longer you will have to go to your local precinct to vote. Voting technology is so out of date it isn’t funny. Finally, Nevada electronic voting may move us forward as they are the gaming capital of the world. In some respects, the irony is appropriate as politics involves gamesmanship. I can withdraw money worldwide with my ATM card, but I have to vote at one place in an eight hour time frame. I hope they soon fix that so people who want to can vote conveniently.

Joke: Windows Icon Wars

I seldom pass on jokes on the internet. There are just to many of them and it isn’t worth the traffic. I did find this one particularly funny however. If you ever watch robot wars … this little bit is a good twist on it.

Find a Missing Font

Find a missing font by answering a few questions. The bigger the sample you have, the more likely you are to find what you are looking for. Hint, if you don’t know say you don’t.

some nice image links

This lady has some nice image links in her blog.

The Earth From Above

Way cool photographs of the Earth from above. Spend a few minutes looking around this site. I really liked some of the photos. The site is done in three languages … and instead of picking one, you see everything in all three. That made for some interesting comparisons of language that are usually bypassed when you specify your language of choice. I think someone stuying language may benefit from comparing the language.

Nose Licks and Tail Wags

Nose Licks and Tail Wags is a site devoted to dogs. I mainly decided to feature it because I thought it might appeal to Hazel, one of our htmlfixit.com guest authors who occasionally posts.

Cheers

Don

The Incredibles — The Official Movie Website

The Incredibles — The Official Movie Website is up and running counting down the days til the movies release. If there is one thing I like better than Google, it is probably Pixar. I really enjoy so much of what they do, the hidden humor, the attention to detail, even in the early “films” they did, some of which I have as trailers/extras on dvd’s such as Monster’s Inc.

Google Blog

We have been tracking hits to our site using the best statistical hit counter we know of … ours … and we keep getting this unusual hit to this to one of our tutorials:
(hold your mouse over the link to see the url popup.)
HTMLfixIT box model hack tute. (via Google)

It appears that adding the ?sa=D&q= before an address, will transport on from a page at google to the specified page. So why are we getting these hits? I did find that the google blog uses this method for links contained in it. I presume it then counts the hit as an outgoing follow.

I wonder how long the googleblog will survive with publicly traded stock … and by the way, I am looking to buy exactly one share of google. I have yet to find out how.

Cyber Security Tips by CERT

Cyber Security Tips are available from the CERT folks. They are from the government and they are here to help you.

Well in this case they actually have a bunch of helpful information. They explain a lot of the common scams like phishing, how to avoid spam, and so forth.

CERT stands for: United States Computer Readiness Team by the way.

[Franki: It should be added that these guys are the same US government security folk that suggested that a possible alternative to IE security woes was to use a different browser.]

California MCLE, CLE and Continuing Legal Education

California MCLE, CLE and Continuing Legal Education is a neat site, it has many many sample contracts. For example use the search feature to look for Microsoft and SCO, or find leases for real estate by Amazon.com. Fun to look around.

Gmail Giving Tree – Welcome

I just came accross the Gmail Giving Tree – Welcome site. I have been wanting to give Gmail a whirl for a bit now. A couple of groups I belong to have people who have received invites. I have not. I am curious if anyone has had experience with the giving tree concept. What bothered me is that there is no privacy policy on this site.

Amy Acuff – Biography

Amy Acuff – Biography provides interesting insight into acupuncture. I came across this site while investigating womens sports injuries. I had never heard of her, but she obviously combines beauty, athleticism and intellegence.

I don’t know much about acupuncture or other such methods, but I can say I have experienced the great healing from aggressive physical therapy that I found to be so impressive it sounds untrue when you tell the story.

J.K.Rowling Official Site – Harry Potter and more

J.K.Rowling Official Site – Harry Potter is now up and running. I read all the Potter books for some light entertainment when my kids had them around. They are entertaining, although they get repetitive about now.

I am not much of a flash fan, and yet, this is a very neat site. It requires that you hunt around … but it also offers a text only version.

I am currently on dial-up, so this is one slow trip for me … if I had to hit the Hogwart’s Express, I might bounce off the brick wall before I got in!

How Stuff Works

This is a neat site that explains in very simple terms many common things, including many computer concepts.

The Power of Databases … big brother arrives

These The City Maps shows who gave to which candidate for US President. You can also search by name or location to see who gave. Very interesting … do we really want this much information? Do you want your neighbor to know how much you gave to which candidates?

Nice Color Change via clicks

See the Color Change in the top right corner. I really like the simplicity of this.

It is just lines like this:
<span style=”background: #eeeeee; border: 2px solid #006699″>
<a href=”#” onclick=”setActiveStyleSheet(‘default’)” title=”default” style=”text-decoration: none;”>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a>
</span>

and then this javascript kicks in to manage the change: http://www.deanesmay.com/styleswitcher.js

GHOST TOWN

GHOST TOWN is the most interesting site I have seen in my nine years on the net. It speaks for itself.

Flash Site

I normally don’t like flash sites. This one for an advertising merchandise site, however, seems to load fast and has some neat elements to it. MTIsite

Technorati: Our Blog Has Been Submitted

We listed our blog over at Technorati. Interesting site: Technorati: What Is technorati?

New Look for Hazel’s My Dog Enthusiasts Page

One of our regular visitors has redone her personal pages. Hazel has had her My Dog Enthusiasts Page up for some time, but recently gave it a new look. We like it and think it shows great growth in her skills in many areas including image making, css and page layout. Well done Hazel.