Re:Razor-blade model? (Free Wifi pay for power?)
on
WiFi Free-For-All
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· Score: 1
I've been running into the same problem for years -- and I finally remembered to pick up a cheap partial solution: I now carry a standard grounded three-way outlet ($2 at my local hardware store.)
So far, I've been warmly welcomed into two "power clusters" . . . particularly by the folks waiting to plug in!
1: Buy multi-tap outlet
2: Take flight with four-hour layover
3: Profit!
I don't mean to sound pedantic -- but hey, the reason/. "always" gets news like this "3 or 4 months late" is, quite naturally, because no one who knew about it back then posted it here.
You mention that you're an avid poster at hardforums, so I'll bet you're the kind of person who find out interesting stuff well before the rest of us. So, hey -- the next time you find out about something interesting, share it with those of us who aren't in the know!
As a side benefit, instead of having to try to tell us that you're not "meaning to sound negative," you'll be proving to us that you're a positive, put-my-money-where-my-mouth-is,/. poster, too. And of course, then I won't have to write another of these suck-up-to-CowboyNeal comments, either!:*)
I'm in a similar position -- a large company I used to work for, who until recently, still held my retirement account -- I moved it right after looking at the source for their login page: It has javascript "security" including a list of login names of the HR employees who have rights to two admin links that are "hidden" from the public.
Those links are to other web applications that take a user's social security number (no password required!), and allow you to change their password that let them access their retirement account -- so you can do whatever you want with it!
So I'd also like to know the best way to get this to the attention of someone OTHER than their obviously-sloppy web team.
Doesn't look like anyone else has mentioned this, but I've found the best "alarm" clock to be a timer and an electric matress pad (~$60) set to High.
It is the most gentle awakening I've ever found, allowing your body to decide to wake up when it's in the right part of the REM cycle.
An electric blanket works OK, but it's too easy to throw off when things get too warm.
Although you're right that many users will indeed have those fonts, it turns out that just having them doesn't mean they'll be readable; Arial in particular creates problems for Mac and unix users.
With just a snippet of extra work, you can easily avoid those problems; to summarize, just specify a font list (rather than a single font), making sure it is ordered such that it degrades gracefully:
HTML:
<font face="Times New Roman,serif">
Degrades to a proportional serif font for everyone
</font>
CSS:
<div style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Shows Geneva on Macs (instead of too-small Arial), Arial on Windows, and Helvetica on unix, all degrading to generic sans-serif if no named font is available.
</div>
Also, you might want to take another look at CSS, keeping in mind that same principle of degrading gracefully; the archives at A List Apart contain an elderly but valid article saying To Hell with Old Browsers, and they make a lot of good points. They and the Web Standards Project seem to feel that most of the hard push is over with, and we can begin to really use CSS (again, it's workable because it allows graceful degradation), even though MSIE abounds.
No doubt about it -- while a prof adds some value, I'd far rather take a course without a "teacher" than without a textbook.
My dad, formerly a professor of Physics at Hobart, Princeton, etc., has a great (though not original) definition of "lecture":
The process by which information gets from a paper in front of the lecturer to the papers in front of the students without passing through the mind of either.
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I've been running into the same problem for years -- and I finally remembered to pick up a cheap partial solution: I now carry a standard grounded three-way outlet ($2 at my local hardware store.)
So far, I've been warmly welcomed into two "power clusters" . . . particularly by the folks waiting to plug in!
1: Buy multi-tap outlet
2: Take flight with four-hour layover
3: Profit!
You mention that you're an avid poster at hardforums, so I'll bet you're the kind of person who find out interesting stuff well before the rest of us. So, hey -- the next time you find out about something interesting, share it with those of us who aren't in the know!
As a side benefit, instead of having to try to tell us that you're not "meaning to sound negative," you'll be proving to us that you're a positive, put-my-money-where-my-mouth-is, /. poster, too. And of course, then I won't have to write another of these suck-up-to-CowboyNeal comments, either! :*)
Those links are to other web applications that take a user's social security number (no password required!), and allow you to change their password that let them access their retirement account -- so you can do whatever you want with it!
So I'd also like to know the best way to get this to the attention of someone OTHER than their obviously-sloppy web team.
Anyone? Bueller?
Doesn't look like anyone else has mentioned this, but I've found the best "alarm" clock to be a timer and an electric matress pad (~$60) set to High. It is the most gentle awakening I've ever found, allowing your body to decide to wake up when it's in the right part of the REM cycle. An electric blanket works OK, but it's too easy to throw off when things get too warm.
Although you're right that many users will indeed have those fonts, it turns out that just having them doesn't mean they'll be readable; Arial in particular creates problems for Mac and unix users.
With just a snippet of extra work, you can easily avoid those problems; to summarize, just specify a font list (rather than a single font), making sure it is ordered such that it degrades gracefully:
HTML:
<font face="Times New Roman,serif">
Degrades to a proportional serif font for everyone
</font>
CSS:
<div style="font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
Shows Geneva on Macs (instead of too-small Arial), Arial on Windows, and Helvetica on unix, all degrading to generic sans-serif if no named font is available.
</div>
Also, you might want to take another look at CSS, keeping in mind that same principle of degrading gracefully; the archives at A List Apart contain an elderly but valid article saying To Hell with Old Browsers, and they make a lot of good points. They and the Web Standards Project seem to feel that most of the hard push is over with, and we can begin to really use CSS (again, it's workable because it allows graceful degradation), even though MSIE abounds.
No doubt about it -- while a prof adds some value, I'd far rather take a course without a "teacher" than without a textbook.
My dad, formerly a professor of Physics at Hobart, Princeton, etc., has a great (though not original) definition of "lecture":
The process by which information gets from a paper in front of the lecturer to the papers in front of the students without passing through the mind of either.