Websurfing
Delicious Bookmarks now available for Internet Explorer
If you are still using Internet Explorer rather than Firefox, it would have been difficult to take advantage of my recommendation in October 2006 to start using a web-based bookmarking system. At the time, I recommended using Delicious (see my own public bookmarks here).
Of course, Delicious has had a plugin available for Firefox users for a few years which makes bookmarking websites from within your browser as natural and easy as bookmarking the old way. But better. A lot better.
Del.Icio.Us Finally Snagged Me
A few years ago, I heard about the rage of saving your favorites online (or “bookmarks” as Netscape and Firefox calls them). The advantage was that you would have all your bookmarks in one simple place. For those of us who use multiple computers (home, work, laptop, friends, etc), this was certainly an attraction. I couldn’t recall the number of times I would have to “re-Google” something because I was at the wrong computer. I don’t mind re-googling when it is something easy. For instance, I already know that Dreamweaver’s extension list is at adobe.com and I can just click a few times to get to it. But there is really a better site called…. something about a zone…. dreamweaverzone.com? No, that’s not it… dmzone.com?… no…. ahh, yes.. . Having your bookmarks with you can really save time.
Yet Another Excuse NOT to Get Married
I was recently informed about a new website called Dodgeball that, unbelievably to me, has been purchased by Google. Now, in theory, anything that Google does is typically genius or at least smart. This, however, was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. Which means, of course, that it necessarily involves cell phones. Almost every “cool” website that uses any kind of interfacing with cell phones, is typically, about as uncool and geeky as I can imagine.
The Switch to Firefox and Thunderbird
Well, after a long day’s work, I took an extra hour to make the switch to Firefox and Thunderbird. It is part of my long-term goal to ween myself off of Microsoft’s products. I’m pretty much an Excel expert so I don’t know how I’ll last in the long run. I’ve been using Firefox for a long while now, but I made it my default browser and imported all my settings and my favorites. Very easy.
The $39 Experiment
Under the “Why didn’t I think of this?” category, I found about this guy, Tom Locke, who decided to use a roll of stamps and mail letters to 100 different companies asking them for free stuff. He has received all sorts of things back, but what I find typical of mis-managed companies is what some of the companies wrote back in their rejection of his request. Amazing. Tom includes all the text of his letters, each individually tailored to each company he wrote to. My favorite letters of Tom’s are the ones he wrote to Energizer (hysterical), Subway, and Industrial Tool & Die. While some cool companies sent him a few coupons or a free product sample, a special few sent him some big time stuff. Fellowes sent him 4 cans of compressed air! What? I pay through the nose for that stuff. It’s like crack to a techie.
Switching between Tabs in Internet Explorer 7
One of my early frustrations with IE7 is that there is no easy way to switch, as in toggle, between tabs. You can use Ctrl-Tab or Shift-Control-Tab to run up and down the available tabs. However, you must remember which way you are going as this is not a straight forward toggle. Second, unless the two tabs you need to switch back and forth from are immediately adjacent to each other, this is rather cumbersome.
Internet Explorer, Beta 2, part II
Have had a few other thoughts…
- IE now allows multiple home pages. I don’t know if there is a limit on this, but there is a little drop down near the cute little house. Sort of like the “links” toolbar which is what I previously used to access frequent pages quickly. The links toolbar is still there, so I don’t think anyone can complain that there isn’t enough ways to access a page.
Internet Explorer 7, Beta 2
Downloaded the new IE7 available to the general public. My thoughts:
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Tabbed Browsing: Microsoft did a great job. The big news is that they finally have implemented tabbed browsing. I’ve used other IE alternatives over the years with this feature (MyIE2, NetCaptor, and of course Firefox as my alternate browser now) and it has been very useful.
Al Qaeda puts job ads on Internet
Are we so dumb we can’t nail these Al-Qaeda guys on the internet yet? We have people in South Korea being hospitalized from playing video games for days on end - and even dying - (and the US is likely to follow - just look at the massive hype over the new Xbox 360 or PSP3). Our children are busy failing math at an alarming rate. We have IT guys busy creating server farms for Microsoft, security guys busy keeping PayPal and eBay secure from hackers, and national law enforcement busy trying to restructure itself and get away from their infamous “jack-booted thug” image they worked so hard to earn with such lovely showdowns as Ruby Ridge, David Koresh, and Elian Gonzalez.
