While working on my employer’s web site, I found a document that was built with really ugly HTML. I cleaned up the HTML, used [H1] and [H2] instead of [font size+2][b] and I am really pleased with the resulting pages. The old page had 15,397 characters. The new page has 14,784 characters. Granted that is only 613 characters, but the page is structurally more sound (for example, the table has table header tags now, so the columns make sense logically; sections are broken down into Headings levels), so it should render more nicely on alternate web browsers (phones, PDAs, etc.).
Home Page Tweaks
Some people mentioned that the new site was a bit blah. So to add a bit of color, I have added four random photos from my Photo Gallery to the bottom of the home page. They rotate randomly from the various galleries, and of course you can select (click on) the photo to see the others in that collection. The annoying thing is that you can tell that I have used several different programs to generate the thumbnails, because there are several different sizes of images. And yes, I have new photos to upload, hopefully tomorrow I’ll have time to do that.
Does anyone know a good contact manager for OS X?
My office uses Macs for everything. Almost everyone has a laptop (an iBook or a PowerBook). And everyone is running either Jaguar (OS X 10.2) or Panther (OS X 10.3). And we have a rather large list of people that we need to contact for one reason or another.
For years, we’ve been using Now Contact for managing our contact database. Basically, you have one computer dedicated to function as the main server, and then everyone else in the office has a copy of the database on their comptuer. And each user computer connects to the database every x minutes to send and receive updates. The system basically works.
The problem is the basically.
We need more functionality. Things like Groups (who is on the xxxx mailing list?) When was the last time someone talked to Rep. XXX’s staff? Who last updated this record?
A huge part of the databse problem is simply keeping the information up-to-date. And that’s a training of the user issue that we will have with any solution.
Digital Photo Tips
A good list of tips for how to take better photographs (digital or film): Digital Photography Composition Tips.
CSS Div and Span names?
Interesting article at Stuff and Nonsense: What’s in a Name? Let me think about using the same names to [div]s and [span]s. I think it is a great idea. It would be pretty cool to use the PlanetMike style sheet on any other site someone out there is running.
New Toy of the Day: Tungsten-E
I just got a new Palm, the Tungsten-E. My old Palm (the V) was basically working fine, but the screen was getting marked up, and the memory was really small, only 2MB. The Tungsten-E has a beautiful screen, color 240×240 pxiels (vs 120×120 gray). Battery life so far seems to not be great, but I’m still playing.
I can now read PDFs, play more games, and read email. The VersaMail program is the big thing I wanted to be able to use. I can now sync some of my email accounts with the Palm, so I can read email during my commute. We’ll see how well that really works.
Why RR.com is a spammer
Because they send out “helpful” notices to people who send their customers viruses via email.
So, their mail server is intelligent enough to realize that someone has sent a virus to a customer? Fine, that’s good customer service.
But then they email the “From:” address letting the “sender” know that they have sent a virus. Ridiculous! Their system should know that the virus is faking both the To: and the From: address, and the system should then silently erase the message. And now that I’ve gotten nearly 100 of these “warnings” I am ready to complain to them about mailbombing me.
LifeSavers, or LifeSavers Direct
I am blocking these domain names and IP addresses (listed out indivually so they may show up in web searches):
azdct.com
64.70.17.130
64.70.17.131
64.70.17.132
64.70.17.133
64.70.17.134
64.70.17.135
64.70.17.136
64.70.17.137
64.70.17.138
64.70.17.139
64.70.17.140
64.70.17.141
64.70.17.142
lifesrd.com
leightsvrs.com
lifesaversdir4u.com
livsvdt.com
livrsdt.com
lifesaversdirect.com
fyispcls.com
fyuscls.com
66.54.64
66.54.65
66.54.66
66.54.67
66.54.68
66.54.69
66.54.70
66.54.71
66.54.72
66.54.73
66.54.74
66.54.75
66.54.76
66.54.77
66.54.78
66.54.79
66.54.80
66.54.81
66.54.82
66.54.83
66.54.84
66.54.85
66.54.86
66.54.87
66.54.88
66.54.89
66.54.90
66.54.91
66.54.92
66.54.93
66.54.94
66.54.95
64.70.44.1
64.70.44.2
64.70.44.3
64.70.44.4
64.70.44.5
64.70.44.6
64.70.44.7
64.70.44.8
64.70.44.9
64.70.44.10
64.70.44.11
64.70.44.12
64.70.44.13
64.70.44.14
These company does not honor the CAN-SPAM law, they do not have their physical mailing address in their garbage.
Six more Applications
I just prepared six more applications against junk mailers, mostly local. It is quite annoying that all commercial mailers do not include a return mailing address. I do a google search, but some businesses can’t be found online. So I call the phone number given, and they don’t have any useful info on there, they just want you to leave your contact info so they can get back in touch with you. Yeah, I’m so sure I’ll leave you my information.
I also emailed one of these companies to get their address. Their web host is so screwed up, their email bounced with relay errors. you have got to love junk mailers, they are so close to the competence levels of spammers. Maybe a junk mailer bred with another junk mailer to give us spammers?
The Post Office though will give me the mailing address of the Bulk Permit owner. But it will cost me $4.40. Let me get this straight: First I have to get this garbage in my mailbox. Then I have to pay the USPS to get the address to complain about. Then I have to pay postage to mail the forms into the Post Office.
ValPak
I just realized my Form 1500 application for Valpak got ignored by the USPS as well. Luckily, their web site has an opt-out form: ValPak Opt-Out.
And then I discovered as I was filling in the opt-out form, the USPS gave me someone else’s mail! That must be against the law! I hope no one is getting my mail.