When Things Work The Way They Are Supposed To
Tuesday, 16 August 2005 15:06![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsComputers and technology, as well as civilization and education, I suppose, promise so much, that we are rarely surprised when they do not deliver. Or putting it another way, when things work easily, one wonders why the rest of the world can't get it straight. (grin)
The Annual Chore
There are many repetitive chores to living. Bills, taxes... and in this case, renewing the tags on vehicle license plates. I have to say that since moving to Michigan in January 1984, the Secretary of State's office has worked really hard to make the whole business of new plates, tags, licenses and renewals a lot better. Even if you have to go in person, the lines aren't nearly so bad as they used to be.
Some years ago I discovered a small Secretary of State's office in Allegan MI, and so I renewed things there, because there was hardly ever any wait, whereas some of the offices in Grand Rapids and Holland could become an ordeal which lasted forever. But even when one had to wait, I have to say that the majority of the staff were in far better humor than this poor person would be. (double-grin)
Do It The Online Way
Last year I renewed the tags for my three Blazers online for the first time, and it was mostly painless. The worst part was when I got the stickers in the mail, the lettering began to flake off -- when I went to a Secretary of State's office to get new ones, they already knew about the defective machine in Lansing.
Anyway, I just did the online renewal again. Glutton for punishment, I resolutely used Firefox 1.04, rather than Netscape or IE, but it worked flawlessly.
Good for them!
I May Be Slow, But I Get There...
I've been blogging since, well, sometime in April I guess. And I've known that some things were possible to do in LiveJournal -- I just hadn't found them in an obvious way. And sure, I could've asked someone, but what fun is there in that?
Things like a cut mark, or doing more than just having an HTML link to my Clarion friends![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
slithytove and webpetals. Now I know that I spent a little time with the LJ FAQ pages when I first got the account, but I didn't see anything obvious. And looking at the HTML Source for LiveJournal webpages shows a lot of goop which I know no one is typing in by hand.
What got me thinking about this again was an LJ page I ran across which had been posted with improper LJ/HTML commands. I could see the rudiments of the lj-user tag, I just didn't have the syntax. So I Googled "lj-user live journal tags" and the first hit was to: FAQ #75, which I heartily recommend to new LJ users who can sprechen sie eine kleine HTML. I am told there is an expression in medical school, "See one, do one, teach one."
And as you can see, it all works beautifully. As it should.
Dr. Phil
The Annual Chore
There are many repetitive chores to living. Bills, taxes... and in this case, renewing the tags on vehicle license plates. I have to say that since moving to Michigan in January 1984, the Secretary of State's office has worked really hard to make the whole business of new plates, tags, licenses and renewals a lot better. Even if you have to go in person, the lines aren't nearly so bad as they used to be.
Some years ago I discovered a small Secretary of State's office in Allegan MI, and so I renewed things there, because there was hardly ever any wait, whereas some of the offices in Grand Rapids and Holland could become an ordeal which lasted forever. But even when one had to wait, I have to say that the majority of the staff were in far better humor than this poor person would be. (double-grin)
Do It The Online Way
Last year I renewed the tags for my three Blazers online for the first time, and it was mostly painless. The worst part was when I got the stickers in the mail, the lettering began to flake off -- when I went to a Secretary of State's office to get new ones, they already knew about the defective machine in Lansing.
Anyway, I just did the online renewal again. Glutton for punishment, I resolutely used Firefox 1.04, rather than Netscape or IE, but it worked flawlessly.
Good for them!
I May Be Slow, But I Get There...
I've been blogging since, well, sometime in April I guess. And I've known that some things were possible to do in LiveJournal -- I just hadn't found them in an obvious way. And sure, I could've asked someone, but what fun is there in that?
Things like a cut mark, or doing more than just having an HTML link to my Clarion friends
slithytove and webpetals. Now I know that I spent a little time with the LJ FAQ pages when I first got the account, but I didn't see anything obvious. And looking at the HTML Source for LiveJournal webpages shows a lot of goop which I know no one is typing in by hand.What got me thinking about this again was an LJ page I ran across which had been posted with improper LJ/HTML commands. I could see the rudiments of the lj-user tag, I just didn't have the syntax. So I Googled "lj-user live journal tags" and the first hit was to: FAQ #75, which I heartily recommend to new LJ users who can sprechen sie eine kleine HTML. I am told there is an expression in medical school, "See one, do one, teach one."
And as you can see, it all works beautifully. As it should.
Dr. Phil
