Mozilla Shortcut Keys and AWESOME Thunderbird Extension

Monday, April 9th, 2007

Whoo yeah I’m excited!

About two months ago I got a new Apple Macbook Pro. I love it, it’s rad, I love using it etc. But something that’s been bugging me no end is that I don’t know the shortcut key to jump to the address bar (where you type http://…etc) in Firefox. In Windows you just do Alt-D and you’re there, I think that works in Linux as well, but on OS X it’s no go.

Well, I’ve just found out the shortcut keys for not only the address bar, but the search bar as well (and also in Thunderbird!):

jump into the search bar in Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird
Cmd-K (Mac), Ctrl-K (Windows)
jump into the address bar in Mozilla Firefox
Cmd-L (Mac), Ctrl-L (Windows)

Mozilla.org has more juicy keyboard shortcuts.

This is super good news because now I can use basically the same key combo on Windows and on OS X. My life just gets better and better, friends.

Something else that’s kinda annoying about Thunderbird is that it’s not GMail. I love GMail and all my mail goes through it so that:

  1. tons of spam gets filtered out by GMail’s awesome spam filtering
  2. I can access a copy of all of my mail from anywhere on the internet (except work who block GMail…argh)

But not only does my mail all go through GMail, I download it all via POP3 to my Thunderbird mail client. This is because:

  1. I then have a backup copy of all my email on my own computer and am not just trusting Google to never go broke/lose my mail/start charging me to access it/something else unforeseen
  2. I can access my email when I’m offline, eg on a plane or a train or whatever

But as I was saying, Thunderbird is not GMail and despite being a proper rich, fat-client desktop application, it doesn’t have the great shortcut keys that make GMail so quick to navigate and move messages around. Plus it doesn’t have that whole “archive and forget, then search later” philosophy, it has the old-school “carefully choose category-based folders for your messages and then take forever to find them later” philosophy, which is so 1998 and lame :P

But what I’m getting at is that now thanks to GMailUI Thunderbird works like GMail, adding j,k and other shortcut keys to navigate messages as well as a really cool “Expression” search mode that lets you search just like you do in GMail.

As I said, my life just gets better and better.

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Yeah Fitness First Sucks…Still, And Not Just For Me!

Saturday, April 7th, 2007

In case you didn’t know Fitness First sucks, they do.

I went to the Fitness First gym in Brisbane city on Wednesday to try and further resolve the issues I had on Monday night. Armed with the info in Fitness First’s own online FAQ, my plan was to march in, politely demand to sign the forms I need to sign to quit the gym ASAP and then go on my merry way.

Of course that didn’t happen, because trying to leave Fitness First is like trying to leave the Yakuza.

“No I’m sorry I can’t give you a form, you have to make an appointment, so that the proper person can sign the forms with you. You could just come in and quit anyone’s gym membership, I am not qualified to verify who you are, each gym only has one person qualified to terminate memberships.”

Apparently, the reasonably intelligent (possibly smarter than some nightclub bouncers, for example) man taking phone calls, booking appointments and whatnot (we’ll call him Doofus for now) is not capable of comparing my photo ID with my face to verify that it’s really me who is requesting to terminate my membership.

But, anyway, what about my signature? I can write a cheque for $100,000 and sign it and my signature alone is enough information for the bank to transfer that money. I think it should be enough to quit a gym! Send the form to head office, compare with my original contract, terminate membership, job done.

What a bunch of crap. I think we all realise that this complete pain in the ass is just to get me into a room with a salesperson to talk me out of quitting, or find out my reason for quitting, or to make me procrastinate quitting. Awesome, that really improves my experience as a customer.

While I am standing trying to get Doofus to just give me a damn form, a cute girl wanders up to the counter beside me with a bank statement.

“Can I help you?” asks Doofus. Cute Girl replies, “I called up because you guys keep billing me even though I have quit my membership, so I brought in my bank statement because you said you would refund the money.”

I find this amusing, frustrating and disappointing and I feel like shaking somebody wearing a Fitness First polo shirt, yelling into their face, my spittle dotting their smug cheeks and forehead. But I wish Cute Girl well on the long, hard road I think she may have ahead of her.

Doofus then suggests to me a very limited number of appointment times, the next one that I can attend is Tuesday 10th April, one day after my next billing date. Doofus says that he will use his Braille keyboard to put into the computer that I have come in to terminate my membership that day, Wednesday 4th April 2007. This would mean that I only have to pay two more payments instead of three (or over ten, assuming they remember to stop debiting my card.) I don’t believe him, but I make an appointment for the Tuesday.

I ask some more random questions before leaving. I harass Doofus with a few more questions and weakly ask “so you will put in the computer that I am quitting from today?” before leaving, he agrees that he will but I am certain that I will be paying at least three more membership payments.

Entertaining as my stories are, I’m not alone in my grief with these glossy anti-customer corporate mafia gyms. Choice magazine has done a bunch of surveys about how satisfied Australians are with their gyms, and Fitness First are the worst, along with chicks-only Fernwood (no dicks…except the management?) Lots of great stuff there, like:

  • high pressure sales tactics
  • no workout plans for new members (36%)
  • little or no help for new members in using machines and equipment (22%)
  • money continuing to be deducted from accounts after membership ends (3%)
  • not being offered a fitness assessment (39%)

Ergh.

Oh and one other thing. Most gyms you go to (where they actually give you a fitness assessment), will call you throughout your membership to see how your membership is going — are you happy, do you feel like you’re going enough, are you getting something out of the gym, how is your program going, etc. This didn’t happen once with Fitness First, which was convenient because I didn’t receive a fitness program to be asked about. I did get two phone calls, both were sales calls to try and get me to refer more members!

Hah, no thanks.

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Fitness First Make Me Feel Dirty

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007

Oh my god could Fitness First suck any harder? Yeah that link is to my last blog post about Finance First, I wrote it in a sad attempt to justify to myself that I really wanted to join. The pressure of having my mate there waiting to get his discount after I join was I think really what made me do it.

But I’ll get the positive stuff out of the way cause nobody wants to read it. Compared to other gyms, Fitness First was good for the following long list of reasons:

  1. I could go to any gym (in the Valley, in Brisbane city, Mt Gravatt…) which was awesome and I did this

Anyway I’m moving into the CBD (which I am so stoked about) and my new place has a gym in the building. My Finance First contract expires in two weeks so I want to ditch them so I can afford to eat after I move. Easy right? Just sign a form that says “okcyabye” and done.

No.

To quit Fitness First, you have to make an appointment to see the “Customer Care Manager”. Customer care! If they cared, they would let me quit now. But no, I can’t make an appointment for 8 more days (next Tuesday) and the only out of business hours appointments are booked up. Same for Wednesday. I guess I could have found out about Thursday but I was going to strangle the girl at the front desk until her apathy squeezed out all over the floor, so I huffed off upstairs after exclaiming my bewilderment and confusion at the situation.

Let’s review Finance First’s helpful website FAQ (apparenty questions they get asked frequently):

How do I cancel my membership after the minimum term has expired?
After the Minimum Term you must give us 4 weeks written notice (counted from the next direct debit date) preferably using the required form supplied by Fitness First and availabe at the club.

It is preferable that you make an appointment to see the Customer Care Manager (CCM) who will help you fill out the paperwork. If you can’t make an appointment, you need to put your request to cancel your membership in writing to the CCM preferably at your home club (where you joined originally). You can do this via email, letter or fax and it’s recommended you follow up with the CCM to ensure your notice of cancellation has been received by the club.

Financial penalties will apply. For explanation of the Minimum Term, please refer to your contract.

It’s like a cult. Once you’re in, you never get out. I guess all I need is counselling, a bit of an attitude adjustment and I’ll see why I really don’t want to quit Fitness First after all…they’re my friends, feel the love.

Interestingly, my “next debit date” (9th April) mentioned in the above FAQ answer is one day before the next available appointment (10th April). That means I wouldn’t get to quit for 5 more weeks! Handily, I would also get to pay three more payments to them instead of two, when really all I want to do is stop using their gym that I have been so privileged to pay $960 for over the last 12 months.

Also interestingly, I should “preferably” use the required form (is it preferable or is it required?), and submit the preferable/required form to my “home” gym, I imagine to avoid confusion or to track sales leads, or something else that as a customer I really could not give a toss about. My plan was to just write a letter and take that to the gym near my house (Mt Gravatt) but I think that would just be asking for trouble; and extra transactions on my credit card.

This kind of stuff gets me fired up. I am the customer here, why do I have to jump through the hoops? Why can’t I just ring up and quit? Why can’t I just fill out a form? Do I get a bad credit rating if I just get my bank to deny the transaction? How about if I have already given them a letter?

So if you’re thinking of joining Fitness First, look around for alternatives first. They’re expensive, they get you in with high pressure sales tactics, they don’t give you any help with your workouts unless you hire a personal trainer (who are all actually self-employed, not by Fitness First), they lock you in with contracts unless you pay exorbitant fees, and they make it hard for you to quit.

Overall I’ve enjoyed my Fitness First membership but things like this are just frustrating and a waste of time and money, so try and avoid it.

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Patience is a Virtue…for NERDS

Monday, February 26th, 2007

If patience truly is a virtue, then the guys who made these two videos are really virtuous. Check out this Line Rider insanity:

Yes it’s crazy huh? Well this is nutser in a more hardcore nerd way. A guy has built a robot that can solve a Rubik’s cube! It’s called Rubot. Apparently the “scanning phase” isn’t shown, and the robot was given an easy cube that wasn’t messed up very much so that the video didn’t go on for 15 minutes. Coolness:

Enjoy kiddies!

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Hey That’s Todally Swede

Saturday, February 3rd, 2007

roundabout dog

I came across this Swedish guy’s blog. I’m mentioning this for three reasons:

  1. I love the site’s layout; and he links to a few cool things:
  2. Roundabout Dogs
  3. Stupid Cats (mainly for Bowman but if you like it then good for you. I love the condescending note the phrase “good for you” has)
  4. He had this quote: “Norway outlaws the iTunes Store. It�s apparent that Apple will have to Sweden the deal.”

Plus there was a link to a page that linked to a talk by Adam Bosworth that goes into ajax, databases, Google, information organisation and more nerdy cool stuff that you would like if you were as nerdy as me. Adam Bosworth is a mySQL guy who now works for Google by the way, and the talk is from April 2005 but it’s still a feast of info.

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Jack Johnson’s Porn Career!

Monday, January 29th, 2007

I was doing some very involved and important research on Jack Johnson, the
surfing “folk/surf-pop” musician. Little did I know, Jack had an illustrious
porn career back in his uni days!

Haha I laughed so hard at this; attached is the screenshot cause it’s not going
to last forever and I don’t really want to be found on Google for the keywords
within it, haha.

Anyway, until it gets taken down, enjoy Jack Johnson’s porn exploits here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Johnson_%28musician%29

jack_johnson.PNG

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Fixing a Blurry Philips 107P Monitor

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007

My shiny, expensive (for a 17″) TFT is being a moron and going bright for about a second before turning off its backlight so I can’t see a thing. I think it’s under warranty…I hope it’s under warranty.

Anyway you don’t care about that, you care about finding out what to do when your Philips 17″ 107P monitor picture goes fuzzy, don’t you? This would probably apply to other monitors as well, and anyway you should definitely read this
FAQ called “How do I adjust the focus of my monitor?,” which I used and found inspiring and helpful. Yeah I said inspiring, I wasn’t going to try fixing the screen myself because I nearly killed myself messing about in the insides of a monitor once before.

Anyway, you don’t care about me nearly dying either, you want to know how to fix your blurry Philips 107P screen, don’t you? It’s really easy, you just need a philips head screwdriver.

So what you need to do is take off the plastic cover of ye olde Philips, by removing the screws marked in the pic below:
which

That pic is kind of unnecessary, basically just keep taking screws out until the plastic cover comes loose. If you take out more than 6, you’ve taken out too many, you fool.

Now all you have to do is use your trusty screwdriver to twiddle the internal focus knobs through the holes in the aluminium shielding, as indicated in the pic below.

focus control knobs to adjust Philips 107P screen when the monitor picture is blurry to fix the monitor

I actually took off the aluminium shielding, but you don’t actually need to, I just had no idea what I was doing, and the FAQ linked above said that you may need to take it off, so I did. Now that I’m shining a light to show you the way, you won’t need to go through the pain that I endured. Good luck to you, old chap.

So basically the story is that you need to have the monitor turned on and plugged in to your computer, so you can stick your screwdriver in and twiddle the focus knobs. The top one seems to be the main one, but the middle knob seemed to me to be adjusting the edges of the screen a bit better. But I can’t say for sure what they do, so just twiddle until it looks right.

The bottom knob adjusts brightness or something, you will probably want to leave that one alone.

Good luck adjusting your fuzzy, blurry Philips screen. Don’t electrocute yourself, that would be moronic because you need to be living to be able to enjoy a sharp monitor. Dying is for quitters.

Filed in Super Interesting, Tech, help | | Permalink | Comments (0)

Girls Can Do Anything!

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007

I was with my old pal (we’ll call her JB) at the Pig & Whistle in Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall the other day. They have a challenge on the bar which has a lemon floating in water in a jug. There’s a note that says if you can balance a coin on the lemon, you get a free drink. I’ve been there before and tried it and I had no hope — my money was in the bottom of the jug in two seconds.

JB balances a coin on a lemon and scores a free drink!

Well, bloody JB balanced the coin straight up. I was in awe.

The sad part of the story is that we were just having coffees and not Long Island Iced Teas.

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Mate, you’re such a jackass

Tuesday, January 16th, 2007

First, some definitions:

jackass:
fathead: a man who is a stupid incompetent fool
jack: male donkey
ass:
the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on; “he deserves a good kick in the butt”; “are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?”
a pompous fool
hardy and sure-footed animal smaller and with longer ears than the horse
arse:
buttocks: the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on; “he deserves a good kick in the butt”; “are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?”
anus: excretory opening at the end of the alimentary canal

Heaps of Australians since the release of Jackass: The Movie and Jackass Number Two somehow can’t determine how to correctly pronounce the word “jackass”.

Cobbers, I’m gonna to tell you right here — it rhymes with “bass” as in “sea bass”! OK? It’s ass like donkey, not arse like buttocks.

There’s no flamin’ thing as a “Jackarse“! A jackass is a male donkey. If the movie were made by Australians, English, South Africans or some other nation that doesn’t do dumb stuff like drop “and” from numbers (one hundred thirty two? wtf) or very important letters (aluminum pronounced “aloomernerm” is pointless), it would still be called “Jackass”, unless it was called “Dickhead”, which is actually more likely. It wouldn’t be called “Jackarse” because there’s no such thing.

So you bloody drongos, I say don’t bring yourselves down to the level of the Amurr’kins with their innernit and aloomernum. Just because they’ve lost the distinction between “ass” (a donkey) and “arse” (buttocks/anus) doesn’t mean we have to.

Australia has a rich tapestry of insults and vulgar slang, let’s keep it that way. Ass and arse are different, jackass doesn’t sound like “jackarse” so next time you’re tempted, do it right. Have some balls, digger! You can do it!

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Toilet Seats — Get Over It Please

Sunday, January 7th, 2007

OK, I’m going to weigh in on the great toilet seat debate.

“Oh my god! Does he say ‘up’ or ‘down’?” I hear you ask eagerly. Well, wrong on both counts kid, you’re missing the damn point.

The point is, you should be closing the lid of the toilet after you drop your guts into it, ’cause when you flush, little particles of poo and wee get splashed around your den of solitude. So stop arguing about whether the stupid seat should be up or down and close the lid!

So this makes the whole seat debate just really dumb and boring. Complaining that somebody left the toilet seat up when you need it down (or vice versa, but who complains when people leave it down?) is just banal and ridiculous. Here’s why:

  1. It takes, like, 1 second to reverse the situation. Do you really need to save that single second of your time?
  2. What makes you and your needs more important than the other person’s?
  3. You need to have something more important to care about. Oh, here’s something you can try to get started: think about the toilet roll instead. Is the paper over or under? Now you’re tackling some serious issues. Don’t overdo it!

Well that’s all I have to say on this waste-of-time non-issue, now you will be well equipped to deal with any toilet seat without wetting yourself about whether it’s up or down. Don’t forget, after you finish put the lid down and wash your hands.

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