Goodies to Go ™
February 23, 2004–Newsletter #273
This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
Featured this week:
* Goodies Thoughts – By Generation
* 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
different features readers can add to their existing Web pages using HTML and
JavaScript. The book starts with simple text and image tips, such as adding a
clock to a Web page or causing text to appear when the mouse moves over an
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.
http://books.internet.com/books/0789727803
Goodies Thoughts – By Generation
It may or may not be true, but there is a great story about a
test that was given to some New York City school kids to determine their skill
level in mathematics. One of the questions asked "given only a clock, how would
you determine the height of the Empire State Building?" My favorite answer came
from a Brooklyn boy who said he would find the owner of the building and tell
him "if you don’t tell me how tall it is, I’ll hit you with this clock!"
The story came to mind when I was recently in the company of a man in his
eighties who, presented with a design problem in which he knew the length of one
side of a right triangle and the angle of one of its corners (other than the
90!) and needing to find the length of the hypotenuse, pulled out a slide rule
and completed the calculation. Using my computer, I was able to verify the
accuracy of his answer to the two decimals he had bothered with. The computer
gave more decimal places, but they were really irrelevant to this problem. I do
remember how to use a side rule, at least for basic operations, but it wouldn’t
occur to me to use one. A computer or calculator would be my thoughts. He, on
the other hand, wouldn’t mess with such "complicated and fiddly" things!
To keep in touch with family and friends, my parents write a lot of letters and
make a lot of phone calls. I make phone calls and send a lot of email. Today’s
teenagers use instant messaging, text messaging, email and the phone. Clearly
there is a generational transition going on!
Amongst today’s tech savvy teens there are some who have embraced the available
technology and use it in a very creative way. The example I have in mind is a
young man, now about sixteen years old, whose father is in the military service.
As a boy, he spent a lot of time making new friends whenever his father was
shuffled from base to base. He would have preferred to keep the old ones. Once
he and his friends got access to computers with access to the internet, there
was a means to keep in touch that didn’t involve him buying stamps he couldn’t
afford, or running up his Dad’s phone bill.
He has created a personal website. Using a dynamic DNS service (see
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/letters/247.html) he hosts his website on his own
computer. He has password protected the site (he’s using IIS on Windows XP –
this is a straight forward feature) so that he knows that only family and
friends are reading the content he writes. Each week he writes a little about
himself, what is going on in his life, where he has been and with whom; adds in
a few pictures, and occasionally a video clip, and posts the update to the site.
Then, using his Outlook Express to handle address lists (he created a group), he
sends out a short, newsletter style, email to about two hundred and fifty family
and friends each week to let them know there’s an update.
He stays regularly in touch with friends around the world in a manner that would
have been an impossibly overwhelming task when I was a teenager. There are not
many teens I know who can truly say that they have a circle of friends numbering
over two hundred with whom they are in touch on at least a weekly basis. This
contact is, in my opinion, a large contributing factor to
this young man’s great personality and likeability. His eyes are wide open to
the world and he is definitely a part of it.
This technique is familiar to us all. Think of the relationship between
http://www.HTMLGoodies.com
and Goodies To Go.
An inspiring story, don’t you think?
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
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors.
Q. I’m about to overhaul a website I created for our statewide
organization in 2000. When I do this I would like to add sections for our local
groups. These pages would be maintained by the local group leaders however I do
not want them to be able to alter the design of the site, only the content of
the pages. I think the term for this is content management. My question is what
would be the best way to allow users to update the content of certain areas of
our website without allowing them access to altering the design? I’m having
trouble wrapping my brain around this enough to figure out how to do it. PHP?
Some sort of form driven thing? I am most familiar with HTML and CSS but am
learning and incorporating PHP as I go. I am open to learning anything else that
makes my project simpler or more functional in the end.
A. A content management application is exactly what you need. You mention
PHP. Is that because you are already familiar with PHP? I happen to use Active
Server Pages (ASP). I use a really nice application that would suit your
situation perfectly I believe. It is called aeNovo and you can find it here:
www.aenovo.com. I believe
your host allows ASP, but if you need a PHP application you can search for one
here: www.code4u.com.
aeNovo allows you to set up an unlimited number of password protected pages that
people can edit themselves and not mess with your design/layout. They can upload
images and other documents. They can create subpages and link from their pages.
I am using it on this site:
www.ssbrt.net. Each member has their own content that they can edit any time
by logging in with their password. They give you templates that you can use but
it is very easy to integrate into your own site. You just copy and paste some
code into your layout and rename the page with a ".asp" file extension. And the
best part is that it is only $30!
Q. I was looking thoroughly through the
website, and could not find a template or basic layout for a page. For example
so I can have my main page written on the right and a column on the left with
links and such. And also how I would make, or get different styles of these.
A. If you are looking for a template do a search in google for "web
templates". You will find a ton of sites that offer them. Some are even free.
Q. How do I get rid of the .html tag at the end of my site addresses so
that nobody has to type in the .html at the end. Currently on my site the
homepage works fine however, any other pages need the .html to make them come
up. Homepage:
www.truckingnz.com An internal page as an example
www.truckingnz.com/jakstrucks.html I would like to have it as
www.truckingnz.com/jakstrucks
A. You need to have the file extension for the browser to process the
page correctly. What you are seeing without the file extension is a folder, not
a web page. For instance in your example you could create a folder and name it "jakstrucks".
In that folder you would place the page(s) that belong in there. The first page
you want people to see you would name "index.html". This is called a default
page. Most folders are set to recognize the "index" page as the default. So when
someone visits the URL "www.truckingnz.com/jakstrucks" they would automatically
see the default page. If you type either http://www.truckingnz.com/index.html or
http://www.truckingnz.com you will see the same page because "index.html" is set
as the default page.
Q. I’ve put some background music on some of my webpages using this code:
<BGSOUND SRC="filename.mid" LOOP="1">
As I’m aware that not everyone likes music while they’re browsing, I want to
offer the option to turn the music off. I’ve searched the web and found various
codes that are supposed to open a small on/off bar which people can use to turn
the music off but none of them actually show the on/off control, they just show
a bar but with no on/off. I’m using basic HTML on the site so don’t know if
that’s got anything to do with it. Is there a HTML code that will let me offer
this on/off option?
A. This tutorial should explain exactly what you want:
http://www.wdvl.com/Multimedia/Sound/Audio/include.html
Q. I have a question about frames. There’s nothing wrong with how the
frame looks, but if you find a certain spot where the border of the frame would
be, you can click/drag it and make the site look odd. I’m wondering how to lock
the frames so you can’t drag them at all. Here’s the code..
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>A Girl Named Craig</TITLE>
<META content="text/html; charset=windows-1252" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META content="MSHTML 5.00.2614.3500" name=GENERATOR>
</HEAD>
<frameset>
<frameset rows="35%,65%" frameborder="0" framespacing="0" border="0">
<frame name="title" src="title800600.html" scrolling="no">
<frameset cols="30%,70%" frameborder="0" framespacing="0" border="#BAD8F2">
<frame name="weekly" src="weekly800600.html" body scrolling="no">
<frame name="mainpage" src="mainpage800600.html">
</frameset>
</frameset>
</frameset>
</html>
A. You want to tell the browser not to allow resizing of the frame. In
the FRAME tag you should place this NORESIZE="yes". That will prevent the user
from resizing your frames. For a complete "frames" tutorial take a look at this
section on the HTMLGoodies website:
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutors/fram.html
News Goodies
PeopleSoft: Just Say No to Oracle
[February 23, 2004] Chief Craig Conway defends his company
from Oracle’s verbal attacks and urges shareholders to vote for
its own board nominees.
Click
here to read the article
Governors: Keep Net Access Tax Ban Temporary
[February 23, 2004] Hopes for creating a permanent version of the Internet
Tax Freedom Act start to fade.
Click here to read the article
Wind River To Target Handhelds with Linux
[February 23, 2004] Embedded old-liner moves to buttress proprietary past by
embracing Red Hat and the Eclipse development environment for its embedded
tools.
Click here to read the article
Veritas in Storage Software Overhaul
[February 23, 2004] The software maker gives utility computing prominence in
its revamped product mix.
Click
here to read the article
VMware Revamps Midrange Virtual Server
[February 23, 2004] The software maker issues its first major upgrade of its
department virtual server in 18 months, offering across-the board
improvements.
Click here to read the article
Sun Sparks New Mobile Java Services
[February 23, 2004] Sun looks to light up the 3GSM show this week with
new mobile services for Java-based handheld computers and phones..
Click here to read the article
Security Forces to Show Unified Front
[February 20, 2004] Homeland Security officials will join
experts from Microsoft and other IT firms in San Francisco
next week to address the onslaught of malicious attacks.
Click here to read the article
Dell Gunning for IBM, HP Customers
[February 20, 2004] Execs with the Round Rock, Texas-based computer
maker express confidence in challenging its rivals for market share on
several fronts.
Click here to read the article
Pentagon Clusters Around Linux
[February 20, 2004] DoD purchases largest cluster ever from Linux Networx to
equip research centers.
Click here to read the article
EarthLink Invests In Powerline Broadband
[February 20, 2004] Now that the FCC has blessed the union of broadband
Internet and power lines, a major ISP is taking a more serious look at the
technology.
Click here to read the article
Every week a site is selected for review. Each week,
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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 will help 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/
For those who are missing Peer reviews: we are once again
revising the Peer review program in the hopes of creating a
workable solution. The current plan is to move the new Peer
Review pages into place in the new year. All those who have
been selected for reviews in the past will be featured in
the new pages. The new method will make it much easier for
your peers to provide feedback and much easier for us to
handle the publication side of things. "Watch this space!"
It’s coming soon!!
Thanks again for all your feedback!
Top
Windows Tech Goodie of the Week:
The ASP.NET Repeater Web Server Control
http://www.asp101.com/articles/john/repeater/default.asp
While the Repeater may not be as well known as or have all the
bells and
whistles of the DataGrid and DataList controls, it does have
something that
neither of the other two has: flexibility.
*** And ***
Case Study: Match.com
http://www.15seconds.com/issue/040212.htm
When it came time to find a technology for its massive upgrade,
Match.com
chose .NET. Has the online dating service’s partnership with
Microsoft been
as successful as the relationships it has established for many
of its
millions of members? Read on …
Top
And Remember This . . .
On this day in…
1981 Spanish Government Coup Attempted
Upset by the rapid rise of democratic reform following the death of
Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, right wing rebel conspirator
Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero led 200 armed members of the civil
guard into the Cortes in Madrid. They took the government hostage
and called for an all out military revolt. King Juan Carlos had
succeeded Franco in 1975 and, believing in democracy, had turned
power over the the Spanish Parliament. With television broadcasting
events to the Spanish people, he appealed to the military to remain
loyal to the Spanish constitution and the legitimate government of
Parliament. Eighteen tense hours later, at midday on the 24th, the
coup wall called off. Spain remains a democracy today.
Today was also the day that in: 303 Emperor Diocletian
ordered the persecution of Christians; 1455 printing press
inventor Johannes Guttenberg printed his first book (the Bible) (the
date is an estimated date – chosen perhaps because it was the day,
in 1468, on which he died); 1813 the first cotton to cloth
mill in the US was founded in Waltham, MA; 1874 patent was
granted to Major Walter Winfield for a game called "Sphairistike",
a.k.a. lawn tennis; 1886 The Times of London published the
world’s first classified ad; 1896 Leo Hirshfield introduced the
Tootsie Roll; 1903 the Cuban state of Guantanamo was leased
to the United States; 1904 the US acquired control of the
Panama Canal for US$10million; 1905 Paul Harris and three
others establish The Rotary Club (Rotary International) in Chicago;
1919 Benito Mussolini founded the Fascist party of Italy;
1942 a Japanese submarine fired on an oil refinery in Ellwood
CA; 1945 US Marines raise the US flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo
Jima as depicted in the famous photo and statue; 1995 the Dow
Jones closed above 4000 for the first time (4003.33); 1997
Ali Abu Kamal opened fire in the Empire State Building, killing one;
1997 NBC aired Schindler’s List complete and uncensored – 65
million watched; 1997 Scottish scientists announced they had
succeded in cloning a sheep – "Dolly"; 1998 a tornado in
Kissimmee, Florida killed 31;
Born today were: in 1685 "Messiah" composer George Frideric
Handel; 1892 actress Kathleen Harrison; 1930 actor
Johnny Seven; 1940 actor Peter Fonda; 1944 musician
Johnny Winter (John Dawson); 1947 English computer engineer
Colin Sanders (Solid State Logic); 1950 musician Steve
Priest; 1952 musician Brad Whitford (Aerosmith); 1956
actress Maren Jensen; 1960 crown prince of Japan, Naruhito; (1964,
fictional X-files character Dana Scully)
Thanks for reading Goodies to Go!
