A waste of bits and bandwidth

…have become too long.

Some interesting (or perhaps not so) findings over the weekend…

For the Firefox users out there, try this little gem that I discovered at Mozilla Tips.

“…Type “about:config” in the addressline, and you will be taken to a page listing several hundred options. Some of them are very useful. Bold lines indicate that their settings is different from default.

You can disable functions that websites use to close, move or resize windows, remove your toolbars or the systembuttons (maximize, minimize etc.). You can unfreeze frames and a lot more.”

Very cool! In the same vein, if you normally use about:blank for your home page, try about:mozilla. Works in IE too, though I’m sure you aren’t using that anymore.

I spent the weekend nursing a really stiff neck; I always enjoy that. Nothing like not really being able to turn your head without moving your shoulders.

I also tried, unsuccessfully, to set up an NIS server. “Unable to mount the NFS entries from /etc/fstab” in case anyone has any ideas… I get a real kick out of it and it doesn’t piss me off when it doesn’t work. I just go off and try to find an answer. I’m really liking Linux even though I feel like its 1997 again, and I’m staring at Windows 95, thinking “what the hell is going on?”

I’m back to work tomorrow and truthfully feeling a bit indifferent to the idea. The people are great and so is the company but I’ve noted that I’m not getting the same charge out of it any more. After all I’ve been through in the past four years, I guess it’s amazing that I even try. Financially, the tech years have been a disaster. But I did it and have no regrets.

That company in Richmond had me down there three times in five days and now I haven’t heard much from them in two weeks. As I understand it, it’s the dreaded ‘management approval’ stuff again.

Maybe I’m just frustrated. Actually, I know that I am but something needs to happen soon. Like August soon or I might call it a day. I have insurance for seven more months but you barely exist on it. No way will I be as patient as last time.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about all this crap, particularly this weekend. I find it ironic that the things I value the most now, are the very things that I gave up so readily in 2000. The things that I used to dismiss as ‘part of the game’ are now real issues (blocking, as we say in the biz) and frankly, viewed as a downside.

So now what’s the next move? That’s a really good question…

Ok, stop bitchin’… Here’s a new entry for you.

So I’ve finished my first week and so far so good. Went out for lunch today with a bunch of people and I had a good time with them. The app sucks pretty badly but it’s not that bad to test; more frustrating than anything else. If only someone in there knew something about it, my life would be so much easier.

Still, even though I’m doing my thing again I have fleeting thoughts of “should I be doing something else?” running through my mind. Don’t know why… I do know I’m sick to death of constant job searches and the whole process of starting a new job. Maybe it’s because I know this is temporary a situation. I really have no idea of what else I should do though.

I really like the area of Yaletown that the office is located in. I’ve also noted with some disdain that Yaletown is one of the most pretentious places in the city; maybe even more than Robson, which is saying something. Everyone is just so damn happy with themselves…

Some things I’ve seen on my walk to work in the past two days:

Yesterday I saw a hygienically-challenged man, looking not at all well, repeatedly barfing on the flower bed in front of Shoppers Drug Mart on Davie. That’s not how you want to start your day.

Today, I saw a young guy waiting for a bus on Davie while sporting a short skirt, black nylons and some white heels. For the love of God man, either get some white nylons or some black heels. No one even looked at him otherwise…

In news of the predictable, a new threat is circulating on the net today. ??Microsoft said users could search for the files “Kk32.dll” or “Surf.dat” to see if their PCs were infected.?

Or you could use Firefox. Or Opera. Or any freakin’ browser but Internet Explorer. Of course IIS ain’t such a great idea either, but you already knew that…

Ah, the joys of employment, even if it’s a contract… Today was the first day at Schemasoft and it went well. Many thanks to Spanky and Walter for the referral; I’ve never gotten a job with only a brief phone interview.

They weren’t too prepared for me and the entire day was spent trying to get stuff set up which I guess was ok. The application is much more complex than I’d imagined it seems that no one really knew much about it.

All the other testers are busy working on an application for Apple, uh, I mean an alternative operating system provider… Actually they could tell me that it was for Apple but that’s all, so I’m pretty much on my own with this one.

The offices are really nice! Yaletown warehouse but renovated so that liquids don’t seep through the ceiling like another place it know. In any event, I’m in for now. They don’t need anyone full time but if I do a good job and they turf the co-ops…

Holy damn heatwaves! I mean I love the heat and all but my apartment is like 27c and I’m five minutes from the beach! I can only imagine what my Burnaby apartment would be like on a day like this.

In related news, it would seem that Andrea has burnt her face off. That’s a shame… She was such a pretty girl. I’m sure she’s strong enough to adapt to a life of pointing and staring.

A quick note regarding an error I was seeing with Firefox 0.9 this morning. It was crashing when I tried to start it and littering the Event Viewer with errors. To my horror, I had to use IE in order to find a fix for it…

After trying a few things, I found these instructions at the mozillaZine forums.

Go to your profile directory. Under Windows, this will be C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox. Under Macintosh OS X, this will be ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox. Under Linux, this will be ~/.mozilla/firefox/.

Open prefs.js with a text editor, and remove the line containing “update.lastUpdateDate” if it exists. Then start Firefox and turn off all software and extension update preferences (Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Software Update) – but leave “Allow web sites to install software” alone.

Other that that 0.9 has a number of nice new features; you can read a review at Mad Penguin if for some reason you still haven’t made the switch (yeah, I’m talking to you Karan…).

I haven’t posted in a bit so here’s a review of the week:

Monday – My second or third interview (depending on who you talk to) went well. Still haven’t heard anything though. I was told it could be a while before they decide.

Tuesday – Hooked up with Biff and Jake for a movie at Tinseltown. We saw the Riddick Chronicles and predictably, I didn’t much care for it.

Is this the best that Hollywood can come up with for a story line? I mean this was Rambo in space… “One man, against all odds, takes on an army of evil and wins!” *yawn*

Wednesday – Once again met with Biff and Jake to help Paul with his little photography project.

Oh, and Andrea thinks we’re geeks…

Just got a call about a possible contract. Have a potential full time job in the wings. Considering throwing myself off the balcony.

More later… or maybe not…