Firefox Is Better Than Microsoft Internet Explorer

I don't understand why more people on the Internet have not switched from Microsoft's Internet Explorer to Firefox. I've been using the Firefox browser now for several years and find in better in almost ever single aspect to Internet Explorer. However, most major websites report that most users still prefer to use Internet Explorer. I think the main reason for IE's success is due to it being bundled into the Windows Operating System. If I'm right about this reasoning, then "Vista" is going to create a huge possibility for not only the next version of Internet Explorer, but for Microsoft's new search engine, "Live" as well.

The world is changing so fast right now, it's getting more difficult for me to keep up with some of these changes as I get older and my mind doesn't operate as fast as it use to. I do have some concerns about the new "Vista" OS and those concerns evolve around the numerous delays in the release of the system. A positive person would believe that these delay are just the result of Microsoft wanting to "get the product right" before it goes on the market. I tend to believe that there are some pretty big problems with "Vista" and this extra time is need just to get the OS to work the way they have promised.

With the exception of updating my "virus definitions", I visit the Microsoft "Windows Update" page more often than any other. I do this because there have been so many holes found in the various Windows OS's which hackers try to exploit for their personal advantage. The conventional wisdom is that hacker’s find more holes in Windows because it is the most popular OS. However, I believe there are inherent problems with how Microsoft builds their OS's in the first place. The truth is that Microsoft has always desired to be a proprietary company and their products are built to give Microsoft a bunch of information into what their customers are doing with their software.

This attempt to find out as much information as possible about their customers, leave gaps in the software which regular hackers can use to do damage to those same consumers through backdoors and holes in the software language. In a perfect world, there would not be folks who would try and break into a system, for no other reason than the challenge of it. However, we all know this world is less than perfect and sadly there are thousands of people who think that they are doing the world a favor by finding and exploiting holes in Microsoft's software and Operating Systems.

In the near future, I plan on sticking with Firefox over Internet Explorer. I love how easy this browser is to operate and I frankly trust their security better than any version of Internet Explorer I have seen so far.

SCA Earthquake Predictions - The 'Big One' Is Overdue

The past couple of days, several earthquake research companies have released information claiming that a major earthquake is overdue in the Southern California area. While I sometimes look at these research studies with much caution, I believe this information is correct. I’m basing my opinion on history and not any particular scientific facts. History is littered with huge earthquakes in the Southern California area, which are caused, primarily, by the San Andreas Fault. From what I know about these huge earthquakes, they must eventually happen to relieve the stress on the earth because different underground plates are constantly moving and eventually, something has it give.

Most parts of the United States have, at one time or another, been subjected to earthquakes. Even in Waco Texas, where I live, there have been earthquakes in our past. Most of these quakes took place thousands of years ago and most people never give them any thought at all unless they current live in a “frequent earthquake zone”. I’m sure the millions of folks who live in the Southern California area know, all to well, about what will eventually happen when a huge earthquake hits this region. There is little other way to describe what is going to happen to the Los Angeles area when a magnitude 8 plus makes a direct hit on that community except to say that there will be billions of dollars worth of damage.

In addition to property damage, which will make Hurricane Katrina look small by comparison; collapsing buildings and weakened infrastructure failures will kill thousands of people. Several hundred thousand more people will be seriously injured in a huge Southern California earthquake. The most anyone can do at the city, state and federal levels of government is to prepare for this “Armageddon” and then do the best they can to pick up the piece of Mother Nature’s wrath. I use to wonder why so many millions of people made the choice to make Southern California home when these earthquakes are bound to happen and cause them to fear for their lives and property.

I heard a person say once on TV that living in Southern California is like living in paradise. This person also said that there is always a price to pay if someone desires to live in such a beautiful place. This explanation makes as much sense to me as any other one and lets face it; there are no truly safe place to live on this planet. Whether it’s tornadoes which threaten people where I live or Hurricanes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, there are dangers in any place and what folks do is just settle themselves to this fact and move on with their lives. There has been talk of new research, which might be able to give a few hours warning, in the future, when a major earthquake is going to hit. However, I don’t see much benefit to having that notice when it would be impossible to get millions of people evacuated in the effected area.

Most likely the Southern California area will be hit by a major earthquake in the next decade and the Americans who live in this region of the United States are going to need the help of all Americans just to have a chance of survival. I remember people reaching out to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina last year and I have no doubt that the American people will be there, for their Southern California neighbors, when they need our help, as well.

Work Without Pens At The Office

At my office in recent years, if I don’t take my own, personal, pen to work each day; I can’t find one in the building to use for my work, no matter how long and hard I look for one. I’m beginning to think that there is some kind of new mental illness on the loose in corporate America and it involves the “hoarding” of pens. It’s not like my company doesn’t buy pens for use in the building, they buy hundreds of them each month, but unfortunately most of these pens seem to leave our office, somehow.

Some folks around the office joke about there being some type of “ghost” which comes out at night after everyone has gone home and this “ghost” steals all the pens in the building. My explanation is a little bit more based on “hard bitten reality”; I think these pens leave the building in the pockets and purses of company workers and end up in their homes and apartments. Stealing from your employer is a very serious crime, these days, but very few folks consider taking a pen or two as any kind of crime at all.

My personal pen, that I take to work each night, was a gift from a coworker, for Christmas last year. It is a very thick pen and I like thick pens for some reason more than the thin ones. A couple of weeks ago, a guy that I work with pretty closely at work; left after I did one night and notice that I forgot to pick up this pen when I left for work. The next day he asked if I had forgotten my pen the night before and when I said yes, he said he had hidden it so the pen thieves wouldn’t take it the next morning before we got back to work. I really appreciated him doing this because that pen would have been “history” if he had not of taken that action of hiding it for me.

There seems to be people who start research studies, these days, on just about every subject a person could think of, but to date I don’t think I’ve read anything about the terrible problem of pens disappearing at the workplace. I think at one of my coworkers homes there is a huge stockpile of thousands of pen which will never be used, but this person must get some type of “enter strength” by having these pens around, just in case they ever need them. When I consider all the potential problems facing folks at the workplace these days, these pen thieves are not high up on the list, but spending valuable time each day trying to find a pen to use is both time consuming and a very frustrating way to start ones day.

I can only image the news reports, in the future, if one of these research companies decides to start trying to find out why some people feel it necessary to steal pens at work. Hopefully, their findings will be treated more as a joke than an actual new mental illness for the world to worry about. I did recommend to the boss the other day that she should consider using the same approach to stopping pen thieves as the convenience store across the street. They have their pen connected to a good-sized chain, which is connected to an old wheel rim behind the counter. No one is going to “honestly” leave the building with that pen and maybe that is what is needed to stop folks from putting a pen that doesn’t belong to them in their pocket and walking out the door?