I didn’t buy an iPhone. $499 seems like about $459 too much. You can get a cell phone for free. You can get a DVD player for $20 (unlimited storage vs iPhone’s 4GB). But, putting them in one package should get a premium price, so we’ll double it and sell it for $40, right?
Author: mike
Spam Brownback
I just got spam from Sam Brownback. Not only is this guy sending unsolicited email, but he sends me some drivel about wanting to overturn Roe vs Wade. Dude- we’re in a war, with millions of people that are alive being killed, losing their homes, or losing family members every day. And you want to write about Roe vs Wade? Get some priorities!
Most Popular Browser from Slashdot?
I was surprised to see that 53.73% of the visitors to belshe.com this month were using Firefox. So, I decided to do a comparison between May traffic and June traffic. The only significant difference is that in June I got slashdotted, and in May I did not. Here are the % of visitors to belshe.com during these months using each browser (as measured by Google analytics).
Wow – IE has completely lost the techie crowd.
| May | June | |
| Firefox | 33.50% | 53.73% |
| Internet Explorer | 62.11% | 36.45% |
/. slashdotted
Earlier this month, belshe.com was referenced in an obscure portion of slashdot for the first time. Belshe.com traffic went up by a factor of 10 on that day (June 4). Fortunately for me and the other staff here at belshe.com, we’d prepared in advance for the massive spike in traffic, and no downtime occurred.
Seriously, though, it was nice to see someone found my graphs useful. It took a fair bit of time to make them!
Vista Is a Noble Step for Microsoft
I bought a new Dell laptop with Vista installed recently. At first, I really liked Vista. The graphics look wonderful, and the basic install runs pretty well. I’ve been looking forward to running it for some time. But, after having used it for a little while now, I’m not sure what to do. The problem is that I’m basically faced with the choice to either shell out $200 for another GB of RAM, or to uninstall Vista and go back to XP.
With only 1GB of RAM, the laptop is not usable for much other than web-based applications. Installing Microsoft Visual Studio (which runs fine on XP with 1GB of RAM) was a pretty bad experience. First, VS2005 as shipped isn’t compatible with Vista, so you have to download Service Pack 1. That’s understandable, as not all software can simultaneously be ready for Vista. Unfortunately, the ‘patch’ is a 420MB download! It’s so big that IE can’t even download it. I tried twice with Internet Explorer 7, and both times, it just stopped downloading at about 75% done. That caused me to install Firefox, which downloaded it successfully on the first try. Finally able to install, I waited for 2 hours for the installation to finish. Yes – 2 hours. Available RAM dropped to zero, and it just swapped its way through the whole install. Why installing a product requires 1GB of RAM is a mystery.
Further, the security enhancements in Microsoft are a real warning to users to not install software. Installing any software has challenges of guessing whether you need to “Run As Administrator”, and you can certainly expect at least a few “Cancel or Allow?” dialogs. Overall, the operating system clearly tells the user “do not install desktop applications on this machine”.
In the end, a 1GB Vista laptop is best for using the web. You won’t want to run Word on it, much less Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, Outlook, Quicken, etc, because they are quite slow due Vista’s memory management. Since those don’t run well, you might want to try the apps that do run well… Oddly enough, those are the web-based apps which Google does reasonably well with. Thus, Vista is a gift from Microsoft to Google.
It’s good to know that Microsoft is looking out for it’s end users. Having realized that desktop applications are difficult to install, require significantly more hardware resources, are difficult to administer, and are a frequent cause of malware and viruses, Microsoft has concluded that Google applications are better suited for its users than Microsoft Office is. This is a indeed a very noble step for Microsoft. I don’t know of any other company that would voluntarily sacrifice 1/3 of its revenues for its users than Microsoft.
Bought a Dell
I just bought my first Dell laptop. I’m happy with most all of it. The hardware is great.
The only “fine print” to watch out for is the list of stuff you’ll have to uninstall. It might be quicker to just re-image the box. The uninstall list:
- AOL
- Earthlink
- Banctec Service Agreement
- Google Desktop
- McAfee Security Center
- Internet Service Offers Launcher
- Yahoo Music Jukebox
- Roxio
- Cyberlink OutlookAddinSetup
- NetWaiting
- NetZeroInstallers
- QuickSet
- Corel Paint Shop Pro
- Corel Snapfire Plus
- Microsoft Works
- Dell Games
There are more things on there too…. If you’ve got vista, it’s nice though, because for each uninstall you click “Yes”, but then, in order to be secure, it also asks you “Cancel or Allow”? I feel safer.
Let Are Kids Walk
This girl has no idea how much she’s hurting her cause. No you can’t walk! Get off the street and go back to skool!
McJob
I thought this was really funnyDemocrats – the Worst of All Worlds
Last November, for the first time ever, I voted for all Democrats. I’ve usually voted almost all Republican. However, on this ballot, I felt that whatever tax increases the Democrats might pass would be better than the war in Iraq. So I voted for them, in hopes that they would stand up to President Bush’s crazy plan.
Now, however, I realize I was completely wrong. Not only are the allowing Bush to continue the war, but they’re throwing in an extra $20B in farm aid, social programs, and Federal hurricane relief!
This is the worst of all worlds! Because I didn’t vote Republican, we’ve got both a stubborn, silly war and increased taxes for ridiculous social programs. I should have voted Republican. I don’t agree with Bush, but at least he does what he says he will. The democrats say that they’ll stand up to Bush and then they fall over like a bunch of dominoes.
I’m such an idiot.
Home Depot – Then vs Now
About 12 years ago, I bought my first house. It was a fixer-upper of sorts, and I did all the fixing myself from paint to hardwood floors to new doors and adding a closet or two. Nothing terribly major. To do the work, I was at Home Depot a lot. And I do mean ‘a lot’ – as I was on a first-name basis with several of the employees there 🙂 It was a great store, and I liked it a lot.
With my recent home purchase, I’m back at Home Depot a lot. About 3-4 times a week. It’s still a good store. It’s bigger. It’s got more choices. But, I find I don’t like it as much. There are three things that aren’t as good as they used to be at the big HD.
Self Checkout
Am I the only one that loathes self-checkout? At Home Depot, they basically don’t have anything else anymore. They have one line for the folks getting lumber (which is usually very long), and they have 4 self-checkout counters. These things are slow and I hate them. As you wait in line you can see the confusion and frustration that others have too. Is this really a good way to go?
Long Lines
You’d think with all the checkout people freed up due to self-checkout, there would be more help available in the store. But there isn’t. It’s still hard to find anyone to help, and when you do, there is usually a line. I was excited the other day when an employee actually approached me! My excitement faded quickly when I learned she only wanted to offer me a 10% discount if I signed up for a Home Depot credit card.
Too Big
I actually do find the store to be too big now. It seems the stuff I want is always at one side of the store, the checkout is at the other, and my car is parked back at the original side. The store is larger than a football field; it’s just massive. If they didn’t have such good product choice, I’d probably complain about that – but instead I’m complaining about this. Can’t win!
I’ve recently learned about Lowe’s – and I’m planning to try it (I know, I’m behind the times, it seems). It’s farther from my house, but looks promising.