Saturday, January 31, 2009

Google: The internet may harm your computer

In what looks like a bug, Google is now warning that every site may harm your computer. Here is what I see, when I search for “news”:

Google_Harm

Notice that every site has “This site may harm your computer” link, and when you click on any link you get a warning page.

Windows 7 – Internet Explorer instability

After being so satisfied with Windows 7, I’m now experiencing instability in Internet Explorer 8. IE8 crashes quite often, and not as nice as it should. The crashes are usually not limited to specific tabs. The entire application freezes, and I need to forcefully shut it down. A few errors are linked specifically to Google Toolbar 5.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Lost 5x03 - Thoughts

Finally, a good episode! Only one time jump, gave us some time to enjoy one steady time-line. A few interesting things:

  • Charlotte collapsing – so predictable. Said it would happen right before it did.
  • Young Charles Widmore – I’ve read people guessed it last episode, but still, it surprised me, as I didn’t think it was true. I like seeing the Others in the beginning. Perhaps we will understand what’s the issue between Ben and Widmore.
  • Faraday’s mom is probably Mrs. Hawking. Again, last episode I thought it wasn’t true, as she was in the US, while the mother should have been in the UK.
  • The meeting between Richard and Lock was great! Also explains why Richard came to Lock when Lock was born, and when he was young.

Looking forward to the next one.

24 7x06 - Thoughts

A nice episode. A few unrealistic scenes (well, it is 24 after all), such as the president’s husband killing that Secret Service agent, but other than that, a pretty solid episode. However, I think it was the first episode of 24 that has a large number of casualties, but doesn’t move me at all. Somehow they messed things up with the aircraft collision. Just a far away explosion that looked pretty fake.

Minesweeper in Windows 7

Even Minesweeper was changed. You can now play with flowers instead of mines, using the Change Appearance command under the Game menu.

MS_Flower

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

IE8 add-on needs IE8. In IE8

I’m using Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7. I tried to install an add-on using the “Get More Add-ons” Window. IE8 insisted that I should download IE8 first. Don’t believe me? See for yourself:

ie8needsie8

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Battlestar Galactica 4x12 - Thoughts

I’m not happy about this one. Somehow, all of the latest and greatest episodes of my favorite shows are not what they used to be.

So, what do we have here? Mutiny on the way? Civil war? Who is the father of the child? The prophet speaking again? A love story between the commander and the president? OK. That’s it.There was no one scene which caught my attention in any way (suspense,tension, anything…). Not good…

402 unread items in Reader!

That's too much...

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Windows 7 Action Center not connecting

Having the same problem as noted below:

Action Center not connecting - Windows 7 Forums

Action Center is finding a solution to a crash, I get the message "Contacting Autobug Web Service", and then "cannot display the webpage". Not too much information on Google about it.

Still using Windows 7

I’m very happy with it. It’s becoming my number one OS, although, because of disk space limits on that partition, I cannot install most of my software there. Still, it’s enough for internet, and media center.

Thoughts on Lost season 5

It’s really a thought, not thoughts. I don’t like where it’s going. I didn’t like the season 4 episode “Constant”, and this season seems like it’s going to be one big “Constant”. This time travel business makes it easy to make a mess of things story-wise, so I hope this won’t be another Heroes, which I abandoned mid-season.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

No bike ride today

I’m forced to call it off. There is too much sand in the air! It would be difficult to breath in this weather.

Windows Solution Center

I just had a message that “Distributed Link Tracking Client” caused an error. I chose to send the error information to Microsoft. Surprisingly, a few minutes after, I got a message back with a possible solution. Alas, I couldn’t see the solution because “The program cannot display the webpage”. Well, it’s the thought that counts…

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Lost Season 5 Episode 1 is MIA

Some rumors about how ABC screened the first episode. The x264 version isn’t out yet. Me sad :-(

Update: 7am here, and episode 1 is finally available, although I won’t see it before Saturday, or even Sunday. Bummer.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Short day at work

Son not feeling well. Had to leave early. Worked from home. Stayed with son.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Windows 7 Media Center

Had a quick look at the Media Center. Looks kind of cool. I think I’ll start using it more, instead of the Vista one. It has nice Sports features, where you can get results of games, and track sport stars. It doesn’t interest me that much, but it looks kind of cool.

24 7x05

Spoilers ahead!!!

 

 

Let me think, Jack Bauer forced to shoot a female coworker, and has to fake her death… hmm… sounds familiar.

Other than that, a fairly average episode, with a few inconsistencies.

BTW, don’t worry about Walker. I’m sure she took a deep breath.

Busy busy busy!!!

A long meeting, new people, lots of email. Too much!!!!!!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Battlestar Galactica 4x11

Spoilers ahead!

 

What a dark episode. First Dualla, then Thrace, and finally, the fifth!

New week

Thought of taking the bike to work, but it's too wet outside. Maybe tomorrow. Lots of email in my Inbox this morning.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

AVG doesn’t like Windows 7 games

I’ve noticed that when I search for games on the Start menu, the machine almost freezes. Further investigations have shown that both CPU cores reach 100%, and even more investigations showed that the problem is with avgrsx.exe, AVG Resident Shield service. Now I need to find a solution.

Update: It appears this is not a Windows 7 issue, but rather a general AVG issue. I’ve installed Avira Antivir instead.

Bike ride this morning

1.5 hours. Great weather for it.

Friday, January 16, 2009

IE8: The killer browser in Windows 7?

I'm a Firefox user. In last couple of years I have always thought that the various Internet Explorers were rather slow and heavy, and Internet Explorer 8 was no different. Today, I installed Firefox on Windows 7, and as usual, I've set Firefox as my default browser. However, after a few minutes I understood that one of the main features of Windows 7 isn't working with Firefox, and I set Internet Explorer 8 as my default browser.

If you've read anything about Windows 7, you probably know about the "Aero peek", the feature that enables you to easily browse between open windows of the same application. With Internet Explorer 8, each tab is treated is a separate Window, and so, it is easy to browse between tabs. This feature is not available with Firefox.

IEAeroPeek

The second feature, which is a great addition, is the download progress. When you download files, you see a progress bar on the IE icon in the task bar. That way, you don’t have to check the download window each time.

IEProgress

A third feature is that when a tab crashes, it doesn’t bring down the entire IE session. Only the tab crashes, and then restarts in the same location!

So, IE is now my default browser. The only thing I really miss is the spell checker.

My experience with Windows 7 so far

So, I've installed Windows 7 last night. I had to repartition my machine, so that I could dual boot with Vista. I repartitioned using Vista's Disk Management, which was quite easy.
The installation itself took about 20 minutes, which was very fast! My experience so far is very positive. I have played with it at work, but even with a few minutes of experience in day to day stuff, I already found out one cute UI improvement. When you download a file using IE, the IE icon on the new task bar turns partly green, to show the progress of the download. That way you don't have to check the download window to see how the download progresses. Here is how it looks like:

IEProgress

Anyway, I'll keep updating on my experience. Hope it will be positive all the way!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

I've installed Windows 7!

Partitioned my HD and installed Windows 7 side by side with Vista. Hope it goes well!

Me want to sleep

Told you I was going to be tired. Also, no Miami SWAT today.

Morning at work

Restless night, cold morning, long day ahead. Miami SWAT tonight? We'll see… In any case I need to prepare my hard-disk for next week's TV shows…

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

24 7x03-04

Well, I have seen the two episodes today, after all. What can I say… It’s nice, nothing less, nothing more. Episode highlights:

1) The "battle” between Chloe and Janis. Chloe won!

2) Agent Walker pulling a “Bauer” on Tanner.

3) Tony is really a good guy (not really a surprise though…).

What’s next? Well, I guess Hillinger’s move is going to cost his wife’s life. Probably, as they are next to land, they are going to be a good target.

Sitting outside

On a very cold day.

24 7x01-02

Spoilers ahead!

Yesterday evening I saw the first two episodes of 27, season 7. Well, I’d never thought I’d say it, but after a year I’ve missed Jack.

What has happened to Jack over this missing year? Well, he’s become more mellow.
What happened to CTU? Disbanded. But the FBI also has moles, so it’s OK.
What happened to to Chloe? She became Janeane Garofalo. Speaking of Janeane, it’s funny to see her here, so serious, and the comment about understanding sarcasm, was quite hilarious.

So, Tony is back. This is no surprise to anyone seeing the promos from last year. The plot isn’t surprising also to anyone who has seen Die Hard (key plot points taken from two Die Hard movies). However, bonus point for not taking down two planes.

Bottom line? Nice action, although sometimes boring in the White House scenes.

I’ll probably see the next two sometime this week (not today though).

Monday, January 12, 2009

Rode the bike to work again

Has been quite nice, without a coat, and in a new route, which was nicer.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Long game of CW last night

It's getting too much. Had troubles sleeping. Saw the enemy in front of my eyes.

This morning I've started downloading Windows 7 at home.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Tried to get Windows 7

Couldn’t. I got a direct download link, but it only downloaded 1.4GB out of the 2.4GB ISO, so I’ve got nothing. Not to mention that I don’t have a product key either.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Another Friday

More Crysis Warhead. Getting pretty good at it. Too bad it keeps crashing because of the display driver issues. Also had a short bike ride today.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Pressure!!!

What a day. No time to breath!

Busy day at work

I have several urgent issues. Hope I can get everything done today.

Back To You

Yesterday I saw the last three episodes. Too bad the show was canceled. Although I didn’t fall for it at first, it kind of grew into me, so too bad.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Another busy day at the barn

I find that if I ignore my incoming mail for a while, I can get more done. Other than that, I'm fairly tired today.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Tired!!!

One hour to go. Must… get… some… progress… done…

Lots of work

Really busy today. Lots of things to complete. Looks like it's going to be a long day.

Monday, January 5, 2009

The ride back home

Was hard, with all the people on the sidewalk.

One mustn't get annoyed

Take a deep breath. You did OK. They just think you made a mistake. It's nothing personal. You can take your time to show them that they are wrong.

 

 

… I hate it when I receive emails claiming that I'm wrong, when I know I'm not. It usually gets me very annoyed. I should probably take a deep breath.

Guess how I got to work today

Yes, you guessed right! With the bikes. One thing that I've learned is that next time I will do it without a coat on…

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Cold

Cold, tired, still need to get ready for a new work week.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

From home to work

Tried it this morning on the bikes. 30 minutes each way. Will try it next week.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Cannot fall asleep

Also, son with ear ache. Gave him ear drops before. Hope they help.

Now I hope the Internet will help me fall asleep.

Lost a downloaded MP3 album

I tried purchasing an album today online, and found out that I already purchased it two years ago. I cannot find it anywhere. I’ve tried emailing the site, asking to download again. Hope they agree.

I don’t have any idea how I lost that album!

 

Update: Found it on my computer at work!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Cold, cold morning

Yesterday evening I chose to read a book (Asimov) than to play CW. It was an interesting choice. This morning I awoke to a very cold one. Probably 11°C, but with the wind chill it was probably closer to 7 or even 5°C.

I'm starting to think seriously to come to work on the bikes twice a week. In need to check if it's allowed to bring bikes inside the building.