Freeware:Tips, Tricks and Commentary:
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Your Own Web SiteA large number of organizations are being talked into setting up their own web server on their own equipment at their own facilities. For the most part, this is an unnecessary expense and an unnecessary risk. Virtual web sites (such as this one) appear to everyone else as separate Internet servers, but they reside on someone else's hardware in someone else's facility. I just bought my domain name and now I rent a portion of someone else's server. I set it up, I administer it, and I update it just as if it were at my location. I just didn't have to pay for the equipment it runs on. In addition, since my web site is separate from my own internal network, I don't need a firewall to isolate my internal network from the Internet. For most organizations, a virtual server is a much better path to the goal of a web presence and Internet mail. Check out Earthlink's services. Return to the top of this page. Internet CommerceThe Internet is a worldwide conversation; the reason you don't hear everything on it is because your software and hardware are configured not to. People who want to hear portions of this conversation which were not intended for them, can and do. Message encryption schemes, which seem to provide some level of security, simply make it a little more difficult for these people. Guess what! They don't mind! If it were easy, they wouldn't be interested! They are accumulating information, and the more information you transmit, the more they accumulate, and the more they accumulate, the easier it is for them to break the encryption schemes. The fact that this information is your name, address, phone number, your occupation, your habits, your likes and dislikes, and maybe your Social Security Number and credit card numbers, is secondary to them. They want the information. Maybe they'll use it; maybe not. If they do, maybe they will use it to enrich themselves; maybe they will use it to discredit you. Internet commerce has been equated to using your credit card at a local convenience store. Some unscrupulous individuals may go crawling through the store's dumpster looking for the carbon copies of your receipt so they can reuse the card number. The difference is that on the Internet, there is room for a lot more people to crawl through that dumpster, and every one of them can find their own copy of your receipt. Use the Internet to accumulate information for yourself. Don't use it to distribute information about yourself. Return to the top of this page. Java and CookiesDo you trust everybody? Do you leave your keys in your car? Do you leave your door unlocked? Do you let strangers sit at your computer and create files or run programs? Why would you let strangers reach through your modem and do the same thing? If you have Java or Cookies enabled on your web browser right know, you are letting strangers reach through your modem and do things to your computer. That's fine if you know who these people are AND you know what they are trying to do AND you trust in their ability do it AND you want it done. I have no doubt that the vast majority of people trying to reach into my computer through the Internet have the very best of intentions. That still doesn't mean that I trust in their ability to do something, nor does it mean that I necessarily want it done. I have often wished that someone had not locked their car door, so that I might have been able to turn off their headlights. But I still understand the necessity of locking car doors. If I leave my car door unlocked so that someone might be able to turn off my headlights if I leave them on, then I must be willing to accept the consequences when someone spills soda on the driver's seat while trying to do so (not to mention when a vandal tears up the upholstery.) CookiesCookies are simply little notes that web authors write to themselves. These notes are stored on your computer the first time you visit a page, and the next time you visit, the note might be recalled. There are few things that you might want to do that would benefit from cookies, and mostly cookies just foul up other cookies. The vast majority of cookies are absolutely useless to you, and only a few are of any value to the site that originated them. They are simply ways that web authors use to suck up the finite bandwidth available to us on the Internet. Basically, there is little good that comes from cookies, and there is the potential for an unscrupulous web author to encode a binary executable within a cookie, which can then be executed to perform some bad thing. Programs like this are commonly called "Trojan Horses". This has happened in the past, and the web sites performing this mischief have been shut down by their ISPs, but that does no good for the people who might have already been "hit" by the Trojan Horse. Wouldn't you rather avoid the potential problem than pick up the pieces after you've experienced the problem? JavaJava is a programming language. Web authors can do many powerful things with Java. The question is: do you trust all the web authors of all the sites you could potentially visit to write Java programs that will operate correctly AND do things you want done AND not do things you don't want done AND leave your computer the way they found it? That's a pretty tall order! Writing "Trojan Horses" in Cookies is a pretty substantial accomplishment. Writing them is Java is a No-Brainer. A lot of people are doing a lot of good stuff in Java, but the primary use of Java is on intranets where company wide information and operations are distributed and controlled with Java applications. If you are on one of these intranets, these Java applications are probably essential to you, so you shouldn't disable Java for the browser you use on your intranet. What you might consider doing is installing two browsers, one with Java enabled for use on your intranet, and one with Java disabled for use on the Internet. Return to the top of this page. Designing A Web Site?It's not television: Don't make a Video! It's not print: Don't write a Book!! It's hypertext: Make a Link!!! And use graphics SPARINGLY!!! If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a thousand word is worth a picture:
If your graphic is larger than 9 kilobytes, you're better off with (and your audience will be happier with) the one thousand words (This presumes, of course, that you know how to write!) And use frames SPARINGLY!!! Remember: most search engines will not index sites which use frames. So don't take a chance on having your site passed up by the search engines. Don't use frames! And check this out! And check how your pages print!!! I am often amazed at how otherwise well designed pages will print so badly. The page will appear just fine on screen, but prints over 100 pages, one word on each page. When you are designing a page, try printing it after you insert that neat little HTML trick you just found out about. Return to the top of this page. The more I use the Internet,
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