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Goodies to Go ™
March 14, 2005 — Newsletter # 328
This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
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Featured this week:
* Goodies Thoughts – Feedback Results
* Q & A Goodies
* News Goodies
* Feedback Goodies
* Windows Tech Goodie of the Week
* And Remember This…
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Feedback Results
Many thanks for the tremendous response to last week’s request for feedback! You
kept me very busy all week – I have read each and every one of your emails and I
have analyzed the results. It’s very clear that you like this newsletter —
presumably, if you didn’t, you would unsubscribe! Here’s an overview of your
input:
Ranking the sections, with the most popular first, we have: Q & A Goodies
(almost as many votes as everything else combined!), Goodies Thoughts, New
Goodies, And Remember This, Windows Tech Goodie of the Week.
On the down side, there were some of you that wrote saying you didn’t like one
section or another, but nowhere near enough for any section to be considered
"unwanted". For those of you who find a section to be too long, to technical or
irrelevant, please continue to skip over that section – it seems it is useful to
somebody else. The section receiving the most negatives is And Remember This.
Most of those votes complained that it is off topic. About an equal number,
however, said that they enjoy the light entertainment it provides, which is its
intent, and is why it is placed last.
By a very wide margin, the largest number of wishes for the same thing was that
I "don’t change a thing!" Coming in second, was a wish for more PHP involvement.
I can’t honor the second and still honor the first, but I am going to presume
that "don’t change a thing" really means "don’t remove or reduce anything"! I am
working on ways to increase the tech tidbits in the newsletter, and to broaden
their scope.
Thanks again for your input — it is very gratifying to know that this
newsletter is as popular as it is. Now, please tell all your friends about it,
and tell them to sign up so that we can get a nice increase in circulation!
Numbers mean everything to some folks!
Thanks for Reading!
– Vince Barnes
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Q & A Goodies
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Questions are taken from submissions to our Community
Mentors. You can ask a Mentor a question by going to
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors
Q. I would like to use flash movie in the website, but if users do not have
flash plug-in installed in the browser, it should play gif annimation without
asking users to install plugin. In other word flash movie should play if plugin
installed, if not then something else (alternative image).
A. Here is one way to detect the Flash pluig-in according to Flaskit.com:
http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/Utilities/Detectin-Arran_Sc-151/index.php
Q. I am attempting to create a web page and have run into a problem. I link to
pages created in MS Word (using tables, not html written). The contents on these
MS Word created pages are misaligned depending on the users’ browser. I wish for
the pages to maintain their format so that the user scrolls left/right with the
scroll bar in the right frame. (Code sample provided)
A. I believe the problem you are running into is that your table(s) uses an
absolute value. You should change the width to a percentage. Try using
width="100%" in the table tag instead of width="480". This will allow the table
to resize according to the user’s screen resolution. The other problem could be
the Microsoft Word code that is causing browsers to have trouble rendering the
page properly. There is a lot of extra code created by Word that should be taken
out.
Q. How do I makethree tables all on the same line with a space between them?
A. You make one large table at 100 percent width and a border of zero, with one
row then add your three tables in the large tables <td> tags. Play around with
the <td> widths to get the size you need. You
can add a couple <td> tags with the code which is just a blank space to
make some space between the 3 tables. Here is a example of the code:
<table summary="large table" align="center" width="100%" border="0"
cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="30%">
<table summary="Menu Table" width="100%" border="1" cellspacing="0"
cellpadding="0">
<tr align="center"><td>Menu</td></tr>
</table>
</td>
<td width="5%"> </td>
<td width="30%">
<table summary="Main Table" width="100%" border="1" cellspacing="0"
cellpadding="0">
<tr align="center"><td>Main</td></tr>
</table>
</td>
<td width="5%"> </td>
<td width="30%">
<table summary="New Menu Table" width="100%" border="1"
cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr align="center"><td>New Menu</td></tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
Q. Is there a way of naming spans partly with a variable? I.e. insted of doing
this:
document.all.sp1.innerHTML=(‘<img src=pt1.gif>’);
document.all.sp2.innerHTML=(‘<img src=pt1.gif>’);
document.all.sp3.innerHTML=(‘<img src=pt1.gif>’);
document.all.sp4.innerHTML=(‘<img src=pt1.gif>’);
document.all.sp5.innerHTML=(‘<img src=pt1.gif>’);
document.all.sp6.innerHTML=(‘<img src=pt1.gif>’);
document.all.sp7.innerHTML=(‘<img src=pt1.gif>’);
document.all.sp8.innerHTML=(‘<img src=pt1.gif>’);
is there any way like:
for( var n = 1; n < 9; n++)
{
document.all.sp + n + .innerHTML=(‘<img src=pt1.gif>’);
}
A. You could try to use the eval() method like this:
eval("document.all.sp" + n + ".innerHTML=(‘<img src=pt1.gif>’)");
News Goodies
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Report Shows Internet Spending Jumps
[March 14, 2005] Consumer confidence in online content on the rise.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3489856
EBay Gets Greener
[March 14, 2005] The company launches the second part of its environmentally
friendly initiative.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3489881
Sun Chats up Network Middleware
[March 14, 2005] New partnerships are designed to help Sun’s upcoming Netra ATCA
blade platform support Solaris 10 and Carrier Grade Linux.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3489846
AOL Unwraps Mobile Apps
[March 14, 2005] You’ve Got Pictures, other services go mobile.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3489866
HP Vows Server, Storage Marriage
[March 14, 2005] The company partners with Broadcom and Seagate to outfit its
server and storage families with Serial Attached SCSI and RAID6.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/storage/article.php/3489651
SOA Software Snaps Up Web Services Concern
[March 14, 2005] The company formerly known as Digital Evolution adds messaging
software tailored for Oracle applications.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3489656
Mixing Content, 3G in The Big Easy
[March 14, 2005] Content producers and delivery specialists look to leverage
carriers’ 3G rollouts, as the annual wireless tradeshow kicks off in New
Orleans.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/wireless/article.php/3489686
SCO, Canopy Mend Board Differences
[March 14, 2005] Yarro retains control as Canopy severs its relationship with
the beleaguered Unix software development company.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3489721
Cingular Goes Wide with Wi-Fi
[March 14, 2005] Cingular will allow subscribers to get wireless access to data
via both 3G EDGE and Wi-Fi hotspots utilizing partners like Wayport and
Concourse Communications.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/wireless/article.php/3489766
Generation Y Embraces SMS
[March 14, 2005] Younger users ‘crazy’ about texting.
Read the article:
http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/wireless/article.php/3489776
Feedback Goodies
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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
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors
Lots of response to last week’s "Dealer Sticker" piece! This time, those for and
those against were about evenly matched, where responses usually tend to be
mostly one way or the other. Some people were quite pasionate about their
position. One thing to remember about the Internet: there is no "boss" of the
net — we’re all free to do as we see fit and also to express our opinions as we
see fit!
Thanks for all your feedback!
Windows Tech Goodie of the Week
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Word and Character Count ASP.NET Sample Code
This script is an ASP.NET version of our classic Word Count sample. It takes any
old string as input and counts the number of characters and words in it. It
should be useful for testing text before inserting it into a database or
whenever you’ve got a limit on storage.
http://www.asp101.com/samples/wordcount_aspx.asp
*** AND ***
Working with the Enterprise Library’s Data Access Application Block
In this article we will examine one of the most commonly used application blocks
in the Enterprise Library – the Data Access Application Block (DAAB). Read on to
learn more about how to use the Enterprise Library’s DAAB in your applications!
http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/030905-1.aspx
And Remember This …
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On this day in…
1629 England granted a Royal Charter to the Massachusetts Bay Colony; 1794 Eli
Whitney patented the cotton gin; 1900 the US currency adopted the Gold Standard;
1903 the first national bird reservation in the US was established at Sebastian
in Florida; 1936 the Federal Register, the first magazine of the US government,
published its first issue; 1950 the FBI started their "Ten Most Wanted
Fugitives" program; 1964 a jury in Dallas Texas sentenced Jack Ruby to death for
the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald;
Born today were: in 1808 Viennese composer Johan Strauss the Elder; 1829 Engishman Charles Charlesworth (who died of old age at the age of 7);
1864 Railroad engineer (John) Casey Jones; 1879 German Physicist/Mathematician Albert
Einstein; 1933 English actor Michael Caine; 1933 Musician Quincy Jones;
1940 English actress Eleanor Bron; 1942 English actress Rita Tushingham;
1945
musician Walter Parazeider (Sax – Chicago); 1946 English comedian Jasper Carrott;
1947 comedian Billy Crystal; 1952 musician David Byrne (guitar – Talking Heads);
1958 Prince Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre of Monaco; 1961 actor Russell Todd;
1969 actress Laura Leighton; 1970 actress Meredith Salenger;
