Rants & Raves Archives
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The quotable Screen Savers:
Scott Herriot, having trouble figuring out which camera to look at, responding to the director in his earphone:"Talk to Leo while reading the prompter? How can I do that? I'm not a halibut."
Patrick Norton, after Megan's mention of Bravenet gets corrupted first to braveneck, and then Braveheart: "They can take your kilt, but they cannot take your freedom."
Posted by Christy at 10:24 PM
September 27, 2001 Internet Scourge
In his top five list (Five Things You Should Never Download), Martin listed Bonzi Buddy, among others, as one of the top things NOT to download from the internet. "Remove bonzi buddy" is still one of the most common Google search terms that links to this site. My suggestion for removing it can be found here: FAQs-Bonzi
Posted by Christy at 10:22 PM
September 26, 2001 The Megan Effect
What is up with that, Leo? Earlier, it was a comment about people imagining that Megan wasn't wearing any pants, this time it's "Just imagine her naked" Women just seem to want to hit on Leo all the time.
Hit him harder Megan. Use Patrick's sledgehammer next time.
I had been wondering why TSS hadn't mentioned the Microsoft Frontpage EULA story since it broke last Friday, but I see that they got to it on tonight's Fark.com segment. Here's the story on Slashdot:
MS FrontPage Restricts Free Speech II (It's True!)
I mentioned earlier that Megan linked to my site in her Daily Dish Article. Here are my web stats for last week:
Posted by Christy at 10:16 PM
September 22, 2001 Custom Color Scrollbar
Okay, thanks to some beta-testing help from TeSS of the Leovilles (Fhloston Creative), there are now two versions of the Custom Scrollbar Color Tool, one for Javascript, and one for CSS (cascading style sheet) code. Javascript is the recommended version for most people, but for those who already use external style sheets for multipage sites, the CSS version is probably the easier choice.
Javascript Version
CSS Version
Another weird Google search leading to this site: "computer shut down too fast" (Not the usual complaint about computer shutdown)
Posted by Christy at 10:09 PM
September 21, 2001 Where's Pirillo?
That Chris Pirillo seems to show up in the oddest places: inside the fridge, in the Windows folder of Leo' Bootcamp computer, and now in the netcam booth.
It's "Where's Pirillo?" (not Waldo)
A couple months ago I was looking at the TSS message boards and someone asked how some web sites (like TechTV) do the custom scrollbar colors. As with many of the questions that I try to answer there, I didn't know the answer at the time, but was able to find it by searching the Internet. I then, of course had to do this for my own site. But it was tedious because you have to find the hexadecimal numbers for seven different parts of the scrollbar. This meant going back and forth with a graphics program and a webpage editor. I found a tool on the web that would generate the code for you, but only for a small number of colors. So I set out to see if I could program a web page tool to do it. A Javascript book and a DHTML book later, and after lots of hair-pulling, I finally finished it: Custom Scrollbar Color Tool. I'm surprized that I actually got it to work, being a something Javascript newbie.
Oh man, oh man. I just read Megan's article about dead links on the TechTV website: Dish: Bad Links They Are a Comin'. She warns that many of the articles on the site have been moved, which means that I have a LOT of links to fix on this site (90 on the very popular episode links page alone. I don't even want to think about how many in this Rants & Raves section. I've got five done so far). It's going to be a looooooooong weekend. On the bright side, she linked to my site in the article. Yay! (but I'm still not on the fan site list, oh well.)
Posted by Christy at 10:04 PM
Thanks to all the staff of TSS for a wonderful show. It was reassuring to have my favorite show back during these unsettling events. I agree with Leo in wanting to encourage anyone who is thinking about putting up a web page to do so. Everyone has something to say, and the Internet has provided everyone with the means of being heard. It is much easier than you might think. If you have ever used a word processor, you can do a web page. This site is the decendant of simple personal page on AOL started two years ago. Web publishing is very good for learning-as-you-go. You can start out with a simple page of HTML and pictures. Before you know it, you're doing dynamic pages with CGI scripts and animations.
I experienced firsthand the value of online communities mentioned in the segment with Derek Powazek. I'd like to thank all the citizens of Leoville for helping to keep me informed and connected while I was stuck at work yesterday.
Regarding the daily poll about what let us down, technology or human negligence, the results are certainly not surprising. What is lacking is not the technology, but the everyday person's understanding of it. As a biochemist by trade, it pained me to see scientific evidence in the O.J. Simpson trial so easily misunderstood. It has taken much too long to get the word out about computer security issues such as the code red worm. Before Tuesday, I'm sure most of us thought that the current airport security was sufficient. Kudos to The Screen Savers and all educators who help make us less ignorant.
And finally, to all people of Middle Eastern descent in the the United States, you are most welcome here.
Posted by Christy at 10:55 PM
September 06, 2001 All In The Family
Did anyone else catch this little bit of irony on the The Screen Savers web page?
Here's a nice family photo:
Posted by Christy at 10:49 PM
September 04, 2001 Grandma Morrone
Brought to you by Megan "Grandma" Morrone, describing iRogue, an old ASCII game now available for the Palm OS:
"Its just like the new (games) the ones the kids play, Ultima Online, you go on quests, you learn how to cook things..."
Posted by Christy at 10:43 PM