Hurricanes from space
September 8th, 2008
Beautiful, if haunting, imagry of hurricanes from space.
Italy, properly.
September 6th, 2008
Ok, as one of my dear readers pointed out, I have been lax in getting a post with photos out about our trip to Italy. As you may, or may not, know, Gina and myself were in Italy for two weeks at the beginning of August. We had a great time, especially getting to see Gina’s parents and two brothers at the family house in Liguria.
The main reason for the trip though was to scout places that we would conceivably want to live when we move to Europe in the future. We spent the first whole week blasting around up north trying to do way too many things and talk to way too many people in a language in which we can only barely communicate. Great fun.
The quick run-down of where and what.
- -Flew into Milan, drove north to Colico (next to Lake Como).
- -Checked out Sondrio (too big), Morbegno (too big), Chiavenna (just right) as possible towns to relocate to.
- -Hiked in Val di Mello, Val di Codera, Madesimo (ski area above Chiavenna).
- -Swam twice per day in Lake Como and Lake Mezzola, very nice but cold.
- -Checked out many physio clinics, hospitals, social services, town facilities, bike shops and climbing shops.
- -Drove to Zucchello (Gina’s parents place).
- -Went swimming in the sea at San Fruttuoso (requires a hike in, only accessible by foot or boat).
So in the end, we were really tired, and had only somewhat figured out what we wanted to do. Isn’t that always the way. Enough words, lets see photos.
Our bags, yes this is it. We carried on everything because of out 3 flights. These contained sleeping bags, a tent and cooking stuff.
The view from our campsite in Colico, that is Lake Como and those are the alps.
Val di Mello, many compare it to Yosemite. There is lots of granite and lots boulders, thankfully there are no cars.
Looking back at Lago di Mezzola and Lago di Como from Val di Codera.
The main piazza in Chiavenna.
Madesimo, Ski area above Chiavenna.
At Zucchello and put straight to work!
San Fruttuoso from the hike in.
So that is the basics. If you want to see more photos definitely go and check out the gallery on my website. Just a note, the gallery is a little hidden so you can only get to it by the link, not by surfing around and looking for it.
It’s the details that count
September 5th, 2008
I’ve been using Google Chrome for a few days now and I must say, I love it. First and foremost, it is faster than anything I’ve ever used. It is also better laid out, easier to use and the whole process containment for each tab is fantastic - no browser crashes yet, even when certain tabs have crashed. But the more I use it, the more little details I find. The little details that really show that time and thought went into developing Chrome.
Take this one for example:
When you first load up a page, the space to the left of the page title in the tab shows a little animation of a spinning line. At first the line moves counter-clockwise and is colored gray.
After a second the line changes color and direction, to blue and clockwise.
Intrigued, I paid a little more attention and, I’ll be damned. The line is gray and counter-clockwise while the browser is waiting on the server to respond to the initial request, then changes to blue and clockwise while loading the actual content.
Nice touch. Not only that, it functions as a subtle visual indicator of what is going on behind the scenes without being in your face. If you look close you will also see a small dialogue box in the lower left corner that gives you the same info, but the text is so unobtrusive that I didn’t even notice it until I started looking.
Hats off to Google. Nice browser; now, please, just get us a Mac version.
Google Chrome
September 2nd, 2008
Uhh, yeah Google now has a browser. It’s based on Webkit (the engine behind Safari) and it is blindingly fast. I guess running each tab in its own process did work pretty well. Nice one Google.
Download it here.
IE8 beta 2
August 28th, 2008
Those of you long-time readers (sorry, I can’t help but poke fun at myself) will remember an image I posted from IE8 beta 1. The image, of Google Maps, showed that even in standards compliant mode the beta 1 release left much to be desired.
Well, 8 beta 2 came out today, and lo and behold, Google Maps works, it passes the Acid 2 test and even does a pretty good job of rendering most CSS 2 standards. I would like to almost say good job to the boys at the big MS. IE might finally catch up to the first release or two of Firefox 2. Seriously though, they are coming along and I’m glad that the IE boys and girls are doing their best to bring IE up to par.
For a full browser comparison check out QuirksMode.
Very fun use of flash
August 26th, 2008
Ok, I know, 3 posts in just one morning. But this is good, I promise. Check out this video and how great the use of flash is.
Dear faceless form field,
August 26th, 2008
I find it hard to fill you in, I must admit. Perhaps it is because I, as a human being, feel that my words are useless if there is not someone there to listen. Perhaps it is because you, as a faceless form field, do not have any qualities that I can identify with. You lack a face, you lack a name, you lack even the basic mechanism of response to action. You can only submit your contents into the void upon completion. Let’s face it, that’s not much; even HAL was blessed with a persona, however cold.
Maybe one day there will be a better you, perhaps one day you will evolve. You may even be given a name someday, by someone that cares for you, someone that loves you. But until that day, faceless form field, I will continue to be listless in the face of your lack thereof. And I will continue to pray to your creator that you be blessed with a face, perhaps even a name.
Back from Italy
August 26th, 2008
I’m back a full week now. And I promise I am going to write a proper post about the trip, but the details are still settling in my mind — so all 4 of you that read this will just have to wait a little longer.
Genius NYPD officer decks cyclist…then lies about it
July 30th, 2008
Wow. Just when I was starting to think that cycling was gaining traction in main stream America.
And here is the NY Times article that explains how the cop tried to cover his ass by lying. Real genius stuff here.
On words…in Smashing Magazine
July 25th, 2008
Keep you’re eyes peeled, I’ll soon be appearing in Smashing Magazine! More details soon.
