Today's Chuck Norris Fact:
Nobody does it like Sara Lee. Except Chuck Norris.
Like that little line up there? I'm actually LEARNING something about web pages, as Heidi and I both spruce up our blogs and the posts therein with some simple Web tricks. For those of you who don't know, web pages are built from a "code" known as HTML, for HyperText Markup Language. HTML is what your browser interprets and turns into the web page you see. There are more advanced languages and tools that do cooler and prettier things in web pages, like Java, Flash, Shockwave, AJAX, and so on, but HTML is still the basis under which all of those things run. Look up in your Address bar. Notice the little "http://" that is at the beginning of nearly every page you look at? That's short for "HyperText Transfer Protocol" and that's what actually sends the HTML code from the web server you're looking at to your browser. But I digress...
If you know a little bit about HTML, or can find out some things, you can use HTML to do some pretty nifty stuff with any page of anything meant to be viewed through a browser (or even e-mail...these days most e-mail programs also understand and interpret HTML so you can send pretty pictures and use stationary and all that stuff). Inserting graphics, linking to other sites, putting in tables for organizing text or graphics or other things, all sorts of fun stuff. That nifty little line I put in, in place of the string of hyphens I've been using, is called a "horizontal rule". Horizontal rules are good for separating out parts of pages from others parts. You can make them bigger or smaller, wider or narrower, change their color, or even use them as the foundation for a button bar or toolbar you build for your page. Not bad, eh? I'll be using those from now on to separate my individual musings and comments inside my posts. Makes it look a bit cleaner, don't you think? Here goes another one...
Sooner fans, take heart. I admit, I was one of those who was deeply concerned last Wednesday at the news that Rhett Bomar had been kicked off the team for good. But I didn't lose hope; our Sooners always have something in them. And from all reports, they sound almost as though nothing has happened. Paul Thompson has already moved right in, and has done well with the knowledge that he's not fighting for his spot. He's relaxed and so far he's making great plays. His teammates trust and support him. His coaches love him. The fans are happy he's getting another chance at success.
I am not talking hyperbole when I say that we're still in the hunt for the national title. Is there uncertainty? Sure, but there's uncertainty every year. Who thought that Jason White would have not one, but two torn ACLs in two years, and that Nate Hybl would end up the starter for most of that time? We all knew that Jason White was the better quarterback (and came back later and proved it, even with two bad knees). There is precedent at work here, Sooner fans, and most of you know it, deep down. This sort of thing has happened before. Just read this article from the Daily Oklahoman and read both the article and the accompanying information in the sidebar (free registration may be required). We're not sunk yet, not by a long shot. Losing Quinn didn't unduly damage the offensive line, and losing Bomar, as much as it might have hurt us all emotionally, has not broken the spirit of our team. Let's keep the faith, folks...it's a long season and a lot could happen. We weren't exactly expecting a national championship in 2000, were we?
Speaking of registration for websites, here are some important security tips for those of you who don't know them. Well, it's not really a security tip, more of a measure to prevent unnecessary spam and other annoyances. Remember how I've said in the past, all that "free" stuff out on the Internet isn't always necessarily free? If you go somewhere and they want you to register, give personal information, they usually want that so they can sell it to someone else, and make money that way, since they're giving you a free service. So here are some recommendations I would make to prevent trouble in the future:
1. Generate a fake name at the Fake Name Generator. If the site you're registering for is relatively important to you, make a note of the name you use for a specific site. Don't worry, the FNG does not give you REAL personal info; it's all legitimately made up (i.e., any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental). But it will help you protect your personal info by allowing you a way to give them something without you actually having to divulge the real thing. If you're not dealing with a financial institution or a site you absolutely know and trust to not sell your information (there aren't many of those, trust me), you should use fake information, because they may want to know but they don't have a RIGHT to know.
2. Use Yahoo or Hotmail or the like to generate some throw-away e-mail addresses. There are only 1000 or so free webmail providers out there and they all want you to use them, so you may as well take some advantage. Open two or three accounts, perhaps one for news sites, one for downloads sites, etc. Then just log in from time to time to clean them out (this is as much to demonstrate how right I am as to help you keep the accounts open...some services close accounts if you don't log in at least once every 30 days or so). I'll guarantee you that if you start to give out your personal, important e-mail too freely, you will being to receive massive amounts of spam on a regular basis. I found this out myself, through my own error. Now I never give a real account for any sort of online registration, unless it's with my bank or some other trusted provider I know isn't going to spam the snot out of me. My personal e-mail address is only for people I want to receive e-mail from, PERIOD. Keep that in mind.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you make a note of what address you use for what site, or stick to your rules for using certain addresses for certain types of sites. This is important because most sites will use that e-mail address to help you recover a lost password. It's easier to just make a note of what address you use for a site, rather than having to open a new account on that site later because you lost or forgot the password AND forgot what address you used.
3. I can't stress this point enough. NEVER, EVER GIVE OUT CONFIDENTIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION TO AN UNKNOWN WEBSITE OR VIA E-MAIL. Social Security number, credit card info, passwords, all sorts of things like that should be absolutely taboo to send across the Internet that way. I know you hear this a lot, but people still do it. Be smart with that information, and don't provide it unless you have no other choice, and particularly if someone asks for it via e-mail. My only exceptions would be CC info when purchasing online (and even then, look for "https://" in the Address bar; the "s" means it's encrypted and thus secure), or your bank or another trusted site that you have logged into on your own, willingly, not through a link in an e-mail or the like.
4. This point is also important enough that I'm going to hit it again. Don't EVER log into a site that requires confidential information, if you click a link in an e-mail to get there. If your bank sends an e-mail saying they've lost your info or something like that, if you already have a way to get to their site on your own, use that way. Don't every click a link "to your bank" in an e-mail. No reputable company is going to send you an e-mail like that...not if they're smart, anyway. It's too easy to fake those kinds of messages.
Enough for today, class dismissed. Thanks for reading along.
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