What's with the four-letter words on my blog subjects?

OK, not the four-letter words I implied, but you've probably noticed that posts subjects have capital letters indicating what kind of post it is. Here's what they mean:

• COMP: "computers" -- computer or Internet tips/tricks/cool stuff
• FREE: "free" -- well, free stuff I think you might be interested in
• HMMM: "hmmm..." -- random thoughts
• NEWS: "news" -- that's right, news I find relevant, or will give me an idea what was going on in the world when I look back over old posts
• Keep Up: "keeping up with the Joneses" -- news specific to us
  

Miscellaneous stuff will simply have a subject with no indicator. That way, if you just are not interested in my computer tips, or free stuff, you'll be able to ignore them immediately from your newsreader, beefore you even get to the blog.

I sure hope Blogger implements categories soon...

Camping Trip at Lake Casitas

We went camping at Lake Casitas this weekend with the extended family. Sativa just had her birthday, so we were celebrating...We went camping at Lake Casitas this weekend with the extended family. Sativa just had her birthday, so we were celebrating. Our friend Heather agreed to check in on the kitties, and Cathy and I took Oliver with us. Due to Oliver's tendency to get car sick, he rode shotgun both there and back. We made quite a sight: a man driving his dog and chauffeuring his wife. :)

For those who do not know, Adelle is Cathy's aunt, Michael is her son, and Sativa is Michael's newlywed wife. Jenni is Adelle's daughter; Scott is her boyfriend. Pretty much everybody else that came is related to Sativa.

We left Friday at 7 p.m. and arrived after 9 p.m. to set up camp in the dark. Our good friends Mike & Heather allowed us to use their giant tent and their inflatable mattress, so Adelle got to use the smaller tent we brought along. It was pretty cold that night, and the mattress has a slow leak, so we found ourselves huddled together in the middle of the mattress in the morning. Poor Oliver was pretty cold.

Before they she for Florida, Yvonne gave us her collection of patriotic Beanie Bears to pass along to Adelle. She was quite happy to receive them! We also passed along a wedding present to Michael & Sativa. Hmm... maybe we should begin a delivery business.

They other guys decided to go fishing. Since I'm not much of a sportsman, I went on a hike with the ladies to the river. I got a nice shot of the Lake while we were hiking. We quickly tired of our 3-mile hike, and fortunately Robby predicted this and picked us up and drove us the rest of the way in his pickup.

Once we got to the River, Cathy & I attempted to persuade Oliver to venture into the water and behave like a normal, doggedly dog-like dog. You see, Oliver does not want to stick his head out the window when we drive, and he is not interested in the least bit in romping through shallow water. Go figure. I lead Oliver out onto the water, and Cathy coaxed him to go to her. After a little coaching, Oliver did have some canine fun. Everyone else got right into the action, including Sativa's dog, Bullet. We decided to down to the docks from the river and meet the guys as they brought the boat in.

The big barbeque was planned for Saturday night, and we had several hours to kill. We all headed back to camp and played cards for a while. We always bring Cathy's stunt kite along, and she figured we should give it a try. Sativa, Cathy & I went to the picnic site by the docks to catch some stronger winds. Michael brought Brenna and her son Bryce to join us later on, and here's a photo of Cathy attempting to assault Michael with the kite.

Heavy rain was predicted for Saturday night. I saw some ugly clouds move in and got ready to dig a trench. Cathy pointed out that we would be packing up wet gear if we stayed until morning. The plan was to wake up Sunday and head straight home, so we decided to avoid the wet gear and packed up at dusk.

It was a big cookout, and a fun time was had by all. Sativa received a DVD of some 1.5 GB of their wedding photos, numbering 693 individual pictures. We copied those photos to our laptop, and Sativa ran a slideshow of all the photos three times in order to show everybody the wedding.

We left at 10 p.m. and arrived home a little past midnight. The cats greeted us at the door; after my self-inflicted twenty-four feline fast, I did not realize how much I missed my little girls! It was good to be home. Boy did we sleep well that night!

FREE: Cold Stone Ice Cream Cake - 04/25/2005 only

Cold Stone is raising money for Make-A-Wish. They'll be serving free ice cream cake tonight from 5PM to 8PM. Donations are, of course, accepted.

I hope the Hays read this one... the Ben & Jerry's promo did not happen in Hawaii.

Alternatives to Internet Explorer?

It is amazing what we take for granted on a daily basis. A friend emailed me as a reaction to my earlier post, asking about the existence of alternatives to Internet Explorer. I said I would have to blog about that...It is amazing what we take for granted on a daily basis. A friend emailed me as a reaction to my earlier post, asking about the existence of alternatives to Internet Explorer. I said I would have to blog about that.

I just assumed everybody knows that Internet Explorer is not the only choice. I also assume that AOL users know they don't have to use the AOL browser or AOL Messenger once they are online. Everybody knows about Google, the really fast search engine, right?

So, why would you want to switch web browsers? What choices are there besides Internet Explorer?

A little history...
For very little history on the subject, essentially Netscape Navigator was the browser when I first started. Netscape written by the same people who wrote the first browser, Mosaic. Around 1995, Microsoft released Internet Explorer (IE), also based on Mosaic. Netscape was a paid-for program, Internet Explorer was offered for free.

Thus began the browser wars. Microsoft was smart enought to undercut Netscape by getting AOL to use IE for its browser and by giving away similar products to what Netscape was selling.

Microsoft Internet Explorer reached a 97% market share. Netscape was sold to AOL in 1998. Netscape released the code as open-source software and AOL began financing the Mozilla Project, a free, cross-platform Internet software suite, whose components include a web browser, an email client, an HTML editor, and an IRC client.

Current Trends
Microsoft IE remains the most widely-used web browser. The Mozilla Foundation continued the Mozilla Project as a result of AOL divesting itself of the Netscape assets and employees in 2003. Mozilla-based browsers have chipped away steadily at Microsoft Internet Explorer's market share ever since. Mozilla Firefox, the browser component, was released in November of 2004.

Depending on who you ask, IE has about 85% of the market, with Mozilla-based browsers, including Firefox, holding about 12%. Opera, developed independently between 1992 and 1996, holds around 2% of the market since its release in 1996. Opera took web browser design from the ground up, and it supposed to be the best performing browser.

2004 was a bad year for Microsoft. Having such a high market share, Microsoft was naturally the largest target for hackers and people who hate large corporations. A series of exposed security flows in Microsoft IE, coupled with the fact that IE is long overdue for a new release, caused increased interest in alternative browsers and open-source solutions. Firefox was released that the right time and gained nearly 10% of the market in little over a month.

Why Switch?
Pros for switching to Firefox or Opera:

• faster browsing
• more secure (for now)
• tabbed browsing
• plug-ins like mouse gestures
• better handling of RSS and Atom feeds
  

Cons against switching:

• you learn something new
  
• some web sites use only IE's Active-X controls, like www.LogMeIn.com
  
• Firefox, being open-source, is supported by other users
  

Should You Switch?
It depends on you, I suppose. If you like to tweak stuff, you’ll like switching. If you spend a lot of time browsing the Internet due to work, you'll like switching. Firefox is faster, in my opinion, so that’s one reason to switch. I like the way FF handles feeds and bookmarks.

For novices, Firefox would be a good upgrade, since it is faster than Internet Explorer and offersa pop-up blocker. But if you feel skitterish... just keep visiting http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com regularly and stick with IE.

For the comfortable or advanced user, Firefox has plug-ins to expand its abilities. My favorite plug-ins are for mouse gestures, ad blocking, and weather reports. Once you get used to mouse gestures, you’ll only use IE when a web page is poorly written and only supports IE. Tabbed browsing and advertisement/image blocking are two other reasons I would switch.

What is tabbed browsing? You know you can open more than one web site at a time, and each goes into a new window. Well, tabbed browsing allows you to open more sites as tabs.

If You Are Not Sure, Just Wait
It is my understanding that IE version 7 is due out in Autumn. It should incorporate the best Firefox features. If you are not sure, and you are using updated anti-virus and anti-spy software, just wait until Autumn and upgrade Internet Explorer. If you want cool features now, give Firefox a twirl.

Free Opera browser license

From TechBargains:

Free Opera License
Opera has a free web browser license sponsored by a German computer magazine. Use c't magazine code: OJD000MN (Thanks anon) Cached page

For those of you who do not know, Opera is supposed to be the best browser on the market. It has a free version supported by advertising, and a paid version that is ad-free.

I still recommend FireFox, but Opera is a great option, with better support (since it is not totally free).

FREE: Ben & Jerry's -- 4/19 only

Free Ben & Jerry's scoop at participating locations until 8 p.m.

Sorry, Jenn. I already checked; there are no locations in Hawaii.

New Pope - Benedict XVI

So, the Catholic church has a new pope. That was much faster than I was expecting...So, the Catholic church has a new pope. That was much faster than I was expecting... Quoting the Associated Press:

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, the Roman Catholic Church's leading hard-liner, was elected pope Tuesday in the first conclave of the new millennium. He chose the name Benedict XVI and called himself "a simple, humble worker."

Reuters describes the new pope as an

Arch-conservative... a surprise choice that delighted traditionalist Roman Catholics but stunned moderates hoping for a more liberal papacy.

Ratzinger, 78, the Church's 265th pontiff... is expected to defend Pope John Paul's strict orthodox legacy and reject changes in Catholic doctrine. He is the oldest man to be elected pope for three centuries and the first German pontiff for a millennium.
...
Many Vatican experts had said Ratzinger, John Paul's tough doctrinal watchdog for 23 years, was too divisive and too old to become pope.

Pope Benedict XVI will be formally installed Sunday, but his papacy began immediately. We'll know more about how his papacy will affect the Roman Catholic Church after he gives his first homily on Wednesday.

If you get an Internal Error on Blogger...

If you get an error trying to read a profile, post a comment, or something like that, try clearing your browser cache first. "How do you do that?," you ask? If you are using Internet Explorer, Microsoft has a how-to article here.

For Firefox users,

1. Select options from the tools menu.
2. Select the Privacy tab.
3. Press the Clear button in the row labeled Cache.
4. Press the OK button.

Rutabegorz & The Flower Fields

Last Thursday, Cathy wanted to try out something healthy but still a dining experience. We drove some distance to Rutabegorz in Fullerton. It turns out that there are only three locations, and this was the first one. It was started in the 70's as a coffee shop. The food is remarkably like homemade. Cathy and I enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. Prices are reasonable, too. I would recommend it if you are anywhere near Fullerton or driving through.

On Saturday, Cathy and I down to Carlsbad and visited The Flower Fields. It was a beautiful day, sunny yet with low UV levels. We walked the fields for about three hours, stopping to the smell the roses in the Miniature Rose Garden, the Ecke Poinsettia display, and we walked the 50 acres of Giant Tecolote Ranunculus flowers.

Cookie Monster watches what he eats, and so are the Joneses

Here's an interesting article at CNN. Apparently, the Cookie Monster has learned that "a monster does not live by cookies alone." I suppose parent everywhere should be happy... although somehow it seems silly to me.

On a similar note, Cathy has decided that we need a more structured regiment for our daily diet. Stay tuned... I may soon be reporting "cool fact #2" items myself.