Saturday, April 21, 2012

browser reviews

i figure a browser review is well overdue, so here it is:



safari:

developer: apple. latest version: 5.1. original release date: 1/7/03. best uses: meandering on apple.com

not much to say about this one. it wont go anywhere but the apple website. type in a URL, nothing. paste, copy, click on a link, just redirects to apple.com.
1.0* never does anything but go to the apple page.

internet explorer:
developer: microsoft. latest version: 9/10. original release date: bundled with windows 95 and up. best uses: downloading another browser.

this browser is the most crash prone browser i have ever used. even IE9 is not stable. it can't do much rendering with flash and HTML and such because it's too busy rendering itself useless for any purpose other than downloading another browser!
2.4* since it barely manages to be stable enough to be called a stable browser, it gets a low rating, but because it's bundled with windows, we have no need to buy a CD for other browsers, as well as the fact that it actually goes to webpages other than the homepage of its developers. i find that microsoft actually has to advertise it's browser since most people are abandoning it in favor of chrome, opera, and firefox, speaking of which:

firefox:
developer: mozilla. latest version: 11.0. original release date: 11/9/04. best uses: anything not requiring a lot of memory (older PCs) and most non-memory intensive webpages (lower end newer PCs)

firefox's bulk is astounding. it manages to be both faster than IE and more stable, and still be slower than the rest of the pack. the tabs aren't easy to drag off to make new windows, in fact, i'm pretty sure that feature is chrome exclusive. it's OK, by far better than IE.
4.6* rating

opera is a no fuss browser that gives you a lot of what you would want from one, but no drag off tabs and like most browsers no smooth tab sliding.
best uses for opera: extra browser for anyone.
 i use it as my tertiary browser just in case. it could almost be a twin of the

maxthon3 browser except maxthon lets you import bookmarks from any PC using maxthon, to any PC. i use maxthon3 as my secondary browser, and for not a lot of use, it is fine.

best uses for maxthon3: secondary browser to people used to chrome.
 opera gets a 6.8* and maxthon3 gets a 7.9* rating. as for the Wii opera, it's ok, getting a 5.4* rating for its hard Wii remote browsing, the fact that the on-screen keyboard is atrocious to try and use, and the fact it only supports flash 7 or so.

Chrome:
developer: google. current version: 19.0.1084.30 beta-m. original release date: 11/2/08. best uses: everything.

i've been using chrome since it's release when i got it packaged with google earth. never looked back. i threw away IE cus of its crashes, slowness, and insane amount of stupidity. now i only use firefox at the library, when i can't use chrome. the thinness and sleekness is astounding even now. you can hold click on a tab and drag it to the end or beginning, or pull it off the bar to make a whole new window. you can also merge windows by dragging them from one bar to another. it also has flash built in! i can run two flash games in one window without it slowing down! Chrome also lets you import bookmarks, history, apps, and themes to any current version of chrome when you sign in with your google account
all in all 9.7* rating. it has some, but not a lot of improvement room.

and thus concludes my browser review. when i research more browsers i'll post their reviews here.

photo credits wikipedia and myself

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

almond butter and tortillas

I've been using the almond butter for a few years now and it tastes great! Better than most peanut butters (that aren't homemade) unfortunately it's in a small jar, and kind of expensive, so I'm working on hauling out the peanut-butter machine and some roasted almonds for some really good and cheap almond butter. In the meantime this serves it's purpose. It goes good on a tortilla with either honey or your favorite jelly. No, you did not read that wrong.
this gets a 7.0* rating for taste, quality, but the fact that it costs so much and is so small it gets several points deducted



I eat that almond butter on a mission tortilla with honey. The tortillas are a nice alternative to bread, and serve almost any purpose: from Mexican food, to thin pizza crust, to sandwich wraps, and grilled cheeses (quesadillas if you like) you can get the large packs and they last a long time. don't worry about them going to waste since they can be used for almost everything. 10.0*


photo credits amazon.com

Monday, April 2, 2012

about Poke'Mon


OK, Poke'Mon is an excellent RPG, a decent card game (with room for improvement) and a terrible Anime.
Don't get me wrong, I love the game (named my charmander AshFire), and own over one thousand cards, but the show is so insanely stupid i'm surprised they managed to keep it going for 15 seasons! Only the first three or so episodes in Indigo League (taking place in the Kanto region, main territory of the first four games) are original. After a while the whole thing starts getting repetitive, with "Oh look what new Poke'Mon Ash and company caught with the same techniques they use every time!" or, " Observe the latest absurd invention and insane exploits of the two idiots in Team Rocket!" And of course (for some series) the Poke'Rap. It gets real old, real fast. The theme songs are compelling but they promise more than the writers can deliver. An RPG centered around catching, and training wild creatures that you can fit on your belt, and card game based on that RPG can make it (that's why they made it from gameboy color in 96 to DS currently) but without major changes a show can't really go very far. pretty much the only good thing that came out of the series was popularizing the franchise and of course, Poke'Mon Yellow. I can see why the entire TV show is banned in some places since it's only redeeming value is the fact that it produced Poke'Mon Yellow (if you don't know, Yellow is the most complete version released since you don't need to trade to get some of the creatures) if they do a remake, they need to cut the Jesse and James characters, maybe turn Team Rocket into a Mafia group the likes to use explosives, make Ash a bit older, taller and voiced by a male, and add in some elements of darker Sci-Fi to add realism and to expunge the memory of the 14+ seasons from our brains! since the manga came AFTER the Anime, (unlike most anime which is either based on manga or at least written well) the manga is probably as bad as the anime. compare this to Yu-Gi-Oh!: Yu-Gi-Oh! is based on an extremely well written manga series of the same name, then came the card game, then the video game (or vice versa) it actually has a good voice cast, writers (since it's based on a good manga) and models for the characters. I give Poke'Mon video games a 9.89* rating, the card game a 6.43* rating, and the anime a  2.1* rating. the only thing keeping it out of the 1* and below category is the hardly there redeeming qualities of popularizing the franchise further than the games took it, and the fact that they always seem to make a rather compelling case for watching the show one more time every series in the theme song.

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