Why all the hate on the Google Toolbar?

But maybe SideWiki should be a standalone Firefox extension.

in reference to: Google Sidewiki Is a Universal Commenting System for the Web - Google Sidewiki - Lifehacker (view on Google Sidewiki)

I’ll bet you didn’t know I wrote a book about Tango dancing

Open publication - Free publishing - More tango

 

It's true. As part of a technical writing program I’m close to finishing, I had to write a user manual, and the instructor assigned us topics she thought the students would know nothing about.

And she was right.

For the record, I don’t recommend producing long, carefully formatted documents in Microsoft Word.

Elena wakes up at midnight to make a phone call

This “conversation” was going on for 5-8 minutes before we started recording.

Proof that the Wiggles make kids go insane

And now the longer version

11 seconds of previously unseen material!

Elena’s first steps!

She walking. Now we’re in trouble.

Elena bath

Bathtime!

Kill the Newspapers

Marc Andreesen says killing the print edition of newspapers to survive. His thesis: the print advertising dollars have to go somewhere. Newspaper Web sites won't get all of it, but thanks to dramatically lower publishing and distribution costs, they'll get enough to be profitable.

He may be on to something. I hope one of the about-to-be-shutdown publications in one-newspaper towns tries this (I'm looking at you San Francisco Chronicle) to test this theory. What have they got to lose?

The meltdown continues

 

If I turned in a chart like this to my newspaper’s art department, they would call me to double-check that the last number wasn’t a mistake.

My Micro-Review of Windows 7

After much trepidation, I finally installed the Windows 7 beta on my laptop. With the possible exception of losing my VPN connection (Cisco hasn’t made a driver available yet), it’s been a really smooth experience. The beta is very stable and a big improvement over Vista.

I’m one of the few people who seem to actually like Vista, but 7 takes it up a notch. In a nutshell:

• It seems snappier than Vista and uses less memory on my machine.
• It ditches some of Vista’s big annoyances (I’m looking at you, UAC)
• It adds some nice features such as an improved and more useful taskbar.
• It resumes from hibernation and standby much faster.
• It updates the Media Center interface.

Windows 7 also extends the life of the laptop battery, but I have not had time to test that.

In other words, my observations seem to jibe with what everyone else has said so far. If the final addresses the VPN issue, there’s no question that I’ll upgrade when it comes out (the final is scheduled to launch in about a year).

Update: I installed it on my home computer, but it didn’t recognize my ancient GeForce3 chipset, which controls audio and networking. So I had to go back to Vista on that machine.

Check out my wife's cool inauguration graphic

Obama Inauguration

Happy New Year!

Things I’m looking forward to in 2009:

- Buying my first house

- Seeing my daughter turn 1

- An Obama presidency/Bush leaving office

- Final half-season of Battlestar Galactica

In 2009, I resolve to:

- Make better use of my time, money and other resources

- Procrastinate less (see above)

- Read more fiction

- Be more helpful around the house

- Re-do my professional Web site

- Finish my technical writing certification

- Grow more adept at Flash

Redfin defects from Microsoft to Google

I meant to mention this when I first read it over the weekend -- it’s been thoroughly warmed over now -- but real-estate Web site Redfin has switched completely to Google Maps from Microsoft’s Live Maps service. Redfin said it liked Microsoft’s technology, but that Google’s maps are much faster.

That’s pretty much been my experience. I love showing people the 3-D and bird’s-eye view on Live Maps, but when it comes down to trying to find something fast, I always gravitate to Google Maps.

This is probably true of most of Microsoft’s Live services -- they’re just not fast enough. Hotmail has gotten noticeably faster in recent weeks, but everything else seems kind of pokey.

From my television family to yours…

Here’s a timely Christmas project I did a couple of years ago for a class I was taking. Enjoy!

Yes, I know. It takes forever to load. It was an intro to Flash class, OK?

CBS on the mortgage meltdown

It gets scarier.

 

Two sci-fi shows I thought were great but somehow turned out terribly, terribly wrong

1) Heroes. My theory on why the show started going downhill in season two: The writers abused time travel. Now, no one stays dead, so nothing has any consequence or finality. Lame.

2) Smallville. This used to be my favorite show, but has become downright unwatchable this season. No Lex Luthor, no Lana Lang. No Smallville even.

She crawls: video evidence

Two sci-fi shows I thought were going to be crap but actually turned out pretty good.

1. Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles.
2. Star Wars: The Clone Wars

With a TV budget and skimpy one-dimensional character motivation, I assumed Terminator was going to be cheesy and repetitive. The first few shows seemed to bear out this assumption, but it is developing into a fairly complex story with unexpected depth and insight. As long as they don’t abuse time travel -- don’t get me started – I’ll keep watching.

Star Wars is a cartoon, and I’m glad I didn’t pay $10 to see the pilot episode in theaters. But if you’re a Star Wars geek, you’ll appreciate the abundance of Star Wars technology (you get to really see inside many of the ships in the movies!). Jar Jar was in last week’s episode, which I’m ashamed to say got my wife to watch it with me. But other than that, so far, so good.

Report: Comcast usage monitor coming in January

 It's about time.

From the Department of Redundancy Department…

Best of all, they’re selling franchises!