The SoapBox

Web Design Rant	Yahoo IM	Public Bathrooms	Free Speech
Book List	Security	Stupid Bicyclists

Web Design Rant

01/18/2000

So I spent last night bopping around on a webring. For those of you that don't know what that is, a webring is a group of sites related by topic and linked to each other in a big circle (if you're lucky, the circle is complete). The more I traveled this webring, the more... shall we say.. perturbed... I became. Okay, let's be blunt. A lot of the features on these websites plain pissed me off. And some of these sites are commercial!

Peeve number one: Music and other assundry plugins
I figure at home I am an average internet user, maybe even above. I have a 56k modem that mostly connects at 48.8 and my computer is a Pentium II, 233 mhz. MUSIC MAKES IT SLOW!!!! If a webpage has non-optional music it takes forever for the plugin to load into my browser and another forever for the music to download. And most of the time the stop button doesn't work!!! So I have to sit there, and wait, and wait, and wait until the music, typically horrible, comes in.

Peeve number two: Javascript Alerts
Yeah, they're cute. Yeah, you can say "Hi! Welcome to my webpage!" with them. Those little boxes that pop out at you with a message and make you click "OK" to continue on your way. I found a site that had one of these pop up on each and every page (over ten) coming AND going. That's overkill and will kill the website. That is way too many extra clicks for me to deal with. I will blow by your site and never come back, if I can help it. It takes too long to get from page to page and it is really, reallyannoying.

Peeve number three: Moving Backgrounds
One word. Seasick. I'm trying to concentrate on static, non-moving text while the rest of the webpage is moving all over around it.

Peeve number four (or maybe 3a): Black backgrounds
I don't care what color your text is or how cool you think it looks, black backgrounds make a webpage d*mn hard to read. And I have good eyes!!!!! I get headaches from this!!!

Peeve number five: Big text
I'm sorry but that humongous text just make a website look unprofessional in addition to making me scroll down forever to get to real content. If I want big text I will set my browser to do it myself.

Peeve number six: Distorted images
Granted my imagination is good... but I really don't like imaging what a graphic is supposed to look like because someone got the width and height all wrong. And there's no excuse. Just open the image in a web-browser and it tell you! Very unprofessional looking and what's the point?

Maybe I'm just over opinionated about this but how many websites have you left or griped about for these or similar reasons? I am not the only one to feel this way. Jacob Neilson, a web design guru, has similar complaints. Visit his website at http://www.useit.com and look at his articles about his "Top Ten Web Design Mistakes". Speed and useability are the names of the web game. Are you winning or have you been left behind in your viewer's dust?

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Yahoo Instant Messenger

03/11/2002

So... I'm on Yahoo Instant Messenger, I have a Yahoo email address, Geocities webpage, and I'm a member of numerous Yahoo groups and clubs. I use it for things I don't want directly connected to my official name and contact stuff.

My username makes it fairly clear that I'm female and so does my profile. It also states that I'm married. It is also relatively easy to find out what groups and clubs I am in.

NOWHERE did I hang out a sign saying "Hi! Proposition me or send me porn links!". Nowhere! Yes, I'm a member of two poly groups on Yahoo but some of these guys that contact me obviously have no idea what is actually going on there.

I am NOT looking to form a sexual relationship with men I meet online. I will NOT send you a picture. I am NOT willing to talk to people whose conversational talents seem to be limited to "RU female? What do U look like? Send me a picture? Wanna play? What are you looking for?" AAARRRGH!!!

*pant pant sigh* My block list in Yahoo is almost as long as my arm. My husband doesn't have this problem... my male friends don't have this problem. I would quit... but I have friends who only have Yahoo IM.

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Public Bathrooms

The Bathroom Rating page.

Everyone has this experience. They're in a resteraunt, a mall, a store and all of a sudden, they have to go to the bathroom. Uh-oh. Time to play bathroom roulette. What are you going to end up with this time.

I have been in some really swank, posh bathrooms. And I have been in some that are just plain horrible. I have started judging places on their bathrooms. Would you go back to a resteraunt where you froze your butt off because the bathroom was unheated and on an outside wall in the winter?You are so cold after doing your business that your teeth chatter for the next 3 hours and your meal/shopping trip is ruined.

Or what about the ones with no hot water, no soap, no towels, and two scraps of toilet paper left. Wouldn't you perfer a bathroom with plush carpeting, hot water, 80 degree F air temperature, and hot water?

Rating the Bathrooms

So, how do you rate a bathroom? Some of the things I look for are air temperature, hot water, cleanliness, towel quality, availability of soap and hand sanatizer, maintenance, size, toilet paper (quality and quantity). I could go on.

I think it's time to come up with a rating system to apply across the spectrum of bathrooms and compare.

Have you been to a bathroom outside of a private residence lately? Would you like to rate it? Please visit the bathroom rating page and send me an email. Your rating will be added to the Bathroom Rating page.

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Book List

I love books. My only problem is that I do not have enough room for all of the books I presently own. I need another room and many, many more bookcases. I keep the books I buy to read over and over again because I believe that I never understand or notice everything in one reading. This is a list of my favorite books, the ones I read again and again. The ones I reccommend over and over. Or the ones that I read once and really love. Here they are.

R. A. Heinlein

To Sail Beyond the Sunset (back in print in paperback!)
Time Enough for Love
Stranger in a Strange Land (the unabridged version please!)
The Number of the Beast
I Will Fear No Evil
Methusela's Children (spelling may not be right)
Starship Troopers
The Cat who Walked through Walls (yes, I do have this listed under the correct author)
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Isaac Asimov

The Foundation Trilogy
Robots of Dawn
Robots and Empire
Prelude to Foundation

Anne McCaffery

If I have to list all of her books that I enjoy over and over, this webpage would be hideously long. Suffice it to say that I love almost all of her work (a romance excepted) and highly reccommend her writing. I'm just going to list series of books.

The Dragonriders of Pern
Dinosaur Planet and the sequel
Pegasus in Flight and all of the following Talent novels
The Ship who... series
The Crystal Singer series

Elizabeth Moon

The Deeds of Paksenarrion
Anything with Anne McCaffery, a wonderful combination.

Anne Rice

The Vampire Lestat
Queen of the Damned
The Beauty Series

Marion Zimmer Bradley

I highly reccommend the books that make up her Darkover series. In paticular, The Shattered Chain, Hawkmistress, and Domains of Darkover.

Firebrand
The Mists of Avalon

Lilian Jackson Braun

Must read her "Cat Who..." series. I will list a few of the many enjoyable books in this series.

The Cat Who Came to Breakfast
The Cat Who Saw Ghosts
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards
The Cat Who Turned Off and On
The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern

Mercedes Lackey

Vows and Honor, aka the two books Oathbound and Oathbreaker
The Lark and the Wren
Once again, anything with Anne McCaffery

Clive Cussler

Light, barely believable plots that you can loose yourself in.

Sahara (kinda an over the top Lincoln conspiracy discovery)
Deep Six

James Mitchner

Centennial

Tad Williams

The Dragonbone Chair
The Stone of Farewell
Green Angel Tower

Diane Duane

Uhura's Song
The Romulan Way

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Stupid Bicyclists

I would like to state first off that I was solely a bicyclist for the first 23 years of my life. I did not get my driver's license until I was 24 and prior to that either walked or biked. I was a responsible bicyclist and I feel that I have a legitimate beef with the irresponsible bicyclists.

Issue Number One is helmets. You need to wear a helmet. For children, it's the law. For adults, it's idiocy not to wear one. My brother had 3 accidents on his bicycle and the only reason he was not seriously injured is that he wore a helmet. A bicycle may not be as dangerous as a car, but you can still crack your head hard enough to cause serious permanent damage. Especially if you get hit by a car. How about those parents who make their kids wear helmets for safety but don't wear helmets themselves. Sure, leave your kids orphans. Helmets are not expensive. Forego your beer for a week or two and you can buy one.

Issue Number Two is handsignals. Granted, cars are required to watch out for you but you need to give them a hand. Namely, a hand signal when you are turning, slowing down, or stopping. Bicyclists need to be proactive when it comes to their safety on the road and handsignals are a good way to do this. If you do not know the handsignals you can get information down at your local DMV.

Issue Number Three... SINGLE FILE! Please, single file on the roads. If you need to talk, stop and get off the road. Cars don't drive double down a road, neither should you. It's dangerous to you and to the cars trying to pass you.

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Thoughts about Security

03/21/2003
From Dictionary.com:

Secure
Main Entry: 1se·cure
Pronunciation: si-'kyur
Function: adjective

1 a archaic : unwisely free from fear or distrust : OVERCONFIDENT b : easy in mind : CONFIDENT c : assured in opinion or expectation : having no doubt
2 a : free from danger b : free from risk of loss c : affording safety (a secure hideaway) d : TRUSTWORTHY, DEPENDABLE (secure foundation)
3 : ASSURED 1 (secure victory)

Security

Main Entry: se·cu·ri·ty
Pronunciation: si-'kyur-&-tE
Function: noun

1 : the quality or state of being secure : as a : freedom from danger : SAFETY b : freedom from fear or anxiety c : freedom from the prospect of being laid off (job security)
2 a : something given, deposited, or pledged to make certain the fulfillment of an obligation b : SURETY
3 : an evidence of debt or of ownership (as a stock certificate or bond)
4 a : something that secures : PROTECTION b (1) : measures taken to guard against espionage or sabotage, crime, attack, or escape (2) : an organization or department whose task is security

The main theme that I hear these days is the definition of the words secure and security as freedom from danger, fear, risk, and anxiety.
(Security as protection is a whole different topic.)

Hmmm...

Freedom

Pronunciation: 'frE-d&m

1 : the quality or state of being free: as a : the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b : liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : INDEPENDENCE c : the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous (freedom from care) d : EASE, FACILITY (spoke the language with freedom) e : the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken (answered with freedom) f : improper familiarity g : boldness of conception or execution h : unrestricted use (gave him the freedom of their home)
2 a : a political right b : FRANCHISE, PRIVILEGE

So... if one is secure, one is exempt or released from danger, fear, risk, and anxiety.

How can the Unites States, as a nation, be exempt from danger, fear, risk and anxiety when the rest of the world deals with it on a daily basis? How can an individual feel secure? How can we feel entitled to be secure?

We can take actions to prevent things that put us in danger, we can do things to make us feel safe. But isn't that all just an illusion?

I haven't felt secure for a long long time. Yes, I lock the doors to my house at night but a burgular can still break a window and get in. I lock my car doors but the same thing can happen. I can do everything I can to patch my Windows 2000 web server and it can still get hacked into. Job security? I found the closest thing to job security that I think anyone can these days. I can get in my car and put my seat belt on... but even that doesn't prevent me from running the risk of dying in a car accident no matter how carefully I drive.

I don't believe we can be entitled to feel secure. I actually don't believe that the nation or it's people have ever been secure. So why is it such a big deal now? Rhetoric. Let's make people think that there is the possibility that the nation can feel secure if we do x, y, and z. Never mind that it's just a fragile dream with no anchor in reality. That's what people want to hear and how they want to feel. Danger and risk are uncomfortable, understandably so, but putting on the blinders of "security" is not going to make them go away.

I've been expecting something to happen on US soil for the past twenty years. Yes... that long. We were just lucky that we weren't living like the Irish, the English, the Greek, the Spanish, the Palestinians, the Israelis... I could go on and on.

I don't think we can even ensure the security of our nation. We can increase the level of security; decrease the dangers and the risks, the fear and the anxiety. I believe that it is irresponsible to think, or let people think, that we can ever really be secure.

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Thoughts Free Speech

03/22/2003
One of the major things that has been worrying me since September 11 is the social stigma that has been attached to speaking out against the policies, laws, and practices of the US government. It has come to the point where there are people who won't speak out in public places, even in a discussion among friends in a public place, for fear of their physical safety.

I'm not kidding.

Last year my brother was almost assaulted in downtown Ithaca, NY for disagreeing with US governmental policy. The man owning the consignment shop in Cortland is wary about talking about the war and the Bush administration to anyone.

I pick and choose who I talk to, mostly choosing not to talk at all.

I was brought up to believe that, along with military service and voting, speaking out against the government when you believe that it is wrong is one of the basic rights, responsibilities, and duties of an American citizen. Of anyone in the United States.

I was also brought up with a healthy distrust of the government. By that I mean I indepently research information coming from the government knowing that there is a tendency to only talk about the facts that support policies and legislation. We live in a democracy and the people we elect are human. Public opinion and exercising my voting rights is the fourth check and balance on the government. One preserved in the First Amendment of the Constition.

My parents lived through the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Kennedy assassination. Dad remembers some of the witch hunts of the McCarthy era. They KNOW that the government isn't always right.

So why are we now not allowed to speak out? Propoganda and rhetoric. "You're either with us or with the enemy." Real patriots don't speak out against the government. Anyone who isn't a patriot is the enemy. People exercising their lawful right to speak out against what they see as wrong in the government are the enemy.

So why are we now not allowed to speak out? The people of my generation have not experience the same sorts of governmental scandals my parents generation has. Clinton? Get real. That wasn't a governmental crisis no matter how big every one blew it up. A lot of us were not old enough to really understand the Iran-Contra scandal. They trust the government and don't want to expend the effort to make sure that trust is well placed. Let's not listen to anyone who may dislodge us from that comfortable place of ignorance and sloth.

Does speaking out against the war indicate a lack of support for the military personnel who are over in the Middle East or who may soon be there? No. Not as long as you understand that the person pushing the button launching that missile is not the person who made the decision to launch it. Soldiers have to follow orders, discipline has to be maintained in order for the military to function. These people have given up years of their lives to do what has to be done to protect us so we can persue our life, liberty, and happiness. I've lost count of the number of friends, family, and lovers who have served and these people deserve and need our unwavering support. But that does not mean that I have to support the governmental decisions that result in the orders they follow.

I myself feel rather indifferent about the war. I know the reasons to not go to war, I know some of the reasons for the war. I agree with parts of both which is why I try not to get into debates about it. Get lynched by both sides of the issue? No thank you.

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