Ugh. I hate to be the grammar police, and I know I’m far from perfect, but this just shouldn’t happen. If you’re a big corporation and you’re going to email your customers about a sale, it is your responsibility to proofread the email.
But, maybe this is to be expected from a company that uses the tagline “We got it. We get it.” I’m assuming what they “got” are computers and not proofreaders.
Comment [1] | 
posted 12/08/2005 12:23 PM
How am I missing all of these things? Mozilla just released a new version of their Firefox browser – version 1.5. You can download the latest from Mozilla.com, which I guess is the replacement site for Mozilla.org.
I just downloaded the new version today and have only played with it for a few hours so far. There are two features that stand out. First, the browser seems to be a bit faster when surfing. The back button seems more responsive and the pages appear to render quicker. I don’t know if this is true or if I am just imagining it. The second feature, and the one I really like, is the ability to drag-and-drop tabs. I can get really anal when it comes to where my tabs are positioned within Firefox. When I accidentally close one, I end up closing them all and starting over. Don’t ask. Now, I can just open a new tab and drag it to wherever I want it. Very cool. I wish Microsoft would let me do this with the Taskbar.
If you do make the switch from 1.07 to 1.5, be aware that not all of your extensions will work with the new version. I’m a big fan of the SessionSaver and ReloadEvery extensions and neither worked when I upgraded. There is a workaround, however:
That should do it. At least it worked for me. I guess there are some errors with some of the extensions so this may cause problems with 1.5. If you run into any problems caused by enabling an extension, just disable it.
I modified the above instructions, which were taken from LifeHacker.com
Update
After further review, I don’t think SessionSaver is working yet with 1.5. I get the same number of tabs to appear when I restart it, but none of the pages load. I’ll have to keep looking into this.
Update #2
I found a newer version of SessionSaver that is supposed to work with Firefox 1.5. It seems to work just fine.
Comment [2] | posted 11/30/2005 06:26 PM
Ahhhh…the Lions. What can I say about them? What can anyone say? They’re bad. They’ve almost always been bad, and they will probably always be bad. There is nothing we can do about it. It is as inevitable as the tides.
After the Thanksgiving Day debacle at Ford Field, it was specualted that Mariucci would be fired as early as Friday. Friday came and went, and Mooch was still the coach. Saturday, Sunday, still the head coach. Monday rolls around, however, and now Mooch is out and Dick Jauron is in. Why the wait? Everyone knew this was going to happen so why did it take so long? I’d hazzard a guess but it’s a waste of time. Trying to understand why the Lions do anything they do is not a productive use of brain power. The phrase “Lion’s Logic” is popular here in Detroit for a reason.
Am I upset about the firing? Nope. Mariucci was not a good fit for this team. I was one of the many here in town that was happy when he was hired. But over time, it’s been pretty obvious it was a bad fit. Mariucci ran the west coast offense but didn’t have the players to execute it. Instead of modifying the system to fit the players, he stuck with the system. That might be why the Lions have the 27th ranked offense. There were also a lot of rumblings about a lack of discipline on the team. It was said that players took advantage of Mariucci’s easy-going nature. Now the Lions will flip it back to the other end of the spectrum and pick up a hard-line disciplinarian again. Follow along with this pattern: Wayne Fontes (soft), Bobby Ross (tough), Morningwheg/Mooch (soft), [insert new tough guy here].
I think Mariucci would be a great college coach and should go the Pete Carroll route and take over a program somewhere. I believe he coached at Cal for a year or so before taking over the 49ers so he’s done it before. I know a few people around town have been saying the MSU coaching job would be a perfect fit for him, but that would mean John L. Smith would have to go and I, for one, don’t want to see it. The man is a walking quote machine. Plus, he hasn’t beaten Michigan yet. I’d like him to stay for a long time.
Comment [2] | posted 11/29/2005 02:52 PM
I’m pretty late on this – I think the 5.10 update to Ubuntu was released some time in October. I just found out about it Sunday night.
If you’re wondering what in the world I’m talking about, Ubuntu is a distribution of Linux geared more toward the home user rather than big time tech geeks. If you were ever thinking of looking into Linux or trying it out, I highly recommend taking a look at Ubuntu, especially the new 5.10 release.
I’m running it on an old Dell Inspiron 4100 laptop from 2001. The install was a piece of cake – just stick the cd into the drive, turn on the pc and watch it go. A word of caution, however, the install will wipe out your entire hard drive so make sure you back things up before you begin.
The distribution comes with the usual suspects as far as open source software goes. OpenOffice2 (a replacement for MS Office), Gimp (a great graphics editing program), Firefox, etc. Ubuntu includes the Synaptic Package Manager to make installation of new packagaes a, well, snap. There are also tons of add-on packages you can find if you look around enough. I found one called network-manager that makes it easy to switch between wired and wireless network connections, depending on what is currently available.
It took me some time to get my wireless card working, but other than that it was pretty easy. It helps if you know some Linux basics, but it’s not completely necessary. There is a lot of help available on-line and Ubuntu has a very newbie friendly community available.
Best part is, it’s all free. Enjoy!
Comment | posted 11/29/2005 02:20 PM
So the Red Sox picked up Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell today for 3 minor leaguers. Interesting. Beckett sometimes is a fantastic pitcher. He’s also guy with chronic blister problems and a really bizarre shoulder issue that is still being investigated. Lowell is a pretty good 3B, except for last year when I had him on my fantasy team. He killed me and I think he’s near the end of his career. I don’t know anything about the minor leaguers they gave up, but it looks like a pretty good deal for the Sox. It would be hard to pass on Beckett. I’d love to see him in a Tiger’s uniform.
What I really want to know, though, is when Steve Philips will hold a simulated press conference on ESPN to discuss the deal. I can’t wait!
Comment | posted 11/22/2005 06:03 PM
You might notice things look a little different here at the site. For one, I finally decided to do a link check and found out a lot of the images of the template I’m using were not being found. So, the banner looks a little different, and there are some rounded corners here and there.
Also, I updated the site to Textpattern 4.0.2 last night. I had a few scares with some broken links and old plug-ins, but recovered quickly and now everything works. I’m not really sure what 4.0.2 offers. I think I’ve seen some things about comments. 4.0.2 also handles 401 errors much better than the old system. Now you’ll see an error page. Just have to figure out how to customize it. Hopefully by having the 401 pages, I’ll be able to get rid of some of the old links that Google, Yahoo and MSN think are on the site. Right now when I run a site:jaydreyer.com at Google, a lot of my pages are not showing up. Hopefully this combined with some work using Google Site Maps will help take care of that problem.
Comment | posted 11/22/2005 03:53 PM
I finished up my son’s train table the other night. The paint job is pretty bad but I’m still working on it. The table was built with poplar and the top is 3/4” birch-ply. I used my Kreg pocket-hole-jig to make the joints. That thing is awesome, btw. The joints it makes are really strong, too. That’s important when you’ll have a monkey climbing all over it. Jack will be getting a new wooden train set to go with his table from Santa in December.
I based the design of the table on a similar item at Pottery Barn Kids. Actually, it looks pretty much exactly like the one from Pottery Barn Kids. The difference is I painted mine and they stained theirs.
Comment [1] | posted 11/20/2005 12:41 PM
I just wrapped up the Local Treasure International web-site for my sister and brother-in-law. It’s a resort in Nicaragua – very cool. They are building bungalows, selling land and building furniture…not to mention you can go deep sea fishing or take a surfing charter.
It took a lot longer to build than I thought it would, but in the end I think it looks pretty good and my clients seem happy. Take a look and let me know what you think. There is also a pretty cool photo gallery using zenphoto where you can check out some of the amazing fish they’ve caught from their boat, Sancho. Very cool.
The site was built using Textpattern 4.01 for the CMS.
Comment | posted 11/18/2005 11:38 PM
Comcast increased the speed of our Internet connection to 6 Mbps from 4 Mbps. The upgrade was supposed to happen a few months ago, but some undisclosed technical problem prevented it. About 2 weeks ago Comcast sent out an email notifying me that the increase had gone through and all I needed to do was unplug my cable modem, wait a few seconds, then plug it in. That’s when the trouble started.
After resetting the modem, I jumped out to a few sites that offer broadband speed checks. Time after time my connection speed kept clocking in at under 4 Mbps, actually, it was usually much closer to 3 Mbps than 4. I tried a number of things – keeping the modem unplugged longer, resetting my wireless router, my VOIP router and my switch. Nothing helped.
I searched around the Internet to see if others were having the same problem. You might be thinking, “Why not just give Comcast technical support a call?” If you’re thinking that, you must not have Comcast. Anyway, after multiple Google searches I finally found a forum where people with the Linksys BEFCMU10 cable modem (the one I have) were having the same problem. It turns out that there are different versions of this modem. Mine was version 1, which I guess could not handle the increase in speed. People with version 3 did not have this problem. I went to TigerDirect and ordered a new one for around $60. It turns out the problem I encountered has something to do with DOCSIS 2.0 compatability. I have no idea what that means but evidently my new modem (same model number) takes care of the problem.
After swapping out the modems, resetting my network and giving Comcast a call to update the MAC address, I’m happy to report the speed increase now works. Problems like this are exactly why I tell my Dad to pay the $3/mo and lease the modem from Comcast instead of buying his own. If he has a problem, he can just call Comcast and get a new modem.
Comment [1] | posted 11/18/2005 09:43 AM
Google just released Google Analytics and Google Base, but all I really want is gCalendar to go along with my gMail. Yahoo has a decent calendar available for free, but I don’t want to deal with two separate systems – I’d like gCalendar to integrate with gMail.
Does anyone out there have a clue if gCalendar will ever come in to existence? I have to believe it will, but I have no idea when. The sooner the better, as far as I’m concerned.
Speaking of calendars, I desperately need something to organize this aspect of my life. I screwed up on an appointment yesterday (one day early…), I never know when birthdays are coming, and I’m always asking my wife, “When is this? When is that? We’re going where this weekend? Why didn’t I know about that? Oh, you told me. D’oh.” Etc.
I guess my feature wish list would look something like:
That’s about it. Any suggestions?
Comment [3] | posted 11/16/2005 03:25 PM
Jay Dreyer's blog on whatever pops into his head...sports, tech stuff, Detroit, Minneapolis, etc.
