Found these extensions very useful for Mozilla Firefox.
IE View – Creates an extension in Firefox where you can view the page in IE.
Firefox View – Creates an extension in IE where you can view the page in Firefox.
TinyURL Creator – creates a TinyURL for the current page. Useful when sending links in an email. Long links tend to get broken up.

Mozilla Firefox 1.0 is out. Apparently it’s become the new flagship of the Mozilla browser family. I just downloaded it, along with the Luna skin. Both work really well….even though I’m still using IE to post this. As a web developer I have to have multiple browsers on my machine. Firefox is my browser of choice, while I’m forced to use IE with sites which require it.

So I got a Gmail account. My first thought is, why do I need another webmail account? I’ve already got half a dozen of them. Another one with 1000MB of space isn’t going to make much difference. Only that I might need it if I were to need to receive a large digital picture remotely.
Gmail makes it difficult to delete. They are big on archiving. Some messages I might just want to delete for forever. It does take an extra step to do this. Move to trash. Then delete for forever. And you have to search for it. Mostly you just see “Move to Archive.”
Threaded messages are nice. Replies and things like that really show how the conversation is going on it. So that you don’t just get part of the story.
I’m not so sure Google really should get into the webmail business. Time and time again it has been shown that Webmail is not a money maker. Produces more headaches than dollars. 1000MB is nice. But I don’t think it would stop traffic.

I’ve found that my church’s website has been linked from fark.com. They were discussing a news story about a kid getting killed on a merry go round. The church’s photo album has a picture of some kids on a merry go round, so they embedded that picture in their discussion. Just doing that link has put 4,000 more hits on the church’s site (at least through people viewing that picture). I’m sure they found the picture through Google’s image search. You can find just about anything on Google.
I’m slightly amused by it (since Fark is a favorite website of mine), but feel as though it could potentially be disruptive, especially if the picture got photoshopped in some weird fashion. So I’m blocking the Google imagebot through robots.txt. That should do it.
Postscript (2/1/04): We got about 4,016 hits on January 20th (the day we were linked from Fark). Whereas we normally get about 300 hits per day. Behold the power of Fark.

Ok. I’m trying this out. BloGTK for Linux machines. It’s a client for posting to one’s blog. If this works, it means I’ll be able to do 90% of the things I need to do on my Linux box. The only other things I need to do is print and share my system within my home network. Linux is pretty good. Although it is very difficult sometimes to get programs installed and to troubleshoot problems. Linux gurus sometimes don’t want to share information. For example Mozilla’s Firebird’s Linux installation instructs say simply to run the script. That’s it. Nothing. No support whatsoever. Which script? What directory is it in? Huh?

Trillian is that all in one instant messenger program. Combines Yahoo, MSN, AIM, and ICQ into one program. I’m hooked on it. The trouble is that anytime Yahoo or MSN or any of the others change their code significantly, Trillian stops working. Then the Trillian programmers have to stuggle to write a fix for it. Their whole business model is flawed. They are relying on 3rd party programs to sustain their program. Sooner or later the instant messenger programs are going to start talking to each other over different networks. And then Trillian will be done.

Ok. One week with Linux. I like it ok. I wish I could get it just the way I want it.
GAIM. It’s sorta the Trillian in the Linux world. Logon to MSN, Yahoo, AIM, and ICQ in one program. The only things I’d want from it is that I wish I could dock it. And Metacontacts would be nice.
The frustrating thing with Linux is that programs are very difficult to install. Instead of clicking on an executable file with Windows, you have to run some long string of a command from the terminal prompt. Usually you can find a RPM program which will do most of the installing for you. I got an RPM to work with a Linux version of Yahoo Messenger. But that’s been it. Haven’t been able to install Mozilla Firebird.
Everytime I try to install one program, I get a message saying that another program is needed for it. So I try to install that program. Yet a 3rd program is needed for the 2nd program to install. And so on… You get the picture. This is definitely holding Linux back. Installing programs shouldn’t be like pulling teeth. It should be easy and simple.
So that’s the problem. Linux Gurus and fans want this OS to catch on with Windows users. But for it to catch on, it has to be easy to operate. And at this point…at least with my limited knowledge….it is difficult.
And I’m somewhat familiar with it…or at least I’m getting familiar each and every day I use it. I’d like to use it more often, but I’m afraid if I can’t install some good programs on it, it will be nothing more than an expensive toy.

A friend helped me build a computer from scatch this weekend (thanks “Bob”). Amazing. I had never built one from scratch before and was amazed at how easy it was. Just follow the instructions and you’re good to go.
So I put Linux on it just for kicks. Fedora flavored Linux. So far so good. I still haven’t figured out how to install programs on Linux. It’s like learning a new language. Somewhere it’s a cross between Windows and Mac, but cheaper.
Is this what nerds do? They get exciting when they sit around and build computers? Or do they fantasize about doing this for a living? Maybe I could….

The DVD people successfully lobbied to have regional codings on DVDs when the technology first became available. This means that Region 2 DVDs may not play in a Region 1 DVD player. The bottom line is that this was supposed to prevent piracy. Here’s the regions
* Region 1: US and Canada
* Region 2: Western Europe, Japan, Middle East, and South Africa
* Region 3: Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)….a hotbed of piracy.
* Region 4: Latin America and Australia
* Region 5: Russia, Africa and India (this is pretty much the “everything else region”)….again a hotbed of piracy.
* Region 6: China (probably the #1 area for piracy; I saw plenty of pirated software, music, and movies being sold when I was over there).
Doing a search on Ebay for “Region Free DVD Player” shows 200+ matches. However I’m not so sure why I would want a region free DVD player, unless I wanted to watch some obscure British comedy only manufactured in the UK.
I think if the CD people had their way, they would have manufactured regional encodings into CDs.
Also, while searching on half.com, I found this peculiar description of the new Indiana Jones DVD:
bq. Get this amazing Indiana Jones collection now! This brand new set is from Asia [read pirated] and will play on all U.S. players. All movies play in english and will make a great addition to your collection. Please look at my feedback [actually he made his feedback private, so you can’t see the 17 negative comments left during the past 6 months] to see the amazing satisfaction from my other customers. If you have any questions feel free to email me. This set contains all 3 action packed movies. This set is not the boxed set but contains all of the movies. The movies are not sealed but are brand new and have never been viewed. The cover art is slightly different [scanned] as well, but basically the same.

Trillian is a instant messenger program ( www.trillian.cc ) which gives users the ability to connect to AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ messenger services. They have a free version and a paid pro version of the program with many more options. They charge $25 for the pro version, which I think is highly over rated. The Trillian folks are depending on 3rd party services to provide them with the inner workings of their programs. With any tweak from these 3rd party services, and Trillian could be useless on a certain protocol.
I’ll give you an example. Today Trillian started complaining about Yahoo Messenger. Afterwards anytime you try to connect to Yahoo via Trillian, it would crash. Trillian says they are working on a fix. Somehow I think it is a bad business model to depend on 3rd party services to make your program work. 3rd party services go down; change protocol; anything…. If AOL wanted to, they could ban all Trillian users. The pro users would be out $25.
News article about Yahoo Blocking Trilian
Oh yeah, new photo of the moment is up. Can you spell your Savior’s name right?