Month: March 2008


I Am Bored and Random


I needed an update because I kind of wanted to remove the previous post from my homepage. I need to work on the CSS more, because blockquotes look like crap on my homepage (not the blog). But it’s all pulled from the same database. Now that I’m rambling, let me be random and talk about crap most of my non techies couldn’t care less about. It’s almost 4AM, I have been testing Firefox trunk builds all night and reporting bugs (found one where zooming out breaks the background images on this site). It regressed back to October 26, 2007 – (Firefox 3 alpha 9). Since then, there were so many improvements in page zoom, but this one minor thing seemed to break. Oh well, they’ll get it fixed. While I’m at it, go download yourself a beta copy of Firefox 3, it is the shit and kicks Firefox 2’s ass (faster, less RAM, more features). It’s really stable, so don’t be scared. Except don’t be like me and download the nightlys every day because things get messy sometimes. We’ll see where it goes from here. What else? Oh, I got a cold. It’s the second time I got sick this year (which is rare because I’m always healthy). Happy day after Easter. The economy is in the shitter. I’m CPR re-certified, because that expired last year. FiOS TV kick’s iO’s ass because it is much clearer and the guide doesn’t lag. This concludes tonight’s randomness. I’m done. Have a good one.

What A Dick


WOW:

At least 3,990 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in 2003. It has cost taxpayers about $500 billion and estimates of the final tab run far higher. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglizt and Harvard University public finance expert Linda Bilmes have estimated the eventual cost at $3 trillion when all the expenses, including long-term care for veterans, are calculated.

– Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.


K-Rock March Bracket Brawl


I present to you (with great difficulty), my brackets. By the way, this will never win, because I can just tell it’s not what people think. Click the image for full size.

 

Now here were the problems:

  1. Led Zeppelin vs. Pink Floyd – hard to choose for me. Both great in their own unique ways.
  2. Stone Temple Pilots vs Pearl Jam. Yikes! I went with STP because the only Pearl Jam album that was awesome was Ten (everything else was just ok).
  3. Foo Fighters vs. Audioslave – Hmm… I’m going with Foo Fighters because the category was 90s, and they had better stuff in the 90s. The good Audioslave wasn’t until 2002 or so.
  4. And the winner? Metallica? Yes, it’s what I picked. I’ve been a Metallica person for the longest time, especially their 80s and 90s works. Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd are legendary, but I didn’t grow up on that. Once again they all cannot really be compared. It’s semi unfair.

Check out the picks of Keith Connor’s, dignitary at the Mirror office.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1


Whaaaaa? Microsuck just released IE7 and you mean to tell me there already is a public beta for 8? Yep, and I have the “privilege” (rolls eyes) of ruining my computer by testing it. I will give you a full review of it below. Warning: while I try to post in plain English, I may use some terms unfamiliar to you non-techies such as CSS, XHTML, Acid2 etc. Use Google and learn something.

What’s the deal with IE 8? Let’s start with the graphical interface. Microsoft did not really do anything with it. Everything looks just like IE7. the only thing I noticed is that it looks like they finally got favicon support right. Also, i. There is also a bug where there is no text select cursor and you only get an arrow. For a complete listing of features according to these morons, go here.

And here is the part where I simply slap my head in shame. IE8 was claimed to be released to pass the Acid2 test and be standards compliant. Yes, IE8 does pass Acid2, but that is not the point. What good is passing a stupid CSS test, if it renders many other pages WORSE than IE6 does. That’s right folks, they broke it big time. Let me put it nicely. The developers pissed, shit and puked on the page rendering engine before slapping it in a browser and hastily releasing it to the public. Portfolioso.com’s main page (not the blog) is XHTML strict and renders properly in Firefox (1,1.5,2,3), Safari, Opera, IE6 (kind of – no transparent PNG support), IE7 and probably other browsers – yet looks like ass in IE8. Once again, Microsoft added support for web standards, and we have a website using valid CSS and valid XHTML Strict, still displaying improperly. “Oh but cut them some slack, it’s just a beta.” NO! They don’t get any slack. This is a rich company that has been working on this for months. They should do a half decent job before releasing it to the public.

I have a couple of screenshots of how poorly webpages look in IE8.

  • Portfolioso.com Home – Look how badly the menu is spaced. This is CSS and XHTML Strict Compliant
  • EVAC Website (HTML 4 Transitional) – No idea what happened here. IE8 wrecks it. Take a look at EVAC’s site in your current browser and then look at that screenshot… Also note that this site is HTML 4.0 Transitional and follows W3 standards, displays the same in all browsers, but not IE8

The quick and dirty: This is a very poor release and Microsoft should be ashamed of themselves. Ever with the exception of Windows XP, every product released after that is pure garbage, and IE8 is living up to those standards. I’m assuming these rendering problems will be fixed in future IE8 beta releases, but we shall see. Firefox 3 (I test betas of that, too) is kicking serious ass. Firefox 3 is amazing – I cannot say enough about it. When it is finally released, everyone NEEDS to get it for many reasons (another post). The only thing Firefox 3 lacks that IE7 has is a thumbnail view of all tabs. But that’s just eye candy. When it comes down to solid performance, Firefox wins.