Explorer beta
Got around to installing the latest IE beta. Not a bad browser, once that damned anti-aliasing is turned off. Still, it’s only catching up with Firefox, and not the leaps and bounds ahead such an update should be. I’ll stay with FF.
Panda Antivirus Beta
Panda Software is running a public beta/promotion program for the upcoming version of their antivirus products, and once again offering a prize draw for everyone who submits any incidents.
I tested the 2006 version, but decided to try a few other solutions before buying, but I am pretty sure I will switch to Panda after this test. I just ran the first full system scan, and it chewed through four volumes containing about 220GB/450 000 files in 30 minutes, without any notable impact on system performance. Using earlier version I have been able to work in Photoshop and play games during scans, and that is not the case with many other AV solutions. Easy to use as well, without being bloated like Norton and similar. Worth checking out.
Updating software
Update update: Update went well, and updated update notice moved to asides… Everything should be back to normal now.
Crash nostalgia
I got this error message twice today (click for un-cropped version, it didn’t resize well). Must have been about 13 years since the last time I saw that as an actual error message (in a non-crash context I’ve seen it when playing around with Linux and there was an error-message screensaver that came with KDE).
Any, seeing the good, ol’ Amiga guru meditating on my WinXP machine was one of those fascinating “wtf…?” experiences. My first thought was “virus!”, but the nostalgia made me less worried than I normally would be about a weird error message. Like that little familiar flavour would make it alright if my PC suddenly started smoking…
Anyway, after a bit of googling it seems to be some Winamp coder who decided to go old-fashioned on the error reporting. Software errors aren’t actually fun, but I guess that when they bring a smile like that… :)
Kudos
Made a credits page listing all the good stuff that runs this blog. Good as a resource for those curious about any such matters as well.
Holy frack, it’s fast…
Just wanted to mention that I’ve just installed Bon Echo Alpha 2 (which is the code name given to what will become Firefox 2), and I can report that it feels damned fast. In fact, I must say that it’s the first time I’ve noticed a significant increase in such things as rendering speed and tab switching when changing from one browser to another. A very enjoyable feeling, maybe not completely unlike that of getting off a long bus ride and getting into a car. I can even live with the fact that most of my extensions aren’t updated yet.
If it helps me increase the frequency with which this blog is updated is another matter, though…
Update: I just had my first crash, and got acquainted with the “session restore” feature. Nice one. Remembered all the pages I had loaded in my tabs. And when I opened the Windows task manager to kill it a few more times I noticed that memory use looked much lower that the last version. And another feature worth mentioning is the context menu option that sends highlighted text to the search engine currently selected in the search box. Probably something that’s been availible as an extension for ages, but I’ve never thought of how useful it could be.
Update 2 (May 27th): Bon Echo Alpha 3 released. A few months, betas and RCs left to the final release of Firefox 2 in August, but it’s really shaping up now, feature wise. I must also add that I really like the name Bon Echo for a browser. Too bad it can’t be more than a project code-name.
Evicted by Microsoft
I almost thought I was getting kicked out from my PC earlier. When I booted it I got a message along the lines that “the hardware configuration has been considerably altered since Windows was verified on this computer”. That’s kind of interesting. Yes, I have changed hardware in the computer, but that was only adding a hard disk and a DVD-burner. And I reinstalled Windows two months ago, and then the verification went just fine, and I havn’t changed anything since then.
So, I start the activation thing, only to find out that there’s no activations left for my product key.
Next step, phonecall to Microsoft, where a machine asked me to enter the installation ID. Of course I got one digit wrong. What are the chances of that? I mean, it’s only a tiny 42 digit affair… I really must be retarded to get that wrong.
Well, at that point I’m glad that I’m being transferred to real living person. But of course I forgot one thing… being put on hold. So I had to spend 15 minutes listening to crappy pop music, Ricky Martin or something and other similar somethings. I wonder what was up with all the static and noises, by the way – it sounded like they got the music from an untuned radio in an auto-workshop. Has some bright record industry type come up with the suspicion that people would call support centers only to make bootleg music recordings?
When I finally get connected I get to talk to a Norwegian person. Well, I’m Swedish and our languages are similar – actually, I even think it’s quite attractive when spoken by women – but after being faced with the threat of being thrown out of my own computer, there’s enough differences to make it something you don’t need to end up with at the end of the telephone maze. Thankfully, that was the end of the problems.
But I think the main problem is that there was a problem. It feels so wrong having to to through all that to use a software license I own. If I had used a pirate version it would probably never have happened. But here I am, being punished by annoying verification systems for having bought the product.
Things you can’t do without?
This is one of my favorite pieces of software, it was only a short while since I discovered it, but it’s one of those interface additions that I got used to immediately:
FoxyTunes for Firefox is just one of those indespensable things you can’t do without once you’ve started using them. When looking for skins for a mediaplayer I’ve always wanted them to be compact and functional, but now I don’t think there’s any better way to save desktop space than having the controls right there on the browser.
Something you maybe can do without is Belgian artist Wim Delvoye’s Cloaca machines (I suggest to unblock the pop-up on the first page).
What Cloaca does is to artificially digest food and produce the closest possible analogue to human feces. I didn’t learn about this work of art until recently, and I’m not going to present any sort of thorough analysis of it here (analysises by people much better at such things than I am can be found in the essays section of the Cloaca site). I just wanted to mention it because I find the whole concept intriguing. I mean, what else can you think about a big, expensive machine whose only purpose is to produce shit? Maybe the only useful aspect of it is to be a an example of near-complete uselessness.
