Mandarin Quigi Board
Click any icon. Let us know what you find.
A dude, The dude, and a kid
There is a dude we read who reads our thoughts and pens them right in their scattered place. And then there is the dude who kills us softly with his words (like the song, in a good way dude, it was a while back). Now there is the kid who steals our thoughts before we even finish thinking.~Howard Aiken
It's easy to think that someone is stealing your ideas. They aren't. It's synchronized thinking. When we look at the Quigi board, it seems that Shirl's Grandma Bea tells us when to click the candle.
Here. You try it. Click any icon.
Mandarin Quigi Board
Click any icon. Let us know what you find.
Hidden Links and Fire Escapes
Are you reading this blog at work? Want to escape getting fired? Slake created Fire-Escape just for you. If you read Mandarin at work and want to quickly switch screens you can click the About Us on the top navigation bar.
But, that trick only works here. If we all use the same image this idea could work (minus the cookies, some of us work in bizarrely secure environments).
The image has potential. Do you read blogs at work? Do you have hidden links? Tips? Tricks? Will you be using Fire-Escape?
No Fuss Tricks
Clickable Thumbnail
Click the Thumbnail
If you want your visitors to see a larger image use a clickable thumbnail.
One very long line of code
The code we are using here is one line of code. But it is one very long line of code that will span multiple lines in your editing tool.
<A HREF="#"
onClick="docWindow=
window.open('images/orchidbig.jpg','myWindow1',
'toolbar=no,width=410,height=310,
left=10,top=10 directories=no,
status=yes,scrollbars=no,
resizable=no,
menubar=no');docWindow.focus();return false">
<img src="images/orchidthumb.jpg"
width="150" height="112"
border="0"
align="left" hspace="10"
alt="Click the thumbnail">
More about thumbnails? More copy-and-paste code is in the FAQ page. The copy-and-paste style tutorial Grouping Images is all about clickable thumbnails.
We snapped this picture in early January, which means this guy has been blooming for a least four months. Does anyone know how long an orchid blooms?
A Box Without a Border
Box: Using the Color #FEFEF3
Copy and paste (or type) this code into your blog or Web page for a #FEFEF3 colored box.
<div style="width:300px;text-align:left; padding:15px;background-color:#FEFEF3;"> YOUR TEXT GOES HERE </div>
Your box will look like this.
You may want to put the code all on one line. The Boxes and Borders page has even easier copy-and-paste boxes.
For more colors open the Color Chart.
Monday Reading and Thinking....
"...there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.
For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order,and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries, who have the laws in their favor; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.
Thus it arises that in every opportunity for attacking the reformer, his opponents do so with the zeal of partisan, the others only defend him half-heartedly, so that between them he runs great danger.
It is necessary, however, in order to investigate thoroughly this question, to examine whether these innovators are independent, or whether they depend on others, that is to say, whether in order to carry out their designs they have to entreat or are able to compel.
In the first case they invariably succeed ill, and accomplish nothing; but when they can depend on their own strength...
they rarely fail... "
MACHIAVELLI
The Prince
1542
Playground Bullies
We went for the Tupperware but got distracted by this post.
What do you think? Been there, done that?
A Sunday of Rest...
Three days to prepare for being off work for six weeks.
With an average of about 127 emails each day how many will be in the inbox when we return to work?
Zero.
It's a trick question.After 40mg our email quits working by design. Actually, it generates more emails warning that the inbox is full and the warnings are forwarded here to this PC where it starts filling up the inbox here.
Solution? The desktop kids wipe out Outlook and reinstall it. No more emails, problem solved.
To Do
Turn off email forwarding.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Stupid Web Tricks
Filters: Flip Vertical
filter:flipv()
Flip an Image
Peace, No Flip
Copy and paste (or type) this in your Blog or Web page.
<SPAN STYLE="width:150;height:150;"> <img src="http://www.mandarindesign.com/banner2.gif" width="150" height="150" alt="image of Annie Peace flipped vertically"> </SPAN>
Peace, with Vertical Flip
Copy and paste (or type) this in your Blog or Web page.
<SPAN STYLE="width:150;height:150;filter:flipv();"> <img src="http://www.mandarindesign.com/banner2.gif" width="150" height="150" alt="image of Annie Peace flipped vertically"> </SPAN>The
filter:flipv() can be applied to text or images.
Happy Friday! Is it still Friday?
At the Fifth Fret
We're going to pick up the guitar and write a windy song now. Did you know that with only 5 chords you can write a song a day?
And you don't exactly have to be a rocket scientist to be a rocket scientist. You don't have to be
a writer to write, a singer to sing, a dancer to dance, or a painter to paint. But, you do have to be a blogger to blog.
Dotted Box
A box to take with you....
Copy and paste (or type) this inline CSS style code in your blog or Web page.
<div style="width:200px;text-align:left; padding:10px;background-color:teal; border:2px dotted black;font-size:11px;"> YOUR TEXT GOES HERE </div>
The box will look like this.
Psst. The boxes we keep in here are even easier. All boxes are served copy-and-paste style.
Blogs we are reading...
We added the CSS filter filter:gray; to the DIV tag to make us all the same color.
Switch Back to Color
When we remove the filter:gray; from the DIV tag we return to color.
Getting to Know You...
A few more good blogs.
In progress...making icons. Who have we missed or lost?
Burningbird Update: Jonathan was able to raise over $500 in the first two days for Burningbird. Not sure how high it went, but I think we can all close our wallets now. Wow. Great job Jonathan!
A DAMN RIN
Mandarin anagrams to A DAMN RIN.
We saw the Anagram Server at brykmantra.
Have you tried it? Interesting results?
"Twister-inspired" Work Stations
Fred is complaining about the "Twister-inspired" work stations today. He's fun and funny. Do we all have the Twister-inspired work stations or is it just us?
Sharing Crayons...
Farrago says "There's nothing quite like stealing someone else's good idea and making it work for you ".
And so we will. Stay tuned. We want to do something like this with a different theme.
Time Magazine Template
|
TIME
RAISED BY CHAFFINCHES It's Chuffin' Good 
AWARD WINNING - GUARDIAN BLOG OF THE DAY ..... |
Time Magazine Template
You don't have to have an image to use the Time Magazine Template
Accessibility is Boring!
Simple Steps to Usability
Text Size If you specify a font size use at least 10px or 12px.
Images Avoid using images where text will work. Use text for navigation, images for decoration.
Navigation Can your grandmother easily navigate and read your site?
Toggles for Larger Text
The concept is good, but can your grandfather
find the toggle for large print?
Simple Writing Is your writing clean and simple?
The Fun Part: Color Blind Test
VisCheck.com lets you see your page as a color-blind person would. It's actually fun.Want more? Read the feature article for April Accessibility is Boring!
Why are we pushing the article today?
To celebrate blue paint!
Blue Spray Paint
Accessibility in both the virtual world and the physical world can be easy to achieve. We have been lobbying for more handicapped placard blue parking spots and today the call came in.
~|_
(_)\_
They found the blue spray paint!
The Day Job
In the IT Trenches
It's showtime folks. In a little while from now we will badge into the building where we will start justifying our toolbox.
Again
A rogue who swims alone has no use for the standard desktop rollout. Sure we need to get all 178 emails that are in the inbox today, but most are deleted without even reading. Outlook is not essential. Word is not essential. Excel is not essential.The Developer's PC has Visual Studio, FoxPro 3.0, FoxPro 5.0, Apache, ColdFusion, PHP, MySQL, and more. They (the kids who do desktops) don't have a clue what most of this software is used for. But, they are doing a Windows 2000 rollout now and want to include the Developer's PC.
backups?
The process is to wipe out the entire PC (no backups). We don't have CD burners (it's a government environment). We don't have .zip drives.
To rebuild a Development PC takes about two weeks, installing each piece of software and upgrades in sequence.
why replace Windows NT?
Consistency. They need every PC to look the same.
The desktop kids already removed software leaving empty boxes.
so you want my job, eh?
We have to build a business case, a justification, for each piece of software to the same folks who bring our new software and say "I have a gift for you". Gimme a break. It's not a gift. It's software. It's another tool for the toolbox and it is not a toy.
so you want my job, eh?
That's what a developer does here. Wastes time justifying each tool, relating every item to a specific project. Hmm, where can we fit Adobe in? We might have to pass on that one. Never had the time to learn it anyway. It would be a fun toy if we had that kind of spare time. We made a nice button for the last application using Adobe, but I don't think that will work.
And you wonder why we bother with Mandarin? Stress free fun. Sometimes we turn to Mandarin just so that we can say at the end of the day that we actually finished something. A post. One little post. In the day job it takes weeks, months, and sometimes years to finish a project.
At Mandarin we finish something every day. And that's a good thing.
SPAN Template
The SPAN tag can be used to change the style of one word in a sentence or an entire paragraph (for blocks of data you would use the DIV tag).
Copy and paste (or type) this in your Blog or Web page.
<SPAN style="text-align:left; text-indent: 0em; line-height:12pt; font-family: futura, helvetica, arial; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; color:black; background-color:lime; border-width:thin; border-style:dotted; border-color:black; width: 250px; padding:15px;"> YOUR TEXT GOES HERE </SPAN>
We put the code on separate lines for demonstration. For best results put the code all on one line. It will look like this.
YOUR TEXT GOES HEREPadding
Padding is the white space that we add around text or images.
Padding in Tables
You asked for more about cellpadding. Since cellpadding and cellspacing are only used in tables we need to go lift a table from Susan.
Cellpadding
We find a table withCellpadding = 1 and Cellspacing = 1.
| "Don't let one cloud obliterate the whole sky." ~Anais Nin |
The code for the table looks like this.
<table width="140" border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1"> <tr><td> "Don't let one cloud obliterate the whole sky." ~Anais Nin </td></tr></table>Let's change the Cellpadding.
Cellpadding = 20 and Cellspacing = 1
| "Don't let one cloud obliterate the whole sky." ~Anais Nin |
The cellpadding="20" put 20 pixels of padding around the text.
Cellpadding is the amount of padding within an individual cell while cellspacing is the padding between cells in a table.
American Goldfinch
Save as .JPG or .GIF format?
We saved the American Goldfinch Carduelis tristis image
in both formats. The rule of thumb is to use .jpg for photographs (.jpg as in Joint Photography). This little guy that we snapped this morning looks good in both formats. Just different.
.JPG 10K
The finches are feeding this morning.
We saved this picture in .jpg format. It's bigger than the .gif but that is not always true. The goldfinches will stay here in Sacramento until May. They come for thistle seed in the backyard feeders. There are about twenty little guys feeding this morning. They party and play-fight for space on the socks and feeders. Some days there are more than fifty in the bamboo.
.GIF 5K
We saved this picture in .gif format. 
It's smaller than the .jpg in this example. We like this look. So what in the heck kind of look is that on his face? He thinks he's an Eagle?
How to Float Images?
We are floating the images to the left here. How? We went to the copy-and-paste code for floating a boat in the FAQ page to copy and paste this code.
BEGIN YOUR TEXT HERE <span style="float:left;padding:15px;"> <img src="boat.gif"> </span> AND PUT THE REST OF YOUR TEXT HERE If you are using a blogging tool you may want to put the SPAN tag all on one line so that the tool doesn't insert a line break.
Becky is not "B-i-t-c-h-y"
We added Becky to the icon quilt. The name Becky makes us pay attention. We had a customer named Becky and the spell checker always wanted to change it.
Change Becky to bitchy?
Run the spell checker here. Good. This one knows that Becky is not bitchy.
Highlight Text
Want to highlight a piece of text?Copy and paste this in your Blog or Web page.
<span style="background-color:yellow"> This is highlighted </span>
Here's the result: This is highlighted
Stupid things the system says...
- There is nothing to post. Duh
- Illegal operation close or cancel arrest me
Pegleg poses for peanuts. His wind brushes me as he flies in or out. We've been friends for about four or five years now. I wonder how long a Scrub Jay lives?