The WaxNation

Remember The Milk: A website that has made my life easier

2009-12-22T18:30:22Z

As I am preparing to leave for vacation I am realizing just how powerful one website has become in my life. I had become very stressed out over the staggering amounts of tasks I had to complete each day. Using the traditional “todo” list was not helping and my todo lists were spanning multiple pages. I was pointed in the direction of a great book and after reading the book, “Getting Things Done” by David Allen I tried many different applications in order to organize and keep on top of my very busy work days.

An average day for me starts with many tasks and has more added on throughout the day. These tasks must be prioritized, remembered and most importantly completed on-time. On a day like today I have already completed 45 tasks.

The site I finally settled on is http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ . I chose this site for numerous reasons.

It provides a very simple user interface which I as a minimalist at heart appreciate
It has a pretty decent companion iPhone app for adding tasks when you actually remember them; not when you get back to a computer and can remember what you thought about while in line at the store
It is platform independent. I get the same UI on my work computer as on my home computer
Amazingly *knock on wood* it is not yet blocked by my corporates “Big Brother” proxy

This website has helped me organize my professional and my personal life. I can easily create a “list” to tackle a specific large project (like our kitchen renovation) or use one of the numerous smaller lists I’ve created; like one for each of my accounts at work and one entitled “Pets” that reminds me to get cat or dog food, clean the litter box etc etc.

For anybody looking to get on top of things and to reduce what I found to be a good deal of stress give RTM a shot. It’s even FREE!

Originally posted at The WaxNation. Please leave any comments there. Posts on The WaxNation are written by either Kate or Dave Waxman; however livejournal can not display the author details thus to determine its author you must visit the original post.

A protest against Buy.com

2009-12-21T22:37:42Z

Kate and I will no longer be shopping from online retailer Buy.com. Their customer service is horrible and they almost ruined Christmas for Kate. The long story made very short:

Kate purchased an expensive gift for a family member from Buy.com. The item was received with some flaws. She tried to find a number to call them and discuss this and learned that they do not provide you a number; but instead a call back service.

We were ready for bed but wanted this taken care of so she selected for them to call her at that moment; which was actually an option. Nearly 20 minutes later and after we’d turned the light off for bed thinking they were’t going to call they did! 20 minutes of argument and the requirement for a supervisor and they agreed to allow us to ship the product back, when they had confirmation of shipping they’d overnight a new one.

Needless to say that is not what they ended up doing. Another “please call me” request was put in. This time they said they couldn’t do what they promised before, they wouldn’t get us a new product in time and even tried to lie to Kate and tell her no manager works there and there is nobody else we can speak to.

We demanded cancellation of the order and I still wait to see that it was fully cancelled and I don’t receive more billings from them.

However, I will say that Amazon.com saved the day with the product and a competitive price and overnight shipping for a product ordered on the weekend. Product was delivered and all seems good!

The Molly dog

2009-12-21T22:27:24Z

It’s hard to believe the last post I wrote was after we’ve had Molly for only a week. We’re now a week shy of two months with her in our home and hearts and I honestly don’t remember life without her.

Molly is a joy 95% of the time She has a very gentle and easy going personality. While she is still hyper at times and can go crazy for attention and play time she also quickly calms down and responds to more commands than I’ve been known to understand.

She will now sit, give paw (paw), stay where she is (stay), Go to the door for bathroom time (Outside) and goes back upstairs (upstairs) without any fight. She knows sit, paw and stay by both oral and visual commands.

Currently I am working on crate with her to get her into her crate all on her own. She doesn’t seem to be so willing on this one as she knows that means it’s time for bed or we’re going to leave her for some time. I am certain she understands and just chooses to ignore our requests.

Good friend JF and I put her in-ground invisible fence in about a month ago. We mapped it out and Kate and I felt it wasn’t large enough so we traveled out to the Home Depot and got more wire to extend her running area. It’s now a very large area in our backyard that she really enjoys running and playing in. Unfortunately it’s a huge area for us to do find her waste in.

Krispy is still not terribly font of her and will purposely sit in her way knowing she’ll cry and not try to get past him. They’ve gotten into it a few times with Kate getting the worst of it the most recent time.

Dexter on the other hand seems to recognize that she is not the most evil thing in the world. He’s not certain he likes her, but he doesn’t dislike her. I personally think he is trying to figure out how to harness her mass and strength into doing things he wants … like liberating large amounts of food for his consumption. She has licked him on the face or back multiple times and that is just funny to watch.

Molly has taken a long road trip to CT to visit the in-laws and behaved so well there that MIL actually allowed her free roam of the house. She was super well behaved and has been invited back … so she will be joining us for Christmas (leaving on Tuesday and returning the following Monday).

I have been very lazy about taking worthwhile pictures. The only snapshots I’ve taken have been with my iPhone and they’re less than satisfactory as they don’t catch enough of her facial details to show how cute she is. Pictures will come in time.

First week of dog ownership is complete

2009-11-08T13:42:51Z

Well, it’s now moving onto a week and a day since Kate and I picked up Molly, our Boston Terrier Border Collie mutt. She’s an adorable, overly friendly and loving animal with a lot of energy but the ability to easily calm down and just “chill”. She’s fitting in with Kate and I perfectly and hopefully in time the cats will learn to at least like her.

I’ll post some pictures later, all I have are the garbage ones from my iPhone.

No longer behind bars

2009-11-07T19:54:17Z

This week I broke free of the jail created by Apple on their iPhone. Overall I have to say I am very happy with it While many break for things such as themes, no longer paying for applications, or using the phone for unsupported purposes; my reason was much different.

I made this decision because I learned that if I just simply modify a configuration file stored on the phone I can have different vibration patterns for different events. No longer am I unsure if I have received a text message or an email while the phone is turned to silent mode and in my pocket.

Of course, as I’ve already taken the steps to do the jailbreak I have been exploring the other nice features out there. I’ve modified my phone ever so slightly to give me a more accurate battery meter and add video recording as well as to allow me to more quickly enable or disable features like WIFI and GPS.

The final modification I’ve made was purely visual. I added my background, but slightly muted, behind the icons, removed the dock’s background and made the dock icons reflective. Overall I think it’s made my phone look very sharp and personalized to me without making it look lame and childish like most of the themes I’ve found posted around on the internet.

Now, the only bars that are jailing me are those of AT&T’s limited network.

We’re moving

2009-09-15T11:43:22Z

Well, it’s official. We closed on the new house and are moving the majority of our belongings on Saturday the 19th. That’s only four days from now and we’ve a lot of packing ahead of us. Last night Kate and I completely emptied out our storage unit so that we could return the key and get 50% of this months rental returned to us. We then began to pack boxes and still have plenty more to go! We’re very excited to move but of course nervous of the actual task at hand. We’ll be fine as long as we don’t end up like this:

Another complicated chapter closes on 9.10.09

2009-09-04T21:08:11Z

As stated in a this post Kate and I have been house hunting for a while. We’ve had some pretty rotten luck with the entire process and have learned that it is true; nothing goes really smooth and easily in life. Kate and I stayed strong, we were diligent and we refused to give up. Finally, after months of stress that I can only equate to mental hell I think everything has finally paid off for us. An abbreviated recap of the events follows.

After we lost the house as mentioned in the previous post Kate and I went back to a house we had looked at and placed an offer on previously. When we initially placed an order they countered us with a number that was above what we wanted to pay and knowing the work we needed to put into the home we were scared off. We went back and fell in love with the house again. It has a very nice layout, beautiful property, all the modern and luxury features you want and really great bones to be made what we want in a home. Unfortunately the kitchen was terribly small and we knew that in time we’d be forced to get involved in a major renovation project to build a new kitchen.

We were willing on doing this and made another offer which was accepted. While moving forwards with the process we learned that the house would require flood insurance due to its location. When we investigated flood insurance we learned it was in excess of $5,600 a year. Due to this ridiculous cost we opted to walk away from this house. Again we were saddened but we knew we were doing the right thing.

On July 8th we placed an offer on another home. After 7 weeks we have learned that indeed, third time’s the charm! Of course nothing is final yet as we haven’t closed yet but for the first time in this entire ordeal I feel confident enough to now share some of the story with the public. The events were very dramatic for us as it was a lot of time where we just had no idea or control of the situation.

We found this home, which is a lovely four bedroom ranch house with 2.5 bathrooms, a full walkout basement and sits on 1.15 acres of beautiful land. The house is much larger than we expected to be able to afford and comes with a lot more land than we ever thought we could own. We’re very excited and know this house has the bones to make an amazing home. The layout is great, the rooms are large, the kitchen is large enough and with some TLC everything will be amazing. The house was built in 1966 and unfortunately that shows in some areas such as horrible wood paneling that needs to be torn down and an outdated kitchen that we’ll need to upgrade to meet our style and usage.

We put an offer in on the house and the sellers came back pretty quickly with a very fair counter-offer we were willing on accepting. We quickly moved into Attorney Review and things seemed to be moving along nicely. Of course as soon as I feel something is moving nicely, going well or just perfect we must find bumps in the road. Sometimes, like in this case, they turned out to be hurdles.

We scheduled our home inspection and were expecting pretty smooth sailing as I had looked the house up and down and tried to identify issues myself but found nothing. This is probably because I have no idea about construction, plumbing, electrical or really any skilled craft. The home inspector was great and very detailed making certain to find everything he could that could pose a problem in the future for Kate and I. Boy did he find some problems.

The home inspection showed multiple major issues and a few minor issues. We made up a list of all the issues we had discovered and sent it off to our lawyer who made it all nice and legal like and sent it to them. I think it was well over a week before we heard anything back. Thankfully they had addressed some issues; but the major issues they just stated were still pending review.

After five plus weeks of continuing in this fashion we are now satisfied with the work done except for one moderately large concern of ours that they have however granted us a cash amount at closing so that we may address it on our own. Now we’re very excited to be moving into the new house and trying to get ourselves ready for the adventure ahead of us.

We’re nowhere near ready to move however and closing in just a bit over two weeks time! We don’t own a single packing box and unfortunately have still not sold our condo; which is a very sore subject for us. We’ve had a couple of offers that were too low for us to accept and both buyers have shied away from the purchase rather than accepting reasonable counter offers. We’re seeing a good amount of traffic but no bites. It’s nerve racking to say the least.

Memories

2009-08-29T02:29:17Z

The highlight of my summer was definitely the 6-day road trip Dave and I took with my parents to attend my cousin’s wedding. Not only was I honored to be in the wedding, I was so excited to see my family for a solid 4 days. We drove across the never-ending state of Pennsylvania, through Ohio, and into Michigan. I don’t think it dawned on me until we hit Ohio that I had been on I-80, on this same journey, many years ago.

I started to remember the road trips to Cedar Point in Grandma and Grandpa Rossi’s motor home. I remembered all the times Grandma and I had driven to see various family members in Michigan and Ohio when I was little. Then I saw the Michigan border and everything became familiar. I remembered the trips from the airport to Grandpa J’s house to deliver his favorite cheesecakes from a restaurant we loved in Rhode Island. I started to realize how much I missed this place and my family who today is only with us in spirit. Not only did I miss them, but I missed their homes and their neighborhoods and all the things that filled my family memories.

So, I asked Mom and Dad if we could stop by their old neighborhoods. I hoped it wouldn’t be too painful to go back to the houses their parents lived in for 40 years, and just say “hello.” They smiled and agreed and, I shed a few tears just thinking about it. We all agreed to stop at both houses on the way home from the wedding. The morning of our return trip, we were up at 6am and on the road for Allen Park, Michigan.

Rossi home, once upon a time

The Rossi house looked as I remembered it, with a new fence and some nice new landscaping. The Jablonowski house also looked great. As we sat in the street, staring at the house, the owner walked out toward her car and I couldn’t help but feel compelled to explain our gawking. I told mom that we needed to say hello before she called the police.

Mom rolled down her window and explained that her dad built the house and passed away in it 40 years later. The woman was so wonderfully understanding and told us that her parents had purchased the home from my Grandpa and she had assumed it from them. She said it was a great house and they had even made an addition on the back. Mom got choked up and I was grateful knowing that my family’s homes, where I had so many memories, were so well taken care of. I felt like it was okay to continue the journey home knowing that our little piece of Michigan was in good hands.

Jablonowski home, once upon a time

Where are the small posts?

2009-08-27T16:19:12Z

I’ve been asked where the small posts about our day-to-day updates are? Well, the answer is very simple.

This blog is 100% public. Anybody and everybody can read it and thus we try to keep it’s content very censored and controlled. If you’d like to tap into the more personal occurrences in our lives please join our friends networks on Facebook. With the “Privacy Controls” on Facebook we feel more comfortable posting our weekend plans, what awesome things we’re doing, how stressful our days are and even some awesome pictures of me eating huge sandwiches

The first of two moves

2009-07-14T21:01:09Z

Kate and I decided that it would be in my best interest to no longer work from home. My cabin fever as of late has been pretty depressing and with me not leaving the house the only person I can interact with on a daily basis is Kate. I reached out to my boss who was very much on board with me no longer working from home as she thought me being in a field office would be a much better working environment.

It has now been over a month in the making but the paperwork is signed, the budget is in and as of today the required equipment has been shipped from corporate. I am scheduled to begin working from the local field office, which funnily enough is the office I used to work from prior to switching roles, on Monday. I am very excited to be back in an office, having a professional environment, people to bounce ideas off of and most importantly to not be in the home all day.

Now I just need to go pick up all the pants I had altered from the tailor otherwise I have nothing to wear to work!

Firefox 3.5

2009-06-30T23:35:54Z

I’ve always loved Firefox however in recent months I’ve cast this cute little animal into the refuge pile in /Applications and given its space in the warmth of my dock to Apple’s Safari 4 browser. Firefox had developed a very naughty habit of eating all of my poor laptops free memory and CPU so when Apple came out with Safari 4 I decided to give it shot.

Safari is remarkably faster than the prior versions of Firefox and had a much lower memory and CPU footprint on my laptop. The browser offered many other nifty features that I loved the glitz of when switching but over the past few months have all but forgotten as I never use them. Such toys as “Top Sites” and “Graphical History” while being very interesting features don’t serve one well when they never use the “Top Sites” and barely ever check their browser history.

Today a friend mentioned how much he was enjoying Firefox 3.5 and I decided it was worth a shot to install on my work issued Windows laptop. I replaced Firefox 3.0 with 3.5 and found it remarkably faster, sharper looking and much better with sharing the small amount of memory my work laptop has. Since I was so impressed with it on the work computer I decided to give it a shot on my personal computer.

I installed the browser and after just about twenty minutes of usage noticed how much faster it was than prior versions. It was as fast or faster than Safari 4. The rendering is quicker than it used to be and Firefox’s use of large fonts has always been the most superior out there. The results are in

Firefox has found it's rightful home

So now I am back on Firefox and quite happy with the performance thus far.

PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE
983 firefox-bi 12.1% 13:59.60 24 249 1148 120M 52M 169M 577M

So now a question for all of you out there who actually read enough of this post to make it here. Do you have any must have extensions I should look into?

Cleaning House

2009-06-15T15:36:38Z

Wow, what a crazy few weeks it has been. Kate and I have been very seriously considering moving onto the next steps of our lives for quite some time. We both know the things we want to do and the goals we have for ourselves require us to be in a house and no longer in our condo. While this place has been very good for us and we’ve turned it into an amazingly charming home we want a backyard that is our own, a kitchen that more suits are love for food, and more space for guests and our belongings.

Kate spent a lot of time doing some amazing research to determine the better towns for us to live in. We wanted to stay within a good commute to the local area we are now as this is where most of the industry and jobs are should either Kate or I in the future be on the job market. We further were interested in a town with a good community, lower crime rate, and a good school system. We began viewing homes and figuring out what we liked, what we wanted, and what we absolutely had to have in our future home.

While doing this we also needed to prepare our condo for sale. This required a lot of staging removing photos, personal items that others may not appreciate and removing all the clutter. We had to rent a storage unit to put a lot of things that were taking up space and made our condo look smaller than it is. Our place is now fully staged, we’ve had an open house and a couple appointments for people to walk through. Still no offers but we have gotten positive feedback about the overall presentation

Buying a house is proving to be very stressful and time consuming. We found a great home that we really wanted and put in an offer. We then received a counter-offer to which we gave our own counter-offer. We were then told that there were 3 total bidders being considered and we should give our last and final offer, which we did and won. However only a few days later the sellers received another bid and again requested last and final offer. This time we didn’t win and have lost the house.

It was heartbreaking and very depressing to both of us and we’re still angry every time we think about it; but we’re determined to find the right hosue for us. We’ve since losing that house been through a few more houses with four more to see this week and hopefully one of them will become our home.

Keep your fingers crossed and send us good thoughts and wishes as we could really use the luck.

SURPRISE!

2009-04-01T15:26:45Z

This is an overdue post …

Kate’s 30th birthday gift to me was a vacation. While I knew we were going away from March 19th through the 23rd I had no idea where we were going. The only thing I knew well ahead of time was that I should pack for warm weather and that was all I needed. I am not usually the kind of person who likes surprises however this was one I could sink my teeth into as I knew it wouldn’t end up with me wearing a funny hat in a public place … then again, I did end up doing that …

Kate and John F. managed to pull of a miracle. Both myself and Rachel (John’s wife) turned 30 within six weeks of each other. Kate and John worked together and got us both on a “surprise” vacation together. Rachel and I knew the other one was going on a surprise vacation but we didn’t know we’d be going on vacation together.

Kate and I got our luggage and made our way towards the airport shuttle bus. Kate told me we had to make our way to another terminal to connect with our transportation. As I was walking off the bus there Rachel and John were standing at the terminal stop. Rachel and I were completely surprised and absolutely goofy to each see the other couple standing there.

So here we are, giddy as a bunch of school girls and hugging each other making a huge teary eyed scene at the Fort Lauderdale airport still with no idea where we’re going or what we’re doing. We’re then informed that we’re going on a cruise together to Cozumel Mexico. As there is no place in the world I’d rather be then on a cruise ship I was so overly stoked that I became as hyper active as a 5 year old on 18 snickers bars.

We had a phenomenal time on the cruise together. Every day and every night was another adventure. It was so very enjoyable and stress relieving. I was very sad that we couldn’t stay in that world of happiness for longer but knew we had to get back to reality.

Alternatives to my always full DVR

2009-03-15T21:24:57Z

Kate and I rarely have time to watch television in the evenings. We both work full time jobs and after work between the gym, Kate’s MBA classes, my poker nights and us still having to find time to do household chores we get about an hour a night to watch TV.

Optimizing our time is important and ever since we purchased our first DVR in 2003 we’ve enjoyed being able to save time by fast forwarding commercials. However now that we’ve gone to HD television we’ve run into a problem. The DVR provided by Comcast just doesn’t have enough space! We’re constantly at over 90% filled and cheer when we make it into the low 70s. However it will never stay in that range long.

We’ve lost numerous episodes of television shows because the DVR fills and has to either delete something or not record something. It’s really getting tiresome and I’ve started to seek alternatives to recording everything on my DVR.

First I decided to try the 100% legitimate way of watching TV and I decided to make use of the Hulu (http://www.hulu.com) website. Hulu offers a wonderful service offering television shows by participating networks in your web browser. It offers a SD resolution of 360p and some programs you can rock out on HD at 480p. The 480p seems pretty good to me within the window however I notice that in a full screen display they’ll tend to be sluggish. This could be a result of my over three year old laptop but I have no other way to test it as Kate and I have exactly matching laptops.

Thanks to Hulu I no longer need to record my animated shows like “Family Guy” and “King of the Hill” and the crappy TV series I enjoy because I truly am my sons father such as “Knight Rider”. However when I went to add other shows to my subscription list I ran into an issue. Shows such as “Scrubs” and “How I Met Your Mother” are not directly hosted on the Hulu site and instead it links you back to the networks own site with their own modified flash video player. The problem with that being for some reason I am not getting the content. Nor am I sure that my Hulu subscription will properly notify me when these sites update their content.

As of this moment no matter what I try I can not get the episodes directly linked form the Hulu site to play on my machine. Yes, I know that most people are too nearsighted to realize that not everybody runs Windows and Internet Explorer so us poor Mac users suffer. I just don’t think that should be a valid excuse for not being able to play video from a NATIONAL network broadcasting service. Poor showing.

Hopefully I can figure this out and Hulu can work for my needs letting me only record the things we both watch on the DVR which currently has four things scheduled for the next two days with 14% free. Those four items are NOT going to fit thus forcing us to loose episodes we can’t possibly watch as Kate wont even be home until tomorrow evening.

Must have programs

2009-02-16T00:03:18Z

So today I was diving into my /Applications folder (For you Windows users that’s c:\Program Files\) looking for programs installed I no longer need, use, or particularly want. Quite a few found their way to the trash can as I’ve really been trying to trim down my program usage to the bare minimum and consolidating a lot into single applications as much as possible.

I’ve come to the conclusion that my “Must Haves” list has gotten very small. I am down to the following as required for me:

iTerm
Safari (switched from Firefox recently)
NetNewsWire
iPhoto
iTunes
Twhirl

I can get everything I need to get done with just those applications. I hold onto Microsoft Office for the rare times I need to open an office document on my personal computer; however for the most part Google Documents allows me access to those files as well.

I was able to remove tons of “Helper” applications in favor of small plugins to the above programs that accomplish the same goal. For example, I don’t need a Flickr upload application when I can just use their site and or a plugin to iPhoto. I don’t need Thunderbird, gmail works just fine. I don’t need VNC as I use LogMeIn for all my remote connections now.

What are your “must have” applications? This is more aimed at the Mac users as my Windows computer I do not have any control over the programs on it.

Taking the plunge

2009-02-09T19:05:56Z

I’ve been wanting to participate in an athletic event that would challenge me and get me back into running. I’ve struggled the last few months to have the energy and positive attitude to work out and keep up with the regimen I used to find so easy. I’ve decided to take the plunge and just registered for my first Sprint Triathlon.

I am really excited to train and struggle and push myself. I’ll be racing with my friend and colleague Katy from work and her sister. It’s going to be a lot of hard work and a lot of fun.

Birthday wishes and requests

2009-02-09T17:11:20Z

For all of you who remembered I do have a birthday, I truly thank you and am grateful to have such good friends. For those of you who didn’t know my birthday was coming up please don’t sweat it. I can never remember birthdays and if it wasn’t for multiple entries on my calendar, mostly done by Kate, I’d probably miss all of my family and friends birthdays.

In under one week I turn 30. A milestone some tell me but I feel no excitement about hitting “the big” 30. It’s just another year older but this time with so much social stigma put on it by others. People seem to think that 30 means I should act and feel a certain way, yet I don’t feel any different than I did two years ago. I guess being on my third decade is something to celebrate; especially as reckless as I was with the first one and a half.

Some kind folks have asked me what I’d like for my 30th birthday and I’ve found myself without any answers. It’s not that I am trying to be difficult but I honestly want very little lately. I am becoming realistic and realizing just how much waste there is in the craving for many things and I no longer want things I’ll rarely use. In contrast to years past just having the latest gadget no longer makes me happy.

I am also so happy for the changes in my life over the past two years with driving and my health that I feel full and satisfied. I am still living on what I can only classify as some kind of emotional high that has left me no longer craving small material items. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t appreciate a gift, it just means that I can’t spout off a list of things I want like a child can the weeks before Christmas when writing a letter to Santa.

HTTP Error 135: Web Browsers Suck

2009-02-09T03:23:24Z

The World Wide Web started out as a purely text based medium for the exchange of knowledge by mainly government entities and Academia. I don’t think anybody saw the WWW at it’s inception as being the living and breathing pulse of the internet that it has become. I couldn’t imagine the framers of the first revision of HTML having imagined the likes of Facebook, YouTube, eBay and to a lesser extent the web being used to solve the use of another set of protocols; email.

Yet there is no denying it, the WWW has grown well passed it’s pure text roots. It is, in my opinion, the most rapidly increasing and advancing internet technology. Much of our online time is now spent on social networking sites, online games, watching videos and corresponding in email. But what connects us to all of these multitudes of sites? Our web browsers.

While the web browsing software we use to interact with the web has surely advanced over time to support the new features of the WWW, grow with the operating systems they run on and even to add more robust features they all have some tragic flaws which I have discovered and grown to despise. The issues I am sharing are my own, and I know my computer usage differs from that of other peoples. The issues I have may not be shared by many, or for that matter, any of you.

First and foremost I am a Macintosh user who is forced to use Windows during the day. I do not believe Internet Explorer should even be discussed as a web browser as it is notoriously the least safe, most trouble prone and least compatible of all the browsers. Furthermore as my work computer is locked down tighter than a bank vault and I am unable to browse personal web sites with it nor can I upgrade to the latest version I’ll skip it all together.

When it comes to browsers on the Macintosh you’re left with two major competitors and a few minors. Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox. For the past few years I have been a Firefox user however that has changed, at least for the moment, as of today. I’ve had numerous frustrations with Firefox and have wanted to explore other browsers but have been tied in to Firefox as there have always been plugins which allowed me to synchronize my bookmarks with multiple personal computers and even a Firefox install on my work computer. Today however Foxmarks, the plugin I’ve been using for the past year or so has released a version that is compatible with Apple’s Safari and I now have the freedom to break away from Firefox on the Mac.

I have numerous gripes with Firefox, but two that are the most prevalent and disturbing to me. Firefox has what I can only describe as rendering issues if you modify the font sizes in its preferences. This is something I do for any program loaded on my computer. I increase the font size to be larger, in some cases like web browsers dramatically so. Going from a default font face of 9 or 10 to 15 or 16 and setting the minimum allowed font for 14 or 15, depending on the font families used. As I’ve pointed out in other posts, Firefox just doesn’t display a lot of sites right. ESPN, New York Times and multiple others are nearly unusable with my choice of configuration. Even Facebook has features I couldn’t use such as IM due to the text overlapping other text on the screen.

Add to this Firefox’s insane memory and CPU usage and it was always an ugly picture. I’ve spotted Firefox taking up more memory than even iPhoto which was importing photos from my camera at the time. It often would freeze almost entirely or randomly crash for what seemed like no reason. I’ve grown tired of being in the middle of a few articles, email drafts and the like and poof my web browser vanishes. Even with session recovery some things just don’t come back.

Enter Foxmarks for Safari and my first day using Safari. While I vastly enjoy it’s ability to handle my large fonts much better than Firefox, albeit not perfectly, I am left with an empty feeling in my computer heart for the numerous plugins and assistance tools I have left behind. There seems to be very few add-ons for Safari and of them most seem useless or have so many horrible reviews I don’t even want to mess with them.

I’ve left behind my plugins to control my tabs to my liking (making sure gmail is never closed etc), my excellent ad blocking and my tie ins to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. I’ve also lost “control” as I feel Safari’s lack of settings in the preferences is a bit shocking coming from Firefox which seems to have much more user control.

Safari still sucks up way more RAM than I think it should but at least my computer seems to run faster. The browser renders web sites a lot slower than Firefox but they all seem to look cleaner and function a bit better. The OS X styled buttons and widgets of course help. But I am still left with the one simple question?

Why are programs that are so often used, and used by so damned many, still full of such obvious flaws as memory consumption issues and usability issues?

Hello 2009

2009-02-05T03:55:08Z

Well the first month of 2009 has blown right by me without a single post. I know I don’t need to apologize to the audience I don’t have, but I feel guilty as this blog is one of the few ways I have to express myself and my creativity. I started this blog many years ago as a way to release the stress and anxiety I internalize and I feel it has become one of the few creative outlets I have. I am not an artistic person, nor am I musically inclined. I used to really enjoy writing and always had something to say but lately life has been so busy with the mundane routine of ordinary work that I’ve neglect to put myself out there with blogging. Furthermore I’ve been neglecting my photography and I hope to make a change on that front as well.

So here we are into February of 2009. My thirtieth birthday is just around the corner and I’m going to take this moment to stop and reflect on myself. Over the past thirty years I’ve learned a lot about myself but I think the past three years have taught me the most. I’ve had to deal with a lot of amazingly difficult personal issues and have come out on top of each and every one of them. I am proud of myself and feel stronger than I ever thought I could be. I think, for the first time in my life, I have come to terms with who I am and my limits. I am aware they exist, I respect them and I am comfortable telling those around me what they are. Finally I am not fighting myself.

I’ve a few topics I’d like to delve into in more detail and will begin posts on each of them to be published later. Right now I want to spend time in my bed with my cats while I wait for my wife to return from a day in the city.

2009 - It’s all about me

2008-12-30T02:44:28Z

On Wednesday evening at 11:59 I won’t be sad to see 2008 become part of history. To say the least, it was a tough year for me. I spent my first entire calendar year as a graduate student while working a full time job. It wasn’t easy but it was a learning experience (no pun intended). I started a new job in June and worked long hours in the office all summer. As the year went on I learned that I was really struggling to stay sane and happy. So, in 2009 I am making a promise to put myself first more often.

I pledge to not beat myself up if I only make it to the gym twice in a week. I pledge to sleep in on Sundays when I have no where to be. And, I pledge to bake once a month, for someone or some reason. I think that’s a good list to start. To kick off my year about me, I’m going to an excellent scrapbooking retreat that is held annually in CT, about 45 minutes from my parents. It is 48 hours of creativity, fun, and a whole lot of estrogen. I went two years ago and had a wonderful time, so I’m using my Chanukah money to go again this year. I will FINALLY be able to start my wedding album. Woohoo!

Krispy Status Update

2008-12-19T00:53:58Z

It has now been three days since Krispy’s surgery. He seems to be recovering well. There is no inflimation on or around his incision which is a very good sign. He is slowly regaining his appetite and each day he is awake more and more. He’s already doing things he shouldn’t such as jumping on and off furniture. I try to keep him from doing as much physical activity as possible but he’s rather stuborn; much like his owners.

Kate and I would like to thank everybody for their kind thoughts and wishes throughout this entire ordeal. I am sure Krispy would thank you too.

Below the break is an image of the poor kitty post-surgery

Krispy Post Surgery

My addiction to Twitter

2008-12-18T02:19:35Z

Twitter is,

a free social networking and micro-blogging service, that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. (Wikipedia)

I first found this unique social networking site in January of 2007 and thought it was a very interesting concept. However I found that I had no friends on it leading me to rarely check it which of course lead to me never updating it. Recently Twitter has become more and more popular in the mainstream and has gained quite a strong following in the geek community; and as a card carrying geek I felt obligated to give tweeting a chance again.

I found a few people and organizations I wanted to follow, especially during the 2008 election coverage. This got me hitting Twitter fairly often and I began to update. It felt good to do these little 140 character tweets as I had stuff I wanted to share or vent about, but not enough for a full blog post. You can access Twitter through their website, their instant messenger bot, SMS from your cell phone our a Twitter client on your computer or smartphone.

Well as I have what I like to think is the smartest of the smartphones, an iPhone, I figured I’d start playing with Twitter clients on that first. I downloaded one, then another, and soon enough I had about seven of them installed. Each has it’s strong points and of course it’s weak points. Playing with the applications has become as much fun or maybe even more fun then actually using the service! After a short bit of time using applications on the iPhone I ventured into the numerous applications available for the Mac. I think I may have settled on my applications of choice, but I think half of the fun is playing with the new ones that come out almost every day.

For thsoe of you who haven’t used Twitter yet, give it a go. It’s easy to setup an account and even easier to use. You can find me on Twitter as dwaxman.

Emergency Kitty Surgery

2008-12-16T02:26:23Z

Today at about 3:15PM I noticed a distinct horrible odor coming from what I thought was our cat box. When I went to the box to empty it I noticed very little, and no fresh, cat droppings. However I did notice cat fecis on the floor in the hallway. I followed the trail to find Krispy on the floor of the office cowering in a corner with a string comming out of his rearend.

It seems at some point Krispy had eaten some kind of string or fabric and had gone to the bathroom only to have it not come out completely and have his bowel movements stuck to it. He was uncomfortable and in obvious pain. I immediately brought him to the vet for examination. They gave him pain medication as his pain and discomfort was quite obvious and took an xray. The xray showed significant amounts of whatever he consumed still in his stomach and they strongly urged me to take him to an emergency animal hospital for surgery and round the clock monitoring.

I brought him to the local emergency veterinary hospital and they agreed surgery was quite necessary. Krispy was put under and a few hours later I was informed all the string was removed. None had perforated his intestine but some needed to be surgically removed from his colon. Had we waited permanent damage could have been caused to his colon including the possible need to remove it. I am relieved he will be ok and overly thankful I noticed it when I did.

This event was terrifying and I am not sure I am over the stress and anguish of it all. I am so thankful that Krispy is out of surgery and that no serious damage was done. I am unsure of his recovery and what will be required to take care of him; but whatever it is it will be done. Krispy was by my side almost 24 hours a day seven days a week for the eight months in 2007 that I was very ill. After my surgery he stayed on the bed with me from the second Kate left for work until when she came home and he knew somebody else could take care of me. I’d have done anything to make sure he was safe and healthy and am so happy to know I did everything I could for him. I can’t wait to pick him up when he is released.

I’m going to have to object to the term “Good Morning”

2008-12-12T17:39:41Z

There are some mornings that you think to yourself, “I just shouldn’t have gotten out of bed at all.” Unfortunately this morning has certainly been one of those. The clock has finally flashed past noon and I feel it is possibly safe enough to begin chronicling what has been one of the worst mornings for me in a long, long time.

I woke up, as I do most mornings, protesting the light in our bedroom. I dragged myself out of bed and plopped myself down into my office chair. In my usual morning haze I managed to unlock my workstation and that’s when things started to go down hill. First and foremost I noticed an “Error: Network connection has been lost” box floating on top of a reminder that I had an 8:30AM call I just didn’t want to be on. I hoped the error message was nothing to worry about but as I tried to reconnect to work services I realized I had no internet access at all. Now, a geek without internet access is like a fish without water even without the looming fact that I need to work; which requires the internet.

Needless to say the internet is a no-go and I make the decision to shower and get dressed right after my 8:30 call and rush into the local field office prior to my next call. As I am hitting end on my Treo I am hopping into the shower and I get done in record time. Check the internet one last time with no success and pack up to head into the office. This is where the story really goes down hill.

As I am loading my work bag and what not into the back seat I realize the drivers door is not closed. It’s not wide open, but it is certainly ajar. I open it and water rolls off the arm rest and onto the floor at my feet. Looking inside the seat is wet and the floor is a puddle. I tried to clean it the best I could but I needed to get on the road to make it in time for a call. As I sit down I realize that while I tried to dry the seat, there was still a good deal of water in it.

So here I am with my wet butt and thighs driving down the road staring at the clock and hoping I am going to make it on time. The traffic is horrible and some idiot let a school bus get in front of us. I finally make it to where I think I can break off and take a shortcut to find the police blocking off the road, most likely flooded from the rain last night. I continue on in bottleneck traffic and decide I’ll try another shortcut. I guess this route, which is usually empty, was broadcast to everybody in the county as it too was bumper to bumper traffic. Needless to say I took my next call in the car; something I very much dislike doing.

By the time I made it into the office I was able to setup my computer just in time to get onto 2 hours of back to back calls. What a horrible morning.

However, I do need to point out that my morning was not the worst there is to have. I’d like to take this time to offer my sympathies to a friend of mine, and a reader of this blog, Scott. Scott was faced with making the hardest decision a pet owner ever has to make. This morning he was forced to put one of his beloved cats down. Yesterday his cat began having some serious issues. As he posted entries on Twitter and his personal blog my heart tore open. I couldn’t imagine going through what he has and I fear the day that one of my boys becomes ill. This morning he had to make the decision we all hope to never make; but know at some poiont we may have to. Scott, I am truly sorry for your loss and I know words alone wont do anything.

Holiday shopping, the stress of gift giving

2008-12-11T16:40:38Z

Yesterday I ventured to the mall to finish off holiday shopping. I avoided going after work or on a weekend but I was still expecting to fight with large crowds and I was not disappointed at all. However, what I did find amazing was at 4PM on a week day how many business men there were standing around in stores us men don’t belong in looking uncomfortable and confused. Some with their mouths hanging open, some with the look of fear painted on their face, and others like a deer in headlights just standing at the entrance-way to a store.

I popped my ear-buds in, selected a nice playlist on my iPhone and prepared myself to body-check anybody who got in my way. Thankfully I made it through the mall without harming anybody, made my purchases, and escaped unscathed both physically and emotionally; or so I thought.

The moment I had the car in gear my brain began to race. What if she doesn’t like this gift? The gift is multiple pieces that all go together, if she doesn’t like the general concept she wont like any of the gifts. I’m still not 100% certain about my selections but I know it is the thought that counts and I put a lot of thought into this. The part that is screwing with my head is in recent conversations she has mentioned how she wants something in this general theme; but what she asked for differs from what I selected. We’ll see when Kate and I exchange gifts.

On the reverse side, it has been brought to my attention that I am a horrible person to shop for. Due to my meticulous product research habits I make it very hard for people to buy things for me. When there is something I want, I research the hell out of it and know exactly what make and model I want. As a geek I am especially picky about my electronics. I feel horrible about this because it makes it so hard for people like my wife and inlaws to buy gifts for me. I am used to my family where the gift is usually a check or a gift card which puts the task of picking out a product on myself.

When we discussed this last night Kate brought to light two specific examples. First was a case for the iPhone. She said that she wanted to get me one, and saw one she liked, but she knew that I would only want the case I picked out and that I’d not use a case I don’t love 100%. She’s right, I am difficult about things like this. I know what I like and I don’t properly appreciate what I should. She further made this clear to me by explaining that she had purchased a rechargeable battery set for me that included a car charger as she knows I often forget to charge the batteries for my camera. This was a great idea, and I should have been thrilled. But when she brought up rechargeable batteries in casual conversation I said how I need specific ones for my camera due to it’s awful power consumption problems. While my reasoning is right and sound, I feel horrible that I can’t just be happy about random gifts people buy me.