Rincon: IE7's Hollow Bend

"Rincon" is the code-name for the next Internet Explorer version, IE7, announced recently by Gatesie to appear in beta form sometime later this year.

Dictionary.com defines "rincon" as:

An interior corner; a nook; hence, an angular recess or hollow bend in a mountain, river, cliff, or the like.

which I find mildly amusing, in light of information leaking out regarding the updated browser. Microsoft Watch has reported that Microsoft plan to include features such as tabbed-browsing, PNG image support, simplified printing and an RSS aggregator, but only a few updates to its abominable CSS2 support, the one thing developers across the globe are crying for.

So, on the surface, this all sounds like MS/Gates are rapidly trying to copy Firefox, consequently producing a hollow replica of Mozilla's winning browser.

And/or hollow promises from Gates. And/or hollow releases, simply to stay in the game, perhaps.

Minor Blogger Annoyance

Why are my archives showing in chronological order? Should not the most recent stuff be top of the list?

Another hit for the Blogger Annoyances list.

Sena Cases: Quality PDA Cases, Terrible Site

My beautiful Toshiba e800 is currently case-less (not counting my home-made version, a snap-lock sandwich bag inside a hard, velvet-lined jewellery box, a perfect fit in fact, however, it renders my gadget completely useless whilst imprisoned in there) so I've been researching options for a new pocket jacket for a little while now.

In my sporadic searches I keep finding myself at the Sena Cases web site, whose front page is the only one on the site that works in Firefox. (Well, apart from the Flash ad at the top, which also fails.)

Why? Check this out for a URL:

http://www.senacases.com/cart/home.php?cat=290&
send_isJS=Y&send_browser=YNN|Mozilla|5|Win32|N|
1024|768|Mozilla+Default%20Plug-in|RealJukebox+NS
%20Plugin|RealPlayer(tm)+G2%20LiveConnect-Enabled
%20Plug-In%20(32-bit)%20|RealPlayer+Version%20Plugin
|MetaStream+3%20Plugin|Adobe+Acrobat|QuickTime+
Plug-in%206.0.2|QuickTime+Plug-in%206.0.2|QuickTime
+Plug-in%206.0.2|QuickTime+Plug-in%206.0.2|Windows+
Media%20Player%20Plug-in%20Dynamic%20Link%20
Library|Microsoft%AE+DRM|Microsoft%AE+DRM|
Shockwave+Flash|Adobe+Acrobat

Nasty stuff. Returns a rare 414 Request Failed: URI too long error, in fact. Seems they're attempting to parse details about my installed plugins, but something is going very awry on the backend, resulting in URL-pie. (No, not PIE, pie.)

The part I find most amusing, however, (or, depending on my mood, annoying) is that I keep forgetting the name of this poorly-developed site's company, so quickly is it that I shut the tab when I realise ["Damn! This site again!"] that it ain't gonna load. Can't decide if it's bad marketing on their behalf that it hasn't sunk in yet, or just my mind blocking them out due to their non-support of my favourite browser. I'm suspecting the latter, but really, that boils down to nothing more than bad marketing too.

And, no. No way will I open up IE just to use their web site. How can I trust a company whose products target predominantly tech-minded people, when they shut the door to (arguably) the most tech-minded users with their web site? And why would I want to?

(You may be surprised to learn that in person, I hardly ever talk about Firefox, and I definitely don't wangle the topic into completely unrelated conversations whenever I can. Usually.)

Utterly Pointless Spam

The Minimo list seems to be the target of a spammer today, although I'm not sure you would actually call this spam. It seems more like true blue garbage to me.

A sampling:

"When will you speed the weird cheap officers before Alhadin does? Other colonial magnificent capitals will dare honestly in terms of candidates. Some reputations will be medical relative biass. Everybody enforce bottom eyebrows, do you suppose them?"

Umm... huh?

What is the point of spam that is not trying to sell something? And sent to a mailing list, what's more, so tracking images or other email harvesting attempts don't actually work?

Am I missing something? Is this in code? Are people seriously that bored, or that stupid, that this sort of inanity provides entertainment?

Amazon vs. Alibris: No Contest

In January this year I ordered two books from Alibris, an online bookstore based in the US. The coveted items finally arrived this week, almost seven weeks later.

Last year, I ordered two books from Amazon, another [far more popular] US-based online store. Those books arrived ten days later.

Why the discrepancy?

Alibris tell me it takes "up to four weeks for books delivered via the Standard International Shipping method I had selected", and that the time lapse is due to "Customs", whatever that entails. (Seems time they reviewed their maths here.)

So, in actuality: seven weeks? For a couple of books? Amazon quoted 12 to 20 days for the same thing, then bettered it.

Considering that Alibris also stuffed a bookmark into each package, stamped with a "$1 off your next purchase" coupon that expired two weeks ago, and they won't replace this, I know where I'll be buying next time.

On a related note, Amazon now have an express shipping membership package, Amazon Prime, which, for $79 USD a year, will give me as many items as I want direct to my doorstep within two days of purchase. This is actually great value, if "Express Shipping" is the same as "Priority International Courier" for Australian customers, as the shipping charge on a single book shipped that way would be $31.98 USD ($24.99 shipment charge + $6.99 item charge). A couple of individual book purchases and you've nearly spent that anyway.

[Can you tell that I love online shopping?]

RIP: Mozilla Suite

The Mozilla Application Suite has come to rest, with version 1.7.x being the last full series the Mozilla Foundation will release. (This is Mozilla, the standalone client that houses an integrated set of web tools including a browser, email client, html editor and more, as opposed to Mozilla Firefox or Mozilla Thunderbird, its newer children.)

I am definitely not alone in finding this news rather sad, however logical it may be for the MoFo to want to focus their energies and hone their focus on their most successful products to date: FF and TB. And, truth out, I've actually not used Mozilla (the product) in almost two years now... from memory, 1.4 was the last version I downloaded, although by then I was only using the Mail portion. Phoenix (now Firefox) was already way better.

However, times do change, and one thing the Mozilla Foundation is doing so well here is acknowledging that, and adjusting accordingly. Mozilla (the app) will quite probably live on, with individual developers who are keen to continue working on it currently proposing their plans for such, with MoFo's agreement (but not their branding). Personally, however, I'm not sure why they're bothering. I used to like the idea of an all-in-one product for my web needs. But this all-in-one was more than that, huge and bloated, with other embedded tools that I never used and simply did not need. Firefox, on the contrary, is small, light and super-fast... 'nuff said.

Pocket Gmail is Good for PIE

I'm still getting used to the word "PIE" for Pocket IE. I generally like pie. However, I don't like PIE. (At least not in its default form.) But that's another story. This story is just to report that Gmail has now released a Basic HTML version of their application, and it's compatible with IE 4.0 and up -- the version that PIE equates to, by default.

It's taken a while for Google to answer the pocket crowd's cries, however, and in the meantime, a few other 3rd-party, PIE-compatible Gmail login points have sprung up. As the creator of the popular and oh-so-cute Wiggster Pocket Gmail site noted recently though, they may no longer be needed as Google finally catches up with the rest of us.

[And yes, I do think the Wiggster PC interface is cute, however, it uses an iPAQ. Ick. Give me a Toshie any day... although, as we all know, no more Toshie PPC's to be made. Sadness abounds.]

But I digress. In addition to Wiggy's site, there are a few other "Gmail-Lite" sites around, including at ThePlaceForItAll.com and PC-Counselor.com. These are all derived from Gan Yinghung's fantastic, open source Gmail-Lite project.

Alternatively, add Gmail as an RSS feed:

https://gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom you@gmail.com password

Wiggster has also produced a Smartphone-friendly version, GmailSmart, with another cutie interface for PC browsers, this time using what looks like a Motorola V600.

Hackin' It For IE

IE just plain sucks when it comes to CSS Positioning. It's seriously hilarious what a mess it was making of this template.

However, for you poor sods having to use the blighter, I've just added some quick hacks to get things here looking almost the same as they are for people using decent browsers.

Let's hope IE7 is rebuilt totally from the ground up. As IE6 is a right royal mess.

[Of course, though -- who cares! Use Firefox. You'll wonder why MS are even bothering.]

Knife in Skull Proves a Headache

This has got to be one of the strangest things I've read in my life.

A retired teacher in Poland doing some DIY repairs in his kitchen last week slipped and fell, somehow causing a 12.5 cm bread knife, snapped off at the handle, to become lodged in his skull.

But that's not the strangest part -- the fact that he didn't actually notice, is almost beyond belief. The 61-year old did, however, notice his bread knife was missing when he needed to cut some bread.

"Despite carefully searching the room I could only find the handle. But I forgot about it as my headaches got worse over the next few days."

Pain from the headaches forced Mr. Woronowicz to take himself off to hospital.

"I thought they might give me an aspirin. Instead they pulled a 5-inch knife blade out of my head," he said.

Baggage Handlers Speak Up

The Age newspaper tonight reports that Triple J, Australia's popular alternative youth radio station, received a stack of callers to its topical talkback show, Hack, this week, all of whom agreed that Schapelle Corby is more than likely innocent.

Callers included baggage handlers and drug traffickers, who suggested that the interstate drug trade is alive and well here in Oz, but that to import anything to Bali would be plain stupid, with one caller stating:

"Why would you pay $10,000 for something in Australia and then try and sell it in Indonesia for a couple of hundred bucks.

"You would have to be an A-grade moron to think it's a good idea."