Finches

they pose

we feed

friends invited

The finches got an early start this morning. It will hit 100 degrees today, not especially high for us during summer. But, "it's a dry heat" we tell newcomers to help them tolerate the thought of a Sacramento summer.

The flowers and birds will need a little extra help by noon. The crows are crowing, hawks are soaring, and it sounds like there is a duck out there. Lots of bird activity.

Maybe they heard the weather forecast.

What happened here?

The Tag Boards

What you find at the Tag-board. Real art, real talent. Saving this one for the July Site of the Month. Inspiring if you're broadband.

"wow, this makes my page look like an insignificant piece of crap"

And then there are the taggers like Sean who tags us this morning with a "wow, this makes my page look like an insignificant piece of crap". He's kidding or leading us in with curiosity. Either way we took the bait. Fun and funny site.

Some of the kids use the "no stealing" on the front page. A bit like putting a "not welcome" on your door mat?

Steal this code. We would be flattered that anyone would want our code, our help, or images. And tag us with your real URL. We visit everyone in search of new ideas and global learning.

tags will be brutal today

It will be a year soon and we are still flying the flag.

That morning after hearing the news I went outside and tried to put up the flag but I couldn't reach the pole. It was overcast here that day. Sweetie was on the East Coast and with no air travel it took a week to get home. He put the flag up for me. I made this image on September 11th in grief and fear of the future. While often I rotate banners at other sites I can't take this one down. I'm not sure when the flag can come down either. Do we try to remember or try to forget?

It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give up because by that time I was too famous. Peter Benchley

By first grade I had discovered that I had no talent for art, but crayons are still my favorite tool for diagramming complex system designs. It puts it all into perspective. Michelle Goodrich

"the largest network West of the Mississippi"

so you want my job, eh?

My day off. And yet another iteration of the same old project of combining some undefined number of databases into one database, one source of entry. Right. The have been dreaming this dream for nearly ten years now while I live the nightmare. One project after another and each fails for the same reasons. But, you put on your happy face and rah rah, this one will surely work. No, of course it won't. You need to hire fifty more people to do what needs to be done and the commitment isn't there. They want it and they want it to manage itself. This one (the six or seventh attempt) has been in progress for a couple of years now.

so you want to be a programmer...

What? You think we do pretty pictures? Think asset management, inventory control, configuration management for the "largest network west of the Mississippi". That's how they tout us. Now, where did they find that phrase? Is it true? How would "they" know. And, who is it that bigger network East of the Mississippi? The authors of internal documents are unknown and often unknowing. They are just doing their job like I am. They ask for numbers and I give them numbers. How they clobber the numbers is not my business anymore. I gave up the numbers game years ago.

so you want my job, eh?

No, one can't take the work too seriously. Just live it and breathe it. That's all they ask.

so you want to be a programmer...

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.
Nathaniel Borenstein

How to Find Us?
Most search engines know about us.
Google	Yahoo
MSN	Excite	Lycos
Ask Jeeves	Alta Vista

Typographic Control

Using CSS allows you to control Kerning and Leading.

Kerning

Kerning is the spacing between letters.

spacing between letters.

Adjust your kerning for headlines, subheadings, or other special effects.

Example: Letter-spacing 4px

letter-spacing here is 4px

Here's the style code you can copy and paste (or type) into your blog or HTML page.

<span style="font-size: 10px; font-family: Verdana; letter-spacing: 4px; color: #003399;"> letter-spacing here is 4px</span>

Leading

Leading is the spacing between lines.

When you have large font sizes or want to make your font more readable you can adjust the CSS default (120 percent of the type size). Let's see this in action.

Example: Line-height 140%

This is a small font with the line-height set to 140%. The default is 120% of the type size. So, the line height here will be a little more than the default and in many cases will be a little easier to read.

Here's the style code

<span style="font-size: 10px;
 font-family: Verdana;
 letter-spacing: normal;
 color: #003399;
 line-height : 140%;">


This is a small font with the line-height 
set to 140%. The default is 120% of the 
 type size. So, the line height here will 
be a little more than the default and in 
many cases will be a 
 little easier to read. 
</span> 

And, the short version is line height 140% letter-spacing:4px

Banner Sizes: 88 x 31

Standard Sizes

The good news is that standard sizes for link and advertising banners are getting smaller. Most are going to 88 x 31 pixels. Why 88 x 31? We don't know. The free banner generators that we know about don't work well with the 88 x 31 size.

88x31 image

Text Ads

The better news is that a lot of the old style pop-up banner ads are being replaced with the old fashioned text ads like this:

Web Designs at Mandarin High price, high quality. Unique Designs www.mandarindesign.com Interest:

How did they do that?

Do you know?

Where are the new banner generators? Do you know?

Linking to Music

Borrowed this link from another blog... Listen to Eric Clapton's Blue Eyes Blue

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.
Nathaniel Borenstein

another day, another dollar

so, you want my job eh?

Yes, I know that some of you feel out of it because you don't even know what a blog is, and now we together can explore the Tag Board world and more. The research will continue until we are sick of pink. There's a lot of pink out there in the path not usually taken, and the young ones find a way to make pink look good.

so, you want my job eh?

Tomorrow, my day off, will be spent cozied up with MySQL/PHP/Apache. Still learning. PHP is a lot like C, and a lot like Perl, and a lot like REXX, and it's boring to hear what it is a lot like. Every new language we learn is a little like the last. None are ever like Fortran or COBOL. That's too old-fashioned. And, we can hardly speak the word FoxPro here. At the same time, it's OK to use Access in production. It's too funny! Raise you hand if you have ever coded in Databus.

so, you want my job eh?

ColdFusion is just beginning to be a bad word around here while JavaScript is still OK. Go figure. JAVA is OK too but I don't think that most of them know the difference. I just don't mention what the application is written in anymore. We can say "web-based application" and leave it at that :) No resistance on the PHP or MySQL yet.

Customizing Your Tag Board

Add some STYLE as in style=

LINKS
To change the link color use the style attribute.

<a href="http://www.tag-board.com/" target="_new"<br>style="color: #ffff00">Powered by TagBoard Message Board</a>

Change the HTML Form

TEXT
Use <span> tag with the style attribute.

<span style="color: #ffff00">Name</span>

FORM TEXT and BACKGROUND
Use style.

<input name="tagname" maxlength="20" style="color: #ffff00; background-color: #00ffff;">

FORM Submit BUTTON
Use style.

<input type="submit" value="Submit" style="font-family: 'Lucida Console'; font-size:12px; color:black; background-color:FFFF66;"> </form>

How can I customize my HTML form?

Add some STYLE, as in style=

Item 1 Item 2 Item 3

CSS style is not complicated. You just have to know where to add it. Here is the code for the simple form above. Notice that fonts and colors are defined using the style=

<form> <input type="text" style="font-family: 'Lucida Console'; font-size:12px; color:black; background-color:FF0000;"> <select name="" style="font-family: 'Lucida Console'; font-size:12px; color:navy; background-color:FF6600;"> <option>Item 1</option> <option>Item 2</option> <option>Item 3</option> </selectm> <input type="submit" value="Submit" style="font-family: 'Lucida Console'; font-size:12px; color:black; background-color:FFFF66;"> </form>

The Webby Awards

The Webby Awards event was held yesterday at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. The winners were announced in a ceremony where acceptance speeches are limited to only five words. Here's a few speeches -

Film Donnie Darko: "Spielberg, give us a budget!"
Living epicurious.com: "There is accounting for taste."
Top Global Property Yahoo!: "This is my kind of speech."

To see more speeches visit Webby Awards Speeches

Generators and Free Site Templates

Free Site Templates promises to jump start your new web site or cure an almost boring site.

Cut and Paste HTML Templates give you a start if you don't have FrontPage or Dreamweaver. Play around with the template and let the HTML inspire you.

Generators let you use powerful online tools to create features for your site, including grapic logos. They also have simple question and answer headlines, navigation menus, and more.

Yes, the research of teen and other young-gun sites is in full swing. More than 20 sites were surveyed yesterday while looking for design, colors, tools, interaction, and now more. They are an independent bunch who are either incredibly talented or are using layouts and graphics gleaned from other sites.

Perhaps there is a totally cool layout arena that allows flexibility of customizing while still maintaining a professional and unique look and feel. They obviously do not like Mandarin and are brutally honest about that. Their tastes are wilder, generally with very small font sizes, and colors are somewhat monochromatic. That may be a limitation of a tool they are using but the result is harmonious continuity.

Still in Demand

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.
Nathaniel Borenstein

During the last three months Application Programmer Analysts were the most popular job title posted at Dice.com. What are employers looking for?
C++
Oracle
SQL
Java
Windows NT

so, you want my job eh?

The average salaries are a little on the low side unless you are a junior-level Programmer Analyst. That may be why they have to post the jobs at Dice.com :)

so, you want my job eh?

Who are you?

For grins and design research (goofing off) we join Top Site competitions in areas where we do not belong. Perhaps that is how you landed here today? The competitions are where you go to vote for yourself and check out new and interesting sites. But, our votes are increasing on some very bizarre and unrelated top site lists where we aren't voting for ourselves. Who are you?
i blog, therefore i tag

Just tag the board. So do we flick it? Flick! Or,
keep it and work it out later why? uh oh. Sign it. Let's see how this works out. maybe we should flick it before it gets in the way - we'll let you know ...catch you in a flash, itsa wrappin and now i changed the columns...back to the drawing board? oh, ill try the default again. whatever...is type it and click here tooooooo big?? The ramblings of frustration...oh no, it's not frustration, it's playing :) OK. That was your last try. This time I really mean it. Interaction is Free The tag-board didn't work in the blog :( and now it does, oh my does it work now?) Interaction really is free. You don't need a web expert :<

Transload the image...

Dang, I went out to check the teen sites to see what's new. They always know first. Instead I landed on a senior site where they ask you to transload files. What is transloading? Never heard of it and I do this all day every day. Well, call me stupid. There it is Transload.com. It's a site that makes it easy to transfer files to your web server. Mostly it is useful for sites like FlamingText.com and ImageBot.com to send generated images to another server (such as your web server or ftp server). It's particularly useful for WebTV users who can't save images on their own machine. So I guess it's the kids and the senior loop that we have to stay in to figure out where the hot new tools are.

Let's put the crayons back in the box and go play outside. The archive isn't working and the letters on the screen are fading. The sun is shining!

Still curious about who the new visitors are...

Sign our guest book. You don't have to use your real name or email address. Fake it. If you include your blog name or site name we'll visit. Actually, by signing you may get a few new visitors to your blog so you can fake it there too.

Today is a good day to do a free site checkup, well actually a blogger.html checkup today at Netmechanic. I don't care about the code so much as the spelling checker since the posts here get pretty loose.

Who are you?

For grins and design research (goofing off) we join Top Site competitions in areas where we do not belong. Perhaps that is how you landed here today? The competitions are where you go to vote for yourself and check out new and interesting sites. But, our votes are increasing on some very bizarre and unrelated top site lists where we aren't voting for ourselves. Who are you?

the tech trenches

We live in the technoweenie world where problems are solved by creative strategies and new methods of integrating old data. The Web-based solution is nearly always considered and often put on hold. Legacy systems are studied and hundreds of hours of analyis later are deemed too complex to replace.

the tech trenches

As a designer, developer, and integrator in the trenches one learns to gain satisfaction in small incremental successes. In the meantime, the enterprise-wide solution pops up every few months and every year or so a new team is formed. It's usually made up of internal teams, consultants, and anyone new that hasn't been down that road before. There is a kickoff meeting and from there it is downhill. Each group thinks they are working on a new idea - consolidating the company data - when in fact just about everyone they interview will have worked on this effort in one way or another. Same project, different name.

I ask why, not how

And why did we want to consolidate all of the data? Tell me again. And say something besides "well, all of the data should be in the same place". Why? Everyone is focused on how to achieve the ultimate goal of consolidation. Dear suits, why is it that you want your data consolidated? One single point of entry, one huge database? Analyze it, digest it, and then say in your own words (not the words of the latest magazine article) why the goal of centralization is so critical.

Tidbits from the young sites

Love the rules at these sites -
No tYpinG LiKe THiS. And the sayings -
Friends Don't Let Friends Use Geocities
And the colors -
And the feedback -
Some actually let us know already how they found us. Thanks!

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.
Nathaniel Borenstein

Nathaniel is a software strategist, architect, and planner. He is also a scientist/programmer/inventor/entrepreneur. Journalists call him an "Internet Guru" and "a geek's geek" among other things.

We all have a problem with the titles in the technology world. Yesterday I was officially titled an Information Technology Specialist II, but use the title Senior Programmer Analyst title on the business cards. Today I am officially a Software Specialist II (government classifications). The job title is multiple choice; we get to pick from three titles. The money is all the same and the business card will still say Senior Programmer Analyst and every day is a new adventure.

Apache/MySQL/PHP

so you want my job, eh?

What do programmers do for lunch? Come home to read about MySQL and PHP at WebMonkey. The tutorial is old (circa 1999) but it gives a good starting place and a step-by-step on what to try next. Heck, they even have a database .dump file we can use to load a sample database and test the MySQL installation.

so you want my job, eh?

The software is all open source (free) for this next project: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. But the best part is not the price. These are good tools to add to the toolbox and they don't get lost in our ordering system. It took one full year to get the last ColdFusion upgrade using the ordering system at the day job. LOL. Of course, the software is out of date now and it hasn't even landed on my desk. It is in the building.

so you want my job, eh?

Slow ordering of software is a good reason to go Open Source. Another is that Apache is still the most widely used server, MySQL is popular, and the MySQL/PHP is a popular combination so the skills gained are transferable. And we all want to transfer.

subtract and simplify

Netcraft lets us link directly to the What's that site running? form, passing our own hostname. This shows the Operating System and the Web Server for Mandarin. Major trivia! Get the goodies on your site.

Subtract and Simplify

Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.
Albert Einstein

Einstein was not likely referring to Web sites. However, it does seem that simplicity is a common goal. We are always adding to our site. Maybe it's time to subtract. Step back and consider each page.

subtract and simplify

• What can be removed?
• Where can white space be added?

subtract and simplify

moving on...

We are diving in to PHP, a server-side scripting language. PHP code is embedded in the HTML code just like ColdFusion or ASP. The Web server processes the PHP code and returns the HTML back to the browser. Still looking for the best help available online for PHP and MySQL.

Style Sheets

STYLE-O-MATTIC creates style sheet code on the fly. No software to download. Nothing to steal :) It's all free.

From the Archives: Borders, borders, borders

Borders can give you color and punch without using graphic files. This how-to article Borders, borders, borders demonstrates how borders can be used and abused.

Style Sheets

STYLE-O-MATTIC creates style sheet code on the fly. No software to download. Nothing to steal :) It's all free.

Lighten up...this is the playground

Gee whiz, that was way too serious yesterday. This is supposed to be the playground. Let's have some fun. The JavaScript slideshow was fun. Back to real work...

delete delete delete

Great, the system just messaged me that my mailbox is over the size limit. What customer's notes should we delete? Oh, the devious delete key. This is going to be fun. Delete, delete, delete, like sticking little pins in the voodoo doll.

A trademark first for us...

The MySQL™ manual states

"you should append the trademark symbol (TM) to the first or most prominent use of the word MySQL in a text and where appropriate"

So, we do a google on trademark symbol and find an article titled Microsoft Trademarks the Trademark Symbol. The trademark symbol is

™

but some allow the letters "tm" in parenthesis. The symbol follows the mark without a space.

IT Projects

Any automation project that is estimated to take more than six months will fail.

Chill. This project being proposed today has only failed five times. So what's one more failure. We offered to do it for a Ferrari (red) which would be much cheaper than the previous attempts that required consultants, internal staff, and millions of dollars. Years later there is still no Ferrari.

so you want my job, eh?

This project has reared its ugly head once again.They want to try it one more time and it appears I have just inadvertently committed myself. Again, without the benefit of the Ferrari. We quickly selected some tools and it's a go. The last attempt took over one year of my life. Yes, my life. Not just the working hours. It took over my every waking thought. Planing and designing in my head, in the shower, and while I slept. To succeed one must live and breathe this project. The good news is that it's a good opportunity to give open systems a try. We'll prototype using Apache, mySQL, and PHP.

I'm a programmer, not a magician

Grouping Images

Have you ever tried to put a group of images together? Some tools like Adobe will automatically gallery your images. But using HTML gives you more control over how your images are displayed.

Hey, where's the cool part?

Take a look at this month's featured article Grouping Images to see some thumbnail visual trickery.

---

So now I'm out doing a Google on "best blogs", "top blogs", and other phrases. The results are interesting and I find some where we can add our blog. But, they want a description. Now, how do you describe your blog? Our blog is like a car wreck, only not as interesting.
Saturday Today is a good day to review and begin the Subtracting design technique. Check each page and subtract. Check each page and add white space. Seek other areas for visual resting. But, in the meantime let's get that cowboy back to help us punch the page.

Overheard: Call waiting is like a child screaming for attention.