The Futile Path to Destruction

This article makes me laugh. Its so obvious that AOL is doomed. Let's examine, in my opinion, why AOL is on its way out:

First, AOL came about at the dawn of the internet browsing age, when connecting to the internet and using E-mail was a chore so large, nobody would dare try anything else. Now we have people checking E-mail on their watches, and surfing the web on their mobile phones. If they can do that without much help, then I'm afraid that most people have no real need for internet access and E-mail assistance from AOL

Second, notice that I said, "most people". There still are a chunk of people out there who know nothing about the internet and E-mail. I call them Senior Citizens. Half of them don't want anything to do with a computer, the other half will only use AOL because its easy, and they like everything done for them without hassle. Well, we all know that old people will eventually die. When they do, I'm pretty sure that most of AOL's market will die with them.

Lastly, we have the nontechnical fan base. These are your average "I don't know or care how it works" computer users. These kinds of people will probably always be around, but as our generations learn at a quicker pace, the number of these types of users will steadily decline. Let's face it, even most computer experts agree that their teenage son knows more about computers than they do these days. Once those Generations grow up and start taking over, AOL will be doomed.

Why do I not like AOL? Mainly because their business strategy to charge extremely high prices for slower-than-my-grandma dial-up service is absurd. Also the fact that their software is designed to infiltrate your computer and never leave again, and their subscription cancellation staff does nothing more than harass you when you try to cancel. Add to that the fact that their dumbed-down approach to the internet is keeping millions in the dark about how to easily connect to the internet on their own, and I think I've made my point. AOL STINKS!!!

Quality Time

This past weekend I got the opportunity to spend some quality time with some good friends of mine. I realize that as time goes by, good friendships are the ones that stay strong through the test of time. The visit was great, and I look forward to future opportunities to meet up again. I know that this sounds discreet but it is for reasons. Anyways, just wanted to "hollah back to my peeps" for the fun weekend.

In other news, Meg finished up her part-time job for Hope International. She's a full-time mommy once again. I'm pretty glad about this. Part of the reason we moved up here was so that we could invest the time into our new family. I also like the knowledge that our baby girl gets to grow up learning how to be a great woman from Meg's example.

Lastly, Meg and I sat down the other day and planned out the calendar for the coming year. Its exciting to see that we'll be visiting more of my family this year than in prior years. I look forward watching Audrey get to know them. I only hope we can manage to afford the trips. We average about 100 dollars spent each time we go up, and that assumes spending just 25 after two fill-ups and toll fares. Yikes!

Freeware

I have to admit. I LOVE free things. Although I'll admit that I'm not desperate enough to slam on the breaks when I see a cardboard sign on top of a rusty shopping cart along the road that reads, "Free", I still like free. Particuarly in the world of computer software. If you live in a Microsoft Windows environment, you can pretty much live on free software. Everything from web-browsers, office productivity tools, and the like can be found somewhere on the internet.

These past couple of days, my job had required me to research a free software program that would enable our business to convert our Microsoft Word document into a formatted help file for distributing a piece of software to some of our clients (forgive my run-on sentence). I knew that here had to be a way to do it. I had faith that we could do it for free. I'll admit that at one point I gave up hope. But then after persistence, I found not only a solution, but a superior piece of software for the problem. The cost? "0" dollars. All freeware. Its great.

Speaking of freeware, I also am in the process of collecting useful freeware for myself. I just don't collect anything. It has to be of high quality. Take for instance right now, I'm using a little program called, "w.bloggar" which enables me to write blog entries to several different blog sites, with tons of formatting features and settings. This software is convenient and best of all....that's right...its free. :-)

Why I'm giving up on Mozilla Products

I have finally had enough. While it was fun to try something different than Internet Explorer for so long, it seems that the fun has run out. Recently, Microsoft has announced that it is working on IE 7 which should be out in beta form within a few months. To tell you the truth, if it has any of the features that Firefox did, as well as better security, then I'm all for it.

Reason 1:

I recently had an experience where I was doing my taxes online. I got so far into the interview process where I was asked a question, but had no options to choose from. No links to click or buttons to press. So in my confusion, I calmly saved my work and decided to go after it later. Only to find the same error. Then it hit me. I was using firefox. A quick switch to IE revealed the buttons and links that I needed and I was done in no time with no confusion. There was no warning on the site to indicate that only IE would work for it. Should I blame the site? Yes. Should I also blame Firefox? Why not? If it wants to compete, it better make things convenient. That experience was the last inconvenience that I choose to live with. As soon as the new IE7 comes out, I'm all over it.

Reason 2:

Mozilla thunderbolt had me hooked initially. Then I discovered its crappy issues. First, its buggy. It doesn't always check mail according to the settings that you set. It had multiple problems sending mail and connecting the the server. And just recently it stopped working altogether in connecting to my work'sE-mail E-mail server. No reason. No settings had been changed. It just stopped. Other than the really cool address book layout that it has, I'm pretty much through with it. I'd rather use something that I ran rely on its stability and such. I've switched to Eudora, which provides a free(lite), ad-based, and paid version of its E-mail program. It gets the job done.

In conclusion, I'd like to say that going against Microsoft merely for the idea of having a choice means nothing when your choices are mediocre at best. Open source software has a major flaw in that, because there is no real support department dealing with customer complaints, the product doesn't necessarily need to be fixed and updated in a hurry to appease the consumer. We all know that Microsoft and other companies work hard on keeping the bugs out of their software for reasons of customer loyalty, etc. I'd rather put up with the overwhelming flow and ebbing tide of Microsoft and others and have a product that works, than have a product that works when it wants to, written by a group of people with no pressure to fix things.

Expectations

One of my favorite tibits of wisdom that I have learned over the years is that "The measure of one's assumptions is exactly porportional to the potential of one's disappointments". In other words, the more that you expect, the more you need to be prepared for disappointment.

For instance: Let's say that I expect my boss to take me out to lunch, and he doesn't. Should I be mad at my boss? Well, it depends. Did he make plans with me? If so, then I have built an expectation upon his promise. What if he didn't make plans, but I felt that I've worked so hard, that I deserved it, and he should do it. Now I've not only created an expectation, but made an assumption on someone's behavior. We all know that assumptions are also dangerous and foolish to do, since they rely on un-founded predictions. But let's get back to expectations. Is it wrong to have expecations? Not necessarily. If I buy a 5 dollar item and give the clerk a 10, I expect to get 5 dollars back. That's a realistic and rational expecation (its also a law in most cases). But what if I give him a tip, and expect him to decline it and give me it back and he doesn't. Then I've again become the fool and made an assumption. So the problem here is to define expectations versus assumptions. Here are my own definitions:

Expectations: Anticipated results predicated by facts or laws within a reasonable context.
ex. "I expect to be arrested if I go punch that police officer in the face."

Assumptions: Foolish anticipation of results predicated by subjective ideas and limited or no facts.
ex. "I assumed that my mom would love this handful of worms I found under that brick."


Why am I even writing all of this? Perhaps as a reminder to myself. Happiness with others lies in the area of less assumptions and more communciation.

Random Thoughts for Today

I wonder about marketing hype.

VOIP? It sounds nice, but the catch is sometimes hidden. What? I need to have power to my DSL or cable modem to use the service? What? I need to work out a backup phone alternative in case this happens? No thanks.

Online music services. What? So I pay you money each month so that I can listen to my favorite music? I can take it anywhere I want? Hmmm, they've had something like that for quite a while now...its called a Radio. So I can own the music, but I can't make copies, and it expires after a month? Didn't you say it was "My" Music?

Good Music-Good Lyrics

A lot of people like music for different reasons. Some people, like myself, enjoy many aspects of music. One area that rarely gets respect with music are the lyrics. A lot of today's most popular music fails to even communicate much more than basic themes of love, sex, or depression of some sort. Even the christian music scene is plagued with a lot of overdone themes. Sure, praise is important, and so is salvation, but how about some other issues? One band in particular who has knocked me off of my feet in this area is Switchfoot. They are band that has entered the charts on both secular and christian music channels. Their latest album "Beautiful Letdown" really puts out some hard hitting lyrics that really ask the big questions. One popular song, "Meant to live" certainly drives home the idea that there is more to what the average person thinks about our lives and mankind. My favorite song thus far, is one called, "This is your life". This song does nothing less than smacks you in the face about your current condition. I'll post the lyrics below, and if you have the opportunity to hear this song. Let me know what you think.

yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead
yesterday is a promise that you've broken
don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes
this is your life and today is all you've got now
yeah, and today is all you'll ever have
don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes

this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose

yesterday is a kid in the corner
yesterday is dead and over

this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose

don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes
don't close your eyes

this is your life are you who you want to be
this is your life are you who you want to be

this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, are you who you want to be
this is your life, is it everything you dreamed it would be
when the world was younger and you had everything to lose

and you had everything to lose

Random Thoughts for Monday January 31, 2005

Have you ever found yourself with an unexpected amount of time or money? And because you didn't expect it, you become overwhelmed with the situation and it ends up shutting down your brain? That happened to me yesterday. I always tell myself, "Man, if I would definately do ..., if I had a couple of free hours to do it." Then I got a couple of free hours yesterday, and ended up doing nothing productive with it. I mean, unless you call playing video games, emptying the dishwasher, and playing a song or two on the guitar a productive two hours, then I guess I blew the opportunity. Oh well.

I hate how the super bowl has to be two weeks after the championship games. It throws off my football watching rhythm too much. I mean, every Sunday during the regular and playoff season, I know that I can come home from church with the anticipation of a good football game to watch. But this Sunday I came home to nothing. For the first time in about 19 weeks, I had to come home to nothing on Sunday. No football. Why? Because the superbowl has to be two weeks later. That stinks. A football fan's rhythm shouldn't have to be maligned like that. This is why nobody cares about the pro bowl. By the time the pro bowl comes on, your average footall fan is watching PGA Golf and thinking about his golf swing.

We became members of our church this past Sunday. We are now officially members of Wheatland Presbyterian Church. We had actually transfered membership from Chapelgate Presbyterian Church, but had to go through some red tape to get our membership. This is the second church that I have ever been a member of. To be honest, our last church membership didn't really do much for us. The church was so big, that we felt like ants anyways. Wheatland is much smaller, so hopefully we can settle in a little better here. We already know a lot more people here , due to Meg's prior involvement here. Its also nice to be a member of the church where we were married.

Apple Issues OS X Security Patch

Yahoo! News - Apple Issues OS X Security Patch

One of the greatest things about the article, is how the security researcher explains away these issues. I'd love to see Bill Gates get away with excuses like this:

"An operating system is a huge, complex thing, and there are bound to be many issues with it."


The fact is that not many people are really paying attention to really care if there is a vulnerability in the MAC OS, and the hypnotic loyalty of Apple fans will alway enable them to get away wtih it.

New Monday Rants

Well, I guess the top rant for today goes to the letdown from last night. I can't say that I went into the game with high expectations for the Steelers. After all, they looked awful in the Jets game, and they certainly topped that performance with the one last night. Are you kidding me? Watching that game had me wondering how they even got so far in the season. Big Ben played QB like he was blindfolded on rollerskates, the Defense must have been playing cards in the locker room during the game because I saw no evidence of the NFL's number 1 defense there..oh wait, perhaps I they all meant the Patriots? And Bill Cowher...oh man...just when you think you can pat him on the back for some great coaching, he calls some of the worst plays I've ever seen at 1st and goal. Needless to say, I found myself watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edtion and Desperate Housewives by the end of the first half, and switched back to the game between commercials to confirm that the Steelers indeed had blown it (and they did).

This weekend was marked by a big snow through the area. I'd have to say about 6 to 8 inches fell on us. This was cool, because we actually planned to spend the whole weekend indoors watching movies and taking it easy. I saw Dodgeball for the first time. I'm glad I didn't pay to go see it at the movies. I'd have to say that the movie's sarcastic humor stood out enough that the movie actually made fun of itself, so I won't do that here.

Yesterday I purchased a package of Orbit gum. I actually like the stuff, but this one flavor: "Bubblemint", tastes terrible. I figured I'd be brave and try it for kicks. Well, its awful. I would rank it up there with that stupid "Holiday Spice Pepsi". Another letdown.

So I guess that in review of my weekend, all things were letdowns: The Steelers, the "Dodgeball" movie, and even something as minor as a little package of chewing gum. Hmmm, let's hope this trend is over.

America the Fat.

Woman Eats Six-Pound Hamburger

Its stories like the one above that clearly demonstrate the gluttony we U.S. citizens embrace. When you consider that 6lbs of ground beef can feed a small family for a good portion of a week, and yet some 19 yeard old girl eats one in 3 hours there's just no denying how wasteful and disgusting that is.

In other news, my house is nice an cozy thanks to the recent installation of our new windows. Hopefully, our electric bill won't triple again. Its so nice to wake up to a temperature above 60 degrees in my room.

And in sports, the Steelers are under-dogs once again. Even though they've only lost one game all season, they have one of the most complete football teams the NFL has seen in a long time, and they have home-field-advantage. Now granted, that game against the Jets was a very tight and insanely close one. They probably shouldn't have won it, but that's no reason to make them under-dogs so readily. Oh well, I wonder what they will say about them if they beat the Patriots in a close game?

New windows update

Well, we got our new windows. They look great, and I don't feel arctic air pouring from them anymore. I feel bad for the guys who had to install them. The temperature was around 15 degrees yesterday, not counting the wind chill. Yesterday, when I left for work, they said that the wind chill was like -5 degrees. Meg said that one of the guys who was outside had to come in and warm his hands, which took him about 20 minutes to get his full feeling back in his fingers. YIKES!!!

New junk is surfacing on the sports airwaves about the snow ruining the advantage for the Steelers this weekend. They claim that Rothlesberger (however you spell it) has no experience in the snow...uh, what? So, I guess he never saw snow before, or ever played football in it? Nonsense. And the pittsburgh receivers? I'm not worried about it. As long as the O-line holds up and Bettis gets the ball a ton, then there should be little to worry about.

Speaking of snow, we got a bit of it here around my lunch break. I made a run to the bank and almost died like 3 times in about 10 minutes. Good thing the hills aren't steeper around here. I think I'll hibernate this weekend when the big stuff comes in.

Lancaster Snow

So we finally got our first accumulated snow in the area. It was a nice light dusting. Not too bad. When you live in an area with a lot of rolling hills and farmland, it actually looks pretty neat. I've always had good memories of snow and winter, so hopefully this year I can add a few more memories to the group.

The Steelers might just give me an ulcer this season. After barely winning a playoff game of which they probably didn't deserve to win, my confidence has now been completely shaken about their offense. Why on earth do they play so many pass plays when their running game is clearly their strength? All I have to say, is that if they don't make some changes here in a hurry, they will be spectators at the superbowl again this year. Speaking of which, could the Colts have looked more helpless than they did last night? One thing is for sure, if you can't win in inclement weather, then you aren't the best team in the league.

Tuesday we are getting new windows installed in our house. Thank goodness. Our current windows are so terrible that I can feel drafts coming in anywhere within 10 inches of the windows. Add that to a heat/electric bill that tripled in one month, and you've got yourself a situation that calls for new windows. Not that I wouldn't have wanted to spend the money on something else. When you can't see the effective difference between having the window open or closed, then its time to act. More on this later...

My Monday Morning Rant

So, it seems that there will be a rematch for the Steelers with the Jets for a ticket to the AFC Championship game. This sort of makes me a little nervous. Not that I think the Jets are a better team, but because it seems that lately, the Steelers like to just barely sqeak by and win games. This always leaves doubt in my head about the surety of their future. If only they would dominate like the Colts do. Speaking of which, if the Steelers don't make it to the Super Bowl, I'm certainly rooting for the Colts, since they will definately serve up a more fascinating game to watch.

I enjoyed a birthday this weekend. Turned 28 years old. Hard to imagine that I've seen 28 years of life. I look at my daughter each day, and think of how things in the world were so much different when I was her age. To think of all of the events of my generation, and how much has taken place in the world is amazing. I can't even imagine what the world will be like 28 years from now. To think that my daughter will never know a world without Cell Phones, the Internet, hybrid cars, and a Pre-September 11th time of security here in this country.

Lastly, I noticed that people continue to ask me if I "still" like my job as a programmer. The answer is an emphatic "YES!". I guess that when you hear about people switching careers you find it curious to see what their take on it is. Now I would have to admit that I do miss teaching to some degree, but I certainly enjoy my new job very much. I work with a great group of people. The problem is that Computer Programming is harder to talk about than teaching. Most people can relate in one way or another to teaching, since we've all been students at one time or another. Most of us, however, can't really perceive the job of a computer programmer. This makes it hard to talk about. So if you don't hear me talking about my job as much as I used to, its just because its just weird to strike up a conversation with "I wrote the coolest function today to parse words from this input box". Trust me, you don't want to hear about it. :-)

New Years Resolutions

Just kidding. I don't believe in new years resolutions. I figured that if you want to make a change, just make it. Don't wait until the new year. People baffle me sometimes with their allegiance to traditions such as new years resolutions and such. What's the point?

On a new topic too small to deserve a separate entry, I stand amazed at the fact that the Steelers won yet again. 15 and 1? Who would have thought that it would happen? I've heard that at the beginning of the season, their odds of winning it all were like 23 to 1 in Vegas. That's funny. Well, in any case 15 and 1 means nothing if you lose in the playoffs, so hopefully all of their work this season won't be put to shame when their time to shine comes up. They've been know to let us fans down before in other high-profile games. Granted, if they go to the Superbowl, I'm pretty sure they'll clean house though.

Lastly, this Saturday I turn 28 years old. Seems weird. 28 is not an exciting age. There's nothing going on for the 28 year-old. Just another year towards 30, I guess. I've been very blessed with where I've come in 28 years though. I can't say that I regret getting older as of yet. One more year closer to Heaven. :-)

Post-Christmas Notes

-Is it me, or do almost all traditional-style Christmas Carols make extensive use of the word, "mild"?

-What's the secret to continuing to enjoy Christmas as much as you did when you were 5 years old?

-When the Steelers rolled the Ravens in a 20-7 victory this past Sunday, I think that somehow, in some way, I received the Christmas present that I REALLY wanted.

-I got the 5th season of the Simpsons on DVD, and now I'm quite a content little camper. Coming Soon: The simpsons season 5 marathon party hosted by yours truly.

No shortcuts to work

I love shortcuts. I sometimes think that 80 percent of my free-time is wasted on finding shortcuts for doing everything. Now, this isn't to say that I'm lazy, but rather, I'm a "fan of convenience". In any case, I've been wasting my gas, time and reputation for punctuatlity at work attempting to find shortcuts from my driveway to work. You see, the problem is that there is no route that can yield me anything better than 30 minutes of commute time (one way). This is despite the fact that my work is about 8 miles away. I've poured over maps, braved windy roads, and driven through shady neighborhoods to no avail. There simply is no shortcut. And that realy, really bothers me.

More Monday Rantings

-Steelers Secondary continues to expose itself. Eventually its going to cost them their undefeated title. Let's just hope they don't lose it against the stinky, always-overrated NY Giants.

-I thought that the holidays brought out the good spirit in all of us? Tell that to all of the impatient holiday shoppers who cut you off in traffic or bang down on their horn if you are even 1/2 second off of reacting to a green traffic light.

-I truly believe that almost anything that I can dream up that would make things work better or easier for my house is already available at Home Depot or Lowes at a reasonable price.

-Would it be true that the size and age of your child relates in the opposite spectrum to the amount of items they require when traveling? For instance, a 4 year old would require less items when traveling than a newborn. So if you have a child, you should own at least an 18-wheeler, and then perhaps scale down to a van or something when they grow up.

Monday Rantings

- Why is it that the Pittsburgh Steelers have shown weaknesses in their secondary for several seasons, but nobody seems to be paying attention to that? Lebeau has done some great things this year, however, a good offensive line can keep the blitz out long enough for the QB to hit wide open players down-field. It happens every game where the opposing team has a good O-line (Like the Jacksonville game).

-Why does Pepsi consistently turn out crappy products? Pepsi edge is just a copy of Coke's "Half the calorie soda", Pepsi Vanilla is a rip-off of the successful "Vanilla Coke", and I just bought a seasonal Soda called, "Pepsi Holiday Spice"...I've got one word for you...CRAPPY!

-Why do people repeatedly think that they have this World's root problem figured out? I read a bumper sticker today that said that the root of violence and destruction is ignorance. I guess that if they went a level deeper and said, "Ignorance of their sinful natures and their current state before God" then perhaps they'd be on the money.

Thank You, Pittsburgh Steelers!

My request this week was granted by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

After a horrible 6-10 season last year, I told myself that all I wanted from them was a 10 win season. I could care less if they made the playoffs (which it seems that they will), or won anything else. Getting a 10 win season was all that I asked.

Not only have they done that with the recent win over the Redskins, but they've even done it by winning 9 games in a row with a rookie at the QB position. Quite impressive, being that most of the team is relatively unchanged from last year. I guess Cowher isn't as bad a coach I thought.

Some musings on Internet Explorer development

Perusing through my rss feeds and stuff, I came accross an interesting article relating to microsoft IE development and the competition. In his own blog, Robert Scoble, who works for Microsoft wrote the following words in one of his latest posts concerning the currently in-process development of the next version of Internet Explorer:

"Speaking of which, Dean Hachamovitch the other day showed me prototypes of the next Internet Explorer. I got to see them before he even showed them to other executives. He told me I could say about that much (I wanted to post screen captures on my blog, but he turned down that request, bummer). I'll add in that if they ship about half of what they showed me that I'll uninstall Firefox. Of course, I'm guessing that it'll probably be a year before any of us will get any bits to look at and I'm sure that Asa, Ben and the other devs over on the Firefox team won't twiddle their fingers. It sure will be an interesting competition."

I find that what is interesting is that although other competition will probably offer features first, Microsoft will no doubt offer them later, but perhaps they will be developed better. Of course, we all know that IE will be adopted by the typical user who doesn't have browser preferences, nor knows much about IE alternatives. Therefore, no matter what Microsoft introduces, it will most likely be a success to some degree.

Thanksgiving Dinners

For some reason, I find it hard to really enjoy thanksgiving. Maybe it is because I feel like a glutton. Spending several months of my life living with families in poverty in Central America, I'm pretty aware of how good we have it in this country. This is not to say that I'm at all ungrateful for what I have, but it seems to spark something in me when I look to survey the tons of food that is before me in different varieties. Its the sting of reality for the tons of families who have never seen this much food in their lives and never will. Something I think that we should all do is match our thankfullness against the reality of what other families don't have. Many of us have plenty to be thankful for, but the American culture that we live in sometimes just doesn't get it. Thanksgiving for some is just a tradition of being a glutton, and less of true appreciation for the grace that God has given us.

Technical Insight

And now we turn to the technical FAQ writers at apple.com for some deep and penetrating insight on how to use a Mac:

Click here to read.

Thank goodness for that insightful piece of knowledge. I'd be lost had I not read that FAQ and owned a Mac.

If you are a Mac user, do not take offense, its not you or the Apple company, its the idiot at the top who thought it would be important to put that bit of info on the website.

Election results and the Current state of John Kerry

I don't have much to say about the election results. I'm a republican so these are now more comforting days for me. However, a good friend of mine, Paul Fink, coined the current state of John Kerry in a way that deserves quoteable status.

"He now goes in the scrap heap of ungraceful losers with Al Gore. "

Brilliant, Paul. Brilliant.

Fantasy Football Dilemna

Yesterday was difficult. The Pittsburgh Steelers were playing the New England Patriots. Being a big fan of Pittsburgh, I found it really difficult to approach the fact that 3 point sources of my fantasy football team were all from New England's team. Should I cheer for New England to win so that my fantasy team could win? Or do I cheer for my favorite team of all time, the Pittsburgh Steelers? Needless to say, I gave in and rooted for the Steelers. Its not every day that you watch a rising rookie QB and a renewed Steeler offense wax an undefeated (In 21 games) New England team with ease. On the bright side, an unexpected Drew Brees 5 TD accomplishment helped us to rise against our opponents and pretty much seal off this week's victory anyways. So a win for the Steelers, and a(pretty much expected) win for my fantasy team. It turned out to be a good day after all. :-)