Todd's Blog

Just amazing, I wish it was happening on my side of the world right now [June 15, 2011, 4:08 pm EDT].

If you check the top of any page at Lottery Post, you'll notice a +1 icon appears next to "Recommend Lottery Post", just under the blue menu bar.

That's Google's new "+1" system, that is used to recommend valuable Web sites to others.  I have included Google's introductory video below if you want to learn more about it.

Please help out Lottery Post by taking a few moments to give it a click.  If you're not already logged into your Google account, it will ask you to login.

While you're at it, if you're a Facebook user, please give the Like button a click too.

None of this will cost you a dime, but it means a lot to Lottery Post.

Thank you for supporting Lottery Post with a few clicks and a few minutes of your time!!

Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) — like IE6 before it — is a dying browser that is losing support all over the Internet.  Continuing to use IE7 will result in a much worse Internet experience, that's going to continue getting worse by the day.

At this point, there is not a single reason to avoid upgrading to IE8.  Anybody using IE7 can easily upgrade to IE8, and there are no more sites left that don't work with IE8.

This week Google announced that its apps will no longer support IE7 as of August 1.  (See article below.)  I think this is a really great move, in order to help motivate people to upgrade their browser.  The Internet in general is much worse than it could be, because of the need to support a large number of antiquated web browsers.

Lottery Post has been posting messages to IE6 and IE7 users about upgrading their browsers for months now.  LP has officially stopped supporting IE6, and will stop supporting IE7 this year.  It is simply becoming too difficult to maintain support for those horrible, old browsers, while at the same time trying to keep the site fresh and exciting for the majority of people who upgrade their browsers in a reasonable timeframe.

If YOU are an IE7 user, you REALLY need to get moving, and upgrade to IE8.  It is SIMPLE.

Or, if you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, you should be upgrading to IE9.

In either case, go to www.microsoft.com/ie and follow the instructions.

Here is the article about Google dropping IE7 support.

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

Google Apps phasing out support for Internet Explorer 7 on August 1

Google revealed on Wednesday that it plans to phase out Internet Explorer 7 support.

The support will be discontinued on the company's Apps platform from August 1. Firefox 3.5, IE7 and Safari 3 will all be dropped. "In these older browsers you may have trouble using certain features in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs and Google Sites," said Google's Vice President of Engineering, Venkat Panchapakesan. "Eventually these apps may stop working entirely," he added.

Google says it's dropping the support in order to focus on advanced browsers that support HTML5. "Older browsers just don't have the chops to provide you with the same high-quality experience," said Panchapakesan. Google plans to drop support for Internet Explorer 8 once Internet Explorer 10 is made available. "we'll begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version," said Panchapakesan.

Microsoft launched its final version of Internet Explorer 9 on March 15. The software giant built in greater support for HTML5 and hardware accelerated browsing, alongside some impresser security improvements. The company unveiled an Internet Explorer 10 platform preview during its MIX11 show in April. The software maker plans to release a new platform preview every 8-12 weeks. Internet Explorer 10 includes greater support for standards like CSS3 gradients, multi-column and grid layouts.

Source

This is an excellent video demonstrating a new, simple technique for keeping someone alive after a heart attack. It’s called continuous chest compression, and is easier than regular CPR.

The video is about 5 minutes long, and is well-worth watching until the end.

ALABAMA	Was the first place to have 9-1-1, started in 1968.
ALASKA	One out of every 64 people has a pilot's license.
ARIZONA	Is the only state in the continental U.S. that doesn't follow Daylight Savings Time.
ARKANSAS	Has the only active diamond mine in the U.S.
CALIFORNIA	Its economy is so large that if it were a country, it would rank seventh in the entire world.
COLORADO	In 1976 it became the only state to turn down the Olympics.
CONNECTICUT	The Frisbee was invented here at Yale University .
DELAWARE	Has more scientists and engineers than any other state.
FLORIDA	At 759 square miles, Jacksonville is the U.S. 's largest city.
GEORGIA	It was here, in 1886, that pharmacist John Pemberton made the first vat of Coca-Cola.
HAWAII	Hawaiians live, on average, five years longer than residents in any other state.
IDAHO	TV was invented in Rigby, Idaho, in 1922.
ILLINOIS	The Chicago River is dyed green every St. Patrick's Day.
INDIANA	Home to Santa Claus, Indiana , which get a half million letters to Santa every year.
IOWA	Winnebago get their name from Winnebago County . Also, it is the only state that begins with two vowels.
KANSAS	Liberal, Kansas, has an exact replica of the house in The Wizard of Oz.
KENTUCKY	Has more than $6 billion in gold underneath Fort Knox .
LOUISIANA	Has parishes instead of counties because they were originally Spanish church units.
MAINE	It's so big, it covers as many square miles as the other five New England states combined.
MARYLAND	The Ouija board was created in Baltimore in 1892.
MASSACHUSETTS	The Fig Newton is named after Newton , Massachusetts .
MICHIGAN	Fremont, home to Gerber, is the baby food capital of the world.
MINNESOTA	Bloomington’s Mall of America is so big, if you spent 10 minutes in each store, you'd be there nearly four days.
MISSISSIPPI	President Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear herethat's how the teddy bear got its name.
MISSOURI	Is the birthplace of the ice cream cone.
MONTANA	A sapphire from Montana is in the Crown Jewels of England .
NEBRASKA	More triplets are born here than in any other state.
NEW HAMPSHIRE	Birthplace of Tupperware, invented in 1938 by Earl Tupper.
NEW JERSEY	Has the most shopping malls in one area in the world.
NEW MEXICO	Smokey the Bear was rescued from a 1950 forest fire here.
NEW YORK	Is home to the nation's oldest cattle ranch, started in 1747 in Montauk.
NORTH CAROLINA	Home of the first Krispy Kreme doughnut.
NORTH DAKOTA	Rigby , North Dakota , is the exact geographic center of North America .
OHIO	The hot dog was invented here in 1900. OH !!!!
OKLAHOMA	The grounds of the state capital are covered by operating oil wells.
OREGON	Has the most ghost towns in the country.
PENNSYLVANIA	The smiley, :) was first used in 1980 by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University.
RHODE ISLAND	The nation's oldest bar, the White Horse Tavern, opened here in 1673.
SOUTH CAROLINA	Sumter County is home to the world's largest gingko farm.
SOUTH DAKOTA	Is the only state that's never had an earthquake.
TENNESSEE	Nashville 's Grand Ole Opry is the longest running live radio show in the world.
TEXAS	Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco back in 1885.
UTAH	The first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant opened here in 1952.
VERMONT	Montpelier is the only state capital without a McDonald's.
VIRGINIA	Home of the world's largest office buildingThe Pentagon.
WASHINGTON	Seattle has twice as many college graduates as any other state.
WASHINGTON D.C	Was the first planned capital in the world.
WEST VIRGINIA	Had the world's first brick paved street, Summers Street, laid in Charleston in 1870.
WISCONSIN	The ice cream sundae was invented here in 1881 to get around Blue Laws prohibiting ice cream from being sold on Sundays.
WYOMING	Was the first state to allow women to vote.

I cannot imagine the terror the guy must have been feeling at about 4:15 into the video.  Wow. 

By the way, this video is a very rare example of a sideways tornado that gets spawned only by the most violent tornadoes.  About a minute or so in, you can see the spawning off the main funnel, it's really amazing.

Microsoft is on a roll!

After making IE9 available for general delivery through Windows Update just in the past week, Microsoft today announced that the first platform preview of IE10 is available for download.

It usually takes up to a year from platform preview until final release, but with Microsoft's fast-paced development, perhaps it will be sooner.

Whatever the final release date, it looks like IE10 will be the version that gets released as the default browser in Windows 8 next year.  Windows 8 is targeted for release in 2012, so I'm sure we'll start seeing betas later this year.

As a Web developer, I'm really happy to see Microsoft pushing strong HTML5 standards into IE, and extremely pleased with the great performance of the browser in IE9 and beyond.  As more and more people transition to IE9, it will enable me to make this site even better, since more people will have access to better browser capabilities that I can exploit.

Anyone who has upgraded from IE8 to IE9 can already see the differences — better-looking buttons, much faster speed, cleaner graphics (such as drop-shadows), nicer animation effects, etc.  Once a majority of people are using browsers capable of these things, it will allow me to spend some more time on features that can use them.

Of course, IE9 (and all future versions of Internet Explorer) can only run on Windows Vista or better.  So Windows XP users can only go as far as IE8 without resorting to a browser such as Google Chrome.  (Which, by the way, I strongly recommend using instead of IE8 for all Windows XP users!)

The good news is that the most recent Web statistics show that there are now officially more Windows 7 users than Windows XP users.

Finally, Windows XP is on a fast-track decline, and I can look forward to a day without having to support ancient technologies — technologies that not only make my job harder, but greatly diminish my ability to produce cutting-edge features that everyone would want.

Getting back to the IE10 announcement, here is the link to the Internet Explorer team's announcement of the IE10 platform preview.  It includes a video showing some of the new features.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2011/04/12/native-html5-first-ie10-platform-preview-available-for-download.aspx

This is a bombshell article.  If you have the time, read through it all the way to the end.  If the evidence is true, Mark Zuckerberg is the worst kind of scoundrel.

http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-lawsuit-paul-ceglia-new-evidence-2011-4

This is a fantastic demonstration of how a virus works -- what it looks like, how it fools you into downloading and installing it, and eventually how it gets your money.

This video is a recording of the latest virus/malware going around, nicknamed "LizaMoon".  There are thousands of these things floating around the Internet, this one is just getting the attention right now.

Keep in mind all the security windows and warnings you see in the video are FAKE.  When the announcer says, "Here's Windows security center...", you have to remember he means here is the VIRUS PROGRAM that is faked to LOOK like a Windows security program.

Watch the video, and decide for yourself at what point you feel the guy makes the "wrong click".

The program you see in the beginning is called "Fiddler", and is just a developer's tool that allows you to see individual files that get transferred over the network as a web page loads.  (A web page is made up of dozens or hundreds of files, so it allows a developer to see each and every one, and track their progress.)  If this concept is sailing over your head, just ignore it.  It's not really important.

 

My Analysis:

Note that the first clue you should have when watching this is the appearance of the "virus warning".  It does look like a typical Windows scan is happening, because they obviously used some nice fake graphics, but one thing is wrong:  It does not appear in the right place!

If you have taken my past advice to use Microsoft Security Essentials for your virus protection, any legitimate virus message would appear in the lower-right corner of your screen, just above the clock.  It would NOT appear in the middle of your screen.

So the first mistake the person makes is to look at that warning message and jump to the incorrect conclusion that it is a real message.

What should they have done?  Close all browser windows immediately, and then restart the browser.  If you are really concerned, then reboot Windows rather than clicking the wrong thing.

The second error (and the one that sinks the ship in this case) is when the Windows box comes up asking if you want to save or run the file it is downloading.  That's actually a legitimate warning message, and it's the last chance you have of escaping without getting nailed.  If the guy in the video clicked "Cancel", they would have been fine.  Choosing the option to execute (or save and then execute) the file is where you put the virus on your own PC.  Up to that point, Windows was actually protecting you, and you were looking at some clever graphics that didn't actually harm your PC to that point.

Then after the thing installs and you reboot your PC, the virus becomes deeply embedded in your system, as you can see by the fact that it started running even before the Windows Desktop showed up after rebooting.

I hope this is educational, and keeps you from making a similar mistake!

People with Android phones can now get Angry Birds Rio (the latest version of the popular Angry Birds game) for FREE.

How to get it?  Just install the new Amazon AppStore, which is free — and for simply trying it you get the new Angry Birds Rio for free.

Now, Angry Birds may be the hook necessary to get people to try the new Amazon AppStore, but the real bonus is that you can start using the Amazon AppStore!

I will readily admit that if I were forced to choose a single company that is my favorite company in the world, it would be Amazon.  They are a remarkable company that seems to sprinkle fairy dust on everything they do.

You can use the new Amazon AppStore to browse for apps just like you would on the Android Marketplace.  But Amazon claims to have a much better app vetting process, similar to the way Apple screens its apps before making them available to iPhone users. 

This can help eliminate the types of problems Google recently had to cope with involving malware embedded in some apps in the Marketplace.  The thinking is that if you download it from the Amazon AppStore, the app will already have been screened for malware.

Another very nice feature is that the Amazon AppStore is directly linked to your regular Amazon.com account, so the Amazon.com account you use to buy books, music, movies, etc., can also be used to buy apps, and it all works seamlessly.

To install the Amazon AppStore on your Android phone, you first need to make sure your phone is set to allow third party apps:

1. From the Home screen, click the menu/options button, and then click Settings.
2. Click the Applications item.
3. Make sure the Unknown sources box has a check mark in it.  If a warning comes up, click OK.
4. You're finished, exit the settings.

Then, you need to open the browser and go to Amazon.com.  On the front page of the Amazon.com site (when it is viewed from your Android phone), you will see an ad right near the top for Angry Birds.  Click the ad.

Follow the prompts to download & install.

After you click the download link, you may see a notification at the top of your Android phone about a downloaded file.  You may have to click the notification message in order to install the app.  If so, pull down the notification bar by swiping down from the top of the screen, and then just click on the file in the list of notifications.

Everything else should be fairly self-explanitory.  You'll get the AppStore installed, and then when you open the AppStore you'll see the icon/link for downloading the free copy of Angry Birds.

After everything is finished, you should probably put an Amazon AppStore icon on your Home screen.  (Hopefully you know how to do that?)

Good luck, and if you try this out, enjoy the game!!

Firefox users:  version 4 of the popular web browser is now available.  To install it, fire up your Firefox browser, and click "Check for updates" in the Help menu.

If you use Firefox, this update is highly recommended.

I realized that I goofed in a previous blog entry.  IE9 will be available for download tonight, not at 12 noon today (Eastern Time) like I previously said.

The exact time it will be available for download is 12 midnight Eastern Time (9 p.m. Pacific Time), tonight (March 14).

Apple is genius when it comes to mobile products.

I'm typing this on my new iPad 2, which I picked up today at BestBuy.  It is quite a bit faster and more responsive than the first model, which itself was no slouch.

I'm really struck by how much thinner they have made the new one.  It is much more comfortable to hold, and it's a bit lighter weight too.

Web pages load much quicker, and they scroll much more instantaneously.

The new case has a flat back, which makes it much better to set down on a table.  It doesn't rock around like the first one.

Again, the first one was awesome, it just seems that Apple is amazing at being able to keep making a good thing better, year after year.

Internet Explorer version 9 (IE9) will be offically released by Microsoft on Monday, March 14.  Downloads will be available starting at 12 noon Eastern Time (9:00 p.m. Pacific Time) Monday.

I've been using and testing IE9 for the past year, as Microsoft has been releasing beta copies of IE9 during its development.  I have been extremely impressed with the results, and I can happily say that IE9 is a really nice browser, worthy of becoming your primary browser.

It's going to be a tough decision if I want to stick with Google Chrome as my default browser, or switch to IE9.  Both are excellent and both are fast.  For most sites, I think Chrome has an edge in performance, because it has such a fast JavaScript engine.  IE9 also has a fast JavaScript engine, but not as fast as Chrome.  IE9 does beat Chrome in graphics performance, but not in basic rendering of pages.

Honestly, the performance of either browser will be just fine for anyone, IMHO.  It's going to come down to how you like the browser features and interface.  Also, I personally like how Chrome continues to get updated frequently during the year.  Microsoft releases a new browser, and then refuses to add features to it until the next major release.  That's pretty annoying.

Anyway, I do recommend that even if IE9 will not be your primary (default) browser, that you download and install it when it becomes available on Monday.  It's really good.

People who already have Google Chrome installed can easily upgrade to the latest version (version 10) by clicking the Wrench icon in the upper-right, then select "About Google Chrome".  If an update is available, that simple action will always perform the upgrade.

If you DON'T already have Google Chrome installed, I'l ask you:  WHY THE HECK NOT?!  (Install it here.)

Google Chrome is screaming fast and is the model of simplicity and efficiency.

Want a tab to display in its own window?  Just drag the tab out of the browser, and it creates its own window.

Want to integrate another Google Chrome window into the current window?  Just drag the tab into the current window.

It's intuitive and simple stuff like that that make Chrome so great.

And it works fantastically with Lottery Post!

Version 10 actually seems to fix a minor bug in the last Google Chrom release that occasionally froze the browser window, so that's nice to see also.