kdmurray.blog

The crossroads of life and tech

Monthly Archives: October 2006

Google Tabs!

Google has been offering a tabbed interface to the customized content of your Google homepage for some time, but as Miss604 cites in her blog, that feature has been seemingly a bit sporadic… To be honest I’d sort of forgotten all about it.

However, after reading her blog last night and giving some thought to the fact that she’d mentioned the tabs don’t show up on the Mac I had to go check it out. I’ve checked it out on several machines now and here’s what I’ve found:

Operating System Browser Tabs??
Windows XP (SP2) Internet Explorer 7 YES
Internet Explorer 6 YES
Firefox 2.0 YES
Internet Explorer 5.5 NO
Mac OS X (Tiger) Firefox 2.0 YES
Safari 10.0.4 YES

It looks like they may finally have the bugs out, and are supporting pretty much every mainstream platform available. Kudos Google! (Though I’m not sure my employer will be so ecstatic when I’m spending all of next week tweaking my new Google IG layouts…)

Big line comes through… ’bout time

The Canucks‘ top line of Naslund, Morrison and Bulis each managed to beat Washington Capitals’ goaltender Olaf Kolzig in a 3-2 SO win for the Canucks tonight… but don’t let that fool you.

The top line looked disorganized for most of the game. Though they did get a few chances now and again the number of times that Naslund and Morrison bobbled the puck or tried to make one cute move too many was somewhat disturbing.

Admittedly, had the line been facing most any other goaltender the outcome would likely have been different. Kolzig managed 42 saves against the Canucks’ shots-on-goal juggernaut. I’m sure we’ll all be watching carefully to see whether or not Naslund’s line can retain their “#1″ status. With the way the Sedin’s and Taylor Pyatt are playing, we could see a changing of the guard before too long…

Books Books and more Books

We took some time this evening to hit the used book sale at one of our local libraries tonight. We were told to show up early because it would get busy, since the sale started at 6:00 we figured showing up at 5:30 would be plenty early… we were at the back of a very substantial line. Apparently this is quite the event for the local community. I figured I’d find a book or two, pay my $0.50, and be on my way. Boy was I wrong.

When you walk in the door to the 20×20 room with 40 other people they hand you a box — and yes, you’ll need it. There are literally thousands of books on display in the small room and people are wasting no time filling up their boxes, with dozens of volumes on every conceivable subject. I couldn’t resist. I took my empty brown box and began filling it with the ridiculously discounted tomes ( I found a book I’d bought for school earlier this year on sale for $1.00… I paid about $80).

When the dust settled 45 minutes later, the two of us had amassed a collection of 25 books and one copy of QuickBasic 4.5 that I simply couldn’t pass up (for $1.00). I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it… it’s the 5.25″ disk edition.

So if you hear about a book sale at your local library you should really check it out. The bargains are astounding.

A “little” perspective…

I friend of mine sent me a link to this YouTube video recently, his intent I’m sure was for me to marvel at how large some of the entities in our universe are. What happened, is that I realized without any hesitation something else: how small we are.

Most of us have a pretty good idea how much larger Jupiter and the other Gas Giants are than our humble little blue globe. But seeing how much larger the Sun is in comparison to our world can come as something of a surprise to people, particularly those who haven’t studied much astronomy. Sure we all know that the sun is a very long distance from us, and that on average it takes its light a full 8 minutes to reach us… but the scale is still incredible.

So how then do we react when we find out that the largest known star in our galaxy is proportionally larger to our sun than our sun is to Pluto? Watch the movie. Be amazed. Feel small.

NHL Schedule: Redux

NHL LogoI heard an absolutely brilliant plan a couple of nights ago for re-doing the NHL schedule. Driving home listening to Brook Ward on the Team 1040 and he said that he could solve the NHL’s scheduling problem with one simple realignment of the way the games are organized. After listening to what he had to say, I was in complete agreement. Here is what he outlined:

  • Play 30 games against teams in the other conference, one game per team per arena
  • Play 32 games against teams in your division, four games per team per arena
  • Play 20 games against teams in your conference (other divisions) two games per team per arena

At first blush this makes total sense; and Brooks suggestion would also load as many of the 30 games from the other conference at the begining of the season which would save as many of the critical intra-division “four-pointers” as possible for the stretch run.

  • 30 games / 15 teams = 2 games each
  • 20 games / 10 teams = 2 games each **Brook had said 4 games each
  • 32 games / 4 teams = 8 games each

So while I agree the theory is sound, the math is weak… But I still hope that Gary Bettman will actually take some advice, and read this post (or listen to Brook’s show). This would greatly improve the satisfaction of the fans as they would have the opportunity to see each team’s elite player in action in their own buliding.

Well done Brook!

MacBook: Glossy vs. Matte

MacBookSomething to consider for those of you looking for a new laptop… There are two types of screens available with some models (like the MacBook). I decided to go with the ultra-cool “glossy” screen as opposed to the “matte” screen I’ve been used to with the Dell Latitude. Right away I was impressed with how sharp and clean the images were. It even seemed to improve the look of some of my digital photos.

Today I tried something new, I took it outside to work on the deck in the sunshine… All of a sudden I had glare everywhere! Admittedly LCD screens aren’t renowned for performing really well outdoors (remember the Palm m505 screen problems?) but the glare from the glossy screen doesn’t help. It’s not impossible, in fact I’m outside writing this post now. Just takes some getting used to with the glare distrac — oh sorry what was I writing? Oh yes… glare takes your eyes off what you’re working on.

All in all, with the amount of outdoor use the MacBook is likely to get, I think that the ultra-sharp glossy screen was still the right choice, just something to consider for anyone else looking into purchasing a laptop. Dustin’s review on notebookreview.com has some good screen information, particularly on the glossy vs. matte debate.

Hockey night on Cable?

Hockey Night in CanadaA couple of months back (when we were in the middle of all the wedding craziness) a story came out about Bell Globemedia pondering a large bid for the Hockey Night in Canada franchise. I found a piece on VancouverCanucksOpEd.com that I found tonight researching another article that talks about this story and a few fans’ reaction to it.

OK, none of us is too impressed with the thought of HNIC becoming a property of the Toronto Sports Network, but what if it were to go somewhere else, like SportsNet?

With their actual national coverage in all regions, this would make a great home for HNIC and take the multi-million dollar burden of producing hockey broadcasts off the taxpayer. Add to that some of the quality issues CBC is having with its broadcasts (namely reliable play-by-play teams during the playoffs) and the whole Ron McLean business and I think it might be time to consider a new home for HNIC.

Off to a good start… a very good start

Vancouver Canucks LogoSo here we are the day after Game #2 of the 2006/07 NHL season and our Vancouver Canucks have managed a couple of very solid games the past couple of nights. After spoiling the home openers at Joe Louis and Nationwide arenas, the boys from GM Place are sitting pretty atop the Western Conference, in fact as of last night they’re tied for first overall with their expansion cousins the Buffalo Sabres. But two games in what does this really mean?

The obvious answer is: not much, except that this is a very good start. Are the Canucks destined to play for the Cup against the Sabres? No. Are they even destined to make the playoffs? No. So why are fans so willing so stake a review of the entire season on only 120 minutes (give or take) of game play?

Callersto Dan Russell’s Sportstalk show on CKNW last night seemed willing to guarantee a great season based on a couple of fairly solid road games. But there are still many unanswered questions.

  1. Will Roberto Luongo (aka Yo! Luongo) be the saviour he’s touted to be?
  2. Can the Swedish Touch line be the powerhouse it needs to be?
  3. Will the lack of a dedicated second scoring line be a problem, or will they get balanced scoring?One person who’s in at least partial agreement with this is Rod over at Metroblogging Vancouver. Let’s all sit back, and enjoy the first quarter of the season. We can make our analyses in December after they’ve played a few more games that matter… not the least of which is our own bloody home opener.

Google – Understanding your Search Terms

Just had to quickly drop this in here… I did a search this afternoon looking for an RDP (remote desktop) client for the new MacBook. When I put my search terms into Google, it not only searched for RDP, but extrapolated that out to “Remote Desktop” and “Remote Desktop Protocol” (both of which I’d been too lazy to type in). Spooky… I can’t imagine the size of Google’s Acronym index. Perhaps it uses something like Acronym Finder…