Well, I'm back in Broadband land (Brazil) and out of the Indonesian jungles. I just completed my Windows Update that I started some weeks ago in Sumatera.
I did it through Firefox and not Internet Explorer using IE Tab which is, I think, just so cool!!!
Here's a screen shot!!
No, I'm not talking about the Olympics. I'm talking about GOLD, the real meaning of the word.
I was cleaning up my e-mails and found a mail from back in September of 2003 from my mate Pete. He had been out "west" earlier that year on a quest.
And this was his most significant "one hit" find.
So, a bit closer and it looks like this
220 grams or about Euro 2,500. A nice find to say the least!!!
Edit:
Woops that's not €2,500 but €3,337 based on yesterdays prices (or for our part of the world AUD 5,352).
I was doing a bit of archive housekeeping on my PC today and found an article that I saved back in 2003.
Have a go at this:
Rumsfeld Ramble Wins 'Foot in Mouth' Award
Mon December 1, 2003 09:09 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's curious statement at a press briefing was named on Monday as the year's most baffling comment by a public figure.
Rumsfeld, usually renowned for his uncompromising tough talking, was awarded the "Foot in Mouth" award for a confusing message which probably left his audience in the dark as to its meaning, Britain's Plain English Campaign said.
"Reports that say something hasn't happened are interesting to me, because as we know, there are known unknowns; there things we know we know," Rumsfeld told the briefing.
"We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."
John Lister, spokesman for the campaign which strives to have public information delivered in clear, straightforward English, said: "We think we know what he means. But we don't know if we really know."
Rumsfeld, whose boss President Bush is often singled out by language critics for his sometimes unusual use of English, took the booby prize ahead of a bizarre effort from actor-turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman," was the odd statement from the new California Governor.
Previous holders of the award include U.S. actress Alicia Silverstone and British chancellor Gordon Brown. Last year's winner was actor Richard Gere.
If you've spent any time here at my blog you will already realize that I am not an Internet Explorer, or for that matter, a Micro$oft fan.
So far I have not used a better browser than Firefox by Mozilla and it just got heaps better (see the numerous links elsewhere in this blog).
IE Tab
This is a small extension that you can add to Firefox so that you can open a "non-compatible" Firefox site inside Firefox but using the Internet Explorer rendering "engine".
I just did a Windows Update from within Firefox.
Never again do you need to open Internet Explorer as a window.......... no matter what!!
Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was a bit hung over today after watching firstly the Wallabies get totally outplayed by England and then the All Blacks trounce the Irish. Stupid me I thought I'd try the local Indonesian Vodka, Manison.
Well going down was OK but the head later was not good.
So! I've laid up in the Hotel room all day and ordered a Hamburger with Cheese and Fries. I've had it before and it'd been quite a nice, hearty meal.
This is what turned up.
A Micro Burger!!!
Click on the photos for a larger view of a very small burger.
By the way, no cheese.............. I'm also holding that burger with the bread running left-right so it is appearing much larger than it really is.
We stumbled across something during my latest "experience" that I thought was worth sharing.
Where I come from the meaning of the word switchroom is the room where inside all switchgear is installed.
Here in Indonesia we have found a new meaning of this word. It can also mean where switchgear is installed outside the room.
Maybe it was the On/Off switch for the plant or something, we haven't worked that out yet!!!!
And..............here it is:
I've been watching ESPN, Houston and Chicago, and I don't get it!
How is "World Series" defined?
Is the whole world of baseball defined as The United States of America or am I missing something?
I thought the Japanese and Cubans were pertty good.
Can someone me help here?
And how about the Chicago "White Sox". Does "sox" translate into "socks". If so then why do they play in "Black Sox"?
Looks like beards and spitting are "In" too.
Sorry; no posts lately. I've been busy doing two things: one - moving house and two - working.
We have just moved from a rather large 450 square metre house into an appartment around 280, still quite big. And, I surprising must say, I prefer the appartment. And the Wife is happy!!!! We are on the 8th floor of a high rise and have 360 degree panoramic views of downtown Ponta Grossa. I'll try and post some photos later.
So, regards working, I am currently sitting in a hotel on a hot, wet Sunday afternoon in southern Sumatera (Indonesia) and that means I've got a bit of time to kill. I've been here a bit over 2 weeks and have anything from one more week to months to go. That will depend on the ideas of my client and how serious he is on re-starting this factory that has been shut down since 2003. My guess is that I'll be here for another week and then come back for a couple of months next year when they are ready to seriously start this place up.
There's been a few interesting things in my areas of interest going on over the last few weeks so lets have a look (and in no particular order):
Firefox
For anyone that has been reading my blog you will already know that I am a Firefox fan. Congratulations to Mozilla and all of the community on 100,000,000 downloads in less than 12 months; an absolutely fantastic effort. Yes, that's 100 million downloads!!!!!! This blog has >57% Firefox (FF) users with Internet Explorer (IE) just over 40% and I assume that the FF % will continue to grow. I will write about this a bit more in a future post.
Cricket
The ICC series of the current no.1 cricket nation against the "best of the rest" disappointedly turned out to be a farce. Australia won the One Dayers 3-0 and the 6 day test in less than 4. To no surprise the ICC have immediately abandoned any idea of a future similar series. But, in retrospect, it is very easy to see why it failed. You can't just put a "team of greats" together to play a "great team". I think that any of the top 4 teams in their home country would have achieved a similar result.
Tri Nations Rugby League
The teams are Australia, New Zealand and England. The Aussies and Kiwis have played twice, once in Sydney where the Kiwis won for the first time since 1959 (in Sydney) and once in Auckland where Australia won. 2 great games of rugby league and full credit to the Kiwis who really were the underdogs. Now they are both off to England where the Kiwis have a tough ask and back up after a loss to play England the following weekend. Wait and see!!!
Bird Flu
Will it mutate to jump from species to species? My guess is no but it is certainly going to wipe out millions, probably billions, of birds either by natural causes or extermination. What will that do to the fragile balances of some ecologies? It will also kill anything thing or one that consumes an affected bird that has not been cooked sufficiently to kill the virus.
The South Asian Earthquake
Terrible, horrible, catastrophic. I think that countries that can afford to give aid should be doing it with action rather than money. The money will, as usual, be consumed by corruption with only a small percentage of the value actually reaching the true victims.
Democracy
I think that democracy is the way to go BUT the country must be ready to receive it and it can't be forced. Education is the key. If the general population is not educated to a sufficient level then forget it until it is. This responsibility lies with the governing bodies to create an educational infrastructure that educates both sexes equally and adequately with a program that is politically and socially unbiased. Religion should also play a minor role.
As a matter of interest I am using Micro$oft FrontPage as my HTML editor and so far it looks like a good offline alternative to preparing a blog. Let's see.
There's more but enough for now; it's beer o'clock.
Albyxx
Edit: Well, FrontPage was horrible. I'll stick with notepad.
I've been using gmail now for over 9 months and I reckon it is great for a few reasons:
1. Huge storage. 2.6GB and counting. It looks like Gmails (Googles) aim on storage is to add a GB per year; the first year they had 1GB then to celebrate their 1st birthday it was increased to 2GB's and since then it is counting up every day and will reach 3GB's by its 2nd birthday and I guess it won't stop there.
2. It's Free!!!! Need I say any more to this point? I guess not...
3. It is not linked to your ISP. What happens when you change your ISP when you can get a better deal at another? Well, the first thing that happens is that you lose your e-mail address provided by your old ISP. Then you need to tell everyone your new address, etc.....
4. Web based but Pop accessable. You can get your mail with all the popular e-mail clients such as Outlook Express and Thunderbird AND leave a copy archived on the Gmail servers. When you travel you can just log on anywhere and, "wola", there's all your mail. Furthermore, if you have a PC crash or the such and happen to loose all your mail then when you are set up again just download the lot that is archived on the Gmail servers; that's cool!!
5. No spam!!!!!!!!!! So far the only spam I've received is the spam that I have been resopnsible for. By that I mean sites that I left my address.
6. I could go on but you get the idea!!
But it is different in that it does not use folders as per other web based services. You do need to do a bit of "labelling" and house keeping though, directly on the web based application or it will get out of hand. 5 minutes a week is more than enough for a 20-30 emails per day user. I use 4 accounts for various reasons and it is a breeze once you work it out.
So, if anyone wants an invite then find my email address on this blog and send me a mail. In return I'll send an invite.
Tchau for now..............
P.S. Don't take my word for it, go and check it out for yourself.........
Well; looks like the penny has finally dropped!!
I can only guess that Opera have realised that to grab market share they need to be "Ad" free as well as free of charge.
Here it is; Opera 8.5; free of a banner advertisement. It's certainly worth a test drive.
It is only logical that those that are aware there are alternatives to Internet Explorer are not interested in paying USD40 to remove a banner ad when there are free alternatives like Firefox with nothing.
Anyway, I've played with Opera since the 8.0 launch and it is a good, fast browser with a built-in e-mail client and RSS reader. The main reason that I have only played with it on and off is because the banner bugs me.
I'll continue to play with Opera but I still like the browsing control that the Firefox extensions give me.
Bottom line is that Opera will now certainly increase their market share at the main expense of Firefox and somewhat of IE.
But!!!!
How will they pay the bills?
