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Skyfire, mobile browsing unleashed
I have been looking for a decent web browser for my Windows Mobile phone lately. For the life of me, I can’t comprehend why Windows Mobile 6 came with IE 6. It’s quite frustrating to use – slow, featureless, clunky, and did I mention slow? I tried Minimo, and although it supports tabs, I thought the navigation on my Motorola Q9c was clunky. I went to download Opera Mobile, but the download page says it’s for touchscreen Windows Mobile only, so that wouldn’t work for me. I then did a Google search for “windows mobile web browser” and one of the early hits was for Skyfire.
I downloaded and installed it on my phone. I was nervous, because I forgot my SD card and my internal storage was very low. Amazingly, the download was a little over 500k, and there was enough room on my phone for it to install.
I launched the browser and was pleasantly surprised. It was fast, easy to navigate, and the rendering was phenomenal. I had always thought the download speed on my phone was slow, but I think it was a problem with IE 6, since pages render very quickly on Skyfire.
The only problem I had was when the installer asked if I wanted to install a search widget onto my home screen. I approved, since it sounded handy, however, it totally mangled my theme, so I eventually switched back to my previous theme (easy fix). Beyond that, I think the browser is great!
December 24th, 2008 
Mobile, Software 
Tags: browser, Mobile, skyfire, smartphone, web, windows mobile, more... Kitchen Additions
After 4 years at our house, we’ve finally caught up to the 20th century. Today, we had a dishwasher and garbage disposal unit installed. It was a long time coming – we suck at doing dishes.
We had it installed by Troy Mueller of Finding Time, LLC. He and the plumber did a very quality, discreet, and fast job. If you’re in the Fox Valley, I would recommend him for any maintenance or remodeling you might have.
Yay for technology!
In search of serenity
“Yesterday is history,
tomorrow’s a mystery.
Today is a gift -
that’s why they call it the present.”
I was first told the above phrase by a friend of mine, the same friend who called me today with some grim news. A mutual friend of ours died last night of an overdose. The paramedics tried to revive him but were unsuccessful.
I hadn’t talked to him in quite awhile (unfortunate, since he lives less than a mile from me), so I contacted him last night and asked if he wanted to get together.  He said that he wanted to, but had some plans that might fall though, and would give me a call later. I texted him at 6:30pm last night to see what he was up to. He said his plans fell through, but he had some unexpected visitors. No problem – we decided to raincheck it.
I just got the call tonight a little after 8:00pm. He had a lot of issues with depression, which caused him to use, which got him into trouble, which contributed to his low self-worth. It was a vicious cycle.  I guess I always hoped and assumed that he would eventually pull through.
It is a sureal feeling to talk to someone and then find out they are gone the next day. Â Rest in peace, good friend.
The Detroit Dilemma
Rush Limbaugh was sharing an insightful article on what lead to the current plight of the auto industry on his program today. I thought I would share it with you:
UPDATE: 12/11/2008
Well, it looks like the Democrats aren’t off to a good start.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28166218/
DEMOCRATS: 205 for, 20 against
REPUBLICANS: 32 for, 150 against
Absolutely no surprise, of course, but still disappointing.
UPDATE: 12/12/2008
Here is a visual guide to understanding how the bailout is funded and a couple of financial experts’ take on how it could be funded.
New Site Design
I decided to go with the new web site design that you currently see. There are still some visual bugs to work out, but it’s mostly functional. I think this design looks more modern than my old one, and I think/hope the navigation is more intuitive. I also added widget support to my web site, which means nothing to you unless you’ve worked with WordPress (previously, I manually added content to the side bar in the template).
A busy weekend
We went up to Phillips, WI to have Thanksgiving dinner with Wanda’s relatives. On the way, we hit a deer on Hwy 10, trashing the side of our new Jetta. It was heartbreaking. After dinner, we set off for Wanda’s late parents’ house to do some remodeling. We got quite a bit done. We did a lot of painting, scraped off accoustic ceiling, installed some hardwood laminate flooring, replaced a toilet, and installed some new lights in the hallway. There’s still a lot to do, but it feels good to watch the progress.
Soon we’ll have some remodeling of our own – we’re planning on installing a dishwasher and garbage disposal in our kitchen.
I AM Kevin Higgins
Below is a funny article featured in the Onion, sent to me by a friend. It reminds me of all of those days of bitching about gym class, even in college.
19-year old commits suicide live online
I’ve been fascinated by this story, which is both powerful and sad. On Wednesday, November 19th, 19-year old Abraham Biggs of Pembroke Pines, Florida, commit suicide in front of an audience via Justin.tv. It was discovered that he was apparently egged on by several forum commenters on bodybuilding.com. Apparently, the teen had cried foul several times in the past and forum visitors did not believe that he was serious. Eventually someone called the police when they realized he was serious.
A copy of the original thread can be found on Google cache, however, you can view the screen captures of the thread here since it’s difficult to navigate pages.
You can see a portion of the video when the cops show up here (warning: contains racial slurs):
(Is it S.O.P. to throw shit at and use laser scopes on a suspected suicide vitcim?)
This page has the suicide note.
Remeber folks, crying for help is someone who is ASKING FOR HELP.
$7.7 Trillion
From Bloomberg: U.S. Pledges Top $7.7 Trillion to Ease Frozen Credit
“The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $3.18 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.”
For the record, folks, that’s roughly half of our 2007 GDP and about three-fourths of our current federal deficit.
Das Auto
We made a rather large purchase on Thursday. We bought a 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI “clean diesel”. You see, the lease is almost up on our Saturn, but we were going to wait to purchase one when we used up the miles. However, there is a 6-9 month waiting list in this area for the TDI. We were on the list, but we anticipated using up the lease’s miles in a couple of months, and we didn’t really want to be without a second vehicle for a long time (Wanda and I have chronic tardiness issues in the morning, so carpooling yields mixed results). We were looking at used TDIs, but you don’t save much on buying a used one because of supply issues, so we thought it would make sense to buy new (even thought we vowed never to buy a new vehicle again, we seem to keep failing that resolution).
Apparently, Van Dyn Hoven Imports had an extra one come in, and they called people on the list to see who wanted it, first come, first serve. It was probably a naughty purchase because we’ll have 3 vehicles for a couple of months, but at least I’ll have a car right away when I use up the Vue. It’s white, which we generally don’t like as a car color, but the Jetta doesn’t look too bad in white, so we pulled the trigger.
Driving it is like making sweet love. It’s a turbo-charged diesel with a lot of torque, so it’s pretty zippy. It also gets in the low 40′s for mileage on the highway. Satellite radio, in-dash 6-disc changer/mp3/aux input, V-Tex upholstery, seat warmers, bluetooth, moon roof, and standard smugness upgrades. They recommend oil changes every 10,000 miles (which I wasn’t aware of), and we get free maintenance (oil changes, etc) for 3 years. And for those who care, it meets Tier 2/Bin 5 emission standards.
I wish our Saturn lease was up…
We also saw the new Volkswagen CC hotness while at the dealer, which makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X. Too bad they don’t make a diesel version for the U.S. (yet).
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