A Brisk Browse of Browsers

I haven’t done a tech type article in a while, which I’m feeling a bit guilty about, but yesterday lit a fire under my ass while discussing how to improve Sirius/XM radio with a friend of mine. Driving home after the discussion, I realized that the whole conversation would have made a great article, discussing hardware, legacy units, subscription models, and a blue-sky business plan.

This isn’t that article.

What I did think about, after the fact, was that I was using my browser during the discussion to look up various points. We take browsers for granted. At best, they are the unobtrusive frame for our internet experience. At worst, they are like a crying child at the mall. Our hands are tied, we’re always distracted by it while doing our business, and we just want it to grow up so it can take care of itself.

I have 3 machines:
-Dell Inspirion netbook running Jolicloud OS based on HTML5 and Linux.
-HP G42 laptop running Windows 7 (3GB RAM)
-Cyberpower custom build running Windows 7 (8GB RAM)

I didn’t include the processors here because I don’t have the exact specs off the top of my head, but I figured the ones above will be evident in the comparison. Bear with me. If you’re not a tech person, just remember “netbook, laptop, big fugly nerd computer.” I have a little tale of how each computer got to where it is now, but if you just want the pros and cons, skip down to the bottom.

I also didn’t include pictures because honestly, do you really want to see a picture of a browser window in your browser window?

IE8 vs. IE9 vs. Chrome

My netbook is lightning fast, which is partly because of the flash hard drive and the Jolicloud OS. Jolicloud runs like a tablet interface, and the majority of the software is run via cloud. Jolicloud recommends Google Chrome, so I have been running that for a while. Again, lightning fast, and on the small netbook screen, it take up very little space in the top toolbar and other navigation bits. I’ve had it for about 6 months now, and I noticed that when I need to jump online for a moment, the netbook is the device of choice.

My home computer, the big ‘un, has Windows 7 and came with Internet Explorer 8. This is very boring, it’s vanilla. Not that I’m trying to diss vanilla, it’s better than eating Elmer’s Glue, but you know, it’s not something that will take you to new places. Most links will launch a new window, so you can end up with lots of open IE boxes if you’re not careful to right-click and  “open in new tab”.

The laptop is the same, Windows 7 and IE8.

Recently, I upgraded the home system from IE8 to IE9. The first observations were that it was cleaner looking, and had some great autorecovery features when pages crash. Also, crashes do not affect other tabs, so you don’t lose your 10 webpages just because lolcatz is having a bad day. I noticed though that after a reboot, IE9 takes a bit longer to load than IE8 on my laptop. So I compared, in a non tech spec methodology, the times to load pages and the ins-and-outs of IE8 vs IE9 vs Chrome.

I installed Chrome on the HP and noticed it was also faster on that laptop, and more stable. So is it my home PC that has other issues? With 8GB of RAM and a faster processor, unless my home computer is severely infected with something malicious (highly unlikely), I have to think that the young IE9 still has some issues to be worked out.

Chrome on the HP was easy to install, and I was able to import my existing bookmarks and update the default search engine, but I really felt like every check box was trying to trick me into the Google collective more than Microsoft. I guess a couple of anti-trust suits made sure MSFT gives you clear enough opt-outs, so I thank Bill Gates and the boys for being a monopoly.

After this conversion, here’s the nutshell:

CHROME:
Pros
-Fast loading and browsing
-Clean interface with little obtrusion
-Integrates well with my other google products
-Launches “new” windows as tabs

Cons
-Cumbersome customization; there’s no “ok” to save your homepages so you’re left wondering “did it save my changes?”
-Too clean; yes, too clean. The default view leaves you poking around to find some of the settings, wondering if you should right click on the top of the toolbar or tab, or do you click the wrenchy looking icon.

IE8
Pros
-Familiar
-Decent speed
-Most webpages are optimized for IE8
-EASIEST browser for changing default search engines

Cons
-Old
-Old
-Old. Being behind the trends means you’ll get where you want to go, and most of the bugs have been long worked out, but you’re in a Toyota Corolla. It won’t ever get better, and you’re going to be left in the dust the longer you drive it.
-Terrible when a page crashes. Hope you saved those links, because the whole browser is going down.

IE9
Pros
-Fast (after initial boot up)
-Nice autorecovery
-Unobtrusive interface with more intuitive settings and customization than Chrome

Cons
-Why is initial boot up still taking longer to initialize?
-I haven’t noticed Chrome’s autorecovery… hmmm… you see what I’m inferring.

I’d say Google Chrome is the winner, after it’s installed and you set your customization. Point blank: go to the Chrome download site, watch the little pictures, and install it.  It’s easy, it’s fast, and it will keep you happy while browsing with that “forget it’s there” positive experience.

For the Apple crowd, I don’t own any Apple OS devices other than my iPods, and my tangent experiences with their browsers left me unimpressed, which isn’t a bad thing, it’s just, you know, a Camry.

And you Firefox fans? I’ve been skeptical of installing Firefox upgrades, mostly after seeing high memory use become a more common issue with upgraded versions after 2.0 was released. I’m not going to dog Firefox though because it still has a great experience (I used this on my netbook when it had Ubuntu, and it was fine).

Go out and give Chrome a spin. If you don’t like it, you can always uninstall it. No harm, no foul, no fanboys.

Finally, in one of those joyful moments of Murphy’s Law, regardless of which browser I use, the WordPress spellcheck function isn’t working today…

*UPDATE* NEW SAFARI ANNOUNCED AT WWDC BY APPLE. Looks like our choices continue to grow and change… looks promising…

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Jackowick “2.0” aka “man, I want to get back into blogging”

Well it’s been a while since I last provided anything for my few and random readers. That’s got to stop; both the idea of a lack of readers as well as the lack of updates by me.

I started Jackowick as a place where I could document class projects, as well as add some comic book ramblings geared mostly towards my love of less popular Golden Age comics. I like exploring new tech from the everyday user standpoint, but overall I like exposing people to new ideas and things that are a little off the beaten path. “If you like using this, you might want to check this out”. Things that could help people get some new ideas, and hopefully say “huh, that’s kind of neat”. Recently, I HAVE found lots of neat things, little experiments/experiences, but just haven’t made the blogging process into a habit.

Habits are only habits when they occur with some frequency.

So here’s what planted and fertilized my new seedlings:

In March, I took a business trip to India for a little over 3 weeks. While in Kolkata, I did a lot of leisure reading, and found myself spending a LOT of time on two personal finance blogs, GetRichSlowly.org and TheSimpleDollar.com, and took the time to crawl through the archives and read the stories, not just the articles, by and about the creators, J.D. Roth and Trent Hamm respectively. The blogs are well written with reader submissions, variety, homespun advice, and personality.

One thing that stuck out about their collective advice and style was that a successful blog should have some connection to the reader, which is often achieved with the support of those extra details about the author, and exposing one more to the reader, making a connection, and getting personal.

Also, while in India and reading these blogs, and not having to pay for my food and lodging thanks to the company, I noticed the effects right away of being thrifty and saving money, and it’s given me some new insights into my own savings patterns. Very humbling to realize how many times I’ve made small mistakes or unnecessary purchases, and how they add up.

So while I’d love to get right into my recent projects like installing jolicloud on my netbook, working from across the world on my new HP laptop (and the whole purchase process with Best Buy), and my progress on my X-Men #1-200 collection project, I’d just like to take a moment to say “hello” for the first time really, and introduce my life.

I’m a 30something comic collector who works tangentially with tech stuff (I do testing, QC, and some diagnostics with a large company that sells data), and I like knowing more than the average Joe when it comes to computers, but I’m no code monkey. I started going back to school at the local community college many years ago in a never-ending quest to take classes for the enjoyment and learning process. I have almost finished an art history associates degree, am partial through an associates in the new Game Design Program (learning video game making) and I have a lot of extra credits stocked up in writing, English, and history. I recently bought my first home, and all of this combines into a semi-chaotic life of constantly moving around, organizing and reorganizing, and watching my money while chasing my dreams.

So stick around, I’ll be targeting at least 1 new update a week but also working towards 2-4 weekly updates on a regular writing schedule. As JD and Trent have shown me through their blogs, being organized is one of the best ways to accomplish any goal.

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What’s Better Than an Electrical Fire in the Home?

So glad my new mini PC wiring worked. There was a point where I was staring at a motherboard drawing, and the actual motherboard, the wire drawing, and the actual wires, and realized that not all the pretty colors matched. But it’s alive.

More on the build to come. And installing an OS.

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Stay in School & Reach for the Brass Ring. Or Halo.

This week started off terrible. I severely underestimated the time investment in my Networking Fundamentals class or whatever the official title is… and bombed the assignments.  The new plan is to get the readings done during the week, and focus on getting the online quizzes and labs done before Saturday; the assignment due date every week is midnight on Sunday.

Sounds like a plan, right?

It would be great, in theory, if not for the arrival of a certain video game franchise’s final/first chapter today.

Yes, it’s HALO time again.

I preordered my copy, and it’s on the way today, so when I get home from class, I’ll be able to fire it up for an hour or so and deal with the mayhem of 12 year olds cursing like sailors on XboxLive. 

Ah Halo. How I’ve missed ye.

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When You’re Busy, the Whole World Bizzies With You…

Well what a fun week already. Lots of random stuff today, so if you want a cohesive story, watch Transformers 2.

Video Game Culture and Design Class is fun but tough… to deal with kids who have short memories and tunnel vision. Most of them can’t relate to anything done before 1990, let alone anything that’s not a squad based first person shooter. If you put “deathmatch multiplayer” on a box of diapers, they’d run into the woods in Pampers and cry man-tears of joy.

If you can get past the shouting of “SUCKS” or “RULES” after each game mentioned, our teacher did bring up Jesper Juul (visit him at http://www.jesperjuul.net/ ) and his rules/theories on gameplay. Jesper is kind of heady, but his explanations of what makes a game rewarding are quite a cool read.  I’m just going to leave his website link there, but if you’re interested in games, psychology, or sociology, explore his page at your own pace.

Things on my mind today keeping me busy:

The fact that I need to shore up my linux device security.

Kidd Chris is on KUFO 101 FM in Portland.  NICE.

Comics Buyers Guide offers a 35 page pdf excerpt of from their Hot Wheels book if you sign up for their newsletter. 

And finally

I need to read 2 chapters for my gaming class this week, plus have my first assignments for my Cisco Networking Class due on Sunday night.

And it’s football season starting this weekend, and that’s not good for homework.

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Sanford and Son Computers, Inc.

Lisbeth! I’m coming!

Wow that’s some pile of junk.

So here’s the parts (I think) for the junkyard PC. Hmmm. JPC. I think I like that.

– Foxconn D412 Atom D410 Mini ITX Motherboard with Atom D410 Chip. VGA, USB 2.0, SATA supported. Oh and Six Channel Audio supported onboard too.  The Intel Atom 410 is a neat little guy, 1.66 Ghz. Only a 512 cache, but that’ll do fine with the JPC. $64 plus tax and shipping.

– Corsair XMS2 2GB 800 DDR2 memory. I figured space will be tight so I went with a single 2GB stick. 1.8v isn’t bad, and a CAS latency of 5. What’s latency? Get your thinking cap on and read here. $49 plus tax and shipping, minus $10 rebate. Booya.

Total for the mobo and memory was $128 after tax and combined shipping.

-Apex MI008 Mini ITX case with 250 watt power supply. Just under 11.8  x 8.7 x 5 inches. 1 bay of each kind (that’s tight!) $42 including tax, plus free shipping.

-Seagate barracuda 160GB hard drive, 7200 rpms. WHY DID I WIPE THE OS OFF AND REFORMAT THIS? WHY? Sigh. Looking at all the pieces, I scoured my drawers (heh, hey Beavis, I said drawers) and found some miscellaneous software discs for some random drivers and stuff like Roxio. No Windows XP or Vista backups or ghost discs. Nothing. Well, it’s a free internal drive. I can load Ubuntu on it for free to get everything up and running. I also have a 320GB internal drive as my internal backup for my main desktop, but I think 320GB may draw unnecessary power, add some heat, and well, just isn’t necessary for a little JPC. Again, this is “free”.

– Philips/BenQ DVD CD RW drive. Speed… uh… hmm… and the voltage is uh… eh… well it’s free. As long as it reads, it’ll load software.  Also “free”.

– As luck would have it, I also have some extra internal cables of all types, and some dampening gasket material. Also “free”.

-2 extra keyboards. USB style. Sweet. Also free.

– FREE Wireless mouse with $10 year subscription to Wired Magazine. Well, I was due to renew. So I did. Here’s the link. I have the mouse already in hand.  I’m calling this one “free” for my accounting purposes since I was going to renew Wired.

So that’s the parts. I carefully repacked them into a box in a milk crate, waiting for next week when I’ll have some dedicated time to build it start to finish in an afternoon.

I’m looking at $170 for a newly built Desktop PC. Not bad.

Not bad at all.  I THINK I WANNA DANCE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WNrx2jq184

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Quick! File Conversion!

http://webworkerdaily.com/2010/08/10/online-convert-com-a-free-web-based-file-converter/

Convert files to other formats with http://www.online-convert.com

Just go read the Webworkerdaily article.

WWD > TTJ.

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Simplify. Yup, that’s the one word simple headline for this article.

Simplify.

It’s a hard thing to do despite what should be such an easy concept: trim the excess, obtain and use only what you need, and find singular solutions to multiple problems. I was reading this grand article on Yahoo about finding happiness with a simpler, less cluttered life and already my mind was exploding with concepts like selling my current silverware set at a garage sale since I have a new unused set in a box under my kitchen cabinet.  But the reality is that the little steps, although they add up, do not address larger issues and clusters of junk/stuff/conundrums I have to deal with everyday.

Which is why I decided to build another computer.

Looking across my “home office” (which some would say looks more like the crypt of Stan Lee and Boba Fett’s common ancestors), I saw some things lying around:

Extra keyboard (2 boxes, actually… but I think only 1 has a keyboard).
Extra DVD burner drive.
2 320 GB hard drives.
SATA cables.

Hmm.

So I found this case over at Newegg.com for under $40 the other day and picked it up:

It’s a nice small APEX mini Tower that lays flat and has just enough space to make a media center PC or a budget model.  So although I had been thinking about building a home server or a media center PC, I thought about simplifying. The goal: build and sell this bad boy.

I figure I have a few advantages in putting this together:
1) I have Newegg. This site has incredible deals, and the forums/reviews are chock full on information.
2)Free Parts. I have already saved some cash by using leftovers for the HD, disc drive, and peripherals.
3) Student discount. I have that good old Community College active status and might be able to swing a Windows 7 copy at an extreme discount.

So we’ll see. Worst comes to worst, I spend a little cash and don’t make my money back, but it will be a learning experience and a half. And fun. But selling this at break even or profit would be really nice.

So it may seem like a lot of steps to take, with some pain points, but the goal is to simplify. I hope this simple computer will become an Icon for how I hope to change my life towards simplicity.

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There’s more to research than “google” and “wikipedia”…

So this weekend I was talking with a friend about a potential project/collaboration and realized right away that I’d need to do some research on a specific topic. But one thing we all fall prey to is the ease of googling (or duckduckgo.com plug plug plug) a topic, or just scouring Wikipedia to rehash an article. My intent is not the “bash” Wikipedia, just to give you some ways to think outside the box and maybe find a better tool for your specific needs. Wikipedia is a great place to gather ideas and outline your thesis, article, or project.

Many teachers in the new era of college have made it plain that they do NOT give Wikipedia credit as a source, and they look at plagiarism very seriously, including those nifty software tools they “claim” to have. I wonder how many teachers bluff and use this like the Doomsday Device in Doctor Strangelove.

Anyway, how do you research or look for “better” sources? Some ideas:

Specialized wiki

Many subjects that are entertainment or media related often end up with their own wiki. Wikia is a great portal into subjects from Public Domain Superheroes (one of my frequently visited sites) to KISS. Yep, Kiss. Lower level projects can often be solved by using this method. In a comparison example, the Wikia page for Eric Singer of Kiss is the same in both Wikia and Wikipedia, but Atoman is a little more fleshed out on Public Domain Super Heroes. Not much, but PDSH tells me at least how many issues he’s appeared in, plus the publishing company. Sites like Wookiepedia.com are supplemented with more art, deeper articles, and more sources for the ravenous Star Wars fan. Proof?

Wikipedia Grand Moff Tarkin.

Wookiepedia Wilhuff Tarkin.

Yeah.

Hit the Source Page

Think about who/what/where would/should have the records you’re looking to use. I’ll use the example of one of my favorite ball players.

If you’re looking up information on Satchel Paige, think about whether you are targeting information that might be best referenced from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the official Satchel Paige website, or MLB.com. Maybe even the Baseball Hall of Fame. What is your topic, what is your thesis, what is your need? Many Wikipedia articles will cite references that may allow you to go deeper and right to where the information was summarized originally.

Public Records

Simple, effective, and wonderful. New Jersey has a great site, for example, in the NJDARM. I can find an all in one list of the Governors of New Jersey here,  and the pre 1947 list including colonials here. If I am researching Governors of New Jersey from 1700-1800, Wikipedia has this broken up on 2 separate pages. Advantage: Public Records. You can also pay for research, which may be cost prohibitive, but you get a cleaner, well documented resource. NJ has some examples here.

The Horse’s Mouth… or the Next Closest Horse

Yes I know we like to cut and paste and read at leisure, but the beauty of the internet that we overlook is the ability to find someone and get in touch with them directly. Email has created a wonderful forum for this. Seems too simple, right? Let’s say you are interested in the high school records and scouting reports on Steve Howe. I’m willing to bet the Clarkston High School Athletic Director has a better shot at getting you that deep research on their famous alumni than a wiki page. You might get a “thanks but no thanks” but with proper people skills and a well crafted letter, you might get another name and email for a former teammate or assistant coach. You might get a tip on something more special, like a regional resource. Although Steve Howe wasn’t from South Jersey, you might find a great interview with a member of the Hot Stovers aka the South Jersey Baseball Hall of Fame who played with him or against him at some level in his career.

Jackalope Wrap Up and Regret

So I hope this long winded blog entry gave you some ideas. Remember, sometimes finding “an answer” isn’t the end of a good report, article, or paper. Sometimes you need to prove an answer yourself, find the real source, or attack it another way. If you have a child (or are a student yourself), using these alternate research ideas can make a paper stand out and leave less questions about authenticity of your work.

Back in college, in the dawn of the internet, I was accused of plagiarism once. I had NOT plagiarized, but I had left the window of doubt open by taking common top level research as my sources. I was deeply hurt, offended, and scared by the personal, educational, and professional ramifications. I talked to my professor and offered a solution that involved a more direct source contact, and a plea bargain to have my paper graded lower than the normal “worthy” mark for the material.  It paid off, and my final paper was actually much better than the original as a result. If I knew then what I know now, I would have put in the extra effort from the beginning, and made a paper that stood out for the RIGHT reasons, not the wrong ones.

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Boredom is the Mother of ReInvention

So after signing up for the Newegg.com “Shell Shocker” deal emails, I found this lovely Thermaltake Armor+ MK VH8000BWS ATX Mid T0wer computer case for $49 after rebates (and free shipping), I decided to pull the trigger and build a rig from scratch. The goal is to swap this case for my old one, a moderately cool CoolMaster (no pun intended). The decision was made that I want to make a home server, and possibly a second Linux machine for my desk.

Sure this may seem like some completely unnecessary economic spending, but one thing I’ve been thinking about a lot is how people develop skills and learn new things. I’ve been a big fan of adult education and community college credit/noncredit courses, and I think sometimes you have to learn the hard way by just doing. I have my netbook as my internet access backup in case this project completely explodes. My iTunes are backed up on a Western Digital 500GB External Drive (Apple offers a quick little tutorial on burning your media, not very insightful but iLounge has a much better version) and I don’t keep a lot of critical files on my computer itself anymore. A lot of my photos, documents, and my comic book inventory are all kept online somewhere. So making a home server seemed like a next step/hobby/job training activity.

This is so much more fun than mowing my lawn.

So while I upgrade my internet life, please visit this upgrade of one of my favorite songs, by one of my favorite bands.

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