blake johnson

First thoughts on IE7

July 31, 2006 11:05am 1 Comment browsers, ie7 and Technology

I downloaded Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 this weekend. I was instantly greeted to a crash everytime I tried to load the program. Interestingly, the Windows update page would load without crashing, so I was able to download an IE7 patch that was available, but after installing that, it still crashed every time I opened my home page (which is just google.com), or open a new tab.

After firing up Firefox and looking around, I discovered that IE7 doesn't play well with some versions of Google Desktop. So, I updated my Google Desktop and that fixed it! I hope Microsoft starts checking for old versions of Google Desktop during install, because if they push this out over Automatic Updates like they plan to, then there could be a lot of frustrated users out there.

As for other first impressions... it's nice that IE has finally joined the world of tabbed browsing. CSS support seems much tighter. I'm not yet used to this whole "bubbly" thing that Microsoft has going on with its new software (see also Windows Media Player 11). But it seems alright.

I've played around with some of the new self-clearing methods now that was I doing before doesn't work with IE7. Luckily, there is a minor modification of the easy clearing method which is working.

Has the era of the electric car arrived?

July 30, 2006 11:20am 0 Comments Technology

Electric cars used to be these vehicles which were impractical for just about everyone because of their limited range and sluggish performance. Not anymore. Check out the Tesla Roadster.

Me want.

Shooting across the street

July 30, 2006 11:18am 0 Comments Misc, New-Haven and shooting

New Haven is scary. Look at this message from the Yale chief of police which I received yesterday morning:

I am writing to let you know of an attempted robbery and shooting last night involving four graduate and professional students in the yard of a house located at Mansfield and Tilton Streets. The students were approached by a man wearing a mask with a handgun who demanded money. In the ensuing struggle, the gun was fired and one of the students was injured. He is recuperating in the hospital. Yale and New Haven police have arrested the man, and he is now in the custody of the New Haven police.

I live at the intersection of Mansfield and Tilton. The shooting was at a house directly across the street from me. I was not home when it happened, but I am still pretty freaked out.