Kevin Smith

Shouts & Hollers is an online "ezine" of sorts that is published by Charleston, WV, area bloggers.  Bill Gardner got in contact with me to answer a few questions regarding a recent sideproject of mine.  Read it here.

Thanks Bill!

My roommate lives off Chinese takeout and McDonalds.  Here's a menu with an amusing typo.

Going home for the first time in a while this weekend.  Happy Birthday, Dad!

I recently downloaded Firefox 3 Beta 5 (the supposed last stage of beta for the new browser) and, after a few hours of usage, decided to note a few things about it.  I'm no professional developer or anything; I'm just sharing my opinion on things.

What I'm Sure I Like:
GMail is much faster.

The Applications tab in Options.  Makes me happy.

The new Page Info options.
The new Malware Protection.  ThumbsUp!

Multiple text selects via the control key.

The new download manager.  It's clean and you can pause/resume downloads efficiently...awesome.

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What I'm Sure I Don't Like:
Folder menus seem to lag quite heavily sometimes.  This might have been my computer having a blonde moment, though.
Only one of my extensions for FF2 had an upgrade...but this has nothing to do with Firefox..I just don't like it lol.

The default theme's back-forward navigation buttons -- They're soooo close together I found myself repeatedly hitting back instead of forward (and forward instead of back).  Eventually, I went to Backspace and Shift+Backspace.

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What I'm Unsure About:
Smart Bookmarks -- While it's a nice idea, put most used bookmarks and recently visited sites in a folder on the quick links bar totally eliminates the usefullness for me.  I have most most visited sites on my quicklinks bar already.  And if they would have left the recently visited/address bar alone, there wouldn't be a problem in the first place.  Which leads me to my next point:

The new recently visited dropdown address bar

Tabscrolling forward and reverse.  It just doesn't seem efficient to me.

Bookmark tagging (just like del.icio.us and other services) -- Good idea for webservices but I'd rather stick to the basics with my applications.

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What I'm Indifferent About:

The hyped "One-Click Site Info!" -- this was available before (with two clicks) and really doesn't have that much of an impact on me.

I'm upgrading wordpress so things might be hairy for a few hours..

Just upgraded from wordpress 2.3 to 2.5 -- the admin area has a few changes.  The biggest change is the style and placement of everything.  I like it and will adjust quickly but I really wish I could move my category selection box to the side nav again...I hate having it at the bottom.  Other than that, I'm pleased...I really like the new autoupdate feature for plugins (is this new or have I overlooked it for this long?)...

FaxZero.com - If you're making a casual fax, this is the way to go. It's free, it's online, and it's private. The only downside is the ad that is displayed on the coversheet. Other than that, the fax is 100% normal. Another great thing is it makes multiple delivery attempts so if the fax fails on the first attempt, a second try will come in about five minutes (tested this myself and love it).

The Ultimate Steal - If you're a college student, you can receive a discount on the Microsoft Office Bundle. I haven't tried this yet but I'm definitely going to in the near future. It's Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for $60.

JumpCut.com - For those fond of the "For Dummies" series, this is for you. JumpCut is a service from Yahoo! that provides online video editing with some really cool features and it's 100% free (even the storage space). I use it for all my small projects and just general playing.

IBuyJunkMail.com - From Steve Rhode. I used to talk to this guy every morning at Concord University before I went to class. He's a pretty nice fellow and this experiment of his might be worth your time if you're in need of cash quick.

Skip Forced Faceboook Invites When Adding New Apps (add this link to your quick links bar!)

Someone on Twitter mentioned that they'd like to be notified via Twitter when they received an email. Considering GMail offers an Atom feed for your inbox, I figure that GMail is the best place to start.

So here's my problem: the Atom feed, obviously, requires authentication and SSL (correct me if I'm wrong). No matter how I go about parsing the RSS feed, I can't seem to even read the Atom feed (using my own code -- a FEW other online readers work).

Any suggestions appreciated...

For the first time today, I was ashamed to be an American.  This really hurts me to say.  I was reading Montainge’s Of Canibals when I realized that modern day America is spoiled and is actually contributing to the worsening world situation.
“So we may call these people barbarians, in respect to the rules of reason, but not in respect to ourselves, who surpass them in every kind of barbarity.”

I’ve never really supported the war in Iraq (but I do support the war in Afghanistan and would support war, if for the right reasons, in Iran).  I do, however, support my country in any endeavor it may pursue simply because, when it all boils down, my country is all I have.  What we have done/are doing to certain peoples in Iraq, what some would call “spoils of war,” is simply horrible.  Do we really have the right to say their way of life is completely wrong?  We’ve destroyed their country, destroyed their hope, and shammed their religion.

“All our efforts cannot even succeed in reproducing the net of the tiniest little bird, its contexture, its beauty and convenience; or even the web of the puny spider.”

“…there is nothing barbarous and savage in that nation, from what I have been told, except that each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice; for indeed it seems we have no other test of truth and reason than the example and pattern of the opinions and customs of the country we live in.  There is always the perfect religion, the perfect government, the perfect and accomplished manners in all tings.  Those people are wild, just as we call wild the fruits that Nature has produced by herself and in her normal course; whereas really it is those that we have changed artificially and led astray from the common order, that we should rather call wild.  The former retain alive and vigorous their genuine, their most useful and natural, virtues and properties, which we have debased in the latter in adapting them to gratify our corrupted taste.”

After I thought on this, I realized that this doesn’t make me less patriotic, but completely the opposite.

Machiavelli said in The Prince, “…there are two ways of contending, one in accordance with the laws, the other by force; the first of which is proper to men, the second to beasts.  But since the first method is often ineffectual, it becomes necessary to resort to the second…for everyone can see but few can touch.  Every one sees what you seem, but few know what you are, and these few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many who have the majesty of the State to back them up.”

So: where exactly does that leave America?  Man/beast/barbarian?  Who is to judge, and which judgment is the right judgments?