Tech: Microsoft Gets It's Groove Back With IE7

Internet Explorer 7 - Maybe Microsoft never really had a groove, but lately it's been making some serious efforts at getting one. It started with the X-Box, then the X-Box 360, and soon the Zune will hit the market; Microsoft is slowly re-inventing itself into something it never was before... cool.

In the interests of "fair disclosure" I am a devout Firefox user (note the Firefox link on the side panel), but after playing with the new Internet Explorer 7 for a week I'm impressed. I'm not going to stop using Firefox, but Microsoft has closed much of the gap between the two web-surfing solutions.

If you visit the Explorer home page (link above) you'll immediately see in big letters "we heard you", and that's exactly the feeling I got when I started using IE7. It is easier to use and it seems to be more secure, though only time and people a lot smarter than me will be able to determine if it really is more secure. The first improvement, which fixed what had always been my biggest complaint about IE, is tabbed browsing. Now you don't have to open a new IE window every time you want to look at more than one page at a time. Every other browser has this, so it's time IE caught up. To it's credit Microsoft has actually done slightly more than catch up in this department, however, it's made some slight improvements. For example, adding more tabs to the tab bar is as simple as clicking on a little mini-tab that always resides to the right of the furthest right tab. In Firefox you have to add a button to your menu bar, so score a point for Microsoft on ease of use (as much as it pains me to say that). The other improvement over Firefox is that if you middle click on a link it open the page in a new tab (as Firefox does) but the new tab is directly next to the tab you're currently using. Firefox always opens new tabs at the end of the tab bar, and while you can move tab locations around in both programs, IE7 is (sit down for this) a lot easier. To the left of your tab bar is a nice button that will pop up a page showing you screen shots of all the tabs you have open, so if you're like me and you get lost in your tabs it's easy to find the tab you're looking for. You can even close tabs from this display mode. It's easy and intuitive.

Most noticeably is the lack of pull down menus when you first launch IE7. You can add the menu bar if you so choose, but I found I didn't really need it, you can get pretty much every thing done using the icon toolbars. To the left of your tab bar are your favorites, represented by little star buttons. Managing your links is easy and simple. But if that doesn't work for you and you have a del.icio.us account you wish to access you can add a del.icio.us toolbar, which brings me to the next great thing about IE7, it's customizable.

I always liked the ease with which I can personalize my Firefox browser and while IE7 isn't quite there yet it's come a loooooooong way from IE6. Under the tools menu you can manage "add-on's", much like you can in Firefox, and I found it painless to add my treasured del.icio.us and RoboForm toolbars to IE, something I hadn't been able to do before. IE7 still doesn't have the vast number of add-on's that Firefox has, but I imagine that will come in time. The del.icio.us add-on isn't as good as some of the ones for Firefox either, but again, being that Microsoft is allowing third parties to write add-on's for IE7 I can only assume it will be a matter of time before IE catches up.

So far IE7 has functioned with few problems for me. At first I was having trouble playing YouTube videos and I was scared for IE (no browser will last long without that functionability), but within a day the problem seemed to go away. Don't know why, maybe it was patched, maybe I did something wrong, but it works fine now. I've had to install a couple of plug-in's which is no surprise other than that I had to install the Windows Media Player plug-in, I thought they would have had that together. I've spent a whole week doing my usual surfing and not run into any real problems. Microsoft is right, it is easy to use, and any troubles I had were short lived and fairly simple to figure out.

I'm not a security expert but this IE seems to be much more on the ball on such issues. There are little pop-ups to warn you of potentially malicious software trying to install from web pages, and even Microsofts own scripts won't run unless you give them express permission. This is a change for Microsoft who once shipped XP with a built in firewall but without having that firewall on unless you turned it on yourself. Microsoft seems to now realize you have to expect people don't know as much about security as we should (because for the most part we don't) and play the role of a guiding parent.

On the down side, unless I'm missing it IE still doesn't handle downloads half as well as Firefox does. Cosmetically the only thing I've noticed wrong is a little rebellious graphic in the tab bar, at the base of the tabs, that doesn't seem to want to line up with the rest of the graphics. Otherwise it's a good looking program, not at all utilitarian like a lot of Microsoft products. It's cool looking, or at least close to it.

Overall big thumbs up to Microsoft. I'll go back to using Firefox because I don't see anything about IE7 that will make me want to jump ship, but on the other hand if I had been an IE user all along I would certainly have much less reason to leave IE for Firefox now. The gap isn't entirely closed between the two yet, but IE7 marks a giant leap for the IE brand. I no longer cringe if I have to use IE (say, to get Microsoft updates). Firefox isn't running circles around IE anymore, IE is a close second now, which is great news for IE users. In a sense it's also good news for Firefox users because competition is a good thing. If you're already using IE6 don't hesitate to get 7, you'll never look back.

Sports: Remembering Happier Days for the Mets

I was disappointed when the Mets didn't make the World Series this year. I had them picked to play the Yankees in another subway series, shows how much I know about baseball. With injuries to the Mets pitching staff, though, the Cardinals, who I had picked last make it all the way to the Fall Classic.

In any event, I was waiting for this clip to hit YouTube, when things were looking up for the Mets. A single with men on first and second for the Dodgers should have spelled trouble for the Mets, but instead it turned into the greatest, and dumbest, double play in playoff history. I watched this live and could not believe my eyes. Thanks to DVR I got to not believe my eyes the second and third time either.

Entertainment: Fearless

***1/2 - Fearless stars Jet Li as Huo Yuan Jia in this movie based on a true story from turn of the century China. As China is being ruled and influenced by outsiders, Huo battles in the arena against the best fighters of their occupiers for Chinese pride. At least that's the story suggested by the commercials, and while that is a great part of the story there is much more to this film.

What this movie is really about has nothing to do with national pride but rather personal salvation and how mastering oneself is a greater and harder task than mastering others. We are first introduced to Huo as a child who has great affection for his father but doesn't understand him. Huo watches as his father is beaten in the arena by a rival and swears to never be defeated in his own life. I didn't fully understand Huo's motivation, as his fathers defeat wasn't particularly embarrassing and no one in his house encouraged Huo's lust for revenge, but I guess Huo was just one of those kids with a little bit too much drive in him for his own good. Even after Huo grows and accomplishes his quest, even beating the son of his fathers rival, it is not enough for him.

Huo indulges himself a little too much, his "students" are nothing but drinking buddies who eventually lead him into trouble; financial, spiritual, even his family is not spared. No one can defeat Huo, but it is those around him who are made to pay for his arrogance. This is not just a martial arts film, it is also a compelling and emotional story and I felt Huo's losses, he suffers a great deal and the director never shies away from his anguish. This is essential because it fuels the second half of Fearless, the redemption of Huo.

While Huo does come back from a self-imposed exile and fight foriegn nationals, he does so more with contrition than with pride. He admits to being a bad father and a bad son, but he also has an inner calm that only seems to come to those who have seen and dealt with their own inner evils. He doesn't fight for personal glory, he is fighting to redeem his lost family and himself.

I didn't find this movie to be particularly deep, but there are some philosophies on fighting that Huo shares which help develop him as a character. He has an interesting conversation with a Japanese fighter before a match about different kinds of tea and why Huo doesn't judge them. He feels that people who judge and rate the quality of tea say more about themselves than they do the tea. Everyone has different tastes, and it's the perception that changes, not the tea. It is the same with martial arts, he doesn't feel one school of art is better than another, only that some practitioners are better than others, and the better ones are the those who are winning the struggle within. The arts merely give you tools with which to conquer the conflict within oneself.

I probably would have liked the film more if there had been a little more subtlety. Even in the fight scenes, which are well done, the use of slow motion photography and special effects are a little detracting. Whenever these two techniques are used it always seems to take something away from the reality of the fight. I think what the human body is capable of is amazing and entertaining enough on their own without needing embellishment. Having said that this film is beautifully filmed and is a pleasure to watch. Whether Huo is engaged in battle or working a rice patty every frame is well thought out and full of color and life.

Even if you're not interested in martial arts films, there is much more here for you to enjoy. The film is well rounded, the story is one worth telling, and the relationships depicted are real and carry emotional weight. While not great, I think this movie could appeal to just about anyone.

Society: Why DRM is Stinky

Defective By Design - This is a great ad, I hope lots of people see it. This is why I'm so against DRM (Digital Rights Management). It used to be when you bought a copy of something, you owned it. You could do whatever you wanted with it, other than make copies for other people. You were even allowed to show it to other people, just so long as you retained ownership of your copy. Even then, you could resell it to someone else. Not any more, if the companies using DRM have their way. They don't even want you owning it within your own library for too long, they'd rather you have to liscence it to keep listening to it year after year.

Sigh. I could go on, but... The good news is DRM is fairly easy to defeat for the geeks out there. Every piece of DRM that has been written has either been broken or will be, it's the nature of the software. You can't give someone the lock and the key to play the music or movie with, no matter how well you disguise the key, before someone figures out how to make copies of the key.

Entertainment: Superman Returns

***1/2 - After disappearing for five years (more like nineteen years in real life) Superman returns to the big screen in this sometimes clunky, often poorly thought out, yet nonetheless effective as a whole film from director Bryan Singer.

As a whole I enjoyed this picture, so I’ll start with the things that didn’t work first so I can end with what I liked. The details of the story often don’t work or are just plain stupid. There’s an opening scene where we see how Lex Luther, played by Kevin Spacey, made his initial fortune, basically through an inheritance, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of the plot. It’s not even an interesting or original approach to obtaining money so it’s not necessary. We then see Superman’s return to Earth and find that his reason for the abscence makes no sense. He left to find Krypton which we know to have been destroyed, because astronamers thought they had located it. Again, this doesn’t add anything to the overall plot and does nothing for the movie other than add another ten minutes.

Then there's Luthor's diabolical plot... err... on second thought, just Luthor's plot, there's nothing really diabolical about it. Luthor reasons that the only thing that's ever truly been worth money is land, and since all habitibal land is now habitated, he sets out to make new land made of Kryptonite, basically by pushing the existing United States out of the way. Why he wouldn't just take the pre-existing land by some genious plot is a mystery. Especially once we see the Kryptonite island (remember, we've always seen it as a crystal), it's hard to imagine that kind of land having any real-estate value at all. It's hideous.

Then there are a couple of creepy or wierd aspects to this Superman. He's not quite the alter boy he was in previous films. He spies into Louis' house on one occasion, listening in on her conversations. He's also apparently fathered an illegitamite son with her, as we learn towards the latter half of the film, though you can figure it out pretty quickly. I know I've given something away, but that's because it really doesn't matter to the plot, and that was my problem with that plot point and Superman's blatent violations of peoples right to privacy. Had they served a greater purpose to the story I could accept them, but they don't.

Kate Bosworth's portrayal of Louis Lane is forgettable. To be honest I never really liked the Louis Lane character, but Bosworth made it even worse for me. Louis was always a driven, independant, woman, but in this portrayal she is just completely unlikable. She's not independant with charm, she's femenine elitist, icy cold, and it's hard to imagine what Superman would possible see in her, she's so uninviting. Not to mention Bosworth is too young for the role, it doesn't sync with the earlier movies.

Brandon Routh, on the other hand, is perfect as Superman. He doesn't bring anything new to the character, but his Christopher Reeve impersonation is spot on, sometimes eerily so. Having said that, the one thing Routh does lack is the chops to pull off Clark Kent's goofiness half as well as Reeve had done with the role. But Routh looks and acts the part, and it's easy to accept him as Superman.

What I did like about Superman Returns is that it did one thing done of it's four predecessors did, which was make me care about Superman, as a person. As a kid I wanted to be Superman, but I never cared about him as a character. This newfound appreciation is thanks in large part to the analogy of Superman as a Christ figure which comes up several times. Superman was sent, after all, and as we are reminded by several clips of his father speaking to him from the original Superman (Marlon Brando's voice), by his father to save mankind. I had really missed this point of view in my earlier viewings of Superman. I never really understood what Superman's motivation was before, I guess I just thought of him as being a swell guy, which is kind of boring, but Superman Returns hammers home the point the Superman is here on a mission. It also never lets us forget, thankfully, that he is not one of us. There is a scene in which Superman, frustrated with his relationship with Louis, flys high above the Earth and begins listening to the millions of voices below, looking for those who need his help, and you get the real sense of who Superman is, a father looking over his children.

This caring for humanity is displayed in one other fascit that caught my attention. At no point in this film, that I can recall, does Superman ever do an aggressive thing. In other films Superman has always been tempered, but particularly after he had lost his powers and then regained them in one of the movies, I can't recall which one now, there was a sense of revenge in his tone as he settled a few scores, mainly for comedic effect. None of that here. Superman doesn't even hurt people to stop them from whatever evil it is that they're doing. Mostly he only uses his powers to undo or prevent the evil workings of man. Even when battling Luthor, Superman mainly focuses on reversing what Luthor has done. There is a scene in which Superman is shot in the eye, and after watching the bullet fall harmlessly to the ground we might expect Superman to clobber the guy, or incompasitate him in some, but he merely smiles at the criminal, and the scene ends. This is effective. It highlights Superman's mission, to protect mankind and show them a better way. It also makes him appear to be tougher and stronger that even the special effects can make him look. This is a man so powerful he doesn't need to be violent.

At the end of the film I thought they took the Christ analogy a little too far, though, as Superman nearly sacrifices his life to save humanity. The part I thought was over the top was a shot of Superman falling back to Earth, unconsious, with his arms spread to each side like Christ on the cross. I don't mind analogies, I don't need to be hit over the head with them either. Even so, the shots of his lifeless body falling from outer space all the way down to the ground of Metropolis, to the people he has saved, is well done and effective. I realized Superman's love for mankind is paternal, he is willing to sacrifice himself for people, many of whom will never appreciate it, because knows there is good in them waiting to be saved.

Society: Internet Reveals People in Their Natural Habitat Are Wierd

Ever make those audio tapes as a kid like you were doing a radio show? Ever wonder what would happen if they actually got played on the radio? I guess that's kind of what YouTube is.

Entertainment: Stupid People, Alcohol, and Fire

YouTube - Okay, part of me just wanted to see what it would be like to embed a YouTube file. So there, now I've done it. But this is awfully funny, to me at least. Can you imagine a worse combination, drinking and being on fire? I particularly like the kid's screaming dance while is leg is burning. That'll help. I've seen other videos where the flaming drink trick goes wrong, and you'd think people would realize that playing with fire is dangerous enough, let alone while you're intoxicated.

Tech: The Future of Interface

TED (Technology Entertainment & Design) - There is a video from one of their conferences I recommend watching. You can download the zip file here. I'm not sure how long ago it was shot, but it demonstrates some new technology in multiple point touch screens. The use of the interface seems to be very intuitive and smooth. The cool factor aside, I think this sort of technology will have a lot of great real world application. Just the thought of having your keyboard be part of the screen, and have it scalable to whatever size or shape you want, is wonderful.

The speaker references how seemless it is and how there's no visible interface, giving you more screen to look at what it is you are actually doing. This made me think of two video games I've played, Homeworld and Black & White. Both games did a great job of using the motions you could draw with your cursor as a means of executing commands that they were able to remove all buttons or side bars from the screen. This gave you the whole screen to look at the world the games were creating, instead of having half that real estate taken up with interface. It made for a much more enjoyable gaming experience.

Society: Think Before You Speak... Or Whatever it is She's Doing

Watch this short video - I think a video like this might hurt her dating life for awhile. I mean, how does this help her cause? I'm guessing she's in the pro-choice camp, but it really doesn't matter. Whatever side she's on probably wishes she wasn't. The kid she's yelling at, to his credit, seems to understand the concept of not arguing with idiots. See how smart he looks by comparison, just not saying anything?

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Tech: Two New Windows Flaws, You're At Risk Even if You're Fully Updated

TWIT - I haven't had time to listen to the whole podcast as I'm on my way to work, but just heard of two new Windows flaws (one in Internet Explorer and one in Windows 2000) that will effect you whether you're updated or not.

Click here to see security guru Steve Gibson's work around for both problems until Microsoft can fix them.

Entertainment: An Inconvenient Truth

**** - This is one of the few must see movies that are truly must see. Not must see in the sense that it's terrifically entertaining (although in many ways it is), but in the sense that you must see it like you must see the car coming down the street before you cross it. It's imperitive.

In An Inconvenient Truth we discover a much more human Al Gore than we saw back in 2000, not at all a stiff as a board stuffed shirt. Gore is engaging, passionate, and surprisingly funny. He is on a quest, a quest to wake the world up to the growing problem of global warming, and by the end of the film it's hard not to understand his drive to get the message out. Near the end of the film Gore spells out exactly why this movie works. He's spent the last several years giving this lecture, watching his audiences and cataloging the reasons people resist or marginalize the thought of global warming. He then finds ways to get around this opposition, and he's gotten very good at it. I myself believed in global warming, but I had doubts about how much we were or were not causing it. Maybe this was cyclical (before we humans ever set foot on this planet the normal weather swings gave us New York under glaciers at one extreme to 70 degree weather in Antartica), maybe we had little effect, maybe we had more effect than we thought. I wasn't sure of the context, and I didn't think scientists were either. But with compelling evidence that Gore presents with the grace of that school teacher you knew who could teach anything to anyone, there is a context, and it's a frightening one.

Mostly this movie is a Power Point presentation, albiet one on steriods. It's not nearly as boring as it sounds, it's engaging. Maybe Gore thought we would be bored with the lecture he's given nearly a thousand times because intercut throughout the movie are documentary style clips of Gore preparing his lesson and a history as to how he came to know his subject so intimately. He gives us some life stories, how his son was nearly killed when younger, how his sister died of lung cancer, his failed bid for presidency, which aren't really necessary but do give a richness to the story he is trying to tell. Gore is also surprisingly good at the voice over narrations he does during these parts.

This is an important movie that should be viewed by as many people as possible. There is a lot of evidence for global warming that is presented here that is not yet being disseminated by the mainstream media. Gore's dissertation is well thought out and thorough. He does not come off as preachy or aloof, he is earnest and even contrite for not having done more sooner. From shocking pictures of glacier melting already well in progress to statistical analysis (consider that carbon dioxide levels are already twice as high as they've been in the last several thousand years) Gore builds an undeniably compelling case.

This movie should appeal to anyone.

Society: I Sell Out

Google AdSense - Hopefully you'll notice the Google ads now on the left side of my page. Hopefully, because then you might click on one of the ads. And then I'll get paid! :)

I don't really expect to make any money off of it, I'm doing this more out of curiousity than anything else. Plus, Google doesn't pay me until I've racked up $100 dollars worth of click-thru's, so that might take awhile.

Putting Google AdSense ads on one's sight seems to be in vogue at the moment, and why not? If you make money at it, great! If not, oh well. It took me mere minutes to set it up, so I don't lose anything if it doesn't work out. I am generally leary of corporations and big business, but I try to keep that point of view balanced. It's easy to knock corporations, but right now I'm typing this on a computer made by a company and wearing clothes made by some company and then posting it, for free, on some companies web server. So they can't be all bad. Plus I'm pushing thirty now and I've heard you can't trust anyone over thirty anyway. :)

Sports: Told You So

Patriots - This was yet another time I wish I hadn't been right. Based on their improved playing I changed my prediction that the Patriots would be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs to them being eliminated in the second or third round, which happened when they lost to the Broncos in the second round.

Although things turned out as I predicted I was disappointed anyways. Watching the Patriots gift wrap the game to Denver in the divisional game, I realized the Patriots could have, and should have, won that game. The Patriots were better than the Broncos in all but two stats; turnovers and points (the only stat that matters), the one leading to the other. And of the five turnovers, three, and maybe four, were Patriot mistakes more than they were Denver successes. This is not to say the Broncos didn't deserve to win, because they did. It's more of a knock on the Patriots. They dropped the ball. Denver picked it up.

It became even worse when the Steelers shockingly beat the Colts. Had the Patriots won their game they would have played the Steelers at home, and would have had a good chance at winning, they've beaten the Steelers in the AFC Championship game, in Pittsburg, twice before. But it was all for naught.

Society: The Thought Police?

Yahoo! News - I recommend reading this article. It's about a man in Italy, Luigi Cascioli, who is suing Rev. Enrico Righi for making claims that Jesus existed. To me this is a disturbing development. Let me state right now that I do believe Jesus existed but that is not why this lawsuit troubles me. It comes down to freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. It's also another case of people not wanting to take responsibility for themselves and putting that job off on the government.

First of all I don't see how this guy, Luigi Cascioli, has a case. If you're going to accuse someone of telling a lie, in this case he believes saying that Jesus existed is a lie, then you should have some evidence that what was said is not true. Otherwise it's just a belief. Without evidence one way or the other, saying that Jesus did not exist is as much a belief as saying that he did. If you're going to bring a libel or slander case against someone, you have to present evidence that what was said or printed is not true. Can you really say it's not true that Jesus existed anymore than you can say it's true that he did? Cascioli himself admits that he cannot, saying, "The point is not to establish whether Jesus existed or not, but if there is a question of possible fraud." How can you establish fraud if you cannot establish that what was said is indeed wrong and therefore misleading? Couldn't the defendant, Rev. Enrico Righi, just as easily bring Cascioli to court for saying that Jesus did not exist, since there's obviously no need to establish the fact in the first place? Let's say Jesus did exist, then Cascioli is the offender. Can either Cascioli or Righi prove their case in a court of law?

Again, this doesn't bother just because it has anything to do with Jesus or Christianity, but for the very principles of the case. Imagine how it could be applied elsewhere. Couldn't every religion come under the same fire? I don't believe that, say, Enki, an ancient Sumerian deity, is real, but I know people who do. Can I take them to court for asserting his existance? We don't have to limit the debate to theological issues either. Are we going to start dragging parents into court for telling their kids about Santa Claus? I think it would be pretty easy to prove he doesn't exist, and you could make a case for fraud since parents do tell the story in part to bribe their children to good behavior all year under false pretenses.

I also think Cascioli is insulting people's intelligence, and their responsibility to be intelligent. "When somebody states a wrong fact, abusing the ignorance of people, and gains from that, that is one of the gravest crimes," he said. Do you consider yourself to be ignorant? He thinks you are. You are, as I am, and he is, of the people. I don't particularly like his assertion that I am so stupid I need the government to protect me from preachers, or anyone else for that matter. Are there stupid people out there? Sure. But that doesn't make it the government's job to take over their responsibility to protect themselves and care for themselves. Maybe if these people were exposed to more direct consequence instead of running to the government every time they stub their toe on a curb that wasn't painted with a warning sign they'd get smarter.

Whether you believe in Jesus or not it's a belief, and you're entitled to it as well as you are entitled to express it. If people can start taking others to court every time they hear a thought, belief, or point of view they don't agree with we're all in trouble. Cascioli has no more right to shut Righi up for his believes than Righi has a right to shut Cascioli up for his non-beliefs.

Tech: Interesting New SkyOS GUI

SkyOS demo - I found this demo to be worth watching. This'll probably excite Linux users more than the rest of us, but there are several features I found would probably be useful. From what I understand the OS doesn't support a lot of hardware, but what does work seems to work very well. The active desktop search is quick and useful (this is becoming a standard for all operating systems it seems, and with good reason), and I really like the media player they show.

Tech: WINDOWS WMF VULNERABILITY

Security Now! - I recommend that everyone visit this site as soon as possible and download the patch to this extremely dangerous hole in Windows security. I'll leave it up to Steve Gibson, security guru, to explain what it is as he can do a far better job, but this hole effects all versions of Windows.

MS is working on a patch and may have one out soon, but better to be protected now. This thing exploded amongst hacker communities who were home for the holidays, apparently. Nearly one-hundred instances of this exploit have shown up in mere days.