Well, I did it.

I installed IE7 (Beta2), and I have to say, my first impression is that its quite nice.

They've learned a lot from FireFox and Opera. The GUI is quite clean, and it makes sense. The tabs work just like they do in Firefox, only they're fancier. Once you open more than one tab, it offers up a "Tile" button, where you see all your sites, in mini windows, helping you cull out the ones you don't want easier. I'm sure I'll mention it from time to time...

I'm not sure yet if they've won me back over to the "IE is better" camp, but it is pretty nice.



THERE IS A PROBLEM
IE7 must change the type ID of the input box... Go Daddy's Quick Blog editor uses a wrapper around the box to add "WYSIWYG" formatting capabilities... I wrote a similar one for work.  Neither one works with IE7, but it did with IE6 and FireFox... seems they still have some work to do to clean up some loose ends.  I HOPE they're not expecting us to do customized code to get it to work!!!  We already have to do that for IE/Netscape/Firefox/Opera (although, to be honest, those last three are pretty similar!)... to have to add IE6 and IE7 checks... well, that would be TOO "Microsoft's way of doing things".

Here's what I see in FireFox/IE6...


Here's the Same page in IE7...

My computer wasn’t particularly “bad”, per se, but its major flaw was USB1.  I’m a “Home is sometimes a more comfortable place to do work, especially at night” sort of employee, and I bring an encrypted portable drive to and from work with me.   The drive uses USB2 instead of Firewire, and it took FOREVER to transfer the files.

So, I headed over to Fry’s after work last week, and picked up a new motherboard.  I set a limit of $150 for myself, because I’m not a gamer or anything, I just wanted something nice.  My old board had a Hyper-Threading 3.0 Intel Pentium chip on it, so I looked for a board that would support it.

The Fry’s guy asked me my budget, and then pointed out a motherboard for me.  It would take the same RAM I had, and it had enough expansion slots (two NICs, Soundblaster 32, Pinacle Digitial Scanning Firewire card, TV Tuner,  and a Bluetooth transmitter.)  I headed for the door.  I asked about a “dual processor” board.  He showed me an AMD one, but said that the Intel boards were dropped, and they didn’t carry them anymore because their cost wasn’t justified against the 64-bit Dual Core sockets they were getting.  Those were about $400, without a chip, which was an additional million and a half dollars or so (not really, but still).

I started to leave with my cheapo, but fully serviceable, board ($99 – less than I expected!), happy with my impending purchase.

Then I saw this sign above a pile of motherboard boxes: “Was 309.99, now 149.99!”.  Big discount.  I looked at the boxes below the sign, ASUS AN8 SLI Deluxe.  No ringing bells, it didn’t mean much to me.  I flipped it over and looked at the specs… 2 NICs on the board, firewire, with a jumper for a second one, 4 USB2 connectors, with ports for 6 more built onto the board, 8 channel sound, support for 4GB of RAM, 2 PCI-e graphics slots – which can be joined together for “load balancing”… yeah, it was nice.   REAL NICE.  Oh… it had a AMD 939 socket… the snag.

But, I asked about it anyway, and the fateful question: “how much is a chip that would fit in this?”  It happened that I landed on one of the geekier employees at Fry’s (Which, if they’re not out your way, is to Best Buy what Costco is to Wal-mart), and he actually had gotten that board the day before, and spent all night hooking it up… he was hopped up on coffee, and VERY excited!  He took me to the chip board – a 10’x10’ picture frame with CPU’s lined up, about 3 inches apart from each other… on the “Spensive” end, he showed me an AMD Socket 939 chip, the “AMD 64 X2 3800+”… All for the low, low price of $299.  

The X2 was for “Dual Core”.   It worked in the discounted super-board.   Nice, but it was too much.  I would have to ask, and she was a bit leerie about my “reason” for a new motherboard to begin with.  Hmmm…  the internal CPU Fan kicked in…  

My other computer sported an Intel 2.8ghz Celeron-based chip.  2gb’s of ram.  A nice computer, but it ran Visual Studio 2003 sort of slow, and VS 2005 ran slower than GEOS used to run on a Commodore 128!  (OK, just dated myself, but that’s OK – it moved me to upgrade to Commodore’s Amiga 1000 computer at the time)  I built my fiancé’s computer … it had an AMD processor, the Athalon, Sans “64”.  We could trade, Intel Celeron for AMD Athalon…  Nope.  Different Socket number.  Bummer.  The board started drifting back to the pile.  Some other day, I guess.  I could see the shoulders start sagging on the guy helping me.

Then the geeky Fry’s guy’s face lit up.  A CPU had been brought back – a discount!  He went to the desk, and talked to a manager geek type, who opened a drawer, and pulled out some piece of paper.  Yep, the geek nodded, there was one.

$129 – more than half off.  Ooh… nice.  The fan spun faster, I could almost hear the memory swapping to the hard drive to free up some room for processing… for less than $300, I could get a board AND a CPU that would normally run more than close to $800.

The “More than $50” flag popped up, my mind knowing before I did that I wanted to get it… hmmm… the joke about the “$1000” limit  flashed in the background… I set the override on the $50, and said.  “You know what?  I’ll do it”

I let her know on the way home... "Its totally OK, Hon... its your money, so if you need it, get it!"  I know that will change in 90 days or so - on August 5th, to be exact - but at that moment, I fell in love with her all over again.

I got the board home, put it in, installed the CPU, put in 2GB’s of RAM, hooked up a monitor, and installed Windows 2003 Server, with SP1.  

The thing FLIES!  Its AMAZING!  This computer, with the SuperBoard, is the closest thing to "Leading Edge" that I've EVER HAD!

When I tried to install a second Hard Drive (I’m a one step at a time sort of person), parts of the board got in the way.  I went back to Fry’s – my fiancé even agreed to go with me (She’s so cool!), and picked up a box that was a bit larger.  She didn’t even balk when I added a SATA hard drive (oh… the Super Board supports 6 of them, along with 2 EIDE HD’s… it has RAID 1,2,5,and 10 support BUILT IN!) to the cart.

I picked up Chicken Little, too.  Nice movie.

My new computer?  I got home, hooked it all up in new case, and fired her up.  Flies like the wind.  I love it!  I'm still installing stuff, of course, but man, its FAST!

Even Visual Studio 2005.  Problem solved.

This morning, we were treated to the first full-on view of "Miracle", Star and Spirit's newest family member!

It was touch and go since about two weeks ago, when no one is sure what exactly caused it, but they're thinking it was another eagle, or large bird, that caused a comotion, and one of the eggs ended up getting broken.

The two eagles left the nest for hours at a time, giving worry to those who worry about those things (OK, maybe I did a little, too).  But, I guess they knew best, because the little one seems to be doing OK, and its eating just fine.

So, there's more to watch on the EAGLE CAM, now... it'll be fun watching how fast the little eagle will grow!  In less than 6 months, it'll be out on its own, and larger than its parents!

This sign is in the airport at SeaTac.

Its awesome.



Weyerhaeuser bore the brunt of the economic loss to the Mt St Helens eruption... thousands upon thousands of acres of forestry crops were lost in an instant, along with several employees.

25 years later, tall, healthy, growing trees stand where stumps and tree trucks once wowed the world with nature's display of carnage and destruction.  Commercial thinning has begun in the lower elevations, and Weyerhaeuser will start to reap back some of its investment it made into recovering the rubbled regions around The Mountain.

Its good to be reminded that there are companies out there that are managing their timber properties well, and its good to be reminded of the results of that good stewardship: the return of productive, viable growth, return of habitat and protective stands for animals, and a landscape that is once again healthy, and far, far, FAR along the road to recovery after being dealt an incredibly powerful blow.

I got a new motherboard a couple of days ago, and I upgraded my computer to a Dual-Core AMD 3800+.  The board I got supports two PCIe video cards that can work in TANDEM - how cool is THAT?!?  It also supports up to 6 SATA drives, along with the 2 EIDE drives that almost EVERY computer supports - more drives than ANY one in their right mind would need.  It has two built-in LAN cards, 8 USB2 ports, 2 Firewire ports, 8 channel sound... the list goes on and on, including support for 4GB of RAM... yeah, its a NICE board!

It'll surely run Visual Studio 2005 faster, and when VISTA comes out, I'll be closer to being ready!

I installed Windows Server 2003, mostly because IIS and SQL Server can run better on them, and it'll allow me to install Sharepoint Services, and a host of other technologies so that I can gain experience with them... plus they're downright FUN!  I'm looking forward to figuring out just how fast a system I've built for myself... so far, it seems FAST!!!

 

This is a picture of a sign on the mirrors, the walls, and the door of a stall in the men's bathroom on my floor where I work.

The saddest part is that its a requirement - piggy boy really thrashes the place when he "uses" it.  The degree of nastiness indicates that he's doing it on purpose, and leaving it there as part of a statement... NO ONE could be that nasty on accident!



They'll catch him, but until they do, we're down to one 'throne' for most of the day, or at least until its cleaned up by someone...

This poem of sorts was written by our pastor for our bulliten this week... I thought it was quite well done...

Yes, morning has broken and in it we see the shards of great beauty that's priceless yet free. 
In old Mother Nature, its perfectly clear. 
Creation is one way our Father draws near. 
Observe earth's cathedral. 
Go on, take a peek. 
A grand celebration awaits those who seek. 
Let tulips be trumpets. 
Hear budding trees sing. 
Be still for the preacher. 
His name?  Well, its Spring.

-Greg Asimakouploulos
Sr. Pastor, MICC

Makes you want to go outside and see God's Handiwork in action, eh?

 

If you're like me, you've pumped your gas, watching the numbers for the price quickly tick by - MUCH faster than the gallon numbers - and then you get to pondering... why DO they have the "and 9/10'ths" on the end of the price?

What other sector is allowed to get away with that form of deceptive advertizement?  Often, they don't even bother to put up the 9/10ths up on the board... very deceptive.

Anyway, I Googled the topic, and came across this link. This guy wants to fix it... he apparently thinks like I do.  Its from February, so the link might not be up there too long... Here's an excerpt:

"...  In these days of $2.109 gasoline, that extra nine-tenths of a penny at the end seems, at best, archaic. So, state Sen. Dick Day said Wednesday, he intends to introduce a bill next month requiring service stations to charge by the full penny.

"The fact is, it's just plain silly," Day said. "I'd have to buy 10 gallons of gas before I really pay the advertised price."

Neither Day, nor anybody else, seems to know when or why gas stations first started pricing gasoline in fractions of a penny.

The best guess is that it dates back to the 1930s, when gasoline sold for pennies a gallon, said Darrel Bunge, who once headed the now-defunct Minnesota Petroleum Council and still does contract work with the American Petroleum Institute. Raising the price by three-tenths of a penny was the equivalent of raising it 3 or 4 cents today, he said.

Bunge did not know if the petroleum institute had a position on the bill, and repeated calls to two retail associations were not returned.

Dawn Duffy, a AAA Minneapolis spokeswoman, said that somewhere along the way it became standard around the country — and always at nine-tenths.

"I can see his reasoning in wanting to make things more consumer friendly,'' Duffy said. "If it is determined it can't be done, it won't change our lives, or the retailers. ...'' (Twin Cities' Pioneer Press)

True, its only "less than a penny", but hey, its MY penny!

 

This story appeared in the paper today, so Don, a coworker, and I went to the Dairy Queen for a 'Last Meal'... there was a crowd that wrapped around the building by the time we left!  EVERYONE, including us, wanted to be a part of the action. 

The Shadow Lady and I would stop here every so often for a Blizzard on the way home from work.

While I was there, I snapped some pictures with my cell phone's camera.  Gene, the owner, was the person who waited on me.  He said that he's retiring, and he's not going to open another store.

Bit of nostalgia melts in Bellevue

By Sherry Grindeland
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

Tears trickled down Callie Weber's cheeks as she licked her chocolate-dipped vanilla ice-cream cone. The 5-year-old, too young to understand the nostalgia bringing long lines to the Bellevue Dairy Queen this week, only knew that her favorite ice-cream store will close permanently Friday.

The building will be torn down next month, along with several others. Construction will begin in July on a twin-tower office complex on the 5-acre site, known as the Bravern.

The announcement of the closure came as no surprise to Gene Morley, who purchased the franchise in 1981 — 20 years after the venerable ice creamery opened in the heart of downtown.

Morley has lived with a month-to-month lease for nearly a decade as two different owners planned development of the 8-acre superblock just west of Interstate 405.

This week, a steady stream of customers such as Callie, her 3-year-old sister, Meghan, and her mother, Liz Weber of Bellevue, have been coming by for one last taste.

The shopworn store on the southwest corner of Northeast Eighth Street and 112th Avenue Northeast isn't the oldest or the fanciest DQ. But lifelong fans remain loyal.

Gretchen Davidson of Clyde Hill said she used to drive from Seattle to the Bellevue DQ because it had the best burgers and Blizzards. Wednesday she and her husband, Lee, enjoyed a farewell shrimp basket, cheeseburger and Butterfinger Blizzard.

"One reason we moved to Clyde Hill was for the Dairy Queen," she said. "All us baby boomers love this place because we grew up with it."

Morley barely had time to say more than "thank you" to the good-luck wishes.

He and his staff worked through a long line of customers waiting for a farewell hot dog or hot-fudge sundae.

Earlier this week, he ordered extra food and supplies to feed the nostalgia demand.

So Long, DQ... I, for one, will miss that little shop.

These Eagles, on the grounds of a Nuclear Power Plant, have really gone gangbusters in ensuring they have enough food for their little ones... that's more fish than they'll EVER hope to eat!

Its funny... those little chicks are smaller than any one of those fish...

 

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Project (Link) seems to be coming along nicely... they have done a tremendous amount of work on Highway 16 on the approaches already, and the bridge itself is beginning to take shape.  The huge cables that will carry the load of the decking are quite a long ways down the process of being spun - they're MUCH larger than they were the last time I drove by the bridge, in October, 2005.  The North cable is done, and they're attaching the drop cables already... the South Cable is slated to be done shortly... the whole bridge is 75% complete.  Amazing.



It really seems that they've done a considerable amount of work to ensure that the traffic will move smoother...  An extra exit, electronic toll lanes, improved aproachways... with more than twice the capacity going over the Narrows, I'm sure that the "typical" buildup around the bridge will be a thing of the past - at least for a while.

Its fun to watch the contstruction efforts... 20 years from now, I'll be able to say that I watched it go up... and have the pictures to prove it.

Oh... The Shadow Lady took the picture... I was driving, and driving her batty at the time asking her if she was getting "the picture" that was passing by us... she didn't even get angry - what a trooper!!!  (That's but one, of many, reasons why I love her so much!)

I went "the long way" out of Safeco Field after the game... I wanted to avoid the traffic that can back up, so I typically go "the wrong way" so I'm at least moving - nothing more annoying than sitting in locked up traffic!

I was cutting through the South Seattle warehouse area, when I ran across this business... They had a bunch of old vacuums set up to look sort of like characters in the movie "Robots", which attracted my attention at first... then I read their sign... very cool!

 

Spring is officially here!  Its SO AWESOME!

This was the view on the JumboTron when I walked in to Safeco Field...



I went to go see the Mariners home opener, which luckily was the first game of the 2006 Season!  They played the Angels, who are expected to win the West this year... The M's lost the game, but were respectable, and even brought it to within one run in the final inning... there's hope...

Added in 2007

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