Catartis

Comments are History :^(

A few of you might have noticed that *THE* Cat & I have been absent from blogging, and much of cyberspace for the last couple of months. The hectic state of holiday preparation, beach runs to escape the hectic holidays previously mentioned and general life and laziness have kept me away. I seem to have temporarily lost my taste for it.

Unfortunately, during that time the tacky comment spammers have not rested. Renames of mt-comments and other assorted measures have not stopped them. The blacklist helps by notifying me of gamblers, ripoff artists and general smut dealers who try to post links here, but quite by chance today, I noticed that I had not received notification on several of the offending posts. I doubt it was an issue with comment notification, more likely an issue of my mass deleting of junk that surfaced over the holidays while I was enjoying a quite, winter beach.

So, effective immediately, all comments are closed and all IP's are banned from posting via a quick fix suggestion from the forums to simply add a blank entry to the IP Banning section.

I do not anticipate reopening them until I finally get off my overly cushy tail and complete the redesign of this site and the move to Expression Engine. My buddies and well wishers know where to find me and you cheap sleaze bags out there can find someone else to pester.

Meeeeeooooowww & Good Riddance to Comment Spammers!
Farron & _^..^_

The Magic Dragonfly Award goes to ...

I have to crow over my dear buddy, Lisa! Her incredible new "Cafe Lisa" blog design is gaining recognition in all sorts of interesting places:

Web Standards Awards
(Thursday October 28th, 2004)

CSS Beauty
(Monday, October 25th, 2004)

and the site is listed in this month's Noteworthy Category at CSS Vault.

We of the Cathouse are now declaring her the first and only winner of the Magic Dragonfly Award. She and that lovely dragonfly are certainly flying high this week!!

The scruffy old _^..^_ and I are going take this out-of-date blog we still have not redesigned and hide under the bed now. Someday.... Someday.... [wink]

Sweet Dreams!

Farron

Blogging Workshop

IT Kitchen has a two week clinic on blogging and related topics starting this Monday, October 25th. It runs through Friday, November 5th.

Clinic Overview:
http://wiki.itkitchen.info/Clinic:Overview

Clinic Schedule:
http://wiki.itkitchen.info/Clinic:Schedule

Sounds like an event that might well be worth checking out!

Farron
[ & _^..^_ who heard it was a feline approved event ]

Blogs About Ivan

The Irish Trojan's Blog - Hurricane bloggers has links to several bloggers who are in Ivan's path.

Catartis sends thoughts and prayers in their direction. Stay safe, ya'll!

Farron
[& _^..^_ in Tennessee]

Hurricanes and Blogs

Ohhhhhh!

Did I ever spot a job I want today. Being sent to blog hurricanes.

http://weatherbug.blogs.com/

I am so jealous of this kid I could spit! I wanna follow *Indiana Weather* [what I call that Jim Cantori guy from TWC] around and blog the whole dern thing. He always gets the best spots, and maybe I'd get that one ride with a hurricane spotter that I've been dying to take for years. Quite sure that one would be enough, but I would like to try it one time.

And what a great excuse that would be for an entire new set of highly mobile puter and camera toys! *smile*

Farron
[and That _^..^_ who knows I'm totally crazy]

So Much for a Quiet, Spam-free Blog

I am pretty well hidden over here as this blog, which started a bit over a year ago as a test I was doing with some friends is not a heavily travelled corner of cyberspace. It's mostly just a place for me to stash things I would like to be able to find again and share a few smiles or grumbles with friends.

Wellllllll, the PITA comment spammers seem to have found me. I didn't even realize it for a bit as the most of the nasty litttle titles in the notifications didn't even make it to my mailbox thanks to my email spam blockers and filters.

I started to use Phil Ringnaula's suggestion from the forums about a fast and easy way to ban all IP's temporarily by simply entering a blank IP address via the MT IP Banning feature, but that made me almost as mad as having to delete comment spam. Why shouldn't I be able to allow comments if I want them and still be irritation/spam free? It's not like someone will get super SE ratings for attaching to this little corner.

I dug around for another minute in the forums to find a quick and easy fix. Did not want to invest large amounts of energy into it at this point as catartis.com will be migrating off of MT in the near future. It would have been gone already if I hadn't gotten a case of extreme & acute lazification over this summer break. I have a spot ready for it, but I need to kick my creative cells into gear and come up with new site design templates before I toddle off. I am just that way. lol

Found this quick fix at Neil's World thanks to a post in the MT forums:

One Idea

Just tested posting a comment on my previous entry and all seems to be working on that end. Now, let's see if it helps. If not, all IP's will be banned until I get off my [ahem] assets and get moved.

The _^..^_ is disgusted, and so am I. [grin & growl]

Farron

Causes, Campaigns & Coding

In doing just a wee bit of that blog surfing I planned to blow off the rest of the night. Ran across a few spots that seem to be trying to spread the word about issues near and dear to my coding and computing heart.

First, here's one the students will love. A new *sticker* to strut on the pages they are creating with their new found coding skills:

This *sticker* button links to information about why table layouts should be avoided and the value of table free design.

And how about spreading the word that messIE6 is [ahem] not the ideal choice in browsers? It's about time some of the superior and more compliant browsers like Mozilla/FireFox and Opera started getting more attention and use:

Commentary from scottandrew.com:
http://www.scottandrew.com/main/ie-psa

Several links to articles like this one are included.

Internet Explorer is Too Dangerous to Keep Using:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1617931,00.asp

And last, but not least, what about these notes on an unfortunate step backward in time from Apple and the Dashboard project?

http://jking.dark-phantasy.com/log/?post=91
http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2004/07/07/wrapped-in-canvas/

Okay, I'm pooped now. Enough for tonight. Time to snuggle in with a fella, a pillow and THE _^..^_.

Sweet dreams all!

Farron

Thoughts on Weblog.com and Life in General

Hummm,

Browsing through some of the posts regarding the unexpected demise of Weblogs.com and talking off the top of my pointed head over the stale dredges of what remains of morning coffee has me thinking.

Some cliches come to mind, "you get what you pay for" and "there's no such thing as a free lunch" pop into my head immediately. I have much more of a right to expect reasonable warning if I am willing to pay a reasonable fee [in either the currency of the land or the sweat of donated labor] than I do if I simply grab a free ride.

So I suppose there are some things I need to remind myself of by reciting them with a big finger pointing straight at my own forehead.

I need to:

1. take responsibility for my own well being.
2. be willing to support what I believe in, use and/or enjoy. There is a price for everything in the long run.
3. keep an eye to the future and realize that change will happen, it's right in there with death and taxes. Consider possible situations, both good and bad. Have a plan to address them, especially when they happen suddenly.
4. not expect others to do for me what I can, with a bit of effort or cash, do for myself.
5. stay current on issues and continue trying to educate myself regarding things that might be interesting or important in my little corner of the world.
6. remember that with all the bumps and bruises that may happen along the way, most of all, learn how to enjoy the ride.

That's life, folks. Enjoy it, learn from it, and always cover your own butt. Don't expect anyone else to do it for you tomorrow just because they are graciously doing it today.

Isn't it funny what odd thoughts a little blog browsing will start stirring in my brain. If I don't write them here, they will evaporate long before noon, like early morning dew. And I need those reminders since I am not consistently good at any of them.

Time to run a backup and "do the homework" that is important to my being able to practice what I preach before I, once again, sidetrack myself.

TaTa for Now,

Farron

P.S. A few links to start your travels if you would like to read about Weblogs.com as well:

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,63856,00.html
http://photomatt.net/archives/2004/06/15/redirection/
http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchive/002739.html

Thank You to pMachine/ExpressionEngine!

A huge thank you to the folks at pMachine. I just received word this afternoon that I am one of the lucky winners of a shiny, new ExpressionEngine.

I'm ready to drop everything and give it a spin. Too bad the *real world* keeps calling me away. Soon, soon.

I just have to say that someone over there has an excellent feel for PR. Some other companies might do well to learn from them. What a wonderful amount of good will they have created toward their company in the last few days. The Master Cat and I will be testing out that new tool very soon.

And while I am here....

I was over on the FireFox extension page checking something for a student and noticed a goodie I hadn't spotted before. Small screen rendering for FF.

Grabbed it on the spot. It's been working like a charm over here.

Dinner time....gotta go!

Farron
[and one hungry _^..^_]

The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition

Humm,

It seems that the profit grabbing Ferengi would be howling that MT has broken one of the all important [aka Ferengi Bible] Rules of Acquisition today, or errrr, yesterday since I see it's after midnight now:

Rule #57:
"Good customers are as rare as latinum -- treasure them."

Although the new licensing and pricing structure does not affect me purrrrsonally at this time, it is interesting that I just became involved in a workshop which, among other things, will probably be testing some assorted blogging tools and CMS. Good timing?

At this moment, I remain interested and watching from the sidelines, but the vast amount of negative response floating around the web and in Mena's Corner at MT right now makes me immensely grateful that I am not part of the Six Apart team.

I will be curious to see their response. WordPress has already issued a little congratulatory message to them and is probably dancing a bit of a jig.

Sweet Dreams,

Farron [and a sleepy _^..^_]

A New Look for the Daily Report

I am sitting here on hold waiting for a plumber's phone call to meet him at a property for repairs. [tap, tap, tap]

Rather than starting something I will only have to put down to run across town, I am catching up on surfing some of my favorite blogs and informational sites for new goodies. Not a bad way to fiddle away a morning. Not bad at all.

I just noticed the new look that has been given to Jeffery Zeldman's personal blog, the Daily Report. No more orange. It's spring green. Lookin' good over there!

Here is a link to the page that comments on the redesign:

http://www.zeldman.com/daily/0504a.shtml

One of these days, I will get a-round-tuit and create a new look for my little corner of the blogging world. I've already added it to that neverending "Summer List." Near the top of the list of priorities is to remove these annoying, default pop-up windows for comments.

Soon, soon.....

Farron & THAT _^..^_ [Who is afraid my morning stirrings might indicate a trip to the V-E-T. He's trying his best to stay off my radar and lay low.]

Pondering Monster Font Size

I have run into an interesting font sizing issue regarding people who need very large text size. It sounds like a bug caused by piggybacking AOL off of IE6 when IE is set to largest.

A student commented to me that it was uncomfortable to read pages I have setup in an extremely simple two column sort of style to be able to include a right side link sidebar. She commented that, at the large text size she uses it read like a ticker tape down the page.

I did some testing and, yes, my page and just about any page in a column setup [including Zeldman's blog, the WaSP site, etc] were uncomfortable to read if you were running in absolutely gigantic text. Some broke and overlapped in any straight text resize offered by browsers. Opera definitely handled the issue better than others with the zoom of the entire page rather than singling out the text as the only element to enlarge. Many horizontal scrolls were evident, but page layouts were left much closer to the designer's intent.

After getting a bit more information from the student, it seems she is running an older version of AOL. Seven. She also has five or six other browsers on her system but prefers using AOsmelL because she likes the way it handles Favorites. She keeps IE6 set to largest text size under the view menu. But then she heads to AOL, which picks up her IE6 settings but then seems to double the "largest" text by applying one of it's own. There is no view control in that version of the browser that she can find so she is stuck with it unless she goes back to IE and redoes her settings there.

From the description I was getting from it, it sounds like the size she is seeing would be roughly equivalent to clicking the enlarge text option 4 to 5 times above normal in Firefox, or at least 200% in Opera's zoom. [The view, though messy in Opera is handled more elegantly than the others.]

I think her situation is rather a fluke and I have had her looking at options in other browsers. She says she thinks Firefox does the best job, but still wants to use AOL. [Go figure.] Since IE does not resize fixed size fonts, it does not seem to be an issue for locked in text size on pages, but then she would be stuck with text that is not large enough to read.

The whole thing has me thinking about column layouts and people who require huge text due to visual problems. I am thinking the best policy to try to please more of the people more of the time may be a built in style swapper on column layouts. Something offering an option that deletes the columns completely, but purrrrhaps a bit more attractive than a totally unstyled page. Just a few touches.

That does not address people with javascript disabled, but it might help a larger audience.

Just musing and thinking here. I may experiment with my lesson styles over summer break when there is plenty of fiddle time [she says] and see if I can hit on a workable solution.

Try surfing around at an absolutely huge text size. Don't do it in Opera, try another browser. FF maybe? Hit some blogs and column layout pages at a size roughly double what IE would call *largest*. It's a miserable experience. But if it was my only option due to visual problems, I would probably be wading through it as well.

Back to a sunny Saturday.

Later,

Farron and That _^..^_

debbieT is a pain!

Gee thanks, debbieT. Here I was actually getting some work done on writing for that class tonight and what happens? I take a break for just a minute. A link to your blog, Splash of Style, catches my eye and I decide to snoop and see what you are up to over there.

What indeed! Besides taking my name in vain by admitting I had something to do with buttons...[gasp & harumph], you have totally sidetracked me with the Bloggies link. You know I can get lost for hours in there. Hours only??? Heck, weeks, days, months!! Fun, fun things to be found.

Did you catch the article in one entry entitled, "My Life as a Blog Widow"?
/* me thinks Tony & Mike should not see that one */
[smile!]

Okay, I am heading back over there to vote for a few of my favorites. So much for getting any work done tonight before bed. Come to think of it I may not be turning in for a bit. And it's already well into the wee hours here.

So many places to play and so little time. *sigh*

You do realize that if you keep doing this to me, you are going to have two XHTML/CSS classes to write instead of just one, don't you? Well, one and a half plus tweaks and clean ups anyway.

My one consolation in this "wasted" night is that I know daBeckster will read this and have to follow your links as well. She may just get lost there for years instead of months! Happy blogging, Beckster! [wicked smirk]

To everyone else, sweet dreams.....

Farron and That _^..^_

Move Is Complete!!!

We are all moved into the new server space at Hosting Matters now. Everything appears to be working as expected and *THE* Cat and I are happy campers.

It is very cool to have such a blog [not to mention client] friendly host. I had little to complain about in tech support at the other server, they were fast and helpful, but HM is awesome. They truly do go above and beyond the call of duty. And their member forums are full of great advice. More than a few of you around here who have used them for awhile have me feeling confident that the level of service I have received so far is not a fluke, but what HM clients have come to expect.

So if you are looking for a new hosting service, you owe it to yourself to check them out at:
http://hostingmatters.com

That's all the ad promo you get on this beautiful Sunday morning.

TaTa,

Farron and THAT _^..^_

First Real Issue with MT

Okay,

So far, as I start to see how things work, I am starting to really like MT. Except for one thing. Seems some of the functions in the editing panel are IE specific. Shame, Shame, SHAME on them. The most annoying one I have found to date is when you are trying to rebuild a page or a template. Often, over in Mozilla [or from what I hear on the boards, Opera as well] the "rebuild" or cancel buttons are below the bottom of the popup window. Which is not resizeable BTW. You are stuck, can't use the function without backing out of your browser of choice and heading over to messIE.

Now can it really be that difficult to either enlarge the window, or make it resizeable....or better yet. Drop the pop and put those buttons on the actual control page? Can't be THAT difficult to do.

I've heard some other beefs about buttons for underline, italics, bold, etc not working, but that's not much of an issue to me. Especially when I hear that they generate old, deprecated tags like < bold > and < i > instead of the accepted < strong > and < em >.

That's my little snit and rant for the evening. Ahhhh, grumbliing feels good sometimes. [smile]

Farron & That _^..^_

Farewell to the Rose Bushes

I have cut away the last of the rose bushes. The little white *almost wild* ones always seem to last the longest. They would last longer if my little nemisises, the dreaded Japanese Beetles, had not started appearing in Tennessee a few years back to gobble them with wild abandon.

The other day, when I was trimming out some of the last of the branches, I decided to grab a camera and catch a shot of one of the last of the little monsters. He had many friends on the roses that day, all munching away and having little buggy sex on my flowers. Ahhhh, one consolation is that they are were all only bug-juice under my nails and on my fingers shortly after the photos were taken. Did I mention that they are slow moving little monsters? They make me miss ol' Ellis the turtle who lived with us for a short time last year. He found stunned Japanese Beetles to be quite a tasty treat. lol

As my buddies & partners in crime will realize by now, much of the reason for this post is to test adding images, using a bit of coding rather than a straight text post, taking up space to see if it blows the layout & adding categories. [grin]

As a side, blog creation related note, for future photos, I believe I should either add them as a link or in the extended entry section to cut down on the weight of this main page. But I wanted to try it this way for the first shot. I also found it easier to upload the image via my good old ftp for the moment. Trying to send if via the built in feature gave me a setup I still needed to edit a bit and it created a new folder inside images/ that I did not specify. As in, it gave me images/photoname.jpg/photoname.jpg. I am quite sure that was caused by some goofy user, but it is NOT what I specified as the code path. It added that blakety blank folder all on it's own. booger! haha

Farron
[aka Squasher of Bugs]

Back and Fiddling

I am finally getting back over here to fiddle tonight.

I couldn't come up with "daBigIdea," so I asked THE Cat for advice. Guess what he demanded? [Read the "Why the Name" link to find out.] I am mainly using this rather out of character layout for testing purposes.

I think I have found most of the templates that control the look of the pages. Still haven't spotted the one for the search page. Britta???

Right now the test is to find out what is on the extended entry page and see if I need to change something. Slowly but surely, I am beginning to get a vague idea where to look for things related to the look of the pages and how to work on them. The very basic parts that is.

Just to let you know, the only category active at the moment is General Chatter...the others do not have any links/pages yet.

Back to it to see what happens now.

Farron

It's Up!

Okay! I am just testing here. I will think about what in the heck it's supposed to be, look and do later. It's on the server...that's enough when dinner is burning.

To be continued later, Ya'll.

Stay tuned!

Farron...[_^..^_ lays no claim to this ugly incompatible template]