-
browser
choice [Index]
-
I have both Netscape Navigator (NN) and Microsoft
Internet Explorer (MSIE) on my PC, to make sure
the web pages I write are compatible with both. I
use MSIE on my own PC, a Windows 95 laptop
- it simply suits me better. I don't care
about built-in newsreaders nor mail clients (I
use Forte Agent for both), and I don't care
about assorted plug-ins with just a 28.8k modem.
I like how MSIE calls up Notepad to view/edit
HTML code - quick and dirty, but it works. And
yeah, I know about NN Gold's ability to edit
HTML virtually WYSIWYG but every version I've
tried seems buggy or awkward to use, so I might
as well edit with a text editor.
At work, though, I've got a Sun workstation
on my desk, running Unix, so our EIS department
has NN installed. Gotta give Netscape credit for
covering as many platforms as they do. Heck,
Microsoft took quite a while getting MSIE 3.0 out
for Windows 3.1! Doubt we'll ever see any
version of MSIE running on the workstations
anytime soon.
-
browser font
faces [Index]
-
Both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet
Explorer use a Times font as the default
proportional font. I guess it's because
virtually all systems have some sort of Times
font installed. The advantage of the Times font
is that it is very readable even when printed
small - that's why newspapers use it. But
it's quite likely you're reading this on
a computer screen. Times looks lousy rendered as
a small screen font.
On my own PC, I like using the Arial font
that comes with Windows, which includes the
proper bold, italic and bold italic versions,
i.e. bold and italics are not interpolated from
the base font. It makes Web documents look
so much sharper! At work on my Sun
workstation I set the default font to
Helvetica .
Eventually I'll figure out how to select
fonts or use style sheets for my web pages so the
right font face will be used automatically. But
for now, I'll set the browser default font to
a sans serif font.
-
dancing
[Index]
-
Dancing at its best is something graceful and
elegant, with romance thrown in for good measure.
A man and a woman, nicely attired, moving
together on the dance floor accompanied by the
sounds of an orchestra, can mesmerize an
audience.
Line dancing has no grace, elegance nor romance,
though I'll admit that the scene in the movie
Michael , where John Travolta dances with
two women in a roadhouse, is an exception. Pop
and disco dancing are flashy and showy...which
can have merit. But I do think the smooth and
Latin ballroom steps have it all.
-
Ebonics
[Index]
-
This is a lowering of standards and is wrong, not
to mention insulting. The Oakland school board
approved the idea of "black English" as
a foreign language simply so they might get
additional foreign language money from government
agencies. The Rev. Jesse Jackson and Pres. Bill
Clinton both do not support this nonsense.
Slang and colloquialisms? Of course. A dialect of
English? Sure, why not. A foreign language? Get
real. Hey Oakland, your school system is a
failure - the sooner you can accept that the
sooner we can help. Your school board is in
serious denial, though, I'm afraid you'll
have to fire them all.
-
emerging markets -
Africa [Index]
-
Just a few years ago one wouldn't dream of
investing in Africa, but with the end of the Cold
War and the old Marxist Soviet client states in
Africa quickly converting to market-driven
economies with some successes, Africa looks like
an interesting VERY-long-term investment
option.
Most of the continent will need buildups of
infrastructure and communications for the next
few decades. Also look at mining companies - lots
of rare raw materials in Africa. Shorter-term
investors (and by that I mean those with about a
20-year view) might take a look at the South
African market.
-
emerging
markets - China or India?
[Index]
-
If I had to choose between China or India to
invest in for the next 20 years, I'd go with
India. Out of at least 750 million people only
200 million might be considered middle-class or
above...which is still a HUGE market!
Middle-class Indians are well-educated, speak
English and have a history of capitalism. India
has stock markets! Better still, their economy is
far more open than China's and politically
India is easier to work with than China. China,
on the other hand, is still a Communist nation
whose leaders are willing to use force against
its own people to maintain control. The Chinese
people might understand a market-driven economy
but they do not rule.
In 20 years India should still be a good market
for, say, refrigerators. Indian and Russian
companies will be strong competition, but Western
companies, particularly American and Japanese,
can do well in competitive markets. Russian and
perhaps European companies will be more
successful in military sales to India.
In 20 years China may be the next superpower foe
of the USA - the Chinese economy would be quite
closed to the West in such a world. The challenge
today is to keep China in the global market, to
make their economy interdependent with everyone
else, so China will suffer economically if China
decides to become belligerent.
-
"For the
children..." [Index]
-
When an idea, suggestion, legislative bill, tax,
whatever, cannot stand on its own merits, an
appeal is made to the emotions. Although I
suppose there are some cases when this is
justified, like appeals for donations to worthy
charities, an appeal to emotions usually is done
for a bad idea. A red flag should go up when
something is pushed in the name of children.
"Restrict free speech, to protect our
children." "We must ban (whatever) to
keep our children safe." "If you value
the children, then join our cause." "If
just one child is saved, our efforts will not
have been in vain." I think you could
justify doing anything, support any idea, for the
sake of the children. Burn the books, wipe out an
ethnic group, give up a freedom, anything.
-
gun safety
[Index]
-
Here are the three rules for gun safety.
-
Assume it's loaded
If you just remember this one and use common sense,
you can derive all other gun safety rules.
Assume a gun is loaded until you've verified
otherwise. If I pick up a gun, check it and tell you
it's not loaded, then hand it to you, you must
still assume it's loaded - I might have
been wrong, you know - then you check it to
see if it's loaded. And once you've verified
the gun is loaded or unloaded, you still
assume it's loaded . You might have been
wrong.
You should never need to utter that damn phrase,
"I didn't know it was loaded."
-
Don't point a gun at anything you're
not willing to see destroyed.
Remember Rule 1? You don't play cops and robbers
and point it at anyone. You don't point it at
anyone accidentally. You don't let the muzzle
swing across anyone. And don't let the muzzle
swing across any part of YOUR anatomy either. The
gun's loaded, according to Rule 1.
-
Keep your finger off the trigger until
you're ready to shoot.
If you do what they do on TV and in the movies, your
trigger finger will go into the trigger guard and
onto the trigger when you hold a gun. A sharp noise
can startle you, you squeeze your hand as a reflex
action and pull the trigger. You might trip and pull
the trigger. Someone might bump into you and cause
you to pull the trigger.
The gun will fire if you put your finger on the
trigger. It's a loaded gun (see Rule 1) and the
bullet will hit whatever the gun points to (see Rule
2). You are responsible for whatever that bullet
hits...which reminds me of a fourth gun
safety rule often cited.
You're responsible for whatever every bullet you
shoot hits. When at the range or in the field, be
sure the bullet will be stopped by a backstop, hill,
ground, etc. Be sure the target you're shooting,
whether a piece of paper, a game animal in the
field, or a violent intruder, is something you
should be shooting.
-
The NRA, under its Eddie Eagle program, gives gun
safety rules for children as well. They even have
a videotape of Eddie Eagle explaining gun safety
to children. I think these rules could also apply
to adults who are intrinsically scared of
firearms. Some children, properly trained and
supervised by an adult, are quite safe handling
firearms. Conversely, there are some adults who
shouldn't be using butter knives, much less
handle any firearm!
-
Stop!
-
Don't touch!
-
Leave the area.
-
Tell an adult.
-
haiku
[Index]
-
True haiku - good haiku - follows the old
Japanese haiku traditions. There are a lot of
really bad poems out there that, because they
follow some 5-7-5 syllable count, are classified
as haiku. I should know, I've written some of
those bad poems myself! (grin)
-
HTML
tools/editors [Index]
-
For simple Web pages, they're great
timesavers! But I haven't seen one yet that
could properly handle the frames code my homepage
HTML code contains, so I typically write all my
HTML code in a text editor. I might use an HTML
tool to give me a skeleton file, or bang out the
Web page in the tool and do final editing in
Notepad. I'm still waiting for the perfect
HTML tool - and I'll willingly pay a
reasonable amount for it.
As of 9701.18, the HTML editor that comes closest
to my idea of the "perfect" editor is
HomeSite - a shareware editor available over the
Internet. It isn't WYSIWYG, and I
wouldn't recommend it for someone who
doesn't know at least some HTML. But I've
used it for a few times now, and it does have
advantages over using a plain text editor. It
integrates Microsoft's Internet Explorerer
3.01, so once you've edited the HTML code you
can see the results within the tool using a
"real" browser. I'm using HomeSite
2.5 Beta 1a - when it gets released, I think this
will be the one I use...and for which I'll
pay the very reasonable registration fee.
-
International
Space Station (Alpha) [Index]
-
What a wussy name! Myself, I like
"Battlestar America" - kick ass name,
huh? (GRIN!)
-
investment
strategy [Index]
-
Between a growth investment strategy (investing
in companies in expectations of higher earnings
and profits and therefore share prices) and a
value investment strategy (investing in companies
at share prices lower than true value) I tend to
favor value investing. Most investors, whether
growth or value oriented, are going to buy into
companies that expect good earnings and profits
anyway. "Buy low, sell high" makes
sense to me, and yet an odd tendency of growth
investors (or "momentum" growth
investors anyway) is to buy when prices are high
(from a value perspective) and sell when prices
are low. And sure, growth oriented money managers
make the news these days, but the big names you
may have heard of, who are acknowledged to be the
best investors in history (like Benjamin Graham,
Warren Buffet, John Neff, Peter Lynch) follow
value strategies.
-
price of
quality [Index]
-
Just because something is cheap doesn't mean
it's worth buying. I'll gladly pay a
premium for something I know is of high quality,
high reliability, high performance - in short, if
that something is worth the premium. Of course,
I'd prefer getting that same something on
sale! (grin)
-
role of
the military after the Cold War
[Index]
-
The US military has - or rather, should have -
the same mission as it did during the Cold War:
to deter an enemy attack on this nation, and
should deterrence fail, to defeat the enemy on
the battlefield. In either case, the US Army,
Navy, Air Force and Marines must be ready to
win a war - the proper role of the
military in a democracy.
The military should not be used as policemen,
either here or abroad. The military should not be
used as aid workers. The military should not be
used to "send a signal" to anyone. The
military must never be used against the people.
Military missions not involved with deterring or
defeating an enemy get people needlessly
killed.
Case in point - the Saudis are blaming Iran for
carbombing a US base in Saudi Arabia, and Iran is
on high alert, preparing for a US military
strike. Apparently the State Department has said
the US will indeed strike at Iran if proof of
Iranian involvement in the bombing exists.
What'll happen if Iran is indeed proven
guilty? We'll launch some cruise missiles at
Iran, maybe send in a carrier or two...no real
military damage to Iran, just send a message
that, hey, we don't like it when you kill our
soldiers. The Iranians will just get more
pissed-off at the US and no doubt will send in
more carbombs or maybe start grabbing hostages or
whatever - in any case, people will die
needlessly, and pundits will wonder at how the
planet's only remaining superpower can be so
helpless.
-
Stardate
date format [Index]
-
Yeah, it labels me as a Star Trek fan (so what?)
but the date format some Trekkers use for current
dates is useful. Stardates sort perfectly, both
alphabetically and numerically. Stardates are
unambiguous to anyone following the Western
calendar. I mean, does 5/7/96 stand for 5 July
1996 or May 7, 1996? It depends if you're
American, British or whatever. (An aside - I
never use xx/xx/xx format if I can avoid it, to
avoid the confusion. If I need to write a date
and can't use Stardate format, I'll write
5 July 1996.) Also, Stardates are compact.
Don't quite know what I'll do at the turn
of the century though. After 9912.31, should I
use 200001.01 for the next day? Or perhaps
10001.01? The latter might seem appropriate,
since Star Trek: The Next Generation used
4xxxx.xx format, for the 24th century I thought.
But Star Trek: Voyager is now using 5xxxx.xx
format, and I don't think they've made it
to the 25th century yet.
I think, on my PC I'll switch to a YYYYMM.DD
format, which will keep dates in proper
chronological order. But for personal notes
I'll use 0001.01 for the date following
9912.31 - after all, I very much doubt I'll
ever have the need to write the Stardate for 1
January 1900. And if Windows is smart enough to
remember the turn of the century, I'll just
continue to use YYMM.DD format, since I won't
have any files from 1900 either.
-
start
of the 21st century [Index]
-
Technically, the start of the 21st century is 1
January 2001. But the pedants who insist on that
date will miss the big party of 31 December 1999!
(grin)
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