Jay Honeck asks:
Does anyone know what the average speed modem is being used by the 70% of
people still using dial-up?

I'd imagine that 56K and 2800 would be the most common speeds, but
there are people who are on much slower connections, either due to
their location (availability of connections) or equipment (old
laptop). Some access by PDA, especially while travelling.

2. I hear people say that Java is "evil" all the time -- yet it seems that
every cool effect on a webpage requires Java. What is bad about Java
scripting? How about "Flashmedia"?

Java is executable code. Executable code can be harmful so many
people turn it off. It also is the source for many annoying popups,
animations, and "exciting messages" most people would just as soon not
be bombarded with. Java can be useful in specific contexts, but the
main pages and the navigation struture should not require it, and
should function fine without it.

Flash is worse. It is the way advertisers force themselves upon users
with distracting animations. I want to see the content, not have my
attention stolen (and theft is the appropriate word, just like theft
of service) by unwanted animations. Flash has no off switch. It
cannot be deactivated internally (I have disabled flash on my system
by renaming the flash.ocx and swflash.ocx files everywhere on my
system, and clicking NO! to all the resulting "Would you like to
download and install Flash?" popup boxes.) Flash also takes up a lot
of bandwidth (read "makes the page load slower and requires the user
to have more horespower")

There are occasional uses for flash - they should be relegated to
their own pages, with a suitable warning on the link.

Some web sites are entirely flash, or have home pages that force the
user to set through a thirty second flash animation of their logo and
a sales pitch before letting the user in. The business owner and web
designer think they are cool. Nobody else does. I skip them totally.

Flash seethes with evil.

3. I have pared our opening page back to practically nothing, yet it STILL
seems to be taking too long to open.

It takes me ten seconds on a DSL line. I'm not sure why, but you
still do have scripts running on the site. And what use is the hit
counter (except to you?)

4. I tried to look at the page from Mary's computer (which has the screen
resolution set to "Mr. Magoo" settings) -- and it locked up her computer.

I'd guess the scripts have something to do with it, but Mr Magoo has a
point. Your picture takes up way too much space. Not everyone has a
21 inch monitor, and of those that do, not everyone wants to =have to=
devote it all to your picture. They may well be running another
browser window, a calendar program, and notepad at the same time.
Your picture is pretty, but to make people scroll back and forth just
because it's there is not good design from the users perspective.

How many of you guys actually make real-time, on-line hotel reservations?

I do sometimes, but I prefer to call and speak to a person. People
listen; computers don't. Online booking does not require a high speed
connection (unless the company you are contracting with has a terrible
interface, which is all too common).

Keep it simple. Keep it personal. Keep it up.

Jose
--
Freedom. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.