I won't mince words: I hate cell phones. I have never seen an object give people such an inflated idea of their own self worth. Like a magic ring of power it tends to corrupt even the purest of heart into Cellular-Nazgul:



Fortunately, they are not inherently evil, just rude. Perhaps it is just me and my low tolerance level, but I find that:
- trying ring tones in a public place
- talking on them in restaurants
- using them on during a concert/movie/performance
are some of the rudest forms of behavior still tolerated.

Owning a tool that allows you to be individually contacted must mean that your words are valuable. Insufficient self worth is a problem today. Many people suffer from feeling insignificant and worthless, and cell phones can make them feel wanted and useful. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but the typical outward manifestation is unwelcome.

Legislating cell phone behavior will never happen (and banning them in cars is certainly not working). The only thing that will make a difference is some kind of appeal to human decency, and that will only go so far.

What is the most important data on your computer? Is it your list of passwords, your financial information, family pictures, or what you labor to digitally produce?

This is essentially the digital equivalent of the perennial question: "What one item would you save if your house was on fire?" If your laptop is on fire, saving data would probably be the least of your worries, but the question does bear some contemplation, at least for the purposes of backing stuff up.

Drop your answer in the comments.

Microsoft is not an evil empire. (Insert collective gasp here.) Setting itself up to be the world's standard in software, in operating systems and office applications, was a combination of both luck and shrewdness. That feat may or may not have been possible in the face of the opposition that the company is currently facing; but for now, Microsoft is the incumbent in the mid-term software race.

Windows Vista, Office 12, and Internet Explorer 7 collectively represent a change in Microsoft's strategy. Furthermore, they reflect the fact that for the first time in the company's history there are truly viable alternatives to its products.

The amount of innovation in these products is enormous when compared with the difference in previous versions. The innovation is not skin deep either. Certainly the UI is the most visible change in each application, but that's the point of a UI. More and more features have been crammed into each new wave of the traditional Microsoft products. This is the direct result of the increasingly stiff competition they have faced in the last few years.

However, the strategy of simply encouraging or coercing users to upgrade to the latest and greatest application is simply not a viable long term plan, especially in the face of competition. The ever increasing rivalry of Open Source alternatives, such as OpenOffice and Firefox (see chart below), and other corporations like Apple, has cost Microsoft dearly.


(click to enlarge)

Until recently, Microsoft was able to simply produce the next logical version of an application via some strange bureaucratic mating ritual. However, their entire paradigm for the next generation of software changed when their products were truly challenged (at least in terms of features).

The radical changes in the most recent releases represent Microsoft awakening to the idea of user driven innovation. That is not to say that Microsoft has been asleep at the keyboard for years. Instead, with so many government institutions and businesses dependent on their software, most of the bugs need to be worked out ahead of time.

Users want to do things with software that the developers and designers cannot imagine (most often in the sense "uh, why would you want to?"). In response to this, the greatest strength of Firefox was conceived: extensions. When users can implement whatever features they want and share them with the world. However, lacking such a system, IE7 replicates many of the same base features as Firefox.

According to Bit-Tech "there's really nothing that Firefox does that Internet Explorer doesn't, in terms of functionality." This latest version of IE was simply a matter of playing catch-up with Firefox. The same could be said of Vista and OSX (as covered by Lifehacker and David Pogue at NYT )

Microsoft may or may not be out of ideas of its own. That is not the issue. It is the simple fact that the nerds of Redmond, Washington need to embrace the features of their competitors simply to continue being competitive. After thinking the same way for decades it is difficult to galvanize a corporate behemoth like Microsoft into producing new and innovative software.

The way that Microsoft has dealt with competition from Firefox and Apple is demonstrative of their plan to innovate and succeed. Microsoft is introducing features in their products that the blogosphere welcomes with something between "ho hum" and open hostility. It doesn’t especially matter what features transcend applications. The bottom line is that competition is good for the consumer.

The final project in my C++ programming class this semester involved making a snake game. In my "infinite" spare time (aka an extended study break), I added in some rudimentary AI. However, I prefer to call it Artificial Stupidity, because it really isn't that bright.

Download Here
(I promise that there isn't any adware/spyware/etc on here, I certainly don't know how to write it.)

Apparently there is a Patron Saint of the Internet.

From the Catholic Forum: Isidore of Seville is the patron saint of: “computer technicians, computer users, computers, the Internet..”

According to Wikipedia, he compiled the first encyclopedia in western civilization. It was a massive 448 chapters in 20 volumes. There is unlikely to be a more fitting individual than one who wished to assemble all the available information.

However, I still find the whole thing ironic as CNN recently reported the Internet is approximately 1% porn.

Lifehacker (one the few blogs that I read with consistently excellent content) had two wonderful tips today:

• Clever Keys - This is a program that lets you do a search (of your choice) for a particular selected word, in just about any application. Simple highlight the word, hit the designated hotkey (default is Ctrl+L, but that is easily changed), it will fire up your browser of choice, and display the result. I have the default search set as Google. The other main function brings up a menu of different possible searches. Fortunately, it is easy to add additional search engines.
  
  
• Freeware Genius - This is the site where Lifehacker found out about Clever Keys. It has more than a few useful/interesting applications currently listed.
  

Firefox has many virtues, but none match its ability to adapt to the needs of its users. While it does not especially evolve, it can be continuously improved through the addition of extensions.

This list is a compilation of several lists I have written in the past, and is not meant to serve the needs of all users. However, I find that these extensions are almost universally enriching.

1. Adblock – Blocks ads individually or by using wildcards.
   
   
2. Adblock Fileset.G Updater – Updates the list of ads from a central list.
   
   
3. All Your Maps Are Belong To Us – Transform other map site urls to Google Maps
   
   
4. Bug Me Not – Bypass registration with community logins
   
   
5. ErrorZilla – Provides a more useful error page
   
   
6. Greasemonkey – Handles users scripts for minor and major tweaks
   
   
7. IE Tab – Change rendering engine from Mozilla to IE
   
   
8. Linkification – Turns pure text links into clickable links
   
   
9. Map This – Adds a context menu button that wills Google Map a selected address.
   
   
10. Nuke Anything Enhanced – Removes just about anything from a webpage
    
    
11. PDF Download – More options provided when opening up a PDF (including cancel)
    
    
12. Quick Proxy – Turn on and off a proxy with a single click
    
    
13. Screen Grab – Capture an entire webpage (multiple screens worth) as an image
    
    
14. Searchbar Autosizer – Resize the searchbar as you type
    
    
15. Search Engine Ordering – Re-order the search engines in your search bar.
    
    
16. SourceForge Direct Download – Skips the selection screen for a download site and selects your favorite
    
    
17. Tab Mix Plus – Provides lots of tab customization options
    
    
18. URL Fixer – Fixes 1D-10-T spelling errors when typing urls (.con -> .com).
    
    
19. Video Downloader – Download videos from various websites.
    
    
20. Web Developer Toolbar – Provides more than a little information about a particular website, this is especially useful for debugging.

I am a huge fan of TODO.txt. It is a great way to keep your tasks organized, especially when the list is always visible on my desktop.

Samurize is a powerful application that has more than a few features, but thus far I'm only using one of them. Samurize will let you display a text document directly on your desktop (and add a button to open it). Here is the config file that I use. If you want to create your own from scratch, follow these steps:

TODO List
Meters->Add->Add a Text File.

Position:
Simply move the text area around and resize it to where you like it.

Source:
Select your TODO.txt file from wherever it happens to reside. I suggest having it read at least 15 lines.

Display:
This is just a matter of picking the leading text, a readable font, and color (to match your background). I have my list bottom justified so that it "grows" from the taskbar. This way it doesn't appear to be randomly floating there.

That is all you need to do for simply displaying the list. However, adding an "Edit" button makes modifying the list much easier. To do this, you will need another meter.

Edit Button
Add-->Add Text.

Position:
Place this button somewhere convenient (perhaps below or next to the list itself) and size it appropriately.

General:
Fill the text with the color of and alpha of your choice (as long as the alpha is at least one)

Display:
Center the text "Edit" in the button and change the color so it is visible.

Input:
1) Allow Input Controls.
2) Add...
3) Meter Linkage
4) Link the meter to TODO.txt (wherever you have that stored).
5) Choose a function (left click is fine).

Hopefully, you'll end up with something like this: