There's a fair bit of enthusiasm for ticketing systems in the sysadminworld, and it's not hard to see why. But I'm going to be a contrarianhere: while ticketing systems are all well and good, you shouldabsolutely not require users to use them in order to interact with you.

The problem with ticketing systems is that they're like bug trackers ; they're internal systems that are almostalways filled with fields and procedures that exist for your needs.Your users should not

Recently I wound up reading the Weblessinitiative ( via ), which advocates avery strict CSS-less sort of web design. To coin a phrase, I think thatthis is a hairshirt too far; not only does it make it harder to creategood web pages, but it can damage the web viewing experience for yourvisitors.

First, I think that it's clear that 'graphics', broadly interpreted,are superior to plain monospaced text even for text content, as theyallow you to do important

I've had a sitemap for a fairly longtime (long enough that the format changed out from under me a fewtimes). In theory I created it for Google, as a way of steeringthem around WanderingThoughts (and CSpace as a whole), but I'venever been sure if Google was really getting anything out of it.As it turns out, that doesn't really matter, because having asitemap has turned out to be really useful for me.

Why it's so useful

(Warning: non-specific spoilers.)

I'll begin by saying that RideBack is one of those interesting animesthat I think is good but that I'm not sure is enjoyable.

RideBack starts out as a goofy but promising sports anime with someimplausible things lurking in the background, such as the conquest ofJapan by some new trans-national military organization. But after acouple of episodes it becomes evident that its real focus is not thesports plot (that was just to introduce us to the characters

I've been mulling over this for long enough, so it's time to actuallywrite something (warning, some spoilers):

Ultimately, I think Toradora! is a good series overallbut not an exceptional one. In hindsight (and after Author spurred me into rewatching the first two episodes), I feel that it hada strong beginning, a good but relatively ordinary middle, and endedvery strong with a powerful ending, partly because it was willing tohave its characters grow and change and partly because