reprinted. from a friend.

An open letter to browser sniffers. This is directed to all y’all who are using browser-sniffing code to detect if someone’s using an older browser, like Netscape 4.*, and either popping up windows urging you to upgrade (one of which I recently encountered actually said “You suck”) or even redirecting you to an upgrade page without allowing you to see the site’s content at all.

The intentions behind what you’re doing are noble. In fact, I too enjoy using cutting edge stuff, too. Your hearts are in the right place, and we do need to get as many people to upgrade to newer, w3.org-standards-compliant browsers. However, please think about people who use the web at work, and whose companies (for whatever dopey, inexplicable reason) forbid them to install newer browsers due to Draconian restrictions against installing anything non-authorized on their machines. Some of us are stuck with older editions of Netscape and IE at work, and telling us that we suck because we’re unable to upgrade yet isn’t going to do anybody any good. Actually, it could piss some people off.

In fact, one of the sites whose annoying pop-up said that my browser would be unable to handle the code used to generate the site looked fine to me under copy of IE 4.5 I’m stuck with. I’m sure your painstaking designs are lovely, but I’m primarily interested in your words, and I can read your words with Lynx (and often do).

Speaking of which … your sites are at least reasonably Lynx-friendly, aren’t they? Blind and visually-impaired people who use text readers and speech synthesizers can access your site, can’t they?

Okay, said my piece. Have a frosty beverage, or something.

Alert.

Ben and Jerry’s.

Free Cone Day will be on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2001, view our slideshow from last year and read a little about the history of Free Cone Day. http://www.benjerry.com/scoop/index.html… go in on that day, and get a free ice cream cone.

some bill hicks quote –

“Supreme Court says pornography is anything without artistic merit that causes sexual thoughts. No artistic merit, causes sexual thoughts. Hmmm . . . sounds like every commercial on TV doesn’t it?”

Twist ending of The Day After Tomorrow (Warner Books)
by Allan Folsom

The last sentece is – “The frozen, severed head of Adolf Hitler”. There, I saved you 700 pages of dreck. (thanks for the notice, Larry!)

word of the day.

agog uh-GAHG, adjective:
in eager desire; eager; highly excited; astir

“By the second day he had found his sea-legs, and with hair flying and double-waistcoats flapping, he patrolled the deck agog with excitement, questioning and noting.” –Richard Holmes, Coleridge: Darker Reflections, 1804-1834

“Kobe Bryant left the Minnesota Timberwolves agog after a series of eye-popping moves in a game last week.” –New York Times, February 5, 1998

“He was now so interested, quite so privately agog, about it, that he had already an eye to the fun it would be to open up to her afterwards.” –Henry James, The Ambassadors

“When we had got the spectators agog we would dive in.” –R. Campbell, Light on Dark Horse

——————————————————————————–

From earlier on gog, deriving from Middle French en gogues, “in mirth; lively.”

Got back from the grove. They’re *very* cool there.

I had some fresh juice, and they seemed amenable to my rates… They didn’t offer to pay me in fruit, but real folding money, and they *gave* me a nice jar of orange blossom honey. I’m going to be all over that on Saturday. 🙂 You know how bears like honey, right?

I’ve had about a quart of OJ today already, and I’m a little worried that only juice mice be a bit acidic, so I’m going to do water until I get home. Tomorrow, it’s going to be baby carrots and other raws… but no dressing.. that will be welcome. 🙂

World’s Most Stupid Construction Prank
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Nickolas Savko & Sons says Michael Ackron was injured in September in Hilliard when the 44-ton earth-scraper he was driving fell into a trench that had been dug as a joke.

http://www.dispatch.com/news/news01/apr01/653189.html

Yummy Brain Worm!
==============

Three years ago, Dawn Becerra ate a pork taco while vacationing in Mexico. It was a pork taco she would not soon forget. Becerra said the treat not only made her ill for three weeks, it left something behind… A Worm Inside Her Brain!

http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/brainworm010410.html

Creating A Basket Case
==============

Eleven-month-old twins Jamuna and Ganga Shrestha were in different rooms for the first time in their lives Tuesday after doctors successfully separated the girls, who were born joined at the head.

http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2001/04/10/siamese/index.html

Kids Treated To Tiger Fight
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Two rare tigers were accidentally allowed into the same cage at the local zoo, and one animal killed the other as a group of visiting children looked on.

http://www.salon.com/people/wire/2001/04/10/tiger/index.html

Pretending Pain
==============

…officials might have been duped by Treva Joyce Throneberry, now 31.
…she has traveled the country posing as a minor and making false claims of sexual abuse, child pornography, abduction and even murder.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/lc_31false10.frame

Anti-Gay But Pro-ChildMolesting
==============

The leader of a group trying to repeal Broward County’s gay-rights law resigned Monday, citing a Herald report that he was charged in 1999 with sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl in Maryland.

http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/local/broward/digdocs/064870.htm

stare into the sun

it’s not even up yet, but I’m awake, in synch with my sweetie. 🙂 (Sunrise is due in another hour or so) Wrestling with baby Newt… he’s grappled my foot, and is having at it with his tiny needlejaws. I seriously think he’s having more fun with the box for the laptop than I’m having with the laptop itself… (and I’ve had a great time… ) I wonder what folks think, when they see my hands close up… tiny little scratches on my hands from mock combat… play raked… (and I know it’s play… you should see what the boy does to stuffed animals or cardboard. eep.

in other news, I should have my DSL modem by this time next week, and be networked on it the following day… so I should be able to freely use all my nifty look on the big brain on lappie. (and vice versa). I’ve been working too hard recently, but half of it (the non salary half) has been looking profitable. I have a meeting in about 3 hours with the head of the grove, about doing some programming for them… I hope it continues to work out.