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Just thought I would pass on info about a free anti-virus offering. Gladiator Anti-Virus was noted in Lockergnome today. I haven't tried it but it sounds like it is worth investigating. It's still in Alpha phase but it looks very close to Beta, and it's free.
Bye till Feb.
Skip at 6:16 AM
I've been trying to track down a storage violation in our mainframe CICS region. Some programmer has created a problem and trying to find it is like the old 'needle in a haystack'. Just as I'm about to be away for 10 days and everyone is getting antsy. Oh well! Guess I've got to get back to work.
Skip at 8:37 AM
I'm off to England on Thursday. I'll try to post daily till then and probably not be back again until February 3rd. I was intrigued by the Slashdot.org article about the Europeans finding evidence of UFO's. The article "UFO Evidence from SOHO satellite" states that UFOs are present within our solar system. I kind of wish it was true.
Skip at 6:10 AM
It's the coldest day, so far, of the winter here in Toronto. Forecasts call for a cold weekend. Sounds like I should start the weekend early and go hibernate. I think I will!
Skip at 6:49 AM
For anyone who likes fonts, they should swing over to Chris Pirillo and see his blog with the Chris Pirillo Font.
It's really neat and he has embedded it within the blog so users don't have to have it installed on their system.
Microsoft has WEFT3, which Chris used to set his font. He said it's not easy but the results look like it is worth the effort.
Also, if you swing over to gnome-girl and take a look, you will find another font called Cheyenne! in her post of January 11th. The two fonts are quite similar but depending on your tastes you may favor one over the other.
Skip at 5:50 AM
I have had some fun at work by putting up a 1986 calendar at my desk. It gives some people a double take. 2003 is the same as 1986 and 1992, as far as calendars go. I have kept my calendars for many years now and I have an old calendar for just about any year that will arrive. If you have a 1986 or 1992 calendar, put it up and see how many people notice. Just be prepared for some "behind the times" comments. I usually just say it was a very good year.
Skip at 5:54 AM
I tried EBay for the first time yesterday. I had signed up a long time ago but after looking around for a while I never found any reason to bid. My mother wanted a special item and couldn't find it anywhere. I decided to look on EBay and there is was. Several people had it for sale there. The first one bid on, I was outbid. I tried a second one later and this morning I found out I had the top bid. How exciting! It does have the casino flavor. I can see how people get hooked on this type of bidding. It's hard not to watch and see how you are doing. It's tempting to bid again when outbid.
I just went over to PayPal and made the deal complete. Now I can just hope that this seller is as good as the EBay stats show and that the item arrives as expected.
Skip at 6:49 AM
The Washington Post today leads with Steve Case's announcement that he's quitting as chairman of AOL Time Warner, effective as of May. Case founded AOL and built it into a behemoth, but AOL has been sucking wind since its much-hyped merger with Time Warner and a number of board members had been trying to push Case out. Case, who the WP interviewed, said that he decided to resign rather than get involved a boardroom brawl.
Guess that ends an era. Wonder what will happen to stock price? Of course a lot can happen between now and May.
Skip at 5:28 AM
If anyone is thinking of buying blank CD's, Staples has an in-store deal on Verbatim until January 25th. There is a $13.50 mail-in rebate so you can get 20 blank 32X or 48X for $4.96 plus GST on the $13.50 and a postage stamp. I reckon it will work out to about $8.00 for 20 good quality blank CD's with cases. Unfortunately, it is one rebate per family. Assuming the rebate arrives this is a great deal for Canada.
Skip at 5:54 AM
Just a small note today. If anyone is interested in a Java Application development tool, Borland has a "Personal Edition" of JBuilder available for download. there are versions available for Windows and Linux. It's a big download, whichever one you choose, but it looks like it is worth a try. You can follow links on this page to get documentation in PDF or HTML form and also links to the Borland NewsGroups where you can get help and info for the free personal edition.
Skip at 6:03 AM
Just to be fair, I have to note that yesterdays post about CIBC's promise to make sure the improper charge was reversed was kept. When I logged on today the reversal was there. I am very disappointed that I had to complain to so many people, and be so persistent to get this done. Once I had a name and number of one the managers everything started to gel. I made sure he knew I would be such a pest that he might as well give in. I hate to be like that but I felt it was the only way.
Skip at 5:20 AM
It's seven weeks now and after many phone calls and two faxes to CIBC VISA, I'm promised that by tonight I will have the $48.00 charge reversed. This was the double posting of a valid charge. I took a taxi ride in April and the charge appeared on my April bill. Then in November the taxi company decided to re-submit the SAME charge again. I couldn't believe the hassle I have had in getting CIBC to reverse this erroneous charge! They initially said they would investigate. Then they sent me a copy of the charge, saying it was valid. I hit the roof as I had explained the whole situation on the first call. No one took the time to check that what I said was valid and the the charge had already been on a prior bill. Just looking at the date of the supplied receipt should have caused anyone with a brain engaged to see that what I said was true. I wonder how many others have had such bad treatment?
Skip at 6:57 AM
I never kept a diary as a kid. Today, after trying this blogging for a while I can see why. Some people are so good at it. I spent some time looking at the BlogStreet Top 100. It was interesting just paging randomly through some of the posts from the various sites listed in the top 100. I enjoyed the journey but my mind kept saying that a diary should be kept locked and private!
That's how I see blogging. It seems to me that it is just the modern day form of keeping a diary. Something your sister would do. Something you would try regularly to break into so you could blackmail her. Today, it seems to me, that there is nothing that can't be written or said. Nothing that has to be hidden. Everything is in plain sight for all the world to see.
I still have grave misgivings about putting anything into the public domain. I like my privacy and I find this journal to be very daunting. I have the desire to keep a journal but I have a grater desire for not allowing any personal data into it. After reading many blogs over the last little while, it is obvious that the popular ones are from people who open up to the world. Shout, scream, expose, rant, to the world with no holds barred. That won't happen here, at least not until I've had some therapy!
Skip at 5:46 AM
Another big snow storm has arrived. It's the joy of living in the north! In southern England and Wales they are worried about floods now. At least the snow piles up here. Being a city boy, it doesn't bother me much. I use public transit so the slick roads are not a worry. I live in a condo so the driveway and sidewalks are shoveled. It's a good excuse to leave work early today and start the weekend. Something I was going to do anyway.
Skip at 6:20 AM
A happy New Year, once again. I know I have written about Email Remover V2.4 but after using it to help solve a friends problem last night it deserves anther mention.
This little beauty will display the headers of all the mail in your inbox. You can preview the first few lines, download mail in full to preview, and most important delete anything you don't want to download. It is very easy to set up and use on any pop3 account. I use it for spam. I preview the headers before starting my mail client and delete all the junk. Last night there were some corrupted mail on our friends server. Using this program we easily deleted the mail and her mail client was able to download her mail again, instead of getting stuck on the corrupted ones, much to her delight. How soon we become addicted and face withdrawal symptoms when disconnected from email!
Skip at 5:40 AM
Skip at 8:09 AM
Helping to lower the average quality of Web content almost daily.