Dave Baker

New Hampshire's 'Old Man' Falls from the Mountain New Hampshire's famous landmark, the Old Man of the Mountain, collapses in a landslide. The series of granite ledges resembled a human face in profile. The image was used on state road signs and even the back of the New Hampshire quarter. Hear NPR's Lynn Neary and museum volunteer Cathy Nelson. (May 3, 2003) http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ATC...y-2003&segNum=6 (audio file)

Especially useful shortcuts for Internet Explorer, from the May 6, 2003 issue of PC magazine: Ctrl-W: Close the current window (this is especially helpful for foiling pop-ups). Ctrl-D: Bookmark the current page. Ctrl-N: Open a new browser window. F5: Refresh the page. Ctrl-F5: Fully refresh the page, regardless of caching. Alt-<Left/Right Arrow>: Go back/forward a page. Alt-Home: Jump to the home page. Ctrl-<mouse wheel>: Increase/decrease the default font size. Shift-<mouse wheel>: Go forward/back a page. Shift-<left mouse click>: Open a link in a new browser window. Right mouse button: Open a context-sensitive menu for a link or picture.

From the Ziff-Davis WHAT'S NEW NOW email newsletter: NASTY BUG IN LATEST XP UPDATE SLOWS SYSTEMS DOWN While rushing to get Server 2003 out the door, the Windows team made a major blunder with its latest interim release of Windows XP, which is automatically downloaded using the Windows Update feature. Reports from all over the Web verify that this latest version actually slows many systems to a crawl. Ouch! We've got details on which XP version to watch out for and how to get it off your system. http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,...,1037305,00.asp (This happened to my XP machine a few days ago when I installed the update, and I had noticed the slowdown ... I uninstalled the update today and my computer is back up to speed again. -- Dave Baker)

http://www.sciencedaily.com//releases/2003...30421084227.htm Excerpt: " Could the gentle firefly turn out to be a potent weapon against cancer? In a new study, researchers from London inserted the firefly gene that activates bioluminescent light into modified cancer cells, hoping to set off a chain of events that has a proven track record at fighting the disease. This light source, known as Luciferin, caused the modified cancer cells to glow much like it does with the firefly. When a photosensitizing agent was added, the combination proved lethal."

"General Motors' Destruction of California Transit Systems" is at http://www.trainweb.org/mts/ctc/ctc06.html

Excerpt: "Mobile phone companies are making a last stand to block a regulation that would allow subscribers to keep their telephone numbers when they switch wireless carriers." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...4-2003Apr8.html

http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2003/feature-...tography/works/

Is the whole birthday thang kinda hokey? Maybe I should yank it.

http://www.ppbfh.com/index.htm Excerpt: "Powers Phillips, P.C., is a small law firm located in downtown Denver, Colorado within convenient walking distance of over fifty bars and a couple of doughnut shops. Powers Phillips also maintains a small satellite office-in-exile on the cow-covered hillsides near Carbondale, Colorado, where it puts out to pasture some of its aging attorneys."

The message boards assume you live in London (long story omitted). If you live further west (e.g., in the United States), the time shown to you by the message boards won't be correct unless you tell the message boards software which time zone to use when displaying the time. Here's how to do it: 1. First make sure you're logged in. If the front page of the message boards at http://benefitslink.com/boards/ says "Welcome, Guest!" then you're not logged in yet. 2. Then use the following link to change your time zone setting: click here If you get a screen that says you're not logged in, hit your browser's refresh/reload key; that oughta change the screen and let you change your time zone setting. If you still get a screen that says you're not logged in, please let me know (davebaker@benefitslink.com). Once you've selected your time zone, click on the "Change my account settings" button at the bottom of that page.

This is a "caching" problem; your browser is showing you a version of the page that you viewed previously, rather than the current version of the page (that includes the missing reply). I have changed a setting on the web server so that pages aren't cached (actually, they're set to expire 1 second after you view the page) ... this problem should go away now, though you might have to do the refresh/reload dance for pages that you've viewed up until today (April 2, 11:19 a.m. Eastern time). Please let me know if the attempted fix is successful. (Post a reply message into this topic.) Thanks!

That will be tougher -- it's only published online in PDF format, to my knowledge (not as an HTML-formatted document that can be read by a web browser without help from an Adobe Acrobat plug-in). Do you know of any HTML-format versions on the web?

This is a "caching" problem; your browser is showing you a version of the page that you viewed previously, rather than the current version of the page (that includes the missing messages). I have changed a setting on the web server so that pages aren't cached (actually, they're set to expire 1 second after you view the page) ... this problem should go away now, though you might have to do the refresh/reload dance for pages that you've viewed up until today (April 2, 11:19 a.m. Eastern time). Please let me know if the attempted fix is successful. (Post a reply message into this topic.) Thanks!

It appears that the software requires full disclosure ... the only values in the drop-down list are specific years. Just use 1904. Age = wisdom

If the message boards keeps asking you to log in when you try to post a message, even though you've just put in your username and password, the problem could be in your computer's "cookies" -- the little text files that usually work behind the scenes to log you into the message boards automatically whenever you visit the message boards. Here's the likely fix for such trouble: 1. Go to the front page of the message boards, which is http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php 2. At the bottom of the page (scroll a bit), click on "Delete cookies set by this board" 3. Now does your screen still say "Logged in as: <Your Username>" up top? If so, repeat step 2 until your screen says "Welcome, Guest!" up top. 4. At this point, quit your browser (including any open browser windows). 5. Fire up your browser again and go to the front page of the message boards. 6. Assuming the front page says "Welcome, Guest!" now click on Log In and enter your username and password in the appropriate boxes. Below them, you probably want to leave the "Remember Me?" radio button selected ("Yes"). Thereafter you won't have to enter your username and password; that particular computer will log you in automatically whenever you visit the message boards using that computer. If you still have trouble with the software asking you to log in (after you've already logged in), please let me know (preferably as a reply message posted into this topic). Thanks!

I went through each of the message boards and manually set them so that everybody has posting privileges; there might have been some kind of permissions problem caused by the changeover. If the message boards keep asking you to log in when you try to post a message, even though you've just put in your username and password, the problem could be in your computer's "cookies" -- the little text files that usually work behind the scenes to log you into the message boards automatically whenever you visit the message boards. Here's the likely fix for such trouble: 1. Go to the front page of the message boards, which is http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php 2. At the bottom of the page (scroll a bit), click on "Delete cookies set by this board" 3. Now does your screen still say "Logged in as: <Your Username>" up top? If so, repeat step 2 until your screen says "Welcome, Guest!" up top. 4. At this point, quit your browser (including any open browser windows). 5. Fire up your browser again and go to the front page of the message boards. 6. Assuming the front page says "Welcome, Guest!" now click on Log In and enter your username and password in the appropriate boxes. Below them, you probably want to leave the "Remember Me?" radio button selected ("Yes"). Thereafter you won't have to enter your username and password; that particular computer will log you in automatically whenever you visit the message boards using that computer. If you still have trouble with the software asking you to log in (after you've already logged in), please let me know (preferably as a reply message posted into this topic). Thanks!

Thanks! "View New Posts" (which a message board user sees only if he or she is logged in) displays only those messages that have been posted since the last time you logged onto the message boards. "View Active Message Threads" displays all topics that contain new messages (including new topics) posted during the previous 24 hours (whether or not you have logged on during the previous 24 hours). (Also, I think I'll rename "View Active Message Threads" to "View Active Topics" -- the new software prefers the term "topic" to the term "message thread," which is probably a Good Thing, as Martha would say.)

By default, the text in the message boards is "hard coded" -- you can't change the size of the fonts on your screen. If some or all of the text on your screen is too small for you to read comfortably, there's an easy fix: 1. On the front page of the message boards (at http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php), make sure you're logged in. You should see "Logged in as: John Doe" -- if you see "Welcome, Guest" then you're not yet logged in, and you want to click on "Log In" 2. Once you know you're logged in, you'll see "My Controls" towards the top of the page. Click on it. 3. Look in the left-hand column under "Options" -- click on the words "Skin and Languages" 4. Next to the heading, "You may choose a 'skin' to use" you'll see a drop-down menu ... select "Standard Skin but allow font resizing" 5. Click on the "Change My Account Options" button. Voila! Now you will see the message boards in a little more readable layout. If some of the text is still too small, use your web browser to adjust all of the text upwards in size. (On Internet Explorer 6, you can use the View --> Text Size command, or the "Size" button on the toolbar.) Let me know if you have any trouble with this procedure (post a reply message into this topic). Thanks, Dave Baker

Hi, Kate! How is it working for you now? I made a change to the "default" setting. Please let me know if it looks OK now. If it's still too small, please see this topic: http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?a...ST&f=92&t=19174

Thanks! I was able to kill prospectively the "feature" that was causing b) to create a smiley -- and the one that was causing © to create a copyright symbol -- now I have to figure out how to fix those changes that were made to all of the existing messages when the data was converted over to the new software.

MGB -- thanks for the report -- I've turned off the "no all caps" feature. Let Erisa be ERISA! Fredman --thanks for the report -- I've turned on the ability to upload files (attachments) of up to 2048k (about 2 megs) in size. Mike Preston -- could you try out the other skin again and see if it's still sluggish? I have made a change to the way images are served up ... your browser ought to store them in its cache now rather than downloading all of 'em again with each screen change. You're right about the default skin -- that's the only one that I changed to enable users to use their browsers to adjust all the font sizes up or down. The person who created the "tubey" skin has hard-coded the font sizes.

Reply to Katherine -- thanks for the report about the "View today's active topics on our Message Boards" links -- I fixed 'em, I think -- please let me know if they're still not working for you. (I believe the links you're referring to are at the bottom of the HTML-formatted daily email newsletters from BenefitsLink; I've changed those links on newsletters going out as of today, and in the web-archived versions at http://benefitslink.com/2003/ and earlier years.) I've also fixed the "View today's active topics on our Message Boards" link on the Benefits Buzz pages at http://benefitslink.com/buzz/short.shtml and http://benefitslink.com/buzz/new.shtml.

Hello! This is just a note to invite you to take a look at the new, upgraded software that's been installed for the BenefitsLink Message Boards. The new software is considerably faster. It also provides several new features for you. I'll provide details soon in a later message. The address for the BenefitsLink Message Boards is now http://benefitslink.com/boards Thanks, Dave Baker Webmaster ------------------------------------- BenefitsLink Message Boards Statistics: ------------------------------------- Registered Users: 11045 Total Posts: 69280 Busiest Time: 8 users were online on 27th March 2003 - 11:09 AM ------------------------------------- Handy Links ------------------------------------- Board Address: http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php Log In: http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?a...t=Login&CODE=00 Lost Password Recovery: http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?a...act=Reg&CODE=10

I have compiled the 2002 version of my little DOS program called the "Inte-Greater" -- it finds the best integration level for a corporate profit-sharing plan of 40 or fewer participants. It also shows the amounts that should be allocated to the various participants' accounts. Could anybody give it a whirl and compare the results to the allocation figures you get from your current administration software? I think I've correctly implemented the 415 limits and the comp cap, but I'd love to have confirmation that your professional administration software is providing the same allocation figures. The software (it's free) is here: https://benefitslink.com/cgi-bin/inte-greater/ Thanks, Dave Baker