So I finally took a couple of hours to make sure all the web pages conform to the HTML 4.01 Strict Standard. I used iCab to find out what the errors where, and there were only two. One is that I need a <!DOCTYPE> tag at the start of the page. The other is that <FONT> is a deprecated tag -- it's only in the 4.01 Transitional Standard, not part of the Strict Standard.

Addin the <!DOCTYPE> tag was easy, as it's just a multi-file search and replace operation using BBEdit. Very useful to have pages in a standard format, so that a single grep search and replace can change the 500+ html files on my web site. Which brings up the point that I've gotten better at using BBEdit's grep for searching, which is very useful when you're looking for patterns rather than exact text.

Replacing the <FONT> tag was a little harder. For text formatting, Cascading Style Sheets are what the W3C wants people to use. I only need special formatting for the red copyright info at the bottom of my pages, and that's only for font color, the font and fontsize are defaults. So I didn't want to create a CSS just to change the font color.

But the examples do show a STYLE="COLOR: FUSCHIA" attribute, so I thought that Netscape and Internet Explorer probably support the common colors. So after adding STYLE="COLOR: RED" I get a red that's a bit too bright, but at least it's red. Note that iCab doesn't support CSS quite yet so the text is still black in iCab, but that's supposed to be a feature of HTML (flexibility of browser implementation)...

Hey, I just found out that Ms Leick will be a guest at a Xena/Star Trek convention in Memphis, Tennessee on July 9. The convention also covers July 8 (with Tim Russ being the celebrity guest that day). After a slight hesitation I've decided to go. I ordered the tickets ($135) and made web reservations at the Marriott Hotel ($100+/night) for three nights.

So the question is how am I going to get there. My first thought was to drive the 2000+ miles. I may be able to do it in 3 days (12 hours a day, 700 miles a day) but that'll probably be pushing it since I'll be by myself. So it would have to be done in four days. Four days there and four days back, even with the 4th of July Holiday, is most of my vacation time.

Another option is to fly there and rent a car to get around. I do love driving, but I don't want to take *that* much time off. Flying there Friday and flying back Monday is much faster. So I checked some airlines and most of their web sites suck. You enter your info and they return a bunch of hits from their database with all these little symbols and notes that I can't figure out too well what's going on.

Eventually I decided on Delta Airlines as they had a nice interface and the lowest price (as far as I could tell). So it's like $220+ round trip I hope and renting a car at Hertz, with the Oracle discount will be about $50 a day. So flying to Memphis would be about $400, whereas driving would be some $250 for gas, $450 for motels (6 nights at $75 a night), and some $150 for meals for a total of $850. Not that I should be worrying so much about money, but I find myself once again short of general funds.