It apparently starting rolling out last week, but it finally hit my profile today.  A popup notifying me that it now links things in my profile.  My hometown, my likes, my previous employer information, etc.  OK, on the surface, it is not a horrible or particularly evil feature, I could link and find other people that went to my same high school, or worked at some of the same previous employers.  Except, all of that information is public to the world once I do that.  Not than any of this information is “top secret” stuff, but still, I would rather have some sort of filters against what I make easy for Phishers and other scam artists to cull, or at least make them work for it, and not provide everything a would be thief needs for identity theft to be served up to them for free.

OK, fine, so I will need to pick and choose what I am going to allow Facebook to link to, this way only what I don’t mind being public is out there.  Right?  Nope!  That doesn’t work either, and this is why I say Facebook is broken.  If you are not willing to make the information public… then Facebook will no longer allow you to have it as part of your profile… period.  They won’t just leave it unlinked… no, after you go through this process, anything you don’t allow it to link IS REMOVED FROM YOUR PROFILE!

I don’t mind ads, and I realize targeted information makes for better advertising dollars, and since Facebook is FREE (despite what all those stupid groups “warning” about Facebook starting to charge May 1, May 15, July 10th and August 33rd, prices from $4.95 to eleventy billion dollars a month are saying) and I don’t mind Facebook making money, they have simply gone from bad to downright evil in their attempts to coax people into making information public.

Now please don’t tell me something stupid like I could go back to using Friendster or MySpace.  Let us be honest for a second, MySpace is for bands and people that want to decorate their pages like a 12 year old with a poster fetish, and does ANYBODY use Friendster anymore?  Didn’t think so.

Yes, I know and am well aware of the privacy settings, and will turn off what I don’t want to be public.  But that prevents me from sharing things that I wish to with my friends and family.  Worse, now I also feel like I need to start a help group for those that may not be as tech savvy or are unaware of what the implication are of these moves.  Incidentally, if you feel unsure about what is being made public by any of these new changes, feel free to e-mail or leave a comment and I will be happy to help.

For those old enough to remember Hill Street Blues, at the beginning of every episode the Seargeant would warn them, “Let’s be careful out there.”  That now definitely applies to Facebook.  Be careful, be aware, and beware of what you may be exposing to the world.  Facebook is now broken.  Pass it on.

So, Happy? Unhappy? Wait until 2.5.1?

What say you all?

Now I am willing to admit, I was one of those people that dragged their feet before finally jumping into Twitter. Simply put, I didn’t “get it.” And seems to be the common thread around those that are either on or not on Twitter. If you “get it” you are probably on it, if not then you probably just don’t understand why people would want to do this. Well, with a simple video and explaination, the folks at Common Craft have made it easy, so that the next time somebody says they don’t understand why people “tweet” you can just show them this video.

It is supposedly easy enough for the novice to be able to use, but still have some features that more experienced people would appreciate, I haven’t had an opportunity to play with it yet, and will write a full review on TechParent Tuesday, but in the mean time, you may wish to sign up and check it out.

Why isn’t that the case any longer?  Why do special interest groups always get their way?  (Yes, I know it is all about the money and re-election funds… it was a rhetorical question.  Just follow… OK?)  An excellent example is the recent first in the country RFID laws passed in Washington State.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, RFID chips are being put into and used in “everything” now, or at least they will be very soon.  That “touch-less” Gas-N-Go card you have from the Station?  RFID,  Those new “intelligent” passports that are coming?  RFID, the new digital Drivers Licenses that are being rolled out?  RFID.  Even some of those frequent shoppers cards.  You have a lot of information that is now accessible, just by walking past an RFID reader set to grab that information.

Now rightly, there is cause for concern, and the laws they were pushing in Washington made sense.  There were basically two parts; the first is making it illegal for anybody to attempt to access your information for fraudulent purposes.  Rather obvious, and somewhat redundant, since fraud is already illegal, but I guess this would be another tacked on charge, or perhaps you can simply be arrested for “attempted” fraud.  Whatever, I don’t have a problem with that.  If somebody is “skimming” my information, then sure he should get in trouble for it without me having to be an actual fraud victim.  But then there is the second part of the law, or more correctly, the original bill… because it never made it into the law.

That part, required retailers and other businesses to only gather information about you on an opt-in basis.  As is always the case… it seems, the retailers and their lobbyist fought this part of the law, and eventually got it pulled out.  So, now skimming is only illegal for an individual; corporations that are skimming are free to gather information about you, how long you shopped in their stores, where in the store you went, how much time you spent in each section, just by strategically placing some RFID scanners, and you will be none the wiser as they gather this information.

But don’t worry, I am sure some company will come out with some sort of RFID blocking wallet, that will be ugly, cumbersome and expensive, but will “protect” you from the “snoops.”  Yup that is right, to have the privacy you should expect by default… you will have it.  As long as you pay for it.  (Maybe!)

Yes, the war is over and and Blu-Ray has defeated HD DVD.  But does that mean that it is time to rush out and get a Blu-Ray player?  The best answer at this point is… maybe.

Prices have come down on Blu-Ray players a bit, but now that there is no longer any competition from Toshiba and HD DVD, I suspect prices will start dropping a bit slower as we move forward.  Also, be warned of a Blu-Ray trap.  Unlike HD DVD, Blu-Ray was fully “cooked” when it first came to market.  There are several models of Blu-Ray players on the market that appear (relatively) cheaper than most models.  Those are the version 1.0 machines.  Version 1.1 is already out and version 2.0 is due very soon.  (Version 2.0 players will have Ethernet connectivity, allowing future updates to be downloaded to the device, much like the PS3, but more on that in a moment).

Unlike when the “switchover” from VHS to DVD took place, where for a time the DVDs actually cost LESS to entice people to make the switch, at this point you will pay a premium for Blu-Ray discs.  I am not saying they are not worth a premium (but DVDs were certainly worth a premium over the quality of VHS as well, and that had no bearing on price).

Now please bear in mind, the point of this is for those sitting on the fence, for those that are trying to find the best balance of value for the money.  If you can afford to drop the cash on a Blu-Ray player, I am not saying you absolutely shouldn’t (well, with the exception of the 1.0 outdated players).

But at this point, I don’t yet see the real value, and would  tell most people to hold off for now.  The only exception being, if you are looking to go the Blu-Ray format by picking up a PlayStation 3.  Then it probably makes sense.  You get the added benefit of having the gaming console, plus it is already Network ready, so you can get updates for it when the Blu-Ray 2.0 specification is completed without obsoleting your unit.

On a side note, if you say, have a Flat Screen TV and would really like to see some benefit, here is a neat little trick you can consider while waiting for Blu-Ray players to come down in price.  Look for one of the now on sale and quite cheap HD DVD players that are on fire sale everywhere now.  For somewhere around $79 or maybe even less by now, you can buy the HD DVD play which will “upconvert” your DVDs  (in simple terms, upconverting takes your 480i DVD and plays it at 720p or 1080i). Will it be the same as getting Blu-Ray?  No, but you can use your existing DVDs and get a better experience, while waiting for Blu-Ray to come out with the 2.0 spec and the price of the players to drop (because you know sooner or later they will.)

At this point, my bet is that it will around Xmas time when the studios are going to want to see a profit and start leaning on the Sony and other hardware makers to start pushing down prices.  I’ll even bet that this year on Black Friday, it will be the Blu-Ray player and not that cheap PC that lures people to wait on line all night to rush in for a bargain.

The time to make the move to Blu-Ray may be coming, but it isn’t here… yet (except for PS3).

I am curious, as to what will become of the other properties that  InterActiveCorp bought along with Ask back in 2005 (iWon, Excite and Bloglines among others).  But more importantly (I guess), I am quite curious.  Will the “married women” flock to Ask, now that focus on the market “consisting of married women looking for help managing their lives.”?

I don’t see this working out at all well for Ask.com, and I am not sure what they hope to gain by putting themselves into this kind of corner.  Do they think that they will get somebody to buy it out, like say a Disney to enhance their Family.com site?  (Just remember what a debacle it was last time Disney bought out a search engine.  Does anybody remember InfoSeek or Go.com?  Although it has been at least a day or two since Disney “refocused” Family.com again isn’t it?)  Do they think they can get more (or better paying advertisers) by claiming a specific demographic?  Are they going to shoot to be the next (or a competitor to iVillage?

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a site serving a niche demographic like this, but I don’t see this bringing them more eyeballs… just more specific ones as they cast off everybody else.  For those that like to play in Internet Death Pools, I am sure Ask.com will be rocketing up the list of “next to go” after this.

So, now I am in search of new earbuds.  (Since I generally stuff this in my coat pocket, I would rather not go with full headphones.)  But am having a heck of a time deciding what to get.  I don’t want to go too cheap and get some lousy sounding, or poorly fitting buds.  But am not an audiophile enough to want (or even be able to discern the quality difference) to spend a hundred dollars (or more) on a new set.

So I am curious, for those of you that use third party or aftermarket earbuds… what do you use?  Are you happy with them?

Also, tomorrow (Feb 20th), will be the final Lunar Eclipse until December 21, 2010.  It should be fully visible according to Space.com for virtually all of the US (Alaska, Hawaii, and Western Oregon may miss various amounts of the beginning), and Western Europe (although western Europe would have to rise early Thursday morning to see it).  More details can be found at the Luna Eclipse information page on Space.com.

You don’t need a telescope or any special equipment to see these events.  As a matter of fact, since the satellite is in such low orbit, it will probably move across the horizon too fast to really enjoy (or get a good lock on) through the telescope (though it would certainly be fun with the Lunar Eclipse).

There are already of course some worthwhile programs out there like NetNanny, and they are even built in to some Anti-Virus packages these days (I know Symantec has it in their Suite, and I am pretty sure McAfee does as well).  But they all have costs.

For those either economically challenged, or just don’t need another expense (or just want another, possibly better) program, Crawler Parental Control software just might be worth taking a look at.  It does what the other programs do, prevents your children from visiting sites they should not be looking at, and prevents them from installing software (as an option) so that they can’t inadvertently install a virus.

What made me look at this originally was the other additional features that the package had, including ability to schedule time.  You can create pre-set periods of time that the computer can be used, both online and offline.  So, say if you want to limit you child to 1 hour of Web Surfing, but don’t mind if they are on the computer for 2 hours doing homework, you can set that up.  When time expires, they can not access anything any longer (without you entering a password to override it to allow more time).

This program is probably useless for teenagers and older that can find ways to circumvent the application, and there are some bugs and few things that are quirky, but for free it is worth checking out.  I put this on LatteGirl’s computer, and so far have been quite satisfied with the results.

You can see a more complete review of the product at Confessions of a freeware junkie.

Now I am an admitted gadget freak, mostly computers, but if it is an electronic gadget, I am interested. One area that I have had a bit of a hard time in this area is with digital photography. When it comes to computers, PDAs, phones, I have always been quick to lay down good money to be on the front edge of technology, though admittedly that has slowed a bit since LatteGirl was born, and now I try to be a bit more economical, and try to choose what will give me the most bang for my buck. In other words, be good enough to satisfy me in the short term, but also be good enough at least in the mid-term that I am not already itching to replace it quickly.

I have done well in this department with laptops, building my own desktop computers, and fortunately rarely have ever had to live with a phone for more than two years, so even a mistake was relatively short lived. But with cameras, I seemed to fail in this respect. Sure, I would love to go out and buy a Canon Rebel XTi or Nikon D2x. But first of all, I don’t have the kind of time or attention span necessary to learn how to use on of these cameras well enough to justify the expense. But on the other hand, I have been quite dissatisfied with my past couple of purchases (Kodak Z series), so I knew I had some work to do. I started to do my research, and by the time I finally settled on the camera I wanted, a year had passed. That’s right a full year. 12 months, 52 weeks. To pick out a camera. Some call that kind of research and time to make a decision insane (That would be TheWife), but I call it smart. But fortunately, much of what I learned can be boiled down and some shortcuts taken to finding what is right for you without having to spend so much time.

Again, much of this is intended with certain factors in mind, so if you don’t fit into this criteria, it may affect your choices. The criteria I have set forth here. 1. This is geared for parents. I say this because as a parent (whether you know it or not yet), you are going to have some difficult shots that you are going to try and take. Xmas pageants, recitals, sporting events, etc. Many times, no matter how early you think you are for an event, you will find there are other parents that have gotten there even earlier, thus leaving you a good distance away from your child that you want to photograph. Throw in some lousy auditorium or gymnasium lighting, and you now know what I mean by challenging. 2. You are at least somewhat budget conscience. If you wouldn’t think anything of dropping $600 or more on the latest and greatest. More power to you. I don’t, and I know many other parents that don’t have, or wouldn’t consider that kind of outlay for a camera. This is for those people, not the person that buys the model right off the floor of the CES Floor in Vegas (Consumer Electronics Show).

Megapixels.  Back in the day, when digital camera were sporting resolutions like, VGA, 1.3 Mega Pixels or 2 Mega Pixels, the amount of pixels really mattered.  You could find a 1.3 MP camera that would take a nice picture, but if you wanted a print that was bigger than 4×6  or you took pictures with the intention of zooming in and cropping a lot, you were simply out of luck. Today you can find cameras at the consumer level as high as 12 MP.  Unless you plan on making a Warhol like mural of your child, the size of your living room wall  you really do not need a 12 MP camera.  Especially if you are going to forgo other important features for it.

Zoom.  When you were out on the town with your friends and wanted a little camera you could slip into your blazer, leather jacket or purse and not be obtrusive, then those super slim camera were perfectly adequate for mediocre pictures taken at the bar, nightclub, etc.  After all, many times, you were probably had one or two too many drinks by the time the camera came out to take a decent picture anyway.  This won’t cut it when you are trying to capture those once in a lifetime moments.  The biggest problem with these small cameras is the fact that if you have one when you find yourself on the wrong side or too far back in a poorly lit auditorium or gymnasium,  you will be cursing that puny little 3x optical zoom.  Quick note for those that don’t already know this… forget about the “digital zoom” that you camera brags about having.  It is a worthless measure. In short digital zoom works by enlarging a certain part of a picture to simulate optical zoom, to the detriment of clarity).

The answer, is the class of cameras that are known as “Super Zoom Cameras.” These cameras generally sport Zooms of 8, 10 or 12 times optical zoom. The side benefit of this is also that because of the need for clarity, camera makers generally put better glass (lenses) in their  Super Zooms than they do in their regular consumer cameras.  This will enable you to get a nice shot of your child, and not just a shot of 1/2 the class in a picture where you have to point out to people, “see, right there… no over to the right, that is little Suzy over there.”  When in doubt, sacrifice pixels for zoom.

Other Factors:  These qualify as things that are important to me, but are more subjective and a matter of personal taste.  Zoom camera are more prone to “noise” (wavy lines) when zoomed out than a normal picture.  Most camera have some sort of image stabilization to compensate for this.  They generally break down into two types, Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and Digital Image Stabilization(DIS).  OIS is far superior and worth it for better pictures… for me.  Fuji sells a line of super zooms with NO Image Stabilization at all, going rather with its “face detection” technology, and they sell very well.  So some people obviously don’t find this as important as I do, but most experts will tell you to go with OIS whenever possible.  The other thing is Scene Modes.  Do you know a lot about Aperature Priority, Shutter Priority, etc?  No?  Me neither.  That is why I depend on a camera that has a lot of presets for various settings.  The basic “general” setting is excellent for mediocre or basic pictures, but when I want to capture a shot at a soccer game, or some other specific event, I want to be able to turn to a setting that gives me the best chance of getting the shot I want, and without having to know how to configure the camera.  Scene Modes save you from having to know how to set up a camera for action, landscapes, night shots, etc.  The more scene modes, the more specific setting you are ready to shoot.  Again not a deal breaker if the camera doesn’t have many scene modes (or any) but it certainly will help.

 Some things you can probably ignore:  Certainly Digital or “total” Zoom should be ignored, as I already pointed out, they are useless measures.  However, there are some other “important” measures according to many reviewers, that really aren’t a big deal to the average user.  The ability to shoot in RAW mode.  Most consumer camera do not shoot in raw mode, but for some reason reviewers are fixated on this feature that is usually held out for professionals.  In order to use RAW format, you generally need to use a program such as Photoshop CS.  If you have $700 to lay out on Photoshop however, you are probably not reading this looking for a camera.  The other feature is an articulating LCD (the LCD panel swivels around so you can see it at various angles).  This is certainly a nice thing to have if the camera happens to have one (my new Canon does), but lets be honest, how often do you need this feature?  To take a picture of yourself?  To take a picture by holding the camera over your head in a crowd?  Do you really think you will do that often enough to make this a “must have” on your camera.

Finding your camera.  Ok, so now you know what you like and don’t like.  You have an idea of what kind of camera you want.  How do you go about finding the best value for your dollar?  Well, for me, the answer came in the way of a year old copy of PC Magazine that I had laying around.  A year ago, the camera I ultimately selected had just come out.  The only knock against the camera (and the primary reason, I would not have bought it a year ago) was the price.  With a retail tag around $500 it was a lot more than I really cared to spend.  Fast forward a year, the S3 has been replaced with the S5.  6 Megapixels have given way to 8 – 12 MP camera.  That top of the line camera was now forgotten.  In the meantime, plenty of new Super Zooms have come out at lower prices (for this example I will uses Canons new SX100).  At first glance the new low priced super zooms seemed like a great deal.  The SX100 was retailing at $249, the same price I was able find the S3 selling at.  It also had more mega pixels.  But in a quick comparison, it quickly became obvious that in order to get the price down there with the higher pixel count, that lots of features had to be removed.  In this case, last years “winner” didn’t change, and more than met my needs, but at a far more friendly price.  Sometimes last years model, if you are careful is still better than this years new model.  Now granted, you may not have a year old copy of a magazine laying around (certainly if TheWife had her way, I wouldn’t), but thanks to the Internet, most of these reviews are still around to be perused.  Just bypass the latest editions for those 6 or 12 months ago, and you can find a camera that “back then” would probably be too much money, but now fits inside your budget.

One word of caution using this method though.  There is a point of diminishing returns for the camera manufacturers, that when the camera crosses over from profitable to no longer worth their time.  At that point, the price will not drop any lower, and instead the camera will just disappear.  In other words, no matter how long you wait, you will not find a new Canon Rebel XTi for $100.  No matter how long you wait.

And of course, one final note.  I have given a lot of credit and used the name Canon here quite a bit.  But that is predominantly because that is the camera that I recently purchased.  This is in no way meant to imply that I recommend Canon over any other particular camera.  Olympus, Nikon, Panasonic, Fuji and others all certainly have their benefits and highlights, and if the timing was different, I may have gone a different route.  The only way I was almost certain I wasn’t going again, was back to Kodak, which has disappointed me twice in a row.

(If you should happen to have Bad Behavior on your site, you may wish to get the latest update if you haven’t already)

Since, my most recent faux pas of antagonizing a poor PayPerPoster brought up the same old points, and questions, I thought it was worth the time once again to cover these issues.

PayPerPost sounds good… on paper. Companies pay people to write reviews and commentary on their products and services, and hope to generate some sort of “buzz” out of it. Sounds good. And I have seen a couple of people actually use the product in this way. (Maybe 2 of them) But by and far this is simply not the case. It seems that what most people do is look to see what is the highest revenue product they are eligible to write for, and write about that. Regardless of what experience they have …often none, other than maybe… MAYBE taking a peek at the website before they write up a post on the subject.

What, really however gets my goat about this whole scheme, are the people that try to mask this in their regular posts. Now in theory, I guess PayPerPost originally sort of encouraged this sort of misleading practice because the whole “point” was to create buzz, and to appear less like advertising. There is no telltale affiliate code in the link, you just directly link to the website in your post. I have heard that PayPerPost is going to change this policy, in an effort to clean up their image (presumably at least in part to the backlash that they saw at BlogHer, and presumably other events), and start requiring people to disclose this. I think it is a step in the right direction. But I am biased. Because where I seem to most often put my foot in my mouth is when I have called bloggers on a post being a PayPerPost posting. Those that don’t currently disclose, are more often the same ones that get quite indignant about being called on their practices.

I have seen and heard things like, “You have GoogleAds and Affiliate Link.” Yes. Yes, I do. And everything about them is above board. Every single product or company I link to via an affiliate code, is because I believe in or like the product, service and/or Company. (I also have a Policy and Disclosure Page, explaining just that). There is nothing here that I promote, without it being something I believe in. If you happen to pick up a DVD from Amazon, based on my recommendation of it, then I think I have earned the few cents I make on an affiliate link. I am putting my opinons and my credibility on the line in doing so. If I tell you about a bunch of films you don’t like, well then you are not likely to buy them, and I am not going to get paid for them. If you can’t tell the difference between that, and writing a quick couple of paragraphs about Fly-By-Night.com (Not saying that all PayPerPost website are Fly by Night, but…) because that is the one that will pay you the most money to sell your credibility this week, well then there really is no reason to carry on the conversation any longer.

But please. Don’t stand there defiantly, and get all high and mighty. You are right, I am free to go my own way and not read it. That is true. And on many many blogs that is simply the case. I will just click next and move on. If I have commented to you on it. One. You are hiding your true intentions. And (more importantly in this case), you have sold your credibility and disappointed me in the process, because you had some credibility in my eyes. I thought you were worth reading. I thought your opinion was worth something, I thought it mattered. But since your credibility was worth $2.5o (or whatever you got for that post), I guess I felt bad that I had so misjudged you in this regard.

Blogging has for the most part moved past the days of having “donation buttons” and “wish lists” and for that I am sad. Heck, I would donate something to a blog I like (and have). I have used the wish list. I don’t begrudge anybody for trying to make a dollar. I applaud you if you can find a way to make a career out of this. When the day is done however, in the written world like this, all you have is your credibility. Think twice before you pawn it off for such measly sums.

Corrections:  I was corrected by the people at Wirefly.com for an incorrect view of the company.  Wirefly is not an affiliate front as I believed it to be at first pass, and I apologize for this misunderstanding.  The incorrect information has be removed from this post.  I will be taking them up on their request to take a closer look, and will (without PayPerPost compensation) be reviewing them properly when I get an opportunity.

You see, today when the Zune 2 was released, the firmware that will be on the new players, also became available for my old version 1 Zune (now known as the Zune 30) as well.  I get all the new software features without having to buy a new device.  Just try and get that from Apple.

I am not a Microsoft “fanboy” by any stretch of the imagination.  I have no qualms about complaining about the mistakes they make (and there are plenty) or how they try to at times flex their muscles and change things just for the sake of change (for example the awful new Office 2007).  But what they lack in upfront agility, they do often make up for… eventually.  And with products that I do not upgrade at every turn (prior to this my last MP3 player was a 32MB Rio), I want that kind of stand behind your product mentality.

Apparently something went awry with my recent WordPress Update (2.2.3), as it added a boatload of “” characters to all my posts.

Please bear with me as I beat my head against the wall.

TheWife’s new laptop machine is now “SnowWhite,” while LatteGirl’s Desktop is “KimPossible”  My old laptop has become “Mater”  (as in ‘Tah’-mater, but without the ‘Tah’)

Now the useless trivia question of the day, “What did I name my new Laptop?”

(hint for those that have paid attention, it is a character from my favorite Disney Movie.  Full Disclosure – you won’t find it by searching for “Favorite Disney Movie” on this blog, but I have mentioned in the past)

I have noticed this both from the GMail side, where people have not been getting e-mail from me, and then later discover that my e-mails are now routed to Spam, and in my Yahoo! account, the same thing applies, as now all the GMail I get is automatically relegated to Spam.

Considering how much spam my lightly used Yahoo! Mail garners per day, this is a daunting task to constantly go Dumster Diving into the Spam folder for valid e-mails when that little used account seems to garner somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 Spams a day.  I can’t even imagine what people who actually use or publish their Yahoo! Mail account take in.

So is it just me?  Or has anyone else noticed this sudden turn against GMail?

Do you prefer the same?  Or do you prefer differently than what you actually do on your own blog?

What do you think about the option to “subscribe to replies” on a post?

Is anybody actively using CoComments?  Thoughts on it?

What is the migratory path of a Swallow?

In the mean time, if you have any problems with this new theme, please let m know.

Now, I am going to have to load it and start checking and trying to accomodate that hunk of junk. Damn!

Please bear with me as I try to get this worked out. (Or Just go get Firefox already)

And Vista was unleashed on an unsuspecting public today. Sheesh!

Update: I guess I am back to the old Theme… for now.

I am equally amazed that there is no single good repository (preferably with reviews) to go to for them.

So what do you use?  What do you avoid?  (I gotta get this thing looking nice, or I will spend more time tinkering than writing).

More later.

I created a test blog on the new blogger, and while it is not as bad as I have heard some people complain… it still looks half baked. Many things were added to catch up with everybody with some long overdue features (like labels), but none of it seems complete. Just slapped on with a “we can fix it later” sort of mentality.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Now I use Firefox, but I am not particularly in love with it because of its slow speed and rather sluggish performance. Sure there are some tweaks and Themes that help it load a bit faster, but there always seems to be some trade off involved.

So, I anxiously awaited the new Internet Explorer. And now it is finally here. I installed it, and after only about 10 minutes with this browser, I am here to say to all those naysayers:

All those things you feared, and mocked in the new IE7 Browser? Not only are they true… it is even worse than that.

IE7 is the most incredible piece of junk I have ever been stuck with. Because of security fixes and the like, and because it is so tied into things such as Outlook, Office, plus other parts of the OS, that I have no choice but to install it, and keep it.

But as my everyday browser? Microsoft has finally done it. They have made me a dedicated Firefox user. And at this point, if what I fear is true, this is only the beginning of the end with my relationship with Microsoft.

In what I can only assume is their idea to get users used to the idea of their stupid new ribbon idea that is set to appear in the Vista version of Office, Microsoft has not only redesigned the layout in a most horrific and unintuitive fashion, but they lock you into it. By default the Menu ribbon is turned off. Turn it on, and it appears BELOW the navigation pane (and relocated back and forward buttons). The command toolbar is on the same row as your tabs. And there is no way to change it! So if you have a lot of tabs open, you are forced to choose between having the toolbar fully visible, or being able to read the tabs which wind up getting small real quick because of the lack of space.

I don’t know who did the usability study on this piece of junk, but they should be fired.

Internet Explorer is officially dead to me.

Got a friend coming over to visit with her kids this evening. Yay!

LatteGirl and TheWife are gone for the Weekend. Boo!

LatteGirl and TheWife are gone for the Weekend. Yay!

TheWife left me a list a chores to accomplish while she is gone. Boo.

But the list is not long. Yay!

But I also need to go to client Number 1 and get some work done. Boo!

That means extra money next month. Yay!

It will probably only wind up going towards paying for LatteGirl’s school Boo!

But LatteGirl loves the new school so far. Yay!

However it only took her 1 day to get in trouble for talking to her friend and got her seat moved. Boo!

Alright enough of that already.

Been living with the Skype phone for about a week now (Since My Big Fat Geek Weekend), and I have to tell you, it is pretty nifty. I invested the $38 US (approximate it is 30 Euros) for a year of having a separate phone number. I plan on using it for Clients and such, to help keep them off of my home phone.

Along this same vane, does everybody these days have way too many IM clients? I have people on Yahoo!Messenger, MSn Messenger, AIM (mostly work people), I haven’t downloaded GoogleTalk yet, but have chatted with a few people threw the Chat interface built into GMail. I am sooooo glad that XP has that collapsible System Tray. On my Windows 2000 system, more space was dedicated to the System Tray than to the Taskbar section. I thought about trying one of the programs like Trillian that combines them, but I really don’t like that idea either. Maybe someday we can have a single open standard. (Yeah Right).

Oh well, hope everyone has a great weekend.

We did have some family over Saturday, and some friends Sunday for end of the summer bar-b-ques which is always fun, although I still swear this summer went by WAY too fast for me. We had all sorts of plans for weekend trips and such, and now the time has already gone right by me.

LatteGirl starts her new school on Wednesday. Talk about easing into it, she has half days Wednesday and Thursday, the her and Mom will be heading off to Sesame Place for the weekend before she starts her full day sessions next Monday.

I am starting at my new client’s today, so in between the bar-b-ques and waterproofing, I had to wipe clean and reformat my laptop. (Warning: if you are not the intensely geeky type, you may wish to skip the remainder of this paragraph). After being forced by my last client to remain on Windows 2000, I finally got to bring it up to Windows XP. Since I was feeling particularly geeky, I also dual-booted it with Linux (I went with OpenSuse for now, but that will probably change… at least once or twice). Then to top off my geekfest, I went and picked up the Linksys VOIP phone for Skype.

Too much food, too much drinking, and too many new toys (according to my wife). Everything to make for a perfect three day weekend. Hope everybody had a good weekend. So are you ready for fall?