Who would have imagined that after the great Netscape Navigator versus Internet Explorer war of the late 90s, there would be more browsers around now than just IE?

I know that many of you just use Internet Explorer because that’s what comes up when you click on the “Internet” icon on your Windows PC.

Shame on you.

Yes, I know that the new version of IE has more features than IE 6. And, yes, the security on it is a million times better. But, the user interface that Microsoft came up with is, well, total ass.

IE now hides many of the important menus, not to mention where some of the buttons are seems asinine. (I know, I know; again with the anal fixation.)

I could go on and on, but I won’t.

Instead I want to mention the newest kid on the block, Google’s Chrome. (I’m linking to a news story about it because Google hasn’t even turned their site for it yet.)

What’s cool about this web browser is that it will be totally open source. That means the code is available for everyone to look at and even to improve. Firefox is an open source browser while Internet Explorer and Apple’s Safari are closed source, meaning only the developers see the code.

Now Google is big enough to develop a browser on their own, but to make it in a way that anyone can take the code and make it their own is cool.

Something interesting though lies in the fact that Google decided to use Apple’s WebKit engine instead of the Firefox Foundation’s Gecko engine. The engine in this case is the code that renders the web page. Apple’s WebKit is actually an open source product. One of the reasons for this choice could be that with the iPhone, more and more users now see what WebKit can do with the mobile version of Safari.

If you are interested in more, check out this 38 page comic book from Google on their new web browser. We’ll have to see how it works.

Seven Days to go.

Seven days until I get a key.

A key that will turn the lock.

The lock that has held me in place for three years.

Three years that ends in seven days.

Know hope.

Oh, crap.

Hillary has won in Pennsylvania.

Do the people of the Keystone State have a sick sense of humor?

Honestly, why must you keep this going? Why?

Let’s just hope that Indiana and North Carolina see the pain this causes and finally do the right thing.

Yes. I haven’t typed much on here in a while.

I know, but honestly, I wasn’t ignoring you.

Oh, you don’t need to tear up like that. I still appreciate you.

Did I say appreciate, I mean feel for you.

Hmm, I see this is one of those times that no matter what I type, you’re gonna cry.

I promise, I’ll do better.

Well of course I’ve been looking at other websites.

It’s not like that, totally.

I’m looking at them so I can fully understand just how beautiful you are.

Uh, you aren’t buying that are you.

Okay, I’ll grab the pillows and sleep on the couch tonight. I just hope you’ll see things my way in the morning.

Now it’s time for Kansas to put forth their say in who should be the Democratic Party’s Nominee for President.

This year I am in a position I haven’t been for a while.  I am a civilian essentially in the process.  I don’t work for the Party or an elected official.  I am capable of unleashing my talents for one of the candidates.

As you can tell from the title, I am choosing to support Barak Obama.  Two reasons why.

First, he is someone who truly can change not just the party in the White House but the nation.  We sorely need this.  America is reeling from 8 years of the Bush Administration.  The nation is fractured and standing on the edge of serious economic problems.  Add that to the existing problems with the military and our standing in the world and something needs to be done.

Obama is the person who can bring people together to get things done, not score political points.

The second reason rests with the fact that he was born in El Dorado, Kansas.  And the old partisan in me would love to stick it to the Republicans in this state by having a Democrat born in Kansas elected President.

Now it’s time for you to go and caucus for him on February 5th.

Well the Blog Spammers are at it again.

Today alone I have received about 10 e-mails telling me that I have comments to moderate.  All of those comments are not about the items I posted to the web-site.  No, those comments are spam messages from someone trying to sell drugs of some sort.

It is because of these spammers that I turned on the comment moderation.  What that means is that when you type a comment for a post, I must first approve it to be displayed.

Rest assured, I will allow valid comments, even if I don’t agree with them.

The ones I won’t are the spam comments.  These are not typed by a person, but instead inserted by a bot that is hoping to find some sucker out there to purchase the wares of the person who has enlisted them.

I have no problem with advertising.  In fact at some point, I will probably put up a Google AdWords banner on this site.  But I draw the line at spam.

So do not fear, I will do my best to defeat the spammers…I hope.

Just got back from seeing The Simpsons Movie. How is it? Well, my cheeks still hurt from laughing.

Hey, the cheeks of my face not my…you so need to get your mind out of the gutter there.

Yes, the movie was very much an over sized episode. No, not an episode from the good years of the series. It’s more on the level of the recent good episodes from a couple of seasons ago.

The big difference with the movie comes from the freedom of the film screen versus the TV screen. The writers, all fourteen credited writers, took the freedom to insert a few more craps and goddamns than normal. Not to mention one unmentionable body part.

The first half of the movie you will be laughing a lot. The jokes are coming at you almost every other moment. As the movie drives towards the climax, the jokes slow down, but some of the best of the film await you then.

I would give you some of the plot, but I won’t. You must see this for yourself. Yes, I know some of the storylines are re-purposed from TV episodes. Plus the shear size of the cast of characters of the show seems to weigh down the movie with trying to fit many of them into it.

Despite that, I would have to say it is one of the best comedy’s out this summer.

Sure it can’t compete in the unintentional comedy of the new Lindsay Lohan movie, but hey someone sold that flaming pile of crap as a drama/thriller/horror movie not what it really is…an excuse to get the young starlet to dance around scantily clad.

Sorry about that, tangent over. Like I said, The Simpsons Movie is the best intentional comedy of this summer.*

(* That I have seen so far. Which given the limited amount of movies in Great Bend, isn’t saying much.)

On behalf of all the loyal Royals fans, we would like to welcome you to the land of baseball mediocrity.

For all those years you have rode rough shot over the American League. You thought you were invincible. The small market teams were your farm system, not the minor league single A, AA, and AAA baseball teams. If you didn’t win the World Series, then it was a bad, bad year and Joe Torre should be fired. (Hell, if Torre had been fired as many times as you guys have called for his scalp, Billy Martin would look like a saint.)

But now, now you are six games under 500. The AL Wild Card seems out of reach. Let’s not even think about the AL East right now.

Sure the team could find itself and mount a major turnaround in July or August. Problem is, that is the mantra of long losing teams.

How many times have fans for teams like the Royals, Cubs, and Yokohama Dragons said, “Just wait until after the All-Star Break, man, we’re gonna go on a tear.” I will proudly admit I’m still waiting on that tear I promised in 1999. I know it will just start after this 12 game loosing streak.

So, what should a Yankee’s fan do? Well nothing drastic is needed. Honestly, placing a severed horses head in the bed of George Steinbrenner won’t get you any where, except maybe dead or permanently banned from Yankee Stadium, which is harsher than death for a Yankee’s fan.

What is needed now is patience. For the Yankees to get better they need to redevelop youth. For far too long they have gotten by through purchasing players from other teams while letting their cupboards get bare. Now that is starting to bite back.

Steinbrenner is no idiot. He will start playing where he needs to in the draft and trading deadline to get some new pieces for his team. The Yankees will be back, damnit.

In the meantime, Yankee fans, just sit back and worry and remember, George has a plan and he’s sticking to it. (Just like the Royals, Brewers, Orioles, Phillies, Pirates, and … have stuck to that successful winning plan.)

As some of you might know, I have a new job as an office supply salesman.  (Please spare the rest of us from your paperclip jokes.  Trust me, they aren’t funny…at all.)

With my job, I end up spending time in my car driving to call on my customers.  This windshield time has allowed me to notice something; on most Top 40/Hot Adult Contemp. stations, you are almost guaranteed to hear one of a few songs when you switch over.

Given this insight, I present you with the current list of songs you are bound to hear:

1. Avril Lavinge’s latest, ummm, I don’t even know the title of it, all I know is it is an annoying song.
2. Gwen Stefani’s latest, The Sweetest Escape.  Not a bad song, but it definitely has some strong annoying potential when over played, which it will reach that critical mass in about 1 week.

So their you have the first list of songs you are bound to hear.  I will try and keep it updated.

Only in the Great State of Kansas can the people worry about dodging a tornado one moment then hunker down for a blizzard in the next moment.

Proof in point is this Tornado Watch currently in effect until 6:00 AM February 24th. Followed later in the day by this Blizzard Warning. Both of these watches/warnings are for Barton County, Kansas.

Now you know why us Kansans will say if you don’t like the weather now, just wait five minutes, it will change.