Hornets and Toolbars

June 28, 2003 Daniel

Yep. I’ve got a splitting headache.

See, my dad and I were outside doing yardwork today. We were preparing to dismantle and reassemble our fireplace thing when I noticed hornets and wasps flying around. I peered into some of the cinder blocks which make up the fireplace. Little too dark too see. I look over my sunglasses. Sure enough. I spot about four of the suckers. So I tell my dad this, and he goes into the garage and gets some hornet and wasp killer. As I’m crouching to get a good angle so I can spray this stuff into the openings in the cinder blocks, I go through the standard checklist:

Do I shake the can before use? If a hornet or wasp flies directly at me, will I be able to run away? Am I supposed to hold this can upside-down or right-side-up? When I press the button, am I going to get this stuff on myself? Which way is the wind blowing? Okay, the wind is going to spray this stuff on me — can I move in a way so that it won’t spray on me? Nope. There’s only one place to spray from, because I’m basically spraying into a tiny little cave, so if the wind gets me, it gets me.

And I press the button. And I basically get covered with a fine mist of highly toxic chemicals. Chemicals designed specifically to kill living things.

So after we had called it a day and I was sitting on the couch, I couldn’t figure out why I had such a splitting headache. Now that I’m in my room, away from a TV, I’ve had some time to reflect on the day and I can only assume that I killed about a million brain cells when I got sprayed with the old bug killer. So there you go.

In other news, Google now has a version 2 beta of its toolbar, which includes a pop-up blocker and a weblog updater. This sounded interesting to me, since I recently installed a pop-up blocker and wrote a post about it, and also because I have a weblog of my own. The thing is, the weblog updater on Google’s beta toolbar only works with Blogger. I actually ran the first version on Historical Context using Blogger, but I didn’t really love the interface or the fact that you were required to put Blogger’s logo on your site. I also found it strange that Google would endorse Blogger, since I can’t really remember Google entering an explicit partnership with anybody. As it turns out, Google purchased Blogger in February of this year. I would prefer that a toolbar button just open a text editor window and then append my stuff via FTP, but I guess that’s asking a bit much.

Anyway, although I like Google — it’s my home page — I just don’t want to add it on to my browser. Hell, I didn’t really want to install a pop-up blocker before I tried one. To switch gears a little, I think the fact that Google has created a pop-up blocker goes a long way to reinforce what I said a few posts back: Microsoft really has to add pop-up blocking to point release of Internet Explorer. And soon. Additionally, has anyone ever noticed that when you type in the address or hit the bookmark for certain sites, then switch windows while you’re waiting for them to load — BAM! That first site moves to the front when it’s done loading? I’m pretty sure that both ESPN.com and CNN.com do this. I think this is almost as annoying as more obvious pop-up ads, and only slightly better because you actually want to read that page. What to call this incursion? Bring-to-fronts? Snap-ups? Top-ups? I think I like “top-ups.” Make a note of it.

Two Programs

June 23, 2003 Daniel

What the dilly DAWG?!!!

In the last two days I have downloaded two very small programs which will — and I’m not exaggerating here — totally change my life.

The first I downloaded yesterday. It’s called Pop This!. I read about it at ZDNet’s Anchordesk. When I tried to download it onto my work computer today the site gave an error stating that it had met its bandwidth quota. I assume that a lot of people read about it on Anchordesk, which is surprising, because I didn’t think anybody actually read Anchordesk. I mean, I used to to subscribe to the newsletter, but that was back when I subscribed to newsletters. (Now I just get the one from Sony about PS2.) But you’ve got to get this program. Version 3.0 is about a meg and a half, which seems large for its functionality. If you try to download it from ZDNet or Download.com (which are all part of Cnet), they will tell you that it is on version 1.01 and that it is 155K … I guess there’s been a lack of communication there. And you can’t download it because of the bandwidth issue. I’m tempted to post the sucker right here on my site, but I think even I get a bandwidth quota. Imagine … even with thousands of daily visitors I still don’t hit my limit!

Anyway — so tonight I was emailing myself the installer so I can get it at work tomorrow. I hit the attachment link on Yahoo! Mail and read this line of text next to a little light bulb (for a second I thought it was the Office Assistant): “Want to see a progress bar when you upload your file? Make Yahoo! Mail your default email program.” ZOINKS! Let me tell you — I’ve been waiting for this for a while. I’m pretty sure Hotmail has offered this functionality for years, but Hotmail also offers “two more inches” about 150 times a day. Yahoo’s version is small – I’m talking 35K, tops. In an interesting twist of fate, the installer wouldn’t work because I had Pop This! installed. I guess those windows that pop up that ask you to install components to IE (or install anything – like Gator) fall within the pop-up window category. I thought they were more of an OS thing. Guess not. To fix that problem, I just added yahoo.com to my list of domains permitted to serve pop-ups. That cleared it right up. Of course, if Yahoo! gives me any pop-ups that I don’t like, I’ll take it right back off my permitted list. Simple as that.

Right now I’m waiting for the Pop This! installer to upload to my outgoing email so I can test out a mailto link and record the results here. The anticipation is killing me …

Okay, the little bar at the bottom of my IE window says that it’s done uploading, but the view is not advancing to the “all set” page. WTF? …

It works! Yes! If you don’t have a Yahoo! Mail account yet, this is just one more reason to get one. It’s free, I never get any spam because it gets filtered out in an intelligent way, and your address will be relatively easy to remember.

Other news: There should really be a button on the keyboard for &lta href = “”&gt … Can you appreciate the irony of writing an italic I: &lti&gtI&lt/i&gt …

Google Stuff

June 22, 2003 Daniel

I’m sorry, but the last post was really weak. I had to write something else to bump it down.

So I clicked the “Dissatisfied with your search results? Help us improve.” link at the bottom of Google recently after it brought up the raised by coyotes page as the top result on a “dan premo” search. I just did the same search again tonight, and now not only is Historical Context the new top result (as it should be), but the top four results are my stuff. Number 2 is the “current” Who Am I?. Number 3 is the final links page from my RIT site. And in a twist that makes it all worthwhile, the rules page of “The List” from back in my Weldon St. days at RIT is the number 4 result. If you click up to the main The List page, you’ll see that “Brian Lewis is back on the list … with zero points. His demise is anxiously awaited.” You can say that again!

If you’re wondering, PIHTK is an acronym for People I Have To Kill. The List had a short but intense period of popularity, and I was concerned about people I didn’t know reading that I had a list of people I wanted to kill. To clarify, it was a joke and I never actually wanted to kill anybody. Except Lewis.

And yes, for fun late at night I type dan premo into Google.

Slangin’ Rock

June 22, 2003 Daniel

I actually started a post about The Matrix, but I didn’t like where it was going. One of the few times I’ve written a post and decided not to upload it. Also one of the times I’ve described a future post and then failed to deliver it, but that happens a little more frequently.

I started the summer job. They keep me busy there and – surprisingly – I’m glad that they do. At some other jobs I’ve had, I either had too little work to do or too little supervision or both, and those things often lead to playing solitaire or posting to WCIFT about the movie I saw over the weekend. And doing stuff like that often leads to worrying that someone is going to walk up behind you and catch you wasting “company time.”

Plus, the people who I work with are actually pretty cool. I’ve worked a total of six days, and already I have had to revise my opinions of several people from my initial take. Kind of like how I thought Brown was a jerk the first time Morash brought him to RIT. Additionally, at this job I have actually managed to learn just about everyone’s name … I think this is influenced in part by the fact that I actually interact with them. At other jobs I’ve had, I basically went to one person for all my tasks, or went to no one at all.

What else? I feel like I want to write more but I feel like I have very little to write about. I hopped on IM about ten minutes ago and everyone was either idle or offline. Okay, this brings a topic to mind. I saw a headline a few weeks ago – it was something along this lines of “Cursive disappearing under weight of typing.” Something like that. I’ve also read article about kids actually submitting papers for school in which they made errors such as: writing “u” in place of “you,” writing “4” in place of “for,” etc. Basically, the gist is that some kids are typing IM shorthand so much that it is compromising their writing skills.

I’m sorry, but I really can’t get bent out of shape about this. I mean, slang has been diluting people’s formal speech for centuries. Now we’ve finally reached a point (in the industrial/post-industrial age) where kids communicate with each other regularly via written (or typed) text. And now we’ve got text slang.

Like I said, I can’t get bent out of shape about this. Why? Try logging on AOL at 5:30 PM. Busy signal? Slow connection? Why? Yes, there are a lot of people using it, but there is also just a whole lot of data getting thrown around the network. If people type “u” instead of “you” and “4” instead of “for,” it might just save some ones and zeros, and it might just cut down on Internet traffic a little bit. And it might actually save time in the real world. Did you know that Teddy Roosevelt wanted to change the spelling of “through” to “thru?” I hoped that he had also wanted to make further changes. I did a little Google and found two versions of what is most complete here … Read as much as you want. I got about halfway down and gave up. The gist of it is is that in the written English language, you can make the same sound with more than one spelling (g and j, s and z, qu and kw), and you can also make more than one sound with a single spelling (g, ough, oo, ast). This makes for a written language that is very difficult to learn. So the link I mentioned provides descriptions of three reforms to the written English language (TO, or Traditional Orthography). The problem is, a whole lot of people use the current system, and there are a whole lot of documents written with the current system. So it’ll probably never change.

The keyboard will never change, either. But at least the written English language wasn’t intentionally designed to be hard to use. I was going to put a link about this, but there is really just too much to read on the subject. And I have to go to sleep.

Mozilla

June 13, 2003 Daniel

Theme tonight: Mozilla. Next topic if I remember: parallels between the first two Matrix films.

If you don’t know, Mozilla is an open-source browser developed (as far as I know) primarily by Netscape programmers. It’s in version 1.3x now. I ran it under Red Hat Linux and I thought it looked okay, but I didn’t have a lot of fonts within Linux so I never really liked using it. Right now I am interested in Mozilla for two reasons:

·
Multiple home pages. I like this for two reasons. The first is: there are three or four sites that I read every time I surf the web. CNN.com. Yahoo! Mail. PvP. I read them every time. Second: a trait I picked up as an adaptation to dial-up is using multiple browser windows – this lets me read one site while the other one or two are loading. This way, I theoretically won’t ever have to wait for pages to download. Theoretically.

I’m sure most of you pull the read-one-browser-while-the-other-loads trick. With multiple home pages, you no longer have to click File | Open two or three times, and you no longer have to hit three or four bookmarks. Yeah, neither requires very much effort, but since you do it thousands of times per year, and since there might be a better way … Plus, Mozilla has tabs, which are an awful lot like the buttons on the Windows 9x+ taskbar. Personally I’m still undecided on whether or not I would like tabs, but I have a feeling that I would use them once given the opportunity. Next …

·
Separate mail client and browser. I remember when I downloaded Netscape 6, I was disappointed with the fact that the browser was buggy as hell, but I also thought that the mail client was not as good as its 4.x predecessor. Plus I was losing messages when the browser crashed. The project name for the standalone mail client is Thunderbird and the project name for the next (and standalone) version of the browser is Firebird. The fact that there is actually a team dedicated to the mail client and that they have enough interest in it to release it standalone makes me think that it might turn out okay.

Additionally, Mozilla supports pop-up blocking. Microsoft really has to implement this. This is the single feature that really made me think twice about Mozilla. I know you can download applications from several web sites that will disable pop-up ads. But the code that actually disables that little component of JavaScript must be like two lines long … why can’t Microsoft just throw it into the next point release of Internet Explorer? Or the next Windows Update release? Probably because they don’t want advertisers jumping on their back. And I don’t install the little helper apps because it’s little helper apps like that that install some other POS or generally just gunk things up.

Finally, why am I considering Mozilla? For the answer to that, think back … Think about the first time you used the Internet, the first time you used the World Wide Web … What browser did you use? Netscape 2.0? Netscape 3? From Netscape 2.0 through Netscape 4.7, I loved Netscape. It was the non-Microsoft product that I used. (Insert first girlfriend metaphor here.) When Netscape 6 dropped (and I do mean dropped), I was so pissed. Yeah, Internet Explorer had been gaining market share for years by then, and may even have passed it, but version 6 of Netscape was the white flag. Maybe the developers were feeling pressure from AOL to make a release date? Maybe they set their goals too high because they wanted their product to be the new face of AOL? I don’t know. Netscape 6 sucked. But still. There’s always been that little part of me that liked Netscape.

Mozilla Firebird was originally called Phoenix. Maybe the Netscape tradition will finally rise from the ashes …

Matrix Reloaded and TechTV

June 5, 2003 Daniel

Geek post today. I came across two short articles at Cnet News.com today.

The first article is about The Matrix Reloaded. In the film, Trinity hacks into a Unix machine with actual open source programs rather than with cheesy visual effects often used in film. The cool part is, the haXXor who wrote one of the programs didn’t know his work was going to be used until he saw the film in a theater. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you wrote a program and it showed up in a Matrix movie?

The next article was about TechTV. It says that the channel reaches 40 million homes, but only about 40,000 people watch it every day. Forty thousand? During my senior year of college I watched Call for Help almost every weekday. Morash would often watch it with me … I know Smiz likes it. So that’s three. There’s got to be about 1,000 people who go to RIT who watch it every day. At least. Then there’s the cast and crew … that’s gotta be another hundred. Then there’s all their parents. That’s like another 200. I’m already up to 1,300. How many people go to RPI? Ten thousand? Well there’s another 10,000. So that’s 11,300 people. And that’s only a couple people in New York and California. If I were to keep this up I’m sure I could get to a million daily viewers.

Cup … Weather

June 1, 2003 Daniel

I wanted to make a post, but I couldn’t think of anything interesting to write about. Yeah, there’s the Stanley Cup Finals, and I’m rooting for Anaheim, and they won tonight. Boy, Brodeur let a laugher get by him.

But what else? It’s June already. It’s really getting close to summertime. Thursday it was sunny in A-Town so I went out for a drive. I had all the windows down and the sunroof open in the Jetta … it was a beautiful day. Fast forward 48 hours to Saturday: Rain all day; miserable, cold conditions. It seems like the temperature just refuses to get above 71 degrees. Take a look at Weather.com for Allegany, NY (or Jamestown, NY … outrageous) — Rain probably all week with highs between 68 and 71. WTF? I need to get my tan on.

Tha Email

May 27, 2003 Daniel

So Emily Zekan, my best friend from high school, tracked me down last week by searching for me at RIT’s web site. She found my RIT email address. Argh … I was going to put my RIT address up here, but I don’t really want to check that address any more. So … this is my address … infer it, take out the spaces, and leave out punctuation: logic bus at yahoo dot com.

Resolution

May 27, 2003 Daniel

What’s your thought process when you try to decide what resolution to set your monitor at? It’s a tradeoff, right? You want to be able to fit more stuff on your screen at the same time, but you also want to be able to actually read text without getting your nose two inches away from the screen. So you set it to the highest resolution that you can still stand it. So you can still stand it. Doesn’t it seem like there’s a problem here?

Computer Humor

May 26, 2003 Daniel

I was thinking about HTML humor again, as I sometimes do. I came across a web site that had an intro page, and the first content page was in a directory called “HTML.” I of course found this to be ridiculous. Putting your site in a directory called “HTML” is like putting stuff in a box and then writing “BOX” on the lid. (It took me about two minutes to think of that analogy.) Anyway, humor. The needless directory got me thinking that putting a site like 10 levels deep in completely nonrelated directories would be funny. Not really worth a laugh, but funny.

In other news, I have a summer job lined up. It’s basically an internship, and it will only be three days a week, but it’s some money, and more importantly it’s something to put on my resume. Of course, now that I actually see a deadline looming for when I will no longer have unlimited free time, I’ve got an idea for a story that I can stretch into more than two pages, and drawings I’ve been working on for months are finally starting to show some promise.

What else? Last Friday Staples had 40 GB hard drives for 40 bucks. You’ve got to redeem a $40 rebate, but I always redeem my rebates. I didn’t need a new hard drive per se, but backing up to a second hard drive is a lot simpler than backing up to a second computer. I’m at a pace where I format about every 8 months, and I currently back everything up to my Compaq via ethernet cable. (Actually, for 5 of the last 8 months I was in VA with no access to my own system, so it’s been more like 3 months.) Now, with the second hard drive, I can just back everything up to it and format the C: drive whenever I want. Or I could even just store all my data to the second drive to begin with. A multitude of options. Of course, I suppose I could have just taken the Compaq’s drive out and thrown it into my current system, but that would leave the Compaq useless if I ever wanted to learn some new network protocol (I’m reading a Java book now). And besides … it was 40 bucks!