Thursday, March 28, 2024

Goodies to Go ™
February 23, 2000– Newsletter #68

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Goodies to Go ™

February 23, 2000–Newsletter #68

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Please visit http://www.htmlgoodies.com

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Greetings Weekend Silicon Warriors,


Have you been tipped off to hotbar.com, yet? It’s a site that
offers to alter the background of your browser. I mean the
background of the browser – up there where the BACK, FORWARD,
etc., buttons are. It looks pretty neat, but you make the
decision to make the change or not.


Did you hear…


U.S. Representative Christopher Cox, (Republican-California),
and Senator Ron Wyden, (Democrat -Oregon) are thinking about
entering a bill that will force adult sites to identify
themselves by having the word “adult” in their URL. The new
addresses could look something like http://adult.website.com.
That’s a pretty good idea actually. It can be done simply
without changing the domain and then easily caught by
protection software. I like this.


Film Director Tim Burton (Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Batman,
Beetlejuice) has gone decidedly high tech. He has agreed to
produce a series of short films in Shock format for
Shockwave.com. Those will be cool, no doubt. He follows on
the heels of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South
Park who have already done some work in Shockwave.


The alphabet soup of code names continues. The World Wide Web
Consortium has gone forward with a plan to combine HTML and
XML into XHTML. Really. XML is going to be the wave of the
Internet future and rather than have two separate languages,
HTML 4.0 is being made part of XML and called XHTML. It’s
actually a smart move as now single browsers will have the
DTD required to run both under the same umbrella.
Don’t fret – you can still code just like you always did.
It’ll work just fine.


Now onto today’s topic…


I teach public speaking as part of my professor job. It’s a
great class. You really see students come alive.


One of the topics we hit hard is how to anticipate, field,
and answer questions from the audience. Most of the time,
audience members are polite and ask questions that deal with
the topic you’re speaking on, but every now and again, you
get someone who is using your speech as a time to vent. He
or she is going to stand up and yell and get in their say no
matter what you do. Do you know how to field this type of
person?


Let them have their say.


Never get into an argument with someone who doesn’t care to
argue. The concept of allowing the person to vent is that
they usually will paint themselves into a corner and end up
looking the fool for their rude behavior.


I watched President Clinton do this beautifully at one of his
speeches. A young man stood up and went ballistic. President
Clinton stopped the Secret Service from grabbing the guy and
allowed him to rant for a full minute. When he was done, the
audience saw him as rude and I’m sure he skipped twice before
coming to a stop outside the door.


You may not have noticed this yet, but there is now an equal
to that guy popping up on the Web. There’s even a term for
it – “cyberventing”.


One of the original sites, http://www.mybosssucks.com allows
people to rant and rave about their boss and post it for all
the world to see.


There is also WalMartSucks.com and FACEIntel.com and
WorkingWounded.com. Each is set up to be forum where people
can come and vent their frustrations and have their say.


It’s the adult version of “nyah, nyah, nyah nyah nyah”.


I say that because, in reality, this kind of venting may make
someone feel better, but it’s an unfair fight. The venting
person is out there alone. No one is there to dispute what he
or she says, and if there’s anger – it’s my belief that the
venting party just might stretch the truth a bit. (Gee…ya’
think?)


These sites that offer a forum for venting are making money
in a Jerry Springer mode. People come to read the latest
unabashed rant. As far as I see, the sites were not so much
interested in changing what is happening, they’re just a place
to stand and complain. The statements have no ring past the
end of the last word.


And in all honesty, do you like hanging around the guy at the
office who does nothing but complain?


Many companies are following the ignore-and-it-will-go-away
format, WalMart for instance. I think that’s the best method
myself.


I think that if WalMart went after the little cyberventing
site, they’d be seen as a big bully and that could do more
harm than good. Besides…maybe there’s a hint of truth to
what is being said, hmmm?


You may already be thinking that cyberventing is one thing,
but it was only a matter of time before someone seeks to do
harm through a bold-faced lie. A cyberventer accused some
members of HealthSouth Corp of some nasty stuff that just
wasn’t true. The venters were tracked down and sued for
defamation of character, as well they should have been.


In another case, K-Mart went after a vent site requesting they
take down the BigK logo. They did and K-Mart has paid them
little attention since.


Cyberventing is not just reserved for employees of large
corporations either. From small to large, pretty much any boss
is up for ridicule. The sites mentioned above are allowing
posts from all walks of life and people are coming to read.


I’d like to say I think this is a good release, but I see it
more like writing something nasty about the boss on the
bathroom wall…and not signing your name. I still believe
that if you have a problem with the boss, you go and talk to
him or her. If your boss is fully overbearing, you go onto
another job. Both my wife and I have left positions because
the boss set standards so high that goals were unattainable
and not meeting those goals brought down a firestorm. We
believe the money isn’t as importance as our happiness.


Working for a horrible person is bad enough. If you then take
that anger and vent it on the Web, you simply spread it around.
In addition, you really haven’t released it from yourself. Sure,
you’ve gotten upset, yelled for the world to see, but nothing
has changed. The boss will still be there Monday morning.


Mom was right. You don’t talk about someone behind his or her
back. You wouldn’t want it if you were the boss. I don’t like
what these sites represent or what they offer. Others are
finding entertainment in your pain. That’s not healthy.


The sites will go on, no doubt. Many will post. Many will read.
People will giggle behind a boss’s back thanks to a post, but
nothing gets done. The wheels spin and the boss never gets the
message he or she’s not being helpful.


Life’s too short to surround yourself with hatred and anger.
Put effort behind finding happiness rather than looking for
a forum to vent anger.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


That’s that. Thanks again for reading. Be happy.


Joe Burns, Ph.D.


And Remember: The longest one word place name found in the
U.S. Postal directory is “Charlottesville”. There’s one in
Virginia and one in Indiana.

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