Roadkill in the browser wars

Well, *that* was an interesting new wrinkle. When I started working today, I discovered that my IE setup had mutated. My Google toolbar was now shoved over to the side, with the AOL toolbar taking up most of that space, and my browser bars were locked into that position. I know that *I* didn't do that. It's hard to be sure -- there's always the possibility that Windows just decided to rearrange everything on a whim -- but it does rather look like the pushing and shoving in the Toolbar Wars (the latest twist on the Browser Wars) is getting a bit more aggressive.

But okay -- I'm enough of a geek to know what to do about *that*. Time to disable the AOL toolbar, and only let it out of its cage when I actually need it. (No, I can't uninstall it: since I'm responsible for *our* IE plugin, I need to have all the others around so that I can debug bad interactions. But if AOL isn't going to play nice with others, they can damned well sit in the corner the rest of the time.)

Is it just me, or has AOL gotten more annoying and antisocial lately? They now open up a full-scale browser (a customized and locked-down version of IE) when you open AIM, which takes a *ton* of screen real estate, and I can't figure out how to turn the damned thing off. Having to keep an eye on the competitors is getting to be more and more of a pain in the butt...

Roadkill in the browser wars

Well, *that* was an interesting new wrinkle. When I started working today, I discovered that my IE setup had mutated. My Google toolbar was now shoved over to the side, with the AOL toolbar taking up most of that space, and my browser bars were locked into that position. I know that *I* didn't do that. It's hard to be sure -- there's always the possibility that Windows just decided to rearrange everything on a whim -- but it does rather look like the pushing and shoving in the Toolbar Wars (the latest twist on the Browser Wars) is getting a bit more aggressive.

But okay -- I'm enough of a geek to know what to do about *that*. Time to disable the AOL toolbar, and only let it out of its cage when I actually need it. (No, I can't uninstall it: since I'm responsible for *our* IE plugin, I need to have all the others around so that I can debug bad interactions. But if AOL isn't going to play nice with others, they can damned well sit in the corner the rest of the time.)

Is it just me, or has AOL gotten more annoying and antisocial lately? They now open up a full-scale browser (a customized and locked-down version of IE) when you open AIM, which takes a *ton* of screen real estate, and I can't figure out how to turn the damned thing off. Having to keep an eye on the competitors is getting to be more and more of a pain in the butt...

Y'know, Al Gore has gotten a lot more interesting since 2000...

Yow.

Thanks to msmemory, who pointed me at this transcript of Gore's speech yesterday. It's long, but a damned good read -- a truly incindiary call to action. It pulls absolutely no punches, calling everyone in government to task. Frankly, if the man had shown half this much passion in 2000, he might have won that election...

Y'know, Al Gore has gotten a lot more interesting since 2000...

Yow.

Thanks to msmemory, who pointed me at this transcript of Gore's speech yesterday. It's long, but a damned good read -- a truly incindiary call to action. It pulls absolutely no punches, calling everyone in government to task. Frankly, if the man had shown half this much passion in 2000, he might have won that election...