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HTML form fields that, when not selected, do not even send a field name upon submit
Checkboxes and radio buttons that have not been checked and multiple select lists that have no selection submit nothing upon submission of the form. It’s as though they aren’t even there. At first, this may seem obvious (Well, yeah, you didn’t select them, dummy!), except that it runs counter to every other form field. If…
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Slamming dough
You know that cliche, heart-warming thought about home-made bakery being made with love? Well, for all you bakers out there, let’s get real: baking can be aggressive. I just now put some cranberry and sour cream scones in the oven, and had a funny moment of reflection. As I was preparing the dough, I was…
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MSU 4-H Children’s Garden
On Sunday morning, Lila, Eva and I visited the 4-H Children’s Garden at MSU. It was a beautiful day, and there were a few other small groups of people strolling around. In the back corner of the garden, obscured by the large tree in this photo, there is a play train. On the other side…
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Mourning and joy
At church this morning, Steve spoke about mourning and joy. He made a point about the word “mourning”—that it is easy to skim over verses that use it. In Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted,” the word “mourn” should be read more like devastatingly broken-hearted, as many of us…
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A degree, finally?
this weak I finishedd my Bachealor’s in English frum michigan state university!!!!!!!! (Ahem.) While I was a full-time student from 1994 to 1999, I did not complete my degree requirements at that time. I was offered a full-time job in the Web field in mid-1999, and I took it. Although I was close to finishing,…
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Ladies and gentlemen: introducing REGEXER.COM!
My friend Adam has been tapping at the keyboard and pacing again. This time, he’s working on a project called Regexer. For many programmers and Web developers, having to write up a regex (regular expression, a pattern matching utility found in many programming languages) involves having to dig out a book or look up a…
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Surge in UX jobs?
Is it just me, or is there a surge in job openings in the information architecture and Web usability fields? Over the last couple months, I’ve been contacted about or seen 8 or 9 job openings. Today, for instance, I received a message about a usability specialist position for a really well-known IT consulting firm.…
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Poetry voice, radio voice
I was a disc jockey, once upon a long time ago, at a radio station. During the training, my supervisor spoke about on-air voice and how to speak with a microphone. He pointed out that many people adopt a “radio voice”—you know, exaggerating the highs and lows, changing the rhythm of how you speak. Even…
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Revision: Using Javascript to add instructive text for input and textarea form fields
OUTDATED POST: HTML5’s placeholder attribute creates the behavior that this javascript did. Just use the placeholder attribute. This is a code update to a prior post. The Javascript I had posted earlier fell short in one important arena: when you submitted the form without entering your own text, the form would send in the instructive…
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Rieska recipe
Rieska recipe I got this recipe from my mother. Rieska is a type of Finnish bread we had occasionally when I was growing up. I just baked the bread shown in the photo. Ingredients 3 cup white flour 1/2 cup maltex or oatmeal 1/8 cup sugar 2tsp baking soda 1 3/4 cup buttermilk (maybe little…