What do you think about Apple's iPad? Will it fly, or will it flop? Here are a few brief thoughts I had on the newest product from Cupertino:

• The name is absolutely terrible
• No physical keyboard is a huge minus on something this size
• Only one connector (Apple proprietary) is a huge mistake
• Data plans through AT&T are a big negative
• What does this give me that I can't do already on my laptop or netbook?
• No multitasking seems like a poor decision
• What a terrible name!

Perhaps Apple will prove me wrong, but I can't see this device catching on the world over. The "cool" factor just isn't there; the keynote demos consisted of boring stuff like editing spreadsheets and documents, something the "kids" of today aren't interested in. So what do you think?

In my recent post on gripes I have with Firefox 3.6, I mentioned in passing that I detest (and disable) the AwesomeBar. I had a recent lunch-time discussion with Dustin about this very topic, and Michael asked about it in a recent comment, so I thought I'd post a few thoughts on why I dislike the AwesomeBar as a whole.

For the uninitiated, the AwesomeBar is simply the address bar in Firefox 3.0 and later. Prior to version 3, the Firefox address bar was a simple edit box with an associated drop down menu. URLs that you manually entered into this box were saved in the URL history (the drop down menu), and would be auto-completed in future accesses to the URL bar. When Firefox 3.0 was released, Mozilla changed the behavior of the URL bar considerably. Instead of being a repository for typed URLs, the address bar became a "one-stop shop" allowing users to search through bookmarks, history, and previously typed URLs.

So what do I dislike about it?

Performance, Performance, Performance

Without a doubt, this is my number one complaint with the AwesomeBar (and, these days, Firefox in general). When the AwesomeBar made its debut, its performance was terrible. It was so slow, in fact, that as I typed into the URL bar, I would lose key strokes as Firefox struggled to keep up with potential suggestions. For example, as I typed a URL like https://borngeek.com/, I would end up with something like http://wweek.com/ (note the loss of the w.borng characters). Behavior like this is completely unacceptable, but was, for me, the norm for a long time. I'm not sure if Firefox still suffers from this issue because I never use it!

Results Ordering

When the AwesomeBar was first introduced, there was no way to specify what it should suggest as you search. As a result, there was much debate about which results should appear higher in the results list: should history take precedence over bookmarks, or vice-versa? In my experience, search results were never what I wanted them to be. Often, my target search would be the third or fourth result from the top, requiring me to use the arrow keys to select it. Poorly sorted suggestions essentially forced me to scan the results list for each query, wasting my time in the process. I know that Firefox has improved this greatly (you can now specify what kind of results are returned), so this is an admitted non-issue today.

Why Do I Need This?

My last complaint is simply, why is the AwesomeBar something I need? Unlike many computer users, I have very few actual bookmarks; instead, I maintain a static-HTML page of links I frequently visit. Because my bookmark count is so low, I never have a need to search my bookmarks; I already know what is or is not there, as well as how to get to it. Similarly, it's not often that I need to search my browsing history. When I need to do so, I simply open the history sidebar (Ctrl + H) and search there. What was the AwesomeBar giving me that wasn't already available in the browser? I'm not sure the answer to that is very substantial.

I think I would have more respect for the AwesomeBar if it came disabled by default. Shipping Firefox 3.0 with this enabled radically changed the behavior of a key UI element, something that seems pretty dangerous to do from a "keep the end user happy" standpoint. Mozilla enjoys screwing around with the default settings, however, so I've since come to expect this kind of thing from them. For now, the AwesomeBar is disabled in my browser. Until I see a good reason to do otherwise, it will stay in its upright and locked position.

Last night, while surfing around for some medical information, one of the sites I stumbled upon through Google's search results tried to install a Trojan on my computer! This was surprising, seeing as I was using Firefox 3.6 with AdBlock turned on. Thankfully, Microsoft Security Essentials saved the day, alerting me to the fact that a nefarious application was trying to install itself. The tool caught the incursion, alerted me, and successfully removed it from my system. I then did a full scan and it found no other problems.

I've read that drive-by attacks like this are becoming more common, but until now I hadn't ever been affected. Several of my plug-ins were outdated, so I updated them, though I'm not certain any of them were involved in this attack (Java never loaded, and there was no embedded media on the site).

That being said, make sure to surf with protection; there's some nasty stuff out there.

As you have undoubtedly heard by now, Firefox 3.6 has been released. I've been using it for a few days now (I picked up the release candidate earlier this week), so I have a few thoughts on it.

Faster Performance

If Firefox 3.6 is faster than 3.5, then it's not by much. I have yet to see any gains. When I installed Firefox 3.6, I blew away my old installation completely. I'm using a new profile, with a fresh install, and cold starts still take upwards of 15 or 20 seconds on my laptop (Core 2 T7400 at 2.16 GHz, with 2 GB of memory, on Win XP). I only store 14 days of history (versus 90 days by default), I turn off the Awesomebar (which I hate), and I only use 7 extensions (Adblock Plus, CoLT, Console², Firebug, Googlebar Lite, Linkification, and Web Developer), none of which seem to be the problem. Mozilla had better make significant gains here in the future. Browsers like Chrome are literally miles ahead in this realm (Chrome cold-starts on my system in as little as 5 seconds).

HTML 5

I haven't played with the HTML 5 stuff, but there's been plenty of news about websites adding HTML 5 variations of their content (like YouTube and Vimeo). The only problem? Firefox doesn't support the H.264 encoding being used by these sites! I understand their licensing standpoint, but if the world chooses H.264 over OGG, they had better jump on board pretty quick.

Personas

Do we really need Personas? This feels like something that AOL would have rolled out back in the day, for every grandma computer user. The real-time preview mechanism feels very scary to me; the fact that document-level content can alter the look and feel of my web browser feels like a security nightmare waiting to happen. What kinds of exploits will crop up as a result of this?

Plug-in Checker

This is the one feature of 3.6 that I actually appreciate. A new update mechanism allows you to quickly see if your plug-ins are out of date, which was pretty painful before. Unfortunately, I have a number of plug-ins on my laptop here that aren't recognized by the updater, but maybe that will improve with time.

I'm hoping that the next release of Firefox, whenever that may be, will be a step in the right direction. Lately, Mozilla really seems to be heading into some strange territory. As much as I love Firefox, I'm growing tired of the bloat, I dislike their possible plans to ditch extensions, and the new UI features seem insipid at best.

The only thing holding me back from moving to Chrome (which I also enjoy), is the lack of decent extension support. When that feature gets implemented, I just may switch, so consider yourselves on notice Mozilla. The next Firefox release had better be good to win back my respect.

Earlier this week, I picked up a copy of the 2004 title Thief: Deadly Shadows from Steam. Last night, I found out the hard way that the game doesn't auto-save your progress; my character fell from a lofty spot, died, and I lost a couple of hours of progress. This got me thinking about the state of auto-saving in video games today, something that I now clearly take for granted.

Back in the day, games never auto-saved your progress. One of the earliest titles I recall using an auto-save feature was the original Far Cry, which (in actuality) used a checkpoint saving system. I'm sure there were titles before that which used an auto-save mechanism (the first Serious Sam might have used one back in 2001). Since that time, nearly every game I've played has had some form of an auto-game saving mechanism.

Take one of my current favorite games, Torchlight. With regards to saving your progress, it lies at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from most old games: you cannot, at any point, manually save your progress! In essence, it only auto-saves, nothing more. What a change from having to consciously remember to save every so often.

Going forward in Thief: Deadly Shadows, I'll have to remind myself to save every so often. Otherwise, I'll end up wasting more time like I did last night. Live and learn.

Earlier today, I finished watching the fourth and final season of It's Garry Shandling's Show. I enjoyed the whole series so much, that I wanted to share a few thoughts on it. For those who don't already know, It's Garry Shandling's Show was a sitcom that ran on the Showtime network between 1986 and 1990. In it, Garry Shandling plays himself, and is fully aware that he is a sitcom character. All of the characters around him also realize that they are a part of a television show, so the whole experience is very "meta." Garry often involved the studio audience in the story, and each show opened and closed with a monologue. The fourth wall was broken as a rule on the show, not as an exception, so the viewer at home was usually in on every situation and joke.

What I like most about the show is how unique a premise it is, even to this day. Having the characters of the show all realize that they are on television is very clever and made for some great gags. Garry would often exploit this fact to the fullest; whether walking between sets to keep a thread going, or advancing time in silly ways to push the story forward. The supporting cast is all terrific, and the comedy outstanding. There were some episodes where I literally laughed until I cried. You gotta love a show that can do that.

The fourth season is definitely the weakest of them all. I listened to a number of episode commentaries, and it was interesting to learn that many of the writers felt the show went in the wrong direction in the fourth season. Showtime had a fairly small audience, so the show's ratings were never terrific (even though it was nominated for, and won, a number of awards). After Fox picked up the last two seasons, ratings tanked, mostly because the show was never meant to air with commercials. Upon debuting on Fox, the show came in at number 99 out of 100 shows; only The Tracey Ullman Show was worse. Interestingly enough, during the fourth season, many of the writers from It's Garry Shandling's Show also went to work on a little television show called The Simpsons, which debuted in the top 5 of the ratings. It's ironic, then, that the same writing staff would garner a top 5 rating and a 99th rating in the same year.

If you get a chance to check out this show, I highly recommend it. In some ways the show may be dated, but the humor is clever, and there are some very ground-breaking ideas. I'm greatly looking forward to checking out Garry's subsequent show, The Larry Sanders Show.

Over the holiday break, I stumbled upon a wonderful article describing several CSS tricks to add eye-candy without images. I've been using rounded corners here at the site since the last theme update, and thanks to this article, I'm now employing drop shadows. The effect is subtle, but adds a lot to the design; in short, I like it.

The style rules for adding drop shadows are very simple, though proprietary; it's a shame this stuff can't be standardized properly. Here's the code to use a drop shadow (the values shown are the ones I'm using on the site):

#myelement {
    -moz-box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); /* Firefox */
    -webkit-box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); /* Webkit */
    box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); /* Standards way */
}

The article even details the appropriate style code for Internet Explorer, but I haven't included it here, mainly because it's ugly. Other effects that the article explains are glow (the opposite of drop shadow, essentially), gradients, rotating images with CSS, transparency, and a few more advanced tricks. It's great that this support is built-in to most standards compliant browsers. So long to those annoying images that try so desperately to do the same thing!

Update: So it turns out that adding this eye candy significantly reduces scrolling performance in Firefox (quite an annoyance). Chrome doesn't have this issue, so it's clearly a Firefox problem. Should I keep the shadows and suffer the performance hit? Or should I chuck them and keep things snappy?

Also, Webkit browsers don't support the inset modifier for shadows, which means you see even less eye candy in Chrome, et al.

Update 2: I've removed the drop shadows for the time being. After all, this stuff is experimental.

I recently stumbled on an incredibly wonderful website; one that threatens my productivity just as much as Wikipedia does. The Vintage Ad Browser is a trip down memory lane, showcasing magazine advertisements from as far back as 1800. All kinds of categories are available to peruse: from Airlines & Aircraft, to Gender (some of which, today, are quite sexist), to Transportation. This site is one of those black holes on the internet, where you can get lost down a trail of links. I highly recommend checking it out; definitely worth bookmarking.

For better or worse, my online news site of choice is CNN.com. Last year, when they rolled out their new look, they also introduced a feature (which is still in "beta") called NewsPulse. It's essentially a look at what stories are being viewed most by site visitors during a given time period. For quite some time now, I've found the feature amusing, so I try to check it every once in a while. The most popular stories (over a longer period of time) typically fall into one of the following three categories:

1. Celebrity stories
2. Stories involving sex
3. "Big News" stories

In general, the popularity of any given story follows the order above. Celebrity news, especially celebrity death stories, seem to be very popular. The recent death of Casey Johnson, the Johnson & Johnson heiress, was particularly popular because it fit both of the first two categories: she was a 'celebrity' and very openly gay.

I've always enjoyed looking at statistics like this. Google's year-end zeitgeist is equally as enjoyable to peruse (though, it's obvious that it's filtered to be family friendly). This kind of data paints an interesting picture into our culture's interests.

In the spirit of it being New Year's eve, I thought I'd share a few random goals I have for 2010:

• Simplify CoLT and Googlebar Lite where possible
• Actually release the next version of Paper Plus
• Continue the improved 2009 trend of taking and posting more pictures
• Back up data earlier and oftener
• Get more exercise
• Eat healthier fare (and cook more often)
• ???
• Profit!

Whatever the new year has in store, just remember this:

All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there. Use them together. Use them in peace.

Happy New Year! :D

Steam is hosting a holiday sale through January 3rd, with some titles discounted as much as 80% off! I picked up a couple of indie games during this sale (and might grab a few more at these prices). The first title I picked up was Samorost 2, and it only cost $2.49. That's still a little steep in my opinion, seeing as over half of the game is available for free on the web. But the title is a fun, cute adventure style game set in a very imaginative world.

The second title I picked up is by the same crew, and is called Machinarium. This game is much more substantial, and has a number of very difficult puzzles (I'm currently stumped on a few of them). The artwork is fantastic, the soundtrack is highly enjoyable, and the characters are adorable. There's no dialog; each character speaks using a thought bubble. But the stories they tell are amusing. It's hard not to fall in love with these characters, much in the same way I did with the Pixar movie WALL-E.

Be sure to check out the Steam store before January 3rd. There are some terrific discounts on some great games, so now's the time to pick them up!

After two separate incidents aboard inbound flights to Detroit, airports have stepped up security (again) for passengers. Gizmodo has posted a couple of articles on the new restrictions being seen at various places: The Unofficial Guide to Flying After the Underwear Bomb and Leaked: Homeland Security's Post Underwear Bomb Airplane Rules. These rules are ridiculous. Passengers have to sit with nothing in their lap for the last hour of a flight, the flight crew cannot make announcements during the last hour, and in-flight services, such as live television, phone access, and wifi, are all to be disabled for the entire flight. This, along with additional baggage charges, is why I no longer fly, nor plan on doing so at any time in the near future. There's no doubt that airplanes are terrific inventions, but these policies make this form of travel ridiculous.

What's next? We all have to sit quietly, with our hands at our side, and our eyes closed for the whole flight? Will bathroom breaks be prohibited? Will people who need medication aboard a flight be denied that, because there's a potential risk?

Let's just face the facts: with rules like this, the terrorists have already won.

Sherlock Holmes has had a special place in my heart since I was quite young. I've read all of the stories, all of which I hold in high esteem. In high school, I even did a report (or two) on this character. Among all famous, fictitious detectives, he ranks as my all-time favorite (though Cadfael, Inspector Morse, and Inspector Lewis are nearly as enjoyable). Of all of the actor portrayals of this character, Jeremy Brett's is the only one I will ever truly acknowledge. Mr. Brett's take on Sherlock was fantastic, and spot-on with the character in the stories. He captured nuances and characterizations that no other actor had been able to do prior, and no one has done since.

That being said, I'm intrigued by the new Sherlock Holmes film being released. Robert Downey Jr. is a good actor (though I'd argue not in the same league as Jeremy Brett), and his take on the super-sleuth looks interesting. Some of the reviews I've read have been positive, so it's a movie that is definitely on my radar. I'm not a fan of movie theaters, so I'll happily wait until it gets released to DVD. In the mean time, I think it's time to fire up an episode or two of Jeremy Brett's work.

A recent update to Torchlight has added achievements to the game. There's no way to see them in game (which is a bummer), and I wish they had progress bars that gave you an idea of where you were in the midst of collecting each one. Those nits aside, this is a great addition to an already great game. As of this writing, I'm only 15% complete, but I look forward to trying to grab as many as I can. Some of them look awfully difficult! It's a shame they didn't have this in the game from the get go...

Update: Here's the global achievement list for your perusal.

Earlier today, Netflix announced some interesting changes they've made to the site. These changes seem to speak volumes about where the company is headed. First off, the "Watch Instantly" tab is now the default view when you log in. This clearly indicates that Netflix is wholeheartedly committed to a future where media streaming is the norm. Is this the beginning of the end for DVDs?

The second change is a relocation of the friends feature; from a prominent tab up top to the very bottom of the page. This must be an indication of how many people actually use this part of the site.

All in all, these are some interesting changes that Netflix has rolled out. It's will be interesting to see where they go from here.

The upcoming Demoman and Soldier updates to Team Fortress 2 will add a crafting system into the mix. Apparently, blueprints (i.e. "recipes") will be available in some fashion that will show you how to combine items together to create new items. This is a bizarre addition to this game. With this announcement, players are already complaining that Team Fortress 2 is devolving into a role-playing game. To be fair, however, the lines between game genres is blurring over time. Borderlands is a great example of a first-person-shooter mixed with traditional role-playing-game elements.

I'm going to give Valve the benefit of the doubt with this upcoming update, though I agree this is a odd direction to take this game. Knowing Valve, however, I won't be surprised if this change turns out to be a great addition to an already great game.

Having played through it a few times now, I thought I'd post a few thoughts on Torchlight, the action role-playing game I've talked about a time or two here on the site. For those who don't already know, the game is essentially a Diablo 2 clone (with, what I would argue, are terrific updates). Read on for my take on this title.

The Good

Diablo 2 Clone

Few would dispute that Diablo 2 is one of the greatest (if not the greatest) action RPG's ever created. Often times, clones of stellar titles like that are weak. Thankfully, with Torchlight, that's not the case. Many of the developers who created Torchlight worked on Diablo 2, so they know how to make a triple-A title. All of that know-how has been put to good use here. At some level, Torchlight feels like a re-imagining of Diablo 2. It's as if the developers simply brought the look and feel into the 21st century, and that's a terrific thing.

Loot, Loot, and More Loot

By far one of the best attributes of this game is all of the loot that enemies drop. Magical items are great fun to find, and they drop with just enough frequency to hook you into looking for that rare, unique item. Set items are equally fun to find. This feature alone makes this game a collector's dream.

Great Performance

The game runs like a dream on my system, and works well on nearly all systems (so I've read). A netbook mode is even included to boost performance for older or underpowered systems. Being able to run the game on older hardware is a terrific design decision, especially in this age of ultra-realistic looking titles.

Great Looks

Despite it's ability to run on older hardware, Torchlight looks great. The cartoony atmosphere is fun to look at, and nearly all magic spells and character abilities result in terrific visual delights. Things can sometimes get confusing (especially when battling large groups of monsters), but in the end, the chaos adds to the fun.

Pets

I've already written about this terrific addition to the game, so I won't rehash it again. In short, this feature had better be in every action RPG from here on out!

Randomized Levels

With only a few exceptions (boss levels, mostly), all of the games levels are randomized. As a result, no two characters will ever see the same level layout twice. I've run across several traps and sights on my second and third times through that I didn't see before. There's no telling what I have yet to see, which I think is great.

It's Cheap

At only $20, how can you possibly say no to this game?

The Bad

Difficulty Scaling

Difficulty in this game is, on the whole, quite easy. But it scales in a strangely uneven way. On my initial play through, I played on the "Hard" difficulty level, and I was able to defeat all but one of the bosses with ease. The final boss is so much harder than all the previous bosses that the change is quite jarring. Likewise, all of the general enemies are very easy to up to the final boss level. All of the subsequent levels (in the never-ending (?) Shadow Vault) are substantially more difficult. This unevenness is hard to justify.

Weak (and Short) Story

The story is fairly weak, and relatively short (only about 30 levels worth of the game), but were we really playing this for the story? No, we probably weren't.

Only Three Classes

There are only three player classes you can experience: Vanquisher, Alchemist, and Destroyer. A few extra classes would have been welcome.

Skill Point Redistributions

If you do a bad job of distributing your skill points in the game, the final boss can become essentially impossible (as I found out on my first play through). There's a semi-official mod available that adds a "respec" potion to the game, allowing you to redistribute your points at will. At some level, having this ability from the get-go would have been welcome (though, it admittedly would make the game even easier).

The Verdict

This game is pure fun, no doubt about it. The price couldn't be better for what you get. I've played through the game with 2 of the 3 classes so far (I'm currently working my through with the last of the 3, the Alchemist), and I'm looking forward to going through again, trying different character builds in the process.

Every year around this time, the Hess Corporation, an independent energy company, advertises their "Hess Racing Cars" for Christmas. Apparently, they've been doing this for 45 years now, a fact I find quite surprising. According to their advertising, the cars are available at local Hess gas stations. They clearly must sell these cars to someone; otherwise they wouldn't advertise year after year. But who buys these? I never think of a gas station as a place to go to buy stuff like this. As a kid, I never said "hey, let's go toy shopping at our local gas station!" And I don't know who would do that today. Maybe truck drivers pick this kind of thing up for their kids?

According to the Wikipedia article, these cars (especially the older ones) are considered collectibles and can fetch into the thousands of dollars, depending on the rarity and condition. Pretty amazing! Does anyone here have (or previously had) a Hess car? If so, what did you think about it?

For a long, long time now, I've run the Symantec anti-virus program (corporate edition) on my home desktop computer. I got the original binary from college and I've kept it ever since, undoubtedly breaking the license agreement in the process. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, however, I ditched the bloated, slow Symantec mess for the newer, freely available Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). Having read good things about the product, I figured I'd give it a try.

So far, so good. Boot times are noticeably faster, which is a big plus in my book. With Symantec, my boot times had become horrible; it would literally take 2 or 3 minutes for the machine to become usable. Now, it's ready in about a minute or a minute and a half (still too long, in my opinion; maybe Windows 7 will fix that). MSE is also quite easy to use. The interface is intuitive, and updating happens auto-magically, with no need to schedule updates. Performing a quick scan took a little while, but seemed to run faster than Symantec did. To top it all off, the MSE memory footprint is much smaller, though it's still one of the larger memory using apps on my system.

What do you guys use for anti-virus solutions? I'm pleased that Microsoft is offering a quality solution to this problem. And the price couldn't be better.

How many people here use Google Reader to follow RSS feeds? I use it as my primary surfing mechanism now, and I'm curious as to how many others use it. Although it has some quirks, I've gotten used to it. Google Reader has made surfing the 'net way more efficient, so much so that I often look for new sites to troll. If you do indeed use Reader, let me know if you'd like to friend me up. I share stories on the service routinely.