the new relics

"Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we do not experience it." - Max Frisch (1911-1991)

As we move into the future, we love to reminisce about how we got by with merely 512 KB of RAM or toted around king-sized cell phones before this era of hyper efficiency. But no one ever seems to think about where this stuff goes once labeled "obsolete", while the usefulness period of modern electronics continues to shorten at an alarming rate. Sure there are eccentric collectors out there that are content to fill their garages with arcade cabinets, Apple IIs and the occasional 8-track player, but that's not everyone. After many attempts at getting some return at the neighborhood yard sale, this stuff invariably ends up in a city dump, buried amongst the wastage.

I was out walking the dog on the weekend and I noticed a large, weather-worn piece of black plastic from a distance in the dusty wasteland that is our neighborhood. A familiar looking shape glinted in the sunlight, and as I got closer I made out the "Sega Genesis" logo. The case was cracked open, and it was clear the elements had not been kind. A knockoff six-button controller missing its wire was found nearby. While thrilled with the possibility that this was uncovered in an archaeological dig of modern times, a more likely explanation is that the wayward console was simply dumped here as part of someone's garbage.

Electronics are deeply entrenched in our culture, and will naturally make their way into our waste stream. However game-related hardware can be considered fairly recent - the Genesis that I found was originally released in 1989. That our consumer cycle has already spit out this timeworn machine into my desert of a backyard amazes me.

What will future civilizations think of the byproducts of our wired society? Useless without power, how will they determine what these devices were originally intended for? Finding a clay jar or stone tools buried underneath layers of dirt and rock tells a simple story, but as our culture complicates itself with new ways to distract ourselves from reality, our purpose here is similarly clouded.

with rusted metal heart

the I of the radio

I never thought I'd start accessorizing my iPod mini this soon, but I picked up a Griffin iTrip mini on the weekend to put the equivalent of about 100 albums worth of music to use in my car.

Including a CD player in every car was probably a pretty good idea seven years ago, but that was before portable music playing devices became fashionable again. Remember those tape deck adapters you had to use just so you could enjoy your favorite CDs instead of hastily creating a bunch of mix tapes? Now in most cars you don't have access to a tape deck, and so the FM transmitter becomes the solution.

I was always curious as to how these things work, and in true Apple-styled simplicity, you don't have to do anything beyond plugging the transmitter into the top of the iPod mini to get it going. When you press play the iTrip will automatically begin broadcasting to a station at the bottom of the FM dial, which in most areas will probably contain static. Tuning your radio to this station will begin the flow of your personalized playlist. Though in Toronto this can be somewhat challenging; I've found that almost every station on the FM dial contains something - even if it's just a partial signal from a neighboring frequency.

For those that want to avoid these problems, you can upload a series of short MP3 files that contain "frequencies" that the iTrip will recognize and begin broadcasting to when selected from a standard playlist. It's rather ingenious and completely easy to set up. According to the user guide, volume on the iPod is also important: set it too low and you won't get a clear signal, set it too high and the sound will be severely distorted. I was able to tweak these settings a bit in the car before leaving for work this morning and managed to get a pretty decent sound going through and out of the city.

For accessibility and strength of signal, my iPod was positioned in the cup holder at the front of my car. I noticed that in quieter or acoustic songs the static of the radio station will bleed through, becoming distracting at some points. Furthermore, despite having felt confident in the iPod and car stereo volume settings, the sound felt lighter, and almost blurrier than if I had been hearing it directly from the CD or a regular FM radio station.

The iTrip simply uses the iPod's battery for power. There's no noticable difference in consumption compared to listening to it normally through headphones. The price point is the same for both the regular iPod and the mini: roughly $60 CDN. Considering the software is freely available you're really only buying the transmitter itself. It seems fairly sturdy, and I like how the mini version matches the form of the device, but the overall quality of signal output leaves a lot to be desired. I know I will get a lot of use out of this device from simple convenience, but the technology seems very crude to be of any interest to those wanting to preserve the fidelity of their MP3 encoded music. Instead the iTrip seems limited to gadget status: something you'll love to show off while secretly cursing its wasted potential.

so cold in this house

another chapter in the book of self-loathing

The first, of course, being the inception of this website.

I once made a habit of sneering at anyone in possession of an iPod. They seem like such a fashion accessory, the owners flaunting them like it was some sort of status symbol. I laughed when the flashmugging site went online, and the subsequent downturn in the number of white earbuds I saw on the street. Forget subscribing to Apple's school of over designed hardware - I wanted a Nomad Zen NX.

My flimsy shell of rebellion was swiftly shattered by my in-laws this weekend, who surprised me with a gift from Hong Kong - a 6 GB iPod mini. Something I never expected, because while I was over there I specifically avoided this type of technology because it was too much of a temptation (and still way too expensive). So now I join the ranks of the MP3 player elite, ashamed to be counted among this unstoppable marketing force. Though on the same token, eternally grateful for such a generous gift. I hear that the visions of Avril Lavigne t-shirt wearing high school students rocking out to their Minis eventually subside. Mostly.

After opening the obnoxiously arty packaging and rubbing my body with the deliciously sleek, silvery device, I decided to try it out. Apple loves to make their hardware completely idiot proof, but when someone other than an idiot wants to know how it works or configure the shit out of it, things tend to happen.

I remember downloading and installing iTunes when it became available for Windows. This was shortly after iPods became usable with Windows, and was considered a kind of watershed for digital music. I've always wanted to replace WinAmp with something less, well, WinAmp and figured that was the answer. Little did I know I was basically downloading Windows Media Player designed by Apple, and uninstalled the damned thing a day later. It had an interface that was smooth and appealing to the eye. In fact, it made sure to maintain the design conventions carried over from Mac OS. But what it didn't tell you was what it was doing to your meticulously organized digital music library in the background. iTunes loves to make you think its doing you a favour, but it's really just an annoyance dressed up in brushed metal. I have a 6 GB portable storage device, and the only way to use it is through that blasted program.

Loading songs onto my iPod mini was effortless, but I noticed that most of the ID3 tags were completely off (my own fault). The iPod onboard menu automatically organizes your songs according to album, artist, genre, etc., so this is pretty important if you expect to find a specific song to listen to. I can't stand the singles-driven music culture that MP3s players foster, so for albums, track numbers are doubly important. Otherwise you're listening to The Wall in alphabetical order, and suddenly "Another Brick in the Wall" Parts 1 to 3 are back to back and completely lose all their meaning. Adding or changing any of this information in iTunes will only update your library database, and not the MP3 file attributes itself - for that you have to "convert" the ID3 tags first. This made me constantly refer back to Windows Explorer and my beautiful hierarchical folder structure to correct them manually. Of course, this will only affect those that get tired of iTunes' sluggish response and wish to use their old MP3 player. Custom playlists are easily creatable, and an "On the Go" function on the iPod itself will allow you to create playlists on the fly. I found that especially handy if I wanted to listen to a few albums in succession.

In the iPod's Extras menu, you have the ability to store "To Do" lists, text files, contacts, and sync with iCal (if you have the program). This is a great idea! It's not like any of this stuff takes up space. The coolest feature outside the obvious music playing one is the games. In this age of gadget-philia, everything must have games on it to be useful. The iPod mini sports Brick, Parachute, Music Trivia, and Solitaire. Solitaire definitely has the best graphics. I felt it was my actual hand on screen moving those cards. Brick is that age old classic Arkanoid dressed way, way down, but it's fun to use the magic touchpad. I don't know how often I'd play that one in public though, because it would defeat the purpose of wearing shitty headphones.

It's hard to believe I can put half of my music collection on this thing, because in reality I doubt I'd ever make it through the playlist in my entire life. I think knowing that I have this capability makes this feel comforting, even though iTunes is essentially tying my hands.

as you claw the thin ice

new headphones

I've broken two pairs of headphones since I built my current PC. The Audigy drive that came with my retail Audigy package has standard stereo inputs for both headphones and microphones, and so comes with a mini-plug adapter. Since both pairs of headphones only had mini-plugs, they were prone to being bent regardless of cord length. Because of the awkward piece of plastic on the headphone cord before each actual plug, there was nothing on the adapter preventing this movement no matter what set-up I tried.

But not anymore, because a last minute gift idea I gave to my sister turned into one of the best presents I got this year. The Sony MDR-500DJs are probably the best headphones I've ever owned. They're not designed for gaming or anything, but have shown great acoustical depth and precision in Half Life 2, Pacific Assault and incidentally, the ass-kicking themes from Jets 'n Guns. The only downside is their ability to indiscriminately cut out all interference from the outside world; for this I suppose I'll have to suffer the many objects thrown in my direction by The Wife.

you'll bleed out of control

I'm pretty arrogant when it comes to computer viruses. I never go out of my way to install security patches or Anti-Virus software. Perhaps that's just left over from when I used to run linux. The times I did have a virus protection program installed on my computer I ended up uninstalling because it significantly slowed the performance of my PC. And tweaking my PC for games was imperative, as you are all well aware by now.

Now let's look at the events of the LAN party, because I'm pretty sure that's where I had Win32.Welchia given to me. A nice little worm to violate my pristine (yet unpatched) PC. I'm not sure who the carrier was, but I was the only victim as there were two Win9x PCs and the rest were patched WinXP machines. I suppose I deserved it, since I never update my Windows installations while inside my trusted network. Perhaps it's some form of Computer Karma for my constant mockery of the victims of MSBlaster and SoBig.F.

The worm didn't actually take hold until yesterday, when it detected an active internet connection while I was updating this site. My computer rebooted without my intervention, and all of a sudden traffic on my home network increased a thousandfold. For an instant I thought maybe my site was slashdotted; but let's be realistic here. Then there were the mysterious programs running in my process list. I panicked.

As if you couldn't tell by trying to visit the site in the last couple of days, the webserver also got hit, and as a result I did some things to alleviate the problem I probably shouldn't have. Tonight it's finally back online, and my network here is back to normal for the time being.

I'd like to thank Kapersky Labs for the shareware copy of their anti-virus software that helped me troubleshoot this problem. I'd also like to thank Pest Patrol for detecting the worm's activity - since initially all I had was Cool Beans' network chart showing me I was sending out 7 KB/s and flooding my LAN. Lastly I'd like to thank the good folks over at Symantec for providing a clean, easy to understand method of removal, leaving my boxes minty fresh.

Let that be a lesson to you - never go to a LAN party unprotected.

feed me RSS

I always thought RSS was yet another web-based specification that would take years to be fully accepted. Especially since the very essence of it is discussed fervently by A-list blowhards like Dave Whiner. Not to mention the scores of bloggers fueling the trend by pimping out their RSS feeds. Moveable Type builds one by default, you see.

So now Yahoo! News is offering up RSS in more than one flavor, depending on your news preferences. I felt that it was time to accept that the RSS spec has reached a point where it is probably usable, and decided to do some investigating for a reader.

If you have Mozilla or Firebird installed, Aggreg8 is a nice little plugin that you can use whether you're running the browser or not. It wasn't very intuitive to set up - and that's not a good thing considering there aren't many options. The UI is all out of order and the fact that some unnecessary fields had to be filled in kind of bugged me. If you want to see the benefits of having news feeds with a very unobtrusive tool, this is a good one to start with at least.

However if you really want to get fancy, you can go get Feed Demon. I think it's like pre-beta-1B-09er or some shit. It's very easy to set up, and provides all the trappings of what I imagine an RSS reader should be.

Speaking of RSS whores, have another one.

free software I like to use

Amazingly enough there are actually some great, free applications available for Win32 that I have been using since I've submitted to Windows XP full time.

Instant Messaging: Trillian (find great skins here)

Text Editing/Coding: Crimson Editor, Note Tab Light (both used to build this site, depending on my mood)

Desktop Management: VirtuaWin (a suprisingly unobtrusive app for those that can't live without multiple desktops)

Web Browsing and Email: Mozilla Suite

System Monitoring: Cool Beans System Info, SpeedFan (the latter being extremely useful during LAN parties)

All worth checking out, if you've ever found yourself stuck with shareware/nagware.

good karma

Remember last week when I talked about the Nomad Zen NX, saying how it would be great if these new MP3 players would just shrink for us?

Like a bolt from the heavens, these appeared. As if to shout to the world, "Nay, we are not dead," Rio has created four new MP3 players to be unleashed hopefully sometime this year (rumored street date is October 17th). The most appealing of them all though is the hard drive based Rio Karma which can hold 40 GB of data. It will also support USB 2.0, have its own ethernet port and be able to play WMA and Ogg Vorbis. All for a tidy $450 US. Will the iPod finally be dethroned?

(thanks to gizmodo for the tipoff)

nomad

I always found it funny how portable MP3 players are so popular. I mean, the whole purpose of the MP3 file format was to compress audio - not to make copying songs and CD through filesharing easier. The arrival of these devices was basically a way of mainstream society acknowledging that this stuff is going on (especially when a dollar is to be made). Using their new brand of scaremongering and ignoring the Fair Use clause the RIAA says we are criminals for making MP3s or mix CDs. It seems a lot of things that involve a computer or some other piece of "advanced" technology fall under the nebulous umbrella of the DMCA. Companies like the defunct Diamond Multimedia, RCA and Creative Labs put together some of the first portable MP3 players, and basically set the piracy train on a collision course with this unreasonable law. But I digress. We're talking about MP3 players here.

When thinking of a portable MP3 player, most people's thoughts drift towards something like Apple's iPod. It is indeed a sexy piece of equipment with a whopping 35 GB of storage, but the $800 CDN price tag turns me off. Then there are the stories a friend told me about his experiences with the Windows-compatible version. I give Apple every bit of credit for developing this device and iTunes, but why do they insist on marking up the cost of all their proprietary hardware? Probably the reason why I'll never get an Apple computer.

But now there is another.

Creative Labs have impressed me with their swanky new Nomad Zen NX (via gizmodo of course), which comes in both 30 and 20 GB flavours. Ever since I began to make my own MP3s I've considered myself "in the market" to buy a portable player, but nothing has really caught my eye until this one. All of the devices that I've been exposed to have either been overpriced, don't have enough storage, are ugly, or come with shitty software. I came very close to getting a MuVo, because it was tiny and served equally well as a portable USB drive. But the price wasn't right for the 128 MB capacity; I wanted something that would hold a few albums, not 15 or 20 songs. Other key features of the Zen NX that have me very interested are its flexible and easy to use LCD interface and USB 2.0 compatibility. It goes for about $500 CDN, which is is still pretty expensive.

One thing I'd like to see is these portable players designed to be smaller. I mean the iPod may be somewhat of a standard, but why must every new device try and imitate it? Something the size of a MiniDisc player would be reasonable. Because seriously, who wants to walk around with a hard drive in their pocket?

it's like surfing the web, man

It's already been established that I dislike IE with a passion. Naturally, I am always on the lookout for a new and interesting way to view the web, despite my love for all things mozilla.

Tonight I found another browser to try out, something known by the clever moniker iRider (just when you thought e as a prefix was done being annoying). I think the selling point of iRider is its ability to load pages in the background by default. Those of us that have become accustomed to tabbed browsing may think this isn't a big deal, but for those coming from IE and their multiple windows and annoying popups this may be something to try. All pages loaded into the background are automatically organized into trees based on the site they came from, which makes it easy to control everything. You can also open a group of regularly viewed sites through one bookmark, but that can be done in Opera as well. Standard text-select can open a bunch of links in the background at once, which I found pretty cool. A handy feature is its own integrated Search page, which submits your query to as many web search engines as you like. iRider's interface is a bit ugly (and it doesn't appear to be skinnable), but it prides itself on treating the web like a collection of pages in a magazine - ones that you can flip through with ease not having to be at the mercy of load times.

It's pretty quick at rendering pages, and manages to behave a lot like IE by using features of the Windows shell. It's also easy to get used to the commands, and is fully configurable if you don't like defaults. However, the fact that it is not freeware is a little annoying. At least Opera just makes you look at an ad banner if you don't feel like buying. Download the 21 day evaluation here if you are so inclined. The company's preocupation with surfing and wave imagery is a bit tired. We got the point eight years ago, for fuck's sake.

they aren't just for games anymore

Ever since I got my GBA SP I've been obsessed with its potential as more than just a gaming platform. I mentioned SongPro a while back, and then how it should be converted into a mobile multiplayer gaming platform. The NY Times has a really cool article on various technologies used to bring full-length movies to the GBA (link via gizmodo). Majesco is offering something called a "Video Pak" which has a video pre-loaded onto it, and will be manufactured by Nintendo. TuneIn Entertainment is creating a battery-powered docking station for the GBA, which would then play 3" CDs with movies on them. Both are cool concepts in theory, but I can't really see the quality of the video being that great; the article says it would be equivalent to VHS. Still, I think that these emerging technologies to expand the use of the GBA are great and will only help to extend the usefulness and life of the product. Apparently Sony is developing a similar device for its upcoming Playstation Portable system that was announced at E3 this year.

The more I read about this stuff, though, the more I am reminded of the Sega Game Gear. It was released in 1991 with a backlighted screen and you could purchase a TV tuner for it. I suppose Sega was just cursed with bad timing; every one of their products was advanced for its time.

macrocosm, too

learning to love geoURL

Beyond learning about where your blogging peers are physically located, the geoURL concept has been transformed into a different application: Redtail Canyon. This site is basically just a giant web application that uses the GeoURL database to associate a location with a weblog post. Membership is free, as the site is essentially contentless until users provide it. After browsing a few of the entries, I came across a series of posts located in Southern Quèbec that are part of The Degree Confluence Project.

The Confluence Project is a worldwide effort to visit and take pictures of the geographical locations of intersections in the Lat/Long grid (i.e. integers like 44°N, 80°W). The project has been around for a few years, and apparently it made it into the Toronto Star last summer. After the article ran I'm sure a rash of people decided to flock up north and grab a bunch of the points for themselves. You might notice that a lot of the posters take photos of their GPS devices as proof; I find that extremely cool (in a geeky sort of way). There's nothing like a community building excercise like this to make the Internet more human, to make it appear that there still is a world out there as opposed to just a bunch of quietly humming machines. Personally, I'd love to hit one of the points in Northern Ontario if only to say that I've done it. I'll have to keep an eye out for any cool new GPS toys.

google's powerful API

I had the TouchGraph Google Browser sent to me a couple days ago and it has proven to be an excellent little app (you may need the Java plugin for your browser). After entering a URL, the application maps out nodes and links pointing to it. The cool part is that the visual representation is like some organic being, as it is constantly reforming and reshaping to fit the screen as new links are added. It's a great way to find out who's linking where (or to whom), and lot more fun to look at than a standard listing from technorati.

ultra portable tech

Ever since I laid eyes upon the Sharp Zaurus, I thought it would extremely cool to be in posession of a palmtop PC running Linux. Gizmodo was nice enough to let us know about the next entry into the Linux palmtop market, the Yopy. I think the design is really slick, and the hardware specs are comparable to the Zaurus. Maybe I have a thing for fliptop screens, but it just makes so much sense. On a side note, perhaps I will find time one day to post some of my adventures with alternative OSes. Most are filled with strife and misery, but the tales must be told. After all, I did realize how great slackware was.

Gizmodo also posted a review of the USB watch. The same one from think geek that I was drooling over a while back. From the review it sounds rad. The USB plug fits nicely into the wristband, and compared to some other "techie" watches (shown in the review) it remains pretty stylish. But I'm not a fan of the fact it doesn't have a backlight or glow in the dark numbers on the watch face. I mean how many computer geeks do you see during the day?

The gamespy CEO also posted an article on mobile gaming. It's a vaguely written piece, but still brings to mind the future of portable gaming. He says that it won't be Game Boys that will be in the hands of mobile gamers, but instead multiplayer games played on cell phones. In a way I agree, but there is something to be said about dedicated platforms like the GBA. Once enhanced with a wireless communications attachment of some kind, it could be just as good. Cell phone technology is developing fast enough that I think a device like that would be worth looking into. I mean the N-Gage is recognized as being a piece of shit, so it can only get better from here, right?

got blog?

Note that there is no particular reason for this photo. Or maybe there is, secretly. I just have read a lot lately about people getting into moblogging. So far it's mostly just photoblogs of common everyday things. The concept borders on obsessive: blogging on the go with a camera-enabled cell phone or palmtop PC, and the medium isn't very conducive to large text-based entries. Personally I don't care to see endless photos of food or people's friends or a shopping trip. Then again, you know what they say about pictures.

I have seen this story linked a few times in recent travels, which is about people who go to bookstores and take photos of magazines with their camera-enabled phones. Dubbed "digital shoplifting", some stores in Japan are beginning to take action against it. It seems innocent enough, but it is increasingly apparent that technology has blurred the lines of the traditional laws we have come to accept.

the future of hard disks?

As much foresight as I thought I had when putting together my gaming rig, my once spacious 120 gig drive is now overflowing with...stuff. This situation is unacceptable, and I either need to start deleting with extreme predjudice, or, throw money at the problem and buy a new hard drive. Which are about 25% cheaper since I built my system.

Coincidentally, M-Systems was brought to my attention. They are the first company that I've seen that offer completely solid-state flash disks of up to 35 gigabytes in size. Obviously the larger capacity drives are of the SCSI variety, and cost upwards of $18,000 US, but the concept itself is extremely intriguing. The sustained read/write times on this thing are simply amazing. The Flash File System (FFS) is also completely transparent to your OS. It's treated like any other fixed drive. The company has obviously positioned themselves in the "highly reliable data storage" market because these things can operate at extreme environmental conditions and are without any moving parts. They would be perfect for airborne reconaissance missions like in Behind Enemy Lines. I bet Owen Wilson wished he had one of these.

gagetry

I’ve been collecting links over the course of the past week much like someone collects lint on a sweater. So now I shall unleash them upon the world like a giant ball of fluff. Intentional metaphor? Judge for yourself.

Ever since I saw the incredible Nintendo PC that was built to play emulated NES and SNES games, I've been fascinated with small form factor PCs. I try and visit mini-itx pretty regularly, just to see what latest household appliance has been turned into a computer. I also became interested in Shuttle PC's offerings, if only for the "cool" factor. I mean these were designed for LAN parties.

I also think that MSI is on the right track with their Media PCs. I mean these are no bigger than a small stereo - they are the next generation of entertainment units. If my computer wasn't already decked out for all occasions, I would definitely consider buying one of these even if was just used to host MP3s and watch digital video.

Speaking of LAN parties, Sony's portable linux fileserver would be something interesting to try out. It can act as both a webserver and fileserver, runs off of version 2.4.20 of the Linux kernel and of course the 802.11b wireless protocol. My question of course is, can you put the dedicated Linux servers for BF1942 and MOHAA on there?

Only somewhat related, this is an interesting find nonetheless. As noted in my GBA SP review, the original GBA did not come with a backlight and was rightly shunned. It appears that IGN posted a quick and dirty hack of some hidden contrast controls. Obviously not intended for the faint of heart, as it will void your warranty. It doesn't look like it would help very much, but still worth trying out if you're feeling lucky.

And last but not least: Happy Birthday, Canada.

the law of buying stuff and then finding something better

My gaming PC is about 8 months old. Since I built it, the Audigy 2, GeForce FX and Radeon 9800 have been released. Now I've read that the Pentium 4 is on its way out.

I've also now seen that there are two new colors of the GBA SP to be released this fall. The Onyx version looks sweet, but I am not a fan of the matte finish. Apparently, a white one will be produced as well to coincide with the release of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Somehow Gabe at PA seems to think this is a good idea, as the same sort of marketing gimmick is being used for Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles for the GameCube.

Computers and technology are the most fun and at the same time most frustrating hobby you could have. Not only are the purhcases huge, but you are guaranteed to have something better come out the next day, week, or month the second you lay down the cash.

let's go back to the future

Have a look at these tech gadgets from 1983. Specifically, check out the cell phone. The price tag? A hefty $3,995. I bet it even came with its own hip holster too, that made you so off balance and awkward that you walked like you had a wooden leg. Since only the filthy rich could afford one back then, and they usually hung out on Wall St., the evil devices were easily concentrated in one area. Look around now and everyone and their frigging mother has one. And unfortunately I am not aware of any model of phone that comes prepackaged with an etiquette manual, and we are forced to listen to some moron explain why school, like, sucks, or how SomeCompany Inc. is going under and it would be best to sell the stock now.

And since I'm on the topic of cell phones and bad manners, I stopped by caoine.org to find an interesting post, to say the least. Basically this more or less confirms exactly how I feel about cell phones. I got mine last fall a couple months after I started my new job, only because 2 hours of my day is usually spent driving. It's never turned on, and I've hated it since the moment I got it. What is even more disturbing is that my parents/friends now assume that I do leave it on, and that I would appreciate them calling me when I am out buying groceries or some shit.

bonus post!

After careful deliberation, I have purchased my precious Game Boy Advance SP. Yes, it is everything I expected. However, I am left feeling a little cheated, especially remembering the package that came with my original Game Boy in the days of yore. I'm putting together a little product review, so look for it soon. And the game, you ask? Well, I decided to go with Aria of Sorrow. The graphics are quite nice, and I can already see the hours of gameplay ahead.

div hell

Everyone knows that microsoft makes shitty software. It's a given in life. Sort of like console ports for the PC being crappy, and smacktards stealing your tank in BF1942. In my efforts to learn the flexibility and power of CSS for this site, I came upon a startling realization. Internet Explorer, despite its many revisions over the years, has very little regard for web standards.

Since Netscape opened up their source code for the Mozilla project, I have been using it exclusively in some form or another. I can say without a doubt it is probably the most standards comliant browser available. Even Opera has evolved into a sturdy browser. Yet IE has consistently become worse. Instead of fine tuning the functionality of HTML, XHTML and CSS, they are content to create new and interesting ways someone can fuck up their own computer by leaving behind gaping security holes.

I don't for a minute consider myself an expert on web design/programming, but I still feel that I can say there isn't anything more annoying than having to worry what your site will look like in different browsers. This is why standards exist, Billy, so for god's sake quit ignorning them. It almost seems like microsoft has started some sort of twisted race to the bottom; to see whose browser can interpret the shittiest code on the planet. And I can guarantee that code was created using FrontPage.