Define irony

I was forced to revert to MS Internet Explorer to try and get Webmessenger running as the system status claimed to be up, even though I couldn’t connect to it the conventional way. I fire up IE, find the webmessenger page, where I’m promptly told that a pop-up has been blocked (and WM requires the use of popups). No worries, I think, and choose the “show blocked popup” prompt in IE.

That’s right – the popup that got blocked was advertising a popup blocker. Ridiculous.

Jumping off the bandwagon

I’m no trendsetter, but as an IT-type geek-type I seem to see a few new technology related products before your average Joe Public. And no disrespect to Joe, I’m just saying. And in a bid to be just a little bit different, I’ve controversially (albeit perhaps temporarily) ditched Mozilla Firefox. I was using Firefox way back in pre-beta, when it was still known as Firebird and tabbed browsing was a slightly sketchy and relatively new concept. Firefox/-bird has done remarkable things for the browsing world, introducing new levels of security and experience, as well as putting a dent in Internet Explorer’s market domination. Especially as IE is a big pile of smouldering cow dung.

Well, I still like Firefox, but I’ve installed Opera’s latest offering. I remember Opera from “way back when” I was doing more serious web development type issues, and remember it being a really pain in the nuts to design for. Back then though a “your site doesn’t work in my Opera browser” would usually be responded to with a “I don’t care” seeing as it didn’t even account for a handful of visitors.

So, that’s really just a very longwinded way of saying I’m trying Opera 9, both Mac and Windows-flavoured. Heck, if I had a decent mobile phone, I could even try it on there too. So far, so OK. Essentially, it’s a browser… it lets me view web pages and write posts on a blog no-one reads. It has a bunch of handy-dandy features (for which Firefox-style plugins will almost certainly exist) and looks all very purty with it’s tab and nicely bevelled graphics. The only thing so far is it appears to have no support for accelerator/access keys, which is a most suprising oversight (especially as their own website uses them) and a usability no-no. Though I really haven’t checked the W3 docs on that sort of thing for quite a while, so don’t quote me on that. And it’s entirely likely I’m making it up that it doesn’t work.

If interested, watch this space. Or alternatively, download it yourself and have a play.

Do you read my blog, part 2

(for your own subscription to Pearls Before Swine, go to Comics.com).

Warning: Shock News contained

Yes. It’s true. KFC is bad for you. Via Carol I found this story, where some moaning US consumer group have sued KFC, operated by “Yum Foods” for not disclosing that their food, is, in fact, a touch on the unhealthy side:

“Trans fat is almost everywhere on this menu. By frying in such a dangerous oil, KFC is making its unsuspecting consumers’ arteries Extra Crispy,” he said, referring to a version of fried chicken sold by KFC.

I love it. “Unsuspecting consumers’”. Unsuspecting? Unsuspecting? Seriously. If this action is actually successfully, Yum Foods are going to have rebrand.

No sh*t

I’m really tempted to start up a website which is something like “Really dumb things I see”. Because every day guaranteed I see or encounter something that to me, is totally dumb.

Take for example this message I got from Windows when downloading some updates.

“You have chosen not to download something, therefore it won’t be downloaded. Is that OK?”

It’s a ridiculous confirmation box that is totally unnecessary. If you like this sort of thing, particularly in the geek world, then be sure to check out The Daily WTF.

P.S. In case you’re wondering why I chose not to download the WGA, have a quick butcher’s at this (XP on that machine is legit, I just don’t like the idea of it).

It’s just too funny

I was researching a post over at Six and Out concerning a cricketing lookalike. For those of you who couldn’t give a monkeys about cricket and would not get the finer side of the humourous point, nevermind… it’s enough to just watch this video. It’s just brilliant and whisks me away to my childhood days.

It made me wonder whatever happened to Carlton, who in real-life has a quality pornstar name “Alfonso”. Sadly, it seems he’s done pretty much bugger all.

Don’t worry, Alfonso, we’ll never forget Carlton.

How my website bought me a car

Thank you Google. Thank you Da Vinci. Thank you me. This is nothing more than a total trumpet-self-blowing but largely due to the Da Vinci Code film, and the persistance with which I covered the Da Vinci Code online puzzles, through very little work, last months Google efforts bought me my car. Now, I’m not allowed to give the precise details, much less encourage you to click ads, but for a minutes work in stuffing a few ads up on the pages, it’s turned into quite a pleasant little cash-cow.

If only I knew a little more about all this sorta stuff – I wonder whether I could have done even better!