Have a nice day Sep 29, 2006
"Have a nice day."  I hear those words quite often.  When I buy a coffee and a muffin from Dunkin Donuts, the cashier (barista) says, "Have a nice day."  When I go through the security checkpoint at work, the guard says, "Have a nice day."  When I go out to lunch, the cashier (and/or sandwich maker) says, "Have a nice day."  When I buy a few little things at ShopRite or Walmart, the checkout person says, "Have a nice day."  When I fill up my gas tank at the beautiful new QuickChek in Hopatcong, the filler-upper says, "Have a nice day."  In my daily life, that's most likely the phrase I hear most often. #psychology
Trying AdSense again (2) Sep 29, 2006
I decided to give Google AdSense another try.  I tried it several months ago, but I wasn't impressed by my meager earnings or by the oodles of JavaScript required to display the "unobtrusive" ads.  From the very beginning of my "web presence", I've been a fan of simplicity, and ads seem to make things more complicated by adding more code and displaying a bunch of unnecessary junk.  However, I'd like to try to make some money by doing something I enjoy.  I already have a website.  I already enjoy writing stupid things.  Why not make some money in the process? 

You, the reader, can help me by clicking on some ads.  I only get paid if the ads are clicked.  So even if you're not interested in the ads or you hate them altogether, throw me a bone by clicking on them.  You'll be making the world a better place ... by putting more money in my pocket ... which, in turn, I can pass on to you ... though I probably won't. 

Update (2006-09-29 3:56pm):  I'm also trying out ADster at the bottom of the page.  Initially, I'm not too happy with some of the content of the ads, but we'll see how things go. 

Update (2006-10-02 11:10am):  Adster had too many "adult chat" ads, so I ditched them.  Next up is AdBrite. 

Update (2006-10-03 11:28am):  AdSense wasn't doing too well for me financially, so I replaced it with AdBrite.  AdBrite is now my sole advertiser.  I'll probably write about my findings at some point. 

Update (2006-10-05 12:10am):  I got rid of the big ads at the bottom because they were ugly and took too long too load.  Also, I came up with a way to only show ads for every 5th post or so, so they should be less "intrusive".  And I'm trying out Text Link Ads because I've heard they're good.  Plus, they make a WordPress plugin.  Zing! #entertainment
Twenty-four inch widescreen (2) Sep 29, 2006
Twenty-four inch widescreen.  These four words should bring utter exhilaration and uber-tech-geek elation.  But for the past few days, they've brought me nothing but dissatisfaction and a desire for a downgrade.  I've been using one of these things as my PC monitor for a couple days, and I have only one thing so say:  It's too big.  It's so big that I installed Google Desktop and expanded the sidebar to fill up 25% of the screen.  It's so big that I moved the monitor to the right so that I only have to focus on the left 75% of the screen.  It's a completely unusable amount of space.  My eyes can't see that much information at once.  My brain can't process it.  I actually have to move my head to see two opposite ends of the monitor.  It's ridiculous.  And once again, I'm confronted with the question of "Why?".  Why do people like widescreen?  Why is this format in use?  Ok, I understand its use in TV and movies, but why computers?  I don't watch movies on my computer.  I read websites.  I write things.  I play with engineering tools like Excel and Matlab.  I don't need 20.5 inches of horizontal viewing space.  Nor do I need 12.75 inches in the vertical.  I'm very tempted to go back to my "old" 19-incher.  It offered me plenty of space and never felt too big to comprehend.  Like most technologies, I thought, "19 inches?  Who would ever need anything bigger than 19 inches?"  They tried to pursuade me, "You don't know what you're missing."  Oh, how they were wrong. #technology