TDog’s posterous

When it comes to program installation, I'm a strong believer in caveat emptor. If a software publisher warns you during the installation process that it will install the Yahoo search bar or a Firefox extension along with its program, and makes it clear that you can opt out of it, then so be it. Nobody's forcing a gun to your head, and it's important to read each of the installation screens no matter which program you're installing--at the very least to make sure that the program is not legitimately changing a directory or installing somewhere you don't want it to be.

If you use digsby beware that they are using your idle cpu to run mathematical problems for profit. Its buried in the terms of service where you give them permission for this. The big stink over this is that most people that use it were unaware of it because most never check the terms or blogs of the sites they are getting the software from unless something goes wrong.

Reason's you may not want this is that it uses your computer resources and extra power to run these problems. You can turn it off which they explain on their blog and forums.

Lifehacker has a list of the five best instant messengers if your interested in an alternative

I use to like and run digsby all the time but when they started bundling crap like like toolbars and other things in there, that was it for me. While I don't like ads in programs, they bother me much less than toolbars and installing other random programs that monitor my behavior. But then again I don't use im as much as i use too so I am even less inclined too.

Welcome to the world of surprising patent lawsuits. A Texas judge ruled Tuesday that Microsoft cannot sell Word – yes, Microsoft Word, the cornerstone of Microsoft Office – in the United States.

I seriously doubt that anything will come of this other than Microsoft writing a big check as they have with previous patent lawsuits, but it is interesting.

I'm am unsure about the details of this particular patent but recently a another company basically claimed that they have a patent to podcast even though it was done before. Our current patent laws need a fundamental change especially software patents, where you can patent all kinds of crazy stuff that stifles creativity, and development when they should be protecting it.

1. Install Tiny Menu

Tiny Menu compresses the Firefox menu that contains the File, Edit etc entries into one menu item that can be displayed as text or as an icon.

I mention awhile ago I would love to get rid of the title bar in firefox well this tutorial shows how to do it and more. This is really a must for netbook owners to squeeze a little more screen out of Firefox.

The Galaxy Zoo files contain almost a quarter of a million galaxies which have been imaged with a camera attached to a robotic telescope the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, no less). In order to understand how these galaxies — and our own — formed, we need your help to classify them according to their shapes — a task at which your brain is better than even the fastest computer.

I just heard about this on the TWiS podcast. This is one of the coolest things I have heard of. I always like the idea SETI@HOME but this takes it to a new level of distributed minds. I haven't signed up yet but I plan too as I would love to just see some new galaxies and as a bonus help scientist classify them. I wonder how many other projects could use a similar modal to speed along their research.

I'm very happy to see that browser makers are realizing moving the UI aside to give more real estate. One of the first things I do when installing Firefox is to combine the navigation bar with the menu bar. I'm a little reluctant to give up my bookmarks bar but it gives me a little more room which is really crucial on a netbook. I would really love to see the title bar gone since there is really no need for it, especially since the tab names gives the same info.

I know I can get the same stuff with the full screen but I like having the status bar, and address bar always on. Since it assures me I am at the website I think I am at and the status bar tells me what's disabled in noscript should I have a problem.