Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art Works

Getting back either the new or the old iGoogle.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I'd been using the new iGoogle (forced on me by Google, of course) for a few months now. I actually liked it, and found that I could access my Gmail that was otherwise blocked on a borrowed wifi connection I'm getting from a public school.

Then one day, without warning, my new iGoogle reverted back to the old. I didn't like it. I had no idea why that happened, but there I was, my left navigation gone.

So I entered the cavernous worlds of Google help forums only to find about a 90 percent rate of people expressing hatred for the new iGoogle. Any attempts of mine to find a way to revert back to the new format only resulted in replies of "I hate the new one and I wish I could get the old one back" and little else of help.

I stumbled onto this post, however, and saw note of a little bit of javascript that people could use in their URL bar to switch back to the old version.

I figured, since I was already there, that perhaps the same bit of code would do the same and bring me back to the new version. Here's the code:

javascript:_dlsetp('v2=1')

I thought maybe it would work like a toggle switch. So, I tried it.

And it works. As far as I can tell.

Have the new iGoogle and hate it? Or, want to switch to the new iGoogle if it somehow switched back to the old? Simply place the code in the URL bar when you're on your iGoogle homepage and it should do the trick.

Labels: internet, technology

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Google Chrome has minions.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 3 comments link this post

I've been highly curious and desiring to download and try out the new Google browser, Google Chrome.

Today, the day it was supposed to be released, I find that it...isn't released. Yet. Doing searches and trying to find the official download pages reveals that Google is redirecting to the home Google page.

Regardless, the creepy aspect here is that I left a Twitter message just a few minutes ago regarding my interest in Google Chrome, only to find that GetGoogleChrome is now following me on Twitter.

That had to have happened within minutes of posting my original Tweet.

While anyone is free to follow accounts at Twitter so set up, and I am free to block...I just found that a little creepy. I guess (and I'm not a techie, so I can't write about it any more complex that this) that what you post at Twitter can be little more than key words for direct marketing.

Huh.

"Don't be evil", indeed. Let the unofficial minions do that.

UPDATE: Google Chrome now available here. (Thanks, Will.)

UPDATE 2: Google Chrome is fast. Its appearance is fairly sparse. The first thing I did was check to see if my own web site fell apart in the new browser; it doesn't seem to have, though if anyone notices something looking strange with Chrome, I'd appreciate an email about it. I sure miss the Adblock feature of Firefox, though I suppose, with Google, I can't expect that. I would like better integration with the Google apps and my Google account (not just dropping it onto my desktop/taskbar), unless I've just not discovered how that is accomplished quite yet.

Labels: internet, technology

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Avoid the Sunday downtime.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

Helpful website owner tip #47*:

Avoid having your website host bottom-out and crash on a Sunday. Tech help is replaced by automated responses from either actual automated email, or the tech reply equivalent of an answering service.

"But Julie, I can't control when my site will crash. I can't control when my host will go wonky."

Well, then. Tough bounce. Welcome to my world.

Actual response to my support ticket that my site was down:

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. I have asked a member of our team who specializes in Web Site Management to review your account. You should be hearing from this specialist within 24-48 hours.

My reply:

I appreciate that it might take some time, but I sure hope you're kidding that you're going to have someone get in touch with me in one to two days... I can't run a website business like that.

Obviously, it's fixed now. But, for the record, avoid Sunday downtime.

*I don't know where the other 46 went.

Labels: technology

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Using retro technology.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

After guitar lessons, Cathy had me sit down and explain Facebook to her.

I am, of course, a Facebook monster at this point. I invite just about everyone to be on it; if I have your email and you're not a stranger, I probably sent you an invite. I have old high school friends, church camp friends, church youth I worked with, blogging friends...

...with the idea of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.

I won't tell you much more about that categorization.

But Cathy* IS my friend and I invited her onto Facebook, and I said I'd help her. There we were, using a cell phone as the internet connection, me realizing the blessing that is the high-speed DSL I've become used to.

"Wow. This is slow," I said.

And we waited.

Some more.

And more.

Yet.

Finally, since it was getting late and I didn't think Facebook would ever load, I asked for a pen. There was a napkin sitting on the table next to the laptop, left from supper, and I told Cathy I'd sketch out the Facebook page for her and try to tell her how to use it that way.

I find that hilarious, sketching a website out on a napkin to explain how it works.

"Then you'd click here," I said, drawing with the pen, "to see all of your friends. Here is where you'd type in what you are doing, and it's called your 'status'."

Eventually, for a few minutes, Facebook did load and we had some actual live click time, but the napkin was much more stable than the cell phone connection.

*No, you are not too old. Anyone who says that is too young to understand the concept of anything.

Labels: clippings, facebook, friends, technology

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Atonement for the typewriter.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 4 comments link this post

My mother has a typewriter.

Non-electric.

Weighs a ton, and my fingers are too computer-keyboard weakened to make much of a mark on the paper with the heavy keys.

I always felt sad when I drove by the shop in downtown Fargo that had the sign "typewriter repair" in the window. I wondered how it was going, and imagined it was either remarkably bad, or remarkably well (being one of a dying breed). I have no idea if the store is still there.

In honor of the film Atonement (which depressed me to no end, like The English Patient*), I thought I'd share three photos from a series I took of a typewriter. I'm listening to the soundtrack now.

The soundtrack to Atonement has the typewriter mingled with the rest of the orchestration as its own percussive instrument. Highly unusual. If you've seen the movie, you remember the whys of this, and how well it was carried out in the music. There's just something about that snapping sound of a typewriter that I miss.

I'm old enough that I learned to type (not "keyboard") in high school on actual typewriters. Granted, they were electric, but they were still pre-computer. I learned terms such as pica and how to manually center text and what to do when the daisy wheel went amuck.

Good times.

Anyway, here are two more photos: Photo 2 | Photo 3

* Oddly, there are two distinctive passages in the Atonement soundtrack that are highly reminiscent of The English Patient. I always find it jarring when I realize that about a soundtrack. For example, in The Passion of the Christ, there is a chunk of music that sounds like it is from Glory. Go figure.

Labels: movies, music, my life, technology

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Google everything.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

It makes sense to me.

I'm not sure how much it creeps me out, but it makes sense, the idea of the Google Operating System. What doesn't Google offer, really? I find myself, more and more, using Google Docs as my default document creation "software", handy for collaboration, private use, and publishing a document with a URL rather than attaching some clunky Word file and hoping people can open it up without asking me for help.

I use Gmail. Google Calendar. Blogger. Google Reader. FeedBurner. My homepage, and my parents' home page on the new computer are all Google, with all the features and widgets and access that will allow them easy access to their favorite blogs, email, and apps, all with extreme ease.

I can't tell you how extremely convenient it is to have identical access to documents and projects and other things I've been working on at any computer with an internet connection rather than having to move things around with flash drives or other methods.

Granted, they'll probably own the world in a decade and then won't have to even pretend to follow their informal "don't be evil" motto. So handy now, though. Handy and convenient on the way to being owned.

Read more here.

Hat Tip: Jim

Labels: internet, technology

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Yes, sometimes it's just like this.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

A friend made me aware of this video yesterday and yes, I admit, it's funny.

It's really funny, because it's true. It captures the agony of such moments, such calls for tech help, completely. Never mind what it says about dumb girlfriends.

Labels: humor, technology, video

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Dvorak wrote good music and may also provide a prank.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I've been thinking of ways to return the pranking favor at work. I'll be working there two days a week now, when my schedule allows, so tomorrow I'll be sitting there at my desk...waiting...

...waiting for the right moment to take Dennis' computer and switch his keyboard to the Dvorak setting.

This is going to be great. Easy to do. Quiet. Silently waiting for him to type. Sitting back and watching the panic and confusion.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Labels: my life, technology

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My new cell phone.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 4 comments link this post

This is a post about my new cell phone.

Yesterday morning started at my "real" job with a staff meeting where I really don't have much to worry about since I'm only there once a week and found myself sitting back and relaxing while playing with my new cell phone when suddenly I pressed some buttons and it started making all kinds of noise and my boss and co-workers stopped talking and stared at me so I, in a panic, closed the case on my new cell phone and shoved it under my leg to muffle the noise which went on for a long time and I felt incredibly stupid. For once I wished my leg were fatter for sound-proofing reasons, which I don't think is possible.

"Sorry. My new cell phone. I don't know how to work it."

I don't understand my new cell phone yet.

I took a long lunch break to practice some music with Mike and Colleen at a nearby church and promptly added them to my new cell phone. They are my first contacts.

"You guys are the first ones on my new cell phone!"

After lunch break, I accidentally pulled the wall phone off of the wall at work, disconnecting a customer who wanted to talk to my boss and I remedied the situation by carefully hanging the receiver back on the floor phone and yelled for Dennis to fix it because we all yell for him when something goes south. Silly phones still attached to the wall, when I now have a real cell phone; I swelled with pride over my new cell phone which would never fall off of the wall.

While reviewing a project drawing with my boss, my new cell phone, which was in my cargo pants pocket, began ringing. I asked my boss what that ringing sound was and then realized it was my new cell phone. I pulled it out of my pants pocket in a panic and then asked my boss if I had to press any buttons or if I just opened the phone.

I haven't been fired yet.

It was Colleen!

"You're the first one to call me on my new cell phone!" I hollered into the device.

I met them at the local coffee shop for my afternoon break and had to listen to Mike play all the possible annoying ring sounds his not-so-new cell phone made.

"No."

"Just listen to this one."

"Stop."

"Wait, listen to this one."

"Quit."

"...and then there's this..."

"No more."

"...what do you think of that one?"

"What part of 'stop' is confusing to you?"

"...this one is the most annoying of them all..."

"Argh!"

I collected all the phone numbers from my co-workers and put them into my new cell phone so that I feel like I have friends though I can't actually figure out how to make use of a feature called "speed dial" or how to bring up the numbers without causing an accident should I be in the car when using my new cell phone but I don't like people who drive while talking on their cell phones so I will endeavor to not do that.

I also emailed my family for their cell phone numbers. I have a mission to collect cell phone numbers. I'll never really call anyone, though, because I have to pay for it. I also have to pay for any call I get on my new cell phone.

"Here's my number. Don't use it. But here it is."

But I really want people to call me because I have a new cell phone.

I can go online and manage my little account and add minutes which is very cool and would be even more so if I didn't have to actually pay for any minutes that get used by my new cell phone.

It's taken me a while, but I finally have my own new cell phone. I set my new cell phone on my desk last night and stared at it for a few minutes. The new cell phone itself is exciting, whether I make a call on it or not. I just wish I'd stop embarrassing myself in front of my boss.

So, in case you haven't heard, I have a new cell phone.

Labels: friends, my life, technology

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Conversations: Cheese browsers.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

My mother is so cute. It's never a good thing when the first thing I hear from a person who has just arrived home is "I'm having a problem with my computer." No "hi", just straight to tech.

Mom: I'm having a problem with my computer.

Me: Does it involve me in any way?

Mom: It's with the yearbook program.

She sat down to call the tech desk at the company that prints the yearbook, and I run and hide as I've learned to do. I made myself a glass of chocolate milk and was heading back upstairs when I overheard her on the phone with the tech guy.

Mom: Yes, I'm using Mozzarella Firefox.

I stopped. I sighed. I put my glass down.

Me: Give me the phone.

Problem soon solved. Milk now being guzzled.

Labels: conversations, family, humor, technology

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The dawn of a new era.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 3 comments link this post

Vintage and new. Getting along.

I have a huge book called Analog, which is a fabulous collection of SciFi stories.

I also have a huge cell phone that is analog. I accidentally left it in Managua.

You might think it was purposeful, once you see a picture of the phone, but I assure you, that was not the case. I needed that phone at the Atlanta airport where airport officials have seen fit to not allow credit cards to be used in the pay phones but instead force you to buy cards with minutes on them which use up $2.50 worth of minutes just by placing the initial phone call into the system thereby creating panic when you are trying to find a place to stay once you get to Minneapolis and plans are falling through and the disembodied voice of Satan says you only have 30 seconds left and your cell phone is in Managua and there's a pretty good chance there won't be anyone to pick you up at the airport.

In 2000, during a summer road trip with Naomi and Sabine during which we traveled from the Canadian border down to Mexico and fought like rabid dogs most of the time and also had a frightening scorpion incident outside the alien museum in Roswell, New Mexico, Naomi bent the antennae on my phone.

Yes, Naomi, you did. I wrote it in my journal:

"...and then Naomi, who didn't have a place lined up for us to stay in Denver like she said she did, bent my phone antennae! Aaargh!"

One weekend a few years ago I lent my cell phone to my mother in a moment of good will when her ginormous bag-phone wasn't working. She returned from the weekend of festivities with my phone missing the cap on the antennae. This meant my phone began a long and colorful history of snagging the inside of my purse or coat. Dad tried to fix it by attaching a large, yellow plastic end-cap that was probably originally intended for something on a combine or space shuttle. I assume it was for this because the end-cap promptly failed, fell off, and did not work. This sounds like the inner workings of a combine or space shuttle.

Last fall, during the Bob Dylan concert weekend, I got out of my Jeep and dropped the phone in a parking lot. The phone no longer made a sound after that, meaning I couldn't hear if anyone was calling me because there would be no ring. This occurred in the parking lot of the Hobby Lobby, which led me to develop a complex theory on the dangers of hobbies.

I didn't think this was much of a problem, this non-sound issue, seeing as how I never turned the phone on because I don't like people bothering me and also because the battery was one of those Genuine Crap Batteries made in some dungeon in Singapore that barely lasted long enough to dial an 800-number before dying. Generally speaking, my phone still functioned as I always intended it to: to call out if I went in the ditch or to let my family know I was coming or going.

I also didn't know my own cell phone number, so it was difficult for me to tell people to call me. My sister had my number on her caller ID so I would actually refer people to my sister's home phone number to ask her what my cell phone number was.

I didn't care.

But then Managua. And Atlanta. And a letter from Alltel that pointed out we had some "older" phones that wouldn't work with the new 911 system.

I went on eBay to buy a cheap cell phone because I decided I'd get into one of those pay-per-minute plans from Alltel since I can't commit to a contract and never use my cell phone enough to warrant a bunch of money per month. I'd decided to go the eBay route because the cheapest phone Alltel had was $130 which happened to be about $100 more than I wanted to spend.

I got a phone off of eBay for $30. It has a bunch of features that I will not use because frankly, a phone should call out and get calls in and not do other things like walking dogs or serving as a Star Trek phaser or whatever else it is they do now. Mike, who had lost his cell phone in a snow bank and elicited many insults from me over that, bought his replacement phone off of eBay, and that is what gave me the idea. Tonight, as he and Colleen attempted to talk to me through hisses and crackling, he informed me that maybe his "new" phone wasn't so new and that maybe the seller on eBay had lied.

eBay, I told him, is synonymous with liar. I think there are also some ancient Greek and Hebrew meanings there but I just don't have the time to delve into it.

My new phone was waiting for me on Saturday when I got home from Bismarck, as was my vintage phone that had been mailed back to me by Cecil, who is now home from Nicaragua and in Indiana.

I mailed your phone. You need to treasure it like an antique, Cecil said in an email.

Tomorrow I will attempt to activate my new eBay phone at Alltel and get on a pay-per-minute plan. I am aware things may go badly at Alltel and I could find my new phone functioning as a $30 paper weight and still making use of my old phone. I don't find this to be a tremendous loss, considering that my old phone is silent and that the world could do with less ringtones that condense Ravel's fifteen-minute Bolero into a thirty-second digitized monstrosity.

I will also attempt, should all things go according to plan, to remember my number, though I will certainly email it to my sister in Grand Forks so she can remain my reference for people who want my number.

I will be emailing her my new cell phone number because I am too cheap to use the phone and call her. I don't want to have to pay for those minutes.

Labels: humor, my life, technology

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Bill Gates and Nicaragua.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

My first thought, when I saw the windows up at the top of the Great Cathedral in Leon, was one of admiration for the swinging system used to make the colored glass barriers be less about barriers (important in the Nicaraguan heat), and more about swinging, colored glass art that changed the light before it hit the cathedral floor.

The view from on top was amazing, and the hot wind was incredibly strong, whipping my hair into my face so much that, when I came around a corner and was concentrating on sidestepping a dome (which we were not supposed to step on), I almost missed it.

It being this window, which looks suspiciously Microsoft-esque.

Bill Gates and Microsoft get their grubby paws into everything, don't they? Even the Great Cathedral.

No wonder the cathedral, which needs so much work inside especially with the torn and water-stained stations of the cross paintings, has lots of areas of patched paint and plaster: Microsoft is all about patching.

How's Vista working out for people? I haven't heard much. But there again... vista: Spanish for "view." Coincidence? There are no coincidences.

I think that's the inflammatory story I'm going to go with for now.

::Note: You can see a bit of footage of the Great Cathedral in the first part of this video clip.::

Labels: nicaragua, technology

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Things that really suck.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 2 comments link this post

Just in case anyone was thinking I was something high and mighty with my recent posts, I want to let you know about a few things that suck:

My crappy Dell computer with its apparent plaster and stone processor
Crappy Windows Movie Maker
The crappy movie I'm not able to create because of the above
The woman in WalMart who mistook the "Exit" sign and doorway as the "Stop and adjust everything I'm wearing" sign
WalMart
The stupid shirt I'm wearing
Pretty much anything else associated with WalMart and my computer and Windows and Microsoft and stupid shirts

The only thing that makes it all bearable is my all-time favorite candy being in season: Cadbury's mini eggs.

Which then leads me to add the following to the above list:

My crappy weight problem

Well, that's it for stellar insight today. Tune in tomorrow. I've got to go curse at my computer again, just in time for church.

Have a nice day.

Labels: lists, technology

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Need some new music?

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

Pandora is my latest addition to this blog.

Pandora.com, that is. It's a website that lets you enter a favorite song or artist and then finds similar music. You then create your own "radio" stations.

My personal Pandora.com profile is here, julie22. However, because I like gadgets, I've added the RSS feed to my Pandora radio stations to the right side of my blog. You can check out the music I like and start your own free account.

Hat tip: David Kuo.

Labels: internet, music, technology

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Re-Run: Tech desk. It's free!

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

::This post originally ran November 16, 2004. I was talking to my sister Jacqui, telling her about this incident, which made her laugh and led to this re-run.::

The phone rang. My sister, in a somewhat distraught state of mind, was on the other line.

"My monitor won't work! It's black, with the light blinking on the front!"

Hmm. Monitor. That's a new one. Last time it was the CD-ROM.

"Well, OK. Try this."

Since her cordless phone had conveniently died that evening, she had to yell instructions from the kitchen to my nephew.

"Cody, push the power button in and hold it for a few seconds...does it turn off?"

Pause.

"The light is off."

"OK," I said. "See if you can turn it back on again."

Pause.

"Yes, but still no picture."

"I hate to state the obvious, but are all the cords plugged in tight?" I asked, meaning the port at the back of the computer, not the power which was obviously functioning.

"Yes, yes. I checked that already. It happened, the monitor went haywire, when I (long story of evening's events here)"

"OK. Well, try this."

"Didn't work."

"Try this."

"Still not working."

"Try this."

"I'm going to put Cody on the line and I'll go do that."

Pause.

"Hi auntie."

"Hi Cody. Is your mom at the computer?"

"Yep."

"Have her try this."

"Um, it didn't work.

"OK. Tell her to give the monitor a gentle whack."

What the heck. Works sometimes, I figured. In the background I heard a sharp thump. If that was gentle, her spankings must be brutal.

Long pause. My sister was back on the phone, hollering in the background for Cody to go brush his teeth.

"I give up! I'm going to drop-kick the thing."

"That was some gentle whack..."

"I need this computer by this weekend for (long reason here)."

"Just calm down now, we'll get this fixed." I thought for a moment. "How about trying this?"

"Nope."

"This?"

"@#$!#$@#!"

I was stymied. Just to be sure, I decided I would ask my sister to verify the connections.

"How about going to the computer, gently pulling the cord from the back, and checking to see if any of the prongs in the serial port are bent. If not, gently plug it back in, but make sure it's all the way in."

Exasperated sigh. "OK!"

Long pause. She was back on the phone.

"I don't believe it! It's on now. I guess the plug was loose on the back."

Yep. First rule of thumb for tech calls: make sure everything is plugged in correctly.

"Well, glad to see it's working. See you next week."

"Yep, next week."

Labels: my life, re-run, technology

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How not to respond.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

A couple of weeks ago, I sent an email to my very own Internet Service Provider (ISP) because of a mildly threatening comment left on a blog post prone to such comments. The person leaving the comment shared my ISP.

I frequently send an email to the ISP of idiots who leave comments that are threatening or extremely vulgar who don't realize that they leave an IP number that helps reveal who they are. I don't always hear back from these ISP's and don't know if anything results from it. However, I think it is important to continue this practice because they ought to know that the behavior is going on, that their system is being used in such a manner, and that, in case the person leaving these kinds of comments has a history of it, any information on all such incidents might be useful in the future.

Here is the email I sent my ISP a few weeks back (minus the IP information):

I have gotten comments in the past on a particular blog post and have ignored it, but I decided that you, the ISP, should at least contact the person or do something about it; they are using your system to abuse their privileges on other NDTC customer websites.

I've included the necessary information below. Please contact me on your policies regarding this matter. This isn't, as I said, the first time something has happened like this. Though this is mild, I think I need to start addressing it. I did not publish the comment, which is my normal routine, but it does become an irritation and since, in this case, both I and the person leaving the comment have you as an ISP, I felt it best to take it to you.

I will wait to hear back from you.

Actually, it was more like three or so weeks ago that I sent the email about the comment. I included the comment, the IP address, the time of the comment, and whatever further information I had at hand. I never heard back and had forgotten about it.

Today, I finally got a response:

If you feel threatened, you should ask that your link be removed from walkingsky.com and call the police. The police would contact us if action needs
to be taken in this matter.
Thanks,
NDTC Internet Support

Here is my reply back to them:

This is your answer? Unreal.

As an internet provider, the suggestion that a customer try to stop comments by getting links removed from other websites that are completely outside of her control is bizarre, to say the least. In other instances, where I have had vulgar, vile or threatening comments or emails sent to me because of my web site, I have sent those on to the ISP's indicated by the person's IP number. Never once was I told to handle it like this.

Regarding the police involvement, I never indicated I felt it was a legal/illegal issue. I just thought that as a company providing service for a fee, you might be interested in what your paying customers were receiving via that service, particularly by other customers on the same service network.

You can be sure I will include this on my blog; I find it amazingly bad in taste. Not to mention, nearly two weeks late.

Frankly, I'm still amazed. Is this how ISP's normally respond? I don't recall that I sent them a link to the actual post, though, since I am not at home right now and can't access my "sent" email archives, I don't know. If I did not include the link, I am amazed that they figured out which post it was and suggested that the blame/solution was to get links removed on another website that pointed to the post rather than the person who left the comment. If I did include the link, I am still amazed for the same reasoning.

At what point did I indicate I felt it was a police matter? I merely suggested that a company that received money from customers might be interested to know about a matter in which another fellow customer was abusing the system. Instead, the onus is placed back on me, be it ever so mildly, to make requests of other people not involved or to basically take it to the police myself if I feel so threatened. If I were to go to every website that somehow led a freakish loser to my site to leave a rotten comment or send me a nasty email, I would have a hectic life indeed, though that is essentially what was suggested is my responsibility to do. What is interesting is that the post in question gets many readers who aren't necessarily coming from a specific exterior site, but find it from various Google searches. Shall I request Google to remove me from their listings?

What a stupid suggestion.

Up until now, I've never been disappointed with my ISP as I appreciate the high-speed internet they provide. However, in this case, the person who finally got around to answering my email might need a refresher course on dealing with paying customers to their satisfaction. For example, they could still take a course of non-action but say something to the effect of thanking me for my response, and that they take these issues seriously, blah blah blah. Frankly, that's what kind of BS I was expecting. Or maybe they could take a course on reading comprehension and learn how to respond to the actual issues raised in an email instead of going off on a tangent.

UPDATE: ...and I've certainly gotten a lot of hits from someone in the general vicinity of this ISP today. Hmmm.

66.163.129.66

Labels: my life, technology

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Upper Great Plains Technology Conference.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 6 comments link this post

The best part was Vint Cerf. (And the free pens and notepads on the trade show floor.)

But seriously. Cerf was interesting and funny and I could have listened to him talk all day. Unfortunately, because we had to have an emcee introduce the chamber of commerce president introduce Sen. Dorgan introduce Sen. Conrad introduce Rep. Pomeroy*...

...old Cerf didn't get as much time to talk as he should have.

Which was sad.

I mean, who else makes IPv6 humorous and something you want to hear about instead of politicians congratulating each other for being such great politicians. I jotted down, in my notebook that it was always a shame when the organizers couldn't stop patting all the other organizers on the back for being such good organizers. In other words "wow, you did your job and that's great" as if it shouldn't be a simple expectation to do a good job whatever the job was, instead of a surprise that prompts congratulatory remarks. Are we that pathetic that we don't expect someone to do a good job, or that we need to bolster someone for merely doing what they were supposed to do?

"You're great."
"No, you."
"No, you."
"No, really, you."
(Repeat this to the end of time and back.)

I also noted a severe abuse of the font Comic Sans in the Powerpoint presentations, but that's old ground here.

The problem was that, by habit, I drew a caricature of the speaker, which happened to be Pomeroy at the moment. This drawing included talk balloons coming from his mouth as he talked bizarrely about the old days of trappers and Native Americans (Note to Rep. Pomeroy: I think the word you were looking for was rendezvous, and not that 45-word sentence you gasped out) which caused one of the 98 percent tech geeks in bad ties to whisper to his friend, in the seat behind us, "Where's he goin' with this one?"

No one knew. Not even Pomeroy, bless his heart. I'm still not sure.

Anyway, Cerf started his talk and my caricature and rude notes rested nicely in the opposing page as I began to jot down things of interest from Cerf's talk. It was at that point that the three empty chairs next to Naomi and me filled with Pomeroy, Conrad, and Dorgan. Naomi squished over close to me and we entered one of those agonizing hour-fits of trying not to laugh and choking on it.

Naomi was having a bit of a hard time.

I slowly and casually slid my hand over the caricature of Pomeroy and softly turned the page so that he wouldn't see what I had drawn; I wrote the word "oops" on the new page, the message clear to Naomi. She choked on a laugh. Luckily, Pomeroy seemed to think (I'm guessing here) that she was laughing at a stupid comment about Cerf's wacky hat needing ear flaps to be North Dakota-ready.

Pomeroy. Bless his heart. He laughed a lot during Cerf's speech. Sometimes when no one was even talking. Weird. Later, when we had lunch at Dolittle's, we came up with something like "25 Snappy Responses to Pomeroy." They were snappy. They were funny. And they involved things like saying "Hi. I'm a constituent."

Cerf talked about the work he was doing (not through Google, which he made clear) on a kind of "space internet" using relays and such. Naomi, in her brilliant wisdom, summed up the technology conference in as few yet powerful words as possible: "We can figure out how to get the internet on Mars, but we can't figure out how to get Dorgan a decent hairpiece."

The hairpiece is blog material for another time.

Today I attended a workshop on Blogging 101 which I will blog about later in the grand and redundant methodology of bloggers blogging about blogs. Right now, I'm too busy trying to recover from sitting next to our state's entire national representation and how we almost got busted for caricatures.

*Pomeroy and Dorgan weren't on the program as far as I could tell, but they were up for re-election.

Note: I did not spell-check or really edit this post because I'm on my way to Minneapolis. Rush. I did, however, spend about half an hour this afternoon at the Minnesota State University Moorhead campus (my alma mater) browsing the faculty art show. Trygve Olson and Carl Oltvedt -- yikes. Jealousy have I. I know you care.

Labels: technology

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Firefox 1.5 sucks. I'm sorry, but it's true.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 9 comments link this post

I've been using Firefox browsers for a few years now, and so when the newest version, 1.5, came out, I upgraded without a second thought.

Oh how I regret it.

It takes forever to start up. It crashes in the middle of surfing. After a lot of surfing, the computer grinds to a standstill because it takes up so much memory. It won't play any video clips nor even show the box where they should go. Upon clicking a link that opens up a box that might have a WM player or a sample of something with Java script or whatever, the box appears but nothing is in it. My extension to open tabs or pages up in Internet Explorer crashes all Firefox windows and tabs. I can't use it at all. I've been finding myself forced to use IE to view any web page that has music or video clips or anything that seems to bog down Firefox. I've been using IE a lot lately. It won't remember my passwords for sites like the old version did, despite me fudging around with the security and internet options with every possible combination.

Firefox 1.5 is a complete bomb for me. And what's more irritating is that, as I look through the forums and other web sites in search of solutions, I see that lots of people are having problems but there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to them. That is, some people with the same OS and settings as me get it to work. Some don't. Some have problems with it, but a completely different set of problems.

It's the absolute worst browser I've used. I really regret updating because before, Firefox hummed along beautifully and I had absolutely no complaints. As it is, I can't recommend this version of the browser to anyone.

I'm thinking I may uninstall it and put the older version I had been using back on. (Was that 1.0.5?) I hate to do that, but I can't get this new beast to do anything right on my computer.

Anyone else out there struggling with this beast?

UPDATE: I've killed the

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How not to respond.

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Upper Great Plains Technology Conference.

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Firefox 1.5 sucks. I'm sorry, but it's true.