Metrodome's inflatable roof deflates-again

Minneapolis because of it's rough cold winters wisely decided to build a domed stadium in the late 1970's. Because of the success of the Pontiac Silverdome outside Detroit, it was decided to make it an inflatable cloth dome, instead of a solid concrete dome like the Superdome in New Orleans. Most of the time that's OK, sometimes not so much.

This morning at around 5AM, it collapsed. There had been 17 inches of snow the previous day. There were 3 tears in the roof. The NFL game between the Vikings & the NY Giants had already been postponed because the airport had been closed, meaning the Giants couldn't get into town. The game has now been moved to Detroit.

This is not the first time this has happened. In fact there have been four other deflations. November 19, 1981 (also because of over a foot of snow in Minneapolis), December 30, 1982 because of a tear caused by heavy snow (what a surprise), on April 14, 1983 (heavy snow again-don't you just want to live there?), & on April 26, 1986 a tear was caused by high winds. The last two happened when the Minnesota Twins were to play the California Angels. Hmmm. (Source: Wikipedia)

Even though this roof may be impressive, it clearly isn't the best idea for this part of the country. According to Wikipedia, it's the largest application of Teflon on Earth. But the midwest is home to some of the worst weather around, & it's just luck that none of the collapses happened during a football game. can you imagine the injuries had all that snow & the collapsing roof happened while there were 50,000 people in the building?

Google opens e bookstore

Yesterday it was announced that Google would be opening an e bookstore to compete with Amazon & Apple & all other e book sellers. Google let's you download to Android, the iPhone or iPod Touch or to a Sony or Nook. Notice I didn't mention the Kindle. Not sure why it's not supported. You can also download to your computer to read online. This is what I did.

I'm not ready to spend $150 on any e reader, & I'm not even sure e books are that good an idea. One thing I did notice is that the free selection is limited to old books, not all of which I would call "classics". I downloaded "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli  originally published in 1532. The free selection is full of stuff like this, also Shakespeare, Dickens, the Wizard of Oz books, & all the Sherlock Holmes stories. Maybe if I had one of the supported e readers I would look at the books to buy.

I'm not sure about this. Barnes & Noble & Borders both have books downloadable to your computer, but you have to install a e reader program on your computer. Google's seems to be built in to it's website, since all I did was click on the book title & it immediately opened. That's an improvement, but I still wonder who is going to use it. Again especially since the biggest selling reader is not supported.

Making computer screens eye friendly

I use my computer a lot when I'm home. And a lot of people use computers as part of their work. Some are on them all day. So why is so hard to come up with a screen that doesn't hurt the eyes? I've been on my computer less than an hour & I feel like getting off.

This was the argument against the iPad. That an LED screen hurts the eyes, but an e-ink screen doesn't, which is why e readers are so popular. The problem there is of course those tend to be black & white, not full color, like computer monitors, laptops & iPads. Still the iPad is a massive success, so someone doesn't have a problem. And I'm sure different people may have eyes not as sensitive as mine.

So is there a need to improve the way visuals are done? Of course there is. Everything can be improved upon. I can't see watching video on a smartphone (too small), but lots of young people do it. Of course their eyes are stronger. Although my eyes have always been somewhat weak. I've worn glasses since junior high. Some kids need them before they're 10.

But I can read a book for long stretches. I've read as many as 100 pages in a day. Try doing that online. Your eyes can't handle it. Again it's the lighting. I don't know about Kindle's or Nooks because I don't own one, & I'm not planning on getting one. I just think with all the technology out there, there must be a way to make computer monitors more eye friendly.

PGE fails with smart meter website

One of the things PGE supposedly delivers when you get a smart meter installed is that you can follow your energy usage online. Well, this was the case until this weekend. Suddenly, there are no results going back two days. Nice. Does this mean that the usage will mysteriously increase dramatically? If so, I will let them know that it is not acceptable.

These utilities are known for dishonesty. PGE is already in trouble for sponsoring a ballot initiative in June that would have made it hard for an outside company to come in. The voters saw through the stunt & voted it down, so i have no misconceptions about this company. Especially since a lot of people have been complaining about the smart meters for months.

So my message is "show the results & don't screw with them. I am watching".

Google Chrome jumps over 9%

The hot new browser from Google continues to grow, while the one most people think is the internet continues to fall. I guess this is good news, although I still don't understand why anyone would prefer Chrome over Firefox. Supposedly it's faster, but that has never been my experience.

It's clear to me that casual users will continue to use Internet Explorer, & if they want another browser, well...everyone's heard of Google. It also appears that Firefox will remain stuck at around 22-23% as it has for the last year at least. FF 4 comes out in a few months with increased performance, but is it too late? Interestingly, IE8 has over 3X the usage of IE7 while the much hated IE6 has almost the market share of Chrome & Safari combined. This because businesses still use it despite Microsoft themselves saying get rid of it. Heck my high tech company uses IE6.

It seems that IE users are switching to Chrome rather than Firefox, which would have been the case in the past. I don't like the idea of every tab being a different process because that uses more RAM. Plus I just don't care for the bare bones nature of the UI. But unfortunately, FF 4 will look somewhat like Chrome. Plus it isn't as bare bones as it would appear. On my old XP machine Firefox 3.6 was around 30mb, but Chrome was 75mb. Huh?

I think it's the new kid in town, & that's why it's gaining. Let's see if that continues.

Internet coupons

While it sounds nice being able to print coupons from your computer, there is a downside. Most businesses that do this want an e-mail address. Why/ So they can fill up your inbox with spam. I have one e-mail address that is full of this stuff, & it isn't even because of coupons. I went to some store, gave them my e address & low & behold, lots of offers I have no interest in.

This happens because businesses feel that for every 10 customers who feel like me, there will be one who will do it. That adds up. But then again, there is one mail order fruit company (you know who I mean) that sends me a catalog at least once a week from October thru Christmas, because i have ordered fruit through the mail for several years.

I wanted to print a coupon from a sandwich chain. They wanted an e-mail address. Well, I do like this chain, but sometimes I get coupons in the mail as a promotion, & even when I go there even. So why bottle up my e-mail more?

The other issue is, of course, the possibility of malware. I want my computer to stay clean. I only download from reputable sites, but other people may not know not to click links that they think are from a company they may know. This is why I don't shop online. The term "identity theft" didn't exist before the creation of the World Wide Web. There's a reason for that. So beware.

Keeping up with fans during game

As a 49er fan, I like to not only watch the games, but also see what the fans are saying during the game. So I keep open fan site 49ers Webzone so i can see what they are saying. Does this distract me from the game? Yeah, sometimes it does. it would be nice if i had a laptop or an iPad, so i could watch the game & keep track of what the fans were saying while watching, but I have a desktop computer so I have to walk over to where it's located to read the responses.

this is not the best system, but hey whatever works, right? Probably every team has a site that does this. it's also fun to see that some fans are far away & watching in various ways. One fan wrote in tonight that when the game was over it was almost 5AM, & he was going to work in 2 hours. obviously he's in Europe. Nice to know we have fans over there, even with this awful season.

I assume that eventually there will be some kind of app for the iPad. And remember that Lion, the new version of Mac OSX will have an app store, since Steve Jobs wants to get rid of non-apple software (you know like Flash & Firefox). Of course one can keep up with Facebook, but really, does everything have to relate to that? Or Twitter, which I have never used.