Goodies to Go ™
November 3, 2003–Newsletter #257
This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
Featured this week:
* Goodies Thoughts – "Avast there me ‘earties!"
* Q & A Goodies
* News Goodies
* Goodies Peer Reviews
* Feedback Goodies
* Windows Tech Goodies
* And Remember This…
Goodies Announcement
The new Beyond HTML Goodies book
is now available!
Go beyond the basics
and learn how the pros add and use dynamic HTML features and advanced
JavaScript techniques. Beyond HTML Goodies demonstrates dozens of new and
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image. It gradually builds to more complex tricks, including manipulating forms
or working with cookies behind the scenes. Throughout the book, readers enjoy
Joe’s snappy style and “to the point” discussion of each “goody” in the book.
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Goodies Thoughts – "Avast there me ‘earties!"
"Avast there me ‘earties!"
"How do I stop somebody from right clicking my pictures, downloading them and
stealing them?" "How can I prevent somebody from seeing all my JavaScript code
and copying it?" Sound like one of your questions? We are asked this type of
question a lot, so maybe they do. If so, read on. (If not, please read on
anyway!)
"Avast!" — the word is from the Dutch, "houd vast" — literally "hold fast" and
means "stop!" The title phrase I’ve used is commonly associated with the
swashbuckling types seen at Disneyland’s "Pirates of the Caribbean" and their
like. Over the years pirates have been glamorized by books, comic books, film
and TV until they almost hold hero status, especially in the minds of boys.
Public drunkenness, gunfire in public places, brutality, theft, pillaging, rape
and murder are not, however, generally considered socially acceptable behavior.
In modern times, pirates are a very dangerous threat to smaller sea-going
pleasure craft. Those I know who take boats like that out usually carry with
them an armory well enough equipped to give me pause and make me think that a
cruise ship, or even an airplane, is a close as I’d like to be to those waters!
It seems to me strange, all things considered, that we have chosen this type of
character to glamorize.
It is perhaps partly a result of this strange duality that so many consider
software piracy to be something less than a crime. Perhaps, instead of calling
it software piracy, we should call it like it is — theft. The people who do it
are then not "pirates" but thieves. Nothing glamorous there — just criminal!
Another justification heard is that when something is only copied you don’t take
it away from the owner, so how can that be theft? If I stay the night in a hotel
and leave the next day without taking the room with me, can I then not pay the
bill? How about if I rent a car or ride on a bus or train?
The Internet, of course, enables copying at an incredible pace where in times
past somebody would have to sit with some duplicating device and then physically
distribute the copied items. The net allows one copy to be read and copied by a
thousand, each of which can be read by a thousand and in two steps there are a
million copies spread all over the world.
We all know how difficult it is to prevent somebody from copying our work and
taking the benefits of it for themselves. It’s expensive too — and it’s a price
we all pay. That copy of Windows that came with your newest computer (i.e., its
cost was included in the price) included some money to cover the revenue lost to
a software thief and a portion of the cost of tracking them down and prosecuting
them. You paid for it.
Think also of the music and film industries. Would you risk $100 million+ to
create a film if there was a likelihood of it being reproduced and seen by a
large portion of your potential audience before you could recover your costs? I
certainly wouldn’t (that’s actually more than I have in my bank account — how
about you?!!) This kind of theft has the potential of severely damaging the
music and film industries as much as it does of driving up the cost of software.
That would not be fun at all. I like going to the movies and I like watching
them at home with my family. Ditto for music. As for software and the like
produced by other programmer types – "do unto others as you would have them do
unto you" is my motto there.
"Me ‘earties" is "my hearties" meaning "my hearty friends." If you see, hear or
know of a friend who is stealing copyrighted material and especially if they’re
using the Internet to do it, please give ’em a swift "avast there!" and help to
save my livelihood and my entertainment as well as your own.
Thanks for Reading!
– Vince Barnes
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.
I’m trying to design
a personal portfolio site and need to have people click on my thumbnails to see
larger images in a new window… easy. However I found a site that makes it hard
for people to save/steal copyright materials- it makes the new window close when
it is clicked on… I can’t figure out how to do this.
A. You could use the onClick event in the body tag. Of course they can
still steal your images because the images have to be downloaded to your PC for
your browser to display them. The body tag would look like this:
<body onClick="window.close()">
This will only work if the window was opened using the JavaScript window.open
command.
Q. Can you please tell me how to add variables? I know you are supposed
to add two variables with a + sign but it doesn’t work most of the time. It adds
the number to the end of the variable instead of adding them together. For
example, if I wrote this:
var a = 7;
var b = 2;
var c = a + b;
document.write( c );
I would get 72. Can you please tell me how to correct this?
A. In JavaScript, variables can be either numbers or strings. Strings are
enclosed in quotation marks. If a number is enclosed in quotation marks, it is
treated as a string. In JavaScript, the + sign is used for concatenation, or the
combining of strings, as well as the addition of numbers.
Using your example:
var a = "7";
var b = "2";
var c = a + b;
document.write( c );
will return "72" as a string (without the quotation marks of course), but:
var a = 7;
var b = 2;
var c = a + b;
document.write( c );
will return 9 as a number. So, if your results are concatenations instead of
numbers, check your code and remove any quotation marks from around digits that
should be treated as numbers.
Q. You just explained to me that anything inside of quotes in a variable
will be treated as a string. Here is the problem. When I have a user enter a
number to be used for math it is treated as a string. Then when I do math with
it the number is added to the end which makes the answer incorrect. Can you
please give me a method for the user to be able to enter a number and have it
treated like a value instead of a string? Or if not, is there a way to convert
strings into values?
A. JavaScript interprets a default value given to a text area as a
string. The workaround is to use the eval() function when processing that value
as a number. If your user inputs a number to a text area in a form, and that
number is to be added, subtracted, multiplied, … etc, process the number
within the eval() function. From your previous example, suppose the user inputs
to the variables a and b via text boxes in a form, you can then add a to b to
return c with this:
c = eval(a+b)
This way, the values in both a and b will be treated as numbers instead of
strings.
Q. I have one more problem with JavaScript programs. A lot of times I
create variables and then when I try to use them I get an error saying that they
are undefined. Why is this? Here is an example of when this happens:
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
function part1()
{
var a = 1;
}
function part2()
{
if (a == 1)
{
document.form.textbox.value = "The variable worked, finally!!!";
}
}
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FORM NAME="form">
<INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="why_doesnt" VALUE="the_variable_work" onClick="part1();">
<INPUT TYPE="BUTTON" VALUE="Variable work?" onClick="part2();">
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="textbox" VALUE="If the variable worked, a message would
appear here.">
</FORM>
If I write this in a document and click the button, an error message comes up
saying that it is undefined. I’ve tried creating the variable directly from the
event handler, renaming the variable, using checkboxes instead of radio buttons,
and nothing works. I have tried putting an alert box in the function and it
comes up so I know the function is executing. It just won’t remember the
variable.
A. You are declaring a as a variable from within a function. This makes
it a local variable that is only accessible by that function. You can make it a
global variable that is accessible by any function by declaring it from outside
any functions, but still between the script tags. Usually global variables are
declared before the first function for the sake of clarity, but they can be
declared from anywhere between the script tags, just not inside a function.
Here’s your script with a as a global variable:
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
var a = 0; // declares a as a global variable and initializes it to 0
function part1()
{
a = 1; // the function sets the global variable a to equal 1
}
function part2()
{
if (a == 1)
{
document.form.textbox.value = "The variable worked, finally!!!";
}
}
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FORM NAME="form">
<INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="why_doesnt" VALUE="the_variable_work" onClick="part1();">
<INPUT TYPE="BUTTON" VALUE="Variable work?" onClick="part2();">
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="textbox" VALUE="If the variable worked, a message would
appear here.">
</FORM>
Q. I had to make some last minute changes to my home page and transferred
it (FTP) None of the changes I made show up on the page. I removed the home page
from the domain and then sent the new one, and still the same problem. I just
can’t seem to figure it out.
A. Try emptying your browser cache and history and then reload the page.
Double check that you are uploading the page to the correct folder AND the
correct website if you have more than one website that you work on. I have made
the mistake of uploading to the wrong site. Let me know how you make out. 9
times out of 10 it is a caching problem.
News Goodies
Massachusetts Gets Another Shot at Microsoft
[November 3, 2003] U.S. Court of Appeals to hear oral
arguments opposing DoJ’s landmark anti-trust settlement with
software giant.
Click
here to read the article
DoubleClick, Macromedia Premiere Motif With Multi-Event Tracking
[November 3, 2003] The next phase of the rich media tool for advertisers
adds multi-event reporting and analytics to compare rich media and standard
campaigns.
Click here to read the article
Conexant, GlobespanVirata to Merge
[November 3, 2003] The combined entity aims to be a leading provider of
components to enable home networking vis-a-vis consumer electronics devices.
Click here to read the article
Borland Makes Strong Push for .NET, Java
[November 3, 2003] Borland opens its analyst day with refreshes to its two
main development environments for .NET and Java.
Click here to read the article
Brewing Java, PHP En Masse
[November 3, 2003] UPDATE: Zend looks to strengthen its pot of technology
courtesy of the latest version of Sun Microsystems’ Java System Web Server
and Adobe’s GoLive platform.
Click here to read the article
Now Speaking to the Mobile Market: Voice Command
[November 3, 2003] New speech recognition software for PDAs
and cell phones is hailed as the the perfect tool (or toy)
for commuters and enthusiasts — but the possibilities for
disabled workers are just as promising.
Click here to read the article
Court Whittles Down MicroStrategy-Business Objects Suit
[November 3, 2003] Court decides MicroStrategy doesn’t have a case with
regard to its tortious interference allegation versus rival Business
Objects; a trade secrets ruling and patent infringement decision loom.
Click here to read the article
HP Fills out Integrity, ProLiant Server Lines
[November 3, 2003] HP fills out its integrity and fattens its ProLiant
lines, offering everything from 8- and 16-way Itanium 2-based machines to
Linux-powered clusters.
Click
here to read the article
Microsoft Revises ‘Critical’ Patches (Again)
[October 30, 2003] For the second time in as many weeks, the software
giant issues ‘major revisions’ to security patches because of installation
problems.
Click here to read the article
FreeBSD Fills In The Blanks With v4.9
[October 30, 2003] The ‘beastie’ bunch now has a clear migration path
between version 4.7 and 5.0 with the ‘stable’ release of its popular
UNIX-based operating system.
Click here to read the article
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Top
Windows Tech Goodie of the Week:
Some Very Early Information About ASP.NET 2.0
http://www.asp101.com/articles/john/aspnet2preview/default.asp
I realize that most of you are too busy to try and keep up
with all the news and rumors that circulate in the ASP and
NET communities… that’s why you come to us! The latest
rumblings from the underground are about the next version of
ASP.NET… ASP.NET 2.0.
Top
And Remember This . . .
On this day in…
1957 Laika Takes Trip Into Space
A Siberian Husky mix who once lived as a stray on the streets of
Moscow became the first animal to go out into space on this day in
1957. Unfortunately for her, she paid for fame with her life. She
lived for several days aboard the Sputnik II, the second man made
Earth satellite. Electrodes attached to her body sent vital
information back about the effects of space on her body. After a few
days, however there was no power left in her life support system
batteries, and she died. The Russians sent a dozen or more dogs into
space, at least five of which died there, before sending Yuri
Gagarin up for one orbit on April 12, 1961 aboard the Vostok I. The
first man in space, Yuri, fared better than Laika, and landed safely
back in the USSR.
Today was also the day that: in 1394 Charles VI expelled the
Jews from France; 1762 Spain acquired Louisiana; 1868
John W. Menard of Louisiana became the first black American elected
to US Congress; 1888 Jack The Ripper killed his last victim
in London; Panama gained independence from Colombia; 1918
dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; 1928 Turkey
switches from Arabic to Roman alphabet; 1930 the Bank of
Italy became the Bank of America; 1956 the Wizard of Oz was
first televised (CBS-TV); 1979 63 Americans taken hostage at
US Embassy in Tehran, Iran; 1986 Lebanese magazine Ash Shirra
published story of secret US arms sales to Iran (Iran-Contra
scandal); 1988 Soviet Union allowed teaching of Hebrew;
1992 Bill Clinton elected President of the US;
Born today were: in 1718 The 4th Earl of Sandwich John
Montague (yes, he invented it!); 1793 colonizer of Texas
Stephen Fuller Austin; 1922 actor Charles Bronson; 1930
X-15 pilot William Dana; 1933 US presidential candidate
(1988) Michael Dukakis; 1948 Scottish singer Lulu; 1952
comedienne Rosanne Barr; 1953 comedian Dennis Miller; 1954
punk rocker Adam Ant (Stuart Goddard); 1959 actor Dolph
Lundgren; 1962 rocker Marilyn;
Thanks for reading Goodies to Go!
