Goodies to Go ™
July 7, 2004–Newsletter #292
This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
Featured this week:
* Goodies Thoughts – FTP @ Home
* 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 – FTP @ Home
In last week’s newsletter (see
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/letters/291.html) I briefly mentioned that I use
FTP to send files back and forth between my notebook computer and my main home
machine. I was surprised by the number of requests I received for information on
how to set that up, so this week I am providing that information.
The first thing to think about is the type of internet connection you have. If
you are using dial-up (through a modem and phone line) this might not be a
reasonable solution for you. That is because you would be setting up your
computer to act as a server (in this case, an FTP server) that needs to be
already connected to the internet whenever you need to access it. Although it is
possible to connect and remain connected over the phone line, it is not
practical for most people. It is also rather slow, and by the time you have paid
for the line and the access account, you have paid as much as broadband
connection anyway. Any kind of broadband connection (cable, DSL, etc.) will be
just fine.
Once connected to the Internet, your computer needs to be "addressable". When
you connect to the Internet, your computer is assigned a numerical address (the
IP address) which, with most broadband (and dial-up) accounts, can change at any
time. If you don’t know this number, you can’t get back to your computer
("address" it) from out on the Internet. Since it changes, you need a way to
translate something that doesn’t change (a fixed name, for example) to the
dynamically changing IP address. The solution to this is called "Dynamic DNS"
and is discussed in an earlier Goodies Thoughts which you can find here:
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/letters/276.html
Now that your computer connected and addressable, you need to have an FTP server
program in it. If you have Linux, you can use any of the FTP server applications
that come bundled with most distributions. For the MAC, there’s Rumpus from
Maxum (http://www.maxum.com
— they have a great FAQ list on their site.) If you have Windows XP
Professional, you can use the FTP service in IIS, although this is not my
personal favorite choice.
For Windows, I suggest Serv-U FTP from Rob Beckers and Rhino-soft (http://www.serv-u.com/?Prod=su)
This is a very easy to use FTP server program with a great feature set, and
there’s a free version that will be adequate for most personal use situations.
(btw – Rhino-soft also offers a Dynamic DNS solution called DNS4Me.)
The last step in the server set-up is to make sure you can get to the FTP server
program through your firewall. You will need to open up the FTP port you use.
The standard FTP port is 21, but you can provide yourself a little extra
protection by choosing a non-standard port. Whichever port you use, it needs to
be the same in the server, the firewall and the client program (that’s discussed
next.) There is also an FTP feature called Passive Mode (aka PASV) that uses
additional ports (in Serv-u, you can see the details of this feature on the
Advanced tab in the Settings window.) To use this feature, you will need to
restrict the range to a few ports and open them in your firewall also (the Serv-u
Help pages have a lot more information on this feature.)
Finally, you will need an FTP client program in your remote computer (your
laptop, for example.) While you are on the Rhino-soft website, check out their
FTP Voyager. This is a program that is so easy to use theres virtually no
learning time involved! Another excellent choice is SecureFX from VanDyke
software (http://www.vandyke.com/download/securefx/index.html)
A famous MAC client is Fetch from Fetchworks (http://fetchsoftworks.com)
And for Linux, there are client choices bundled with most distributions.
Using FTP to move files back and forth in this fashion is a great way to protect
those files and the valuable work they represent from loss. Portable computers
are notoriously dangerous places to store data!
Also, remember the three golden rules!! (see
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/letters/262.html)
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. Every so often when using cookies and things are not working as
expected, I go into my cookies file on my XP computer and open the cookies file
to what is really there! I am sometimes a little confused as although the format
seems to be user name @ web address, minus the last extension (eg default@www.jiveoholic.org),
sometimes there is a [1] or [2] as well. Sometimes there several such cookie
files. Why does this happen and is there a way of purging these cookie files
from the web page that generated them?
A. I suspect that the multiple cookies from the same site are different
pages that are placing cookies on your XP. The only way you can delete them is
to go to TOOLS > Internet Options and then click on the Delete Cookies button.
Of course this will delete all cookies which you may not want. There is also
software that can do this for you. You could also delete them manually, but that
could get rather tedious.
[Check out Pop-up Stopper at
http://www.panicware.com – the Pro and Companion versions can do this for
you automatically as you close your browser – Ed.]
Q. (I can’t locate the original question, but this answer is worth
including!)
A. I notice that you are using internal styles on your pages (the styles
between the <style> tags in the <head> of your file). If you use an external
style sheet, and reference it in the head instead (by using the <link> method)
then that should reduce the reloading, since the external style sheet will be
downloaded into the cache.
You can save the styles from the page (between the <style> tags) to a new text
document named styles.css (or something similar). Then, in your HTML documents,
reference it like this:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css" />
Q. I’ve designed a version of the "index" page for my web-site using
style commands. I want to put a JavaScript into the header of my regular "index"
page which will bump people over to the new page if their browser is recent
enough to handle style commands. I’ve worked my way through "HTML Goodies" and
I’ve got a handle on the script to detect the user’s browser. I’m just not sure
how to detect what particular version of IE or Navigator a person is using
(i.e., whether the version is new enough to recognize style commands).
A. To answer your question, style sheets have been supported to
increasing degrees since Netscape
4.x, Internet Explorer 3.x and Opera 3.6. There is an excellent discussion on
this subject at:
http://www.webreview.com/style
Browser detection is a daunting enough task and even with the newer versions,
some viewers
actually have style support turned off.
Taking this into consideration, my approach has been to build in a short message
to viewers who
either can’t or won’t support styles and using styles to hide this message in
the background of
the page such that the style supporters will not be aware of nor be distracted
by the message. The non supporting viewers are directed to an appropriate link
which only they can see.
I use the following code to accomplish this:
<.head>
<.style type="text/css">
#nostyle {
position:relative; top: 0px; left: 0px;
background-color: #000000;
border-width: 1px;
border-color: #000000;
color: #000000;
font-size: 2pt;
width: 650px;
height: 3px;
padding: 0%;
}
<./style>
<./head>
<.body bgcolor="#000000">
<.span id="nostyle">This page requires CSS which is not being supported by your
browser – Click
on "?" for details<./span>
<./body>
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. On different browsers, because of the text size preset (smaller,
small, medium, large, larger) the text looks either really small or huge. When I
change the preset on my own computer, the alignment of all the text goes crazy.
How can I fix this?
A. Stylesheets are intended to solve just this problem. You can specify
text sizes. These tutorials will explain them:
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/design/css-html-text-color/. You can see how I did this
on real life sites by looking at the code at
http://umbrigade.tripod.com
and http://www.wwlt.org
News Goodies
ICANNot Pay Those Dues
[July 5, 2004] The Internet governing body wants registrars
to pay up to 475 percent more in annual dues; 75 of them form an
alliance to respectfully decline.
Click
here to read the article
Virtually Free for All in Utility Computing
[July 2, 2004] FEATURE: Virtualization is quickly becoming the bedrock for a
number of utility computing strategies from major vendors.
Click here to read the article
Microsoft Issues Security Update For Trojan
[July 2, 2004] Redmond is urging customers to reconfigure their operating
systems right away as it works on bigger patches for IE.
Click
here to read the article
Oracle Trial Comes Full Circle
[July 2, 2004] It began with Microsoft/SAP acquisition plans and
ended with IBM ‘s notes on how to create FUD.
Click here to read the article
Verizon Goes West
[July 2, 2004] Paying Qwest for wireless network assets, the
mobile carrier expands its coverage in 14 states.
Click here to read the article
Microsoft Settles Up
[July 2, 2004] Vermont and Minnesota reach deals on class action suits.
Click here to read the article
Industrial Strength Java Nears Completion
[July 2, 2004] Sun’s version for the RTSJ can do real-time and non-real-time
threads simultaneously.
Click here to read the article
Bang the DRM
[July 2, 2004] Jupiter Research survey results reveal enterprise DRM
revenue to explode by 2008.
Click here to read the article
802.11n Seen Leapfrogging UWB
[July 2, 2004] ABI Research looks at the landscape on PAN players. Where
should chipset makers place their bets?
Click here to read the article
Critics Call For Open Java
[July 1, 2004] JavaOne — Complaints about the sloth of the JCP and the cost
of the TCK may get muted by customers, who apparently do not care.
Click here to read the article
Every week a site is selected for review. Each week,
reviews of the previous week’s selected site are chosen for
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The current week’s selected site is published in Goodies To
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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:
Q&A: Ed Kaim, Product Manager, Microsoft
http://www.15seconds.com/issue/040629.htm
Ed Kaim, product manager on the Developer and Platform
Evangelism Division at Microsoft, talks to 15Seconds about
the role of the developer in the upcoming Longhorn era.
Top
And Remember This . . .
On this day in…
1865 The Salvation Army was Founded
Preacher William Booth and his wife Catherine started the Christian
Mission in London’s East End on this day in 1865. The Mission later
(1878) changed its name to the Salvation Army to "wage war against
the evils of poverty and religious indifference". The structure of
the Army imitated the British army, wherein the ministers wear
uniforms and are called "officers" and new members are called
"recruits". Quoting their mission statement: "The Salvation Army, an
international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal
Christian Church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is
motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of
Jesus Christ." The Salvation Army is still headquartered in London.
Funded by contributions and by the sale of their publications, they
operate evangelical centers, hospitals, emergency and disaster
services, alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs, community
centers, social work centers, secondhand stores, and recreation
facilities throughout the world.
Today was also the day that in: 1687 England’s Royal Society
published Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica; 1811
Venezuela became the first South American country to gain
independence from Spain; 1841 Thomas Cook opened his first
travel agency; 1891 six horses in Rapid City, South Dakota
were killed by hail; 1946 Louis Reard presented his two piece
swimsuit design at a Paris fashion show (named after the site of the
US atomic tests earlier in the week at Bikini Atoll); 1948
Britain’s National Health Service started; 1950 the Law of
Return passed, guaranteeing all Jews the right to live in Israel;
1962 Algeria gained independence from France (after 132 years);
1968 John Lennon sold his psychedelic painted Rolls-Royce;
1969 Rolling Stones played a free concert in London’s Hyde Park;
1971 US voting age was reduced to 18 as the 26th Amendment to
the Constitution passed: 1975 the Isle of Man began issuing
their own postage stamps; 1975 Cape Verde Islands gained
independence after 500 years of Portuguese rule; 1983 a baby
girl was born to a Roanoke Virginia woman who had been brain dead
for 84 days; 1989 Rod Stewart his his head on stage and
knocked himself out;
Born today were: in 1794 inventor of the graham cracker,
Sylvester Graham; 1810 circus promoter Phineas Taylor Barnum;
1853 South African diamond merchant and politician Cecil John
Rhodes; 1879 tennis cup donor Dwight Filley Davis; 1904
actor Milburn Stone ("Doc", Gunsmoke); 1909 former USSR
president Andrei Gromyko; 1928 actor Warren Oates; 1929
actress Katherine Helmond; 1944 musician Jamie Robertson;
1951 musician Huey Lewis;
Thanks for reading Goodies to Go!
