Category: FWIW

Posted on

Another (few) Data Point(s) in Favor of the Opera Browser

*heh*

Frankly, my primary reasons for preferring Opera as my primary web browser all revolve around its elegance. Every other browser is klunky and incomplete by comparison. Example? Mouse gestures. I can’t live without them when browsing. Sure, they can be added to other browsers via extensions, but that’s just so very kludgey, and often the add-on is broken with browser updates.

Etc.

But it’d be silly to not prefer Opera for its technical excellence as well. Take for example its standards-compliance, an area where Opera claims to be further along than other browsers. Is this claim true? Could be. For example, its compliance in implementing javascripting (something that’s almost omnipresent on the web) is just one of the many areas where it shines. On the emerging ECMAScripttest262, Chrome, a pretty darned good browser, returned these test results:

Not bad. Almost a 95% pass rate.

What about the Opera install I’m using right now to write this?

Oh, wait. That’s a 99.95% pass rate*

Of course, that’s just one of many test suites for web standards compliance, but my own experience running the standard test suites on the Opera installs I use regularly and installs of other browsers on the same computers (installs that are ALL kept up-to-date) just reinforces my appreciation for the lil browser that could. *heh* Sure, on some HTML5 test suites, Opera lags Chrome by as much as 23 points out of 450 (70% vs 75% compliance), but since that’s a still-emerging standard, I’m willing to play wait and see there. Acid3? On the limited subset of tests Acid3 is designed to look at, 100% pass for both, so that’s a push, although the Webstandards.org site does say,

“In other regards Opera is a clear leader. It is the only browser that supports more than 90 % of the SVG test suite. It is the only browser that implements Web Forms 2.0, currently being merged into HTML 5. They supported media queries and SMIL long before Acid3 came out.”

And for an overview of the extensive SVG Test Suite results for various browsers, including an older version of Opera than the one I now use, see here. Look at all that green (PASS) under the Opera column… 😉

Just sayin’. 🙂

Continue reading “Another (few) Data Point(s) in Favor of the Opera Browser”

Posted on

Oh, Please…

*sigh* So people had sooooo much difficulty using the “old” ketchup packets that Heinz spent tons of money and three years developing a new disposable single-serving ketchup packet.

My take? People had sooooo much difficulty using the “old” ketchup packets because people are sooooo stupid. I never experienced the difficulties with the “old” ketchup packets that are referred to in the video, but then I’m not as stupid (though still stupid in my own idiosyncratic ways *heh*) as many (most?) people.

Oh, dear, does that sound arrogant? Who cares? I don’t.

Posted on

I Usually Get Away With This, But…

…not today. My Wonder Woman’s ethnic heritage is pure Norwegian (20th Century grandparent immigrants on both sides). While I usually get away with it because it sounds–the way I deliberately pronounce it–like “Sweetie”, today when I called her my “Swedey” she didn’t let it slide… *heh*

Oh, well, another lil grinner down. *sigh*

😉

In related fun, while reading an article on PixelQi’s transflective display retrofit kit for netbooks, I ran across this in comments:

…which earned this response:

Posted on

Two More Unrelated Things

*heh* Well, unrelated except in the most passing, glancing relationship…

First, yes I did have 38 tabs open in Opera in the session shown in the screenshot below. So? Wanna make something of it? *heh*

Second, what went wrong? I mean, after the start I had under the first (and arguably, at least one of the very best, as another former student of his while he was at Florida State attested to me 30 years later) director of the band noted in the screenshot below, how in the world have I ended up with a “houseful” (well less-than-full in recent years) of musical instruments… that I no longer play?

Oh, well.

*hmph* We only toured a few hundred miles into the interior of Mexico “back in [my] day”. Still “won” everything in sight in competitions, though, during the first four years the high school was. A high school, that is.

(OK, one of the 38 tabs noted in the screenshot above contains the question someone asked me that spurred me to look up the info noted. That’s the second-order relationship between the 38 tabs and the content of the screenshot. A more distant, ethereal connection exists, though. :-))

And more… (Sounds/looks like a Capshaw designed and rehearsed this program; don’t ask how. Not so sure about the treatment of Holst).

Sadly (or perhaps not? ;-)), none of the old black and white film from the performances 45(?!?) years ago has made it onto YouTube. *heh*

More unrelated (except in the twisted back alleys of my mind)? OK. Linux Turns 20.

Even if you don’t run Linux on your desktop or notebook, you probably use devices that depend on it, and you absolutely certainly *heh* use it daily as you access material on the web that depends on Linux servers and devices with embedded Linux systems.

Like third world county.

Continue reading “Two More Unrelated Things”

Posted on

Lil Things–Again

Break time from a bad computer* (“Bad, bad computer!” *heh*)

Until I get around to purchasing and installing the stainless steel sheets I intend to be the backsplash for the stove (and, incidentally, a new stove), some SS tool racks and some sparingly-used paint will do. Just.

Yeh, yeh, the stove’s probably original with the house (40+ years old or so), and you can see I’ve removed the clock mechanism that had failed (actually, shorted out and caused a breaker to fail). I have a “treatment” for all that area coming up that will make its appearance, at least, less jarring.

I did get the storage tray under the oven to be less jarring against the nearby stainless exterior of our fridge (old model electric stove/oven: broiler element in the main oven and pan storage, etc., underneath):

Yes, that’s a paint with stainless steel particles in the paint. Not entirely bad, and does complement the fridge fairly well.

Unlike the replacement of the junk (to begin with) dishwasher and the old (original with the house? Could have been… it really was old) refrigerator, the stove, though old, works well. I never used the timer/clock, even when it was working. So, I’m not in a big hurry to replace the stove. Oh, the oven runs a wee tad hot, but that’s what my own oven thermometer is for anyway. Other things will come first. (Like, completely rewiring the house–correctly! The 220 outlet for the stove, for example, doesn’t even have a proper box installed!!! *sigh*)

Next up in the kitchen, as time allows, is finishing the counter tops and doing some “wall work”–including building a NEW “coffee shrine” and other lil stuff. Somethings to keep me busy whenever things slack off a tad.

And yeh, yeh, I know I need to wipe down the stove–particularly the storage drawer–and do some other lil cleanup things. I’ll get A Round Toit.

BTW, the stainless steel spoon with the black handle? That’s the third paint job on that wooden handle that I know of. Re-riveted the bowl to the handle once. Spoon’s older than I am. Some of my fav childhood memories include using that spoon to scoop things out of mixing bowls while helping Mother in the kitchen. I’m not sure where she got it, but it may not have been new when she did. The rest of the stuff’s new. Heck, the cheapo plastic pasta spoon is relatively new but still about to be replaced with a stainless steel version.

SO I like to cook. Wanna make something of it? 😉

Update: I did go ahead and get the “treatment” started on the controls area of the stove. Took a break to cook dinner, but all that’s left are some labels for the burner controls (printed on clear address labels, cut out and applied then clear-coated) and a decorative stencil for the blank area on the right. I’m thinking a pots ‘n’ pans stencil in black.

*bad computer: someone who bought an old HP Pavilion zt1000 notebook for $5 at a garage sale wants me to make it usable. *sigh* Later on today, I’m tearing it down–again–and re-soldering the power connection. Yep. PITA. *profound sigh*

Posted on

Micro-Mini Health Tip

First, a couple of disclaimers: This is just a single data point (me), and I’m not all that certain how really important some of the factors are, anyway. I mean, after all, health professionals can’t keep straight what they think is healthy from one decade to the next, anyway, so take this all with a grain of salt*.

At my checkup this year (yes, in the last four years I’ve actually had annual checkups, something very new in my life *heh*), the Dr was shocked (yes, shocked, I say) to see that I’d lost 25#. So? It’d been a year. Moving on. Continue reading “Micro-Mini Health Tip”

Posted on

Great Scene

Just saw the end of an episode of a show that I sometimes watch with my Wonder Woman. It tends to give me a rash *heh* but it’s not as bad as some. The greatness of this scene was the fruity lawyer going around a room telling folks that if a case ever came to trial, no matter what, “I win.” *heh*

I kept expecting him to say, “Even if I have to hit [the other lawyer] with my purse, I win.”

Great scene, even if the best part was in my imagination. *heh*

Posted on

Sometimes, I Just Have to Say, “No”

A while back, I decided to give a Windows “news and tips” site a whirl and submitted a secondary email address in order to receive notices of site updates. Since then, it’s yielded a few interesting tidbits, but sometimes, “a few interesting tidbits” just doesn’t cut it.

Recently, a portion of a topic line stood out, as at least 2/3 of the topic lines received in updates from the site have. Again, not in a positive light. The portion–this time–that made me wince: “The reason behind its name revealed !”

WTF is with the (usual and customary, from this source) space between the last word and the punctuation? It’s stupid. And, as I said, usual from this source. But that’s just the normal quality of punctuation usage from this source. What about word usage and grammar?

In the same email update: “Not why it a browser.”

?!? Yes, that’s the entire sentence fragment posing as a sentence. Where’s the verb?

And then, “…to make it running as fast and stable as new.” No, dumbasses, “to make it RUN as fast and stable as new” would at least be marginally acceptable, although “fast and stable” in this context is problematic.

“Since the last couple of days I’m seeing… ” Obviously English is a second language for the writer. Either that or the writer is a recent American college graduate.

I’ve only scratched the surface of the ear-grinding English constructions in just this one email. I can’t take it anymore. Unsubscribing, with prejudice. *heh*

Posted on

Little Things

Good ones, this time. 🙂

Yesterday, two days before its estimated time of delivery, my knife bar arrived. Sweet. I’ve been storing my most used kitchen knives in a knife block for years, but it’s always been a wee problem to place conveniently. This, I think, addresses the main issue: get ’em off the counter:

Of course, my most used knives are the two on the left, closest to hand when I’m using the peninsula for food prep. The one farthest left is a Chicago Cutlery 8″ chef’s knife (~OK) that once belonged to my father-in-law. Next to it–most used of them all–is my Sabatier Aîné & Perrier “K” 10″ chef’s knife (OK, so SA&P says it’s a “slicing knife”. I still use it as a chef’s knife), an anniversary present from my Wonder Woman 18 years ago. No, it’ almost nothing like the WallyWorld, Tarjay, et al “Sabatier” knives.

The rest are a mix of “heirloom knives” and a couple I picked up that are not bad/not great but serve their purposes (the larger “butcher knife” and the slicer with the handle that matches it. Oh, the bread knife on the right, next to the steel, really should go in the island’s drawer, since it’ll be used there more often than not, but I wanted to see if it’d fit on the bar with the others).

The knife bar holds the knives (and even the knife steel–one of three I use) very firmly yet releases them easily enough when needed. Seven knives and the steel are now stored in convenient reach, off the prep surface (right under my pot rack).

Handy.

Now, it’s time for some attention to those blades’ edges…

Next up in the kitchen: new backsplash for the stove, complete with new storage bars for some cooking implements. I can only hope I come up with some meals that justify this stuff. *heh*

Edited for my inexcusable lapse in labeling the Sabatier as an 8″-er. What was I thinking? Oh, right. I was thinking the other edit: 8″ for the Chicago Cutlery “OK” knife. *heh*

Posted on

Mini-Reno-Project

But something of a PITA to do…

The light over the kitchen sink: we’ve been meaning to “get around to it” for, well, since forever (OK, only sixteen years now *heh*). It was a piece of contractor’s junk fixture complete with a pull chain. *yech* Worst single example of electrical junk wiring in the house.

Plain old inertia just kept me out of it. Well, that and KNOWING it was going to be wired stupidly, and with the wiring concealed behind a 1’x1′ chase at the top of the kitchen (IOW, just completely wasted space), it wasn’t going to be a fun reno. Oh, and where was I going to put the switch and how did I want to wire it and… yeh, I let laziness get in the way, too.

But a couple of weeks ago, we found a fixture at Lowe’s that my Wonder Woman seemed to like:

Continue reading “Mini-Reno-Project”