Ticketmaster: Major Tool

From Eddie Izzard's website where a press release announces a special benefit performance...

"...One hundred percent of proceeds will be going to Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans. Following the comedian's lead, Ticketmaster has agreed to donate a portion of its ticket fees..."

In case you missed it, key word is "portion"

Start Your Engines

It is Firefox Download Day. They're attempting to set a world record for the most downloads of a piece of software in a single day. Later revised to a "single 24-hour period" after poor planning caused their servers to crash under the load. But, this is probably the only time you'll hear "Firefox" and "crash" in the same sentence, unless someone was saying something like "If you're tired of having a browser that crashes constantly, it's time to ditch Internet Explorer and download Firefox."

Unless you're already using Flock or Opera, there are plenty of compelling reasons to switch to Firefox. If you're using Safari and find the text blurry or you'd like to bookmark more than one homepage, you'll like Firefox. And if you're using Internet Explorer -- because it came with your computer -- today is the day you re-assert your control over your life online.

Trust me, it's painless, and well worth it.

Ready?

GetFirefox.com

How can I be so sure? I've been using the release candidates for several weeks now and I love it so much better than what I was using. (And I was using Firefox 2 prior to that!) It's fast, memory-efficient and just really easy to use, especially the new AwesomeBar and the way it helps with bookmarking.) There are still a few Addons not available, but most of the Addons I use are FF3 compatible.

Recommended Addons:

• Forecast Fox - puts the current conditions and upcoming forecast into otherwise unused space in your browser


• Better Google Calendar - allows you to make additional adjustments to how Google Calendars are displayed


• Better Gmail - allows you to make additional adjustments to GMail


• Better Google Reader - more adjustments to Google Reader


• Faviconize Tab - shrink specific tabs down to only their icon to allow more tabs to fit on the screen.


• Customize Google - make adjustments to Google search results


• Firefox Showcase - shows you a small display of all open tabs


• Google Preview - inserts screen grabs into Google and Yahoo search results letting you see what a website looks like before you click


• GreaseMonkey - advanced users only - allows you to browse a library of "scripts" that adjust how websites look and work

Feel free to post your favorites in the comments.

Walkabout

With Ben strapped to my chest, I walk the course. Round and round. Kitcheb. Hall. Step down into living room. Step up into dining room. And back to kitchen. It's a small loop. In the time it's taken me to type that, I've made the loop about three times. I could do it my eyes closed. And often have. I've done it while running with, running from, chasing after or carrying Rachel on my shoulders. I've done it while iTunes blasts, I've done it while watching TV, movies or conversing with Lori. Or, tonight... With only the sound of the clicking Blackberry keys and the padding of my own feet and Ben's soft breathing, I'm lost in the silence. I did not sleep well last night, or probably many a recent night. And it's led me to be irritable, cranky and have a short fuse. But right now I feel good. I feel calm. The chores can wait, the sleep won't be great, but at the moment, I am at peace. It is a really nice place to be.

It's time to make the switch

I remember the day clearly in Encino, Calif. in late 1996. I asked a co-worker "What if I tried Internet Explorer and liked it better? That would be scary."

I'm not sure when I did finally make the move, but I eventually did try it, did like it much better than Netscape. I struggled through version 3 and its integration into Windows 98 and Active Desktop. It crashed regularly, but it was so cool, that I suffered for the geek cool.

IE4 came along and later IE5. Things were good for awhile.

But then, IE6. If I had stayed with IE5, I might still be using IE5. But installing IE6 just made things so bad that my wife demanded I fix the computer.

So I installed Firefox. Oh, sure, I've used IE from time-to-time, but it's just not the same anymore. Firefox is so much faster, so much sleeker, so much more useful.

Sure, it will still automatically load our corporate intranet each day, but I'll be clicking that close button right away. Sure, I'll still have to use it for poorly written software for work that only works in IE (yeah, I'm talking about you, Ceridian, Silk Road, Quantivate and USAA.com*), but if I don't have to, I'm never touching Internet Explorer again. (*Only the Deposit@Home feature... though I suspect it may be a Java problem.)

If it hasn't been declared before, Firefox is no longer for the "geek cool," the poweruser and the nerd. If you use the computer to surf the web, it's time to ditch Internet Explorer. The latest version of Firefox comes out next week and I'll be back to walk you through it.

Trust me, you'll thank me.

(If you're already using Opera or Safari, you can disregard. You're probably not suffering enough to need to make the leap.)

Timing

Wow.

Line. Crossed.

My impression of my mother-in-law was drastically changed tonight.

Here's the interesting thing about Gmail... the new version offers a distinct web address for each email address.

And Firefox (and pretty much every web browser) offers you the ability to see which webpages have been viewed and when.

For whatever reason, Lori decided to look at the history when we got back from small group. Surprise. Lori hadn't closed her email before we left. Less than half an hour later, six or several emails were read.

Not sure why, but I seem to be more shocked than Lori.

Solution to the ANWR Debate

So, it seems to me that as long as there is oil under ANWR (the Artic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska), there will be people who want to drill for it and roads and pipes and infrastructure to support existing drilling. (There is some, right? I'm not entirely educated on the subject.)

So, it seems like the easiest way to end the entire debate is to just go ahead and drill. As soon as we drill and get all the oil out, then we can dismantle the roads, pipes and infrastructure and let nature overrun everything and return it to a more natural state.

Although this might sound similar to the Reno 911 pro-SUV argument, I really don't think it is. (They made the argument that everyone should be driving big gas-inefficient SUV's... the sooner we use up all the oil, the sooner the terrorists run out of money to finance their terrorism.)

Ignorance

Earlier tonight the phrase "The deafening silence of ignorance" came to mind. I couldn't think of a good post to put under that title, but it's stuck with me.

Reminds me of a phrase that struck Allison funny years ago... "What, from the depths of your ignorance, do you want from me?"

Hers will probably stick longer, but I liked the deafening silence bit.

Ok, I lied, there might be a good post to go under that title, but it wouldn't be appropriate as a human, much less a Chrstian for me to move forward with it.

Let's just say there was a major blow-up last night and I was not directly involved and our home really needs prayer.

Up Late / Brand Tags

I've been seeing this on the blogs but never got around to looking at the site until tonight. Brand Tags - the site shows you a logo and invites you to type in the first word or phrase that comes to mind. It's really interesting to see how well companies do (Apple) or don't (Blockbuster) have a good handle on what people are saying about them. It's hilarious to sit there with another person scrolling through these. I'm picking on Blockbuster because I think so many people have really nailed it with terms like "archaic" and "dinosaur" and "antiquated." It is crowdsourced and unmonitored, so language warning blah blah.