Domestic Geek

I went ahead and installed Firefox 2.0 today. I wasn't even aware that it was available yet. Marcus mentioned it last night, so I checked it out. I haven't noticed a problem so far. There is a build-in form spell checker that will hopefully help me catch some of the errors in typing that I've been having lately. There were only two extensions I have installed that weren't compatible and one of those is now a built-in feature. The other just allows you to manage stuff in the search bar, so hopefully it will get updated soon. If not, I don't use it much, so no real loss. The only thing I was really worried about was that Sage extension that I installed yesterday. I spent a lot of time putting links into that thing. Works great still!

I'm going to go lay down for a bit. I have a huge headache and horrible cramps.

I started checking out using RSS readers right around the Blogathon. I didn't really have time to implement one beforehand, though. I know it would've made keeping up with the various sites a lot easier.

I pretty much forgot about it until this whole PPP Puzzle hooplah. During the first contest, it was mentioned in the forums that PPP has an rss feed for the opps. I started using that to check for new pieces. I started playing with Google's beta rss reader, but sometimes it freezes up the my browser window. It's also hard to add feeds (you have to type them in individually since you can't drag/drop or import an opml). I found somebody that recommended Netvibes and I tried that, too. Wasn't totally impressed with that one, either. I found a Firefox extention called Sage that runs an RSS reader in your sidebar. I've been playing with it for a couple of hours and I really like it so far. They have a lot of stylesheets on their site that you can change the look of the feed preview with. Since it runs in the browser, I can click the rss icon in the address bar and add it right to the correct rss folder. It's pretty nifty. I'll have to figure out how to export my list to be able to use it on the many computers I use.

Man, I love using Firefox.

If anybody from Blogger reads this (yeah, right) or you use Blogger: LISTEN UP!

I absolutely HATE commenting on Blogger blogs. Some of them have separate "view comment" links from "make comment" links. Dang it! When I have something to add, I don't want to figure out which I have to hit to actually start my comment. What's wrong with putting the comment entry fields right after the previous comments like normal people do? Also, have the comments open in a new window or have the entry, comments and comment field all in one like I do. I sometimes want to refer back to the original post (especially on Thursday Thirteen) and if I forget to open it in a new tab myself, I'm screwed.

If you do follow the maze and get your point out, then I always have to put in my blog info. Unless I want to use my blogger ID (which I don't), there is no mechanism to save the "other" info. I found this especially annoying during the Blogathon. There was so much I wanted to comment on, but refused to go through the whole proceedure each time.

If I have persevere long enough to get to this point and actually post the comment, I can't get back to original post easily. You have to hit the back button a couple of times and each time you get that annoying "Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?" message. Yes, I am sure, dammit! Just let me go away if I want. I've already posted my comment. Geez.

Of course, some of these gripes apply to other blog platforms, as well. Livejournal comes immediately to mind. Fortunately, I don't run across many LJ sites in my daily surfing. It seems like 2/3 of all the sites I go to are Blogger.

People complain that nobody ever comments on their blogs. Maybe it's time you take a look at the process your readers have to go through to leave one.

OK, everybody. It's not done, but it's close. I am really out of practice with this web coding stuff. I haven't done any serious coding in almost two years. Use it or lose it—I guess I've lost it. I've got some things I need to mess with with the sidebar and other templates, but it's pretty close. I've actually GOT AN INTERVIEW today at 11 am, so I'll work on tweaking this thing after that. I was going to stay offline until it was finished, but I totally forgot about the paid blogging posts still needing to be approved. Please don't alert me to problems just yet...I know there are many. Thanks for your patience.

I know there are a lot of people out there who hate Google (the company). They hate how they sold out to China. They think they're too big. They have too much control or power. They hate how they run their search engine. They bitch about the adsense program. The list is huge. The fact is, if you don't like it, don't use it. There are still other options.

I use google products because they work. I've always used their search engine and have customized my search page with news, comics, calendars, etc. I love gmail. I have three accounts for different purposes: one for personal stuff, one for blog stuff and one for ebay and paypal stuff. I get all of those messages through my Thunderbird client on my home machine, but Google doesn't get grumpy with me if I don't physically log in every 30 days like my Lycos account does. I've started using their feed reader and their calendar service. I absolutely love the Google maps service.