Friday, November 03, 2006

They killed Bobby Kennedy

When I visited Arlington Cemetery some years ago, I happened upon Bobby Kennedy's grave. I was thirteen when he was shot down in California, and did not really understand the implications. He represented hope, I have come to believe, and "they" killed that hope.

My greatest fear for this coming election is that "they" will strike again. I hope there is a Democratic wave of epic proportions. Yet if there is, I fear that the backlash will take deadly form.

The hate on the other side is palpable, from our spittle-flecked president to frothing radio and television mouthpieces. Theirs is the side that has the guns and the desire to use them. The codpiece-in-chief can call out the tanks. He has as much as called me a terrorist, although I am sure he does not know me from Adam.

Words have power, and while my fear is that some wingnut will take deadly aim at a prominent Democrat, my hope of course is that they really are just all talk.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

I knew a girl named Chimera

But she scared me.

Chimera (mythology), a monstrous creature made of the parts of multiple animals

(I heard a mother on the street call her little girl "Kimmera")

Internet Explorer 7

Microsoft released IE 7 yesterday, which I downloaded and have been using. There are a few look and feel differences to get used to, and tabbed browsing.

The look and feel include smaller toolbars at the top, and improved favorites navigation - more like Windows Explorer, no longer drop down menus. Large Back and Forward buttons.

The tabs are problematic, though. I could not get them to work quite the way I expected. When I started a new instance of IE, it did not open a new tab, it opened a new window like the old days. That may be a good thing. You can open a new tab in the same window by right-click and select "open in new tab" or "open in new window" so that's ok.

The quick tour they give is worse than useless - it suggests opening a new tab and typing the address where you want to go. I can't remember the last time I typed an address. I usually click a link or, I suppose, cut and paste an address.

There is also a "phishing" filter to flag identified phishing web sites, which takes a hit on performance on the slower machines.

That's the word from the early adopter front.

Update: The tabs seem to work as one might like them to, and the screen fonts are easier on these aging eyes. I picked the option to smooth screen fonts, whatever they call it. Of course now if I wanted to go back and change it, I would have to hunt ...

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Language Arts

One dismaying legacy from President George Witless Bush is the damage he has done to our language, amongst all the other more significant tragedies.

How many times have you heard someone use one of his manglings with ironic intent? Or something that he has probably never said, but might have?

For example, "edjumacation" (which I don't think he really said), or "the internets", or now, "on the Google" (which he most certainly did say)?

It's not funny, friends. Cut it out before we're all stupid.