2006 November - Matt Heerema : Web Design

Archive for November, 2006

For Sale: Two Nice Computer Monitors

I have two sweet monitors sitting in my basement. My inner geek tells me to keep them, but they are collecting dust and taking up space, and I’m not sure when I’ll ever use them again. They are sweet though.

17″ Flat Screen CRT

Model: Gateway EVF720
Manufactured: June 2001
Got it with Nancy’s “college computer” around 2001ish

19″ Flat Screen CRT

Model: Samsung SyncMaster 997DF
Manufactured: November 2004
Purchased new in early 2005 for $200. Can still find them used online for around $170 (not that I’m suggesting a price)

They are both in great shape. The reason I don’t to get rid of them is because they have great picture and color quality. The reason I am getting rid of them is because I have better equipment (flat panel LCDs that don’t take up as much desk space).

I’ll take (at my discretion), the best offer I get on these, within reason. (read: you probably won’t get these for $1, unless you deserve them).

I’d prefer to sell to someone local (Ames, IA), but we can discuss shipping if you really want.

3 Comments

Posted November 28th, 2006 in Announcements by Matt

Why On Earth? Qwest’s Account Login Page

It’s high time I start keeping track of good and bad things I see around the Internet and telling you, my dear readers, about them. So at the risk of throwing stones, or maybe making the Internet a better place to live, I bring you:

Why On Earth Did They Do It That Way?

That challenging trivia question that maybe one of you out there can help shed some light on.

My first target: Qwest’s account login page.

I spied this little beauty on the sidebar.

Qwest's login page, radio buttons in a form instead of links as a way of getting to other sections of the site.

As you can see, it is a series of radio boxes and a “go” button that takes you to other parts of the page.

After sifting through kilobytes of nested tables, Javascript, and spacer GIFs, I found (as I suspected) that the “action” attribute for the form is a Javascript function (looks like some sort of validation), so if Javascript is disabled, the form ceases to function. This raises several questions:

Why on earth is this not a simple list of links?
Why on earth does it need validation?
Why on earth isn’t there a default selection set?
Why on earth is the “action” attribute set to a javascript function, rather than a real page, and the Javascript not set as an “onclick” event on the submission button?

Come on Qwest, you can do better than that.

1 Comment

Posted November 27th, 2006 in Web Design by Matt

Jake’s Weblog » Upcoming Events v0.1

Just found a handy little wordpress plugin: Upcoming Events, v0.1, can take various iCal and other feeds and display them on your Wordpress blog.

No Comments

Posted November 27th, 2006 in External Link by Matt

SWFUpload beta

SWFUpload: Upload files via flash to get the flash-upload dialog goodness.

1 Comment

Posted November 20th, 2006 in External Link by Matt

Skin and Bones and Bikes

Today I discovered that there is a bike path that starts basically right in front of my house and goes (more or less) straight to Best Buy. This was a dangerous disocovery. Today it was 80 degrees out so I took my bike down this path and purchased the new Foo Fighters live album, Skin and Bones.

Flippin’ amazing, but I love the Foo Fighters. I would argue that they are among the best Rock and Roll bands out there today. If you are fan, pick this album up. It’s currently $8 at most reasonable places.