rips…

…and other disturbances…

from elsewhere…

Latest rise in noise-level in the web design communities seems to be caused by the release of Google Chrome – a beta version of a new browser. We'll look into it when our new boxes/OS'es have arrived, as the beta isn't available in version(s) for our existing ones yet and we don't like to mess up working solutions for a beta – any beta.

update [17.sep]:Downloaded Google Crome on my half-broken winXP machine, and ran it through some of my own creations. No surprises – neither negative nor positive. I'll probably add Google Crome to my test-collection.

Friends of mine have launced a new book on Advanced CSS-techniques (in German). I have just started to read through my copy, so can't present detailed comments just yet.

So far I've found the book informative and well organized – and easy to read even for a hardly-any-German-speaking person like myself, so I think it'll be quite useful for web designers wanting to make the most out of the powerful CSS language while staying in control of those browsers.

more locally…

Winter feed for our animals is in store, and we can focus our attention on all other major and minor details we'd like to have in place and ready before it gets too cold. Always something to do on a farm.

It is raining pretty heavy at times these days, which makes working in the open less interesting. Temperatures are fine though, so getting a little wet doesn't bother me too much.

Our cows have relaxed and found their respective places in the herd after the changes introduced when some animals left the farm last month. Most cows and heifers had to get used to entering new stalls when they come in for milking, and that took a few days to sort out. Some still get it wrong now and then, but they usually correct the upstalling themselves without much intereference from us.

The feeding-season has started, so our cows get around a half of the food they need in the form of silage while they're in for milking. In a few weeks time we'll probably start filling up one of the outdoor feed-stations twice a day too.

the future of blogging on www.gunlaug.no:

I've found this blog-like site section to work just fine for what it is intended for. It is fine for writing monthly notes to myself and friends around the globe, and there's no noise here that I haven't created myself.

I'll probably experiment and make changes to its form and what types of content I'll fill it with. What's relevant to me, or others, do tend to change over time, so no need to freeze-dry anything.

However, I don't think I'll open it for outside comments since I don't have time to keep a close wathch on what gets entered and I don't want to create a closed system with passwords and such. There's a mail address on the author page for those who want to get in touch, and that channel has been working well so far.

medium-large:

Have yet to replace the old with the new, but I bought a 40 inch Samsung HDTV today because my old 29 inch Sony Trinitron no longer can keep those color-guns in line and the resulting color-glare were becoming a bit unpleasant to look at. TV-repairs are pretty non-existent these days, and so is the necessary documentation for DIY operations.

I guess this purchase can be seen as a clear sign of lazyness since TVs and video-monitors is within the authors range of expertise, and, yes, I simply can't be bothered to fix the now 10 years old Sony Trinitron. I am definitely getting lazy.

For once I didn't bother about technical data. I wanted an exactly 1 meter wide TV, with full HD, and didn't care one bit about crappy sound and other unimportant parameters that I can correct afterwards. Time will tell if I made a reasonably good choice, or not.

Needless to say I don't think what's presented on various TV channels will become any better or more interesting once I've replaced the old TV with the new one, but the crap will probably look slightly more natural. That'll have to do, for now.

update [06.sep]: the programs certainly didn't improve, but some definitely are more pleasant to look at now.
The new TV works well with our satellite-tuner, and the size-format switching between 16/9 and 4/3 suits our Norwegian transmissions just fine.

I'll probably use the Samsung as PC-monitor later, and if it is any good I may buy another such medium-large monitor.

sincerely 

Hageland 03.sep.2008
last rev: 17.sep.2008