The internet is such a big part of my life, I am a little embarrased to admit it to people in real life sometimes. Here's two little internet things about finding information.

Last night I was trying to format a really simple webpage for my sister in law. I needed to know how to center a <div> tag with style sheets. I've never been able to figure this out and its such a basic thing that I need all the time. My ©1999 O'Reilly Webmaster in a Nutshell doesn't say. It is outdated in so many ways. My god its as old as Aidan, absolutely ancient! I generally beleve that you can find any of this information on the web anyway, but I have also never seen it on style sheet tutorials on the web. Dollar Short has a centered format and I know Mena designs with style sheets so I spent a lot of time studying her stylesheet and her html, but I couldn't figure it out. I didn't see the word "center" anywhere except after text-align and I knew that that would only center the text. So finally I'd had enough and I went to Amazon to finally buy an updated reference on CSS. A search for CSS on Amazon brings up two Eric Meyer books at the top of the list. I checked out Eric Meyer on CSS and read the reviews. I've bought bad technology books before and I find the reviews on Amazon very helpful in knowing what level user the book is for and if it is outdated at all. This review:

And, for intermediate users (you've been using stylesheets for awhile, maybe just to handle typography), I'd recommend also getting Eric Meyer's "Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide" for a more in-depth study of the CSS specs, though you can make it through most of the concepts presented here with just the information given with a little extra mental effort and perseverance.

makes me think that maybe I want his other book so I check it out. It's an O'Reily book like my nutshell one and probably just a reference, which is really what I need - but is it absolutely cutting edge current? I went to the reviews and find this little gem.

The first thing I tried to do with style sheets was to convert some of my web pages to strict HTML by changing my <div align="center"> tags to CSS. According to page 88, the way to do that is with the style "text-align: center;". Of course, this style doesn't center tables, only the text within the table cells. With considerably more digging, I found that "margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" was the way to center a table. Unfortunately, that style doesn't center headings or images. I finally was able to find a combination of both styles that simulate <div align="center">, but I found it only through trial-and-error, not through insight gained from this book. This book needs a chapter on CSS style equivalents to HTML style tags, in more detail than the "CSS in Action" chapter.

I was right, you can find everything on the internet, if you look long enough. I didn't buy the book, and interestingly, this review is not on the first book page anymore. You have to click on "read all customer reviews" to find it - but it does have a customer rating about how helpful it is: 41 of 46 people, which is considerably more than any other review there.

The other thing that I want to relate is about the power of blogs in terms of information access. This information is all over the technology blogs and sites, but since most folks who read this are not tech people, I thought I'd share it here. Google is by far the world's most popular search engine. It works so well because the folks at Google developed a system of ranking based on popularity. The more other sites link to a page, the higher its search engine rank. Folks are saying that blogs rule Google because they are so prolific and they are heavy linkers. My point is that your blog is powerful because of your links. They up the search engine ranking of what you link to. So link away to Indymedia and ANSWER and Yo Mama. Don't link when you don't want to raise popularity. This isn't always going to work with the kind of information you are presenting - for instance, just above I have linked to Amazon because it illustrates my story. And if you want to link to an illustration of media bias or the like, it makes more sense to just include the link than not. I am more suggesting that if you are just telling a story that involves The Gap, let's say, maybe don't link to their site, or if you want to link, do one like this.