A Butterfly Blogs..

April 05, 2004

My Clark Said email (notes and tips from the Clark Howard radio show) had a little tidbit about 529 college plans along with a link to SavingForCollege.com, a site with what appears to be a lot more helpful information. I don't have kids but, after having read Clark's bit on the scams being run with regards to the fees for those 529 college savings plans, I can't begin to imagine the frustration someone must feel when they finally go to use their investment only to find they've been raked over the coals..

April 10, 2004

I've repeatedly heard the jokes about people electronically sending out something they really wish they could take back almost as soon as it's gone, and I myself have wished there was such a thing as a five second rule for the computer. Today I found where there is maybe a little online nitpitting back and forth about just such a thing that involves psychiatric survivors.

No clue how I stumbled on this already (ol' timers' disease, you know), but I found a squabble where MindFreedom Support Coalition International (SCI) is questioning a now retracted NAMI statement regarding interested parties advocating to blacklist certain psychiatric survivor organizations from receiving federal funding. When one visits the originally questioned webpage, they can see where NAMI has corrected themselves by now replacing the original offending paragraph with a new one highlighted in italics under the heading Greater Accountability in CMHS's Discretionary Programs.

Why this is interesting is because it does appear that NAMI got caught with their pants down or at least is insinuating that this is what happened. This can be seen in the statement, "This particular document was inadvertently posted to the public NAMI website and is only a small part of NAMI's overall advocacy efforts to influence congressional funding of CMHS and other federal agencies." as it appears in NAMI's response to the above mentioned questioning.

Hmm, eh? Wonder exactly how they thought it would happen that anyone other than interested NAMI affiliates would never find that webpage since it was posted on a very publicly accessible website on the very publicly accessible World Wide Web.. =o/

April 11, 2004

Happy Easter!
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It's soup! My Georgia Disability Advocates' Calendar is ready for the airwaves. All I can do now is wait to see how it comes out on the Net.. :grin:

April 12, 2004

WHEN YOU'RE VALIDATING!!.. lol! A little tip when you're validating.. I was doing this page just tonight and found out yet again what I have already shared.. When you're validating, correct the mistakes that you recognize right off the bat then revalidate for new results. Why, you ask? Because you could run into a situation like the one I just did where you could have 90~something~odd mistakes showing then find out there are only thirteen more mistakes left after you only make three changes. Yes.. Three changes can affect that many other parts of your page when they are incorrect. That's why it's time to get a SERIOUS push on to validate, validate, VALIDATE! :grin:

April 13, 2004

Was cleaning up some VERY old saved favorites and came across one of the better 404 webpages I've seen in a long, long time. A rather creative "File not found, invalid address" actually.. :grin:

April 19, 2004

Wouldn't normally highlight a story on toilets (Yeah, right! Who am I kidding?!), but I couldn't help myself this time. I particularly love the second paragraph where a slip of the pen stated, "New higher-end offerings are flowing into the market as manufacturers develop better-performing flushing systems." <grin!> The story got even better when there was a mention of the American Standard Cos. Champion toilet that could "remove two dozen golf balls in one flush". :wow:

April 25, 2004

I have to admit that I am finally at a self~teaching semi~impasse that involves all this XML, RSS, and RDF shtuff.. Maybe today's jaunt across the Internet will finally be the trigger. Hopefully RSSGov's RSS Tutorial and Fagan Finder's Explanation of RSS, How You Can Use it, and Finding RSS Feeds will provide the shove I need to get me over that hump..
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Hmmm.. Guess it wasn't all I needed. It's almost midnight, and somehow I got sidetracked redoing my Butterfly Bytes & Blogs instead. I are so distractable.. :grin:

April 26, 2004

The BBC News carried a story about computer loyalty issues among users. I have to admit myself that I find myself more comfortable at some computers than I do at others and will feel somewhat "putout" if my fave is not readily available if I happen to stop in at the local library. Among the reasons I favor one machine over another, I include the "feel" of the mouse and keyboard and immediate knowledge of the layout of the software's filing system.

My current setup is a GASP! Windows 95 Compaq Presario, probably 2gig. The reason? My other, slightly faster albeit also already outdated one is currently OOC. Maybe that BBC article will finally shame me into switching back soon? Most likely not. Some things never change.. :grin:

April 27, 2004

Hm. Going to have to go back online and figure out what the doo~dah this article is all about.. I just kind of left it out there like some poor dangling participle.. :tonfusion:

April 28, 2004

This is a pretty good commentary by Stowe Boyd over at Darwin Magazine's website. He did a great job of expressing my own online modus operandi regarding these type of social networking programs.. ^5 (high five), Stowe.. :grin: