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Goodies to Go ™
April 25, 2005 — Newsletter # 334
This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
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Featured this week:
* Goodies Thoughts – Work is Work
* Q & A Goodies
* News Goodies
* Feedback Goodies
* Windows Tech Goodie of the Week
* And Remember This…
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Work is Work
I witnessed a "discussion" last week (it was really more of an raging argument!)
in which one of the parties claimed to be a professional web developer, while
two others claimed that the first didn’t qualify as such. Their reasoning was
that the first used FrontPage exclusively to develop their sites, and so was not
a true HTML coder. Ahhh. the old "hard-core" argument!
My position is that if a person professes to be able to develop web sites, does
so and then gets paid for it, they are a professional web developer!
All three of these pugilists are regular readers of Goodies To Go and have been
for a long time, but when they asked me to weigh in with my thoughts, none of
them could remember my having already done so. I was a little disappointed! I
thought I had laid it out quite clearly; memorably, even!
I though I’d better remind the readership, just in case there’s another reader
out there who has forgotten, or for those new readers who might not have read
the earlier piece. I could repeat it all here, but that would make this a little
too lengthy. Since we have a nice, comprehensive archive of Goodies To Go on the
HTML Goodies website, I’ll simply point the earlier piece out to you and you can
read it from there. It was called "A Question of Degree" and it’s here:
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/introduction/newsletter_archive/goodiestogo/article.php/3476961
Enjoy!
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. My questions are regarding page design and images. I had always been told
that design should be based on a standard of an 800 x 600 display, but recently
I’ve seen suggestions that the baseline has changed to 1024 vs 800. Should
designers and developers take aim at 1024 or stick by the 800 x 600 standard?
Additionally, is there anything that can be done with images so that they would
size to the available screen size? I know that in "liquid design" some advocate
using tables that are a percentage.
A. There is no way that I know of other than to create separate websites at
different sizes and direct the browser to the appropriate one using JavaScript.
The problem then would be that you would have to administer several websites.
The best you can do is to create your website to keep most of the people happy.
You are not going to be able to please everyone. There is always going to be
something that will not work on someone’s browser.
I personally aim for 800 X 600 and use percentages in my tables.
Q. I keep up two web sites for the American Foundry Society. I’m pretty much a
beginner at this. I use FrontPage to build these websites. At the bottom of each
page, I have put my email address for a web contact. I believe these have been
harvested, and I have suddenly received tons of spam. Is there a way to put an
email contact in so that it is anonymous?
A. There are probably many ways that this can be done, but I like nice and easy.
http://www.mways.co.uk/prog/hidemail.php
They have an application that will generate a code so that the spam bots see
nothing but code and not the email address.
The problem you may face is that your email address already seems to be on a
spam list so it may not make a difference at this point.
Q. I’m trying to create a sort of mouseover-driven context-sensitive help system
for my website. The basic idea is that you mouse over a set of services (system
checkup, basic service, advanced service, etc) and a window pops up telling you
what it is you’re going to be paying for. I can get windows to pop up quite
neatly…it’s getting them to go away again that’s having me in fits. Is there
any way to do something like:
onMouseOut="window.diediedie(‘popup’);return true"
and have it actually work?
A. You might want to take a look at this script. It is very flexible and looks
great. http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex5/popinfo.htm
Q. I am in the process of designing a site mainly for seniors, some of whom have
difficulty seeing small fonts. Can you please tell me how I can code a page to
include the option to change the size of font?
A. What you need is called a Style Sheet Switcher. The links allow the user to
change the font size of the text by choosing a different style sheet. There are
several style sheets used and some JavaScript can be used to help some browsers
that do not recognize CSS. For a detailed explaination of how to use this, take
a look at this site:
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/n4switch/
You could also do a search for Style Sheet Switcher and maybe come up with more
versions of the same switcher.
News Goodies
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Gates: Longhorn Plus 64-Bit Equals Power
[April 25, 2005] Bill Gates demos advances in software and computing power
expected with Longhorn running on 64-bit computers at WinHEC.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3500286
HP Ships 64-Bit Product Lines
[April 25, 2005] The company makes its desktops, workstations and servers ready
for Windows x64 and Longhorn now.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3500201
Opera CEO is Sunk on Browser Downloads
[April 25, 2005] Making good his promise to swim to from Norway to the U.S. if
the company’s latest browser downloads hit one million, Tetzchner begins his
frigid journey. 2005.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3500191
Qwest For MCI Rewarded
[April 25, 2005] Qwest’s $9.7B offer is one MCI can’t refuse, but Verizon may
not be done.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3500151
SGI Has ‘Eagle’ Eye for DoD’s Defense
[April 25, 2005] The supercomputer maker builds a machine to help the Department
of Defense improve its weapons systems.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3500246
MontaVista Linux Out With Smartphone OS
[April 25, 2005] The company sets up Mobilinux to challenge Microsoft and
Symbian.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3500036
Google Targets Ads by Site, Sells by CPM
[April 25, 2005] The search giant is testing a feature that appears to be
oriented toward branding.
Read the article:
http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3500021
XML Buffs Laud XQuery
[April 22, 2005] The spec isn’t official yet, but developers are already taking
up the language with gusto, a survey says.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3499851
Forgent Hits Microsoft in Patent Battle
[April 22, 2005] The company that owns the image compression format wants to
collect.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3499846
Forum, CA to Save XML From Viruses
[April 22, 2005] The XML security vendor integrates one of the top antivirus
solutions in the IT sector to fend off incoming threats.
Read the article:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3499911
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
Thanks for all your feedback!
Windows Tech Goodie of the Week
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Using a Custom Base Class for your ASP.NET Page’s Code-Behind Classes
This article examines how to create and start using a custom base class that
extends the Page class. This universal base class can contain its own
properties, methods, or events that are common to all pages in the particular
ASP.NET application, or it can extend the functionality of existing methods or
properties.
http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/041305-1.aspx
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Building an End User Defined Data Model – Part 2
In the second part of his series on building an end user defined data model,
Peter Scheffler gets into the actual meat of the model and discusses real-world
implementation details and the actual table layouts.
http://www.15seconds.com/issue/050414.htm
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How to Protect Your Application Against Parameter Injection
Securing your web application against the hackers of the world is a difficult
task. One of the most common techniques of remotely manipulating an application
is parameter injection. This article will demonstrate a simple method of
checking for valid parameters in an already written application.
http://www.asp101.com/articles/gal/parameterinjection/default.asp
And Remember This …
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On this day in…
1684 a patent was granted for the thimble; 1719 Daniel DeFoe
published "Robinson Crusoe"; 1859 ground was broken for the building of
the Suez Canal; 1886 Sigmund Freud opened his practice at Rathausstrasse 7,
Vienna; 1898 The US declared war on Spain over Cuba; 1901 New York
became the first state to require auto license plates (the fee was $1.00);
1905 Whites won the right to vote in South Africa; 1928 Buddy, a
German Shepherd, became the first guide dog for the blind in the US (trained in
Switzerland by Dorothy Eustis as what she called LOeil qui Voit – the Seeing
Eye); 1944 the United Negro College Fund was incorporated; 1953
scientists identified DNA; 1954 the US performed an atmospheric nuclear
test at Bikini Atol; 1966 a drunk driver killed 10 children in Asse,
Belgium; 1967 abortion was legalized in Colorado; 1984 the band
Wings disbanded; 1990 Space shuttle Discovery put the Hubble Space
Telescope into orbit;
Born today were: in 1284 King Edward II of England; 1599 Puritan
lord protector of England, Oliver Cromwell; 1769 engineer and inventer
Mark Isambard Brunel; 1873 English poet Walter De la Mare; 1908
newscaster Edward R Murrow; 1912 mother of Elvis, Gladys L Presley;
1918 jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald; 1923 actress Anita Bjorak; 1932
English actor William Roache; 1939 English photographer Richard, Earl of
Lichfield; 1940 actor Al Pacino; 1946 actress Talia Shire (Rose
Coppola);
