Most because of issues with tow of the more popular Web browsers for PC, I found it difficult to embrace the web based applications concept. Google’s new browser, Chrome has started to change my mind.

Chrome, which is still in Beta, is trim and robust. It’s easy to adjust to if you’ve been using Firefox or Internet Explorer (IE). It’s nothing like either one, but it does pretty much use the same keyboard shortcuts, and since I’m a huge fan of keyboard shortcuts, this is very nice.

As you would expect, Chrome is tab based like the other two, but has no menu bar and only one line for the tool bar. Most of which contains the address window.

When you enter something into the browser’s address bar, you have the option of going to the address you type, or you can use the same window to enter search criteria. Slick, and I guess once you get used to it being that flexible, pretty handy.

What I like most is it’s quick. It loads pages quicker and performs searches quicker than “the other two”.

Also, it works well with Google Docs. Not much of a surprise, but you never know until you know. All of Google’s keyboard shortcuts work perfectly with Chrome. That was not always the case. Especially Firefox.

At this point, Chrome isn’t recognizing the scroll area on the touchpad of my laptop, but I’m guessing that will be corrected by the time V. 1 is released. Also, Chrome has a similar spell check while you type feature that Firefox has. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work in Google Docs at the moment. Something else I would expect to be remedied.

I have made the folks working on Chrome aware of these two oddities. They make it very easy to report bugs, or submit wish list ideas. You don’t have to provide any personal information. You just fill in the subject and text of your bug report or wish list request. This is very quick and painless.

The other night I wanted to check the prices at my local Papa John’s pizza joint and they required that I give them my first and last name, complete street address, phone number and e-mail address. Just to check the menu.

I wrote them a very harsh message asking why I had to give such extensive personal information just to see how much a pizza might cost. They replied this is necessary to assure I get prices from the correct store. Like I don’t know where the hell I live. And do the Jones get different menus from the Smiths??? Why is my last name necessary to check prices on a menu.

Their reply was so ridiculous, I didn’t reply. Plus, I grilled myself a boneless, skinless chicken breast instead of ordering pizza.

Anyway, back to Chrome. Both the Mac and Linux versions are reported to be “coming soon”. After using it for the better part of a week, I’m happy with it, and I’m much happier using Google’s web based applications now that there’s an adequate browser to use them with.

I do like Chrome for general surfing, as well as just with Google Apps. I have a good feeling about Chrome so far. I have a knack for finding “oddities” in programs rather quickly and easily and except for the two I mentioned above, I haven’t found anything else.

More later.

2008-8-18  Checking Out iNetWord

Looks pretty good. The editing screen is nice and clean. The control buttons are a bit small, but that's okay, I guess. It works really well with the browser's zoom feature. It also works with Firefox's right click spell check suggestions and other options.

Unlike Google Docs, which saves everything to a folder where things go that haven't been asigned to a folder yet, iNetWord lets you choose the folder and file format when you save your document. Very nice. It's a bit annoying to have to move every single document in Google Docs to get it where you want it.

Also unlike Google Docs, you can create and modify styles in iNetWord. Very handy.

It allows you to publish your documents to your blog site. I'm gonna try that with this document and see how that works. Google allows this, but I'm not sure to what degree. I couldn't get it to work with my blog site. It may be possible, but I didn't know enough technical stuff about my blog site to completely fill in the dialog box. Hopefully, I'll have better luck here.

I haven't been able to make this work. It very well could be my fault. I'm still kinda ignorant about such things.

It'd be really hand to be able to publish directly from a web based word processor to my blog site. Right now, I compose in Word and then copy and paste to my blog. Not so much fun.

iNetWord seems to do all the normal formatting things everything else does. It appears to have a pretty robust tables feature. I rarely use table, so I haven't tried it out.

It has its own spell check, but I tend to rely on Firefox's spell check on th go feature.

You can add backgrounds to your documents similar to how you can in Word. Cute, but hardly necessary. I do it to make the all white screen a little easier to see.

All in all, I'd have to say I like it. Maybe better than Google docs. Since Google Docs is tied in with my e-mail, it is kinda convenient, but again not something that's necessary.

2008-08-04 Getting Off The Teat

As I discussed earlier, I'm trying to get off the Microsoft teat. Let me start by saying I'm pretty much stuck with the two PC based machines I own. Unfortunately, for me, Macs are prohibitively expensive. This means I'll still be somewhat Microsoft dependent for a while...maybe always.

I'm glad I don't drive anymore. There's no way I'd want that Microsoft based voice recognition system in my car that'll play your favorite song for you if you ask. I get nightmarish visions of asking my music player to play D.OA. by Bloodrock and all of a sudden the car lurches to the left and runs headlong into an oncoming tractor-trailer.

At the bottom of the story in the local paper, it states, "an unidentified Microsoft source says, Microsoft will issue a patch next month on patch Tuesday".

With more pleasant thoughts in mind, I've been test driving web-based applications lately. I've been a Gmail user for several years. It works. That's really all I ask of any piece of computer hardware, or software.

Over these past several years, I've been using Outlook to send and receive my Gmail. I have two Gmail accounts and Outlook happily checks both of them every time it checks mail. Handy, and in all fairness, works well. Outside factors notwithstanding.

Outlook has decided to be "funky" on me over other things, but it's been a good e-mail client over the years.

My version of Microsoft Office is getting a little long in the tooth these days, and upgrading is not an option for me. Plus, web-based applications are the way of the future and have reached a point where a lot of them are good enough to actually use.

I grew up on WordPerfect for DOS. Like lots of first loves, I'll always love it. I still fire it up from time to time and if it weren't for my low vision, I might would still be using it for the bulk of my word processing needs.

Being a Gmail user, and wanting to switch to web based applications, it was logical and easy for me to check out Google Docs and Google Calendar.

The calendar is okay. Google Docs took some getting used to, but after a short breaking in period, I'm pretty okay with it. I serves most of my needs.

Most of my word processing needs revolve around diary entries, blog entries and writing stories, so basically I just need a good electronic typewriter. I used to do typesetting and page layout for a living, but I don't play with that anymore, and I don't do web page design. There's already way too many people doing that. Besides, I have a very good friend who is a web page guru, so I'd just get her to do it for me. (:

One of the big reasons I've stayed with Outlook for so long is I have a Palm OS PDA. I totally love it and it's very handy when I need to visit doctors, or be away from home. I keep lots of vital information in there.

Over the last couple of days I've been looking into how, or if I can synchronize my handheld to web based stuff.

Doing it with Google is doable, but the best way seems to be a $30 program. I'm loathe to spend $30 to get better use from something that's free to begin with.

While finding out about this product, I noticed someone had posted a suggestion to just use Yahoo's calendar and address book. I've had a Yahoo account for a very long time, but I never use it because the username has the name of my former employer in it, and there's no way I want to be associated with them any longer.

Never mind they're a Fortune 500 company and probably don't want me associated with them anymore either.

I don't really need a third e-mail address, but I decided to get a new Yahoo address so I could test out this synchronization thing.

Yahoo's mail client is as good as anyone else's. The calendar is a little more robust than Google's, plus Yahoo offers a Task list and a Note pad applet. No word processor.

For the cost of the time to download and install a free program, one can synchronize one's Yahoo stuff with Outlook, Outlook Express, or the Palm Desktop software. I downloaded and installed said program and grabbed my calendar, address book and notes from Outlook. It worked flawlessly.

Everything from my Outlook Contacts folder is now in my Yahoo address book. All of the names display in the correct order. Correct order meaning it didn't assume which name should be first or last, it just brought everything in from Outlook just the way I have it in Outlook.

I like Yahoo's address book a bit better than Google's, although Google's is adequate.

While this sounds like a simple feat, it is fairly impossible for some import/export utilities, including Palm Desktop.

Now comes the inevitable problems. I added a name to my address book in Yahoo, then attempted to sync again with Outlook.

When Yahoo imported everything, it even imported all my Outlook categories. Pretty cool...except...any Outlook category of more than one word, (personal bills) became one word with an underscore between the words (personal_bills). Okay, whatever.

The rub lies in the subsequent sync-ing. When I tried to sync after adding a contact to Yahoo, the sync-ing program sees all of these "converted" category names as conflicts between Yahoo and Outlook and want to change my Outlook category names. I ain't having none of this. I was able to cancel the sync-ing without screwing up my Outlook contacts folder. Yes, I had definitely backed up my outlook.pst file before attempting this...just in case.

I was expecting the sync-ing program to add the new contact to my Outlook Contacts folder and let the rest of the world keep turning. Silly me.

A cursory look at the setup options for the sync-ing software didn't offer an immediate fix for this. I may dig deeper into the mapping and filtering options later. I may not.

The easiest thing to do would be to retire my PDA, but I really don't want to do that. I also don't want to manually update my PDA after I put stuff into Yahoo, or anything else I might choose to use.

I could get a smart phone that would possible work better with both Google and/or Yahoo, but a smart phone is way overkill for my pitiful excuse for a life.

I could just keep using Microsoft stuff and shut the f#$k up about it all.

Maybe a s#!t, shower and shave and a couple of beers will clear my head and let me think about this some more...and some more...and some more.

The root of the problem here is I absolutely love to mess around with this kind of stuff. PIM stuff, database stuff, conversion stuff. I can sit and self entertain for days on end with this stuff, so I may never really find a solution. If I did, then what would I for fun???

And yes, I'm the poster child for the Styx song, "Too Much Time On My Hands".

Now accepting applications for reasonable girlfriend candidates.

I'm a pretty good lap dog as long as you scratch me behind the ear every now and then.

(: