This past weekend was the last days for our community pool before shutting down for the winter (don't get me started as to why they decided to build an outdoor pool instead of a year-round indoor pool!), so I took my daughter there for a last swim. Saturday was not very busy, so a fun time was had. However, Monday, being a holiday, was busy. First, you have all the deck chairs taken up by women sun bathing. Not eye-candy women, but people that should not be wearing what they were wearing. I don't understand why these people did simply sunbathe in their backyards? I mean, a large number of them never set foot near the pool, but took up valuable real estate intended for swimmers. Then we have the 'pool posers'. These are the handful of guys 'sunbathing' (but are pure white), gawking at the bikini's over their sunglasses. One guy in particular was pretty obvious, given his sunglasses half-way down his nose, his neck straining in every direction, and the flag pole in his swim trunks! Yes, you could actually watch him raise and lower his staff. As a game, I would watch the other side of the pool, and when some teenie-bopper arrived in a small bikini, I could be sure that the staff was raised. Sure enough! When they were replaced by a less desirable bunch, the staff lowered. To top it off, a few post-teens set up shop near him. While they were getting settled, he arose from his voyeur chair, sneaked to the pool edge, splashed water on his hair and chest, then stood up and stretched/exhaled like he just completed an Olympic swimming event. He then sat back down and proceeded to 'dry off' while smiling at the post-teens. What a poser!
Next, we have the water polo team wannabes. These are the people who toss around a ball or football across the pool without regard to other patrons. They dive around, throw the ball over everyones heads, and make faces when people are in the flight path. Here is a tip: PLAY BALL IN THE FIELD!!!
I downloaded the new Google Chrome (which I am using to type this post) and it is not good, not bad, but seems to be missing some features that are expected by 'power users' in a browser. First, cruise over to the Official Google Blog for a low down on Google's browser and see if you want to test drive yourself. Beware that, like all things Google, your privacy is their profit, but you do pay for free things in the long run.
Anyway, there are 2 things that I rely on in a browser that are lacking in my quick 10 minute tests:
1) Changing the Cookie handling to 'Restrict how third party cookies can be used' prohibited me form logging into Blogger. There were no additional configuration options, so I had to revert to 'Allow all cookies'.
2) I use x.509 certificates extensively to authenticate to web sites. I am impressed that Google Chrome uses the Microsoft Certificate Store under the covers, so all my Windows cert-management tools work (unlike having to additionally manage separate cert stores under the various Mozilla-based apps), I never get prompted for a user certificate authentication challenge, nor does it send a 'default' x.509 user certificate. Kudos for using an existing cert store, but poo-poo for not (yet) allowing user-certs for authentication.
Here is the About info:
Google Chrome
0.2.149.27 (1583)
Official Build
Google Inc.
Copyright © 2006-2008 Google Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.13 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/0.2.149.27 Safari/525.13
Safari/WebKit based? Oh noez!!!! But the dragging/reordering of tabs is pretty cool.
I have a long list of Firefox plugins that I use that are not available for Google Chrome (but since it was just released today, time will encourage developers to port their code), so FF will remain my default browser. My second beef is the name: Chrome. Mozilla already uses a framework named Chrome, and this only adds to the confusion. At any rate, I will give it more test drives, and will update this post as I discover more.
Short post for now. Interested in things I bookmark for later review? See my del.icio.us bookmarks at http://delicious.com/Trowelfaz. There is a little bit of everything there. Yes, I have a lot of interests.
You see some strange things when you have an hour trip to/from work everyday. I've seen men shave (complete with shaving cream!) and countless women change everything from their blouse to everything head-to-toe, but this latest tops everything else. As I pull up to the stop light, I notice a man and woman on a crotch rocket motorcycle. The man was wearing those knee-length red basketball shorts, basketball jersey and hightops. Nothing interesting there, unless you consider the bubble butt (baby got back on that one!) riding along in the denim daisy dukes and white flip flops bumping and grinding, or rather, rubbing, on the seat. No, that was not all that unusual in the big scheme of things. What was unusual was the way she had her arms wrapped around the guy. Well, she *was* holding on, but not like you think. She had her hands down the front of the guys shorts (both hands) and, while stopped at the light, her hands certainly were busy. When the light turned green, he gunned it and pulled the front wheel off the ground. I guess she pulled back on the stick thinking she was flying an airplane or something. They get behind a slower car and I catch up. Her hands are still active, and now he has his left arm in a 'reverse reach around' position. They finally turn left and continue on their 'merry' way.
I don't think a helmet would protect them from a Darwin Award if they keep this up. Then again, they weren't wearing a helmet anyway. At least she had a good grip on things.
Finally, Adobe has released a new email client perfect for Mac users:
or for the Professional:
Adobe understands that Mac users cannot stoop so low as to type text in emails, but instead feel the desire to attach screenshots to get their elitist point across. To support the stick in the rear Mac fanboys, Adobe now offers Photoshop to replace the Mac email editor. Simply Select New Document, set the page size (the larger, the better), and click the Text tool and start typing! Easily change your font style, add additional images, apply some effects and press Send! In mere moments, your 22MB email with the graphical representation of 'Wanna do lunch?' will be clogging the 100+ recipients of your misdirected message.
Seriously folks, my cow-irker received an email from a vendor answering some questions about their online server for which the replay WAS A FRICKIN' SCREENSHOT OF THE ANSWERS!!!! WTF?!?!? Granted, this is an online application company that sells a hosted bug tracking application geared for people that are incapable of downloading bugzilla. As it is, the mailing list at work catering to people with Macs is already flooding with screenshots ('I have attached a screenshot of the screensaver settings so you can configure yours the same'), but from a vendor? I sure hope we drop this vendor like a hot potato.
I really despise all the lawsuits and attacks the 'entertainment' industry inflicts on consumers. I won't get into the whole copyright infringement, making available, copy protection and other interference that these groups impose on consumers (don't get me started on how they persuade lawmakers to spend tax dollars to 'protect' their 'assets'), but instead will rant about something that may normally go unnoticed. That is CD and DVD packaging. These things are locked up tighter than Fort Knox! Talk about a reason for online distribution! First, you have to navigate the huge plastic security holder for which the cashier does not have the unlock dohickey for, thus needs to ask other cashiers and ultimately the manager to retrieve (I guess that notched piece of plastic costs a small fortune, so a large retailer can only afford to have one). Next, you need to navigate the stronger-than-titanium plastic wrap. Finally, behold! NOT! You are thwarted by the edge stickers so thin, they have chemically bonded with the case. You finally manage to pick a corner up, only to have it tear into a 2mm piece that sticks to the tip of your finger. You keep digging at the sticker, further scratching the case (beyond the diagonal scratch across the front of the case from trying to remove the cellophane). Finally, you get about an inch separated and, after 30 minutes, decide to try to force the case open in hopes that the sticker will split along the case seam, just like when you try to remove masking tape from a roll, but all you get is a thin jagged strip, but alas, you crack the case instead. Only after you are deemed worthy, are you able to extract the pressed round plastic disc, hopefully unscathed (both the disc and yourself). And you get that torment for a mere $15.
Compare this to the console game industry. Their products have a much shorter shelf life compared to music and movies, cost 3-5 times more to the consumer, but have much easier access. OK, many games are proudly (or more times than not, haphazardly thrown) behind a finger and nose print decorated glass wall. Once you are able to find someone to help (after asking about a dozen people, and only after the security cameras catch you trying to jimmy the lock), and they call in Bob from the night crew to come in and drop off the only key, the only thing separating you from your purchased entertainment is a thin layer of plastic. A quick fingernail run along the fingerhold and the plastic seems to mysteriously disintegrate (or more likely, leap off the game case to the nearest hand/arm/flat surface in static induced vengeance). Total extraction time: about 10 seconds. I guess game companies cannot justify making you wait any longer to play the game since by the time you load it in your console, 50 additional copycat games have been released, and your game has now been replaced with a version 2 which fixes the horrible gameplay and graphics from the version you just purchased.
*SIGH* Digital downloads are where the future is at. If only the stodgy greedy industry your listen to consumers.
I have started another blog site dedicated to various kludges encountered. Most of the kludges are of the computer nature, but others are things kludged together for the real world. Check it out:
Kludge R Us
