oldog

to google or not to google...

The dictionary got an update Thursday. New words and senses will be included in the 2006 version of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, due out this fall. Here are some technology and science highlights. The year notes the first known usage of the term.

Which brings me to a pet peeve of mine... spell a word wrong long enough and eventually it becomes the correct spelling... jeesh! what's the point in learning how to spell correctly in the first place?

avian influenza (n) 1980: a highly variable mild to fulminant influenza of birds that is caused by strains of the influenza A virus which may mutate and be transmitted to other vertebrates--called also "bird flu"

biodiesel (n) 1986: a fuel that is similar to diesel fuel and is derived from usu. vegetable sources (as soybean oil)

google (vt) 2001: to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web

manga (n) 1951: a Japanese comic book or graphic novel

mouse potato (n) 1993 slang: a person who spends a great deal of time using a computer

ringtone (n) 1983: the sound made by a cell phone to signal an incoming call

spyware (n) 1994: software that is installed in a computer without the user's knowledge and transmits information about the user's computer activities over the Internet

text messaging (n) 1982: the sending of short text messages electronically esp. from one cell phone to another

wave pool (n) 1977: a large swimming pool equipped with a machine for making waves

The Oxford English Dictionary added these tech terms:

adware, n.	Biosteel, n.
chip and PIN, n.	codec, n.
cybrarian, n.	cybrary, n.
digicam, n.	geocaching, n.
Google, v.	hacktivism, n.
mash-up, n.	mesohyl, n.
nanobot, n.	pixelate, v.
rewriteable, adj.	screenable, n.
self-storage, n.	texting, n.
text message, v.	uninstall, v.

and Webster's these...

aeriform (adj): having the form of air, as gas
caloric (adj): pertaining to the matter of heat
deliquesce (v): to dissolve or soften in air
electrician (n): one versed in electricity
ignescent (adj): yielding fire or sparks
psychology (n): the doctrines of spirit or mind
sebaceous (adj): fat, pertaining to fat
vaccine (n): the cow pox, kine-pox
vaporize (v): to convert into vapor by heat

in 1806 ;)

omigiddyGAWD!

ok... i'm slightly bored...

well... maybe not bored as much as unmotivated... though i should be extremely motivated as the summer is quickly running out and my "to do" list is not -- quickly running out that is.

so, in my search for inspiration, and after finding some old html files on a flash drive, i transported myself to the zen garden and was thus absorbed in it's complete and utter beauty (and the totally kewl factor of this place!)

*sigh* or should i say *ohm* -- actually i should probably say EEK (or was that geek?)

when what to my wondering eyes should appear... OMIGIDDYGAWD... i can now drool all over a paper rendition of the CSSZENGARDEN!!!!!

well shut ma mouth and bless ma soul whilst i jes jump around here for joy!  I'd put it on my wish list except all sanity has left me and i cannot for the life of me remember my amazon login...

now that I am sufficiently inspired... we now return to regular programming.

searching for yourself

11 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION TIPS

The title tag is critical. It's important not to overcomplicate your design and technical approach with things such as Flash, Java, frames and dynamically built websites.

The title tag is critical
The title tag is the single most important piece of content for people who search:
1) Keep it short: Don't have more than 60 characters (with spaces), which is roughly 8-10 words.
2) Lead with the most important careword for that particular page. Always start off with what is specific about the page and move to what is general. Many websites begin their title with their brand or organization name, and then follow with what is unique about the page. (This is a very common mistake, so check out your website.)

The description tag is recommended
The description tag is not nearly as important as the title. However, it does have some value. Write it as a summary and keep it under thirty words. It should be written in a compelling, clear manner.

Light pages, and lean, quality HTML
The less HTML code you have, the better, as it makes it easier and faster for the search engine to index your page. Aim for a total page weight of 50 KB for any page (that's including graphics). Certainly, anything over 100 KB is going to be slow, and some search engines don't like pages that are over 100 KB.

Have a site map/index
People like site maps/indexes, and so do search engines. Make sure that the site map is available from the homepage, that it is presented in a text-based format, and that it is kept up to date.

Avoid Flash
I've nothing against Flash design except for the fact that I generally detest it. It's such a waste of time; fourth rate TV advertising by people who will never get the chance to do a real TV ad. Search engines don't like Flash either, and find it very hard to index Flash-based pages.

Build your website in static HTML
You don't need a "dynamic" website unless you have dynamic content, such as airline seat availability and pricing which needs to be dynamically published from a database because it constantly changes. You may store your website in a database but you're better off publishing it as a static HTML website. It's
cheaper, the pages will download faster, and search engines will find it easier to comprehensively index your website.

Avoid PDFs
One of the sure signs of a badly managed website is that it has lots of PDFs. Publishing content in PDF is usually a shortcut. Search engines have got better at indexing PDFs but it is still recommended that you publish a heading and summary in HTML.

Avoid frames
Frames are a very bad idea.

Watch your JavaScript
Any links that you have in JavaScript should also be published in HTML, otherwise the search engine won't be able to follow those links. Rollovers are cool but they cause nothing but problems, so unless you have a brilliant technical team, avoid
them.

Alternative text
As a rule you should have alternative text for every single image. However, the only alternative text that search engines recognize is for those images that are linked. Make sure you use descriptive, careword-rich text.

Keyword tags
Over the years, some websites tried to trick search engines by stuffing keyword tags with lots of popular words. Because of this, most search engines give very little value to keyword tags


You are welcome to republish this article once you place the
following text and link at the end of the article:

For your web content management solution, contact Gerry McGovern
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com

html editors

here's the info from araneae's home page... when i'm not at home using homesite, i like to use this lovely little piece of software. it does the trick for me.

You’ve reached the home of Araneae, a simple yet powerful text editor for the web. Araneae (pronounced ah-RAN-ee-ay) is a tool that provides only the features necessary to create stunning websites with all the latest web technologies. Araneae will not seize control of your code, leaving its interface astonishingly uncluttered and easy to use. Simply put, Araneae is just what you need.

Araneae Overview
Araneae runs on Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP and features syntax highlighting, unlimited document length, drag-and-drop image support, instant browser preview, multiple documents open at once via a tabbed interface, and many more useful features. Araneae is free to use as long as you’d like. All I ask in return is that you email me and let me know what you think of it.

International support is available. Translations include Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, and Swedish.

If you find Araneae exceptionally useful, voluntary donations are accepted through the link to the left. I’m usually a few donations shy of covering the development and website costs, so your support would be greatly appreciated.

woe, what a world

Did MSBlast cause the Aug. 14 blackout? The official analysis says "no," but Bruce Schneier's not so sure.

"Let's be fair. I don't know that MSBlast caused the blackout. The report doesn't say that MSBlast caused the blackout. Conventional wisdom is that MSBlast did not cause the blackout. But it's certainly possible that MSBlast contributed to the blackout. The primary and backup computers that hosted the alarm systems failed at the same time MSBlast was attacking Windows computers on the Internet. What operating system were the alarm computers running? Were they on the Internet? These are interesting questions worth knowing the answers to. "