It will help me if you would please try to post a test message in the Turfgrass Forums section of http://turfgrass.com

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If you receive an error:

Please have a pencil handy so you can write down the error response and send it to me at editor@turfgrass.com

While you're at it, if you receive an error, please tell me the version number of your browser. Even if you use AOL, I would still need to know whether you have Microsoft Internet Explorer, MSIE 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 etc. or if you use Netscape there will also be a version number. You can find the version number by opening the browser (e.g., for MSIE click the icon that looks like a globe but is a large blue letter "e") and in the upper right click "Help" and in the drop-down menu click "About."

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Technical details:

A problem that I am aware of is that the new MSIE 6.0 browser launched in September 2001 (and included with the new Windows XP) has a compact P3P or Platform of Privacy Preferences which deals in a rather drastic way with cookies.

Cookies are the small files that sit on a user's PC and allows sites to identify visitors. For example, if in using the Turfgrass Forums you choose to change your preferences (the number of posts to display, or to store your password), then a cookie is placed on your computer to reflect your choices, and it may be read only by Turfgrass.com The reason that cookies are used is because the Internet is a stateless medium, that is, in its basic form there is no way of knowing who is who. If we didn't have cookies, it would be like ordering a meal at a fast food restaurant, and then when your meal was ready they had no idea who to hand it to, or even who was next in line.

There is no question that privacy matters on the Internet. There have been flagrant misuses of consumer information, and the problem of spam could bring the Internet to its knees. Cookies are only part of the privacy problem, but they are an area that is easier to deal with technologically. P3P can provide each web site a digital copy of the privacy policy on each web site that can be read by your PC, so if you have a problem with sharing particular data, you have total control over what information that web site may or may not collect about you. The choices will be daunting, not just cookies.

The new MSIE 6.0 browser hurries the process of dealing with cookies before there is a widely accepted standard for P3P. MSIE 6.0 ships with a "Medium" threshold for handling cookies, which thereby blocks any third-party cookies which lack a digital P3P privacy policy. If a cookie is blocked, a red eye appears on the user's PC screen. When you click the eye, a box opens that says "privacy report" but doesn't say why the cookie has been blocked. Microsoft says it is doing this to engender consumer trust of its Internet-based services. If you have frequent problems with web sites, you can lower your browser's threshold for cookie acceptance, or ask the webmasters to fix their sites.

To hopefully be compliant with the new standard, I have written an expanded privacy policy for Turfgrass.com and it is in human-readable form at http://turfgrass.com/privacy/ and it is also placed on the web site in machine-readable where your browser can find it. This should place Turfgrass.com above curve of most the major corporations of the world. If I'm wrong, I also just wasted the last 24 hours.

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On a personal note:

I continue to enjoy maintaining Turfgrass.com and other public access to turf information. This is separate from my duties as turf scientist and faculty member at the University of Florida, Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center. But I would not be doing this except that I feel passionately about turfgrass and all growing things, and the public's need to participate fully in science and the care of the Earth.

Our program at the University of Florida, Fort Lauderdale campus, has been under threat of possible downsizing and/or relocation. We do not know exactly what is going to happen. At the least, and this would be the positive outcome, we will form a new vision of our mission, what it is that we are supposed to be doing, one which is more evidently urban, more clearly at the service of all the people, and one for which there will be strong legislative understanding and commitment.

To help explain the nature of the unique turfgrass program at UF - Fort Lauderdale, I have created this web site: http://turfscience.com

Your comments and thoughts will be much appreciated. If you have any questions about Turfgrass Forums or related matters, please contact me.

Phil