llpricedesigns

I’m making a few belated New Year’s resolutions.

I must write and edit offline – and start before 11:55 p.m.

I must find a better header photo for this site. The current one is from my favorite view of the Platte; it’s just a poor shot.

And finally, I should use this space to ruminate on what I’m doing now, rather than react to what I’ve just read. Between the web updates here and there, I have been plowing (or maybe plodding) through a jQuery tutorial. I want to become more fluent in that particular expression of Javascript, then I want to bounce over to the mobile App development book that’s been waiting impatiently on my shelf. Sometime this year, I want to explore, and start employing a bit more HTML5 and CSS3. I’ve let those goodies slide, because I’ve had quite enough problems coaxing IE to follow the simple style rules that have been a standard for over 15 years. It’s time to move beyond my fear of IE bugs, and have some fun.

Deb Fisher, candidate for the Senate seat Ben Nelson will soon vacate, has made national new — at least Tech. news — because her new campaign website was hacked. While her site still looked fine, a Google search results revealed a long list of hits for cheap Canadian prescription drugs.

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2135625/How-State-Senator-Deb-Fischer-Should-Fix-Hacked-Website

WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and other content management sites (CMS), are more vulnerable to this kind of abuse than simple html web sites.  Despite this problem, database driven sites are desirable for so many reasons, I usually recommend them to people considering a new site.

There are ways to defend your space online, but clients and web developers must take the threats seriously. First and formost, users must appreciate the value of strong passwords.  If the site has more than one contributor, the site needs a security oriented policy regarding permissions and use. Sites like Strong Password Generator can help users make safe password choices.

Update the site (especially WordPress sites) when WordPress or plugin updates become available.

Site owners can find documentation, forum discussions, and a host of plugins at each of the major CMS sites that can help users reduce the risk of mischief. Cleaning up afterwards often requires a great deal of time and effort.

Gingrich has argued that children in poor neighborhoods should be employed as janitors in schools and he expanded on that theme Thursday, saying: “Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works, so they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash’ unless it’s illegal.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/twitter-room — December 3, 2011

Poverty among children is rising, and is estimated to be over 20% now.

Most poor children live in a household where at least one parent is employed. And even among children who live in extreme poverty — defined here as a household with income less than 50 percent of the poverty level — a third have at least one working parent. And even among extremely poor children who live in extremely poor areas — those in which 30 percent or more of the population is poor — nearly a third live with at least one working parent. — NYT OP Ed, 12/03/11

Newt is probably projecting his own issues onto the little children, but his message seems particularly cold and heartless as the Christmas Season begins.

I’ve updated lots of WordPress sites in the last few months, while neglecting my own, and now the wicked weather (tornado season) is beginning again (sigh).  I did buy an iPad – two in fact, but both were gifts for others.  The first was for non-profit staff, who needed a presentation tool to share the organization’s story while on the road. It’s been a slick and easy way to enhance a customized presentation during one-on-one visits. It’s also being used for talks to small groups. The staffer captivates small groups of visitors with impromptu talks, augmented by one of the slideshows loaded on the iPad, but displayed on an HDTV screen. No clumsy technology needed.

The other gift was for a family member with mobility issues. The iPad is lightweight, portable, malware free, and just plain fun.

I still don’t have one myself, but opted for an ipod instead. It’s my pocket planner/computer.

Restless storm clouds swirl and part to reveal light from the cloud tops. 2009.

Storms have pounded the Nebraska Panhandle with giant hail, and swept north and south of the Platte in wave after wave, but Kearney has only seen  (knock on wood) frequent rains, a bit of lightning and thunder, but no sirens wailing or warnings. As the jet stream moves northward, we might expect fewer, and less intense storms in the next weeks.

A nice summary from NYT staff specialist on healthcare issues, Reed Abelson: The Cost of Doing Nothing on Health Care.   “It is a course that is literally bankrupting the federal government and businesses and individuals across the country.”

Yes Virginia, (and Maryland) “Global warming” can mean MORE snow.

Link: “Get This: Warming Planet Can Mean More Snow”

Snow storms may be a somewhat unintuitive consequence of climate change, and it’s understandable that the unwelcome snow storms would be the butt of jokes, but did people in Washington really think that the crisis would only mean they’d have Miami weather in February? The conservationist, Hunter Lovins, suggested an alternate term: “global weirding.” That neologism might be easier for ditto-heads to wrap their quotes around, but climate scientist, Joseph Romm, recommended “‘Hell and High Water’ — since at least it does accurately describe what is coming,” Whatever term sticks, bloggers, pundits and (unfortuantely) politicians sound like nincompoops when they take the jests about Gore and recent, wearisome weather seriously.