The terror of captcha's

I was trying to submit this blog to Bing, but came across that internet terror known as a captcha. This is that silly little box with a word in an almost unrecognizable form that you have to put in a box & submit before the site will accept your site or whatever. The problem is, of course what I said. Sometimes you can't figure out what the word is.

Yes, I understand that they are trying to keep bots from submitting stuff, but if you make the captcha unreadable, then you have thrown out legitimate sites. I had to submit this blog 3 times before Bing allowed it. Why? Because I couldn't figure out all the letters. That's a problem. Because I want this blog searchable on all engines, not just Google. That increases the chances of someone coming across it.

Right now this is only being read by a few people. None more than once. I want that to change.

Internet Explorer use below 50%

According to StatCounter, IE's market share fell in September to 49.87%, almost a 10% drop from last year. This despite the fact that most businesses insist on using it. My company not only uses IE, they use IE6, which now has only 5% share. But then again, my company uses a combination of XP & Windows 2000!

Unfortunately, if you have a Windows machine, you will have IE on it because it is built in. I actually have IE8 & when IE9 comes out I will update, because it will be more secure, & you need it for Windows Update. But I do use Firefox 99% of the time. And it's share has finally gone up to 31.5%, with Google Chrome up to 11.54%.

Chrome's figures are remarkable. It's only been out what? Two years, maybe? I'm guessing it will eventually compete with Firefox for 2nd place, although I am not that big a fan of it. Yeah, it's faster, but not as configurable as Firefox, & I'm not sure it works as well, or shows sites as well, which is also Opera's main problem. That's why that browser, which created most of the stuff that Firefox has as add-ons, has a tiny share (2%).

Yet there are still websites written for IE, that cause me to use it because the site doesn't load properly in FF. Hopefully that will change. FF4 will be coming soon, with a Chrome like UI, & apparently a lot faster. Then the real browser war will begin when IE9 releases.

Why I don't listen to the radio

I used to listen to the radio a lot. But after many decades I just got tired of all the commercials. Plus, why is every station in a commercial at the same time? That's silly. Plus, even in an area as big as the bay area, seemingly the 50 or so stations are playing only probably 3 or 4 different formats. So the only time I listen to any station is on my days off. And then it's before I get up, & I listen to Stephanie Miller's syndicated liberal political/comedy show.

Right now, while I'm writing this, I'm listening to internet radio on itunes. Big R Radio's the Wave. Yes, an 80's new wave station. Yeah, I'm 57, but I love that stuff. Try finding it on over the air radio. Or Jazz or Classical. Or anything that isn't the same 20 songs played endlessly. And unlike satellite radio, where you have to spend lots of money for the equipment to listen to it, all you need for internet radio is a connection & a computer or a portable device with internet access & sound. Much preferable.

Now most of the time I don't even do that. Usually I just listen to my ipod. Then I know I will like everything. But then you just here the same songs. (OK-they're playing My Sharona now. Heck I hear that at work, but you get my point). I do need more songs on my ipod.

Where are computers going?

I ask this because nobody talks about computers anymore. At least not in the traditional sense. Reading tech blogs & listening to podcasts like This Week in Tech & Tech News Today. It's all about smartphones & tv devices like the Roku & Boxee & Apple TV & the upcoming Google TV, which BTW, has no deals with any network. Yeah, I'll rush out to get that.

I feel like I'm behind the times because my high tech buy this year was a new desktop. Apparently I'm the only one who has bought one. Can't understand why every computer maker hasn't gone out of business. But, of course, this is just how the tech media treats it. They only want to talk about these small portable devices.

Yes a lot of people bought ipads, & every other company is going to bring out their version before Christmas. But if you actually want to use it for work, you need a computer, not a tablet. Not an iphone or Android device. Too small. Try writing & reading something that small for several hours. Ain't gonna happen.

Heck, I want a DVR, but because of the economy, & more to the point, my personal economy, it's not gonna happen. So I watch my shows on a 25" tube tv, & watch Letterman online a week after the fact (Dear CBS-Why?). A digital camera? Maybe. The little prepaid cell phone I have has a camera, but it doesn't have a zoom, so picture taking is limited. And my Nikon SLR that I haven't used in years is just too big to carry around. Funny how digitals look like the old snap photo cameras of decades ago. New tech that looks like tech from 50 years ago. Isn't that funny?

My ipod? Haven't downloaded any music in quite a while. Just putting my own cd's on it. Pay for the junk produced now? No thanks.

Facebook? I went on there to promote this blog. Yeah, a few people are reading it, but I'm not gonna brag about one guy in South Africa or whoever in Canada read it last week. So I just keep looking at what's going on, & doing what I can.

Old tech fail or Why is my Mcdonald's backwards?

I'm not sure this was a mistake or someone thought this was a good idea. They tore down the McDonald's 2 blocks from my house so they could build a new "better" one. First of all, it doesn't look any bigger, but here's the thing. Did the contractor look at the blueprints upside down?

What do I mean? It's on a major crosstown boulevard, but the entrance is in the back. Huh? The drive-thru is in the front, parallel to Blossom Hill Road. The outside patio is on the right, with a small one door entrance. In the back is a parking lot with the main entrance.

Mind you, there's a high school 2-3 blocks away. Think they might walk there? Plus, it didn't need a separate parking lot because it's in a shopping center with a very large lot supporting a CVS, & several restaurants.

So what's the tech? Why they designed it this way. Again, it's no bigger than the one they tore down. The old one had a kid's playground, this one doesn't. The old one didn't have a drive-thru, this one does, so I guess that's an improvement. But why spend the money if you are not improving? Yeah, people had jobs for a while to build it, but they're gone now.

Any time you do something, it needs to be moving forward. The Jack in the Box a block away is small (remodeled but that's all), but it has a kiosk inside, so you can place an order without having to wait for the next order taker to get to you. That's actually kind of cool. But most fast food restaurants don't do anything to move things along. Or most restaurants period. The most high tech thing is the little buzzers some places give you to tell you when your order is ready.

I don't think it's a backlash against technology. I just don't think the designers think about it. There needs to be a new system to create more convenience for people, but someone will always be against it, or not even think of it.

Online grocery lists

So I decided "instead of just jotting down what i need, why don't I find a site that makes more professional looking lists?" So that's what i did. There were several on the first page of results alone. I looked at several different ones, didn't like how some of them looked. A couple had pre-set templates, which were way too small, with too many items, & others would let you check items.


That's what I eventually went with. Scroll down the list of items until you found what you needed, & make a checkmark. OK. Items separated by type (breakfast,frozen,meat,etc.). Looks fine so far. But when you print it up, it's in really small type, hard to read. So I (thinking logically) zoomed in a couple of times to make it larger, then printed again. Guess what? Same size!

The internet can be good for some things, but apparently printing grocery lists isn't one of them. I don't understand the concept of not making it readable. I guess i could just create my own list using Word, where i could control the font size, but shouldn't these websites be doing this? I guess most people just write it down. I just wanted something that looked better, & where I wouldn't overlook something (which happened last week causing me to have to go back to the same store the next day).

Maybe Steve will create the ilist for the ipad to use at the all new igrocery (LOL), but that doesn't help me. 

Dish loses channels like Directv last year

This is nothing new. Last year I had to suffer the loss of Versus, meaning I missed the end of the IndyCar season, & the entire NHL season. It was the same nonsense as Dish is getting now. And for the same reason. In this case Fox is trying to get a 50% increase in fees from Dish to carry their channels, which include NatGeo, FX, & 19 regional sports channels.

This will continue to happen. Every year this happens. Last year it was Directv, before that it was Cablevision or was it Time Warner? Remember New Yorkers getting ABC part way into the Oscars? Meanwhile Fox is telling subscribers to switch to Directv or cable. Remember, the NFL is on the over the air network & that will be next. They will go after Directv next, when that contract is up. Switching providers is not the answer. Fox is the problem.