I finally “finished” my theme for this site. I am also releasing it to the world. If you use Wordpress and want your site to look exactly like mine, go download my theme right now! I have done several themes in the past, but this is the only one I’ve ever made for general use and I think it’s the best looking one I’ve ever done. Let me know if you like it and if you find any bugs, send me a note.
You may or may not have heard me moaning and complaining about Internet Explorer (IE) when it comes to web development. IE is the default web browser that comes with Microsoft Windows. About half of you are using IE to view this post. If you don’t know what you are using to view this post, then it is probably IE. There are several versions of IE that are still in use, from version 5 to version 8 which is still in beta. Most people use 6 or 7 with the majority using 7. Version 7 is the default version in Windows Vista, version 6 is the default in Windows XP, and version 5 is the default in Windows 2000.
The reason I moan and complain about IE is that it’s a hot mess of rendering bugs, specifically IE6 which is still used by a large number of people. It was written about 8 years ago when the web was very different. Now there are all sorts of new technologies and standards, but IE6 doesn’t support many of them, and never will. You see, when IE6 was released Microsoft essentially had a monopoly on the browser industry. About 95% of internet users used IE, so they decided they didn’t need to devote any time or money to making it better. They let it languish for about 6 years, an eternity in the software business. While it was languishing, new technologies and standards were developed and new browsers started popping up that were more compliant with the new standards.
Finally, after losing about 15% of their market share, Microsoft decided to release a new IE, IE7. IE7 is much better than IE6 as far as standards compliance, but it still has some of the same bugs. Previous to IE7, developers had used special hacks to make their web pages work in IE6, but now those hacks no longer worked. This was fine except that some of the bugs that the hacks fixed were still in IE7. Now new hacks had to be developed just for IE7. What a pain in my ass!
So now whenever I am developing a new theme for my site, I have to look at IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox, Opera, and Safari to make sure everything is rendering correctly. Thankfully Firefox, Safari, Opera, and IE8 render everything about the same and I only have to really worry about IE6 and to a much lesser extent IE7 and to an even lesser extent Firefox Mac (which doesn’t render the same as Firefox for Windows or Linux for some strange reason) when it comes to rendering bugs.
That’s the problem, now you can be part of the solution! The best thing to do is to download the latest version of Firefox or Opera immediately. Both of these browsers work great, are quick, and work on the three major platforms (Windows, Linux, and Mac). Mac users can also use any browser based on Webkit (like Safari or Omniweb) or Camino which is based on the same rendering engine as Firefox. If you are on a Mac and still using IE/Mac, remember that it’s down the street, not across the road. If you are a Linux user, you should already know what you are doing and should be using a modern browser.
And now for you Windows users. If you are using a version of Windows prior to 98, you need to take that computer to a recycling center and buy a new one. Pay someone to haul it away if you have to. If you are using Netscape, stop… just stop. If you are using Windows 98, Windows ME, or Windows 2000, you should be able to "upgrade" to IE6 at the very least. To be honest, if you are using one of these operating systems, you should just go ahead and send your computer to the recycling center as well if you can’t get a copy of XP or Vista (or some version of Linux). If you are using XP or Vista you should be using Firefox or IE7 or 8. If you are viewing this on IE6 on XP and cannot upgrade, that means you are viewing this from work and your boss just called and told me to tell you to STOP SURFING THE WEB AND GET BACK TO WORK!
If you ever wanted to know why the world wide web is called a web, check out this scenario. I got an email from an anonymous person yesterday telling me that they had found my website through “the MSN lottery story.” She said she really enjoyed one of the articles on my site (link probably not safe for work).
I appreciated the feedback and wrote her back asking what this MSN lottery story thing was. It turns out that there is a money blog at MSN and that blogger wrote about another blog that I regularly read and occasionally comment on called All Financial Matters. JLP at AFM had written a post about winning the lottery and asked his readers what they would do. I posted a comment stating what I’d do. In the comment was a link to my website.
So when Karen at MSN wrote about the post she mentioned my comment and linked to me. That means that I am now blogging about a blog post that was blogging about a blog post. What a twisted web we weave. Now I just need someone else to blog about this post and then someone to blog about that post ad infinitum.
I love open source software. One reason is that it is almost always free of charge. The second reason is that you can offer suggestions and fixes and sometimes the programmer will listen and implement changes.
I have started using a Wordpress plug-in called All in one Adsense and YPN. It allows me to add advertising to my blog entries without having to mess with the theme. The plug-in worked well except one important feature did not work. It was the feature that allows you to insert code before and after the advertisement. This was important to me because I was unable to style the ads like I wanted unless this feature worked.
The problem was that when you entered the before and after HTML, the plug-in inserted backslashes into my code before each quote mark. This results from a "feature" of PHP 4 and 5 that automatically escapes quote marks. This is to prevent newbies from writing easily exploitable code. The "feature" was removed in PHP 6 and I suspect that the author is using PHP 6 for development because he never could reproduce the bug in his plug-in (If it is the case that he is using PHP 6 for development, he should be smacked a few times. PHP 6 is still in development itself and most servers still run PHP 4 and only a few have even upgraded to PHP 5. He should test on PHP 4 to make sure he has maximum compatibility or just state that his program is PHP 6 only).
Anyway, the problem was easy to fix. PHP provides a function called stripslashes() that essentially stops the automatic escaping of quotes. I added the function in the appropriate places, tested the fix, upped the changes to my own server, posted a message about the fix to the developer’s forum (check my post under the nickname deadgoon), emailed the developer to let him know of the fix, and sat back and waited. I also suggested that he make the 3px of margin around the ad an option instead of a fixed feature so that those who wanted to do their own styling could.
Two days later I received an email thanking me for the fix. One day later — today — I saw that the developer had released a new version. In it was my fix and my suggestion was also implemented. I was given no credit, but you my loyal readers know the real story.
The moral of the story is, don’t just whine about it. Fix it!
As you may have guessed by now, I am in the middle of a job search. One of the most important assets a job hunter has is their resume. The resume is your link to the employer. It tells the employer your work history, skills, personal data, and accomplishments. A good looking resume is key to keeping your foot in the door once you’ve managed to wedge it in there.
Once you have the content of your resume down, the next step is to put it into a pleasing format. This involves formating the text in a word processor. You select fonts, chose text sizes, organize things into bullet point lists, move things around to make them easy to read, do a little spell checking, and when it’s all perfect, you save the file.
But what file format should you use? My choice of format is the PDF file. PDF stands for Portable Document Format. PDF files are great for two reasons. Reason one is that you can download a free PDF reader for just about any computer platform. It doesn’t matter if you are using Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, or even RISC OS; you will be able to read the file. Reason two is that a PDF document renders the same on every computer. You don’t have to worry if your intended reader has the proper fonts or image libraries, it’s all in the PDF file already. Just about any word processor these days will allow you to export your files as PDFs.
That’s all fine in my dream world, however, reality is something different. Many employers request that you send them the resume as a MS Word document (or DOC file as most people call it). This is all well and good if you have shelled out the $150 (or more) needed to get a copy of Word, but since I have not, I am forced to find workarounds.
The best workaround by far is Openoffice.org. This free office suite allows you to create documents in DOC format. Apple’s Pages can also do this as well as a slew of other word processors. The only problem is that DOC files created by these programs don’t always look the same when you open them in Word as when you created them.
The only way to know for sure what your documents will look like is to open them in Word or in the Word Viewer. Since Word is out of the question for obvious reasons, it is down to Word Viewer (which is only available for Windows, oh the irony). So now you have to view the file and see if it works in Word Viewer and then tweak the original and view it again and again until it looks right. What a hassle.
But it’s all worth it if you get that big fancy job, right? I suppose it is if you look at it that way, but I’d rather get to the root cause of the problem. The MS Word DOC file format is not a document exchange format. That’s simple enough isn’t it?
Mostly I blame sheer technological ignorance on the part of companies world wide. Most people just assume that everyone has Word or access to it. Many people think that Word comes with the computer or that it is just part of Windows. And a fair amount of people don’t even know what Windows and Word are. They just think that Windows is the computer and that Word is that thingy that you use to type up your church newsletter (and the company’s printers, ink, paper, and staples are the publishing tools for that same newsletter). No one stops to think that their computer might be different from someone else’s computer.
So what can we do to help end this problem forever? First, find out what your company’s resume submittal policy is. Do they accept resumes in PDF or other formats? If not, talk to your HR person and find out why. Start a project to have the policy changed. Put together a presentation to educate your colleagues on the differences between proprietary and open formats. Communication is the key and that is what this post is really all about.
I came across this post at Wired blogs detailing a top 10 list of reasons to throw away your cell phone. Most of the reasons listed are self induced and completely avoidable. I’ll just comment on a few.
First is the one about “perpetual availability.” One of my friends gets mad just about every time her cell phone rings. She always says she is tired of people calling her all the time. I always say, “Just turn if off,” or if she’s particularly mad, “Don’t bitch about it anymore if you’re going to leave it on.” But she refuses to turn it off or even leave it at home or in the car stating that she might miss something important. My solution to this problem of “perpetual availability” is to completely ignore my phone most of the time. I turn it off when I don’t want to answer it. I leave it at home if I don’t think I’ll need it. I usually check my messages only once a day and sometimes only once a week. And if it rings and I don’t want to be bothered, I just don’t answer it. Pretty simple.
I’ll also comment on cell phones being “horribly expensive.” I’ll admit that my cell phone costs me more than a land line, but only just a few dollars more. I have the lowest plan Verizon offers. Most of the people I talk to have Verizon, so those calls cost nothing extra. And I rarely use all of my 450 minutes or 100 text messages. My phone was a bit expensive, but you can get a good phone free of charge if you sign a long contract.
And why not sign a contract? All the cell phone providers cost about the same and as long as the service is good, there’s really no difference between them as far as I can tell. Verizon coverage is excellent. I get coverage even when I’m off in B.F.E. as long as I stick to the main roads. When my contract was up last year I searched around at other providers, but they all cost about the same. Since I haven’t had any problems with Verizon, I see no reason not to stick with them. That being said, the contracts are a bit silly and are clearly just a money grab on the cell phone providers part.
Maybe I’m the wrong person to be talking about this since I rarely talk on the phone. I just think people worry about their phones way too much. They are tools for our convenience, not our overlords. People just need to relax and realize that if you turn it off, calls go straight to voice mail.
The geek community is swooning over Ubuntu being offered on Dell computers. But I’ve been running Linux on my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop since January of this year. It runs great. If you’re interested in Linux and need a new computer, this is a great way to get started with Ubuntu.
I created a short video introducing some of the features of Ubuntu that I have been raving about the past few days. I hope that you enjoy watching it and I hope that it is informative.
Note to social bookmarkers: While I would appreciate any attention I get from a social bookmarking site, my site cannot handle that kind of traffic. If you choose to submit this video, please use the following direct link to YouTube to post this video.
Well, the Feisty Fawn update was a success. I managed not to lose any data (so far) and the functionality of my computer is almost back to normal. I’m still tying up some loose ends as far as getting all my software reinstalled. Here is a screenshot from within Feisty:
I got the background and theme at http://gnome-look.org. There are tons of cool wallpapers and themes there. And here is a cool screenshot of me switching desktops with the Desktop Effects enabled:
Pretty sweet, huh? It makes you want to install it yourself doesn’t it?
Don’t try to mess with me tomorrow, because I’ll be installing Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn on my computers. Hopefully there will be some torrents going and it won’t take me days just to download it.
Feisty is the latest release of Ubuntu, a computer operating system. If you don’t know what that is, you can send me an email. I’ve been using Ubuntu for over a year on my desktop system and for about 3 months on my laptop (give or take). I am currently using Edgy Eft on the desktop and the Feisty Fawn beta on the lappy. I’m planning to do a fresh install on both systems and am currently in the process of backing up my data.
I hope to give a small report once everything is back up and running. Wish me luck!
