Odd Lots
- Watch out when upgrading to Skype 4: The upgrade installs a Firefox/IE extension called Browser Highlighter that slows the browser down significantly, and I sure don’t remember it showing me a checkbox to uncheck or in any other way refuse the install. This install-without-warning has gotten people more than a little het up. Like Skype, Browser Highlighter is owned by eBay and appears to facilitate online price comparisons. To get rid of it, execute the uninstaller via Start | Programs | Browser Highlighter. Don’t just disable it in the browser; it must be uninstalled from Windows like any app or it’ll just show up in your taskbar tray again when you reboot.
- From the Words-I-Didn’t-Know-Until-Yesterday Department: An acnestis is an itchy place that you can’t reach to scratch. (Thanks to Larry Nelson for the suggestion.) I use a 24″ slide rule to scratch my acnestes. Very accurate; gets to precisely the right spot!
- The Arrington Crunchpad may be in trouble. Dayum. I had high hopes for this one, not so much for Web or cloud work as for an ebook reader.
- Here is a fantastic archive of scanned Radio Shack catalogs, browsable page-by-page. I had a lot of these from the midlate 60s to 1980 or so, and intermittently since. (Thanks to Bernie Sidor for the link.)
- From Bill Cherepy comes word of a managed PC built into a network jack. It’s unclear how well this would run desktop software, but for cloud computing it could be useful, and in a cube farm setting would not be easily picked up and walked away with.
- In addition to Green River and Diet Green River, there was at one time Green River Orange Soda, and Pete Albrecht reminds me that there was yet another (unrelated) Green River: The Whiskey Without a Headache. I’ll believe that when I feel it. (But I can’t stand whiskey, so don’t wait up for me to do the experiment.)
- And if “whiskey without a headache” sounds a little unlikely, then say hello to the robotic cow rectum.
Posted in: Odd Lots.
Tagged: electronics · hardware · humor · software
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Like the commenter said about the highlighter thing–even the most beloved software eventually becomes bloatware. I’m no fan of Firefox because of the plugins. (And the arrogance of the people who tend to use it. And promote it. And promote it. And promote it.)
I use Chrome. It doesn’t get in my way, it’s fast, and it’s not Firefox.