Google Chrome

•September 2, 2008 • 5 Comments

Google is coming out with a Web Browser called Chrome.

They’ve created a comic strip to explain it located here. It’s lengthy, but an interesting take on how to both move us away from the crushing weight of malware and how to make our browsing experience more useful and user-friendly.

If you don’t get the programming concepts, just move past them, but the concept they’re going for is that each domain (like www.livejournal.com), each individual tab, and each part of a web page (javascript, css, etc) have their own limited sphere of influence.

Anyway, other than the screenshots here, I haven’t seen the browser yet, but I’m really looking forward to giving it a try. If they use the same extensions as Firefox, I will be truly geeked.

It uses a new javascript engine as well, which means that (theoretically) all of the dynamic pages we know and love (like G-mail) will be scads faster, and won’t bring the whole browser down if they crash.

It’s supposed to come out today, so I’ll give it a shot when I can, and let you know how it works.


EDIT: In other google news, Picasa is getting a refresh that will include facial recognition technology – so when you tag people, it will start to recognize them and suggest their name to you the next time you upload pictures of them.

I hope that there will be other good news in this update. While I do enjoy using my Picasa, there are a number of things I’d like to see done better, so I’m crossing my fingers.


EDIT EDIT: Chrome is now available.

Protected: Sept 12-14 – Northville’s Victorian Festival

•September 1, 2008 • Enter your password to view comments.

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•August 29, 2008 • Enter your password to view comments.

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YouTube Comment Snob (firefox)

•August 29, 2008 • 1 Comment

Check it out:

“Here’s an idea whose time has come: YouTube Comment Snob is a Firefox plugin that nukes comments with too many spelling mistakes, weird capitalization or punctuation, and too much cussin’. It works pretty damned well, too. As XKCD has pointed out in the past, YouTube has the worst, just the worst comment-areas on the Internet.” – boingboing

YouTube Comment Snob

•August 29, 2008 • 18 Comments

What I want in a phone:

Rather than going to a web site like PhoneSpamFilter to look up a number that has called me, I’d like a phone that would let me install an app that would look at my received calls and tell me what those numbers are for. Even better, one that took the place of ACTUAL CALLER ID and gave me information on anyone not in my phone book AS THE CALL WAS COMING IN. Not that I’m angry or anything, but I see no valid reason why cellphones can’t have actual caller ID.

And I’d like a phone to give me the ability, by default, to have no ringer (or vibrate function) on calls I don’t recognize. I want the ability, especially when I’m otherwise busy, to have unidentified numbers go straight to voicemail.

Maybe it’s a result of buying less-than-smartphones, but for years I’ve felt like applications available on cellphones do ANYTHING but actually provide added value to the PHONE aspect. Thanks for the calendar and the calculator, but how about giving me some control over my phone’s behavior?

What say ye?

•August 28, 2008 • Comments Off on

I was talking to Jer earlier today about resurrecting the idea of building a lightbox for my Project: Tomorrow Men one-sheet.

See, it had a pretty important place in my life, particularly since the premiere itself, but I never got around to building a display for it. Partly, because I’m not really a woodworking guy, and partially because the movie was a sore spot for a number of reasons.

Today, though, I kind of like looking back on it as an ambitious first project. It’s 7 years under the bridge; I think any sore spots are well and truly healed. The movie poster itself is a bit amateurish to my standards today, but back then it was huge. One whole gigabyte for a single file! As everyone I’ve ever known knows, it took me 10 minutes just to save it every time I made a change.

Anyway, like having your first dollar under glass, I think I’d like to put it up where I can celebrate it and the intense learning experiences that came with the entire project and all the roles I filled, many for the first time.


It will be nice to leave work, oh, about now – coming in at 7 am for a meeting is killer, especially when doing it twice in one week, and doubly-especially when producing a video on the same day. Whoo. Naptime!

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•August 27, 2008 • Enter your password to view comments.

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Protected: Remember SkennCon 2008?

•August 26, 2008 • Enter your password to view comments.

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Ren Fest

•August 26, 2008 • 12 Comments

This Saturday, I and a big crew of folks are going to the Renaissance Festival in Holly. Lucy will be there, too! We’d be delighted if you chose Saturday to be there, too, ’cause nothing makes Fest more lively and fun than being with people you like. :)

I will be in casual (aka non-costume) attire, as mine is currently in need of repair.

(also, hi Cindy! We’ll stop by your booth, naturally)

OH! EDIT: Buy one get one free with 4 cans.

Bleary eyed kids / We won’t come in

•August 22, 2008 • Comments Off on Bleary eyed kids / We won’t come in

Nighting as the day ends
Take it slow as we can
You never know, it might be
The last sunset we’ll ever see