And since I'm having a bit of conflict on the underlaying Java classes used in the old and new version, I will probably need to bring down this current thing before I can get the new thing working.

Hey, that's right, I'm off on Friday!

And I'm not certain I've found the right toolkit... but it does have some strengths, for sure.

One thing, apt seems stronger than rpm... at least I don't see a out-of-the-box rpm method to match apt-get update then apt-get dist-upgrade. I'm on the freshest bits because of the magic of apt.

Still plenty to learn about it... Bart says apt-cache search {regexp} and apt-cache install {package} are essential, but I've yet to try those commands.

I spent some time looking at some DynAPI examples and I'm totally overwhelmed. Really neat stuff, it'll be tempting not to through in some gratuitous crazy junk after I get the main thing going.

So yes, about that... I'll call it good enough when I can make a page that looks very similar to this one (and not this one, not out of the gate anyway) with, hmm... well, all I really need is some basic layers with a nice header portion on each of them, based on database-sourced content, with some external feeds for the news and such.

I could get distracted by any number of cool draggable personalization options, but really all I need beyond the basic positionable layers is some scrollbar action.

Now I've got a big pile of mostly-stupid links and no great software to help sort them out. I hate the idea of registering software when I haven't looked very hard for alternatives.

So... I put "bookmark management software" into Google, and look here's another option to FA, Bookmark Sync. I'm pretty happy with how FA works, looking more for client-side help.

Heehee it's not like that at all... I was happy to see what they're doing for work, it was a fun trip.

Point well made! Score another, he turned me on to DynAPI... really looks neat, I'll have to spend some time on it.

Better of course would be to spend time finishing this thing, to the point where Kyle could send me an email "check this out" and I could approve the email into an article. Or something like that.

While I'm at it... Kyle likes vBulletin, maybe worth a look... and I'll definitely put scheme together soon inspired by this cool page.

I had to work a bit to find my home town. Pretty sure I nailed it, check it out. If I read it right we're hitting in the 3-9 range where I live, bummer. Salem and Eugene come in at 9-27, and Portland pegs out at more than 27. The good news, in under an hour I can find < .01, nil pollution, and see the night sky the way our ancestors did.

So I just made a very pessimistic statement, and then decided to back it with a buck in hopes of being wrong again. I wouldn't want to win this bet but am afraid I will.

"Before 12/31/2002, the average consumer (Kyle, I, and all our friends and associates) will be unable to obtain a flat-rate broadband connection to our homes for less than $100".

I got your recommendation to pick up Knock 'em Dead and while I didn't go ahead and order from Amazon, I didn't want to lose track of it.

Heh. Or not.

Also, I stumbled into this interesting sounding article... just the thing for the "featured selections" feature in the Tasty Links portion of the site.

I've read several HTML references, online and off, and all seem to make some mention of the dichotomy of style and content, presentation and structure, appearance and substance. The good designer is admonished to keep them separate in order to ward off various woes: unmanageability, unusability, professional shame.

I think this is a myth. I think it has persisted for four different reasons. I don't think web designers need be concerned about it at all...

Actually, it did seem a rather large task and I put it off for a long time. But then I got tired of trying to get a L&F that didn't seem annoying to look at while I was developing and testing other features. Now I've been hip-deep in it for weeks and am about tired of the whole thing.

Not that it's not still a good idea, but... well, there is some content for which the groovy colors won't make a lot of difference.

In any case, here is a style that displays this page using the original color scheme.

You can also check out some nifty pictures from the visit.

And I've known I need to get hip to the stuff for awhile, so here goes.

The above link goes nowhere, but serves to show the headline color for an unvisited link.

That alone wouldn't be interesting except their focus is encrypted email. I tried their solution (or rather, I tried SecureDelivery.com, the start-up who developed the technology) and thought it was good stuff. The recipient need not have any special software in order to recieve a secure message.

There are still a few things to do to get this back to where I left it before... but it's pretty much back in business.

I should focus on browser detection and/or figure out a way to make the page serve quicker with Netscape 4 while still looking OK in the newer browsers.

That's probably the first order of business... it's irritating as hell waiting for the page to load, know what I mean?

Since the point of the exercise is SSH I start at the TTSSH, find and use the USA download link.

So, that's where the add-on is that makes TeraTerm speak SSH protocol. Next, the terminal emulator itself. The TTSSH page points to a download for TeraTerm Pro, the program's homepage is (apparently) here.

I'm taking the time to do this because the install is simple if you know how to do it, and each time I've done it I've had to relearn the steps. They are these:

INSTALL TTSSH
• 1. Download the two files above
• 2. Extract the files in ttermp23.exe to a temporary directory (C:\temp\ttermp23 is fine)
• 3. Execute the TT setup.exe from temp, install the program, perhaps to C:\PROGRAM FILES\TTERMPRO\
• 4. Rename C:\PROGRAM FILES\TTERMPRO\readme.txt as tterm_pro_readme.txt (so it won't be overwritten by the TTSSH version)
• 5. Extract the contents of ttssh151.zip to the install directory
• 6. Fire up the SSH program C:\Program Files\TTERMPRO\ttssh.exe and make sure it works
• 7. Create a handy shortcut to it (I like the desktop or maybe the quicklaunch bar?)

The page looks better than ever now... wider, it now is formatted for 800x600 (even on a Mac, I found a table that said 723 is the max width, should be good).