I'm back..

It's been over a year since this blog has seen a new post. I'm going to try updating it more again so keep an eye out.

Old School Nintendo Catalog from 1990

Back in the days of the NES, Nintendo ruled. Period. You didn't play "video games", you played "Nintendo."

Ahh.. Memories. Back when Mario was still a hetero. I owned at least a third of all the stuff in this catalog. I wonder what happened to all though..

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Google: We Won't Pay Broadband Cyberextortion

BellSouth and Verizon have been trying to force big Web sites to pay extortion-type fees if the sites want adequate bandwidth, with Google a prime target. But Google has news for them: It won't pay.

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SBC + AT&T = AT&T

Last night SBC and AT&T announced that they've merged. The new company will be called AT&T. I kind of liked SBC as a name, but AT&T has a better reputation nationally and globally.

I wonder how this will all play out though. I've been a subscriber to SBC Yahoo! DSL for over a year now. We also have SBC phone service. SBC owns Cingular too.

I think they'll keep the Cingular name for their wireless venture. It's more likely the others that will change. I suppose "AT&T Yahoo! DSL" doesn't sound too bad.

There's no better time of year to get people used to writing something new on their checks when they pay their bills. While we're learning to write 2006 (Happy New Year by the way..) we can also learn to change SBC to ATT.

I knew this merger would happen eventually. Despite the SBC name being dropped it is still a merger. The way I understand it SBC bought AT&T and chose to adopt the AT&T name because of it's popularity.

So here's to 2006, mega-money mergers, and the rebirth of Ma Bell. Cheers!

Mozilla Firefox 1.5

Mozilla Corporation - Home of the Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email client

It's been a year since Firefox 1.0 was released and although it hasn't shown it's age it's still time for an update.

What was previously slated to be Firefox 1.1 was bumped up to Firefox 1.5. This new version has a whole lot of new features and security enhancements. You should peruse the release notes if you're still wondering why you should update.

Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Release Notes

Mozilla has a way of coinciding their releases with big Microsoft Corporation releases. I'm not the only one who's noticed this. I just wonder if it's done intentionally or not.

Last year's Firefox 1.0 launch was November 9th. The same day Microsoft released Halo 2. This year's 1.5 launch of the browser was November 22nd. The same day Microsoft released the Xbox 360.

I'm not really sure what that means, but it's worth pointing out.

One big change between 1.0 and 1.5 has nothing to do with the browser itself. It has to do with the website you download it from.

Traditionally Firefox downloads were routed through Mozilla.org. The not for profit organization set up by the Netscape founders.

This time around the downloads originate from Mozilla.com. The corporate, for profit branch of Mozilla.

I'm not sure what that means either, but it's also worth noting.

The browser is still free of course. It's just interesting that Mozilla decided to switch domains. I suppose they may be moving in a new direction which will allow them to make a little money. They're certainly entitled to it.

I do not believe any money will be made from users however. I expect Mozilla will just tweak their current policies a little.

Historically the search engines which appear in the built-in drop down list were not randomly selected. They were added through a pay-inclusion system. This would let Mozilla make a little cash to help continue development of the browser.

One of - if not the largest donor to the Mozilla Foundation over the past few years has been Google. I suspect they may have had some hand in the switch from Mozilla.org to Mozilla.com as well. I don't know why or how though. It's just a feeling I get.

If you've read the release notes, or you're just ready to "Jump In" then go ahead and download Firefox 1.5 now and check it out. All of your settings, bookmarks, and everything else in your profile will migrate seamlessly.

Not all 1.0 extensions have been updated for 1.5 yet. However the developers are working overtime to make sure they're up to date soon. When you install 1.5 it will automatically check Mozilla Update for newer versions of your extensions and apply them automatically if they're available.

Chances are everything will work right out of the box. Developer previews of 1.5 have been available for months. If the extension you like best hasn't been updated to work then it's most likely some lazy programmer's fault.

I've been testing Firefox 1.5 for months and months now so there isn't much new for me. I'm still impressed by the new Gecko engine every day though. I've bounced back and forth between 1.0 and 1.5 a few times. The web pages load much faster in 1.5. If I had to guess I'd say it's at least double the speed of the previous version.

That's all I've got for now. If you haven't upgraded yet then now's the time. You'll love all of the new things, and everything you loved before is still there too. Only better.

Download Mozilla Firefox 1.5

Lego's

Lego's,
uploaded by CousCous.

I like this picture. I didn't even touch the blocks. This is the way the kids left them.

I was messing with the camera and saw how the sun was hitting them. So I set the camera to Macro mode and snapped this real quick. The way the primary colors and the lighting were I couldn't pass it up.

I'm posting this from my flickr account. It's all set up to let me blog photos I find here with the press of one button. I guess everything's like that these days.

I've been trying to get Hello from Picasa to work and so has everyone else. Google's have some sort of server issue or something though. The Hello service has been down since Wednesday.

I've only printed one photo since we got the camera. It looks really freaking nice though. I'm thinking about printing out an 8x10 here in a little while. We bought new ink cartridges and have lots of photo paper left.

I'm trying to fill space here so everyone will scroll down and see my flickr container I added to the blog. It's over on the right below the Firefox and AdSense referral ads. For now I have it setup to show the last three pictures that I've uploaded to flickr. Maybe when I get more photos online I'll set it to the Flash "badge" which shows a lot more pictures.

Well that's all for now. I hope you like the picture. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot more on the way.

A camera and my last few days..

Sorry I've been away so much lately.

My Grandma came up to visit and a few other things have been keeping away from the computer. I had to help Joey out and I've been kind of messed up too. Nothing too serious. Just over-all crappiness.

Right now I'm sitting here in pretty bad pain. My back went out on me at Walmart earlier. I'm not sure what caused it, but I think it was just a bunch of little things all catching up at once. Moving Joey's furniture and stuff was probably the biggest thing though. Then the case of beer at Walmart was the last straw.

My mom got a new digital camera today. You still probably won't see many pictures of my fat ass, but there's going to be a lot pictures of my cat floating around. We got a really good deal on this camera and it's pretty nice. It's an HP Photosmart M415 5.2 Megapixel which is working really good with our Photosmart printer. It's kind of eerie how well the two get along actually.

My Grandma is on her way back home and I'm recovering from feeling crappy. It won't be long before I'm back on third shift and up chatting all night again. I've missed it.