Montana n: A state of the northwest United States bordering on Canada. Admitted as the 41st state in 1889. The fourth largest state in the union, it includes vast prairies and numerous majestic mountain ranges.
Syn: Treasure State, Big Sky Country, Last Best Place.
Jones n: slang. An addiction or very deep craving.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Moms computer
- Mom:
- These things just pop up on my screen and I don't know what they are or what to do about them. Computers confuse me.
- Me:
- Yeah, most of this crap you have been seeing is some of your software asking permission to check for or download upgrades off the net.
- Mom:
- So what do I do? I don't want things downloading and changing on me. I am confused enough without my programs changing themselves.
- Me:
- My rule of thumb is that if you system is working and doing what you want it to do, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. When a program pops up and asks to download something, just say no. Refusing to let your programs talk to the mothership will not hurt anything.
- Mom:
- Good. That's what I will do then.
- Me:
- But the rule of thumb has exceptions. Mainly operating system upgrades and other security stuff like your anti virus.
- Mom:
- Well, now I'm confused again. How do I know which of these to say yes to?
- Me:
- Well, I have your critical upgrades set to happen automatically in the background, so you shouldn't ever see them. You are safe saying no to everything that pops up and wants your attention.
- Mom:
- I really hate this Vista. I was just getting comfortable with my old computer when Dad replaced it with this one, and this one makes everything so hard. I just don't understand it.
- Me:
- I know. It is really a bad time to buy a computer right now. Microsoft won't let retailers sell anything except Vista, you can't get the older, better systems anymore. If we had known that the new computer was going to be this big of a turd we would have gotten you a Macintosh.
Labels: computer, confusion, conversation, frustration, geek, Microsoft, mom, Vista
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Print style sheet detail
Nerd Alert. This post is for geeks only.
When assigning a print style to your web pages (You do tweek your style sheets for printing, right?) be advised of an undocumented issue.
The "page-break-before" and "page-break-after" style elements will not work when applied to the <br /> or <hr /> tags. I have tested this in FF2 and IE7; mileage may vary on other platforms.
The workaround/cludge I ended up using looks like this:
<div style="page-break-after:always;"><hr /></div>
Yes, I know. Inelegant and ugly but I blame the browser makers.
I hope this helps to prevent someone else going through the hours of hair pulling I had to deal with.
Labels: cludge, code, css, geek, html, nerd, page-break-after, print, programming, style, tags, web
There is more Jones in the archives: February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 December 2009 January 2010 May 2014
