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Please
send constructive comments or suggestions about information we offer on our website to
SiteComments.
For
problems with our website that are not addressed below, please
describe the details of the problem in a note to
Webmaster.
Please keep in mind that we are all volunteers here, many with day jobs. Your patience is appreciated.
Why must I enter a security code when using your e-mail links?
Why don't the contact links always bring up an e-mail window?
Why can't I view much more of each page besides the banner and the tables of content?
When I click to enlarge a graphic in a web page, the new graphic is either not enlarged or is actually smaller. Why?
Why don't the maps print large on a page?
Why doesn't the "Back" button work in Netscape 6?
How can I print a Frame?
Why don't hyperlinks work?
Why don't hyperlinks work for non-Frames users?
Why do
we use Frames for our website?
Why must I enter a security code when using your e-mail links?
Like you, we wish it weren't necessary! We look
forward to your participation, comments and suggestions via e-mail..
The use of security codes is
just one of a number of protective measures we employ for this website. We face the same sets of concerns
as you probably do. Your assistance with this measure is appreciated.
The increasing amount of malicious programming
(viruses, worms, Trojans, etc.) and of spam being directed to everyone's mailboxes
requires action to protect assets as well as to avoid high costs
for detecting and removing such e-mail and their often destructive payloads.
Still worse are the potential costs of lost productivity and budget used for
recovering from the damage of successful attacks.
Even without damaging payloads, spam volume is
growing while becoming more obscene. We don't wish to see such
filth at all nor have our colleagues and families exposed to it, especially via
this website. While we
cannot prevent every conceivable attack, we can make attacks more manual, difficult
and expensive to try.
By requiring security codes
for accessing sensitive information such as our e-mail addresses, attackers must
invest more resources than the value of our information is likely worth to them. We
realize a few vandals will attack us anyway, just for their warped pleasure.
Since most attacks are automated, we think our precautions will
help in the majority of cases. We'll soon see if that is true.
We
appreciate your willingness to endure our security codes process to this end!
We've
tried to make it hard on automated attackers while keeping it simple and quick for our
valued visitors.
Thanks for your understanding and patience! Thanks for
writing!
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Why don't the contact links always bring up an e-mail window?
Failure to open an e-mail window is a
function of your e-mail program, not our website. It happens
when the e-mail program has been instructed to close, but before it
completes its cleanup and exit, a new contact is selected. For
example, Microsoft's Outlook is one such e-mail program that closes
slowly. If new contact selections are made during the e-mail
program's closing/exit sequence, not only will the contact selection
fail to bring up an e-mail window, the e-mail program may also lock
up, cause a Windows error and become unavailable until it is closed
manually. While the e-mail program is either trying to close or
is locked up, contact selections will fail.
Unless your
computer is short of memory, there is no urgent reason to close the
e-mail program between uses. Simply minimizing its window is
sufficient to get it out of your way while you use the desktop for
other tasks. Whether you leave it open or minimize
it, any contact selection will cause it to open on top, ready to work
on your message. If you must close your e-mail program, then
don't make any contact selections until you are sure it has
successfully closed.
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Why can't I view much more of each page besides the banner and the tables of content?
The primary reason is that there are too few picture
elements (pixels) available for your browser window. There are several
possibilities that could cause this, including (1) your computer's monitor may
not be capable of high enough pixel density, (2) your monitor may be quite
capable of high pixel densities, but it is not set -- in the Windows Control
Panel -- to use them, (3) your browser window may not be using enough of the
available pixels (as when you are not using full-screen windows), (4) you may
have your browser's "Explorer Bar" (Internet Explorer) or "My Sidebar"
(Netscape) open and/or set too wide, limiting the space on the left available
for web pages in the browser window, (5) you may be using too many or too large
toolbars, limiting the space at the top available for web pages in the browser
window, and (6) combinations of any or all of the above.
Consider correcting whichever of these
limiting effects are the cause(s). Our web pages were
tested with low available pixel densities, but no design can
reasonably overcome simultaneously all combinations of the
problems listed above. Your computer consultant
(or teenager) can help.
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When I click to enlarge a graphic in a web page, the new graphic is either not enlarged or is actually smaller. Why?
Browsers can be set to automatically adjust the size of
graphics so they will show completely inside the available space in a window.
If your enlargement will not fit in the available window, the browser will
resize it, forcing you to ask the browser to zoom in for you. Since the
enlarged graphic will not fit your window, it will be necessary to scroll
vertically or horizontally, or both, to view all its details. That
shouldn't be a problem since viewing the details was a reason for enlarging.
So how to
ask the browser to zoom in for you?
Internet
Explorer places a zoom button at the lower right on the
graphic when it automatically resizes "for you".
Sometimes it takes a little while for that button to appear,
but eventually it will. Click
on that button to enlarge.
Netscape does not place
such a button on the graphic, but simply clicking on the
graphic will cause it to enlarge.
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Why don't the maps print large on a page?
When browsers automatically adjust the size of
graphics, as discussed above, they do the whole job. Unless you first
enlarge the maps to their full size in the browser window, they will not print
full-sized on paper. Always zoom the maps to full size before attempting
to print from a browser window.
This way the maps will fill as much of the paper as the printer will allow (or as the web page designer specified).
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Why doesn't the "Back" button work in Netscape 6?
This difficulty seems to be limited to Netscape
6.0. Earlier and later versions of Netscape do not exhibit the
problem. They are available (free) from http://www.netscape.com.
If, however, continuing to use the existing version is preferred, read
on.
Actually, the "Back" button functions
properly every time until one exercises a link that backtracks within the
same file. As long as one takes links that move forward in a
file, or from file to
file, the "Back" button seems to work. However, once a link to a
backward destination within the same file is exercised, the "Back"
button will not function again until the browser is somehow reset.
Casual users would not normally be aware which links are
within files or among files, but backward links within a file, such as
"Top of Page" (as you see
in this file), are
usually apparent. In fact, this FAQ file was used for
testing that problem.
Notice the little triangle at the bottom-right
of Netscape's "Back" button. Clicking it produces a pull-down
menu of links you have visited. Selecting the successively lower entries from the top
of that list will eventually hit a link that will take your browser
back to the initial entry of the page in which the "Back"
function first became inoperative and restore the "Back"
function from that point. So a fair rule of thumb for restoring
"Back" operations is to reset your browser to the beginning
of the page prior to its last working state by trying entries in the
"Back" pull-down menu.
The good news is that all the pages of our site continue to be
accessible even after the "Back" button stops working. You
may continue make your selections from either the small menus at the
top and bottom of each page or from the table of contents in the left
frame. [Non-Frames users will see the table of contents only on their
"Welcome to Our Non-Frames Website!" page.]
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How can I print a Frame?
Isn't it annoying when you wish to print a website
selection, and it doesn't seem to be printable? The use of
Frames
can be the apparent cause for unprintable selections. Here are
some suggestions to overcome that problem.
Before you select any print option, click
your mouse on an area you wish to print. Then select Print Preview
to see if your selection was found. If so, print it. If not,
try clicking on the Next and Previous buttons in the Print Preview
window to see if your desired frame can be previewed that way. Assuming
it can be displayed, print it from the Print Preview window. You should find our site quite printable using
this technique.
Newer
browser versions offer print options in which you may select which frame
to print from a menu under the File - Print command.
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Why don't the hyperlinks work
(for
Frames users)?
If a new browser window was opened by a previous
hyperlink, and if that window was minimized rather than closed, a second call to
that window will actually replace its content. However, the content change
will not cause the minimized window to automatically open. One would also not
notice the change of contents if our windows appear as full-screens or otherwise happen to be stacked on the
desktop directly
over each other. In these cases only the most recent window remains visible on the
desktop. Your hyperlink actually worked, but
its target window was either minimized or covered. All
such open windows are readily available and selectable from the Windows Desktop
Task Bar.
You may have to
open all the browser windows on your Windows Desktop Task Bar, one at a time,
to learn which is the one currently responding to your hyperlink
selections. This could get messy, especially if you may have
been browsing other sites besides ours at the same time, accumulating lots of
open browser windows.
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Why don't the hyperlinks work for
non-Frames users?
To keep the "Welcome to Our Non-Frames
Website!" window open for non-Frames users' navigation-recovery convenience, a new browser window is opened with any
selection from that page. That's
not much of a problem unless our windows appear as full-screens or otherwise happen to be stacked on the
desktop directly
over each other, in which cases only the most recent window is visible on the
desktop. All open windows are selectable from the Windows
Desktop Task Bar, where they remain readily available but hidden underneath
the more recently active window(s).
The hyperlinks may appear to be not working when
the new browser window we opened is NOT the top one showing, and
selections are being made from our "Welcome to Our Non-Frames
Website!" window. In fact, the new (now hidden) window is being updated per your selections, but you just can't
see it underneath the top window.
The solution, assuming you don't wish to update
your browser to a newer level that supports frames, is to make your navigation selections
from the little menus that appear at the top and bottom of each new
page, rather than recalling the "Welcome to Our Non-Frames
Website!" page.
We try to keep those little menus current, especially for our
non-Frames users.
If the "Welcome to Our Non-Frames
Website!" page MUST be
recalled (for example, to overcome some irrecoverable navigation
error) to continue using our site, we suggest first closing our other
window(s). Then let us open it(them) again for you,
based on your new selection from the "Welcome to Our Non-Frames
Website!" window. Otherwise, you may have to
open all the browser windows on your Windows Desktop Task Bar, one at a time,
to learn which is the one currently responding to your hyperlink
selections. This could get messy, especially if you may have
been browsing other sites besides ours at the same time, accumulating lots of
open browser windows.
The better solution is to update your browser so
it can handle the Frames architecture. Links for two popular
FREE browsers are offered on our initial non-Frames page.
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Why do we use Frames for our website?
We realize there are some older browsers still in use that
do not support the HTML Frames option. For two examples, Netscape
Communicator didn't until version 2.0, and Microsoft Internet Explorer didn't until
version 3.0. We think that in the high-tech area around Austin the
vast majority of computer users have browsers that support Frames.
We'll see if that is true.
Our goal was to offer a high-performance website,
one that would not waste your time with unnecessarily lengthy downloads. By using
FRAMES, we are able to cut the downloads to only the new information you
request rather than rebuilding the entire display for each of your selections.
We also don't force many graphics on you in an effort to provide excellent
download time efficiency. You may choose to view our graphics or not (we
hope you do!), but at least you have the option to avoid them while getting at
the information of your interest.
In addition, we wanted our site to be readable on older
computers and on laptops. Many of these systems have lower density monitors
(displays), and may not be able to display large pages. Frames allow
scrolling the menus and the information windows separately so you are bothered
less by the need to scroll to overcome unbalanced page organization. In most cases, we were also able to
keep our pages short, further controlling the amount of scrolling required.
If it turns out that our use of Frames is more
inconvenient than convenient to many, we will certainly adjust our site
to fit your needs. Please share your comments with us.
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