6 posts tagged “rants”

So, for the past few months, I've been experimenting with a couple of different flavors of portable browser.  Basically, I want to be able to access my bookmarks, e-mail, history, passwords, etc., with my browser both at home and at work, so I have a couple of portable browsers installed on my iPod.  Set the iPod to disk mode, and have a cable with you, and I can listen to my music via iTunes (manually manage the music) and browse on my portable browser all at the same time. 

So, I've been using Portable Firefox (available at portableapps), and OperaUSB (available at Opera-USB). 

Firefox has typically been my browser of choice.  Extensions allow me to seamlessly integrate with del.icio.us, blog to my typepad and blogger blogs from a pop-up window, get weather forecasts at a glance, and all kinds of other things.  It's responsive, clean, and quick. 

But... I don't like any of the integrated RSS feed reader options.  And it doesn't have an integrated e-mail client.  Also, lately when I've been using it at work, I keep having errors with my extensions, so they don't come up.  As a result, PortableFirefox loses a lot of its functionality at inopportune times and for somewhat inexplicable reasons.

Opera is a great browser - it's free now, and it has an integrated RSS feed reader and e-mail app.  I can check all of my e-mail accounts (currently I've got... what... four, not including my work e-mail?)  It's got a nice, clean interface, and the speed dial function is cool.  Lots of keyboard shortcuts, and what seems like a lot of great functionality once you get into it a bit.

But... it doesn't have the integration with extensions that Firefox does.  Instead, Opera uses "widgets", little stand-alone applications that aren't integrated into the browser window.  Also, for some odd reason, Opera has a hard time dealing with wrapping text in the window I'm typing this entry into.  I don't know why it does, but that's probably the main reason I dropped Opera in the first place. 

Now, if I could get clean RSS/E-mail integrated into Firefox, or if I could get Opera to work right with my blogs, I'd probably feel good about cutting the other one loose.  Until then, I'm a man without a browser.  Or maybe I've got dual browser citizenship.  Double agent? Meh.

If you know why Opera doesn't play well with text-entering, let me know!  

is simply that it's too darn popular.  It's slow to load, slow to update, and the IM is always on the fritz.  It's frustrating, not to put too fine a point on it. 
It's a lot of fun to see what my fellow podcasters are up to, and to occasionally throw up a note that I'm headed to Guild Wars (something that's been increasingly rare).  And I'm looking forward to twittering my catches in Pokemon (April 22nd, but it's a Sunday, so I probably won't get it until the 23rd early).  But in the meantime, I'm wondering if there's maybe another way to do the same thing, that's a little more... stable?t

As I used to say on my other blog, Fridays are for fun.

Now, over there I used to do a weekly anime prmer.  Basically, it was a short weekly article that talked about some of the classic series of anime.  You know... Gundam, Dragonball, Eva, Fist of the North Star, etc.  It's been a while since I've done that, mostly because I'm just not watching as much anime as I used to.  Darn me for cancelling my Netflix subscription.  And I still haven't finished Astro Boy.  Although I did see the FullMetal Alchemist movie last week, and that was great!  Ending was a little depressing, but overall good, and there was something I saw that might allow them to continue with another movie.

So, who's seen some good anime recently?  I've read some of the Bleach manga, but haven't seen the anime yet.  That's one I'd like to see unedited.  I haven't watched Naruto for sooo long.  Mostly because a) I've seen the episodes they're airing on the Cartoon Network now thanks to the wonders of the fansub community, and b) the episodes airing recently in Japan have not brought the series forward to where the manga was.  And I haven't read the manga in a very long time either.  Dang.  It's difficult to watch the series when you know where everything is headed.  And it's difficult to watch the new episodes, when you really just want them to continue the story. 

Anyway, anyone watched some good anime recently?  How is Bleach?  Anyone seen Desert Punk?  Did Martian Daybreak turn out to be any good?  

Got up early today, after staying up too late last night.  Laid some sod.  Basically so I wouldn't have to do it later in the day, in the blazing sun, with others.  So instead, I went myself during the cool of the day today, and did it myself.  Many reasons for this.  Mostly, I just wanted it done.

But on to musing.  I upgraded my installation of Opera today, hoping it would play better with Vox (it doesn't, so I'm still using Firefox).  In the process I saw an old e-mail that said I had a comment on my blog (my other blog).  It basically said, "I'd listen to your podcast if I had an iPod". 

As a podcaster, and as someone who is very interested in next-gen media and content, and even as a future lawyer, this thought disturbs me.  Maybe it's because Mr. Laporte was talking about it in the latest TWiT.  But I was listening to podcasts way before I got an iPod.  Heck, I've been listening to Slice of SciFi since episode 1. 

The fact of the matter is, you don't have to have an iPod to listen to podcasts.  Podcasts, for the most part, are simply mp3 files.  And if you've got an mp3 player, you can listen to podcasts.  I was using a 256 meg iRiver ifp390T.  Heck, if you really wanted to, you could listen to podcasts on your computer.  You could burn them to cd.  And that's fine, because a lot if not most podcasts are released under a Creative Commons license that specifically makes copying legal.  What makes podcasts great is the automatic downloading that happens with RSS.  Apple didn't create podcasting, podcasting isn't just done via iTunes.  They streamlined the process, I'll grant you, but they didn't make it happen. 

Why am I on a tear about this?  I don't know.  I just think that people shouldn't think that they are tied in to one specific product.  The Microsoft Zune sounds cool, with updates via WiFi, and the ability to send things to your friends.  Granted, it would be a pain to burn all my iTunes music to CD and re-rip to mp3 or wma, but it's do-able.  Not that I'm in the market for a Zune.  I want to see what happens in the market over the next few months. 

I guess what I'm saying is, if anyone has questions about podcasting, or about how to get podcasts, feel free to ask.  Speaking of which, I have to record at least two shows this week, and it's already Wednesday.  I'd better get crackin'.

If we did suspend the writ of habeus corpus, of course, the people who would complain loudest would be the newspaper reporters.  And then they'd be sent to jail.  And then what would they do?  I mean, we suspended the writ of habeus corpus, right?

For some reason, that thought struck me as oddly funny this morning.

So, this morning, in the wake of a failed terrorist plot to blow up a number of aircraft, the local radio station is talking to people about root causes, solutions, what to do next, and some genius called in demanding to know if the hosts could name an episode in which Christians had done similar "terrorist" style activities.  And then he mentioned the Crusades.

And I immediately thought to myself, well, sure.  Who isn't still pissed off about the Crusades?  Oh, wait a minute, wasn't that about a THOUSAND YEARS AGO?!?  The Christians have MOVED ON.  GET OVER IT.  Incidentally, after having gotten over it, the Christians got their act together and their contributions to modern culture include things like the cotton gin, steam engine, internal combustion engine, powered flight, electricity, and the light bulb.

(Brief pause for munching of delicious breakfast taco... Mmmmm...)

(UPDATE: Are Christians responsible for the breakfast taco also?  Probably not, we probably stole that idea from the Aztecs, or the Mayans, or some other culture that, incidentally, probably would not be attempting to blow up planes full of innocent civilians.  I'm just sayin'....)

Having said that, there's idiocy on both sides of the conversation this morning.  Looking back over our history, there is, of course, a historical precedent for things like, say, suspending the writ of habeus corpus (Lincoln), and putting people in internment camps (FDR).  But I have to admit that it makes me nervous hearing so many people call in and talk about rounding up all the  Moslems.  Reminds me of other historical societies that have seperated out a group of their populace based on their religion.  Like, say Christians (Rome), or Jews (Germany).  Those cultures are no longer with us.  We pride ourselves  on our freedom of religion, expression, our free economy, etc.  And I think it's inherently dangerous to so blithely suggest that we give that up by prohibitng or restricting the movement and activities of people based solely on their religion.  People of my own faith have a little history with that kind of thinking, and the results are unpleasant, to say the least.