A friend told me I had to get Konfabulator! Now usually I don’t like putting anything on my computer that doesn’t serve some type of real purpose so seeing this had me very hesitant. Why would I want to load something that would just eat up memory that could be used for other vital and important things like on-line gaming or web casting?
The truth is that this program is just good wholesome fun for your computer. The program runs “Widgets” that run as little minnie-tools all over your computer screen. If you are a a proud parent like me the Picture Frame widget can constantly show you pictures of your child and you can set it to always be on top. The weather widget is also very helpful in figuring out what you are going to wear for the day. Best of all the “Werewolf Monitor” will come in handy for tracking the cycles of the moon in case your company has been “infiltrated by the cursed and undead.”
There’s also a full gallery of widgets that allow you to track this and that, view this and that, or do this and that. If you need more this and that in your life then I highly recommend Konfabulator!.
MSNBC – For Softies, Search Is the New Black
It never really ceases to amaze me just how much Bill Gates truly won’t be happy until he is the only kid on the block.
Back in the late 90′s Bill Gates woke up from his night time slumber in a bed that is probably worth more then I make in 5 years and after he rubbed the sleep from his eyes he realized that Netscape had a portion of the software world that he didn’t. I’m sure this alone set him off on a tangent, but the fact that Netscape, if they were smart, could position themselves to be an OS instead of just an application probably scared the hell out of him. Shortly after this morning of discovery I’m sure an entire division was redirected to crank out IE 3.0 and the ActiveX concept and the beginning of the end for Netscape’s dominance was set in motion.
I’ll always remember this because I was actually in the same room as Bill Gates at a conference put together to brag about the forthcoming IE 3.0 + ActiveX. At the time it really seemed to me to be much ado about nothing, but looking back on it now it really gives me insight to the fact that Bill Gates will not be happy until he owns us all.
Why on earth does Bill Gates feel that Microsoft has to compete with Google for the web searching/ad revenue portion of the software business? Very simple: someone else has become synonymous with a function on the computer and Mr. Gates doesn’t like that. Never mind that Google made their name smart and simple that you could say to someone, “Just Google ‘dog groomers in bondage’ to find it.” That part isn’t important. Ignore the fact that their entire set up is clean and efficient. They are synonymous with web searching and Microsoft isn’t. (Mind you I’d never tell someone to ‘MDSN Web Search it’ because it’s just too long and clunky to say)
I’m sure that Google’s existence now makes Bill Gates loose sleep and get mad every damn time he hears someone say “I googled XXX.” The truth of the matter though is that I kinda feel sorry for the folks at Google because now that Microsoft has set it’s bull dog tenacity towards web indexing/searching/etc. I’m sure they are eventually gonna win. They will find a way to embed their search capability into every darn product that they make and they some how will become synonymous with web searching. People are lazy by nature and will use anything that you are just going to hand them on a silver platter. Of course the Microsoft silver platter is tarnished by security holes you could ram a Mack truck through, so look forward to even more security updates when their search tool gets bundled into everything!
-WW
‘Master/slave’ Most Politically Incorrect Phrase
Did you hear that sound? It was my head exploding.
Now I’ve already made my point a hundred times over about how all this political correctness crap makes me weep for society in general but to take something to this extreme makes my head explode. Oh no, I can feel it happening again…
Pretty soon none of us will be able to speak at all without offending someone. Want to read the Bible in church? Sorry, there’s an Atheist down the street who finds that offensive. Want to read the Wall Street Journal? Sorry, the financially challenged gentleman laying in the doorway across the street because he has no home finds your appreciation of money matters offensive. Breathing? Sorry, the plants who consume Carbon Dioxide think your taking in of oxygen is totally opposite to their way of life and want you to stop immediately (even though it will cut their supply of carbon dioxide, but I digress).
A rose by any other name… is still a frickin’ rose people! Get over your fear/hatred of words, because the only power a word has is the power that YOU GIVE IT!
Oh no, here comes another head explosion…
-WW
