Monthly Archives: August 2010

The problem with nice weather.

Posted on by
2

The problem with nice weather we’ve been having of late is it means I’m outside most of the day. Not lounging around and enjoying the sun and breezes through the treezes, nothing like that. I’m outside trying to catch up on all the work that needs to be done and there’s a lot that still needs to be done before the snow flies. And at the rate I’m currently able to work It’s going to be mighty close race.

Take yesterday for instance,. I was out from the morning until 8:00 PM moving firewood, running to the hardware store for needed items, working on the woodshed and mowing our rather substantial lawn. That plus the passing out from time to time made for a full day.

With having to shower at the end of all of this there has been absolutely no time to sit down and write up a decent post. And this particular post I’m having to hurriedly pound out before I head over to mind the quilt shop for Laurie. I give her every other afternoon off you see, so she can haul boxes from the garage into the house and unpack them. Mighty nice of me don’t you think?

However, it looks like I have a bit of a break coming as the weather for the next few days is going to be in the 90′s and I ain’t attempting any labor intensive outside work when it’s that hot. It’s okay though as there’s plenty to be done indoors as well. Like fixing our ancient Amana Radar Range, circa 1980. The cats won’t walk by it any longer and I don’t actually have to put my morning cup of coffee into the machine in order to warm it up. I just stand with my cup in hand anywhere within 3 feet it now.

So you now you know what’s been keeping me from writing up the more interesting type of posts but just remember. We get a solid 6 months of winter up in these parts so there’ll be plenty of time to write something more substantial then, yes? That is between shoveling snow, running the snow blower, splitting firewood into kindling, loading the wood box, stoking the wood stove, clearing the ice, clearing the roofs….

Firefox extension to fix tiny site fonts.

Posted on by
4

Not everyone has 20/20 vision. This has been true ever since the human race has been…well…the human race, and I am no exception. But in these days of the early 21st century those who publish online still don’t seem to get it and continue using tiny fonts on their websites–like this for example:

Too small fontsNow I don’t know about you but even on my 19″ wide screen display (which this screenshot was taken) I find this way too small to read comfortably and I’d much rather have Firefox “Content” settings set to let websites set their own fonts (Forcing all websites to use whatever font and font size I set makes for some pretty funky looking site content and I can’t set on a per site basis).  You’d think the folks who publish these articles still believe it’s necessary to cram as much information as possible into the least amount of space like everyone was still using an old 14″ CRT based monitor. The ironic thing about this is the size of the fonts in the advertisements on the same site are larger and much more readable than the actual content itself.

But I digress.

So for those who are not currently blessed with perfect 20/20 vision that perhaps includes built-in organic zooming features, I found this wonderful add-on for Firefox that takes care of this lack of content readability called; NoSquint.

This lovely little extension gives the user the ability to set font settings plus much more on a per site basis and, if you don’t clear NoSquint site history via Firefox’ “Clear Recent History” feature, it will remember all your site settings in the future so you only have to set them once. I wouldn’t be without it and it’s made my online experience enjoyable again.

That being said, once NoSquint is installed, the default settings are somewhat less than desirable in that it sets the zoom on all websites, text and images, at 120% which, in my opinion, doesn’t make for an initial enjoyable experience. Many websites that already have their fonts set for readability are now so you large that you have to actually zoom back out to 100% in order to read the page. That plus zooming images always makes for lousy looking images. So I recommend setting NoSquint’ Global Settings (overall default settings) as such:

Recommended NoSquint Global Settings your recent history

NoSquint "Global Settings" set for Text only zooming, default: 100%

You’ll notice a magnifying glass icon with “100%” next to it located on the right hand side of your Firefox status bar once NoSquint is installed. Clicking on the “100%” will bring up a dialog box that allows you to set text and image zooming for any given site and you’ll find the “Global settings” button on the lower left of the dialog box. You can also set link colors for those sites where the text color for links blends in too well with the surrounding text, text color, background color plus many other site settings that will all be remembered next time you bring up Firefox*.

However, for quick setting of text size for any given site once your global settings are set as above, just hover your mouse over the “100%” in your status bar and hold down the “Ctrl” key while using the scroll wheel on your mouse to set the site’s font size to your liking.

That’s it. Hope it works as well for you as it does for me.

*Make sure the “NoSquint site history” check box is unchecked in Firefox’ “Clear Recent History” before clearing, otherwise you’ll lose you per site NoSquint settings.

I’ve forgotten how to do Windows!

Posted on by
7

While helping a good friend of mine work up a new theme for her WordPress powered site, she began to complain that since she switched themes her site wasn’t loading correctly. Since I have my own back end account for her site I’ve been working side by side with her on her theme and checking the results in another tab and I hadn’t seen any loading problem at all.

But I was using the latest Firefox…

…in  Linux Mint…

Okay, no problem. I figured I could just boot up into Windows XP and check her site via Firefox 3.6.8, Firefox 4.0 beta 3, Google Chrome and (shudder) Internet Explorer 8. All went well, her site loading without a problem, until I got to (shudder) Internet Explorer. Then suddenly it was all stop.

I had forgotten what it was like to use Windows.

First surprise I encountered was not being able to use the Desktop as soon as it appeared. It was a bit of a shock to be truthful about it as I was used to booting into my Linux based OS and being able to start working as soon as the desktop appeared and I was a bit taken aback when I booted into Windows after a rather long absence.

For one thing the boot time was soooo slooow as compared to Linux Mint which, from the boot-up to logging in takes less than 30 seconds if I don’t fat-finger my password.

The second thing was that I had to wait…and wait….and wait…before I could actually use the damn OS in the first place and I run a very clean Windows installation. First Windows had to finish loading everything that is…well…Windows. Then the Firewall software had to argue with the Anti-virus software as to which one was going to finish what first. Once they settled their differences, I then had to wait for the anti-virus program to update itself with all the latest signatures and tell me that it was finally safe to actually use the OS catching some awful electronic malady.

I made a cup of tea while I was waiting so it wasn’t a total loss.

I now was able to check my friend’s site in various editions of Firefox, Google Chrome and such but when it came to (shudder) Internet Explorer it was suddenly, All Stop!

It wasn’t that her site wasn’t loading properly in IE, it was the fact that I had completely forgotten that I had never imported my Firefox bookmarks into IE at all. I have been so used to just typing the first few letters of a website into the Firefox location field and having it immediately providing a list of bookmarked websites for me to choose from that I found myself completely stumped when I realized I had to actually type out the full address of her site into the Microsoft’s browser. Well, no problem then. I decided to just take a few minutes and import my Firefox Bookmarks into IE’s Favorites and off we go.

At least I thought so at the time.

I ended up finding myself completely bollixed at the process. I exported my Bookmarks from Firefox without a problem of course but when I came to importing them into IE I found myself staring at the damn browser in utter confusion.

I had forgotten how to import my bookmarks into IE’s favorites.

To make a long, frustrating experience short, I finally “remembered” (read: I looked it up on Google) that I had to go under “File/Import Export” in IE in order to import my bookmarks.

‘Ah’, says I. ‘No sweat now.’

Except that while importing my bookmarks, IE promptly informed me that some of my bookmarks could not be imported which turned out to be a lot of them.

What? Didn’t IE like some of my bookmarked websites or what? It was obvious that this lousy browser didn’t like my friend’s site one bit since my friend’s was one the of those that went missing. So I finally buckled down and wracked my brain for the entire address of her site and pounded into IE’s address bar like I should have done in the first place.

The site loaded fine just as I expected.

So what  did I learn from all this? I’m not quite sure yet as I have to keep Windows around for as long as I wish to help others with their WordPress powered sites. If not for that though, I certainly learned that evicting Windows off my hard drive once and for all would be one of the first things I’d do and without a single regret.

(sigh)

In the meantime I’ve resolved myself to using only Windows for an entire week since I obviously need a refresher course. But I’m not starting until after this coming weekend.

After all, one must always allow some time to prepare oneself for a painful experience.

Have I been neglecting you?

Posted on by
7

Okay, so it’s been few and far between as far as posts go lately–I apologize. With the new house and all I find myself becoming more and more distracted from my writing by things that just need doing around here.

It seems that no sooner have I mowed our rather substantial lawn that it needs mowing again. Then the wood that has to be moved into the woodshed before the Fall arrives which isn’t moving by itself (I’m working on it). And the 40 year old stockade fence that needs patching and propping up until I can replace it (I’m working on that too). And certain windows where the paint needs touching up (haven’t touched ‘em yet). And the trips to the VA that keep interrupting me (next one’s to Boston for crissakes!).

And this…

And that…

And the other thing…

It’s enough to make your hair turn gray and since it’s already gotten a head start on that area (get it?), I certainly don’t need any help. So please bear with me whilst I attempt to keep up with the chores and a hold of my sanity at the same time. I have no doubt that I’ll succeed, at least as far as the chores are concerned, but if the sanity goes by the wayside then it should just make any future posts all that much more interesting, yes?

And on that note–I have things to do.

Has the rain stopped yet?

Posted on by
1

Has the rain stopped yet? Is it safe to move more firewood into the woodshed without sinking into the yard, wheelbarrow and all?

The last week has been been absolutely tropical. Monsoon season in the Northeast Kingdom complete with tropical downpours that brought 2 to 4 inches of rain in just a few hours–nearly everyday.

The yard is a bit saturated as you might guess.

Saturated lawn in VermontMy neighbor on the other side of the hedge, whose lawn is about 3 feet lower than mine, attempted to mow last evening. He and his lawn tractor sank out of sight somewhere around the center of his property and we’re still probing the ground looking for him. I believe I’ll wait a bit now before mowing myself as I really don’t care to join him.

It rained last night again. Guess who left the windows down on his old Jeep Cherokee?


Monday thoughts at random

Posted on by
7

Without allowing for any preamble…

I changed the theme, I didn’t change the theme.

I was using WordPress 3.0′s default 2010 theme. I still am…sort of. It’s 2010 Weaver. The author’s site is down at the moment but credit is where credit is due. Now get your site back up.

Is global warming real?

Is Russia burning?

Does Sarah Palin deserve to be shot?

No. No she doesn’t. Just bound, gagged and taken far away where I don’t have to hear about her any longer.

Obama:

Right man for the job at the right time. Deal with it.

Fox News?

News reporting at it’s worst. Just goes to prove that bigotry and political hack reporting is still alive and well in the USA. Reading the comments is fun though.

Forgot the meds last night.

And I’m paying for it this morning.

iPAD

Apple’s making a seat cushion?

Linux Mint 9 KDE

Lovin’ it. And no, I’m not getting paid for mentioning it.

My 1968 Cub Cadet TL 104

Yes, a man really can have a love affair with a machine. Even if it’s an old lawn tractor.

My Honey

Words simply cannot describe.

Is this blog still worth the trouble?

I’m sorry. I have no response to that.

Running out of thoughts?

Yeah, but that’s okay. I need to pay the bills anyway.

Have a wonderful day, all.