Just downloaded and installed the latest version of Tony Bierman’s phpGiggle. He has made a few changes, the biggest of which is making it a plugin for WordPress. Very cool. Now that I have it installed, I can once again link to my heart’s content!

Once again, I am late with TV Tuesday. But, as the old saying goes, it’s better late than never!

Companies pay billions and billions of dollars each year to drop commercials into our favorite programs in hopes of influencing our shopping habits, getting us to buy things, and toot their own horns. As long as people still have money to spend they’ll keep giving us ideas on how to spend it. So this week let’s take a closer look at the entity we call commercials.

1. Commercials: Annoying disruption or Interesting Advertisement? I look forward to the Superbowl every year for the new commercials as well as the actual football game. I guess it depends upon the commercial; usually I channel surf during the commercials, but I may hit on one of the commercials that I like that I will watch.

2. Is there a commercial that instantly has you reaching for the remote to mute it? Well, not to mute, but to surf to another channel. And not any one in particular; just commercials in general.

3. Jingles are one of the most useful tools in commercials, what’s your favorite (or least favorite if you prefer)? Favorite: any of the Coors Lite hard rock jingles with the “and.. and.. and TWINS!” lines.

~Bonus~ Has a commercial actually ever influenced something you’ve done or bought? Actually, yes. I have tried a number of products based on seeing the commercial. While I haven’t continued to use ALL of those products, I have at least tried some of those products (the list is too long to show here).

Gleaned from Yahoo, here is yet another reason to dump Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. That’s right, you can get infected with bad things SIMPLY BY OPENING AN INFECTED WEB PAGE! You don’t have to double-click an attachment, you don’t have to do something really stupid, you don’t have to click “Yes” to a popup window asking to install something. It just happens in the background without your knowledge. In fact, it is a “feature” of IE that all scripts run in the local internet zone – clearly a design decision that is not too intelligent. I have said it before on this site many times: get rid of IE and go with Mozilla or Firefox. I use Mozilla.

Just exactly what is Bill Gates, President and CEO of Microsoft, doing in this picture? Ummm, yeah, I thought so.

Well, I’ve heard of wait a half hour after eating to go swimming, and I’ve heard that you shouldn’t go grocery shopping when you are hungry. This is the first time I’ve heard that you should eat before voting so that you DON’T eat your ballot.

So, after reading this, I know where to score a lid. Isn’t it amazing what Yahoo calls news?

I did it; I am the proud owner of a 2004 Honda Element. Yeah, it does look a lot like a Hummer waiting to grow up, but it rides nicer. I haven’t driven a Hummer, but I can’t imagine that it rides better. Being 6′7″, I really like all the head and leg room in the vehicle; it is probably tops in what I need in any vehicle I drive. The Element has more head room than any of these vehicles (which I test drove): Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sorrento, Kia Sportege, Geo Tracker, Chevy Trailblazer, Ford Escape, Ford Explorer, Dodge Durango, Jeep Liberty, Toyota RAV4, Toyota 4Runner, Nissan Pathfinder and Nissan Exterra. I don’t know all of the fuel economy numbers on all of these listed here, but it probably ranks at or near the top in fuel economy among all of these vehicles.

I’ve just downloaded and installed the WordPress plugin called Insert Image. It is a nice little plugin that allows me to put a thmbnail image with a popup link to the full sized image in my posts. Really cool, huh? Check out this image:

Just a few clicks to upload the image and create the thumbnail while uploading (that is included in the standard WordPress installation) then a few more during the post editing process to insert the thumbnail as a link to view full size. Another cool piece for WordPress. The more I’m using this, the more I wonder why I chose Movable Type.

Once again this subject has come up, this time in an article from PC World (via the Yahoo news aggregate). They do mention some of the software I use, and it has been a while since I listed all the freeware and open source software that I use. That may happen in an upcoming post, but first I think a short discussion on the difference between freeware and open source is in order. Heck, I should even probably talk about commercial software and shareware just to keep any questions to a minimum.

Commercial Software is just that; software that you buy. It is no better or worse than what other types of software are. Just because you pay for something doesn’t mean it is better than another, similar item. And price is not indicative of what the software is truly worth; in other words, the more expensive item is not necessarily the best item. You can find commercial software at any retail outlet that carries software: WalMart, KMart, Target, Best Buy, Office Max, etc. Since the software is to be paid for, it is illegal to copy without consent of the author. That doesn’t mean copying isn’t done, just that it is illegal.

Shareware is software that allows you to try it out before you actually purchase it. Normally with shareware, you have a trial period of anywhere from one week to one month before one of two things happen. One event would be the software no longer works but puts up a message saying you must pay up to keep using the software; most shareware is going to this type of system because of abuse of the second event. The other event is that a “nag” screen comes up and “begs” the user to pay up, but the software keeps working after the nag screen is clicked off. A popular example of the second event is WinZip. While the program always works, after the initial trial period is up (21 days) you are asked to pay on a nag screen before the program actually launches. By the way, if you use WinZip an are getting the nag screen you are using the software illegally.

Careware is a form of shareware that is a lot easier on the pocket of the end user. Careware has pretty much been dumped by the majority of the software developers out there, but at one time it was popular with the small single-function utilities. Careware asks that you “email/send a postcard to/drop a note to” the author. The software is fully functional but the author gets an idea of just how many people are using the software. Again, it is illegal to use the software without following the author’s request of contact.

Freeware is software that is free to use. In most cases, the software works immediately after installation; in others you must register the software to get a code that will allow the software to work. The author has created a program and is willing to give it away. This is “free as in free beer”. You can’t modify the program because you don’t have the source code; if you do want any modifications you need to contact the author and hope that he hasn’t moved on to other things to get the changes you want/need. Also, there is no guarantee that a software package will remain freeware. A classic example of this is Power Archiver. I used it when it was Easy Zip and later Power Archiver; it was freeware for all versions 1.0 to 6.1. Then, at 7.0, it became shareware. I’m not blaming the authors, they can do what they want; I’m just using this package as and example. I still use version 6.1.

Open Source is similar to freeware in a lot of ways. You can obtain the package for free, or in some rare cases you must register and get a free activation code. Nearly all open source programs are protected with the GPL, or GNU Public License, a form of copyright. The biggest differences between open source and freeware are: 1) with open source you get not only the compiled program but the source code as well; 2) you can make any changes to that source code you wish; 3) any changes can be published as well but must also be published under the GPL. Open source is truly free (as in freedom) since you can start with a package and make it anything you want. I believe that open source is the future of software; that programmers will be hired to take an open source project and tailor it to a particular company’s needs. All one has to do is look at the quality of many of the open source packages to see this: Linux, OpenOffice, Mozilla and many others.

OK, now after that discussion make sure your notes are complete: quiz will be on Tuesday….

Just downloaded and installed the latest, greatest version of Mozilla — version 1.7. I have to say that while it looks pretty much the same to me (the end user) it seems to be faster. I also have read that it is more stable and has a smaller footprint. I have checked out the Browser, the Mail client and have installed the Calendar and the flash player (as well as the “Click to Play” flash blocker). I have also gone to Floppy Moose to get the ad-blocking CSS for Mozilla. Took about a half hour to do all of that, but I am quite pleased with the results.

For those of you who are looking for a great replacement for IE (Internet Exploder) go get the latest Mozilla and find out what browsing the internet is supposed to be.

I thought I’d get back into the TV Tuesday thing, even though it is a day late (and a dollar short?!)

“But wait, there’s more!”

2004 is the 20th anniversary for the infomercial. The first acknowledged informercial was for Herbalife, a weight loss supplement in the fall of 1984. From real estate investments to fitness equipment, and kitchen gadgets, infomercials played to the tune of $154 billion in sales last year.

But celebrities beware – Cher’s star status was chewed apart after appearing in an infomecial for hair care products, and Dionne Warwick’s Psychic Friends Network sent her image from classy to kooky. Who could forget Susan Powter: Stop the insanity!

1. Do you watch infomercials? Be honest now! LOL I used to watch some of them, but I don’t any more. They just got too goofy with their products.

2. What’s your favorite infomercial or infomercial product? I haven’t seen one in so long that I don’t even have a favorite; how about a “least hated”?

3. Have you ever bought anything from an infomercial? If so, what was it? NO WAY, JOSE!

~Bonus~ What’s the stupidest (most annoying, most worthless) infomercial you’ve ever seen? “And it really, really works!” Anything RonCo.

I thought the French are a little bit off center; we Americans have been bailing them out for years in exchange for them bailing us out of British rule. But really, a Black Panther? That’s just silly. Maybe the “eye-witnesses” need a pair of glasses?