You made it! Thanks for visiting.
There are a lot of things the World Wide Web can do for you, but healing you is not one of them.
Welcome to BenWoods.com
While there is a bounty of useful items on the Internet, there is also that vague area of things that serve some purpose, but by themselves, would be utterly useless.
An obvious example of this is a Web counter. Create a Web page by putting nothing on it other than a counter. Put it on the Web. What does it prove? If people actually go to your site, they are insane? True, but in a sense, we already know that everyone is crazy.
I hope you made it to my column today in one piece.
Surely there was no traffic on the trip to work, no wrecks to get in your way and no coffee to spill on that new "Dukes of Hazzard" tie your grandmother gave you for Christmas. Just like any other day, I bet you walked into your office or computer room, started up your computer and immediately accessed the Web, right?
HONK!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!? DON'T CUT IN FRONT OF ME YOU $#%#$@!!! HONK!!! HONK!!!
If this is you, and you also happen to find yourself saying these things often -- OK, every single time you drive more than 33 inches -- then you may be enthused to know I would like to do something about it.
Yes, soon there could be a way to get back at all of those people who pull up right on your bumper; who say using a turning signal is merely a fad; and who think the word "yield" means "go" and the word "merge" means "get outta my way."
I'm sure you've seen it: A Web site that has an amazing design, with bright
colors, animation and various neat effects. But after the awe goes away (10
seconds later) you begin to wonder: Where am I supposed to click?
A large portion
of Web designers have this problem. They think the more creative they
are, the better the Web site becomes. While uniqueness is key
to making a site design stand out, it is important to remember the end user.
That's you! Forgetting that Internet pages should be geared toward the
From the Archive
It happens to everyone ... you're trying to finish some work, but that crazy guy/boss/stalker chick/cougher/obnoxiously loud lady keeps pestering you every five minutes. How do you solve this crisis?
Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to CubeGuard. It's essentially a banner you stretch across your cube entrance to keep out unwanted souls, which enables you to "Protect Your Productivity." Choose from a few standard messages or even create your own custom message?
In the beginning, the Internet gods created hypertext markup language. This language, known to you and me as HTML, was pretty much the sole programming possibility in the earliest development stages of the World Wide Web.
I've stumped myself with a recent philosophical discussion
I had with, um, myself. Who has the last word in an
email discussion?
It's pretty obvious in a face-to-face
discussion. The last person who talks has the last
word. Even if you
hold your ears and scream really loud, it's apparent
who said the last thing. In a phone conversation, this
If you haven't been to Friendster lately, it might be time to go back and check it out. Released in September, Friendster 2.0 appears to be not only leading the way with online social networking, but it may also be replacing Internet dating websites.
There are a fair amount of improvements with the new Friendster, including the following:
- FriendTracker: Real-time updates about your friends' information
- Customizable Profile: Ability to use HTML or CSS for your profile
If you're a frequent visitor to this site, you've probably noticed that the last few months have been a little short on news. One of the reasons for this is because I just changed jobs, but the bigger reason is that I've been finishing a website for a charter school here in Baltimore. Well, it's finally live at sbcschool.org. It's nothing flashy, but there are a bunch of pictures and info about the school, which has been opened for only four years.