2003 October

AOL 9.0 Optimized

Since family and friends rely on me for advice and tips on the computer, I’m also the designated installer for them. When I go to their house, I take CD’s with me of programs they could use, and fix whatever they need fixing. They all use AOL, so when a new version of AOL is out, they want to know if it is worth installing.

I’ve decided to install AOL 9.0 Optimized tonight to see if it is anything my family/friends should use. First off, it wants to install some files, and then wants me to reboot, otherwise I won’t be able to use the service. Okay, so I let it install whatever it wants, then reboot. I come back, and it wants to do it again, install files and reboot. I do that, and when I run it again, I got the same message again. Then it’s official; AOL still sucks. To add insult to injury, it froze my computer when I try to remove it from Add/Remove Programs. It also installed 4 folders worth of programs in C:\ that I won’t ever use. It forces me to right click the AOL icon on the desktop and choose Delete. The delete key doesn’t work on it.

Is it worth it when a program makes you jump through hoops like this? Absolutely not. It’s even more not worth it when you read stories like this and this.

Conclusions? My family and friends should pursue other avenues of internet service. Choices are MSN, EarthLink, PeoplePC, or just a local ISP. The sooner people realize there are better alternatives out there, the sooner we get the service we deserve on the internet, and not what corporate high-rollers dictate.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! :D

Cheese With My Wine

I know I have no reason to whine, considering the host I’m using now is giving me 3 years of free professional hosting. Yet, when I delete a MySQL database, it shouldn’t take over 12 hours (and still waiting) for it to be deleted, so I can create a new one. One of the caveats of this promotional deal is that I can only create one database, set at a 100MB limit. So I can’t just create a new database.

I need to create a new database so I can install Coppermine, which I had before to install all my photos into a gallery. The previous one I had before used the user database for pMachine, so now I need to reinstall it so it’d use it’s own user database. This would all be a moot point if I could just install and use phpMyAdmin, but oh well. Like I said, guess I don’t have much room to complain when this is all free.

I just had to whine though. Think I’m gonna go play some Crimsonland now.

Top Ten Reasons To Learn CSS

By all that is holy, if you work on webpages, and you haven’t learned CSS, then maybe this will wake you up to the revolution of streamlined web design: Design Industry Interviews — Sessions.edu. Here’s a couple of reasons to get you started:

• Faster download times. Reduction of file size is about 50% less than a Web page built with traditional Web design methods.
• Shorter development time. Easily tweak the design of a thousand-page site with just a few edits of one CSS file.

If these reasons aren’t enough, then maybe you should reconsider your priorities. Trust me, it’s worth it.

FeedDemon RSS NewsReader

The FeedDemon Beta Site has a downloadable version of their new RSS newsreader. If you’re like me, you browse tons of sites everyday for news and updates. This program really makes it easy to get all your news in one place, and since most sites support RSS, you can easily add them to your newsreader. This site offers a news feed, which you can access by clicking the Syndicate link to the right under the Site menu. The interface is really excellent; similar to Microsoft’s Outlook 2003. Two big toes up from me.

In Other News…

Well the Florida Marlins won the World Series, and the celebration begins here in Florida. It’s pretty impressive, considering the team was created in 1993, and already they have won 2 World Series in the franchise’s life. I imagine a lot of bets were lost tonight, as Analysts and baseball enthusiasts all felt the Yankees would clobber them. Which only disproves the theory that the Yankees $180 million budget isn’t so superior to the Marlins $58 million budget, nor can it buy runs off a 23-year old pitcher. Money does not buy titles and championships, passion does. That’s the groundrule to any sport, or life in general. Congrats to the Marlins!

Also, iTunes for Windows has a new update that Apple has posted last night to fix some problems some PC users experienced. There’s a story up on CNN with details on it (since Apple didn’t release any details on the update).

Things On The Agenda

Things on my agenda, based on no particular order:

• Continue learning XHTML and CSS, certifying validation is passed
• Learn about accessibility, and relevant tags, for the disabled
• Create different styles and typography selections
• Learn about movabletype and take advantage of all features
• Start new business