Look! It's the Goodyear Blimp!
Cathy & I went shopping this weekend, and there it was, the Goodyear Blimp.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Look! It's the Goodyear Blimp!
Look! It's the Goodyear Blimp!
Cathy & I went shopping this weekend, and there it was, the Goodyear Blimp.
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Malachi is a Nosey Cat
Malachi is a nosey kitty. Here's some proof.
I got the idea to use an animated GIF the other day, and decided to try to incorporate into my Blogger profile. Unfortunately, my animation is 172 KB in size, and Blogger currently limits profile images to 50 KB.
I did try a small animation and it works... so I'll have to resize my profile photo and upload it later. Just for fun, I'm going to post a how-to entry later.
I got the idea to use an animated GIF the other day, and decided to try to incorporate into my Blogger profile. Unfortunately, my animation is 172 KB in size, and Blogger currently limits profile images to 50 KB.
I did try a small animation and it works... so I'll have to resize my profile photo and upload it later. Just for fun, I'm going to post a how-to entry later.
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Blessed is the man...
I was thinking about what kind of things I assume everybody has or everybody knows. It's amazing what blessings I take for granted on a daily basis.
I wake up in the morning. I get in my car and it tends to start. I go to work and I get my paycheck twice a month. I go home and my cats and dog are happy to see me. I go to sleep at night and my wife is beside me.
Ah... what a blessed man I am! That reminds me of Psalm 34
Praise the Lord.
I wake up in the morning. I get in my car and it tends to start. I go to work and I get my paycheck twice a month. I go home and my cats and dog are happy to see me. I go to sleep at night and my wife is beside me.
Ah... what a blessed man I am! That reminds me of Psalm 34
I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the LORD; the humble will hear it and rejoice. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together.
I sought the LORD, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces will never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them. O taste and see that the LORD is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! O fear the LORD, you His saints; for to those who fear Him there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.
Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Who is the man who desires life and loves length of days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the LORD is against evildoers, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken.
Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.
Praise the Lord.
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:
I sure hope Blogger implements categories soon...
- 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
I sure hope Blogger implements categories soon...
Monday, April 25, 2005
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!
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.
I hope the Hays read this one... the Ben & Jerry's promo did not happen in Hawaii.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
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:
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.
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
- 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
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.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Free Opera browser license
From TechBargains:
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 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.
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.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.
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.
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