The $200 Christmas and "whats a stocking stuffer?"

Can it be done? Having had a challenging year (several, actually) monetarily, I've embarked on The $200 Christmas...meaning I'm attempting to get everyone who absolutely needs to get a gift covered with $200.....and that includes $50 in gas to get to my sister place in Wisconsin...So far, I don't think we're too far off.....basically we're doing very little gifting this year....which is not how I'd prefer things to be, but that is our current reality, and so we'll make the best of it. Just a few close family, the kids, and something for the babysitter.....that's it! I'll see how it all actually pans out.....200 bones doesn't go very far anymore....either way, it's more of a gimick to keep the cost of things in mind as we go through the holiday season....more of a control measure than an actual goal....

On a seperate, but related note...I've had it up to here with the inscecent holiday advertising suggesting that a fancy new MP3 player or cell phone or other similar $150 techno-gadget is actually a "stocking stuffer"....it's not....it's the freaking gift!!!! Hell, where I come from, even a CD or DVD isn't a stocking stuffer....it's "the gift". Chapstick, assorted citris fruits, fresh unsharpened pencils, and chewing gum....now those are good stocking stuffers!!!!! (I hope you guys are laughing a bit here....)

Anyway, keep smilin' and Happy Holidays!!!!!

Interesting Gecko based Avant-like browser

Orca it's called...based on Gecko engine, rather full featured interface modeled after Avant Browser (which uses IE engine...yuck!). Seems to be pretty quick and well put together...Currently in version 1.0RC 3. Definitely worth checking out. Firefox still wins for me (extensibility/customizable) for the moment, but some heathy competition is always good for the end user.

Check it out...fairly light install, and won't mess with anything else (or other browser settings, etc.) and has been fun to play with so far...also seems stable.

Full link (goes to Avant forum where you'll find a dl link):
http://forum.avantbrowser.com/viewtopic.php?t=12072&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Firefox F'd Up? and Alternative Browsers...

Not sure what others experiences are, but I've had LOTS o' issues with the recent release of FF 1.5....Not that I'm bailing...it's still the best option for a decent browser in a Windows environment, but the new release is BUGGY!!! (at least on my machine).... the thing CONSTANTLY crashes....almost everytime I use it, depending on what I am doing and/or where I visit. It has also, several time now, locked up internet from my nachine....as in screwed up LSP settings, requiring me to reset those with a Winsock and/or LSP fix utility......Overall, I tend to be rather forgiving of the mozilla team....they are under alot of pressure to perform...more now than ever before with the growing popularity of FF....much more than the "good ol' days" of pre 1.0. I got in when they were still at 0.3 I think....and the whole project had a different sense of community and excitment back then...I'm not judging that aspect of it though....they've made fantastic improvements since then. Just complaining a bit that the 1.5 release is more buggy than I'm used to. I should also put out there that I'm something of an extention freak and that I may have one or more extentions that may conflict with one another, so again, I'm not solely dumping on Mozilla here....i.e it's more likely a conflict in my local installation than a real serious issue with the base code or performance of 1.5. Still wish it worked better though....

Anyway, I'm writing this blog entry using Flock, which is actually a very nice tool (integrated features) for a "blogging browser". Based on the mozilla/gecko engine, super clean interface, integrated blogging and flickr and del.icio.us integration, make it a pleasure to use. And it's still extenable using most of the Mozilla extentions and Themes.....

Also, I've been using a stripped down version of the Gecko (mozilla/netscape) browser called K-Meleon. Super fast, basic interface, lean and mean browsing. And fun to customize via the config file editing....not for the shy, when it comes to messing with code, but a solid browser even if your not interested in tweeking it.

And as a final option, I still use the old standby IE alternative the "Mozilla Suite" browser....still a nice, extendable browser with familiar navigation and standard features built in.....and a lot less buggy and/or "experimental". The upcoming replacement for the MozSuite is the SeaMonkey Suite, currently in beta testing.

For more (alot more) info and exuastive discussion forums on FireFox 1.5 and any other Moz project, check out mozillazine.org.

technorati tags: browsers Firefox MozillaComputer related