Mama’s Portuguese Beans

A few years before my mother’s passing she left to me and my bothers her mother’s recipe for Portuguese beans. Although I think that this was originally a peasant dish that has been added to, the basis for this recipe remains true to its roots. I have always wanted to share and blog this recipe. In addition I have included techniques that I have found to work the best for me. So without further ado.. here’s the basic instructions for Portuguese Beans:

INGREDIENTS;

Pink Beans 1lb
Garlic 3 cloves
Salted Pork or Ham Hock 1 small piece
Oil 3 Tbs
Olive Oil 1 Tbs
Onions 4 large
Hamburger 1 lb
Salt 2 tsp
Pepper 2 tsp
Cumin seeds 2 Tbs
Linguesa Sausage 2 links

Procedure;

Wash, clean, and soak 1LB Pkg. of Pink beans overnight covered with cold water.
Next day, drain, put beans in large pot, cover with cold water. Add one large onion, chunked, 2/3 cloves of slivered garlic, and (optional) a small piece of salted Pork or Ham Hock.
Bring to boil, and simmer approx. 2 hours until beans are tender.
In a large fry pan, add 3 Tbs oil, plus 1 Tbs of olive oil.
Heat until hot, then add, 2 large chopped onions and 3 more cloves of garlic (chopped).
Fry over medium heat, until onions limp and yellow.
To Same fry pan, add 1 LB Hamburger, break up meat into mix and fry until meat well done.
Season this mix with 2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. black pepper, 2 Tbs. cumin seeds (bruised).
To this mix now add some juice from beans, simmer about 10 minutes.
Pour onion hamburger mix into bean pot. Taste for additional salt and pepper. Simmer while you prepare the sausage.
Peal the skins off two links of linguesa sausage. Cut into pieces and fry until a bit brown. Add to bean pot with slotted spoon, leaving behind the grease.
Simmer whole pot to blend flavors. Check now for more cumin, altho you will find the sausage is spicey.

Serve;

Place one wide slice of sour dough bread in a soup bowl (sopa), add beans and juice and sausage. If you like sprinkle with cheese.

Author: Florence Kinney

The following is a graphical rendition of this procedure with a couple of extra touches;

Step one as far as I am concerned is you must have a clean kitchen before you get started. Things are going to get messy enough without any further complications. One word to the wise, get all your ingredients ahead of time, you don’t want to get caught in the middle of making this recipe without having everything you need at your disposal.

Wash, clean, and soak 1LB Pkg. of Pink beans overnight covered with cold water.

This is important. I have seen several “cooking shows” that infer that this step is not that essential, but let me assure you that it is. This allows the bean to rehydrate and cook within the time allotted for this dish. Don’t be skimpy with the water, the beans will soak up alot of water overnight.

Next day, drain, put beans in large pot, cover with cold water.

Add one large onion, chunked, 2/3 cloves of slivered garlic, and (optional) a small piece of salted Pork or Ham Hock.

So for those of you who want to take a short cut by not using fresh garlic.. all I have to say to you is don’t. Please use some of your knife skills and do sliver the garlic, it does make a difference. Now when ever a recipe call for 2/3 cloves of garlic, I usually put in 3, just my preference. As far as the Ham Hock, I prefer using the bone and surrounding meat from a previous meal (the meat is sweeter next to the bone). If I find that this is not quite enough I will add a few more pieces of sliced ham from the leftovers.

Bring to boil, and simmer approx. 2 hours until beans are tender.

 Don’t cheat on the time, this dish requires this much time minimum to properly marry all the flavors together. You may also need to add some more water to cover the added onion, garlic and ham.

In a large fry pan, add 3 Tbs oil, plus 1 Tbs of olive oil.
Heat until hot, and then add, 2 large chopped onions and 3 more cloves of garlic (chopped).
Fry over medium heat, until onions limp and yellow.

The trick to this is, since you already have chunked onions in the pot, make sure you dice this onion. This is easily done by using a cross hatch method. Slice your onion, but not all the way through making small slices, then turn the onion 90 degrees and make the same incisions to form a cross hatch of slices. Then turn the onion on its side and make thin slices all the way through. The smaller the slice the finer the cut. Sliver the garlic as before, and then chop the garlic into small bits.

I remove this mixture from the fry pan and reserve it to a plate before proceeding to the next step.

To Same fry pan, add 1 LB Hamburger, break up meat into mix and fry until meat well done.
Season this mix with 2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. black pepper, 2 Tbs. cumin seeds (bruised).

 I have found that with the added ham in the pot I have reduced the amount of salt to 1tsp. The cumin can be a bit over powering so you may want to season to taste at this point. I think that 1Tbs. of cumin is enough. Be sure to use cumin seeds and not powdered cumin. I use a mortar and pestle to bruise the cumin seeds or you can use a bowel and spoon to crush the seeds.

To this mix now add some juice from beans, simmer about 10 minutes.

Once the meat is done, add the reserved onion the garlic mixture to the pan and the juice from the pot containing the beans and ham. Do let this mix simmer to marry these flavors together.

Pour onion hamburger mix into bean pot. Taste for additional salt and pepper. Simmer while you prepare the sausage. Make sure that the bean pot has had enough time to simmer (2 hr). If it needs more time hold the onion hamburger mix until the bean pot has had enough time to cook the beans and ham. The beans should be soft and the ham meat should be just falling off the bone.

Peal the skins off two links of linguesa sausage. Cut into pieces and fry until a bit brown. Add to bean pot with slotted spoon, leaving behind the grease.

This is the secret, peal the skin off the linguesa. This will allow the linguesa to fully cook and not have a casing that will inhibit the taste. This also allows the taste of the linguesa to permeate the mixture in the pot. I have to add my opinion about the linguesa that is available in the grocery stores now a days. Even the “hot” linguesa is rather mild to my taste. I remember linguesa that was hot and spicy and contained a lot more fat. To remedy the heat issue I add a tsp. of chili paste or oil.

Simmer whole pot to blend flavors. Check now for more cumin, although you will find the sausage is spicy.Taste is everything to everybody. I think that once you have simmered this mixture for another hour it is pretty much done. Don’t allow this mixture to overcook. The sauce should be the consistency of a thick soup. Overcooking the mixture will result in the beans breaking down into a paste, reducing the overall appeal of the dish. I usually just take the pot off the heat and let the mixture rest. Reheat when ready for the meal.

Serve;

Place one wide slice of sour dough bread in a soup bowl (sopa), add beans and juice and sausage. If you like sprinkle with cheese. Absolutely!

As my Mother would say: senta say, por favor, manga

This is one lesson that I repeatedly have to learn over, and over, again.. Recently I decided to upgrade to win7 for a couple of reasons. 1, my old xp OS was giving me some problems with the way it was operating and I figured that it may be time to reformat and reinstall to correct any corruption in this aging OS. 2, it was time to start using a 64 bit OS because there is no going back to 32 bit programs for  the sake of productivity. To make the transition from one OS to the other I decided to install a dual boot system. I installed a second hard drive for win7 and wala, I had one hard drive that booted to xp, and one hard drive that booted to win7. That should have taken care of any problems that I was having in xp by transitioning over to win7, right? Not quite!

Let me give you the details.. The problem that I was having in xp was, loading speed at start up, and problems with opening and starting a program that would not respond to my mouse. It was like the window was frozen and would not accept any click commands that I made with my mouse. It would not close, expand, or scroll. I found that by opening up the task manager and then clicking on the performance tab, I would see a large spike in the kernel but then all levels would return to normal and as if by some sort of magic, my mouse would return to its normal operations. I could then open and close windows of a program, expand the window, and scroll normally.  Baffling, to say the least.

At first, I attributed this to an aging OS, so once I had installed my dual boot system, I thought all my problems would be solved.. but nooo, this problem persisted not only in xp (expectedly) but also in this freshly installed win7 OS. I still had the same problem and the same work around. What to do? Search the net for a solution. Of course the net had plenty of solutions for the offering. From memory failure, to hard disk corruption but none of these options seemed to fit, or work. One of the solutions that I found was to try shutting down all the start up programs by using msconfig. I did take a look see and I did find a few start up programs that were not needed, but to shut down all of them and then rebooting and adding one by one to find out who the culprit is did not seem to me to be a viable resolution to my problem.

So my search continued. I tried memory scanning and testing to no avail, registry checking and editing, again with no result, and the usual virus, malware programs that did not show any infection. I also had a friend come over to check things out and he looked at the bios, and cmos settings. He did a little optimization and this did a little improvement to the speed of my win7 OS and looked like the problem was solved until a couple of more reboots produced the same malfunction. Now I had looked at the driver for the mouse and tried to update this driver in windows, but windows informed me that this driver was working properly and no updated driver was available nor needed.

Now I have to say, whatever you do, don’t trust explicitly, windows to tell you if a driver is needed or needs to be upgraded. I decided to try to upgrade this driver from the manufacture, and indeed, an updated driver and download was available for this mouse. Low and behold, problem fixed, done, and working on both xp and win7.

 Moral of the story? Try not to over think the problem at hand. Look for the simplest solution and more than likely it will work. I spent hours trying to find a solution to this problem, searching the net, scanning and testing various systems that are part of the OS only to find that a simple solution to the problem was the correct one. I think that we tend to over think problems that we encounter and that is maybe that we ourselves are rather complicated. After all, this computer is just a machine and a rather simple one at that. Once we go over the ledge of complexity it is hard to bring ourselves back to the realm of simplicity. And remember, if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it more than likely is a duck…

I think that well all should own up to taking some responsibility for these problems. The reason that scams are so abundant on the web is that they work. Reasonable people from all walks of life are taken in every day thinking, they are getting something for nothing. That is the key, if you think for one second that this “offer” sound too good to be true, then it usually is. Call me suspicious or critical by nature, but I will look a gifted horse in the mouth and/or anything else that carries the label of “free”.

First let’s take a look at all the “offers” you may receive in your email box. Solicitations through emails have been around for years and will more than likely be with us for millennium. The one that is most laughable and directed to the most gullible, are the ones that present the reader with the proposition that they can participate in a scheme that will net them millions of US dollars. Of course all that they will need is some of your contact information but that is only where it starts. Once they have you “hooked” these scammers will be asking you for a “small” monetary amount to complete this transaction. Believe me, once your money is in their hands, you will never hear from them again.

Another Scam that has been hitting my email box is “investment opportunities”. You know, if I am considering investing in a company or stock, I think the best course of action will be to research the company or stock thoroughly with a reputable investment firm before I lay down my hard earned cash rather than rely on a promise that was part of an email blast sent to god knows how many prospective clients. I just love the way that some of these communiqué state that this particular stock has a 100% ROI or has gained 50% gain in the market in the last 6 months. Do a little research on your own and you will see the fallacies in the statements made in the proposition that landed in your email box.

Other opportunities land in my inbox from time to time. These include developers from other countries. They promise all kinds of web work at fantastic prices but will fail to deliver the contemporary and best practice code that you would expect from any of your own associates. I have and will continue to use (if needed) local personnel who are the best fit for the particular project that is in my queue. I have found that if my client has a particular need or expectation and I need to confer with my assistant he/she is just a phone call away and a face to face meeting is always doable. Let’s face it, the people that I deal with directly are responsible for their work, but if you shop overseas, once they have been paid, you are on your own.

If you have an account with craigs list or facebook or another social media site that has your email posted for contact information, then you will surely encounter this kind of deception. You may find from time to time a notice that may look like it has been delivered to you from one of these social media sites telling you that your account is in danger of being terminated if you do not respond to this email or follow the link provided. If you look at the url you can determine that even though it may have a reference to the site you have an account with, the domain name is just a bit different. Be forewarned, these messages are not coming from the site you have an account with, but is an effort to hack your account if you provide them with the information requested, like your password. I always look at the url by passing my mouse over the link to determine if the visible link is actually going to take me to what is posted in the email. Do be wary, of links that are particularly long, that they may contain instructions to the server to gain additional information about you that you may not want to disclose.

From time to time you may finding yourself “surfing the web”. Following links that you hope will provide you with the information that you are seeking. Having an up-to-date browser will help you avoid some of the hackers and scammers out there. Firefox does a particularly good job of preventing other programs from accessing your system. My outlook program prevents the downloading of images in the messages that I am reading unless specified otherwise, preventing a lot of hacks that may contain viruses, Trojans, and other malware, spyware, and phishing programs intended on infecting my machine. Best practice is to send these messages to the spam folder immediately for deletion at a later date. This will also allow for any subsequent messages from this particular sender to be sent to the spam folder for review/deletion at your discretion.

Now for one of my favorites, malware problem solvers, your surfing the web one day minding your own business when up pops a message stating that your computer is infected with a “virus” and it needs to be disinfected ASAP or your system will incur disastrous system damage within the immediate future. This message will look genuine and may even sport the logo of your OS manufacturer. Within this message contains a solution and download from a company that states that they will be able to cure all your ills for a small monetary amount. The hook is that once you have downloaded this “solution” your machine will be infected with malware, but not from some unknown source, but from the download that you have just installed. Of course the subsequent malware messages that you receive will be requesting more money from you for more “solutions” or maybe a subscription that need to be purchased on a regular basis.

This kind of scam is the most insidious because of the fact that the solution itself is the problem. In fact you may try to close the popup window only to find that this program has downloaded itself onto your system even without your consent. What to do? Close the browser, even if you have to do the Alt/Ctrl/Delete key command to close the browser manually. If you do have a problem with malware, I would suggest using Malwarebytes that does a pretty decent job on locating and deleting this kind of program on your machine. Other systems cleaners are out there but I would research them thoroughly (pros and cons) before using any of them. Of course if you have found yourself in dire straits and no solution is available or working for you, try to back up all your current data to a separate drive and then reinstall your OS with a complete reformat of the hard disk. This finial solution is a bit drastic but it will get rid of all the bugs in your system and you will be able to start will a clean slate.

The last couple of scams that needs a bit more exposure is not web based but are cons done over the phone. Recently I received a call while I was at my desk. The caller claimed to be from the Microsoft Corporation and was trying to tell me in a rather heavy accent, that I had several viruses on my machine and that she would be able to help me by allowing her access to my OS. This kind of scam really tries my patience. First, Microsoft would not be contacting me directly no matter what was happening on my system. Secondly, my system shows no sign of infection and is scanned for any type of viruses on a regular basis. My reply was rather harsh, needless to say I told this operator that my system is firewalled and should they try to gain access to my system I will take legal action against them, and hung up the phone.

This particular scam happened to my father-in-law not once but twice. He received a call from a person who claimed to be one of his grandchildren. This is slick, because the caller will wait for the person on the other end to divulge the grandchild’s name. “Oh is that you ____ “(fill in the blank). Once they have you hooked, they will tell you that they are in, say Canada, and tell you that they are in some sort of trouble with the law, and request money for bail and that you are to send this money via money order to some destination within this country (but not the US). This kind of scam is directed toward the elderly who are vulnerable to this kind of attack do to their possible lack of communication with these family members. My father-in-law contacted me and asked me where his grandchildren were and we concluded that they were safe and not in any trouble as stated by this con who had called. My suggestion, once you have determined that this is a con, and they will call you back with instruction or queries about the money, don’t confront them then, tell them that the money is on its way and they should wait for it at the predetermined destination agreed upon. They will have to wait till hell freezes over and you will have the satisfaction that they may be as inconvenienced as you were by this scam.

If you have any stories of you own you would like to share, or have a comment that is directly related to this blog post, please feel free to add your comment. I will post all genuine comments to this blog post.

Flipping on the TV, I have mentally noted that NASCAR has a race scheduled for today. Now I don’t know if this is by design, or just my typical good luck, but it seems that no one in my household likes to watch NASCAR but me, and that includes my wife. This assures me at least a couple of hours of uninterrupted time that fits well into my plan for a great afternoon. The sound of those finely tuned engines and the images of those machines racing around the track at almost impossible speeds send most people out of the room except for some of my mechanic buddies. I am asked “why do you want to watch these cars just go around in circles for endless hours at a time”? My reply, “exactly”!

Now in my house, I always have a bottle of vodka in the freezer. No, it will not freeze but will become a bit thick, and it will attain the proper temperature for the best martini I can imagine. What kind of vodka is important, generally, it’s what you can afford, but purity is what you are looking for. Oh yes, there is a difference between Smirnoff and Belvedere. Please, no flavored brews here, I just want the most unadulterated liquor for a perfect martini. The olive that I use is just that, a green martini olive, no pimento, no garlic stuffed inside, or other flavoring. The olive is just a garnish, and certainly not the star of the show. I will also need just a bit of Vermouth and a slice of a lemon.

• The recipe is as simple as the ingredients.
• Set up your oysters in a deep dish plate or bowl on ice.
• Fill a shaker with ice almost to the top.
• Measure out a jigger of vodka, (two shots), maybe a bit more.
• Pour the vodka in to the shaker and shake.. Until it is dead cold, you can tell this when the condensation on the shaker is almost frozen.
• Pour just a bit of Vermouth into a large martini glass. This is important; you must use a martini glass that will accommodate about two shots of liquid. It should have a large top compared to the bottom of the glass. Just a regular glass will just not do.
• Twirl the Vermouth in the martini glass so that it coats the inside of the glass and discard the rest.
• Pour the Vodka from the shaker through a strainer into the martini glass almost to the top of the glass.
• Use the slice of lemon to ever so gently coat the rim of the glass.
• Stick a toothpick through two olives and place in to the glass.
• Place the oysters and the Martini on whatever furniture item that you use when watching TV, (like a coffee table).

Turn on the tube and let the magic begin.

I notice immediately the serenity that overcomes my consciousness as I slurp down an oyster and sip my martini. The buzz of the tube as these machines race around the track, the lack of conversation required when being asked if I want to do “something”, and the knowledge that I don’t have to do anything for the rest of the afternoon.

Moderation is the key. As I enjoy my “me” time, the goal is not to get plastered, but just get that warm fuzzy buzz. I will not be driving anywhere and I don’t plan to move from the couch for quite a while. While watching the tube and finishing off my martini and oysters, I stretch out my legs on the couch and rest my head on the arm rest. I drift into a light nap, with my ears attentively “watching the race on the tube”. This is called “resting my eyes”. Someone may say that this is sleeping but I would have to disagree. I “sleep” in my bed; I rest my eyes on the couch. This tops off my day.. Good drink, good eats, and just a bit of rest, ah, it’s just what the soul needs every now and then.

I open my eyes with just enough time to catch the end of the race. Feeling rested and with enough cognitive ability to proceed with whatever the evening events may be, I have replenished my tank with the time that I needed in order to tackle the next situation that will surly appear on the horizon in short order.

This may not be for everyone, but the point is, make a little “me” time for yourself and your outlook on life may be just a little brighter and your spirit will be a bit stronger for the days ahead.

Comments are welcome, but please, refer to the subject matter of this post in your communication.

I have noticed that you could profile each user by their own decision of what type of computer they use. Typically a Mac user is 1, Generally well educated in their particular field (as long as it is not computer science) 2, Does not care or is interested on the ins, and outs of the OS and/or hardware, but just wants a computer that does what they want when they want it, and 3, is financially well to do and is willing to pay the excessive cost of purchasing a Mac. There is also a particular camp of users who may have a genuine usage position that makes using a Mac paramount, graphics designers, videographers and artist to name a few. Apple does provide programs that produce superior results for these professionals whereas there has yet comparable program(s) that will produce similar results within a windows environment.

A PC user is generally a person who 1, does not mind configuring their computer in order to meet their needs. From adding hardware to installing the newest and latest programs, this kind of attitude just seems to go hand in hand. 2, is educated in the use of computers and understands what a computer is capable of. 3, is frugal in nature and is looking for the best bang for the buck. This last point is what I think drives the dominant market share of the Windows users over Mac users. I have to mention one group of users who predominately use the windows OS, gamers. Oh, we would like not to think that playing games does not have much of an Impact on what type of computer is preferred, but you have got to admit that gamers influence the PC market significantly.

 Most programmers, network technicians and web developers (like myself) don’t have a real preference of one type of machine over the other but do need a computer that will produce the type of results that is able to be used by all types of computers and browsers. Its seems like a moot point since with the use of a VM (virtual machine) you can have any kind of OS operating on your particular computer whether it is a Mac OS or a Windows OS (and yes Unix too). I have to say that I am more comfortable using the GUI interface of my PC (Windows) than a Mac but I think that is only because I use this interface day to day.

Like I have previously mentioned my preference is a PC because of the versatility of its hardware and programs that are available within a Windows environment. I have built from scratch my last two PCs. and if I need a new hard drive, no problem, just buy it and install, if I have a video card that needs an upgrade, go for it. When I needed a major upgrade to my system all I needed to do was a quick shopping trip to newegg.com to purchase all the hardware required, (motherboard, CPU, video card, case, power supply, hard drive…) and within a week or so I have a new PC with all the capability I needed and it did not cost me an arm and a leg.  

Likewise, you can also upgrade your Mac, with some limitations. Depending on what model of Mac you have, you too may be one of the fortunate ones who can install a new hard drive, CPU, ram, video card, even you mother board. There are several resources on the net that will give you “special guidelines” and instructions on the various bumps and curves you may encounter while attempting to upgrade your current Mac machine. While researching this subject I have found that one of the most prevalent opinions is “want to upgrade, sell your old Mac and buy a new one”.

This leads me to my next point. Apple is the evil corporation. I am not talking about Microsoft that has had that dubious reputation, but Apple. Please tell me why the cost of purchasing a Mac, and its various peripherals, cost so GD much. The plain fact is that making these parts and machines does not cost that much more that a PC, so why does Apple think that, we as consumers, can tolerate the excessive gouging of our collective pocket books. Maybe, it is because they can! Whatever the market can bare as the saying goes. If you just look at the subjective information out there you can see that Microsoft and Apple are in the same boat. Dig a little deeper into who owns what and I think you will see that Microsoft is invested in Apple corp. and Apple has investments in Microsoft. Remember when Microsoft was brought before congress on charges that its market share was approaching a monopoly status and that the company would have to be broken up into smaller companies. It was not long after that event that Apple got a shot in the arm from Microsoft in order for it to continue as a viable competitor in the market place.

With the various vendors who produce products for the PC and Mac market and the competition for those products drive the price for those products ever lower. We as consumers reap the benefits of innovative products, the latest and greatest programs and hardware technologies that have continuality advanced the capability of what is able to be done with these machines. The divisions between these platforms are becoming blurred. You can run Adobe programs on your PC (but Mac gets the nod) and you can run Word on your Mac. Want to run Safari to browse the web, no problem even though this browser was the IE for Mac.

So maybe what is really going on here is the difference in social status economically. Ford vs. Lexus, white collar vs. blue collar, home owner vs. apartment dweller.  I think that it is fair to say that Marketing has a great deal to say how we view ourselves and what kind of system we think we should have. Upwardly mobile, smart and well educated, got money to burn, great, I see a Mac in your future. Pragmatic, bargain hunter, entrepreneur, it’s a good bet that a PC sits on your lap or desk.

Wiki describes a computer as this;

“A computer is a programmable machine that receives input, stores and manipulates data, and provides output in a useful format.”

This of course is a simple textbook definition of a “computer”. It does not indicate if this machine is an Apple (Mac) or a PC. My point is, that a machine, is a machine, is a machine.. no matter who makes it and what kind of OS it may be using it is still just a “machine”. My fundamental hope is that all of us users who use these machines can enter into a discussion about our use of these machines and what we are able to produce, without the usual bias that tends towards an argument. Let’s all get over, my machine is better than yours because… Just let me know how the use of whatever system you are using is improving your life and what you are able to do with it. Let’s all use our collective intelligence to advance our understanding of the world and the possibilities that are out there, instead of degenerating into an arguments about why my machine (hence me) is superior compared to yours (you).

Now should I meet a person in a public or private setting and they want to discuss the superiority of their machine over all others, I will usually just nod, with a slight smile and a blank look in my eyes and not give any debate concerning the subject, but will be thinking to myself, “would you please, just get over it, I am really not impressed, where is the closest exit”.

Comments are welcome. Please make your comment, suggestion, or question, relevant to the topic of this blog. I will post all genuine responses. Thanks

 When surfing the web I will on occasion find the good, the bad, and the just plain horrific websites that either perform the task of providing useful information or not. I find that viewing the source code for these sites gives me a good idea of why a website is successful opposed to those that do not. Whenever I see a particularly badly designed website inevitably I will find that it has been built in a table’s architecture. This type of design and coding was once one of the only ways that a designer could produce an html page or site that had some formatting structure that would influence the design and look of a website. That was then, this is now. With all that is available to build a website one of the last pieces of design coding should be a tables design. Using CSS to code and develop a site design gives the designer a much better control of the elements and objects to be included in the site. Even those sites that do use some CSS to style the tables in their site are missing the point. From my point of view, it is just that much easier to build a site using CSS as a basic foundation and progress from there. I would have a lot of problems using tables within a site unless it is used for tabular data. Just the fact that most tables are not named gives me pause when I think how anyone else can make sense of this code much less when this code is being crawled by bots for search engines like Google, Yahoo, ect,… And… if you are a nonprofit organization, it is mandatory that site readers can access the content on the website, and this is not necessarily doable with sites built with tables and of course embedded tables. Worse, the SEO for these sites are a nightmare. With content stuffed into an embedded table’s structure many of the search bots may skip content contained in this manner.  

I have to say, if you use a design tool/program like Dreamweaver and the like, use this method only for what it is intended for, design review, but do not use these programs to write code for you. It is messy, adds way to much code for what the purpose of the code would be and may not be the best solution for what you have planned. Write your own code, name your divs and objects for what their intended purpose is. This will allow you to deliver to your client a product that is readable and understandable to anyone who may need to access this site for future editing purposes including yourself.  

Now with WordPress coming to the front with its design features and its own styles (CSS) you may be able to contain WordPress content into a table’s structure, but why should you, when you can overwrite any of the style functions within the style sheet provided within this available structure. Website are becoming more and more function driven and styling those function elements should be a no-brainer with anyone who has the ability to use CSS effectively.

Content: Let me say this about that, Content is King, just as Cash is King in the retail environment, Content can make or break a websites effectiveness and/or its success or failure. Content are the elements that the visitors to a website view and digests. Text, Graphics, and Navigation are all content elements and should be given the highest priority above all other aspects that a website may contain within its structure. A must read  book I think for anyone who is considering building a website or just making a design for a website, is “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug. Applying these basic concepts of, Compelling Content, Navigation that makes sense, and Graphics that tell the story gives the website a solid foundation that provides information and a better visitor experience that will increase the value and a positive page ranking for search engines indexing a website built in this manner. Everything else that does not contribute to the content contained with in a website is suspect and should be considered for removal from the site.

Mystery Navigation that leads the visitor to pages with no path to return from where they come from is an invitation for that visitor to leave the site. Also hiding navigation links into images spread throughout the index page is ill advised since many of the visitors to this site will not be able to go to the content or page they are seeking. Navigation should be up front, easy to understand, and provide the three click rule for the visitors to the website to go wherever they want to go within that site.

Text that does not provide information that is comprehensive and compact is also a stumbling block.  One rule of thumb that I use extensively is, write out all the content (text) that you think should be contain within that element, then, cut it in half retaining the information that is relevant. Then, cut it in half again, which should produce the desired result of a block of text that provides the visitor with the information they need but not a syllable more. The web is a fast read, and should be built in that fashion.

Graphics do only one function on a website, they tell the story, or complement other content contained within the page. Should a graphic contain a logo, picture, or a graphical element it all comes down to whether or not the graphic complements the information provided on the page. Using cheap clip art I think should not be used extensively but does have its limited place. I remember the times I had reading comic book and how effectively graphics were used in telling the story of the comic. I try to use that comparison when adding graphics with in a website. Anything else is rather dubious and generally misses the point of why that element exists on that page.

Parting Comment; I could ramble on forever on this subject, but I will limit myself to only these basic elements describing “Building Better Websites for a Better Web”. I have visited many a website whose architecture is built in well formatted designed table’s structure with all the styling and naming conventions present. I have also visited websites that break all the rules in the use of graphics and navigation and pull it off quite successfully. My main goal here is to open up the conversation with developers, designers, users, potential clients, and visitors on the aspects that I have observed during my interaction with sites on the WWW. Feel free to make a comment on this blog; I don’t hold my take on this subject matter as the only viable point of view considering these subjects. The web is ever growing and changing in its use of production websites that make a difference. With the advent of WordPress, Joolmla, Drupal, and many more CMS types of architectures I am providing only my point of view.

I think that this has changed forever. As a freelance Web designer I have to have a “day job” and mine is working at Safeway. Recently, it has come to my attention that Safeway is launching a new program called “just for U”. At first you may think that this is just another ploy to get me to go to their website and get pitched for stuff I am not really interested in. Just the opposite is true. Safeway has developed a truly new concept when it comes to buying food at the best price possible.

For years we have been handing over our club card to the checker to get the discount on items that are listed on the ad or in store promotions. Ever wonder what all this data is being used for, like what you buy, when you buy it, and how much you are willing to pay for it. It does allow Safeway to keep its stores stocked with items you want when you want them, but is that it? Up until now that was all that this data was used for at least from my limited point of view.

The just for U program that is being launched on 10/27/10 (northern California) will provide to everyone who signs up, personal “deals” and “specials” targeted just for them. It also allows you to load these coupons onto your card so you don’t have to spend your time clipping out coupons from the newspaper or flyer. Most important is that fact that these deals and specials are truly just for U. Your buying history determines what offers will be available to you when visiting the website. Also these prices will be the most competitive that are on the market beating everyone else’s prices for the same product. Oh, one more great innovation, you will also be able to print (or email it to your hubby) “your” shopping list with all the great deals.

This whole concept is pretty slick and reflects what shopping should be about in the 21 century. Using the technology available to provide the on-line services that we need and expect of company’s who are selling us services and products. The only way I can see that this system might fail is “user error”. If I have more than one Safeway card and load the deals onto one card but use the other card when I go shopping then I will not get the deals I was expecting. If I let other people use my card to purchase their goods, then their shopping history will be added to my shopping history and will add offers of products that I may not be interested in. The fact is the only one that can mess up this program is me. Of course there is always customer service if I find myself really stuck.

Conclusion; Hats off to Safeway and its innovative approach to the way we all buy groceries. It will be interesting to watch how the other retailers try to catch up in the market place.

After several calls to friends and family it was determined that, 1 I had no programs installed besides the OS (DOS) and 2 I had no knowledge or understanding of computers or what they do. Lucky for me, I also received a book (MS-DOS) that came with the system and I had a close friend of mind, Mike, who had purchased his own computer about a year earlier. I proceeded to read that book from cover to cover, understanding only about half of it, and then I read it again applying the commands line by line (remember the command line, still in use). Once I completed that task, a glimmer of hope reared its ugly head only to dash my aspirations time and time again.

One favorite topic of discussion that my friend Mike and I would have on a consistent basis was breaking the 64K barrier. Believe it or not, the DOS OS loaded all of the program information and anything else you wanted to do into a 64 kilobit segment in memory. Yup, 64K that’s all you got to play with – inhumane – but true! So in order to use a program that required more memory than what was left after loading the OS and any drivers for the peripherals, you had to crack the 64k barrier or find a way to use that memory in a more efficient way. I was most fortunate to have another 128k in memory that could be used if I could only learn how. This was before the net and searching and mostly any other way of acquiring information except through word of mouth or print.

I did a lot of learning in that following year. I learned how to break my computer while installing a floppy drive; I learned the cost of repairing and upgrading my system to a 386 (and that’s another story); I learned how to use and configure this system to max out its potential and I learned the truth… that this glorified, gift from God, this miracle of modern technology, was nothing more than a switch. On and off, 0’s and 1’s – that’s all it did, that was all it was ever capable of doing, reading and interpreting data through a source (disk drive, hard drive, user input and whatever else you could throw at it) and that’s that, it is what it is…

At this point I started to get serious about learning. Back to school, to learn what is really going on with these “machines”. I had enough of the midnight discussions about this or that with people who knew as much or less than I did about a subject I had barely touched upon. After a couple of years, I had a good understanding of networking technologies and systems architectures but found myself heading in a different direction. I had consulted with several individuals and companies to configure and repair their systems, but was intrigued with what was the coming internet revolution. Previous knowledge of bulletin board systems and the application of what I had learned about networks led me to start building HTML sites (pages) and having them hosted online. I even posted a final project online for a course I was taking at the time (no one else was doing that, so what the heck!)

I was fortunate to have a couple of people in my life who needed my help in getting their website up and running when I needed the experience completing a project specified by a “client” who has expectations’ and a timeline of events. My brother Ken needed a website that promoted his business which offered top notch consulting advice from some of the most skilled professionals in the field. My lifelong friend Barry needed a website that would advertise his art studio and painting. I used HTML combined with a tables structure to complete the layout for both of these sites. I also used Javascript to add certain functions to each of these websites. As I look back on what I did then, I tend to think of the work I did to be a bit archaic. At the time it was all you had to work with, but since then I have learned about so many more effective tools to work with (many thanks to my son-in-law Chris). Now we have CSS, JQuery, Frameworks (I’m not there yet) and WordPress templates (yeah, this is a WP blog) just to mention a few.

Again, learning techniques, acquiring knowledge, and applying these concepts to produce the desired result seem to be the overlying theme in this blog. The point is, never stop learning. Acquiring knowledge is what will get you up in the morning looking forward to a new day.

Thank you for reading this blog and feel free to comment, it will be appreciated.

W.C.Merritt