Harder than it Looks

I can't wait to see them lit.
For all of you who can't see, they're my Obama pumpkins.

Here's me. Good to go.

Stoner Lake, New York

Mom and teenager at Stoner Lake

New York

Tonight

It's snowing, and it's sticking.
I'm tired of Campbell Brown, and Joe, the unlicensed plumber.
Google has ruined iGoogle. People also had a fit when Google put the 'i' in front of Google, but their complaining didn't make any difference. It's still there: iGoogle.
I'm pretty sure neither candidate campaigned in New York state. Did Obama visit NYC?

Here's a great site - Yes We Carve
It has photos and templates of Obama carved pumpkins!
I'm going to do two.

Hard to Find 800 Numbers

This is a handy site. PC World had a link to it.
Hard to Find 800 Numbers
I like the list of the top five.
Surprise, surprise - there's Google at #5.
I bet it wasn't on the top five list two weeks ago.
I like Google very much.
They just really messed with the iGoogle something awful.

Yahoo Wins

I tried a few start pages - Yahoo, Netvibes, Pageflakes, Protopage. Yahoo wins for several reasons: The weather module is great in the 'compact' view. I can have mulitple cities with graphics only for the main city. A major plus. It's just a nice list of cities with the highs and lows. The calendar is plain, and neat.
Also - I can preview Gmail, and open it up right there. Google made a mess of Gmail in the new iGoogle design. My bookmarks from iGoogle imported without a hitch. They got rid of the annoying advertisement that used to be there. They made the Personal Assistant an option. I got rid of it. The tabs are on top. I splurged, and made three pages - all tabbed.

I'm still looking for a clock. There doesn't appear to be one. I really miss the Dreamcatcher clock I have on iGoogle, so I placed it here, over on the right. I just about died when I read some of the comments about it over in Google gadgets. A few people thought it looked really neat, but they had no idea how it showed the time. I'm really getting old.
Yahoo's themes could be better, but they're ok. What's really nice is - everything works. Everything opens, and expands & minimizes, with just one click. The new iGoogle requires lots of clicking.
Netvibes is also great, but the weather module only allows one location.

Other Places to Try for Homepage

http://www.protopage.com/

http://www.netvibes.com/

http://www.djinngo.com/

http://my.excite.com/

http://www.pageflakes.com/

http://my.yahoo.com/

http://www.takemethere.com/

http://www.webwag.com/

http://www.mywebaloo.com/

http://www.live.com/

Still Trying Out Start Pages

Goodl, old Yahoo might win out. It looks like they might have gotten rid of the annoying advertisement on the right side. They also let you delete the 'Personal Assistant'. The choices of themes are lousy - my green tea is no longer available to choose, but at least I can still keep it. The new 'green tea' is garish.
So far, Google hasn't moved the tabs back to the top, or offered the option of going back.
That's the end of this topic.

Personal Start Pages

Here's a list of some start pages. So far, I think I like Protopage best. I'll work on it tomorrow to see how it goes. I've already started a Netvibes page - it's kind of 'cute', and all I'm looking for is plain, and neat.
www.protopage.com

The Online Petition for iGoogle Users

Here's the link to the online petition requesting Google allows users to change back:
Allowing iGoogle Homepage Users to Rollback Design Change
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?igoogle

Here's My iGoogle Tonight

Coming to Me from Ireland
til I make the final switch to Netvibes - which is ok, but it's kind of on the cute side.

Google's Gadgets Blog

This is interesting. It was posted on Google's Gadgets Blog, October 16th. Sounds to me like this new design is geared towards developers. They'll be able to build 'richer' things for Google's, "tens of millions of users".
So, the new design never intended to make iGoogle a richer experience for me, the non-developer. It's all about the developers. The post goes on to say - the developers will be able to 'monetize' their gadgets. Does monetize mean 'make money'? Why don't they just say that.
Here's the post:
October 16, 2008
iGoogle Launches Canvas View
Posted by Dan Holevoet, Ceveloper Programs

There are probably a few less users tonight.
Google is beginning to remind me of AOL.
Has Google forgotten that many users are old, like me, and there are more of us everyday.
We're tired. We like things plain and simple. We don't like change. We're not into cute.
We're lucky we're online at all.
The left side tab thing is obnoxious. They've really messed with Gmail. The clock now looks stupid. I've already X'ed that out. The weather gadget takes up way too much space.

I'm moving over to Netvibes. Yahoo already ruined it's homepage stuff a year, or so, ago.
Another annoying thing - the term 'screen real estate'. Why don't they just call it SPACE.
Here's the chance for some other developers to start up something for all us users who don't like the new iGoogle.

To get the old iGoogle back

You can move to Canada, or the UK to get the old iGoogle back.

www.google.ca/ig?hl=en

www.google.co.uk/ig?hl=en

www.google.ie/ig?hl=en

WTF Google? Fix - 'Move' to Ireland

See that left sidebar on the screenshot? It's nuts.
Thank heavens for clever people out there. I read this fix on the Google Help Group.
From Internet Explorer, click on Tools, select Internet Options, type in this address for your homepage http://www.google.ie/ or, replace the .com with .ie
From Firefox, click on Tools, select Option, then open Main - type in the same address.
That should bring up the old format - you'll just be living in Ireland for awhile.

I sent this feedback to Google - the feedback form is at -

http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/request.py?contact_type=feedback

The new iGoogle format is terrible. Even worse is that there was no advance notice, or option to use the old format. Even Facebook and Yahoo gave lots of advance notice regarding changes. Sitemeter rolled out a new format, and they got so many complaints, they went back to the old one. Did you honestly think everyone would just love your new setup?
What angers me the most is not knowing it was coming - for an hour, I thought something was wrong with my computer.

Specifically,
- The left side bar takes up way too much space.
- I don't want to have to open a 'menu' to expand / minimize a 'gadget'. The + and - signs worked just fine.
- The new date and clock is ugly. What was wrong with the original?
- The Weather in my cities is larger, and runs down just about the entire right side column.
- The mail preview shows way too much.

I liked iGoogle because if I wanted it to be clean and neat, I could have it that way. Now, we have to have it Google's way.
Did you do this because Google's stock is tanking, and you're all fretting? I'd change to Yahoo, but they've ruined their homepages, too. Please don't make me go back to AOL.

For now, I'll be living in Ireland.

Remote Polaris Down Again

Come to think of it, amazon.com is better than Polaris for searching books and authors. Chances are none of the OCPL libraries have any fiction by Stuart Cloete anyway. Grrrr.
http://www.stuartcloete.com/

Me and eBay

Once in awhile I sell something on eBay. I only do it if I think I can get at least $50.00. Otherwise, it's not worth the effort. I spend too much time working on a listing. The description has to be just right. The photos have to be perfect. I'd die if I ever got a negative feedback.
So, I listed a few postcards yesterday. I'm drowning in postcards, and I don't even collect them. Most aren't worth anything - at least, they're not worth putting them up for auction. Maybe someone would come over and take them all away for $10.00. It seems like old postcards with cars on them are worth saving. Popular tourist attractions aren't worth anything.

Since I listed on eBay yesterday, I thought I'd do another one today. I have to be in the right mood. This time, a glass paperweight advertising the Worcester Corset Company. It's cute. In fine print along the bottom is says Sept. 5, '82 - Barnes & Abrams Co., Syracuse, NY. Nice - I figured it was made in 1982, and showed a vintage ad for the WCC. I was already to click 'List this item', but decided to Google Barnes & Abrams. It appears the paperweight was made in 1882, and it's quite collectible. So, I thought I'd put a reserve price of $150.00 on it, but that costs another $2.00 in listing fees. Still, if I could get $150.00, minus eBay's cut and fees, that'd still be pretty good. I took another look at it. It's small - 2.5" by 4.5". It has a nice, smooth feel to it. It's VERY cute now. I'll keep it. I'll just have to figure out something else to get rid of. Thank heavens for Google. I could have described it as something from 1982, and sold it for $7.50. I'll keep a note with it so the girls won't toss it away when I'm gone. They can put it on eBay.

On the Street Where I Live

It's going to be a spectacular fall day.
Positively autumnal.
This was at 8:00 am this morning.
Click on the photo to make it bigger!

The Best Sleep Aid

White Flower Analgesic Balm
Can't get to sleep?
Maybe it's all in my head, but this stuff works. Right before I fall into bed, I put a few drops on my wrists, rub it all in, with a quick swipe at the base of my neck, and I sleep soooo good.
The ingredients are: wintergreen - 40%, menthol - 15%, camphor - 6%, mineral oil, eucalyptus, and lavender. Yum. It smells a tad like Vicks, but better.
I haven't seen it in any of the stores around here, but it's easy to buy online - even easier when you have someone who can send it to you. Forget the Tylenol PM, Ambien, and Lunesta.
Sweet dreams.

Why Aren't They Interested?

I'm the only person I know who blogs. I don't know if has something to do with my age, or if it's just the people I know. It's so discouraging. When I mention to my friends that I have a blog, they look at me like I must be either crazy, or I have way too much time on my hands. Several friends want nothing to do with computers; they never touch one. Their husbands do the family banking online. If something happened to them, their wives wouldn't have a clue on how to access their bank accounts. Not good, if they've gone paperless, and get their statements online.
Some will do email, but little else. Most of them are wary of anything 'online'. There's still that underlying feeling that the Internet is evil.
I tell them that computers have become household appliances, and that they'd better learn a few things about computers because their kids aren't going to do it for them.
I haven't been able to convince them that computers are pretty fantastic.
I can't figure out why they have such little interest.

Looking at Laptops

I talked to Sis this afternoon. I told her it was time to get a laptop, and that I had one all picked out for her at Dell. She said that Costco was advertising a neat, little Dell for under $1000.00. We don't have a Costco around here, so I went to their site. Wow. I might even get one for myself, but that wouldn't make sense, I already have one. I'd get the 1525 for $799.99. It includes a 2 year warranty. Excellent price - might even be better than what you can get at Dell.com.

I've never been to the Costco website before. Up on top on is a menu of categories. 'Funeral' was one of them. It's right under 'What's New'. You can get all your funeral stuff right there.
Who knew!
I can't decide between the Kentucky Rose casket $1499.99, the Star Legacy Cherry Box (ashes) $139.99, and the Twilight Moon Large Pewter Urn $169.99.
For flowers, I like the Floral Meadows Spray for $329.00 - but that'd only go with the Kentucky Rose thing. I guess I don't really like any of their floral pieces.
I'd rather have them from Pedrick's - the best florist anywhere. Too bad they're two hours away.

Back to laptops. :-)