Just a while ago I finished 3 pounds of Cajun crawfish and 2 cans of Mountain Dew (my favorite non-alcoholic drink), and it was awesome. Sadly the crawfish, that are available in my area from the only place in southern Chicago, if not in the whole Chicago metropolitan area, are no longer produced and packaged in the USA, but are from China.

I recently had oysters produced and canned in China, and they weren’t very good. There were bits and peaces of shells. I had to go to a more expensive store to buy ones that were made and canned in Germany. I can tell you now that the quality was significantly different . From the size of the oysters to the quality of the oil there were in - just an unparalleled improvement.

What king of sea food do you like? Have you had similar experience with can foods?

Valve being bought by Google! That is a horrible thought, but there are number of web sites which are reporting this. Here are a few links:

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/17/google-valve
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/17/google-to-acquire-valve/

I decided to send Valve a quick email, and I think that everyone that is agains this happenign should do as well.

Good morning,

TechCrunch and TheInquirer are reporting a potential acquisition of Valve by Google.

Please say it isn’t so. I’ve been a fan of you company and games since you guys first started. I have been following your company and enjoyed your products all these years. An acquisition by google might seem like a financially good choice but technology and product wise it is not.

Valve has managed to remain financially independent and overcome a variety of obstacles all this years. Please do NOT give into the google idea. Be yourselves. Visiting Valve headquarters and working for Valve is a dream for many people. Don’t destroy your fan base.

Sincerely,

Alexandar Tzanov

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/17/google-valve
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/17/google-to-acquire-valve/

You can email Valve at contact@valvesoftware.com, or contact the company in the following ways

Telephone:
425-889-9642

FAX:
425-827-4843

Postal address:
PO BOX 1688
Bellevue, WA 98009

The community has already started a discoution on the Steam forums.

I really don’t like it when companies decide to start sending me e-statements instead of a paper statements under the pretext “… reflect our commitment to the environment and will provide our customers with a new ‘earth friendly’ service.”. Uhh … What? Just keep that paper statement coming, because I am not going to log in all the time to see if it is ready or not. Ok?! I am not going to get a surprise few months down the road when I finally remember that I was switched to an e-statement and when I check it I see bunch of fees or double charges that I could have taken care of a lot sooner.

It’s nice to be environmentally friendly, but the environment is not going to pay fees and charges applied to my account. So, companies do be environmentally friendly with something else, something that is less vital. Here is a great suggestion: you can be environmentally friendly with ALL that SPAM you send to customer soliciting for useless cards and services. You stop that and you will do a double duty: 1. environmentally friendly; 2. Preventing identity theft and credit score/history ruining.

I have been listening to radio, music and videos on the Web using tools like WinAmp, flash players and embedded Windows Media Player and QuickTime. For some reason, even though the volume on my PC is set to as low as possible without being 0, the sound coming through my headphones is always extremely loud. Is it really necessary for this sound to be so loud? Why do programmers feel the need to set the default volume so darn loud?

People are not naturally deaf, nor should we have to anticipate deafeningly loud sound coming from the speakers.

magitam: Google’s Non-launch of Chrome - do you think we should hold Google accountable for their broken promise? http://life.magitam.org.uk/2008/09/02/google-too-big-to-keep-its-promise/

Google has decided to create their own browser, dubbed Chrome. It is open source based on WebKit and powered by Google Gears. Another browser amongst many others. I don’t particularly care for most of Google’s products, thus I most likely won’t even test drive this product. I think, though, that Chrome will gain popularity, and it will be fast, very fast for couple of reasons.

First reason being - people, for some reason, are just crazy about Google and what it has to offer. They love to use their search engine, GMail and their various other apps. They look forward, with great anticipation, to anything new that the company hints or talks about.

The second reason why Google’s Chrome will gain great popularity is the same reason why Mozilla’s Firefox grew so fast in its user share - opposition to the standard, to the established - Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

I believe that these two reasons will be the cause for Google’s Chrome to explode in its user share. Talk is all over the web about this. A quick search for Google’s Chrome on Twitter demonstrates this. All though, I do think it will be most popular amongst the tech crowd.

Chrome will see some competition from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8, so would Firefox. I installed IE 8 over the weekend and I can say that IE7 intrigued me, but IE8 enticed me and I might go back to using Internet Explorer. The new interface, functionality, privacy and build in tools are great. Microsoft is definitely moving in the right way with their work on Internet Explorer.

Google’s choice of introducing its Chrome browser in the form of a 38 or so paged comic is a wonderful approach of the proverbial RTFM. Personally I greatly enjoyed it, and I much rather read and look through illustrations than read pages of text explaining some technology, how it works, and what it is “supposed” to do.

I have been an avid follower of Google in the past, and I have looked for any products from them and I have attempted to use every one of their apps - as a Google fan, but I’m no longer. I did also switch to Firefox, at a time when I looked at Microsoft with an unkind eye. Plus, at the time Internet Explorer was rigid, unfriendly, and not all pages functioned well with it. So I did partake in both of the above reasons, even though they no longer apply to me.

I would like to hear what your thoughts on this are. Do you agree with the above reasons, or do you have reasons of your own? What are your thoughts about the comic? Should other companies apply the same methods when designing manuals for their products?

As a co-founder of JutiaGroup.com I still handle technical and relevant aspects of the web site. Lately potential advertisers have been making contact, but they have been making contact the WRONG way. I have no idea what’s the logic behind it, but people are using the simple contact form to request information, which is already available on the clearly visible and indicated advertise page. I guess the thing that bugs me most is that to get to the contact form, which they use, a surfer has to find the contact page, which is hidden in a submenu. The information, which they request is available on the page which is to the right of the link on which they have to click to find the contact page.

Maybe they do go to the advertising page, but they just don’t navigate it. It’s called scrolling people, just scroll down the page. All the information people ask for is on that page, plus a very nice and extensive contact form, which was designed to save the time, which is now invested in going back and forth via email to determine something that one should have read and provided at first contact.

The Wordpress community is vast. Wordpress is one of the major blog CMS on the Internet. I very much enjoy browsing the Web and whenever I come accross a blog, I find interesting, I tend to check, or at leased attempt to, what plugins are used on the blog. Anyone, who is familiar with the directory structure of Wordpress can check this.

Anyways, the point I am trying to make is - Wordpress succeeded because of its open community and its members’ willingness to share information and plugins. Probably about 50% of the time I attempt to view what plugins someone is using on their blog I am unsuccessful, because the plugins directory, of all the ones in Wordpress, is restricted. Why? I would like to know why do bloggers feel that they need to protect something that is free on the Internet as is. Sharing and promoting the plugins one uses on their blog is a way to show your gratitude to their developers.

As an old school blogger, and one of the first of the just starting Wordpress community, I have always had a page listing the plugins I use on my blog. So, Wordpress bloggers, please allow others from the community to view what plugins you use on your blog. It will make the Web more userfriendly, functional, and it will incourage developers. Thnak you.

Another win for Net Neutrality. Today it was reported that the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) “disciplined” Crap…Comcast for their violation of their customers basic write to access information on the Internet. I say disciplined, because Comcast was not punished via a financial burden. They were just told “you were bad. Don’t do it again. Fix it.”. It is hard for people and especially for companies to learn their lesson, when negative reinforcement is not used. Comcast was not punished, so they have noting to loss. If they had to pay fins, for example in the form of free or discounted service for their customers, then they, as the money garbing leach that the company and its operators are, will think twice before violation the freedom of access to information and data of real people and some intangible IP (Internet Protocol or Intellectual Property) address.

Now, because they were not cause to pay fines, the operators of the company will have learned, in their attempt #1, what they can do. Because the company did not have to pay fines, it will again try to throttle its network, but at its second attempt it will know how far it can go with certain actions and how to hide its procedures better.

You can read the announcement here: FCC Comes Down On Comcast For P2P Blocking