Anyway, in order to get to your farm, you must wait a few seconds for the application to load. But the application is in flash and there is no flash visible yet. So what exactly is it loading?

Well… nothing exactly. It’s just waiting for the ad to display for 5 seconds so then we can move on to the actual preloader included in the SWF. Here’s the exact Javascript from the page:

function InitGame() {
try {
startGame();
} catch (err) {
}
}
var timer = 5;
var adControlled = false;
function atrDefaultInitGame() {
adControlled = true;
ShowTime();
}
function atrGetControl() {
adControlled = true;
}
function checkInitGameUnderControl() {
if (!adControlled) {
showPlayNowMessage();
}
}
// test if after 5 seconds no ad has explicitly made
 responsible of showing the init game link
// also, in case after 10 secs the ad hasn't finished,
 show the init game link
setTimeout(checkInitGameUnderControl, 5 * 1000);
setTimeout(showPlayNowMessage, 10 * 1000);
...

Yup, do check those comments right there.

Scenario:

1. I find a great looking Acer monitor on some website: Acer S243HLbmii
2. Google search the bastard! First result, the Acer website. Great, I’ll go straight to the source and get my information. Quick and simple.
3. I end up at a strange URL:

   http://us.acer.com/acer/product.do?LanguageISOCtxParam=en&rcond5e.c2att92=169&inu49e.current.c2att92=169&link=ln314e&CountryISOCtxParam=US&kcond47e.c2att92=169&rcond159e.att21k=1&kcond48e.c2att101=62722&rcond190e.att21k=1&acond23=US&rcond4e.att21k=1&sp=page17e&rcond157e.c2att92=169&ctx1g.c2att92=169&rcond42e.att21k=1&kcond50e.c2att92=169&rcond45e.att21k=1&rcond158e.c2att1=0&ctx2.c2att1=0&inu53e.current.c2att92=169&rcond38e.c2att1=25&var13e=US&rcond44e.c2att1=0&rcond186e.c2att92=169&rcond3e.c2att1=0&rcond28e.attN2B2F2EEF=3264&rcond189e.c2att1=0&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=712559224

   Whatever, this shouldn’t be a problem, I used a search engine. I’m also never going to send this to anyone, right?
   

4. I find the S243HL model, click it and wait for the fancy sliding and fading effects. And wait. And wait.
5. This must be a problem because of the URL.
   1. Go to Acer homepage.
   2. Browse products, monitors.
   3. Nice and shorter URL this time. Click again on my model.
   4. Wait.
6. Then this must be a problem because of Firefox. Switch to Chrome. Wait.
7. The damn thing must have been built for IE. Open IE. Wait.
8. Javascript problem maybe? Disable javascript. No fallback whatsoever…

In the end I believe that it is definitely somehing bad I’ve done. Maybe I didn’t click on something, I didn’t use the correct Firefox version or I have a weird IP address.

Picasa: OK, great. This installer will automatically use Romanian based on you location. Who cares if your default language is English. Heck, I won’t even give you the option to switch languages.

Me: Oh well, I’ll just change that later.

Picasa: I’m done installing. Let’s run Picasa for the first time! Do you want to scan all your computer or just your Desktop and My Documents folders?

Me: I keep my photos on my network! I want more options or a cancel button! Oh well, I’ll just select My Documents folder then.

Picasa: OK, searching right now. It looks like I found a 1080 HD movie on your desktop. I bet you want me to generate a thumbnail for it. Working…

Me: That’s it. I’m removing these folders from your settings.

Picasa: No you are not. I’m not responding to your commands anymore.

Me: The I’ll just end the process.

* tries again to start Picasa and remove the Desktop folder. Same problem. Finally deletes the troublesome file from the desktop. Picasa eventually accepts the removal of the folder.

Me: Let’s change your language now… English US. Great, it works!

Picasa: Yep, although some shortcuts in the Start Menu are still in Romanian. Isn’t it great you couldn’t change the language before installing?

• OK. A 13 inch display screen isn’t really that small and having a 1280×800 resolution (like many of the 15″ laptops) means you get a decent amount of space. Most IDEs like Eclipse fit just fine on the screen but I wouldn’t recommend doing any graphic editing since that does require a little more than this resolution has to offer.
• BAD. Capacitive media buttons are cool for about 5 minutes.
• AWESOME. The remote control that fits into the express card slot is awesome. Apart from shielding the slot from dust (which would be otherwise covered by a useless piece of plastic) it proves quite useful at presentations or watching a movie.
  
• USELESS. Fingerprint reader is also cool for a few hours. I haven’t even installed the drivers anymore. So it’s useless at this point for me.
  
• USELESS. Who uses a DVD unit anymore? Even Windows can be booted and installed with an USB stick. If I could I would remove it completely and probably buy an external USB unit for emergencies. Now it only uses space, power and adds to the laptop’s weight.
• BAD. The power button should be positioned on one side, not beneath the screen. You may want to connect the laptop to an external display + mouse + keyboard and disable the laptop’s monitor. But now you still have to open the lid to power it up.
  
• BAD. Not having an edge to edge monitor screen means you get dust and dirt stuck right on the margin above the actual pixels.
• OK. The integrated webcam and microphone are rarely used but prove useful when the need arises. The bluetooth and card reader are great as well.

So what would I look for in a laptop If I was searching for one right now:

• A maximum 13″ display if you want a mobile unit. Otherwise let’s just call it a desktop replacement :).
• Power button access without opening the lid.
• Multimedia remote control (play, pause, mute, next, etc).
• Volume controlled by a physical wheel situated on one side. Yes, it’s not so cool but is extremely fast and easier to use than buttons for +/-.
• HDMI output. This is a must have.
• A minimum of 2 USB ports.

I would also not worry about the HDD’s capacity too much. Out of a 250GB HDD I’m only using 50GB (Windows 7 32 bit and all software needed is installed). All the important and heavyweight data (photos, movies) are stored at home on my NAS.

Here is a quick guide:

1. Launch Adobe Flex Builder.
2. Help > Software Updates > Find and Install… > Search for new features to install
3. New Remote Site…
4. URL: http://flexformatter.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/FlexFormatter/FlexPrettyPrintCommandUpdateSite
5. Finish
6. Restart the IDE
7. Use Ctrl+Shift+F (by default) to autoformat your source files.

It’s great that you can sync your bookmarks now. Another nice thing is that an extension from Xmarks is available (last time I checked on the Xmarks site, they didn’t offer any integration with Chrome).

However, no Firebug yet. And Firebug Lite doesn’t count!

Firefox is like an old wife:

• you have lots of things in common with her
• she doesn’t move too much and is very slow
• she’s not exactly the prettiest one out there
• she takes a lot of your memory
• sometimes she breaks down (and cries)

On the other hand, Chrome is like a young chick:

• looks sexy
• she is very active and fast
• she doesn’t have any experience

I want to switch over to Chrome, but she is still too young :P

It’s a screenshot from Age of Empires: Rise of Rome (a great game, by the way). Using TinEye you can find the (supposedly) original source at http://www.lauppert.ws/screen1/rise_of_rome.jpg. However the ad takes you directly to Travian, a multi-player browser game.

• $56 according to mywebsiteworth.com
• $2372.5 according to websiteoutlook.com
• $95 according to websitevaluecalculator.com

The disturbing problem is when people use those values in business proposals:

Hey, my website was valued by websiteoutlook.com at $2372.5 so I got to get at least $2000 for it.

Why would you even consider this information useful to your buyer? There could be only one of 2 explanations for this:

1. you are dumb
2. you believe your potential buyers are dumb

And here are a few such listings:

• http://flippa.com/auctions/82838/High-Traffic-Directory-Earning-Over-100-Per-Month
• http://flippa.com/auctions/82871/Domain-and-Site-TwitterTrafficTips-com-For-Sale
• http://flippa.com/auctions/83096/Custom-Coded-Forum-Approved-Free-Image-Host-For-Sale
• http://flippa.com/auctions/81837/Link-Directory-Network-Earning-240-Per-Month-No-Reserve

Also, there are some other cool features I found out about just now: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/about_whatsnew.html. You can also buy storage starting from 5$/year for 20GB that is shared between Docs, Gmail and Picasa (higher packages have a proportional price, so no discounts there). Imagine sharing all your photos with everybody. Flickr has a pro account at 25$/year so we should see a decrease there also.

I love when Google plays around and sets trends. First there was the 1GB email storage space on Gmail which forced Yahoo to lift their 10MB limit (seems funny now, doesn’t it?). Competition is always great for end users.