So, here are another couple of bits that you can file away somewhere. They can both be used in forms, possibly for registrations or gathering data in a survey. They are the form select dropdowns for all 50 states, done in two ways; one with the full name and the other with just the abbreviations. Rather than include the code on the page, I'll just show you what it looks like, and you can go in, 'view source' and take whichever one you want. Take both; when you need them you'll be happy that you have them put away in your bag of tricks.

While you're at it, save it as a snippet in DW, and you won't even have to go looking for it!

While the two versions look different onscreen, they both pass the value as a standard two character postal abbreviation.

Here is the 50 states dropdown with abbreviations:

Here is the 50 state dropdown with the states full name included.

I have several more that I'll be posting here, let me know if you find one that's useful.

WARNING! It might start automatically, and you'll by now have turned down your speakers; if it doesn't, and you have to "push play"... do yourself and everyone in your office a favor by turning down your speakers before firing this one up. The front-end promo is a bit loud.

Some of the things I found most useful for Case Web site maintainers is the concept of "don't do what YOU want, do what's best for the client [or in this example the university]!" Also, when she talks about friends who ask her to evaluate their Web sites, she comes out and says "What difference does it make what I think about their website?" Usability rules: The most important consideration for her is, "can I properly use the web site"?

Another thing I found particularly interesting was regarding her opinion on use of images in a website. The host asks her to comment on particular problem or issues with the use of images on a Web site, and she responds "One major problem would be, too many... the other is not enough". Timely, considering a recent post by Heidi that talked about the importance of using graphics to illustrate a point -- even if using merely a thumbnail. Check out THAT earlier post by the way, if you haven't already.

One key point, and in some ways the most important thing; making something visually compelling doesn't necessarily make it better. Sure, pretty is nice, but does it "convert"?

Bandwidth is cheap. So is storage. Its a bargain, and right now I just don't see how there could be any money that can be made in Webhosting. So, I'm curious; who do you use?

My account is hosted at Bluehost, where I have 4 gigs of space, 100 gigs of transfer a month, and no limits on the number of mail accounts and sub domains. I can host 6 fully qualified domains on this one account, with unlimited aliased subdomains. There are also several pre-installed scripts to choose from, several content management systems, and database connectivity via MySQL. I use it for my personal mail, host a personal domain, but mostly I just use it as an environment to test and learn.

I was talking to a colleauge in ITS about his personal webspace, and he said he uses and recommends Dreamhost. After looking it over, I might consider switching, or even just getting another account. He had something like 200 gigs of storage, and 2 TB of data transfer per month. As I'm writing this now I ask myself; could that be right? Not only that, as I understood him, you can host unlimited domains not just the six that I can from my Bluehost account. Powerful.

So I'm asking; what do you use? How much do you pay, and more importantly, what do you use it for? Now, if you serve your own pages, that's fine too, but I'm talking here to those who have purchased space commercially.

If you don't have your own space, my recommendation is that you should consider getting some. There is much value in having your own account, and maybe I'll write an article about that later. For now i'll leave it at this; even if you have access to Case's server, and have an outlet to test and store things personally, do the right thing and get your own space. You'll be glad you did.

Good luck on those Web projects over the break!

At any rate, I came upon a good article recently in one of the HTML e-mail newsletters that I subscribe to. I can't remember the original link, or where I got this, but the complete reference is below. There are a lot of interesting things to consider here... how do we define what a *good password* is, how many characters should I have, lower vs. upper case, and others.

So, here is the complete article, (from SecurityPro News RSS Feed?) I hope you enjoy it.

A Little Rant About Passwords

By: Gary Hammock
Contributing Writer
2006-10-17

Passwords are one of the most basic forms of data security.

They are the first option that comes to mind when attempting to secure a computer system, network, or even a file. But at what point do passwords become cumbersome for legitimate users, but secure enough to retain data security?

Let's face it. The most secure system is one that is un-networked, only has one legitimate user, is encrypted, is unpowered, or basically hidden in the bottom of a well--but this is impractical. In order to actually use the computer, you must make some compromises. You must give legitimate users access while maintaining the integrity of your systems. This can be done through passwords IF they are properly administered.

You always hear people recommending weird entirely random passwords such as "#G018nW@$b!". While this may be secure, you try remembering that along with the other eight passwords you use for the other systems (you do use different passwords for each system, right?) Add to that the fact that most companies, governments, organizations, etc. require password changes every 30/60/90 days, and you have a lot of frustrated legitimate users. At what point does adding more rules reach a point of diminishing returns in security? You don't want your users writing their passwords down and leaving them beneath their keyboards.

Password strength is more dependent on password length rather than range of characters (with caveats). Granted, more potential characters helps, but let's look at the mathematics.

The number of combinations of a password is given by C^n, where C is the set of characters in use and n is the length of the password. A 10 character length password using only the 26 lowercase letters has more combinations than a 9 character length password using a 32 character set. 26^10 > 32^9. This is an order of magnitude larger! As long as the 10 character password wasn't in a dictionary file (and thus subject to dictionary attacks), this would be an easy to implement password. Thus the password "iamrunning" is more secure than "*a#v!@$nb" and much easier to remember.

Let's do another one, shall we? Using that same first password (lowercase only), let's suppose a second set to be lowercase letters and numbers 0-9 while still maintaining the 9 character length. This means the second password has 36^9 possible combinations, which is still less than 26^10. Therefore that same password "iamrunning" is still more secure than "password7" by still having a higher number of potential combinations. Of course this is a simplified model and the password "iamrunning" (though complicated combinatorally) may still be susceptable to dictionary attacks.

Now we could build an uber-password that utilizes the full unicode set and really make something complicated--but let's think on this. While you can (on Windows systems I know) enter unicode characters into the password prompt, it really seems to be counterproductive. In order to input a unicode character in Windows, you hold down the "Alt" key while pressing a four digit value on the number pad, such as alt+0192. While this may extend the character set, you still have to press five additional keys. If you had instead, used an additional five alphanumeric characters from the standard set, your password would be orders of magnitude stronger than a password with an obscure character set (pending a dictionary check, password length means nothing to a dictionary attack).

Now for something scary. An ATM has a character set of 10 digits, 0-9. For a pin number of four digits, this means a possible 10,000 combinations. Suppose a laptop can try a million combinations per second. This means a laptop would be able to crack an ATM pin in 0.01 seconds. DO NOT TRY THIS. THIS IS ONLY NOTIONAL AND HYPOTHETICAL IN NATURE. What do you think could help the most, a larger character set that must constantly be changed, or a few extra digits?

***

There you have it. I like what he says for the most part about not having to pick something entirely random. We all have enough to remember, you know? I'm not sure though, that I agree with everything he says... what do you think?

More specifically I have a question; what DO we do about this?

For some, the answer is "tell them to get a REAL browser... Firefox is free!" For others with a more finely honed sense of humor it's "friends don't let friends use IE". HA HA... on to my next project and that's that.

For me though, (and I know I'm not alone) there is the nagging reality of knowing that the majority of visitors to our websites -- by a long shot -- are using IE and they don't particularly care to switch. So read the following article and write back with any suggestions you might have. What is the answer?

Opinion: Why CSS Bugs Me

John Dvorak thinks the current PC platform is so close to being permanently broken that he's stunned people aren't already up in arms. According to him, everyone should be sued for false advertising. None of this stuff works at all!
http://ct.enews.publish.com/rd/cts?d=202-136-5-25-27536-15295-0-0-0-1

All in all a good read.

Text version here: http://www.adobe.com/newsletters/edge/may2006/section1.html

Jacked up Flash version here: http://www.adobe.com/newsletters/edge/may2006/index.html?sectionIndex=1

The flash version is actually an internal link to the article as found in the complete 'Edge Newsletter'.

Interesting.

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