Next Archive - July 2004

Canada Trip Photos

Okay, it didn't say that. But why not? Don't know why I like this one, but I do. Why are these in a mall? Shouldn't they be in someone's front yard? Is it art or nart? What about this? Is it art? Insert funny captions here.

Pictures taken with a Canon Elph S230


Blog Tag: Images   Blog Tag: Canada

No! Flash

I get so tired of bothersome ads that flash and Flash and float. I downloaded and installed No! Flash to let me block or allow Flash anims, and I added a few redirects to my Windows hosts file:

127.0.0.1 global.msads.net
127.0.0.1 m3.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 spe.atdmt.com
127.0.0.1 ads.friendfinder.com
127.0.0.1 http300.content.ru4.com

Much better now!


Blog Tag: Links   Blog Tag: Reviews

Listology and ymdb

I just joined Listology where you can save lists of your favorite books, movies, etc. You can see my lists at Dave's Lists. I'm also on ymdb, Your Movie Database at Dave's YMDB List.


Blog Tag: Links 

Nonsensicon and E-Words

Just came across two cool sites, the Nonsensicon, a dictionary of nonexistant words and their definitions, plus a list of words heard in high-tech workplaces: E-Words. In such company, one can't omit The Word Detective of course.

Blog Tag: Links

Funny Star Wars music video

Go to Index of videos and click the Ice_Man link for a funny Star Wars music video.


Blog Tag: Amusements   Blog Tag: Links

Audio Post

(53k MP3 file)


Blog Tag: Chatter

Latest Software Installed

I love free software. Can there be anything better?

Recently I installed a basic email monitor that sits in the system tray and monitors multiple servers, notifying you when there is new mail, and allowing you to view the header, delete the email, or retrieve the email and read it. And it's free. Check out Magic Mail Monitor.

The Canon Elph S230 is a great little digital camera, which I keep with me at all times. What good is a gadget if you don't have it with you? And it's so liberating to be able to snap any shot that takes your fancy without worrying that you might be wasting film and development. When I want prints I just print them myself on my photo printer. The best part is that digital photos are so easy to share. Rather than fuss with emailing pics to friends and relatives, which is made problematic by the size of high-res images, I post them on a web server, and create photo albums with ImageWalker, which is uncrippled shareware.

A great companion application is cam2pc, an uncrippled shareware product that can download the images from your camera automatically when you connect it, optionally renaming images and optionally storing them in different folders based on the date you took them.

When you have a web site with a lot of pages, it can be painful to make changes that apply to every page. A great tool for doing search-and-replace across multiple files is InfoRapid Search & Replace, a fine piece of freeware.

ZoneAlarm Pro was the firewall I was using on one of my systems, but then they upgraded to 5.0 and it started blocking the server software I was running. Turns out they hadn't adequately tested it, and when people complained they made you email them for a private reply to get instructions on how to work around the problem or revert to an older version. Not very user-friendly. I'm now using Sygate Personal Firewall and so far it's been reliable and easy to use, and it's free for personal use.


Blog Tag: Reviews

Canada: First Impression

Feels like home. The streets, signs, stores, all seem like California. They've got Taco Bell and IKEA, TraveLodge and Tony Roma's. Differences: You can still smoke in bars. The money is funny. Thing is, they'll take US dollars, even though we don't take Canadian dollars. I went outside for a night stroll, ten o'clock at night, and it was still light outside.

I took a cab to the hotel, and when I looked at the speedometer he was doing 115! KPH, that is. You gotta keep remembering that they use metric.

More to come...


Blog Tag: Chatter

Previous Archive - May 2004

Cherry Pie

Some years our cherry tree hardly bears any fruit at all. This year, however, every branch is loaded from tip to trunk, and the birds are having a field day. My wife filled a basket and made a killer cherry pie. Now I'm waiting for the grapes to ripen. They're still the size of small peas. My wife kept the two cherries shown here on the stem because she said they were cute.

Today we mourned for my mother's brother David, my namesake, who died on the U.S.S. Indianapolis after it was sunk by a Japanese submarine subsequent to it's delivering the atom bomb to Tinian Island. We also remembered my wife's great-uncle, John R. King, who died on the beach of Normandy, and for those countless many who perished in pursuit of their duty, that we may prosper.


Blog Tag: Chatter Blog Tag: Images