Archive for May 2006

3rd edition update: The third edition took a bigger leap from the second than the second took from the first. Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd ed., comes with a greater focus on Web standards and cascading style sheets (CSS). In fact, the book opens with a chapter on Web standards, whereas it was merely a footnote in the previous edition.

Rather than a sole chapter on HTML, the markup chapter blends HTML and XHTML. The chapter comes with notes explaining the major differences between HTML and XHTML. The greater emphasis on XHTML ensures newer designers dive right into XHTML and improve their chances of designing standards compliant Web pages. Furthermore, the appendix includes HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and 1.1, and CSS 2.1 references.

Ajax and WCAG 2.0 have barely been around in terms of publishing time. While the Ajax process isn’t new, but its terminology and popularity are recent. Both items are covered, albeit briefly. Had Robbins wrote the book now, Ajax would not likely get huge coverage as it’s a little advanced for the book’s purposes and target market.

Accessible forms, mobile devices, internationalization, JavaScript with document object model (DOM), and document structure also gain more attention in the third edition. On the same token, the book reduces coverage of concepts that have gotten less attention such as the Web palette (Web safe colors), SMIL (synchronized multimedia integration language), frames, and DHTML.

Part III is devoted to CSS, which contains 10 new chapters — a must as CSS becomes a design standard not something to play with. The third edition superbly reflects today’s Web development environment and still sticks to its main purpose — helping new and intermediate designers get up to speed on Web design. The book continues its role as a valuable reference.

Title: Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Ed.
Author: Jennifer Niederst Robbins
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0596009879
Date: February 2006
Format: Paperback
Pages: 826
Cover Price: USD: $34.99 Amazon: $22.04

When I find my way to a Web site, I may have gotten there through a search engine or through a link from a colleague or Web site. After I’ve scanned the content and fiddled around in the pages, the site may impress me if the information proves valuable.

What do I do then? The possibilities: Bookmark it, Furl it, subscribe to the feed or subscribe to the email newsletter. The action I take depends on how much I need the information and what options the site offers by way of feeds, newsletters and what-have-you.

Let’s say I found the email newsletter link or subscription box. Would I subscribe? It depends on what’s available on the site surrounding the newsletter. I won’t subscribe if respecting my privacy isn’t mentioned. I also won’t subscribe without finding archives to review. The third reason I won’t subscribe is if the site asks for too much information. [ Read more in the May issue of eNJ ]

Bridge Is Cool teaches you how to play mini bridge and regular bridge. Paul and I learned to play bridge with our parents when we were first married and had more time on our hands. Since then, we’ve gotten busy with out children and other things plus our friends don’t know anything about playing bridge. I hope Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s foundation will help bridge get back into action again.

Mattel has instruction sheets for its games and other toys.

EveryRule.com is a difficult to use site and I couldn’t find the instructions I needed. The site also has rules for sports, TV game shows, and party games.

The House of Cards features traditional and family card games, rules, software downloads, and online card games. You can also learn a bit about playing cards and their history.

Monopoly Money – print money when you lose some. Just add pastel paper if you want to match the real thing (the game’s money, not the bucks that buys things). This page also has a guide.

Hasbro games and toy instructions.

BoardGameGeek is a board gaming resource and community.

Carter Bloodcare rules. I donate blood on a regular basis, or try to anyway. Carter makes it easy to set up an appointment as it can be done online. The donation appointment form, however, doesn’t play nice with Firefox. No biggie. I’d rather use IE than to navigate a recording to schedule an appointment. You can show up without an appointment, but you may have to wait.

Furthermore, you can check your cholestrol test results and check the date of the next time you can donate blood on the Web site. Now, if the organization would let me fill in my meds and answer the questionnaire online before I go. That’s my least favorite part of the appointment.

Know those postcards you get from non-profit organizations asking you to call if you have clothes and other items to donate? I prefer it when they leave a bag because it means they’ll drive by whether or not you call. I got a surprise the last time I received a postcard. The postcard said you could schedule pick up online. [ Read more... ]

I’m reading a book about Google Adwords (I’m not planning a campaign — it’s for an abstract I’m writing), which calls the ads “haikus” and I just read about “the haiku of branding” in reference to tourism slogans. Neither use the 5-7-5 syllables khaiku rule unless a Google ad just lucks out with 5-7-5. Just went to Google and ran a random search. Not one ad used 5-7-5.

Obviously, they’re using “haiku” to referencing the short ‘n sweet method of branding and advertising.

In a Dallas Morning News article [might require free registration], Eric Swartz, president of TaglineGuru.com, calls “I call sloganeering the haiku of branding. It compresses the meaning of a vision or a value.” I’d say a slogan (and tagline) is supposed to communicate value in a short statement. It doesn’t need another name. I’ve rarely, if ever, seen a lengthy slogan.

Besides, a slogan usually takes one line. Haikus have three. Weird association. Google Ads are the closest thing to a haiku minus the syllables since they have three lines and the URL.
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Blogged about Rhetorical Figures earlier this week and got my assignment back with input from the instructor. So I can share my examples without feeling embarrassed as he confirmed I’m not too bad at it
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If I could, I’d take at least one class at all times. By now, I’d have two masters degrees and maybe even a PhD. Well, maybe not that. It’s a shame that online degrees didn’t exist when I was in college or was mostly by correspondence (snail mail). I took my first non-class course in high school in history. I completed all the assignments and mailed them back. Then I took the exams in the counselor’s office.

Online courses are a wonderful experience for me as I don’t miss a thing unless the institution uses online lectures through headsets. I’m glad I went to a traditional college and had the typical four year experience. But I don’t miss sitting through all those lectures where I was bored out of my mind because I couldn’t decipher a professor’s accent, mumbles, or fast-talk.

Every now and then I search the Web for online grad programs to see if anything new pops up that catches my eye. I’d love to apply for Texas Tech’s masters program in technical communications or an online masters program with some focus on writing or journalism. Alas, I don’t have the time to devote to it as I have to make time for other things right now. But it’ll stay on my radar as my life won’t stay the same and opportunities will come.

Anyway, here are free online courses. Just because they’re free doesn’t mean they’re useless as you’ll see some have instructors and discussion forums. Online courses have the advantage of being available 24/7 so those with busy schedules can review the material any time that works. This list is updated from time to time.

About U
http://u.about.com/

About.com’s About U sends courses by email on a daily or weekly basis and helps students learn a specific skill or solve a problem. There are no grades or degrees. Courses include Christmas Carols, motorcycles for beginners, and Dallas metroplex trivia. Courses obviously cover a diversity of areas.

Barnes and Noble University
http://university.barnesandnoble.com/index.asp?z=y

Barnes and Noble University offers courses and reading groups every month taught by an expert in the field, and sometimes the instructor is a bestselling author. Courses fall into one of three categories: Liberal Arts, Life Improvement, and Reading Groups. Get deeper insight into the Picasso’s art and cubism, analyze dreams, and learn golf basics.

CNet How-To Online Courses
http://courses.help.com/

Buying a home theater? Take a home theater basics class. CNet courses cover technology and consumer electronic topics for registered CNET members. CNet’s subject matter experts lead the class discussions. Classes aren’t in real-time, so you can log in whenever you wish to follow discussions in the classroom comment blog.

HP

http://h30187.www3.hp.com/index.jsp…

HP has instructor-lead online courses that are available 24/7. Each course has two to ten lessons with some having quizzes, assignments or both. A course has a start and end date during which lessons are posted. Lessons (depending on the number for the course) are posted twice a week and are available 24/7 until the course ends. Courses also have a message board (forums or bulletin board) so students can interact with each other and the instructor.

LearnOutLoud
http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video

LearnOutLoud offers free educational audio and video courses. You can search by category and subcategory. The site also has a search box, but it may include non-free courses in its results.

MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html

One of the best universities in the country that costs thousands of dollars provides free access to MIT’s course materials. You won’t get a formal class, but the opportunity to review over 1250 courses in a diversity of fields. Looking at a sample course, you get the syllabus, readings, and projects. Just no formal grading, discussion, or lecture. Some courses are available in other languages and the one I looked at is available in Spanish and Portuguese.

Radio Shack
http://learningcenter.radioshack.com/

Radio Shack’s free courses include two to eight lessons and may have quizzes and assignments. Courses have a start and end date. Courses typically cover home technology. In other words, showing customers how to use the things they buy from the company’s stores.

SBA Free Online Courses
http://www.sba.gov/training/courses.html

U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) links to many high quality online courses sorted by subject areas such as starting a business, government contracting, and business management. I’ve seen Hot Shot Business Simulation for young enterpreneurs and it’s superb.

Test Prep Review
http://www.testprepreview.com/

Practice for PSAT, SAT, GMAT, GRE, and many other standardized tests. The site also offers test prep resources.

World Lecture Hall from University of Texas
http://web.austin.utexas.edu/wlh/

World Lecture Hall has been around for a while and like MIT, offers access to course materials. ” Some courses are delivered entirely over the Internet. Others are designed for students in residence. Many fall somewhere in between. In all cases, they can be visited by anyone interested in courseware on the Internet — faculty, developers, and curious students alike.”

Updated: November 9, 2006

Whenever someone has a baby, I always ask how they came up with the baby’s name. Stories have ranged from fascinating to “just ’cause” (we liked the name). Amazing how English words coming from 26 letters of the alphabet have led to unforgettable plays, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, songs, movies, and muscials. Even a simple letter, number, and symbol can have a lot of meanings. Witness the @ symbol.

Just call me a logophile.

All Your Words
http://allyourwords.com/

Enter a word and view Web site associations.

Dictionary of Definitions
http://www.dictionaryofdefinitions.com/

A simple and elegant dictionary with a “Mac” look-and-feel.

The Eggcorn Database
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/

Eggcorns are the result of people who mispronounce a word or phrase on purpose thinking it’s the way to say it. In other words, it’s an intentional malaprop, whereas malaprops are slips of the tongue. The About page explains the eggcorn (and I accidentally wrote this as “egghorn” — a malaprop) history.

English Words Derived from Latin-Greek Origins
http://wordexplorations.com/

Learn more vocabulary words by understanding their Latin and Greek prefixes, roots, and suffixes used in English vocabulary.

Internet Anagram Server
http://wordsmith.org/anagram/.

Use this to find and create words. Internet Anagram Server can be helpful as a brainstorming tool.

The Language Log
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/

Wonderful blog by linguistic experts. Thanks to links from two big sites, the blog received heavy-duty hits and provided a quick tour.

Merriam-Webster Open Dictionary
http://www3.merriam-webster.com/opendictionary/

While you can go to Merriam-Webster to look up definition, it also has an Open Dictionary. Here you can submit entries that aren’t in the online dictionary, and browse entries submitted by other members of the Merriam-Webster online community.

NOEMATA
http://www.noemata.net/nbng/

Need help coming up with names for brands, products, companies? Use NOEMATA for inspiration.

Online Etymology Dictionary
http://www.etymonline.com/

Etymologies explain what words mean and how they sounded many years ago.

The Phrontistery
http://phrontistery.info/

Phrontistery is a thinking place. The site has an online dictionary, a word list on a given topic, and the definitions to rare and unusual words. Here you find 15,500 obscure and rare words, the International House of Logorrhea, as well as many glossaries, word lists, and other English language and etymology resources.

RhymeZone
http://www.rhymezone.com/

Not only do you geta list of words that rhyme your entered word, but also synonyms, definitions, homophones, similar sounding words, same consonants, and related. RhymeZone is a fabulous resource.

World Wide Words
http://www.worldwidewords.org/

International English from a British viewpoint. Articles, questions and answers, topical words… everything WORDS!

Updated: June 21, 2006

A friend of mine bought another PDA when her Zire 22 wouldn’t charge. I asked her why didn’t she tell me as the solution could be an easy one. Nonetheless, I told her to try a soft reset and then a hard reset. She said she was charging the new one and then was going to put the new one into the old one’s cradle to see if it charges. Good idea, but I’d try the reset first.

Info on resets: Before doing any kind of reset, backup the device, if possible. A soft reset compares to rebooting a computer. Doing a reset doesn’t erase the data.

Most devices come with a small hole on the back. The tip of your stylus might be able to press it. If not, get a paperclip and straighten it. This works most, if not all, the time. Just insert the clip or stylus into the hole until you see the welcome screen appear. Some devices don’t have the reset button in an obvious place like the Tungsten T3 requires sliding it open to access the hole or the Treo 650 that has its reset button behind the battery door.

A hard reset erases all the data and returns the device to the way it was when you two first met. Again (can’t remind folks too many times), back up your data before doing a hard reset. Put the paper clip or stylus into the hole on the back of the device and hold it down while you press the power button until you see the screen appear with either a message asking if you want to erase the data, or the device’s default welcome screen. Also, check your device’s documentation because the hard reset process could be different — but this one is common.

After doing a hard reset, sync your device with the computer to restore the data. Before doing this, check the device’s documentation on restoring data. For instance, Palm OS users need to open HotSync and select Custom. Select the Conduit and click Change to “change the action to Desktop overwrites handheld.” Windows Mobile users open ActiveSync, click on Tools and then Backup/Restore. Select the Restore tab and click on the Restore Now button.

Don’t remember studying anthimeria in school. Its origin is Greek meaning “one part for another.” “Google” is a popular anthimeria for searching. People say, “Google that.” Of course, using a company name as a generic name or verb is dangerous for the company. Here’s a good read on the topic.

Better to verb nouns with non-proper words. Here are a few I wrote:

* Math homework stresses her.

* Yesterday, I mahjongged at Cindy’s house.

* I find it entertaining to verb nouns.
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