Keiron’s daily take on life, the internet and the world around us!

I’ve been subscribed to Caroline’s blog for several months, and now I’ve finally got into Twitter I started following Caroline this week (not in a stalking kind of way, but on Twitter!).

Caroline has just Twittered (or should that be Tweeted?) about some personal development blogs…

A few of my exisitng favourites are on there, but I think I may have found yet more subscriptions for my Reader….. And there was me telling Lottie my reader was organised.

OK, I resisted it a little bit, but I finally went and downloaded Google Chrome….

Interesting that it’s only available for Windows first and not Mac, but Google must figure that market is already sewn up by Safari on the Mac (mind you the way Apple keep offering me Safari with iTunes it must be on half of Windows users machines by now - anyone know how I stop that?!).

475kB download??? I assumed it was quick because I’m on the corporate network and it’s probably in the cache but that will be quick on almost any connection - I’m suspecting it downloads more stuff as it installs?

Installation is a couple of clicks and it’s away…

Interestingly at work my default browser is IE (for corporate sites it’s easier), so it immediately imports from there rather than Firefox. I suspect at home that will be a different case. Actually it’s quite a relief as I’d already got 10 tabs open and suspected I might have to close them all down like Chris.

It seems to have imported all my IE stuff quite well, including all the proxy settings for the corporate firewall, interestingly when I go to “Under the Hood -> Change Proxy Settings” it appears to be using the OS proxy settings as they’re configured in LAN settings.
That said this almost the only thing worth playing with in the Options, very limited at the moment in there.

Things I liked within two minutes of playing….

• Task Manager for tabs…
  Oh the joy of an out of control plugin crashing Firefox and all your open tabs as it chews up 400MB of memory… This should stop all of that, mind you as a colleague pointed out, is this just a front runner to a Google OS that’s integrated with Chrome?
• Incognito Mode:
  

  You’ve gone incognito. Pages that you view in this window won’t appear in your browser history or search history, and they won’t leave other traces, like cookies, on your computer after you close the incognito window. Any files that you download or bookmarks that you create will be preserved, however.

  Definitely good for internet cafe’s and shared machines.

• Flash etcWorking straight out of the box by the looks of it… Now that is nice.

Things I’m not sure about:

• That status bar thing, I like my status bar, it helps me identify phishing sites etc. But the Chrome version only pops up when I float over a link.
• The lack of status bar brings me to another thing, in my Firefox status bar I have my adsense earnings… Plugins, or lack of them - I can’t see any real way to extend Chrome, this is still beta so that may come I guess.
• RSS feeds in the URL bar, I’m used to seeing that appear for any sites that have a feed. For my own site I’m fortunate enough to have an RSS button on the actual page, but I tried to subscribe to John Lilly’s blog in Google Reader and it wasn’t obvious… I confess - I copied the link to Friefox!

The guys at Mozilla don’t seem too bothered saying they welcome the competition a new browser in the market will create. The interesting part as so many Google developers have contributed to the Mozilla project, will be to see how many plugins end up built into Chrome, and whether a plugin interface appears later in the release cycle. I agree with Mozilla CEO John Lilly at the moment:

I personally think Firefox 3 is an incredibly great browser - the best anywhere

Read more about Mozilla’s thoughts on John’s own blog.

UPDATE: You’ll have read in the comments the concerns of Andrew and many others about the terms of service that Google have included. Matt Cutts has updated us on this being changed.

Here’s my TagCrowd for today (RSS readers this won’t work - you’ll need to visit the site!).

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I saw this over at TheChrisD - Rant Central. I agree with Chris far too much test for me even to be bothered to read, they probably produce enough text about every name so that they cover all their angles!!

What Keiron Means

You are a seeker of knowledge, and you have learned many things in your life. You are also a keeper of knowledge - meaning you don’t spill secrets or spread gossip. People sometimes think you’re snobby or aloof, but you’re just too deep in thought to pay attention to them. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It’s easy to get you excited… which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don’t stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You’re always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can’t handle you. You’re very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you’re likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

What’s Your Name’s Hidden Meaning?

Just a quick update!

I have tickets! Only two thank goodness (not that I couldn’t have got rid of the rest to friends and colleagues!), but I’m one of the lucky few who did manage to get tickets… Well an email saying I’ve got tickets, hopefully they’ll be posted on January 19th!

photo credit: JasonRogers

I get into work this morning, knowing full well that tickets for Ireland v France are going on sale at 9am this morning. So I grab a coffee and boot up my machine.

First things first, the monitor is all backwards (I run a dual screen laptop/monitor) and the primary is completely the wrong way round… I can’t work it out quickly so I’ll stick with the “Big Screen” until lunch time as I’ll be in meetings from 9.15am (I’ve delayed a meeting specifically so I can get these tickets).

08:54	IrishRugby.ie goes down. Spectacularly: An error has occured. We apologise for any inconvenience caused - a technician has been notified of this fault. I’d imagine the technician has been more than notified! This message continues for quite some time….
09:04	Then suddenly I get a page of tickets, it takes forever to load… But it’s there. I scoot down to the two tickets I want. Click for 2. Race down to my details.. Skim over the terms and conditions. Hit Submit.
09:06	Due to a temporary technical fault, we have made the decision to delay this morning’s ticket sales until 10am. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience. GRRRR!!! If I could get my hands on that technician!
09:33	The load ont he website seems to have settled, but they’re obviously reconfiguring things and frantically trying to be ready for 10am! Personally I reckon delaying it will just cause more of an influx at 10am. But we’ll see!
09:37	I’m keeping an eye on the site just in case they release them earlier to slow down the problem… It’s resulting in 500 Server Errors now, which really isn’t too healthy!
09:43	It’s back up - or at least parts of it is…. This is going to be interesting (and probably very frustrating)
10:00	Due to a temporary technical fault, we have made the decision to delay this morning’s ticket sales until 10am. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience. Hmmmm…..
10:02	An error has occured. We apologise for any inconvenience caused - a technician has been notified of this fault. This here technician has probably gone to the nearest pub, to drown his sorrows…
10:07	Due to a temporary technical fault, we have made the decision to delay this morning’s ticket sales until 11am. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience. I have a meeting at 10:30 that will last an hour, looks like my chances are blown!
10:23	I’ve carried on refreshing the site in a vain hope that they suddenly appear. It hasn’t crashed again yet, but that’s no real consolation!
11:12	I manage to get two tickets into my basket for the France game, hit confirm and then get a 500 Server error. Pants.. I get back around the pages and the France game is sold out
11:14	I’ve spoken to Emma, we try for England tickets knowing the price is going to be higher to fly over there for the weekend… The same thing happens I hit confirm and then get a 500 Server error. I get back around the pages and the England game is sold out
11:20	I try for Premium France tickets… They’re expensive, but they’ve all gone now as well.
11:22	I get two France tickets that have miraculously appeared into my basket… This thing might be on! I get passed through to SecPay to input my card details… Woohoo..
11:24	Secpay has been trying to process my payment for the last two minutes and eventually says: Insufficient virtual circuits for number of requests : contact merchant. Or some such other rubbish. Hang on, I remember reading they reserve those tickets in your Irish Rugby account for 15 minutes!!!
11:27	The tickets are there I just have to complete them, back through to SECPay we go!
11:29	SECPay is still whirring away….
11:31	SECPay fails again, but I already have a window open with the tickets on the website available for me to go around again… I only have 15 minutes!!!
11:32	SECPay is still whirring away, and the tickets page says every event is sold out… They must all be in this funny reserved state that mine is, fighting with SECPay!! If I have 16 transactions for SECPay on my Mastercard there’s going to be trouble!!! Or I’ll expect that many tickets….
11:35	Here we go again…. I have a reference number is there no way I can just ring up and give it to somebody to pay over the phone??
11:37	Hopefully because I’m continuing to put those tickets through they 15 minute counter keeps being reset?! I haven’t given up hope just yet (my Mastercard probably has!)
11:43	There’s a mail in my inbox that suggests that SECPay have managed to take a payment. Which is great. But they’re still in my basket with the IRFU?!?!?
11:44	Oh here we go, there’s two of those mails now!!! I’m only supposed to be able to buy two tickets… But this implies I might have 4… Going to email the support team, heaven knows what I’ve got!!
11:49	I’ve emailed the helpful chap who provided me with my registration number last week and the admin for payments at the IRFU.
11:50	The website now appears to take me back to front page everytime I login.
11:54	Autoreply back from the IRFU: We apologise for the slow processing of the ticket sale. Please bear with us as the orders are going through. If the site appears unavailable please try again in a few minutes as the system is working very slowly. And what appears to be yet another order in my inbox… I don’t know if I’ve managed to order or not now… I might have 6 damned tickets!!
11:55	And a fourth one - do I have 8 tickets?!?!? And £283 on my Mastercard ? I am now decidedly concerned….
12:10	I now have five!!!! I’m either going to be the only person on the terraces at these games or I won’t have a ticket at all!
12:13	Due to high loading we have temporarliy suspended ticket sales. hmmmm… I have them all!!
Later	We have received a number of queries in regard to purchases that have already been made and we will be answering all of those queries over the next 24 hours. All competed orders will be confirmed by e-mail and any overpayments that may have occurred will be refunded prior to any further sale. We ask for your patience and we will reply directly to all members as soon as we can. All completed purchases will be confirmed via email to members. If an overpayment has occurred the member will be refunded direct to their card. We appreciate your patience in this matter. A new date for the rest of the sale will be announced once the process above is complete and the system is restored. We would like to apologise to all of our members for the problems on the site this morning. The technical issues were beyond the control of the Irish Rugby Football Union and we feel it is in the best interest of our members and rugby fans to ensure that all of these issues are fully resolved before we resume the sale.

I’ll keep you posted…

I never really understood Twitter, and discussed it with a colleague and we both completely agreed that I didn’t want to tell the world every time I made coffee or went to the toilet.

Not so long ago I added a plugin to my Wordpress installation that would create a Twitter post everytime I posted a blog entry. I let it run and never really did anything with it apart from let it update. Then this week one of my readers (you know who you are ) started following me on Twitter. With renewed energy I investigated Twitter….

I don’t want it on my phone, bleeping every ten seconds, it would drive me potty! But after installing TwitterFox, all my status updates appear in my TwitterFox bar… I could get quite into it… Of course this is all posted back to this blog, so you can see my tweets under “What I’m doing” on the right!

Now the ultimate question is do I want to connect it again to Facebook and close the loop? Nah I don’t think so, I can rant a little more on Facebook as only my close friends see my updates there