A real world example of

A real world example of how CSS can improve a site by separating content from presentation.

SPAM WARS - and why

SPAM WARS - and why we're losing
A co-worker recently e-mailed me with thoughts about reducing SPAM. Here is an excerpt:

It's been suggested that we can help reduce the amount of spam we and everyone else receive by eliminating text references to email addresses on the site. Instead, the email would be hardcoded around the person's name...
... The theory that was expressed is that the bots that harvest the email addresses only harvest the ones that appear as text, and not the ones that are embedded in code.

The problem with this statement is obvious to many but what is troubling is that it is NOT obvious to many, many more. The problem is that Spam-bots do not read HTML pages as they are rendered by a browser but they read (or harvest) text that actually IS the HTML. In other words, I could embed an e-mail address in a JavaScript commented tag <!-- bob@email.com --> and it would never be visible to a browser but it would be very visible to any Spam-bot or anyone who bothered to look at the source code. And this misunderstanding about the Web permeates almost every aspect of interacting with the Web. Think about e-mail viruses, Web hoaxes, malicious Web Sites, worms, Trojan Horses, pop-up window Hell, etc.

I would not be far off in assuming that virtually all of these Web maladies are primarily perpetuated by ignorance. People who don't understand the Web or how it works or how technologies work on the Web make faulty assumptions and contribute to the problems. However, my feeling is that this isn't really the user's fault. I mean what other massively used technology requires this level of education and awareness in order for it to work properly and avoid horrible (and even fatal) mistakes? Cars? No, after learning the basics of driving you're pretty much done. Take it into the shop once every few months and you're fine. VCRs? Not really. Once you've figured that out (not talking about the flashing 12) you're pretty much home free. Telephone? Nope. Frankly there are none. So, my plea (however insignificant) is for programmers, network administrators, technology manufacturers, etc. all work to make this thing simple.

There has to be a better way. Now, for all you spam-bots...digest this spam@do-not-spam-me.com

:: corporate propaganda :: Today

:: corporate propaganda ::
Today I took my son to McDonald's (which is a story about corporate branding in itself) and he was playing in the indoor play area and having a grand time when I took notice of a young father sitting near me. He seemed normal. Had a normal build. Had his head shaved. Decked out in Nike t-shirt, shorts, shoes and socks. Nothing unusual at all. I overheard some of his conversation too and he wasn't talking crazy talk or anything. When he got up to leave I noticed something that both shocked and perplexed me. He had a very large Nike swoosh tattooed on his left calf. Big red logo with a black border. I didn't speak to him so I don't know if he was paid for this "branding" but I somehow doubt he got any money for this. Maybe he got really drunk and lost a bet or something. Who knows. But the point of amazement is that this is a Nike symbol. Nike branding has joined the ranks of other popular culture images such as the super-man S, the peace symbol and the Grateful Dead Steal-Your-Face skull. I can see how this could be argued as no different than advertising your favorite band, comic book or political cause. Right now I'm just digesting this whole thing while searching the horizon for the 4 horsemen.

I just bought BloggerPro so

I just bought BloggerPro so I'm now RSS capable.

Kissing Print Versions of Pages

Kissing Print Versions of Pages Goodbye : evolt.org, Site Development
A nifty, helpful tool on setting up a printer friendly site. I haven't set one up yet but I will...oh yes I will. :o)

:: usability in strange places

:: usability in strange places ::
One day I will be able to say, "I want to this box to be half the size of the other box no matter what size the browser is and I want it to be blue until a cursor moves over it and then I want it to turn green" and all that I said will simply be. Or I will say, "I want to type in 'candy' and be able to return results for only confections" and it will also be.

I totally understand what it takes to make computers function properly. There are different methods but basically you pretty much have to tell it exactly what to do. In an episode of Star Trek Kirk destroyed some robot humanoid things by saying, "I cannot tell a lie...I am lying" and their tiny logic processors went nuts and they blew up or something. This is how real computers work. We must learn to "think" like they do and "speak" their language or else when we say, "Turn this box blue" they will turn every box blue and the box will always be blue because we haven't defined "this" and possibly even "box" remains undefined and so on and so on.

The Utopia that I began with is the result of two experiences today: 1.) I spent hours trying to create a ColdFusion application 2.) a coworker spent hours trying to patch together some CSS within a table and a form. This is how it has always been. Yet it shouldn't have to remain that way. I'm no futurist so I don't pretend to know what new advances are in store for us but I do hope that there is a better way to perform many of the tasks we endure daily.

My vision is a universe where the proverbial Grandma can sit down at her computer and simply talk up a Web page in under an hour. I love you grandma.

The Jakarta Post - Child

The Jakarta Post - Child protection bill passed amid poor attendance Kurniawan Hari is hopefully losing something in the translation because after reading this article I believe that even the most incompetent journalist would see how poorly this is written (no comments on my blog please, all blogs are excused from grammar and structure criticisms). I can give Kurniawan one excuse, it was a legislative story being reported and we all know that it takes a master wordsmith to make those interesting.

Just been reading the latest

Just been reading the latest edition of WIRED and they have a big piece on Lessig and the Eldred v Ashcroft case that comes before the Supremes on Oct. 9. I wonder if this date will live on in our collective consiousness the way Roe v Wade or Brown v Board of Education. I also just watched a trailer for a new Disney movie called Treasure Planet and it is based upon the book Treasure Island and is yet another example of Disney mining the works in public domain for profit (which there is nothing wrong with) while trying to extend the reach of their own copyright by indefinitely increasing the expiration date of copyright. I would love to see them take it all the way. I mean I think Lessig should argue that copyright should extend FOREVER. See what they say to that. Why not? I mean if we take what Disney is doing to the ultimate conclusion then more must be good and most must be best. So extend copyright protection forever and see what Disney (and everyone else) says about that. Ha. No more Cinderella, Hunch Back, Treasure Planet, etc.

This gives me an idea. Why not start a campaign for permanent copyright protection. This is great. Now if I only had the energy and time.

Sitting here watching Barney with

Sitting here watching Barney with my son on a dreary Tuesday morning. What would make this a much more bloggable experience is a digital camera or maybe even a digital video camera. Something to somehow add some life to this othewize plain, boring blog post. By the way, Barney still amazes me. It's become a children's staple, much like Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. The Barney Backlash has pretty much ended a few years ago and Barney is still going strong with original programming (if a kids show can be original) and a fairly strong merchandise line.

Digital Web Magazine - Features:

Digital Web Magazine - Features: 99.9% of Websites Are Obsolete
I swear this site is not a Zeldman fan site but I just keep stumbling across stuff too good to pass up and amazingly, a lot of it is Zeldman's. Ok, digging for more diversity. But for now read this.

Know Your Place! Shut Your

Know Your Place! Shut Your Face!
Ok, resorting to another memepool dive. Here's what I snagged at the bottom of the pool. A new look at the propaganda that will be a result of our new efforts against Iraq as well as the new anti-terror environment in the US.

File-sharing cases are refining VCR

File-sharing cases are refining VCR ruling - 09/12/02
Ugh, even more negative news about freely distributing copyrighted material. Apparently the holy Betamax case from the early 80s is being undermined and it's potency being reduced to only applying to the VCR and not applicable to similar technologies that operate in a similar fashion. In other words, the actual philosophy behind the ruling is pretty much being ignored.

Online News An article about

Online News

An article about online news, community, blogs and what can be done to improve mainstream online news today. One problem is the inability of many decision makers in the news industry to think progressively and try new things on the Web.

More traffic for your site

More traffic for your site - it's easy, follow the rules.
Interesting stuff on promoting your site. One thing I really found interesting is that spiders love tables. Who knew?

Any Eminem fans in the

Any Eminem fans in the house? Well I'm not one of them but I am aware of him and some of his songs/videos (see post below on Blogging). As I was linking to his "official Eminem" site I visited his Web presence for the first time and I had two thoughts: Extreme disappointment and a nodding awareness of how much a corporate tool this guy really is.

This guy is the gutter equivalent to Brittney Spears. He is a corporate creation. I've always sensed this because of his slick videos, catchy beats and seemingly perfect bad boy/not bad boy image.

My motto is "You are what you Website" and if that is true at all then Eminem is definitely a corporate creation. Check out his site. Is this the site of a bad-boy rebel who is pushing the boundries of music and our culture? Or is it the creation of a music label who basically owes his huge success to slick marketing and MTV? You decide. I'm gonna go look for my Neil Young cd.

Fu**edWeblog: Where weblogs go to

Fu**edWeblog: Where weblogs go to die.
Ok, don't click this is the "F-word" offends you. The site is about Dead-blogs and is pretty interesting. Again, I know of some people's sensitivities so I added a little edit to the site name and just warn any of the easily offended.

BLOG? BLOGGING? WHAT'S THAT? It

BLOG? BLOGGING? WHAT'S THAT?

It amazes me how many "connected" young people are completely oblivious to the Blogging phenomenon. Almost everyone I've talked to (except my Java-coding brother-in-law) asks me, "Blog? What's a Blog? Haha...that's a funny word" and then I just take a deep breath and try to explain exactly what Blogging is and what it's all about. I feel like I'm explaining the basic concept of telephone usage or how to check email. Then they nod and smile and say, "OH" and then completely forget everything I just said because the capacity for most humans to listen is based on three criteria:

1. Is it about ME?
2. Is it funny, tragic or sexy?
3. Will this affect me in some way in the near future.

They go through the list as I'm talking and answer, "no, no, no" and then it's gone and they will inevitably ask someone else what a blog is a few days later and then one day, when AOL starts putting a Blog on it's WELCOME PAGE and Eminem mentions blogging in one of his raps, these people will say, "Oh yeah, Blogging. I know all about that" and then proceed to "explain" to everyone what blogging is while not actually doing any blogging but maybe occasionally reading one just to stay "plugged in."

According to "professional" estimates there are between 200,000 to 500,000 active blogs on the Web. While this number is not enormous compared to actual Web usage it is substantial enough to warrent some sort of mass awareness of exactly what blogging is all about. I mean as of 1993 everyone in the freaking world had at least a vague (and often incorrect) idea of what a rave was and these were actual non-mainstream-promoted events that took place in warehouses and certainly never reached the numbers that blogging has achieved. Ok, maybe it's apples and oranges but my poinnt is that blogging is STILL a cult(ure) thing and has not YET hit the mainstream and maybe that's best.

One thing I would hate to see is the Microsofting of Blogging. Imagine a .NET blog. Or even incompatible blogging platforms. Ok, I'm thinking too much. CALL TO ACTION: Get the word out and BLoG on.

gus's fried chicken mason tn

gus's fried chicken mason tn

According to my site stats this is the most used search string which results in a visit to my site. Chicken? Well, yeah. About a year ago I put my "family" site in a subdirectory of webraw.com with every intention of writing articles each week, posting multiple photos, commenting on the state of the world etc. Anyway, as often happens with sites of this nature my ambitions surpassed my ability to update the site on a regular basis. However, during that period of regular updates I wrote a story about my trip to Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken which is actually, world famous. I even had the Jackson Sun print the photos on the site in their paper. See, the original Gus's burned a few months after I visited (I had nothing to do with the fire) and so my photos are some of the few available of the original space.

Ok, so what I'm saying is my site currently gets more hits because of a family story about eating fried chicken than any of the Web-related stuff I've spent so many hours churning out. Alas, this is the Web we all know and love. A crazy space where Dancing Hampsters, Kissing Turks and Non-Gay Spider-Men make the kilobytes turn.

Oh, and if you want to read the story it lives HERE: http://www.webraw.com/memphiscows/articles/060101.shtml

PHP is truly fun to

PHP is truly fun to work with...even if I need a lot of hand-holding. As you may have noticed I have comments enabled on the blog now. It was a free php solution provided by dotcomments (isn't open source great). In the process I also learned what chmod means and how to do it. yipee.

Here's basically how it all works. This page is converted to a .php page. Some php code is thrown into the top telling the page to look to see if any comments have been posted. This refers to a text file created in a subdirectory. The code looks and sees that there is a file so it returns "true" and says "yes, x-number of comments have been posted" and displays those results on the page.

Then there is the comments.php page. This page has the real power. It has all the functions and variables to write to the text file and also interact with the user. It will even "remember" what was last entered into the name text field. It's all extremely cool and many thanks to dotcomments and all php gurus who have made this sort of thing possible.

This gets me excited about the entire "open-source" culture and the experience has me thinking about what open-source truly means. Here's my take:
Open-source means it won't work right out of the box and you must pay the price of TIME to figure out how to get it to work. I spent about 3 hours trying to get this to work. I learned a lot in the process so if you figure how much I normally get paid for 3 hours of work minus the amount I would pay to receive the knowledge that I gained then the true cost of open-source is the result. Of course as my skills increase the time required to develop decreases to open-source becomes increasingly valuable. This is why it's so great and also why it is really only for certain people. People who like everything to "just work" are not likely to embrace this type of culture and the time required to learn all there is to learn. That is also why people pay lots of money for software that works right out of the box vs. the stuff that must be fiddled with in order to function.

However, I think the benefits of open-source far outweigh any of the costs and hope that more will embrace it as a viable alternative to MicroSoft(ware) mentality.

blogging ecosystem Link from Scripting

blogging ecosystem
Link from Scripting News.

From ZDNET - The crazy

From ZDNET - The crazy fight against copyright crooks

This is amazing, truly amazing. Another example of why we hate the DMCA.

ASCII mode is EVIL

ASCII mode is EVIL

New host is up. Checking

New host is up. Checking for bugs.

For those who may be

For those who may be wondering, this site is being moved. Hopefully the move will be seamless but we all know how this sort of thing goes so keep fingers crossed. I will keep all posted as to how the move to our new host goes.

Thanks.
- webraw staff

There are MANY voices on

There are MANY voices on the vast wasteland we know as the WEB. Yet, as with all things, quantity does not always equal quality and most of the voices are noise, rude distractions, misleading, rambling nonsense, uneducated drivel or worst of all, well-intentioned crap. However, there are a few voices crying out in the Wild, Wild Web that are worth being heard and one of those voices is Jeffery Zeldman.

I admire his voice because he champions what is important to the Web (or at least one of the few fundamentally important facets of the WWW). He's a strong voice for browser standards. He's been a champion of understanding how to temper "bleeding edge" designs with common sense Web Usability. His voice is the voice of reason. Everywhere I turn Zeldman's name pops up. To my knowledge he hasn't achieved this "guru" status by writing papers or books (his one book is about taking your talents to the Web) but by steady and deliberate action.

Read this article (Style vs. Design) he wrote for Adobe and you'll begin to understand what I'm talking about. He "gets" it where many others do not.

No, he's not a lone voice and I am thinking about featuring a different "Web-voice" each week. For now check out Zeldman and let me know what you think. (A List Apart)

Ham, Ham, Ham, Ham, Ham.

Ham, Ham, Ham, Ham, Ham.

Get a closer look at some fine, delicious ham.

Web Standards for Hard Times

Web Standards for Hard Times

A wired article on WebStandards. Mentions the influence of WaSP. Gives some good tips. Check it out.

Political Rant Warning: Why does

Political Rant Warning:

Why does the USA want to go to war with Iraq? Why does it seem that I'm the only rational human being left in this great land of ours? I feel like I'm in one of the less engaging color versions of the Twilight Zone.

Ok, let me make myself clear. I'm not a tree hugging, peacenic, hippie-wannabe. In fact some would call me a conservative althought I'm more of an independent thinking conservative which some would call a libertarian. Ok. Not that any of that matters. What does matter is that after watching all the Sunday Talk Shows I really think we are going to war with Iraq. It's insane.

Here's why:
1. They haven't attacked anyone. Ok, so maybe they have secretly or something but we haven't really proven that AND we don't normally make it our policy to attack those that fund people who may be helping people who kind of support people who are terrorists. Until Iraq invades something we need to sit tight.
2. We've given Iraq a free pass for the last few years so why do we start changing our policy and decide to attack them? And don't say Sept. 11. If you float that argument out then we must attack North Korea and Iran as wel because they are part of the infamous "Axis of Evil" group.
3. There are many rogue nations with the weapons needed to inflict major pain on the USA. Ok, maybe I don't know all of them but let's see, there is China, Pakistan, North Korea, India and even France. All of these countries can do some serious warring and have nuclear weapons (not sure about Korea). Don't laugh, France hates Americans. One of the terrorists was from France. Hmmmm... war with France? Maybe.
4. Once we start attacking people based upon what they MIGHT do then we set a horrible precedent. What happens if Pakistan gets a maverick leader in a couple of years? Do we take them out because of what they might do?

My point is that we can't attack unless we have actual aggression to attack against. It goes against the very principals of our nation. If you argue that Sadam is crazy so we must attack him I say how crazy is he? I mean what proof do we have that he is any crazier than the next dictator? He attacked Kuwait, we came in and he backed off. That's pretty smart. Has he sent any more missiles anywhere? Nope. Has he attacked any more neighbors? Nope. I'm not saying he's sane...I'm just saying we can only make a determination on what to do to a sovereign nation after they make the first move.

Now I know I'm right...I hope you do too.