Testing 1, 2, 3.

That’s right, today is my Dad’s birthday. If you get a chance, head over to his blog and wish him a happy day! He’s been writing up a storm lately too, so there’s lots of good stuff to read.

This is just pathetic. First, look at my dad’s blog at EclecticBlogs. See the design and everything? I am the one that designed it for him, and he has been adding stuff ever since, like the quote, poll, etc.

Now look at this blog. See anything familiar? He hasn’t even taken the time to replace the damn graphic at the top of the page! There are a few other things he has done that, quite frankly, piss me off. First of all, he didn’t ask permission. Secondly, he did not link back to the site (at least not as far as I can tell, it might be in a single post, but that is not good enough). He has not replaced the alternative location listed on the page, which still points to Martin’s RSS feed. And most importantly, he has linked the page to Copyscape! What nerve!

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Had he simply used the layout and color scheme, that would have been one thing. But to leave elements of Martin’s site on his own? That’s just not right.

I guess we’ll find out tomorrow morning. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman sent a letter to NHLPA Executive Director Bob Goodenow today, saying:

We are increasing our offer of yesterday by increasing the maximum individual team cap to $44.7MM ($42.5MM in salary and $2.2MM in benefits)….If this offer is acceptable, please let me know by 11:00 A.M. tomorrow, in advance of my scheduled press conference. Hopefully, the press conference will not be necessary.

Read: TSN

I never thought I’d see the day:

Reversing a longstanding Microsoft policy, Bill Gates said Tuesday that the company will ship an update to its browser separately from the next major version of Windows. A beta, or test, version of Internet Explorer 7 will debut this summer, Microsoft’s chairman and chief software architect said in a keynote address at the RSA Conference 2005 here.

The way I see it, there are two main reasons for the change. First and foremost, Longhorn is taking too long. Service Pack 2 went a long way to fixing the security issues present in IE, but not far enough. The last thing Microsoft needs right before a Longhorn debut is a major security flaw with IE. Thus it makes sense to fix the security problems ahead of time – or at least try to.

The second reason is Firefox. There is no question that the browser has made significant inroads into IE’s market share, and so it only makes sense from a business perspective for Microsoft to respond. I just hope they don’t focus solely on security – it would be nice to have IE standards compliant.

Either way, this is good new for Windows users!

Read: CNET News.com

Lots of people have written about eliminating the last wire now that we have wireless mice, keyboards, and network connections – the power cord. I have often thought, “that would be cool”, but really, I haven’t ever found the power cord that much of a problem. Until now.

The transformer on my tablet’s power cord is dead. I went looking for a replacement today, only to find that almost every laptop power cord is proprietary! For an industry with pretty good standards, like IDE, USB, etc, I was surprised! And annoyed. Because of the fact that you must order replacements from the manufacturer, they charge insane prices. And because there are so many, stores do not carry them in stock, which means big delays for ordering the parts. I am going to try to find a universal one (from Targus perhaps) but who knows.

Which leads me to believe that we might always be tethered. Power cords have been around since probably electricity was invented, and yet we don’t have a standard for computers. How on earth are they going to settle on a standard for wireless power? Unlikely, and that’s unfortunate.

Ha! I am not the only one who thinks that Google’s and other company’s “beta” periods are just insane:

“I feel like ‘beta’ has become a questionable term,” said Mary Hodder, a technology consultant. “Google and Flickr just leave it on their sites for years, so it cues us to think, beta, no big deal.”

Read: CNET News.com

The only “big” torrent site that remained after the MPAA threatened to sue a few months ago was LokiTorrent. And now they too have shutdown – the site has been replaced with a message from the MPAA, similarly annoying to their ad spots in theatres.

The MPAA’s message says “You can click but you can’t hide.” Perhaps it’s time I take another look at eXeem. You can shutdown but you can’t win.

Tonight seemed like a good night to try out some different online services that I have been reading about. Not sure why, it’s not like I have nothing to do, but I digress.

I was testing Flickr earlier (which I have had an account at for a while actually) and now I am playing with 43 Things. I only heard about the service because Amazon.com invested some money in the company (and it is run by a former Amazon exec), but in any case, I decided to check it out. Looks like a cool site! Basically it allows you to make a list of your 43 goals. Then you can post about your progress, or when you have accomplished them, etc.

The cool part about it is that you can see other people who have the same goal as you, and read their progress too. I guess that’s kind of useless for more abstract goals like stop procrastinating, but for more specific and easily accomplishable goals (like build a bar in my basement), you might pick up some tips from someone else.

Anyway, check out 43 Things. You can see my list here, and you can subscribe here.

I know I already posted this, but I am just messing around with Flickr and had it handy for a test!

UPDATE

Wow I didn’t realize so much space would be wasted! So to fill it, I have gone back to February 8th of last year (since I didn’t post on the 9th). This is what I posted about back in the day:

Anyone remember going into the washrooms in high school, and reading “for a good time, call…”? Or maybe you don’t have to remember, go into any public washroom today and you are sure to find it scrawled on the wall!

Anyways…I am glad Dickson started blogging. But you have to check out his blog. It reminds me of reading that message – nice and explicit! It really is Dickson’s House of Love! I cannot wait until we drag more people into the blogosphere.