The Andrew Turnbull Web Journal

December 2004-February 2005




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I am a student attending West Virginia University who can have a lot of things on his mind.

Sometimes these things inspire me to type them down and publish them here. Enjoy.












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2-28-2005: The Andrew Turnbull Web Journal Archives

Since there are now so many entries on this page, I have decided to move all entires written prior to February 1, 2005 to the new Archives page. Older entires will continue to be moved to the Archives page in the future, and multiple Archives pages (each including, say, two or three months' worth of Journal entries) may ultimately be set up as time goes by.

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2-28-2005: A Million Annoying Things College Roommates Do, Part 2

Ah, a sequel to this entry from a couple weeks back. Oh well, better get this list under way:

  1. Getting up and playing video games at 2:30 a.m. while his roommate is trying to sleep.
  2. Inviting in friends who say outrageous statements and annoying questions even while bearing endearing smiles.
  3. Working on a computer while his roommate attempts to sleep in the same room. (I've been guilty of this myself.)
  4. Keeping the door open all the time while in the room.
  5. Bringing a TV set and positioning it in such a way that his roommate is FORCED to look at the screen whenever he sits at his desk.
  6. Listening to loud rap music when his roommate is in the room, without headphones.
  7. Traveling home on weekends without bothering to turn off his alarm clock in the meantime.
  8. Not bothering to lock the door at night.
  9. Actually refusing to lock the door at night, leaving behind this note instead:

    "Andrew, I'm not locking this door. Get used to it."

    John

    (Hmm, this was the same fellow responsible for number 10 in part one! And number 10 just below in this list, too!)
  10. Making confessions about drug use and/or a minor criminal history to his roommate while warning him "not" to tell anyone else about it.

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2-26-2005: More Music

As you may or (more likely) may not know, I enjoy listening to and collecting music and have a sizeable CD collection. Here are some of my latest acquisitions, in no particular order:

The following discs are noteworthy for the fact that these are early copies pressed in the early to mid '80s, before CD manufacturing facilities existed in the United States:

[Add a comment . . .]

2-24-2005: Snow

Today I was in for a meteorological surprise: It snowed, for the first time in weeks! It started as a sprinkle, and began collecting on the ground by evening. It's still falling, as I look out the window the ground is covered in a blanket of white.

It was pretty neat watching the snow fall. However, I'm certainly glad I don't have to drive a motor vehicle in this weather!

[Add a comment . . .]

2-20-2005: AIM All the Time

Quite a few of my peers communicate with each other using AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM.

I do a fair bit of communication with the protocol and software myself from time to time. I usually use version 4.8 of the official client for Windows, not the spyware-infested 5.x versions; not that they'd run on Windows 95 anyway! I do wonder about other things, however.

Specifically, why do some AOL Instant Messenger users keep the chat client open all the time, for hours or even days on end? I don't see the point in doing so myself. When I do use AIM, I open the software when I feel inclined to chat, and close it when I am done. Likewise, why doesn't the software close when I close the window, instead remaining resident in memory and placing its icon in the system tray? No wonder some people don't like it.

[Add a comment . . .]

2-18-2005: Mozilla Firefox...Now in the White Hall Computer Lab!

This semester I've been in a habit of visiting the White Hall Computer Lab on campus five or six times a week. I have found the lab very handy to use for routine computer and Internet-related work when I am downtown.

Each computer has a software image fairly identical to that of every other machine, and all run Windows XP.

There is a good variety of software available. As far as web browsers go, Netscape 7.1 and Internet Explorer 6.0 are available on every computer, and have prominent shortcuts on every desktop. When I visited the lab yesterday, however, I decided to check out the various items in the Start menu to see what else was available. I was in for a very pleasant surprise!

[Screenshot of lab computer Start menu]

Believe it or not, Mozilla Firefox 1.0 has now been installed on every lab computer! It is good to see another web browser available to WVU computer lab patrons, and I am pleased to now be able to use the same browser downtown as I do at home.

When I started Firefox, it was obvious that it was the first time the software had ever been run. I was prompted with the option of importing bookmarks and other settings from Netscape or Internet Explorer. Afterwards, I took it upon myself to change the browser's homepage on this particular computer to "labs.wvu.edu", but otherwise let it be.

I am overjoyed by this decision to install Mozilla Firefox on these computers, and if I am not mistaken this is the first time Firefox has made its way to a readily-accessible Windows computer on-campus. I am quite impressed...I didn't even ask them to do it!

If you attend West Virginia University and are curious about Mozilla Firefox, don't hesitate to visit White Hall and give it a try! If prompted with a dialogue like I was on a lab computer, it is probably best to instruct Firefox not to import settings from any other browser already installed. Afterwards, enjoy. And be sure to remember to hold down the "Ctrl" key while clicking on a link, or pressing Ctrl+T, and unleash the magic of viewing multiple web pages with tabs!

Unfortunately, just because the software is available doesn't mean that everyone uses it. When I was at the computer lab yesterday evening, I glanced around at other individuals using web browsers, and counted twelve people using Internet Explorer and zero using Netscape or Mozilla Firefox aside from myself. The Firefox option on the computers is not prominent, and I certainly didn't notice that this software was available myself until I pried through three levels of Start menu options. And even if it was prominent, I'm sure that many people who see it would have no idea on what it is. I can give a lengthy explanation of the means of "evangelizing" Firefox over IE given circumstances such as these, but that deserves to be saved for another day.

[Add a comment . . .]

2-15-2005: Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 Cometh?

Well, guess what? According to C|net, Bill Gates announced that a beta release of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 will be available this summer to Windows XP SP2 users at this year's RSA Conference in San Francisco today, three and a half years after the last version of Internet Explorer was released (Windows service packs excepted) and three years after Netscape (remember Netscape?) reached the same version number.

So, what does this mean?

Well, for starters a couple of interesting points were made in the news. Bill Gates admitted that his company's browser was a security risk (stating the obvious), and it was announced that IE 7.0 will be available for users of Windows XP SP2 as well as users of Longhorn (if and when it is actually released). That's fine, but it won't run on Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 3.51, NT 4.0, 2000, XP pre-SP2, or on other platforms like the Macintosh or flavors of UNIX, for which IE development has long been killed off for. (Yes, there really was an Internet Explorer for UNIX at one time.)

What else? The news seemed more noteworthy for what it didn't contain than for what it did. Will IE 7.0 finally contain better CSS support? Or complete PNG support? Or better XHTML support? Or tabbed browsing or a multi-document interface? Or a rendering engine better than the antiquated early-'90s Mosaic-based one it uses now? No, that all remains to be seen. Apart from "anti-spyware features" and minor changes, I don't expect IE to change much at all. In fact, the changes could be minor enough for Microsoft to conceivably get away with calling the new release "IE 6.0 SP3" if they wanted to.

On the whole, I expect this beta software release to be underwhelming. From what I can tell, this update will not provide enough of an improvement to Internet Explorer to nullify advantages Mozilla Firefox has over it, or provide an incentive for the growing number of users of Mozilla Firefox and other Gecko-based browsers to switch back to IE again.

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2-14-2005: A Million Annoying Things College Roommates Do, Part 1

In purely arbitrary order:

  1. Watching nothing on TV except for ESPN sports programming and reruns of "Family Guy."
  2. Insisting on falling asleep with the television set on.
  3. Leaving the overhead light on while leaving the room for an extended period of time.
  4. Leaving the television set on while leaving the room for an extended period of time.
  5. Inviting friends over to play video games while you are in the same room attempting to do something else, every day.
  6. Walking into the room and immediately shouting out, in the loudest possible voice... "F***! F*** me! I just lost my f***ing..."
  7. Unexpectedly arriving from a visit home bringing in extension cords, a set of bongos, and a subwoofer without thinking of consulting residence-hall policies to check to see if such items are permitted. (None of them are.)
  8. Using the aforementioned subwoofer.
  9. Inviting in a person, on a regular basis, who 1) swears like a sailor, 2) rearranges my CD collection, 3) sings "Take Me Home, Country Roads" off-key, and 4) thrusts residence-hall occupants into stationary pieces of furniture.
  10. Expressing an intention of moving out, only to unexpectedly change one's mind and leave an index card propped up against an object on my desk inscribed with the following words:

    "Andrew,

    I'm not moving out. I like it here and I think if you still have a problem then you should leave. Stop involving Kelly [the RA] because it's not her problem. If I move out you're going to have a room to yourself for the rest of the year and that's not happening. If it's just me here I'll get a roomate (sic). I'll even help you move your stuff but there's no way I'm leaving."

    John

    (OK, this one was actually more mean than annoying. I did choose to move out from this particular roommate, who five weeks later was caught and reprimanded for marijuana possession.)

[Add a comment . . .]

2-13-2005: A Trip to Carnegie Hall

Yesterday, I got to participate in a field trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to visit a lecture at Carnegie Music Hall as part of a "College & University Night." The lecture was by Jeremy Deller, and was accompanied by an assortment of slides and videos as well as performances of "Acid Brass" by the Williams Fairey Band equally prominent on the stage.

Afterwards, I and others had admission to the Carnegie Museum of Art and browsed its diverse and extensive collection of works varying from antiquity to the modern and contemporary, including its current 54th Carnegie International exhibition, for a couple of hours.

When browsing the museum's collection of art, I was a bit surprised to find Claude Monet's "Water Lilies" on display. I had seen this very painting in the Saint Louis Art Museum in 1998. It seems to follow me around. I thought the presentation of this painting seemed slightly more impressive in St. Louis (where it took up a whole wall) than it did in Pittsburgh (where it was one of many works of art in a long corridor).

I had a good time, and this event provided an enjoyable diversion from the usually tedious schedule of my life.

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2-9-2005: The Branding of a Browser: One Year of Mozilla Firefox

[Mozilla Firefox logo]

One year ago today, version 0.8 of Mozilla's standalone web browser (that had been codenamed Firebird at the time) was released. This was one of quite a few pre-1.0 version release increments of the time, and this particular update featured quite a few worthy changes over the preceding version, including a new download manager, a Windows installer, and other improvements.

Perhaps the most significant change with the coming of this version, however, was a brand new name and identity for the browser. On February 9, 2004, the "Mozilla Firefox" name and logo were revealed to the public for the first time. Furthermore, this marked the beginning of a coherent--and, in my judgment, excellent--marketing strategy for the browser.

Considering Mozilla Firefox's increasingly-ubiquitous presence in news and the Internet community, the advent of uncountable resources and marketing incentives such as Spread Firefox in existence, and the fact that a Google search for the word "Firefox" now brings up more than 26 million results, the vast majority of which are for the browser of the same name, it's sometimes easy to forget that the browser didn't even exist under its current identity more than a year ago.

[Add a comment . . .]

2-8-2005: The Facebook

[Screenshot from The Facebook]

A few days ago some visitors dropped by my room and strongly encouraged me to register at a website called "The Facebook." What is it, I wondered? As it turns out, The Facebook is a website essentially consisting of an online directory where college students share information about themselves and create associations and groups to connect each other online. By default, content on the site is only available to members, who in turn are individuals attending one of dozens of assorted colleges or universities.

I was surprised when I realized how popular this website was at WVU. Hundreds of students from the university are currently registered on The Facebook. Within a couple days of my own registering on the site, I got several people coming to my door mentioning that they added my name to their list of "friends" on the website, and even one friendly phone call commenting on content I had posted in my profile page. There was even a front-page article in yesterday's university newspaper referencing the site.

You have the option of posting a wealth of information about yourself, and the ability to search your local college or university for people who have or share such an interest. For example, you can search for people who hold liberal political views, or people who attended your high school, or people who enjoy listening to Steely Dan.

[Add a comment . . .]

2-7-2005: Super Bowl, Part Zwei

Yesterday I had a hard time avoiding coverage of the Super Bowl. My roommate instinctively watched it on the oversize TV set he had decided to bring into our room. Eventually, I tired of trying to focus my attention on other things by looking the other way and using headphones, so I wandered out. Further complicating things was the fact that I had a test to study for, and wanted to find a quiet place in which I could curl up with a boring textbook. There is a large room with tables in the ground floor of my dormitory where some people like to study. I couldn't go in there, however, because half of the room was filled with people watching the Super Bowl on TV, while the other half of the room was sealed off and locked. Where else in the building could I go to study on a Sunday night? Eventually, however, I did find a good place to study: The laundry room on my floor. Aside from the periodic sound of tumbling or spinning machinery, there was nothing but peace and quiet uninterrupted by the sounds of sports from a TV set or the annoying screams from the people who watch it.

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2-6-2005: Super Bowl

Unless I'm mistaken, today is Super Bowl Sunday. Seeing that I have little to no interest in televised sports or professional football in general, I cannot say that I am paying attention to this event. Heck, I'm not even sure what teams are playing this year. As far as I'm concerned, it's just another Sunday.

[Add a comment . . .]

2-1-2005: Comments Finally Cometh

A little less than a month ago, I commented that it would probably be technologically unfeasible for me to leave comments on articles in my Web Journal. Happily, as it turns out, for every problem there is a solution.

I accidentally discovered HaloScan, a free commenting and trackback service for web logs and other web pages. While HaloScan is capable of synchronizing with web logging software, I am much more interested in the capability of manually adding commenting features to a page such as this one, without needing to switch to a host capable of allowing server-side technologies.

So, you now have the capability of commenting on articles you see posted in the Andrew Turnbull Web Journal. I went ahead and added "Comments" links to all previous articles as well. Note that if you fill in the "Email" feed while submitting a comment, your e-mail address will be clickable. And don't abuse the feature, either.

[Add a comment . . .]

1-30-2005: An Evening with Branford Marsalis

Last Thursday, I had the privilege of attending a concert by world-renowned saxophonist Branford Marsalis at the WVU Creative Arts Center's Clay Concert Theatre.

I had purchased a ticket earlier, and was assigned seat 5 in row J. This was a little closer to the edge than the center than I would have liked, but even so it provided a superb view. The massive hall was soon packed with a large and diverse assortment of people. The performance itself opened with a couple of energetic solo performances on the piano by Joey Calderazzo. Calderazzo was soon joined by Marsalis and the rest of the quartet, which went on to create a great performance containing over two hours of live jazz-influenced music altogether.

The most amusing event at the concert happened at the end. The lights were undimmed, the musicians wandered off the stage, and some people began to ease out of their seats and toward the exit. However, the band came back and entertained the remaining audience with one more piece. Part way through, Branford wandered off the stage while the others continued playing, only to reappear on saxaphone donning a WVU football jersey complete with the name "MARSALIS" in back! The audience shared a good laugh, and the performance continued without interruption for a few minutes more.

Overall, I had a good time.

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1-27-2005: The Mozilla Firefox Title Bar and Taskbar Icon, or Lack Thereof, on Windows 95/98/ME

Although I like Mozilla Firefox and use it as my primary browser, there is one unresolved bug with the software on Windows 95, 98, and ME that irritates me to no end:

[Portion of Firefox window showing Windows icon]

By default, the icon displayed on the title bar and taskbar of programs like Netscape 7.x, the Mozilla application suite, Mozilla Firefox, and Mozilla Thunderbird is called upon from the \chrome\icons\default\ subfolder of these respective programs. The Mozilla application suite, for example, includes some 23 icons in this directory intended for different windows and components of the program such as Composer, the History window, and the download manager. The icon used on the title bar and taskbar button of the browser itself is named main-window.ico.

Trouble is, Mozilla Firefox does not include a \chrome\icons\default\ folder in its default package, and includes no icons for the application to call on to place on the title bar and taskbar. And since there is no icon available, the generic Windows logo appears instead in these locations, as seen in the screen shot portion above.

Further complicating matters is the fact that this problem is visible only on Windows 95, 98, and ME. Windows XP, 2000, and NT 4.0 are sophisticated enough to display the internal icon in the firefox.exe executable in lieu of an icon found in the \chrome\icons\default\ subfolder, so this bug is invisible to users of these operating systems.

That said, this bug should not be underestimated. Although purely visual and not compromising any functionality, the absence of a proper Firefox icon on the title bar and taskbar on Windows 95/98/ME considerably uglifies and cheapens the otherwise professional appearance of the product, and could provide a negative first impression of the software to Windows 95/98/ME users.

How did this bug ever surface to begin with, especially considering that Mozilla's other products (application suite and Thunderbird) include icons in their default packages and are thus not affected by this bug? Perhaps it's because that when development began and the software was codenamed Phoenix, no standard icon had been created yet and so it was decided to leave icons out. This is certainly not a new bug; presumably all versions of Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Firebird, and Phoenix back to the infancy of development in 2002 have been like this.

Windows 95/98/ME should certainly not be dismissed as an insignificant platform; at least an entire third of visitors to my website still use it, as do myself and the majority of my friends and relatives. Furthermore, Mozilla should strive for the best appearance and performance of its software as possible on the Win95/98/ME platform to stress its competitive advantage, in part because Microsoft is no longer developing Internet Explorer for these versions of Windows (or any other version or platform other than Windows XP and Server 2003). This ought to be an exceptionally easy bug to fix; all that needs to be done is to include a \chrome\icons\default\ subfolder in the default package with appopriate icons inside, as is done with Mozilla Thunderbird and the Mozilla application suite.

Why then, hasn't this bug been fixed? Bugzilla Bug 171349 goes back to September 2002 and is still unresolved. In fact, as of now it is stated that no one is working on it and it is not targeted to be fixed in any future release. Perhaps the developers in charge of this sort of thing have only tested Mozilla Firefox in Windows XP and don't care how it looks or performs in other versions of Windows. That it has not been fixed--even in the landmark and extensively-marketed version-1.0 release--is inexcusable. Maybe it will ultimately be fixed. Until then:

[Portion of Firefox window showing Firefox icon]

[Add a comment . . .]

1-23-2005: Mistaken: Netscape 7.2 and the Evansdale computer lab

Earlier, I commented that Netscape 7.2 had been installed on every computer in the Evansdale-campus computer lab at WVU. Unfortunately, it appears that I was mistaken.

When I visited the lab more recently, I realized that actually only three computers had Netscape 7.2 installed on them. The only browsers installed on the other thirty-three computers in the room remained the obsolete and utterly unusable relic known as Netscape Communicator 4.79, and Internet Explorer 6.0, which I as always am loathe to use.

Coincidentally or not, the three computers with Netscape 7.2 also happen to be the only computers with flatbed scanners attached. My recommendation for the time being: if you want a usable web browser, remember to specifically ask for a "computer with a scanner" when visiting the Evansdale computer lab.

Another related thought: Even if the powers that be suddenly decided to install Netscape 7.2, Mozilla 1.7.5, or (preferably) Mozilla Firefox 1.0 on every lab computer, how could students be encouraged to use it instead of reaching for the big "e?" Word-of-mouth, perhaps?

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1-21-2005: The Perils of Residence Hall Room Assignments

Students at West Viginia University who intend to live in residence halls, as I do, essentially fall into two categories: "Homesteaders" wishing to remain in their current room, and "other students." "Homesteaders" (what an odd-sounding term) have the privilege of registering their room assignment in advance of others, in a procedure that goes by quickly and easily.

Since I wasn't going to make the same mistake I did last year (by choosing to keep living on this awful floor), I fell into the latter category. "Other students" had the option of registering on one of two "priority dates" upon which their residence hall and room is assigned.

Assignments were scheduled to begin yesterday at 7:00 a.m., so I naturally saw the advantage in getting to the appropriate location for room assignments early. I woke up early and wandered to the right room no later than 7:02, hoping that things wouldn't be too busy at such an early time. There, however, the scene was unbelievable.

The room was packed with hundreds of students awaiting their housing assignments, many of which must have gone to the absurd extent of sleeping there overnight in the vain intent of increasing the probability of securing a good room. Everyone was assigned a number, and students were called out for room assignments in individual groups of five girls or boys at a time. In spite of my relatively early arrival, I was assigned the number 302. Three hundred and one boys and an unknown quantity of girls had already walked in the door before me.

I waited. And waited. It took roughly ten minutes for each group of five students to make room selections, and one group seemed to take more than forty minutes. I was forced to wait for nearly six hours, alleviated from boredom only by breakfast, a conversation with another student, and by listening to Duke by Genesis on my worn-out piece-of-junk portable CD player a few times until the batteries ran dry.

Eventually (by which point it was early afternoon), the unbelievable happened, and a group of numbers ending in "302" was called at last. I quickly ran down a set of stairs to another room where I waited once again (though happily for a much shorter period of time), waiting for a turn to discuss and select the exact residence hall and room I intend to live in next year with the lady on the other side of the desk.

I inquired if single rooms in a particular downtown dormitory were available. In consideration of the hundreds of students who had come before me, not counting those staying in their existing rooms, I assumed that any desirable rooms had already long been taken, and my hopes were not too high. Then I got a response: "There are rooms available." Indeed, and after a few brief questions in which my apprehensions and reservations were eliminated, an ideal room selection was finalized for me at last! I felt giddy with excitement afterwards.

In all, it was quite a day. I certainly do not look forward to my next residence hall room selection "priority date," though, after all I went through.

[Add a comment . . .]

1-16-2005: Where Have All the Windows 95 Users Gone?

I have sometimes been an anamoly, and I do tend to be the last individual using any given piece of computer software, browsers excepted.

Likewise, the operating system I have installed on my PC is Windows 95 OSR2. Shocking, isn't it! Judging from the reaction of another computer-proficient student I gently broke this news to a year ago, I'm nearly insane for still using it. While it's definately not the newest or most stable operating system around, nor is it even officially supported by its maker anymore, I am quite productive on it, it still does everything I want it to do, and it features a quick and intuitive user interface I greatly prefer to the IE-integrated monstrosities on Windows 98, 2000, and subsequent versions.

There certainly cannot be many other PC users still left running Windows 95 on a regular basis. This wasn't always the case; in 1998-99, it seemed like every friend and relative of mine used it, and it was installed on every computer at every school, college, and library I knew of (As for myself, I was using DOS and Windows for Workgroups 3.11 most often at the time).

All of the friends and relatives of mine who once used Win95 are now using Windows 98, ME, or XP. At West Virginia University, most public computers (Mac and Linux machines excepted, of course) currently run either Windows 2000 or Windows XP. And in one infamous incident, the computer systems administrator of one collegiate library (that will remain unnamed) insisted that it was a good idea to "upgrade" its computers from Windows 95 to Windows ME, in spite of my reasoning in his face to the contrary. (I have also concluded that the administrator is insane.)

I doubt that many of the individuals and entities no longer using Windows 95 actually bought retail upgrades of newer Windows versions to install on their existing early-Pentium hardware, but rather switched to Windows 98, ME, 2000, or XP when they bought newer computers that had these newer Microsoft operating systems preinstalled. It is very hard to find new PC hardware, especially from a major brand, that does not have the latest version of Windows preinstalled on it. I imagine that if you're very lucky, you might work out a way to specifically request, say, Windows 2000 preinstalled on a new machine in lieu of XP, but such instances are often available only to organizations rather than individual consumers. Due to restrictive stipulations with OEMs (presumably to circumvent piracy), you rarely if ever have the option of purchasing a PC without a Microsoft operating system preinstalled, leaving you the option of installing a legit copy of an older Windows version or an alternative OS such as Linux at your discretion.

As long as I'm still using Windows, I may consider switching to a newer version (probably 2000) in the future. Until then, I'm happy being the last person alive still using Windows 95.

[Add a comment . . .]

1-13-2005: The Oddities of Academic Years

Traditionally, an individual's first year of college education is their "freshman" year, followed successively by "sophomore," "junior," and "senior" years until graduation. Since the system is often tied to credit hours, however, interesting situations can arise whereby these academic year designations' meaning is blurred.

As a case in point, I myself am only in my second year of classes at West Virginia University. As such, I logicially should be a college sophomore, as are most of my peers in their second year of higher education. However, as it turns out, I accumulated just barely enough advanced-placement and other college-applicable credit beforehand in high school that the university's computer system automatically places me a year ahead in my academic-year designation. Since I've had less than two years of college experience so far, however, I am reluctant to consider myself a true "junior," and tend to refer to myself as a sophomore when the subject comes up in conversation.

At today's archaeology lab class, we were informed that there were "nine freshmen and sophomores, and two juniors" attending the class. I quickly glanced at the computer printout serving as the roster sheet, and sure enough, my name had the letters "JR" out from it, designating "junior." It seems that according to what the computer says, I bypassed freshman year entirely, being a college sophomore from the instant I came to WVU.

Except at registration time where higher academic years are given priority in registration dates, I don't consider academic-year designations to usually be paricularly significant. Regardless of the designation the computer prints next to your name, you must gather applicable credit hours to advance in a college education and ultimately graduate.

[Add a comment . . .]

1-11-2005: MIX up some POP

If you are a student, faculty, or staff member at West Virginia University who has a "mix.wvu.edu" e-mail address, you might be forgiven for thinking that the only way to access your account is through a web interface.

Not exactly true. I have found out that it is possible to set up and access MIX e-mail from a conventional POP3 or IMAP e-mail client after all...

(This entry moved to a page of its own as of December 2005.)

[Add a comment . . .]

1-8-2005: Back to Business

After a few weeks of break, I am now back at my university, ready to begin another semester's worth of classes.

A significant number of things have changed since I was here about a month ago. I have new classes; my residence hall floor has new RAs, and I will have a new roommate to live with. Although this is the fourth roommate I've had in less than two years (a story about which I might tell another time), I look forward to meeting him, and am cautiously optimistic about having a good residential relationship.

[Add a comment . . .]

1-4-2005: Comments?

It has been brought to my attention that it would be a good idea to provide a way for visitors to leave comments on articles posted in my Journal, as on other web logs. While I love visitors to share their feedback and think this would be a good idea myself, I regret to say that commenting is probably technologically unfeasible in my case. The Andrew Turnbull Web Journal is nothing more than an ordinary, non-interactive, HTML page I add to and edit with a text editor. I do not use any kind of dedicated web logging software such as Movable Type that are capable of accepting comments, and I don't believe I'm allowed to use most (any?) server-side applications in my university-supplied web space anyway. So, no comments, at least for now.

[Add a comment . . .]

12-31-2004: A Matter of Code

As one last thing to do for this website before the year was through, I spent several hours and quite a bit of effort today in ridding most of the pages of any remaining deprecated markup (such as <FONT> and the use of tables for conveying a site layout rather than tabular data), and converting pages from transitional HTML 4.01 to strict XHTML 1.0 markup. Doing so was probably not critical, but it was somewhat enjoyable and it provided me with some valuable experience in working with (X)HTML and CSS.

Although I have used XHTML before--this section, The Andrew Turnbull Web Journal, has been valid XHTML from the outset--this was the first time I coded to this specification extensively. The first step of my work was taking one typical page and converting it to strict HTML 4.01 markup, primarily by ridding it of any deprecated markup on the page and making judicious use of tags such as <div> and <p>. In this process, I eliminated the tables that house links and images towards the top and bottom of most pages on this site and used CSS markup in my linked style sheet instead. After I had completely valid HTML, it was usually fairly easy to convert the markup to XHTML. The difference between HTML and XHTML is mainly one of syntax, and I simply did my part in ensuring tag names were in lowercase letters and that all tags (including those in the header) were closed, often doing a find-and-replace of <br> tags with <br /> in the process.

Once I had converted one or two pages this way and had a feel for what I was doing, it was easier to convert other pages. Often I would simply copy-and-paste new code for the header- and footer-like divisions in a document from another page that had already been converted, ensure that all tags were lowercase and closed, and run it through the W3C Validator a few times until every error had been worked out.

As far as markup bugs go, I have noticed that the horizontal rule enclosed in a div in the "header" at the top of most pages, which ends before an image or link at left in Mozilla Firefox 1.0, instead runs behind or underneath the image or link in old Gecko-based browsers such as Netscape 6.2.3 and in Opera 7.54; this may be fixable, although I'm not in the mood to fix it tonight. The website looks dreadful in Netscape Communicator 4.8. (Why am I not surprised?)

Unfortunately, in somewhat related news, I decided to indefinitely remove the sidebar tab option from the front page of the site. The feature was rather limited in its appeal, compatibility, and use, and as I decided to rid the front page of JavaScript while converting and tidying up its markup, I had to remove the link to it as well.

It's hard to believe that only one year ago, this website did not use completely valid HTML (let alone XHTML), and did not use CSS in any way. Some things change, and in this case I changed them.

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12-28-2004: After Christmas

Christmas this year went by pretty well, if not that exciting. The weather was cold, but there was little snow. As far as gifts are concerned, I received a few noteworthy items:

Excuse me now while I preoccupy myself with other thoughts before the new year, such as converting more pages to strict XHTML 1.0 markup...

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12-23-2004: The First Two Years

The Andrew Turnbull Network can be traced back quite a bit of time. I first accessed the World Wide Web in about 1995, and almost as soon I dreamed about creating a website of my own. I never could decide on what content to center a site around, however, and didn't make one. A handful of years later, when I was in high school, I read a simple book on HTML, was inspired to learn the syntax of page coding, and began work on a primitive "website" that was little more than a few assorted HTML documents on my hard drive. I still didn't have much in the way of content, however, and the site did not initially go live. I noticed that several high school friends and acquaintances of mine had rather amateurish and content-deprived personal websites, however, and several months later I decided again to launch my own and went about coding and refreshing the ideas I had started on earlier.

This website was originally called Andrew Turnbull Online, and was launched on December 23, 2002 on GeoCities. Initially, it didn't offer much of anything in the way of content. (A screenshot of the site shortly after being originally created can be viewed here.) In subsequent months, content came (and occasionally went) as I added a diverse selection of odds and ends to the site such as a reproduction of an old Concord College information booklet, Netscape 1.0 screen shots, scanned covers of old cassette tapes, occasional writings of my own, and an obligatory page of links. My interests have long encompassed computer and Internet-related matters, and my particular interest in Netscape and Mozilla software led me to create Andrew Turnbull's Mozilla Network, which first went online in June 2004 and currently offers a selection of information and download links for Mozilla software past and present. The latest section, The Andrew Turnbull Web Journal, was added in December 2004, and you are viewing it now.

A lot has happened in the last two years from the viewpoint of coding in addition to content. Since it went live, the website has gotten easier to navigate, the site has moved to a 'real' ad-free server, I have adopted Cascading Style Sheets for formatting information, all pages in the site now validate as error-free HTML or XHTML, and the website has changed its color scheme twice. If hit counters are to be believed, over 2000 visitors have stopped by this site in the last two years. I look forward to the next two years and 2000 visitors!

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12-20-2004: To Update or Not to Update

I left my university several days ago for a handful of weeks of well-needed vacation at home over and through Christmas and New Year's Day.

Somehow, I usually feel less inclined to update my website frequently at home than I do while at the university. Why? The reasoning is probably a multitude of factors. There are fewer surprises or inspiring occurrences for me to document and create new web content on at home than at school, so I have fewer opportunities to add to a page such as this. In addition, I have dial-up Internet access at home, while I enjoy a quick network connection at the university.

Home is one place I'll probably be staying in a lot for the time being. It is beastly cold outside right now. By one account, it is 16°F (-9°C). Time to bundle up or crank up the thermostat!

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12-13-2004: Sometimes They Will Listen

Earlier, I noted that the only web browsers installed in the Evansdale computer labs on campus were Netscape Communicator 4.79 and Internet Explorer 6.0. When I visited the lab in October, I submitted feedback suggesting that they should consider rolling out a more modern web browser such as Netscape 7.2 or a Mozilla product, and also mentioned the presence of a minor typo on the Computer Lab Feedback form web page. Afterwards, I received this brief reply from the assistant director of Academic Information Services:

"Thanks for your feedback and catching the typo. We will take your suggestions under consideration."

I considered that to be the end of things, not expecting more. When I visited the lab again last night, however, I almost did a double take when I realized that Netscape 7.2 had been installed on every computer! Hats off again to the WVU OIT for listening and acting upon suggestions.

Final exams are starting at the university, so I won't be updating this section as often as I have been.

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12-11-2004: Penn State Takes the Initiative

Very recently, Penn State University's Information Technology Services issued an advisory to students recommending the use of other browsers, including Mozilla Firefox, instead of Microsoft Internet Explorer, primarily due to security concerns. Due to Internet Explorer's inherent insecurity, antiquated rendering technology, and lack of features available in other browsers, I feel that Penn State's decision is entirely justified. In fact, I would love to see West Virginia University implement a similar policy, although I admit that is wishful thinking.

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12-9-2004: Good Bye Lenin!

Last night, a saw a German-language film in the Library titled Good Bye Lenin!. Its most essential plot was thus: In 1989, a character's mother, a resident of East Berlin, faints while seeing her son as part of a demonstration; she then falls into a coma for the next eight months. When she reawakens, the Berlin Wall has fallen, Germany has been reunited, and the socialist East German government she was used to and believed in ceased to exist...but as his mother is in poor health and must not experience surprises, her son takes the initiative in persuading her that East Germany still exists, going to extensive and often-amusing lengths to prove his point, such as scrounging for old food packages and even having news broadcasts taped to explain any unusual occurrences. It was a complex film that held my attention through the end, and was easy to understand (It was subtitled in English, and I am currently taking German language classes). I enjoyed it a lot myself.

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12-7-2004: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0

Today, version 1.0 of the Mozilla Thunderbird standalone e-mail and newsgroup client has been released. Since my university's student e-mail system is web-based, I don't get to use POP e-mail clients as often as I'd like to, but Thunderbird looks pretty good so far!

[Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 screenshot]

I have it running flawlessly on my Windows 95 OSR2 system, system "requirements" be darned.

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12-4-2004: Their Browser Prototype, and Mine

Recently, it was announced that a new Netscape-branded browser would be developed based on Mozilla Firefox. The first prototype version of this new browser was made available to a pool of testers last week.

When the browser was available, it was not quite what I expected it to be. I wasn't even capable of running it myself, as the prototype (available for Windows only) had an installer that was rigged to refuse to run unless a system met every system "requirement" exactly. From what I saw from afar: Rather than use OS-native controls, or XUL controls that replicate the appearance and functionality of OS-native controls (such as in Mozilla Firefox or the Netscape 7/Mozilla Classic theme), the prototype uses custom UI elements that seem to violate every imaginable user interface convention. For example, the menu bar is integrated into the title bar and positioned at the right. Likewise, the Netscape logo "throbber" is placed in the upper left corner rather than at right per conventions. Rather than reflect system colors, the entire UI is tinted green. The toolbars are covered in a bewildering confetti of buttons and controls with odd appearances and odder, perhaps inessential, functions. And since the prototype and its UI differ substantially from that of the Mozilla Firefox code it is based upon, many extensions and other add-ons written for Firefox are incompatible with the Netscape prototype.

As an experiment, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make a mocked-up screenshot of what I personally think a Netscape-branded browser based upon Mozilla Firefox should be like. A larger version can be seen by clicking on the image below. This screenshot has been defaced, lest anyone think it was from a real application.

Netscape browser screenshot mock-up

There is little to fault with the default Mozilla Firefox user interface: It is simple, easy to use, customizable; uses system-defined colors, and follows most UI design conventions. I feel that a Firefox-based Netscape browser should not deviate substantially from this premise. This mock-up has a theme very similar to that of Firefox, albeit with Netscape 3-like toolbar buttons lending a distinction of their own. In terms of features, an integrated AOL/ICQ messenger is implemented in and is one of my favorite proprietary features of Netscape 7.x; its presence in a new Netscape browser should be imperative. I think reverting to the full "Netscape Navigator" title would be a nice idea as well. This mock-up may not be as visually interesting as the existing prototype, but at least it would look and behave like an application should.

In other unrelated news, I finalized the title of this page today: It will now be known as "The Andrew Turnbull Web Journal."

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12-3-2004: White Hall Computer Lab

West Virginia University has several computer labs on campus. Previously, I had only used the labs on Evansdale (Towers) and in the Engineering Building before, as well as the computers in the library. I am usually an infrequent user of the WVU computer labs, as I have a computer of my own. In addition, I dislike having to use WVU computers for Internet access, since the only web browsers installed are inevitably Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 (which I, as a Netscape/Mozilla fan, have always been loathe to use) or, in the case of the Evansdale labs, Netscape Communicator 4.79 (which is obsolete and virtually unusable nowadays).

Yesterday night, however, I found myself downtown. It occurred to me that I hadn't been to the White Hall computer lab before, so I decided to step inside and see what it was like. Not expecting much, I glanced at a nearby computer screen and was then pleasantly surprised to see a familiar teal and black icon. As it turned out, every PC in the White Hall lab had Netscape 7.1 installed in addition to other software!

All was not perfect, however; Netscape was set to the Modern theme as opposed to the Classic theme I personally prefer; the tab bar was hidden, an odd XUL error message appeared whenever I tried to open the sidebar. Even so, it is commendable for the WVU OIT to provide students with a (relatively) modern browser with such niceties such as tabbed browsing, built-in pop-up blocking, and the technologically sophisticated, standards-complient Gecko rendering engine. I'll be sure to visit White Hall again. Now if they'd only upgrade it to 7.2, or maybe Mozilla Firefox 1.0, for that matter...

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12-3-2004: Welcome!

Today (or actually yesterday, although I didn't actually do so until now) I decided that it would be interesting to create my own log of topics that happen to be on my mind, and publish it on my website. For the time being, at least, I am creating and maintaining this "web log" (I don't like the word "blog," for some reason) the same way in which I create all my other web pages: With a text editor. I also decided to code the log in valid XHTML 1.0 Strict markup; previously HTML 4.01 Transitional was as valid as I bothered to make a page. But never mind that, the content is what's important, and I look forward to filling this log with just that. Now the question is, how often will I end up updating it?

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Valid XHTML 1.0! ©2004-05 Andrew Turnbull.

The contents of this web page represent the thoughts and opinions of Andrew Turnbull.
It is not an official website of West Virginia University.
No guarantees are made over the accuracy of this page's contents.
You may not use this page's contents to accuse me of anything.