With all the hype flying about I’ve given Google’s browser Chrome a try. The most noticeable feature is the speed. With the “no frills” UI taking a close second. Clearly with their own browser they are positioning themselves will with their online office and mail apps.
The Good:
- Its fast and has a smaller system profile.
- Its a pretty streamlined UI.
- Its open source so anything cool could be brought into other browsers.
- I’ve read it has a plug-in API so people can extend it.
- MS has to be a little worried about how the browser combined with the online office tools will compete against MS Office. I’m just happy some real competition is evolving
The Not So Good:
- The license agreement seems to state anything you view/create with it is free for Google to use in advertising its product.
- It doesn’t seem to support RSS bookmarks…which is something I use heavily in FF.
- Its still a beta and I had it puke once will I was posting on a forum. Not that I haven’t had FF crash on me before.
- Without Ad-block and NoScript browsing feels little naked. As I stated above it does have plug-in API. I’m curious how the advertising king will feel about something like Ad-Block coming to its browser.
- No MAC or Linux support out of the box. Boourns, its not 1995 anymore.
So with the 105th Harley Anniversary starting here in Beer Town, we have been inundated with “sharing the road safely” stories on all the local news channels. What I find most funny about them is that they are always aimed at the people driving cars, usually the folks that drive to work everyday. Like me.
“With increased bike traffic we want car drivers to be aware of bike safety.” So we hear all about how we should give them extra room, be aware of them changing lanes and in general take extra caution when they are around. To which I reply “Uh huh.”
Here are my 2 experiences this week with the “really safe bikers.” While traveling about 80mph on a crowded two lane highway, I had two bikers pass multiple vehicles down the center line. I would guess they were going at least 95mph. The second experience was last night driving home from work. On the same two lane highway, we got stuck behind four bikers going about 50mph on a 65mph stretch of highway. Apparently, they wanted to slow down to talk to each other and must have gotten a kick out of blocking off traffic. Well that was the case until a bigger asshole in a beat-up pick-up truck passed them on the shoulder and kicked up bunch of gravel and dust on them. Which made me laugh. When they saw a second car about to do it they finally moved over.
So “Share The Road”…yeah…”Eat My Ass.”
I saw Firethorn’s low profile update and figured I was way overdue for an udpate.
I haven’t been busy with “finding the cure” and I’m not finding my self engrossed in the least bit in work lately. I have been doing the usual lately random work on the house, playing golf, playing WoW and working on our golf league tracker.
This past weekend I finally fixed the stupid garage door opener sensors. We were having problems with sensors thinking that something was in the way of the door coming down any time sunlight was shining into the garage. Which meant everything time I went to work in the morning the damn thing wouldn’t close. I finally “damned the torpedos” and moved the sensors to above the door and mounted them right next to each other. Problem solved. Growing up our garage door had no fancy sensors so I’m going to go with Darwin and say they are not necessary. Maybe when I have a kid or two and I’m in NERFTHEHOUSE mode I’ll want sensors but until them I’m happy with a working garage door.
I also had a really nice talk with my dad this weekend about the office in the basement. I think it will be a good opportunity for my dad and I to work on something together. I’m excited to actually start on the office. I feel like it is quickly becoming more than just talk. I’m hopeful Paul and I can have some layout discussions about it this weekend. In talking with my dad, I also thought of a few things I would like to have done before starting the office. The most important being running some network cable to the current rooms in house.
Good times.
So when I first started ordering from Newegg.com, most all of my orders were shipped via free fed-ex super saver shipping. I believe it was supposed to be 3 day shipping. The fact I used to boast all the time, was if I ordered something Sunday night I would have it by Wed. In fact, I remember whining a few times that my items would be sitting at the airport on Tuesday and I wouldn’t get them until Wed. Basically, it was sitting around for a day because I got 3 day shipping instead of 3. However, it was hard to complain when the shipping was free.
Since those days though, UPS has slimed there way into Newegg and has now become the cheapest shipping option in most cases. Although, I have to say that after this most recent order I may be paying more for, in my mind, a superior shipper.
So I ordered some 12lbs of new PC parts from Newegg late Friday night. By Sunday the order was “shipped” although I suppected it was waiting for pick-up from the warehouse. What I find most interesting is that the UPS tracking system “backfills” tracking information. As of Tuesday afternoon the tracker said the package was in Des Moines, IA . There were a total of 4 entries: origin 7/27, departure 7/27, arrival 7/27, unload 7/28. That is also what it said this morning. Then, right around noon today I checked again to see if it had moved out of IA yet, to find 9 enteries with the timeline shifted. Now saying that the package did not arrive in IA until today at 9:09am. So if all goes as I predict the package will leave IA tonight, get to Milwaukee tomorrow and possibly be out for delievery tomorrow. Although, based on how long this box appears to have been in IA it might actually be Friday. So good ol’ brown charged me something like $17 for 3 day shipping that is actually going be something like 4-5 day shipping. So “what can Brown do for me?”, apparently deliever my packages extremely slowly and off date.
I never had this issue with Fed Ex, in fact Fed Ex stuff had a tendency to come early. The only problems I ever had with Fed Ex was them not leaving certian types of packages, if no one was there to sign. Its pretty sad when Newegg can turn my order over in a weekend and UPS can make the shipment in 3 business days.
So Friday after work KT and I met some friends to see the new Hellboy movie. Overall the move was very disappointing. I thought the first movie was pretty good. It seemed like a combination of Indiana Jones and a super hero movie. This movie was more like a campy version of Men In Black. While there was an overall plot line, the story was just side track after side track. Between the dueling love stories, the stupid “childhood” flashback and the changing of voice acting behind Abe I wasn’t onboard.
While I don’t read the comics, my advisor on the subject tells me that Hellboy is traditionally a fairly dark comic about harbringer of the apocolypse. This movie was in no way “bad ass.”
I’m hoping Dark Knight does not dissapoint like Hellboy II.
1.) Big mamajama wasps like to live behind plastic faux-shutters.
2.) Big mamajama wasps don’t like it when their home is removed from its current installation.
3.) Big mamajama wasps don’t like water.
So luckily I didn’t get stung and luckily it started to rain pretty hard. We have these faux-shutters attached to our house that are starting to get faded. The wife decided she wanted to paint them this summer. The ones on the side of the house were just screwed on, the front ones use these plastic nail anchor deals. So she wanted to start them today, so I pulled the first side one down and found some new friends. 3 of the 4 I pulled down had wasps setup in them. Luckily, it started to rain after the first one which scattered the group. I took advantage of the wet conditions and pulled the other two down while KT manned the hose and sprayed them down. I’m going to have to get some spray and give those things a dose every once in a while.
Like I said no injuries, just the realization that it could have gone bad.
Another exciting day in homepwnrship.
So I saw Firethorn’s latest post and I apparently need to be asking why I don’t want Farve back. Well, I did want Farve back. At the end of the season, based on reaching the NFC championship I figured he would want to come back. I also wanted that. Clearly though, at some point he decided he was done. Now the rumors begin that he wants to come back.
So why am I in such a hurry to move on? Well one man doesn’t make a team. I can’t help but feel that the more attention the success or failure of the Packers hinges on the waffling of one man, the more demoralizing it is to the team. If it’s not bad enough that no one wants Rogers, the feeling from around the league is that there is no way in hell the team can do well if Farve isn’t at the helm. So Roger’s has no support from the fans or media to begin with and then the drama starts again. The team just isn’t positioning themselves to build confindence in a QB other than Farve.
Also, why exactly does the management and coach need to cator to Farve? He’s a great QB with more football experience than most players will ever know. That being said, he is still the QB not the head coach not the team manager. Know your role. Apparently, the NFC Championship strategy of throwing bombs until they get picked off didn’t work out so well. Maybe we should try listening to some coaching strategy? Nah fuckit, he did kill Superman afterall.
The longer everyone hangs on to the notion that we can never win without Farve is all the longer it will happen. I’m in no way shape or form an optimist, but clearly if the fans don’t support the team eventually the team won’t support the team. Successful football dynastys aren’t built with the corporate “fuck the future if we win today” mentality. “One season” teams are though. Personally, I’d like to see us starting to build our team around not having him around because the time will come when he won’t be. If we were the returning NFC champions or Superbowl champions I might be calling it differently.
I apologize for the lack of posting lately. I think it is due to a combination of things.
So whats new?
1.) I’ve been busy and frustrated at work lately. For the most part I try to keep my work whines out of the blog.
2.) I’ve been working on our Golf League tracker in most of my spare time. It’s a fun project, and I get to work with some web technology that I don’t deal with on a day to day basis at work.
3.) The past week or so, I haven’t sleep very well. I think it’s mostly do to some things related to point 1. I usually never struggle with sleep, so it has been hard. I actually slept really well last night, but it was too well. Apparently, I was driving KT nuts with the snore factor. 
4.) KT’s Grandfather passed away last weekend. He had been on the decline for sometime. The services are tomorrow and it’s going to be tough day.
5.) In general, May and June seem to be flying by. I’m not sure exactly why. Other than the rain and flooding, out weather has been nice. No extreme temperatures, nice breezes, and in general very comfortable to be outside.
6.) I think I’m going to take the week of the 4th of July off. Usually, I don’t feel the need for a summer vacation, but some time off would be nice.
I think I would sum my feelings up lately as overwhelmed.
- The economy sucks.
- I’m thinking about grad school.
- I’m thinking about a career move/change of some kind.
- I’m still adjusting to home ownership and would like to work on an office in the basement but I feel like I’m short on the skill and budget.
- I’m feeling some pressure and interest to start a family in the near future. I feel like that throws a wrench into all of these things.
- I find my self thrashing between all these things which compounds my frustration.
As the eternal optimist though, I’m sure I will figure it out and a rainbow will form over my house littering my yard with gold coins and unicorns that I can sell into donkey slave labor(just bust off the horns and slap a coat of spray paint on ‘em. They have strong backs.) for huge profits…either that or a Harrier jet will drop onto my car.
If feels like forever since I last posted. I’ve been spending most of my free time working on an application for our golf league. I’ve been working on the database portion while a friend from work is working on the front end. We’re working on some integration at the moment, but I’ll post a link when the demo is up. I wrote one database interface in college, so I wanted to build up a little more experience there. I also do so little “web” development at work that is nice to see some of it and stay current with what is out there.
Other than that golf league has started again, I’m doing my usual. KT has a a couple more weeks of school left and I get my “house wife” back for the summer!
So I read this gem of a story today:
Clarity Sought on Electronics Searches
U.S. Agents Seize Traveler’s Devices
The heart of the issues is this:
“The U.S. government has argued in a pending court case that its
authority to protect the country’s border extends to looking at
information stored in electronic devices such as laptops without any
suspicion of a crime. In border searches, it regards a laptop the same
as a suitcase.”
This country needs some serious unfucking asap.
