04.01.2007

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Don says:

I took yet another online personality test. Each of these little colored bands represents a characteristic which should show on hover.

I recently got into a heated dispute with another ezine writer whom I will call "Eddie" (not his name) over my use of a URL shortening service in my ezine.   Eddie contends that shortening the URL amounts to obfuscating, thus concealing, it.   I will concede that the actual URL isn't visible but my intent is simply to keep the URL beneath my 60 character line length and I feel it's reasonable to expect my readers to trust my judgement.   We also disagreed over the fact that my ezine is strictly a plain text document while his is delivered strictly in HTML format.   Our argument ended at this point in a stand-off with neither of us willing to alter our opinions or even to continue communicating with one another.   For my part I'm happy to leave it at that but after a few days something occurred to me that I find incredibly amusing and while I won't bother telling Eddie about it, I've got to tell somebody so here goes:

When a URL is presented in an HTML document the actual URL is specified in the underlying, unseen, portion of the coding and the text which is presented as "clickable" can be anything the code-writer wants it to be.   To demonstrate my point, all of the following links point to google (which you may confirm if you wish by clicking on any of them).

My favorite search engine     (this link points to google)

http://www.myspace.com     (this link points to google)

http://www.amazon.com     (this link points to google)

http://www.ebay.com     (this link points to google)

If you'd like to see what this looks like in the actual HTML code, got to the top of your browser window, click on "View" and "Source".

What I'm demonstrating is that the actual URL designated in the coding of an HTML link has nothing at all to do with the clickable text which is displayed for the link and, for this reason, each and every link in Eddie's ezine is actually concealed in his HTML code.   His readers must therefore accept on trust that the actual URL he places in the HTML code is identical to the clickable text he enters for the link.   Understand, this is true of every link in any HTML document whether it be on a web page or received in an email.   Our ezine, on the other hand, is a plain text publication so "what you see is what I typed" for most links and my readers are only expected to trust me with the links I've chosen to shorten.   Now isn't that amusing in a techno-geek sort of way?   Well, I thought it was anyhow.


I'm still happily, albeit slowly, learning Linux and Debian Sarge, the stable version of Debian with the KDE desktop (versus the default Gnome desktop), is still my favorite distribution for anything slower than a GHz (GigaHertz, which is a one followed by nine zeros).   For anything faster than a GHz PCLinuxOS remains my favorite but I've found that Xubuntu 6.06.1 LTS runs very nicely on some older hardware (and I hope to try 6.10 soon).   The most exciting things I've read about lately are Linux Mint, which should be awesome on newer hardware, and SAM which is a version of PCLinuxOS I'm hoping will do well on older hardware.   The last Debian Net Install I ran took about six hours.   I'm not sure why but for some time now I've been thinking that I should buy the full fifteen CD set for the Debian install in order to show support and save time as well.   There are also other distros I wish to support so I bought current copies of openSUSE (5 CDs), Mandriva (4 CDs), Fedora Core (5 CDs), gNewSense, Debian (15 CDs) and Freespire as well as the 6.10 versions of Kubuntu, Ubuntu and Xubuntu from Edmunds Enterprises of America, Inc.   I bought a copy of SAM but Edmunds Enterprises didn't carry it and the only vender I could find who did was fairly proud of their products (their prices were high) so the only disk I bought from them was for SAM (ok, I actually bought two but only because they donate a substantial portion of each sale back to PCLinuxOS and they didn't charge me any extra shipping for the second disk).

Here's a current screenshot of my 800 MHz AMD Duron system running Debian Sarge w/KDE desktop.

Here's another cool gadget I found.

I had a couple of problems with this little google gadget.   First, it wouldn't center properly and second the links opened in the same window despite the fact that I have offsite links set to open in new windows but I solved the first problem by placing the gadget inside a centered table and the second by adding a nice little Javascript to this page which I downloaded from Dynamic Drive (thank you Dynamic Drive).

Lisa says:

Ooooh! A gardener's dream come true.   I was able to attend the Hill Country Lawn and Garden Show in Marble Falls, TX, arguably the best gardening show in this part of the country.   It was presented by the Highland Lakes Master Gardeners and Texas Cooperative Extension.   My friend Timmie Debusk, a Texas Master Gardener, Master Naturalist and owner of the TLC nursery here in Tow was a vendor and I helped man her booth.

What a great event!   It was held in a beautiful facility, The Lakeside Pavilion in Marble Falls.   The free seminars featured three speakers who are leaders in their fields:   Bill Ludecke, Malcolm Beck, and Glen Schroeter.   We were truly fortunate they shared their knowledge with us.   Read about them here.

To me, one of the more satisfying aspects of current gardening trends is a movement toward using native plants in landscaping.   The Native Plant Society of Texas was well represented.   Many vendors offered native and introduced varieties of landscape plants, herbs and flowers that are useful in xeriscaping and EarthKind garden plans.

Some of the best customers were the rabid...uh, dedicated gardeners that comprise most of the vendors and Master Gardeners.   In other words, folks, we were our own best customers.   I only bought a few, uh, several, um...no more than two armloads of plants.   Here are a few of them.

Bulbine

Salvia Indigo Spires

Mexican Honeysuckle

Salvia Iodantha

I also bought about a half-dozen really cool sedums.   I just can't get enough  *sigh*  and Spring's barely started...

'Til next time,

Lisa