Comment: Why Safari 3.0 for Windows Sucks.

Despite never having owned a single Apple product, apart from a brief period of testing iTunes for Windows (Before finding out that it wasn't very good.) I was still under the impression that Apple were able to create software with good usability, stability, useful features and a pleasing visual design.

That was, until I tried the new Safari 3.0 Browser for the Windows platform.

Apart from being the most unstable browser I have ever used, even surpassing the Alpha and Beta versions of Internet Explorer 3.0 (I am typing this in Firefox "Gran Paradisio" 3.0 Alpha) it is also a "new" browser that feels like you are taking a step many years back in time.

In Apples defense, it is still in Beta, but as we all know -- beta means they are testing the features they have included and is not a phase where new features are to be introduced.

What new features could Safari possibly 'require' to be considered an alternative on the Windows Platform?

Let us begin:

• To use the scroll wheel to navigate "up and down" on a page you are reading, you have to first click the "html/text" area (think of this as the MAIN part of the Browser, whereas the TOP area would be for the menu and URL input).
  
  
• When you eventually activate scrolling with the mouse wheel, it does not use the default Windows value for how many lines to scroll, but instead uses its own internal value which depending on your configuration will be a LOT "slower" or somewhat faster. (1 Scroll 'click' in Firefox equaled 3 scroll 'clicks' in Safari on my configuration)
  
  
• Back and Forward buttons on the mouse (for example, the left and right side buttons on my Logitech G3 Mouse) do not work in Safari, so you have to use the Menu buttons or some clever keyboard shortcut I have yet to find -- and frankly I should not have to find it since the Mouse buttons should be able to do that job. (Keyboard shortcuts are CTRL-[ and CTRL-])
  
  
• The GUI of the browser does not 'conform' to the look of any other Windows application and feels out of place when it is one of many open windows.
  
  
• No mouse over tool tip information on the buttons or any other GUI elements, what does the "+" and the "spider" icons do, for example?
  
  
• No right click customize options on the buttons area, e.g. if you want to move or hide buttons and GUI elements, this can not be done using the area you want to configure and the mouse alone. You have to do this through "view/customize tool bar" then you can drag the GUI elements along its "button line". To make elements disappear you have to triple/quadruple click them, while not moving the mouse, then drag them out of the "button line" and it will disappear with an animated puff of smoke.
  Safari is also prone to crashing when you do this.
  
  
• Animated GUI with no way to disable it. Sure, its fun to watch animated GUI elements once in a while, but it grows old real quick and to the point of becoming annoying when you can not disable it.
  
  
• Default behavior when clicking a field in most Win application, and all 3 major browsers (IE, Firefox and Opera) is to mark the entire field. In safari you mark a single character so you have to use ctrl-a or mark everything with the mouse before you can type in a new address and overwrite the one written in the address field.
  
  
• There is no way to hide the Search Field next to the address field.
  
  
• No auto-search when for example typing "wiki Safari" in the address field, Safari translates this to "http://www.wiki%20safari.com".
  
  
• Show all bookmarks results in the browser crashing :)
  
  
• Safari uses almost the double amount of memory and 10 times as many I/O calls compared to Firefox 3.0 Alpha when visiting http://www.apple.com/startpage.
  

All is not bad however.

• The Activity window was a nice feature.
• The browser is very fast when launching.

Nice try Apple, hopefully the next product/version you release will be better.

Real Shorts: Ingame LOTRO GoogleEarth Map!

.. Just published the web page and associated files required to enable a in game Google-Earth style map for the online role playing game Lord of the Rings Online.

Should work with the US and definitively the Euro version of the game.

Link:
http://instant0.googlepages.com/lotroingamemap

Shorts: Baghdad Video Diaries.

Another 'shorts', this time about another troubled spot in the Middle-east, Iraq.

PBS (Public Broadcasting Service, quite possible the best TV 'station' in the USA) are running a long series of reports on Iraq and the Middle-East, and the below linked web page includes a rare glimpse into the lives of ordinary people living in Baghdad in the form of video diaries, shot by the Iraqis themselves.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gangsofiraq/diaries/

After watching them you wonder that perhaps the best for Baghdad would be for it to be turned into a "UN Protectorate" (Without the Belgian Troops...) and for everyone inside to be disarmed, at least the population would be safer then. Anyone caught with a gun who was not a UN Troop would get shot.

Some of the U.N. already got a lot of money for the Oil (See the food for oil scandal elsewhere on the internet) so I am sure that they would be able to siphon money somehow. Although a lot of the Iraqi oil pipelines are daily blown up by terrorists and the barrels of oil sold are a lot less than the morons in the USiAn administration suggested.

Shorts: Interesting Project in the Middle East

I grabbed this link from http://www.urbanlog.org.

An interesting project (launched 2005) working in Palestine and Israel attempts to show that both sides are exactly the same, that the palestinians are not all suicide bombers who blow up buses and cafès, and that the israeli are not cold blooded high-tech murderers who bomb ambulances and civilian homes with no disregard for casualties just as long as they can hit their target...

They do this by taking close up pictures on normal people from both sides making 'funny' faces and then plaster their images in large-scale on walls in both territories. To show that they are both humans and not 'ze enemy.

Anyway the link is:
http://face2faceproject.com/

April Movie Watch!

Must See Movies of 2007!
(Norway Edition... meaning the relase dates are +6 months unless you find a DVDSCR..)

- Balls of Fury (Underground Criminal Organization... ping pong tournament)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/rogue_pictures/ballsoffury/hd/

- 2007.02.02 The Messengers (Horror movie, Kids.. omg!)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount_vantage/blacksnakemoan/

- Black Snake Moan (Samuel L Jackson and Christina Ricci... )
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount_vantage/blacksnakemoan/

- Shooter (Marky Mark is back!)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/shooter/

- Transformers (Domo Arrigoto, Mister Roboto)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/transformers/

- Trade (About Sex Trafficing :-( )
http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/trade/

- Shrek the Third (... )
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/shrekthethird/

- 28 Weeks Later (Sequel to 28 Days Later!)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_atomic/28weekslater/

- The Invisible (this is the story ofNick Powells death.)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/touchstone/theinvisible/

- 2007.05.25 Paprika (Dream Detectives...)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/paprika/

- 2007.09.21 (yay!) Resident Evil: Extinction (Las Vegas Baby!)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/residentevilextinction/

- Live Free or Die Hard (Bruce Willis (79) returns as super-cop!)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/livefreeordiehard/

- SunShine (Danny Boyles new Sci-fi The Earth is about to be destroyed flic)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/sunshine/

- Blades of Glory (Will Farrel, as an Ice Skater)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/bladesofglory/

- Hot Fuzz (From the guys who gave you Shawn of the Dead)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/hotfuzz/

- Day Watch ('DVENOI DOZOR'. The Sequel to 'Night Watch' - Russian movies at its best!)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/daywatch/

- 2007.03.16 Dead Silence (the logo for this movie is ..... yikes)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/deadsilence/

- Evan Almighty (... the sequel to Bruce Almighty)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/evanalmighty/large.html

- Primeval (africa shoxx!)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/hollywoodpictures/primeval/

- 2007.04.27 - NEXT (Nicolas Cage can see into the future..)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/next/large.html

- The Host (the greatest monster movie ever..?)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/magnolia/thehost/

- Rescue Dawn (Been a while since we have had Vietnam war movies!)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/mgm/rescuedawn/

- The Last Mimzy (Kids with special powers, Future sending us a message, wtf?)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/thelastmimzy/

- Fred Claus (Santas Brother...)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/fredclaus/

- Hary Potter and the order of the Phoenix (Hermeine is finally gone 'legit'.. ;-) )
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/harrypotterandtheorderofthephoenix/

- The Reaping (What hath God Wrought upon this tiny hamlet... Sireh?)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/thereaping/

- How I planned to Kill Tony Blair
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/theprisoneror/

This week in Anime.

Being the first week of April, 2007, what better way to start than with an entry called
'This week in Anime'.

Interesting choice to name an entry on this here site for 'this week in ' since I most likely will not write another 'This week in ' next week, or even next month for that matter.

Regardless....

"This week in Anime" (how many times have I written that now?) has selected (?) the following show to be web logged.

- Code Geass -

Go look it up, 23 episodes out so far, -gg- does some nice fansubs of it. There is also a special April 1st fansub by Shinsen-Subs which I really hope is not a sign of things to come :)

The anime is good, animation, sound, story.. however there are some plot twists that I really disliked.. and anything that causes you to 'dislike' something when you watch it probably means it is a good show.

It does however seem like it borrowed some 'scenario'/'story' from 'Gundam Seed Destiny', 'Full Metal Panic' and 'Ouran High School Host Club'. This should not matter though, since all the 3 mentioned shows are very good. :-)

Rated 9.8 out of 10 on AnimeNFO.com.

I had a dream last night.

Or more like a thought.

Could have been a dream though, a day-dream, the kind you get when you sit on the buss for 5 hours 43 minutes and 23 seconds, near the window and staring out into the long, dark and cold night.

The kind of thought you could have when some guy in the seat in front of yours decides to 'relax', and knowing that the best way to 'relax' is to adjust the seat to make it more comfortable.... as far as possible... or just far enough to cause permanent damage to the knees/legs of whoever is unlucky enough to be sitting behind at that precise moment.

Which in this case would be me.

And now that I am writing this, I had another thought, which I shall go into first, since it would be the one I remember most vividly (since it occurred most recently).

The seats on buses, when the buss is full, could perhaps be a --- simile? -- to the Asian Yin/Yang philosophy. To much of good in one part causes there to be to much evil in another. In this case -- to much "relaxation" on the guy in front of yours seating position will cause there to be 'to much' evil happening to your knees. The word we are all looking for is balance, and it was clearly not the case on THIS bus ride.

If I had a camera ... if I was able to take a picture of the event.. I would have posted it here, to document the atrocity.

It would be posted on the interweb, for all to see, and none to view.

The other thoughts were:
* Kill the bastard.
* Write a book.

I figured I'd do the latter, so maybe I shall start by writing 1 page or so every week on this, my interweb page, one of many.

Another thought was that people can gather a lot of information about a person just by following his links, postings, and writing it all in one giant database containing all the information about everyones net presence.

a Journey into The Burning Crusade - Part i.

Also known as "How I met your mother, shadowbolted, immolated and cursed her to death."

First some keywords to get search engines to pic up this thread:
WORLD OF WARCRAFT, GOLD, WARLOCK, ITEMS, FREE AS IN BEER, THE BURNING CRUSADE, EXPANSION, ADDON, NEW, NEWS, FLYING MOUNT, OUTLAND, THRALLMAR, STORMCALLER

And we begin:

Since I am a man of few words (*cough*) I shall be brief and instead put in here a bunch of pictures and a comment if I deem it appropriate.




Above you see a picture of a local vendors product to sate your thirst and hunger, he is located in the main Horde camp in the first area of outland that you enter through the.. DARK PORTAL! (of death!)

Filtered Draenic Water contains no preservatives and contains all the nutritions required by a grown Orc. (please add 25% or deduct 25% be you Taurahee or Undead respectively).



I've always wondered how a Talbuk Venison tasted like, or even what it is; Thanks to Blizzard (tm) and the expansion pack 'World of Warcraft(tm)(r): The Burning Crusade(tm)' I can finally buy it... Just imagine sitting down somewhere 'safe' and eating this, restoring a whopping 4320 health over 30 seconds.. Thats 30 seconds you can sit there, wondering if a level 70 Night Elf rogue is lurking behind you, waiting to unleash his Level 70 Epic Daggers onto you with 61 points spent in Whatever it is they do that kills you.... I suspect no less than a crit of 4000. Which leaves you with still 320 hp, thanks to Talbuk Venison!




In case you were wondering how you gain honour (notice the ou) in Blizzards (tm)(r) 'World of warcraft (tm)(r): The Burning Crusade (tm)(r)' now you know.

The thing I want you to notice and/or know, more than the other things you notice, such as the sezzzy picture, is that I have 29 honour points, for the horde side (indicated by the red horde logo in the circle after the numbers 2 9.. I guess) is that I gained this honour 2 weeks ago.

Which means, ladies and gentlemen.. mostly gentlemen I suspect. Even though we are in the 2007s (TBC is out in 2007), the old adage still ring true "The internet, where men are men, and most of the women are too". Back to the point: This means that you do not lose honour per week, unless this is just a setting on the beta server, in which case I can -strike-through- the text I just wrote, if I can find the function to do that here.



Swift -- Red -- Windrider, listen to how that rolls on the tongue.
Even if they had just called it .. Swift, or.. Red Even, you'd know that this piece of equipment is a fast motha. Now all you have to do is grind up to level 70 and probably aquire a few thousand gold coins to learn 300 riding, and this piece of sexy merchandize can be yours..
But only in outland, would'nt want the people in the old country to be envious and complain to blizzard now, would you... Mounts in outlands are what Bug mounts are in AQ40 -- Land locked, or in this case -- air locked.

I hope I can mount turrets on them... finally I can strafe those bastard alliance...
"How can you shoot level 40s and 50s?"
- "Easy, you don't lead them as much."




Tawny Windrider... Almost Tawny the Toiger Mount, but I guess they'd have run into problems with Kelloggs...

This is the budget version of the SWIFT -- RED -- WINDRIDER and this nerfed version requires a measily 225 skill to ride, hey, thats almost attainable, even for a level 60 character, or not?

Perhaps in a future version of this blog I'll have bought one. If I can find the guy who teaches it and if my addons work well enough to actually allow me to do anything.




Mess with the 'Falcon Watch Sentinel' and you are a dead guy. Just looking at him makes me want to go watch LOTR:TROTK:CE (Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Collectors Edition -- Yea, I bought the original and the CE on DVD, being the consumer whore that I am -- cheers hollywood, see you on bittorrent!)

This guy is posted in the Horde Camp, protecting an ambassador I believe it is, or it was just a gathering of Blood Elves seeing the sights. Could'nt talk to any of them either way, or more precisely, they would not talk with me. After 30 minutes I figured I'd heard the looping dialogue enough times to move on.

And I moved to...



The 'Thrallmark Marksman', or more Politically Correct as we "are living in the 21st century, after all.." a 'Thrallmark Markswomen' or 'Marksperson'. Cant wait for Blizzard(tm)(r) to be sued over that one.

This guy, or woman... Troll, did not speak at all. And never moved. Wonder how the aim would be after standing like this for so long, I have never seen them shoot at anything, so I guess I wi ll have to dream about it --- sexy green/blue troll with a big sniper rifle -- oh la la..




Hey, thats me! (can I get banned for this?)

What you can see here is the new redesigned character frame and also a rather dull looking warlock, stone guard was all I managed to become.

Things of interest:
Penetration. You know that "Don Julios Band" ring you got in AV, that you never used since, which gave you "-20 on enemy resistance"? That is now called Penetration, and if we are very lucky it might even WORK as advertised.

Dropdown boxes; Now you can view all of your favourite stats (or at least 2 out of 5 or so) in the character ui. Attack, Defence, Spells, Base Stats and another I can not remember.
Mouse-ing over these stats also provide you with more information.




Another PVP "reward", very cheap as you can see, only costing you 5 honor points. I suspect I shall carry many of these, they stack in 20 as you can see -- pew pew!






Better not ask what the 'Ravager Dog' is made out of, just know that the buff you get from eating this is imba, and the recipe is rather cheap.

As I am getting ready to close this "blog" I will leave you with one final item that I know you will want, if you are an aspiring spellcaster, although I suspect you can get better raid rewards by the time you have enough coin, rep and level to buy this.

I present to you... the.. STORMCALLER



150 spell damage and 21 crit rating (Thats about 1.5% or so). Your enemies will cry for mercy when you unleash this on them. Just look at the imba stats as well 12 stamind and 11 intellect. 120 hp and 110 mana or thereabouts, you'll be a right tank wielding this.

Notice also the top left item -- a key -- but not any key, this one gives you access to HEROIC DUNGEONS!!!!111!!!eleven!!!11

Thats all for now.