Tag Archive for 'Grumpy'

In which they killed Netscape!

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It is a sad day for all of us, web surfers! AOL have decided to kill Netscape!Something than less that 10 years ago would have seem to be impossible , so strong the Netscape name was! But here came Internet Explorer, pre-installed on the desktop of every WinTel machine. And despite its poor results in terms of stability, HTML rendering, Javascript execution, IE killed Netscape! Netscape went the way of the Dodo birds, the same way it affected its predecessor, Mosaic

  • I remember the days when I was surfing the Interweb on Netscape1 at the Beaubourg Library
  • I remember the days (and the nights) when I had to code each and every web page for Netscape 3, Netscape 4 and IE 3, so different their HTML renditions were
  • I remember the days when Netscape was my Web browser and my Mail client
  • I remember the days when Netscape turned purple (Netscape 4) and then turned green (6?)
  • I remember the days Netscape as it was, was replaced by Firefox

Well, this is a sad day. Another leader in the online software world from the late 90’s is disappearing, following its acquisition by AOL, the same way WinAmp and ICQ went.Definitely  a sad day!

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RIP Netscape: Nov 14, 1994 - Feb 1, 2008

Apple the new Microsoft?

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Well, while I am trying to find some time to post some news about our move to Toluca Lake and some more pictures of the new house, I just wanted to share with you the “Apple moment of the day”.

Many of you must have heard of the $200 iPhone price cut as a result, the $100 voucher offered to any person who has bought theirs before the price cut.

I have hence been patiently waiting for the instructions on how to redeem these $100 since the announcement last week and they finally came today. I jumped on the Apple web site, filled the form and voila (see picture)!

“Sorry sir, you are part of a large corporation and as such, you are not eligible for the $100 voucher”…

I agree the company bought my iPhone (for test purposes) but, boy was I hoping to be able to trick Apple and cash in… Better luck next time!

We’re now part of statistics

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We are a full Mac house and I have personally been using the Apple brand for well over 10 years (on and off but full on for the last 5 years). So far, nothing to report except a slightly higher price and the fact that I have stopped changing video cards and tweaking drivers for years!

But recently Sarah complained about the fact that our MacBook Pro laptop had an issue with its mousepad. Clicking was dead… I first thought that my little angel had managed to change some of the settings, the same way she manages to change settings on my Blackberry or more recently iPhone… So we checked the system… Nothing to report there. I then thought the same little angel had managed to put some thin object under the trackpad’s button and looked into it… Nothing there to report either… 

And then, after a couple of weeks of not using the laptop, the click was back! We could select, point and click again! But the machine felt weird, unbalanced, wobbling every-time I typed on the keyboard…

And then, I checked the bottom of the Mac, and “Voila!”… The battery is totally deformed, half burst, half blocked in the chassis… 

So after all these months reading about these battery recalls, well, it seems that my next trip to an Apple store will be to get a battery replacement!! 

I am not sure cars are my best friends yet!

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Well, for those who have followed the scratched car story (and the first instance of my trouble with the driving side of the southern Californian lifestyle), here is the latest development of Tryphoon meets motor vehicles…

So, after I scratched the Flintmobile (nickname given by Sarah as it seems that driving in my car feels like being the car from the Flintstones), my love story with my little rocket went down by a notch… Nothing dramatic but enough to neglect it for a couple of months. The scratch hasn’t been fixed yet and cleaning her seems to have been an option…

The next step happened last week when my sun roof stop functioning, blocked in a semi open position, refusing to move in any direction… Less attention given to the car…

Then some warning light keep coming up on my dashboard, but not having the instruction manual for Flitnmobile, I had to finally ask around what this weird red logo meant. It appeared to be a minor issue… Total lack of coolant in the engine. With the help of Perigil (colleague at the Mouse), I bought new coolant, fed the monster and the light disappeared… This apeared to be a turning point where I decided it was time to give the love back to my car and decided I would book several appointments to get it fixed and I would find some time to wash it.

So I did… Last night… And I washed her with energy, all the energy required by a couple of months of dust and insects scattered around her body. This is when things went wrong again. Using a normal kitchen sponge, I thought it might help if I used the scratching side of it, not thinking about the paint or what could happen to it. She was dirty, I had to get rid of the dirt. And I scratch, and scratch, and rince, and scratch until she looks fine. This is only at that point that I realised that some of the zones I insisted so much seemed to look different… lighter in color… well, simply SCRATCHED!!!!

Stupid me!!! So, now the Flintmobile not only has a right wing totally scratched, but several balled patches on its front, top and left wing…

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And as if this wouldn’t be enough already, today, after having had lunch with Cedric (one of Jean and Audrey’s friend who recently moved to LA with wife and baby as well), I had the joy of finding a sweet love letter attached to my windshield, signed from the Burbank Parking Enforcement Center… MY FIRST TICKET! BAST***S! I can’t remember seeing any sign, the curb wasn’t red, nothing! I AM INNOCENT (and pi***d off)

So there you go, here is the story of Tryphoon and his little car and the ton of problems around her!

The most irritating screen on earth!

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Here I am… Finally having put my greedy hands on the most desirable gadget of the last 10 years, it seems that my lack of credit history in the US might prevent me to enjoy my brand new iPhone! I now have to wait for some email from AT&T, letting me know if I am allowed or not to open an account and get a new mobile (cell) number!

Uber-Grump!