LET'S COMMUNICATE
Agriculture Communication Newsletter
September 2005, No. 117
 

Contents

Visited and Unvisited Link Colors
Write the Right Word
Ag Com Internet Reminders
Copyright Reminder
Plan Now for Marketplace
 

Visited and Unvisited Link Colors

The "default" way to display links is to use blue underlined text. Programs like MS FrontPage automatically use this default. Once a user has visited that link, it changes to a maroon color. Users understand this; they are used to it. Using these defaults will help users understand where they have been, where they are and where they can go.

Many people get lost and run in circles when Web sites use the same link color for visited and unvisited links. Knowing their past and current location makes it easier to decide where to go next. Users would know not to go back to links that were not useful or can intentionally go back to links that were useful.

Perhaps most importantly, knowing which pages they have already visited frees users from unintentionally revisiting the same pages over and over again. I recommend using the default link colors. They make it easier for our visitors to navigate our sites.

Dave Rice, drice@ndsuext.nodak.edu  231-7381
 

Write the Right Word

A number of words that sound the same are spelled differently. Which spelling you use can make a big difference.

Here are some words that have turned up incorrectly in recent weeks:

Flare/flair One definition of flare is to blaze up in a sudden burst of flame. The breeze caused the fire to flare. Flair is a natural talent, aptitude or ability. She had a flair for painting scenery.

Waist/waste A waist is the part of the human body thats between the ribs and hips. Too many good meals will expand the waist. Waste has many definitions, including squander (The boy wasted his allowance on candy.) and garbage or trash (Companies can make money salvaging waste.)

Sightseeing is another confusing word. Its what you do when you visit historical sites and other places of interest. An easy way to remember how to spell it is to think of what youre doing, which is seeing (sight), and not your location (site).

However, in some instances, the difference between similar words is subtle. Minimal and minimum are good examples. Both mean the least amount possible, but they carry different connotations, or shades of meaning. Minimal tends to mean something is barely adequate. Her reading skills were minimal. Minimum is less harsh. It tends to mean the smallest quantity acceptable or allowable. Applicants need a minimum of a doctorate to be eligible for this job.

Ellen Crawford, ecrawfor@ndsuext.nodak.edu  231-5391
 

Ag Com Internet Reminders

* All the news releases distributed to the media and to staff are available on the Web. Just go to the Ag subject matter or Extension home page and click on News at the top of the left green column. If you'd like the news releases e-mailed directly to you, drop a line to Gail Hokenson at ghokenso@ndsuext.nodak.edu .

* Think long and hard before you send an e-mail message to all-ag, all-ext or all-exp. These messages go to hundreds of people, and often the information is irrelevant to many of them. Please use the e-mail lists to target your message. These lists are now on the Ag Info Center rather than an open Web site to cut down on spam. Contact the Help Desk at 231-9666 or accs@ndsuext.nodak.edu  if you need your Ag Info Center password.

* The major goal of the calendar on the Ag Info Center is to inform each other about events and avoid conflicts. Please enter regional meetings, inservice trainings, national conferences that affect several staff, field days and other events in which Ag faculty and staff are involved. If an event is ongoing, each individual date must be entered to allow the calendar to serve its purpose.

* When NDSU Information Technology Services dropped dial-up modem service, Agriculture basically did, too. The equipment was too old to take up the slack that would have resulted from faculty and staff dialing into Ag rather than ITS. Faculty and staff must now have an Internet service provider to connect from home. However, Agriculture still provides 1-800 WATS dial-up for travel. This is very expensive so should only be used to download e-mail, not surf the Web for extended times. We're exploring less expensive options, but for now, you will be charged about 16 cents per minute for 1-800 usage.

* Some Ag faculty and staff use the NDSU e-mail as their primary service, and others use the Ag ExtNet e-mail as their primary service. Whichever you primarily use, e-mail to your other address should be forwarded to your primary address. Contact the Help Desk if you need assistance doing this.

If NDSU is your primary e-mail, you should follow the instructions recently provided to select how you want to deal with spam.

If Ag ExtNet is your primary e-mail, much spam is already being deleted at the server level, and you don't have to make this selection. The Ag IT Advisory Group recommended and Ag Administration supported having Roger Egeberg automatically delete e-mails that score a certain numerical value on the Spam Assassin software.

Becky Koch, bkoch@ndsuext.nodak.edu  231-7875
 

Copyright Reminder

Just because it's easy to copy information from the Web doesn't mean it's legal. Whether information is in a book, on a CD, on the Web or in any other format, it's owned by the person who created it.

Fair use guidelines allow us to use portions of others' work, giving them credit. However, when you use a major segment as is or even paraphase many of someone else's thoughts, you must get permission.

That permission must come from the copyright holder, not necessarily the author. In most state land-grant universities, that means someone like the Ag Communication director rather than the author. I grant permissions for use of material on the NDSU Ag Web sites or in Ag publications.

The only exception is material by the federal government. Any information published by a federal agency is in the public domain and may be used without getting permission.

At our ACE meeting this summer, I heard horror stories from several universities that were threatened with legal action because their faculty or staff used material without permission. Let's make sure that doesn't happen in NDSU Agriculture.

Becky Koch, bkoch@ndsuext.nodak.edu  231-7875
 

Plan Now for Marketplace

Marketplace of Ideas for Entrepreneurs, sponsored by Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson and U.S. Sen. Kent Conrad, will be Jan. 17-18, 2006, and for the first time in Fargo at the Fargodome.

NDSU will provide many exhibits and seminars, so start thinking now about how you can contribute ideas to entrepreneurs. Check out www.marketplaceofideas.com  now. I'll provide more information to NDSU Agriculture when it becomes available, but begin planning now. Ag Communication can help you with display ideas.