http://lestersmith.com A site by and about a poet, game designer, and Web coder. Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:02:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en http://lestersmith.com/2008/03/31/random-quotation/ I just learned a great little Web coding concept called "link padding." The idea applies mainly to adjacent menu items. Instead of letting the mouseover area default to the bare text of a link, with a blank space between items, text padding uses CSS to space out the items, which ... http://lestersmith.com/2008/07/02/link-padding/ If you're reading this post on my blog, glance at the top of the sidebar and you'll note I've been experimenting with Twitter. If you're reading this post somewhere else, now you know, as well. ;-) One result of that experimentation has been exposure to the blogging of a few ... http://lestersmith.com/2008/06/30/why-loyalty/ The title pretty much says it all. Here's the link to "Automotive Oddballs." How many have you seen? (How many have you owned?) http://lestersmith.com/2008/06/27/automotive-oddballs-an-amusing-article-about-car-designs/ In general, I’m trying to keep a positive tone to this blog, promoting things I’m enjoying---and there are a lot of them. Occasionally, however, I feel the need to discuss something that has offended my sensibilities (whether to warn you away from them, or perhaps simply as personal therapy), which ... http://lestersmith.com/2008/06/03/aes-the-andromeda-strain-emphasis-on-strain/ An Aside: In Teaching the Universe of Discourse, James Moffett describes human discourse as a party at which you show up late, find ongoing conversations all around you, listen until you feel you have something to add, get caught up in a discussion, and eventually have to leave although the ... http://lestersmith.com/2008/06/03/english-poets-of-the-eighteenth-century/ Here's a link to an MSN page where you can type in your ZIP code and find a list of gas prices around your town. I was surprised to find a 20 cent per gallon difference near my own home. That's at least a couple of bucks on a fill ... http://lestersmith.com/2008/05/20/cheap-local-gas/ Most people using the Web for social networking can pick one or two hangouts---MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, LiveJournal, some Harry Potter fanfic site, or whatever---and devote their energies there, communing with like minds. And that's cool. People who publish, however, have to splash as wide an audience as possible---which means having a ... http://lestersmith.com/2008/05/19/making-a-splash/ “There are only four types of officer. First, there are the lazy stupid ones. Leave them alone, they do no harm. Second, there are the hard-working intelligent ones. They make excellent staff officers, ensuring that every detail is properly considered. Third, there are the hard-working, stupid ones. These people are ... http://lestersmith.com/2008/05/16/there-are-two-times-two-types-of-people-in-this-world/ This one's from a couple of years back. It's loosely based on H. P. Lovecraft's tale, "Herbert West---Reanimator." The game has a pleasantly creepy ambiance: Those silhouettes of bare trees against the different background colors, the whistling wind, and the endless, shambling creatures make it nerve-wracking enough to keep you ... http://lestersmith.com/2008/05/05/de-animator/