Democrats and Republicans (3) Jul 20, 2005
Republicans are generally dumb, while Democrats are generally hateful.  Republicans try to focus on the positive aspects of things, which usually means ignoring the negative ones.  For example, a Republican would say how well the war effort in Iraq is going.  A Democrat would say something like, "[insert exact number here] Americans have died since this 'war' began.  Is it worth that many American lives?  And what was the original purpose of the war?  To get Osama Bin Laden.  Have we found him?  No!  Therefore the war is unsuccessful."  While all these points are true, Republicans ignore them and focus on the fact that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power.  Democrats point them out and focus on character flaws in the leadership of our country.  Without Democrats and the American left, the country wouldn't be where it is today.  We wouldn't have things like civil rights, women's rights, and stuff like that.  The left has always brought about unpopular opinions and made them standard policy.  This is good.  It was a good idea.  But a lot of ideas are good.  Take the Catholic church for example (Politics and religion in the same post?  Bold!).  The Catholic church set up many things in the beginning that were great ideas.  The idea of catechism/confirmation was to teach young people about Jesus and to baptize them into Christendom.  The problem is that things change over time.  Nowadays, people blindly go through catechism to please their parents (or to avoid punishment from their parents) and make a significant profession of their faith without even blinking.  So anyway, back to politics.  Republicans usually don't have answers to Democrats' questions about the goals of the war.  They usually just ignore them or find a way around them.  And let's face it, President Bush isn't the most eloquent man alive.  I think he means well.  It just doesn't always come out well.  So then there's name calling, which Republicans and Democrats both participate in.  In conclusion, I would say that both parties in this two-party system have their problems.  But I also think it's obvious that I lean a certain way. #religion
Website rules (4) Jul 20, 2005
I spend a lot of time on the internet.  The person reading this can probably say the same thing.  In my internet travels, I've come across a lot of junk that makes my life difficult.  So I've compiled a list of things not to do when designing a website.
  1. Don't make things scroll.  That was cool when it first came out, but it's not cool anymore.  This includes stuff like news tickers and marquees that scroll across your screen.
  2. Don't make things blink.  Not only is this annoying, it's not compliant with HTML standards, meaning it works in some browsers but not in others.  Note to users:  you can stop things that blink by pressing the "Stop" button or escape.
  3. Don't use Flash.  Flash is a great tool.  I have no idea what it's capable of, but it seems to be a pretty cool thing.  Just don't clutter up your website with stupid annoying Flash animations that take forever to load.  The best way to drive users away from your website is to make it take long to load.
  4. Don't use ads.  I know this is a big thing for some people, but I think you'll find that the most useful websites in the world are ad-free.  I think even Google used to be ad-free.  If you have to use ads to support your site, use Google AdSense or something like that.  A few little text-based non-obtrusive ads are much better than a bunch of big banners that take up time and space.
  5. Don't use popups.  This is an obvious one.  The great thing about this is that it's an almost non-existent problem these days with all the popup blockers out there.
  6. Don't use animated gifs.  They attract unnecessary attention.
  7. Don't change the status bar.  It always causes problems.
  8. Don't change the title bar dynamically.  In other words, don't do those little DHTML and JavaScript tricks that have things moving around in the title bar.
  9. Don't use embedded videos or sounds.  They're just stupid.  Nobody likes to hear some stupid little MIDI song when they visit your site.
#technology
Refer Jul 20, 2005
When I used to work at Schering-Plough, my boss-guy always referred to one of my co-workers as "Joe, the heavy-set guy".  Every time he mentioned him, even after I had been there for 10 weeks, he still said the part about him being heavy-set.  Plus, this heavy-set guy Joe sat in the cubicle right next to mine, so I knew who my boss-guy was talking about every single time.  It makes me wonder:  what do people say about me when they refer to me?  "Go talk to Dave, the skinny nerdy one."  "I need to go see Dave, the one with stuff always hanging out his nose."  What if there's some major physical attribute or character flaw that I'm overlooking that people have adopted as my description?  And what about that day when I find out?  "You think I have a big butt?"  "I have tons of ear hair?"  That'll be a bad day. #psychology