Those Pesky Nonbreaking Spaces

Okay folks, so I've done up a draft entry on the HTML tags that you can use in Journal entries. I've sent it to the Journals tech folks so they can review it (to make sure I'm not passing along any misinformation). So I'll probably be publishing it tomorrow.

In an HTML-related note, Journaler Bill wrote in to me about a problem he was having with his Journal, Comments on the Events of My Life; it seems as if something was causing a red border to intrude on the main part of his entry area:

See that red border? Not supposed to be there.

I took a look at Bill's blog and did a right-click to "View Source" (which shows you the HTML of the page) and started looking around.

Since it only affected his main page, not any of the archive pages or individual entry pages, that kind of narrowed it down -- since you can type stuff in entries or your All About Me, it really only left his "All About Me."

Here's the relevant bit of the HTML code for that section:

I highlighted the suspicious part.

Apparently, there were a bunch of nonbreaking spaces (all those  ) below his picture and above his "Bill" caption.

Since nonbreaking spaces (by definition) don't break to the next line, they ended up pushing the border of his All About Me area out to the right, into the main entry area, causing that red border effect.

Since then, Bill has fixed it by deleting those nonbreaking spaces, so we're all good.

HTML is kind of frustrating in that sometimes it displays in unexpected ways -- that is, it does what you tell it to do, not necessarily what you want it to do.

Anyway, more on HTML tomorrow. Also, don't forget to Send in your Blog Six-Pack Picks!

Thanks - Joe

Tag: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Tips, All About Me

You Knew This Was Going to Happen, Right?

Damn cow-orkers. They're a hateful, spiteful bunch. Look at my formerly pristine meeting calendar:

Now, I must reiterate: No meetings does not mean no work. It just means "no meetings."

I was actually expecting a flood of meetings because of this, both spurious and real. You never want to jinx yourself by talking about something like this, whether you're pitching a no-hitter or hitting every green traffic light. It's just begging for trouble.

Just go with the flow...Thanks -- Joe

Tag: cow orker

A Beautiful Sight

Morning folks -- I just wanted to share a beautiful, wonderful sight I saw this morning:

(What, you were expecting puppies or rainbows? It's 50 degrees and rainy here...)

This, of course, is a screen shot of my networked enterprise shared calendaring solution (we use Outlook), which isn't particularly lovely unless you like that shade of yellow.

However, the part that's beautiful is that I have no currently scheduled meetings. That is a rare and wonderful thing.

(I was going to take a picture of the screen with my camera until I realized that was kind of silly -- besides the fact that you don't have to transfer the photo off your camera, you also don't have to worry about scanlines from the screen showing up in your photo. Here's how you take a screen shot.)

Of course, it doesn't mean that I have nothing to do -- quite to the contrary. But at least I can do what I have to do, which includes that entry I promised about allowed HTML in Journals, going through all my mail from over the weekend, et cetera, et cetera.

Anyway, I will get down to it -- in the meantime, if you haven't yet, you still have a few days (until Wednesday) to pick and post your Blog Six-Pack Picks, where you get to shine your insightful light on any six blogs that you want.

Thanks -- Joe

New Guest Editor's Picks for 5/5

Hi all -- just as I posted Journals Message Board (which, incidentally, is a great place for you to meet other Journalers and show off your blog), the new Guest Editor's Picks have been posted to the Journals Main Page.

This week's Guest Editor, Emma, is another person with a UK connection (as you recall, last week's Guest Editor, Tommy, also hails from the UK) -- she was born in England, though now she's here in the US.

She's also a Navy vet, Steelers fan, mom, scrub nurse and cheer fan. Stop by her blog, The Country Girl's Life ... and see her top blog picks:

* A Day With Kara
* Motomom
* Don't Be a Hater!! [Strong Language]
* My Life and Pictures
* Liz's Space II
* At the Base of the Mountains

Don't forget, if you want your own chance at being a Guest Editor, send me an e-mail at JournalsEditor@aol.com. Please don't forget to include a link to your blog.

Also, remember that we're in the middle of another round of my Blog Six-Pack Picks, where you get to strut your stuff and show off six blogs of any kind. You can submit your picks all the way up to Wednesday, so check out my entry to see how it works.

In other news, I went to a talk and panel discussion about Web 2.0, featuring blogger and Business 2.0 columnist Om Malik. I will try to boil down my notes next week to do an entry about his talk and Web 2.0 if I can figure out a way to make it interesting and relevant to you all -- my previous writings about Web 2.0 have met with a pretty tepid response, but it's probably my fault for not explaining it very well (there's some really interesting stuff going on).

Also, next week, I will try taking on more of the topics that I didn't get to in April, including the list of HTML tags that you can use in your Journals.

Have a great weekend everyone. Thanks -- Joe

Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

You Picked Bananas, So Here's a Better (?) Way to Peel Them

Okay, here it is; as picked by your votes, here's a trifling little entry about a better way to peel bananas. (Don't worry, I will be getting to the more useful entries, all in good time.)

The banana story was going around the big ole sphere o' blogs earlier this year (for example, see  here in BoingBoing from back in January). It was one of those memes (basically, an idea that grows legs) that popped up and then faded away pretty quickly.

There's not really that much to it -- instead of peeling it from the stem side, pinch it and peel it from the not-stem side:

Here, I'm pinching the banana. Note the stem is at the bottom.

Once you get it started, it's pretty much the same as peeling it the other way.

Here I am holding the peeled banana by the stem, which makes for a convenient handle.

Now, this is not really a new thing. Here's a Slate article from 2002 about it, that gets pretty deep into the pros and cons of peeling from each end. (Pro: Monkeys peel bananas this way. Con: Er, monkeys peel bananas this way.)

Also, here's another Web page from 2001, that uses the banana-peeling as an example for all sorts of tortured analogies about paradigm shifts and the like.

Personally, I think it's kind of amusing, and it's nice to use the stem as a handle, but I don't feel strongly about it either way. It's a useful alternative in case the stem won't break cleanly.

Try it for yourself and see.

On a photo note, I had to ask a cow-orker of mine to take the photos (since obviously, both of my hands were occupied).

Thanks -- Joe

Tag: banana, peeling bananas

Heads Up: Planned Journals Outage, Friday 5/5, 4-6AM ET

Hi folks -- Journals Product Manager Susan has posted a heads up in her blog (are you subscribed to her new entry alert?) about some Journals load testing that's going to happen early tomorrow morning (between 4AM-6AM ET); find out the whats and whys in her blog entry.

Thanks -- Joe

Help Joe Fill Up Another Six-Pack

Hi folks -- here's another thing I didn't get to in April -- the next edition of Journals Editor Joe's Blog Six-Pack Picks.

Just like the last time, this is your chance to show off some blogs that you think deserve to be seen. Here's what you do:

1. Pick 6 blogs.

2. Your 6 blogs can be all AOL Journals, none, or anything in between. They can be blogs we've seen before, or all-new. You can make up a theme of your own, or you can just go themeless. Just no porn, no spam and only one link per blog.

3. Do a blog entry listing and linking to your six blog picks. Descriptions or commentary would be great, but do what you want.

4. Leave me a comment in this entry with a link back to your entry.

Again, the Six-Pack Picks are open to anyone* who reads this entry -- the only requirement is you have to have a blog of your own, using whatever blogging platform you like.

*Since you have to leave a comment here with a link back to your blog to participate, you have to have a screen name, though it can be an AIM Screen Name (which you can get at AIM.com.)

5. Leave the link to your blog in the comments here by 5PM ET, Wednesday 5/10, which gives you a full week to work on your picks.

Taking into account your feedback from the last time around, I will start featuring your picks, in smaller batches, starting next Thursday and going on until I run out of picks to show.

Regarding the lack of themes -- I thought a lot about it, but decided in the end that trying to set a theme would just be too limiting. You, of course, are welcome to pick your own theme (make sure you tell us what it is in your entry), but I'm not forcing it on anyone. However, I will give some suggested themes to get you started:

* People you like
* Bloggers whose politics you agree with (or disagree with)
* New blogs
* Stale blogs
* Moms (since Mother's Day is fast-approaching)
* Useful blogs
* Useless blogs

You get the idea.

Here are my own picks to get your started -- it's a six-pack of blogs with no particular theme

1. You Want to Read This? http://journals.aol.com/theduchessofdirt/Youwanttoreadthis/ -- a blog I've been meaning to feature for a while off my "Pending" list.

2. Cult of Invisible Women: http://journals.aol.com/KsDauter/CultofInvisibleWomen -- another Journaler, who I believe came to my attention after leaving a comment in one of my lunch entries -- I mentioned Amanda back in March when I wrote about "Office Spouses"

3. Marketing Begins at Home: http://www.parmet.net/pr/ -- my friend David (I may have mentioned him before) -- he's kind of an authority on public relations and marketing in the blog era.

4. Felber's Frolics: http://felberfrolics.blogspot.com/ -- Susie is another friend of mine; she's a comic who lives in New York

5. Paul Daniels' Diary: http://journals.aol.co.uk/thepauldaniels/PaulDanielsDiary/ -- The folks in AOL UK turned me on to this one; Paul is a professional magician in the UK and this is his Journal (which he may be migrating at some point, but that's okay)

6. Scattered Thoughts: http://journals.aol.com/fkaren1964/ScatteredThoughts/ -- another one off my pending list (which is a pretty long list). I guess I just empathize with the title.

(Oh, and in a photo note, that is actually a six-pack that I brought into the office [empty] as a prop. Note that the open end is facing the camera, so as to prevent any appearance of an endorsement, which would be problematic if it were -- and I'm not saying that it is -- a holder for some alcoholic beverage.)

Anyway, I hope you play along -- look forward to seeing your Six-Pack Picks.

Thanks -- Joe

Tag: Six-Pack Picks.

Tagging Note: If you want to tag your own blog Six-Pack Picks blog entry, just paste the following HTML into your Six-Pack Picks entry -- make sure it says "View as HTML" in the formatting toolbar when you do this:

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/six+pack+picks" rel="tag">Six-Pack Picks</a>