Dougal Campbell's geek ramblings

WordPress, web development, and world domination.

Monthly Archives: January 2002

Web Style

Found a good article about writing style for the web. If you are doing journalistic writing on or about the web, the article might help you write more effectively. [via glish]

AOL/Red Hat Rumor Not True

Well, that’s what I get for rumor mongering. Looks like there are no buyout talks underway after all. AOL might be talking to Red Hat about licensing their products, though (which would probably make more sense than an outright buyout, if you ask me).

AOL Considering Red Hat Purchase?

Rumor has it that AOL might buy Red Hat. Most of the speculation I’ve read assumes that AOL is looking for some way to reduce their dependence on Microsoft. That’s probably true. But I wonder what they have in mind…. Will future AOL CDs have a complete operating system on them? Or perhaps they plan to produce a set-top box, a la WebTV?

Choosing Standards

There’s an old saying in the computing field: “The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.” Funny, but true. Too true. This is a topic I read a lot about. You can find essays and articles all over the web by people like Jeffrey Zeldman, Scott Andrew Lepara, or this article at Web Techniques by Molly E. Holzschlag. The rant always has a common thread running through it: when … Continue reading

Crazy Uses for Coca Cola

I had no idea that Coke was so useful. Loosen rusty bolts, clean your toilet, ease nausea, get a tan, and make your lawn greener. Among other things….

A Close Call

An asteroid is passing relatively close (in astronomical terms) to the Earth today. The rock is roughly 300m in diameter, and will pass within a distance roughly twice that of our moon’s orbit. “If it struck land, it would wipe out an entire country. If the impact point were London, then scientists estimate there would be total devastation for 150 km and severe destruction for a further 800 km, meaning that not only would the … Continue reading

Netscape 4 Can Bite My Butt

Recently, I’ve been working on a redesign of my employer’s web site. It’s not going to be any kind of ground-breaking work of art or anything, but it will be a welcome change from the kludgey frames-based page we’ve been using since forever ago. I’ve been playing with the cool soopa-rollovers and ypSlideOutMenu widgets from youngpup.net, and they’re really nice and easy to use, and degrade reasonably well for Netscape 4. This is important, because … Continue reading