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- Making a Commercial Case for Adopting Web Standards
So Dave and I have finally set up a home network. We've got 2 Macs and a PC all sharing the same DSL connection from Sympatico. I know very little about networking and had a vague idea that we needed a router - but that's about all I knew. I went online to Sympatico's Home Networking Learning Centre (their meagre offer of support for people with home networks) and ended up even more confused then when I started. I called Brent and asked for his advice - 'cause he's so smart. He explained everything to me so that I could understand - slowly and with very small words ;-).
Dave went out and bought a 4-port Linksys router. We opened it up - everything - including the manual was in French. Oops. Must have been a router that was supposed to go to Quebec. Luckily, they had a PDF of the English manual on their install CD.
Of course, Linksys doesn't support Macs and Sympatico doesn't support home networking. We were on our own. We had to set everything up from my testing PC and then totally guess at what we were supposed to do to set up the internet connection on the Macs.
It worked - kinda. We had an internet connection from all three computers - but the Macs were super, super slow. I'm talking bad dial-up connection slow. I'm talking type in the URL, hit return and then go back to reading a book for a few minutes before the site would show up slow. I could surf from my PC for a few days, but this certainly was not a good permanent solution.
I did some Googling to see if someone else was having the same problem. I skimmed through tons of useless talk about Macs and networking, router comparisons, Mac and PC networking and slow internet connections until I finally found an article about how to set up a router on a Mac with a short mention of a similar problem in the comments at the bottom of the article. Someone had responded with the suggestion to open up the TCP/IP control panel and make sure that there were no name servers listed. Apparently, a slow connection can be because of troubles with the DNS resolving. At some point (before the adventures in home networking) Sympatico tech support had given me bogus name server addresses and I hadn't deleted them from the control panel.
So I deleted them. Voila! Back to quick connections and hooray! the adventure is over.
Posted by Me @ 04:38PM [Link]
There's a great new article on youngpup.net about why all websites should be created using standards compliant code. It's for the non-webby type people out there, so if you don't know your CSS, W3C, HTML and XML from your IBM, CBS or NBC, you can still understand the basic argument. It's written to convince his employers to start using standardized code, but it applies to everyone, and can help anyone understand the sea change in perspective that web designers are (or at least should be) going through.
Posted by Me @ 10:01PM [Link]
Okay, my birthday is coming up, so I thought I'd add a wish list to my blog. Saves time and energy telling everyone what I want... The following list is in no particular order. You can visit my Amazon wishlist for more info about the books and stuff.
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Okay, so I've thought of a couple more things...
That's it for now - I'll update as I think of stuff.
Posted by Me @ 01:55PM [Link]
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, the U.S. has abused the rights of hundreds of people detained for immigration violations, and suspected of terrorism, since September 11. Basically, the Justice Department is running roughshod over democracy, freedom, accountability and openness - destroying what remnants of justice were left in the system.
According to Jamie Fellner, the Director of the U.S. Program, "The U.S. government has failed to uphold the very values that President Bush declared were under attack on September 11[...] It has ignored basic restraints on a government's power to detain that are the hallmark of free and democratic nations."
How come I'm not surprised? After the detention of Japanese in the second world war, McCarthyism, slavery, etc. you'd think that Americans would be sensitive to targeting certain groups and taking away their rights. They've had to apologize for it before... but no, they don't care, don't remember or won't do anything to stop it. Once they are caught up in jingoistic rah! rah! rah! patriotism, and the worst mob mentality calling out for revenge, that's it. It's "Let's point the fingers at people who are different, let's throw them all in jail, because they aren't like us, because we don't understand them, and that will protect the 'American Way'". Bull-crapola.
The land of the free? No, obviously not. The home of the brave? If your principles and ideals go down the toilet as soon as they are attacked then I'd say you aren't brave.
The demise of democratic ideals, principles of justice and human rights in America is the most tragic death in the whole September 11 crisis.
Posted by Me @ 12:48PM [Link]
So we've finally moved to our new house.
No, it's not even close to being finished yet. At least we have a fully functional apartment upstairs to live in while renovations are continuing on the first floor. But there is still a lot to do. We're waiting on a heating design, permit and moving the ducts. The heating system must be finished before we go on to anything else. But it's getting there. Step. By. Painfully. Slow. Step. It will be finished.
Yes, I am exhausted. I just want it all to be over. I want to be able to settle down and nest in my new home. But it looks like we'll be living out of boxes (at least partially) for a few more months. Oh well.
Photos will be added when I find the box with the digital camera in it...
Posted by Me @ 05:42PM [Link]