Web Notes Online

January is always a cold and forbidding month. This one has been especially so. I don't normally get personal in this column. I am this time.
The month had barely gotten under way when I received word that my dad's youngest bother had died. I say youngest. He had turned 80 just the previous fall making all four brothers in that generation octogenarians. My dad has an older brother 82 and a twin a few moments younger at 81. When the youngest turned 80, the family had that generation together for eight decades. For us youngsters they seemed kind of permanent. They were the cornerstones of our family. One of the corners of the foundation was now gone.
Of course it is not possible for them to be permanent, but they had always been there in the living history of our family. So when uncle Dick succumbed to a massive stroke shortly after the new year, it was a surprise.
I carry that personal loss into the rest of the month which has been sad for the entire Mid-Shore. It is one thing for a man of 80 to pass on. It is quite another for a series of youngsters to lose their lives so tragically. There had been one other male in that generation but he was gone before anyone in my generation even existed. My mother had an older brother who was shot down over Italy in 1944. I know him only from pictures.
I come to work very early in the morning. I review the newspaper and check to see that some of the overnight work is done for the Web site. In our system, I gather the local material for the Web site and begin to distribute it to various portions of the Web site. As the stories of the accidents and the tragic loss of young life appeared each day, I began to approach the newspaper with foreboding each morning. My heart goes out to all the families. In many cases, the Web site has been used as a mechanism for people to express their grief. I'm doing it in this way.
I got a comment recently from one of the regular readers about the lead picture I put up each day. It served as a reminder to me to be mindful of the way different browsers display material from the Web site.
She noted that sometimes when I post the featured picture, the background and the text blend together. This happens when I have a dark background and use a dark color for the font. When I do this early in the morning, I sometimes forget that different browsers render colors differently on the computer screen. I will strive, I say strive, to make the background and font have more contrast. I enjoy this part of the creative process. I don't want to compromise the affect by failing to take color contrast into consideration.
The vast majority of the site visitors use Internet Explorer with Netscape a distant second and AOL an even more distant third. In each case, the browser version can make a difference. Throw in the variations between Mac and PC and it can get quite confusing. In any event, I'll try to boost the contrast so I hope all will benefit.
There has been some Internet news this week. Rupert Murdoch after proclaiming his intention to make the Wall Street Journal free when he bought control last year has backed down. The most successful paid online newspaper ever will continue as a subscriber site and the rates will be increased. I understand you can see some of the site's stories if you access them through Google News. I'll check this out.
A friend who worked for The Wall Street Journal was skeptical when Murdoch announced his plan last year. He didn't think Murdoch would get it by the company's board. Apparently Murdoch didn't.
Apple got punished in the stock market this week after reporting its best quarter ever. I've likened the market to a herd of domestic turkeys. They form a group and are scared of their own shadow. Ben Franklin once proposed that the wild turkey be named our national bird. As you know, the Bald Eagle won out. That makes all us men who are thin on top proud. But I wonder, if the turkey had won, what would have happened to Thanksgiving?
Thoughts?
As always, you can reach me at rpolk@chespub.com.