Goodies To Go! Newsletter #359

Free Speech and the Web
 

This week's topic is of a little more serious nature than many of my newsletter pieces, concerning as it does, matters of an adult nature.  It concerns an operator of an adult web site that has recently drawn international attention.  I am not endorsing adult web sites or pornography or any such thing, but rather want to present some information for you to consider which I believe could be important for any website operator.

 

For a little background: the Constitution of the United States includes several Amendments, the first of which deals with the right of individuals to express themselves freely.  The relevant wording is as follows:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

 

Freedom of speech has been threatened recently by such things as the ability for people to be arrested for saying things including certain words in an airport, or cracking the wrong joke at the wrong time and so on.  Website content may now be included in the list of "not so free" speech.

 

Not far from where I am, here in Central Florida, is a county named Polk.  There are folks around here who say that when you step into Polk County, you are stepping back fifty years in terms of law interpretation and enforcement.  They got themselves a lot of national notoriety recently for the manner in which they attempted to prosecute an obscenity case against a resident of the county for operating an adult website (for information see http://www.adultindustryupdate.com/archives/Anatomy%20of%20an%20Obscenity%20Prosecution.pdf )  The detective involved in that case, and some others in the county, detective Charlie Gates and prosecutor Brad Copley are up to their tricks again, this time, however, drawing international attention.

 

Rather than having me tell the story, I would like to refer you to a series of articles covering the story written by reporter Dana Willhoit and published in the local paper, The Ledger.  These are the links:

 

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050928/NEWS/509280377

 

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050929/NEWS/509290406

 

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050929/NEWS/509290409

 

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051008/NEWS/510080427

 

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051011/NEWS/510110401

 

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051012/NEWS/510120352

 

Mr. Mark Glaser of Online Journalism Review provides a breakdown of issues here: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050920glaser

 

It is not my intent to persuade you one way or the other regarding these issues, but I do think it is important that these issues be considered and discussed.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 

- Vince Barnes

 

 

 

 

 

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Q & A Goodies
***********************************
Questions are taken from submissions to our Community
Mentors. You can ask a Mentor a question by going to
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors/

 

 

Q. Is there any way to place text on top of pictures?

 

A. Here is the link to see how that's done: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/textonimages.html

 

 

 

 

    
Q. I am constantly creating files (pdf or word) files that I need to show to many co-workers. Instead of having to email everyone everytime I finish a file, I would like to upload the file to my server and have them view the list of files online and download the ones they want. These files need to be password protected as different people in different departments should only see files pertaining to them. Here was my idea, create a bunch of password protected folders on a server - one for each department, and I will upload the file to any folder that should be allowed to view these files.  Two questions: 1) I put the files in a folder, but when I try to view the folder in a browser it tells me I don't have permission to access this folder (I assume because I never created an index file). How can I set it up that I should be able to view a list of files that are in the folder?  2) how can I create a page that will allow me to upload files to folders using a browser?

 

A. I believe you are correct in that you do not have an INDEX file for the server to show when you try to access the folder. You could create an INDEX file with the links to the documents for downloading. I am assuming that you have already password protected the folder? An even easier way would be to use a password log in feature for your pages. The application would allow users to sign up themselves and you would control which group the user should be in and only the documents or files you allow each group or person to view. There is a nice web application called ASPLogin. It has to run on a server that supports ASP. For example, to make a document available to all users in a group called 'management', members of a group called 'administrators' and a user called 'fred' (who may or may not be in either of the groups), you would add the following code to the top of the document:
<%@ LANGUAGE=VBScript %>
<%
Set asplObj=Server.CreateObject("ASPL.Login")
asplObj.Group("management")
asplObj.Group("administrators")
asplObj.User("Fred")
asplObj.Protect
Set asplObj=Nothing
%>
Any other group or person trying to see that document will not be allowed to see it. It is a pretty slick application You can take a look here: http://www.asplogin.com
To create a page to allow you to upload documents would call for some scripting. This all depends on what type of server you site is hosted on. If it is a Windows server then it will support Active Server Pages (ASP).

 

 

 

 

Q. Is there was a way to position a background image in the center of a page regardless of screen resolution?

 

A. This code will position the image in the center:
body {
      background-image : url(image.jpg);
      background-position : center center;
      background-repeat : no-repeat;
     }

 

To position in the center of a table, try using this (be sure to replace __ with the height and width of the image):
<body>
<table height="100%" width="100%">
<tr><td valign="center" align="center">
<table height="__" width="__" background="image.jpg">
Any text on the background
</table>
</td></tr>
</table>
</body>

 

 

 

 

    
Q. I have a question regarding the "on click" command, which I've used successfully in the past with form buttons, but how can I use the same command to work with an image in place of the form button?

 

A. To use it with an image you would use the onClick like this:
<A HREF="#" onClick="some_function()"><img src="mypic.gif"></A>
If you want to use an image to submit a form then you can just specify the type as image like this:
<INPUT TYPE="image" SRC="subpic.gif">
Also with the first example you can simulate the onClick this way:
<A HREF="javascript:some_function()"><img src="mypic.gif"></A>
The above is preferable because of a bug in IE5.0 version browsers with the void "#" character in the HREF causing an error.
 

 

 

 

 

Q. I need to learn how to pass a variable(s) from web page to web page. Do I use a cookie? Do I use a file and perl? Can it be simply done with the hidden fields in a form?

 

A. There's a tutorial on just that subject: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/jspass.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q. I want to add "add to favorites" code (see http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/addtofavs_code.html ) to my page but I am using frames and the code will only "add to favorites" the URL for the frame from which it was clicked. How do I add the frames page URL?

 

A. In place of "location.href" add your URL that you want and instead of "document.title" use "parent.document.title".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News Goodies
***********************************

 

A Standardized Linux Desktop?
[October 18, 2005] New effort from the Free Standards Group aims to help create specifications and standards for the Linux desktop.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3556981

 

Bandwidth.com Helps SMBs Find VoIP
[October 18, 2005] Bandwidth.com unveils online test tools to serve SMBs.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3557106

 

Wiki Father Commits to Eclipse
[October 18, 2005] The man responsible for wikis and helping launch Extreme Programming joins the Eclipse Foundation to build up the committer community.   
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3557166

 

IBM to Buy Into XML Messaging
[October 18, 2005] Big Blue will buy one of its longtime buddies, XML security, acceleration and integration specialist DataPower.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3557181

 

Google Extends Print Further into Europe
[October 18, 2005] New book search services are localized for eight countries.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3556976

 

Azul, Reactivity Strengthen SOA Gear
[October 18, 2005] The SOA infrastructure providers take the software functionality in their computing appliances up a few notches.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3557146

 

Verisign Adds Content Aggregator Moreover
[October 17, 2005] New business unit will process thousands of news sources and millions of blogs.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3556956

 

FBI Raid Closes Spam Operation
[October 17, 2005] Federal agents shut down Alan Ralsky with some help from CAN-SPAM.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3556941

 

Big Blue Shows Investors the Green
[October 17, 2005] IBM posted quarterly earnings late Monday that were well above Wall Street expectations, but the company's sales came in shy of forecasts.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3556936

 

Online Smut Peddler Takes Guilty Plea
[October 17, 2005] FBI says Washington, D.C., man had 11,000 images of child pornography for Internet distribution. 
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3556781

 

 

 

 
 
 
Feedback Goodies
***********************************

 

Did you ever wish your newsletter was an easy two way communications medium?  Ploof! It now is!
If you would like to comment on the newsletter or expand/improve on something you have seen in here, you can now send your input to:

 

mailto:nlfeedback@htmlgoodies.com

 

We already receive a lot of email every day.  This address helps us sort out those relating specifically to this newsletter from all the rest.  When you send email to this address it may wind up being included in this section of the newsletter, to be shared with your fellow readers.  Please don't send your questions to this address.  They should be sent to our mentors: see http://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors/

 

 

 

Thanks for all your feedback!

 

 

 

 

 

Windows Tech Goodie of the Week 
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Filtered Directory List Classic ASP Sample

 

This script allows users to search for files on the file system simply by
entering any part of the filename.

 

http://www.asp101.com/samples/dir_list_filtered.asp

 

*** AND ***

 

Generating Random Passwords with ASP.NET

 

The purpose of this article is to provide a random password generator for
ASP.NET.  There are a number techniques for creating a random password, and
these techniques are explored, along with source code.

 

http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/101205-1.aspx

 

*** AND ***

 

Handling Optimistic Locking Concurrency Issues

 

With optimistic locking becoming the first choice when implementing web
applications, handling concurrency violations is becoming more and more
important.  There are several approaches to handling concurrency violations.
This article examines two of them, record time stamping and blocking
multiple logins.

 

http://www.15seconds.com/issue/051013.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Remember This ...
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1898 US Takes Puerto Rico

 

Towards the end of the Spanish-American war, in 1897, Spain granted Puerto Rico self-rule.  A year later, in July 1898, US troops invaded the island.  There was little resistance, and only seven of the invaders were killed.  By mid August, the Island had been secured, and later, after the armistice with Spain was signed, the island was officially turned over on this day in 1898.  The US spent about thirty years Americanizing the population, including making them US citizens, and trying to make English the official language of the island, but popular movements such as the Popular Democratic Party put up strong opposition.  In 1952 the US Congress made Puerto Rico an autonomous US commonwealth, approving its constitution which was adopted on July 25 of that year.  Referendums in 1967 and again in 1993 have both failed to win the popular vote for Puerto Rican Statehood.

 

Today was also the day that in: 1016 Danes defeat Saxons at Battle of Assandun (Ashingdon); 1648 1st US labor organization formed (Boston Shoemakers); 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, ends War of Austrian Succession; 1767 Boundary between Maryland & Pennsylvania, the Mason Dixon line, agreed upon; 1776 In a NY bar decorated with bird tail, customers ordered a "cock tail"; 1922 The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was established; 1960 In Britain, the News Chronicle & Daily Mail merged, & The London Evening Star merged with the Evening News; 1962 Dr Watson (US) & Drs Crick & Wilkins (Britain) won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for work in determining structure of DNA; 1967 Walt Disney's "Jungle Book" was released; 1979 "Beatlemania" opened in London;  

 

Born today were: in 1697 Venetian painter Canaletto; 1898 Austrian singer and actress Lotte Lenya; 1919 former Canadian PM Pierre Henry Trudeau; 1922 comic strip character Little Orphan Annie; 1925 Greek actress Melina Mercouri; 1933 actor Peter Boyle; 1939 JFK's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald; 1947 actor Joe Morton; 1947 singer Laura Nyro; 1951 actress Pam Dawber; 1956 Czech tennis player Martina Navratilova; 1958 Belgian actor Jean-Claude Van Damme; 1962 actress Erin Moran; 1977 actor Chris McKenna;