I need to use IE7 a bit and was annoyed by the “Internet Explorer provided by Dell” title bar. Not only can you remove that, you can put whatever you want after the “provided by” text (at least on Vista).
Start>Run>gpedit.msc>User Configuration>Windows
settings>IE maintenance>Browser User Interface>Browser title
I knew this wasn’t going to be much of a college hoops season for me. I’m an Indiana fan and this was clearly going to be a rebuilding year. But damn, I didn’t think we’d be this lame. Thankfully I haven’t watched much.
In truth, I’m pretty out of the college hoops scene this year. I don’t even know who’s leading the Big Ten. But regardless, I’ll still be doing an NCAA pool.
I’ll start taking names now. If you were in last year’s pool, you’ll get an invitation but it will go to the email that you used to register with CBS Sportsline.
Here’s a form connected to a Google Doc that I’m using to collect names and emails of people who want to be in the pool:
Since my wife is a broker, she often gets taken out by the big insurance carriers. Part of doing business, she gets some very nice dinners out of it.
But last night she got taken out by folks from AIG. To a very nice place. Good food, good drinks. Aren’t we currently bailing out AIG? And if so, doesn’t that mean my tax dollars paid for that night out?
Serious mixed feelings….
I can’t even think of how often I’ve read an article that was obviously (at least to me) wrong. Science articles in particular because how many journalists really understand science?
This is just one example. I actually like George Will even though I often disagree with him. He actually is a huge baseball fan and is in favor of the DH (a rare opinion that I agree with – have you watched pitchers bat?).
But apparently George Will’s articles are not that well checked. Gee, I’m so surprised…
Danielle (6) takes a ballet class and a hip hop dance class at a local dance studio (in Brooklyn local means about 2 blocks away). This is nothing serious, just good fun kids dance stuff.
This week was “Open House” week, so parents could watch a class. Of course, I have the more flexible schedule these days, so I’m the parent at Danielle’s hip hop class today.
Aside from being big fun to watch (imagine 6 year olds doing an “attitude walk”), there was a point where the teacher wanted the parents involved. She told the kids to grab their parents to do some freeze dancing (if you aren’t familiar with freeze dancing you clearly don’t have kids – you dance and when the music stops you freeze like a statue).
Danielle runs over to grab me, and then she runs over to grab Victoria (2). So there are my two girls doing freeze dancing in the dance studio. A very nice big sister/little sister moment.
Victoria doesn’t completely get the “freeze” part of it, but everytime everyone else freezes, she just laughs out loud.
One of those little parenting gem moments…
This article cracks me up…
Since I am not currently working (at least not in the conventional sense) I obviously do not have an office. I am doing many side projects, lots of research and actual coding so I need a place to do “work”. Often being at home is not a good option since I have small children who can be somewhat distracting.
So I am quite pleased at the quantity (and quality) of free Wifi in close proximity to my apartment. There are two quality coffee shops, a coffee shop/restaurant and two good bars with free Wifi within blocks:
Favorite Coffee Shop: The Flying Saucer. Classic artsy coffee shop with decent food. Cheap, good secure WiFi. And you see lots of freelancers there working. A very good vibe.
Next favorite: Building on Bond. This is a coffee shop by day, restaurant by night. Very nice. To encourage the crossover, they turn off the free WiFi at 4:30. But there’s a pretty good signal that you can pirate after 4:30. And they have a decent beer selection too…
The newest one is a coffee shop and art gallery, called Clover’s. It’s a bit fancy shmancy and the coffee is overpriced. But it will do in a pinch.
Of the bars, only one actually advertises WiFi. The Brazen Head is a nice beer joint with good WiFi. But my favorite bar of all, Pete’s Waterfront Alehouse now also has WiFi. The don’t advertise it, so I’m assuming they are just using it themselves.
So I can basically work anywhere…
I can’t decide if this is super cool, way scary, or what. If you are not aware of Google Latitude it is, in typical Google form, easy to use, powerful, and with tremendous privacy implications.
I installed Google Maps on my Blackberry. I do not have a GPS phone. But Google Maps will use information from the cell towers to approximate my location. That’s cool because I can get a map that shows where I am. Useful.
Google Latitude takes this farther. You sign up and now your location is broadcast to whoever you allow via the web. You can see where all your friends are. Sure, sounds innocuous. But think it through.
“Hi hon, I’ll be home soon, I’m picking up some milk”. “Google Latitude shows you at the bar”. “Well, it’s only accurate to a few blocks, I’m really at the store, honest”.
I can see how this could be useful in some cases. But I can’t imagine anyone who would leave it on all the time…
For about an hour Google declared the entire internet to be harmful…
Since we let our car go, I had been looking for a good chance to try out ZipCar. I wanted something low pressure, in case there were snags.
Today, Danielle had a playdate with one of her classmates, Eloise, after school. Eloise lives reasonably far from us. About a 20 minute walk or a couple stops on the subway. Eloise’s mother was picking them both up from school and I had to go get Danielle around 5:15. Danielle wasn’t going to have dinner there (she’s a picky eater) so I wanted to get her home fairly quickly for dinner.
I could do car service, but then I’d need to run in and grab her quickly while the car waited. Not likely with a six year old.
So I reserved a ZipCar from 5-6. I deliberately waited until today just to see if you can do ZipCar on the spur of the moment. Plenty of cars available. I try a Subaru Forrester (to see if it would be a good weekend getaway car). I could have gone for a BMW or a Mini Cooper. But I’m a practical kind of guy.
It couldn’t have been easier. I walk to the garage a few blocks from our place. I hand the guy at the garage my ZipCard and he gets my car. A ZipCar will only unlock and only start if you have the right ZipCard. It’s just a regular card like a credit card with a magnetic strip. But ZipCars have RFID readers in them. They get programmed remotely so they know who has them reserved. The car will only start and only unlock during my reservation with my ZipCard.
I can reserve cars from my Blackberry or my PC. ZipCar knows where I live so it defaults to the two garages closest to me.
Given that in Brooklyn you have to park your car in a garage a few blocks away anyway, the ZipCar experience was different from owning a car only in that you can’t leave anything in the car.
All in all a very successful first ZipCar experience
Steve Fischer's Random Blog 