02.24.02
Weepy Like
I get all weepy. You’re welcome Bo.
02.17.02
Linkrot Combat
It seems to me that the way we link to pages is a problem. You see the whole URL thing is way too specific and really doesn’t allow any room for error. It’s either right or it’s wrong and today linking across sites is a 50/50 chance, and it’s getting worse.
What I’d like to see is an expansion of the A HREF tag, or perhaps the URL format that would allow for a more ‘fuzzy’ link.
Step one should be the ability to point to an Alternate URL. If you link directly to some content in the archives of another site, and your primary link breaks, the secondary link should point to an alternate location for the content, whether it is on the calling server’s website or an alternate site altogether. A third option may be to link to a higher level in the target site. For example linking to the archives section of a site that may still exist even if the primary target’s URL has rotted away.
Step Two would be a search phrase. This phrase could be used to find the content in a random search engine. Google might be useful for it, though the target site’s own search engine would be better. If I’m looking for specific lyrics to a song that I have no title for, I’ll search Google for a quoted phrase, whatever words I can make out. (Of course that might not always work out.)
The search phrase could be a subject category like ‘Deep sea bass’ or ‘flavored leather products’. It would provide additional context for the link, potentially extending the usefulness of the link by providing more updated information than the original target provided.
To implement this system there would need to be some definitions written. Some examples of what I would see would be to take a link like:
<http://www.anybrowser.org/bbedit/grep.shtml>
and alter it to include a secondary link:
<http://www.anybrowser.org/bbedit/grep.shtml?altlink://www.ling.udel.edu/colin/tools/BBEdit/grep_tips.html>
The URL really looks a bit ungainly. But, it’s an option, yes?
Okay let’s try step two:
<http://www.anybrowser.org/bbedit/grep.shtml?keywords://bbedit%20grep%20tips//>
The nice thing about piggy backing the options into a single URL is that the target web server would be able to handle the processing needed, whether it would be a redirect to another page, another server or a search engine, local or remote. As well, the processing could be handled by the 404 Error page that the server would call when the primary link failed in the first place. And finally the URL request would appear in the server’s log files, alerting the webmaster to the needs of the user’s and identifying what they were attempting to obtain.
As well, I think that most sites would be able to ignor the additinal information without worrying about harming the flow of their current site.
[Please note: The above text was written while I was under the influence of heavy cold medicines.]
02.13.02
Changes Every Hour
Those of you who hit just my journal here on a regular basis may not pop over to my full website that often. I invite you to do so now.
And do so again in the next hour.
And the next hour.
And the next hour.
No, I’m not hastilly flipping all my pages around, I’m actually using XSSIs to completely revamp the laout each hour.
There’s even a special CSS/Non-Table layout that comes up twice a day.
02.11.02
Tagging Wild Animals
Kid’s watch with integrated GPS and PCS messaging lets you track where your child is:
http://www.wherifywireless.com/
Locks securely on the kid’s wrist, so you don’t have to go to the trouble of having it implanted. Plus it’s particularly accurate as a timepiece. $399.
SatireWire Strikes Again
Oh those SatireWire folks. I really ought to read them more often. Instead I get good stories forwarded to me, like the one I’ve got in the Read More section…
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02.09.02
Fun Tolkein Link
This was a great list of Tolkein Theories that I ran across the other night. I’ll be putting my favorite in the “Read More” section.
http://flyingmoose.org/tolksarc/theories/theories.htm
Read the rest of this entry »
02.08.02
Signage Confusion
Recently seen in a kitchen at a work place:
“Everyone: Please rinse teapots and then stand upside down in the sink.”
From a mailing list:
This may be an urban myth, but I was told that a fleet of buses had to delete “Allowed” from every sign saying “No Smoking Allowed” because a smoker has successfully argued that the sign merely allowed passengers not to smoke.
02.06.02
Room For It All
Today’s Office Humour
A professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, rocks about 2″ in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full?
They agreed that it was.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. He then asked the students again if the jar was full.
They agreed it was.
The students laughed. The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. “Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this is your life. The rocks are the important things – your family, your partner, your health, your children – things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else. The small stuff.”
“If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out dancing. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the waste disposal.”
“Take care of the rocks first – the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”
But then… (click Read More)
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02.05.02
Beards in History
I myself wear a Van Dyke: A mustache with a goatee. It’s more out of an inability to actually grow a full beard, but I don’t let anyone know that…
To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com or click Read More.
Below the Beltway
By Gene Weingarten
One day recently, I arrived at work four days unshaven. I got stares. The Post is not a particularly stodgy workplace — David Broder, for example, frequently goes shirtless, with nipple rings — but in the matter of the abrupt appearance of serious stubble, the newsroom may as well be the law firm of Snort, Grumble and Harrumph Ltd. Many of my colleagues seem to assume the worst: nervous breakdown, substance abuse, wife and lover in trunk of car, etc.
I think I know why. Newspaper people follow the news; intuitively, they know what beard growth tends to mean. It isn’t good.
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02.04.02
Underlined Links Research
I’ve just done a survey of some high-traffic sites and their text that has links. (This survey does not include graphics that may or may not have underlines, although most followed the same patterns for the graphic was GifText.)
All Links Underlined:
nytimes.com
cnn.com
yahoo.com
ebay.com
amazon.com
oregonlive.com
citysearch.com
aol.com
All Links *NOT* underlined:
msn.com
netscape.com
bbc.com
theatlantic.com
Some Links underlined, Some Not:
USAToday.com has 6 links not underlined out of 81 that are.
This list includes the left, top and right hand navigation on the page. It seems to me that for front pages, you stick with one style or the other these days.