Christopher Mackay's Blog

arial or helvetica? a quiz from iliveonyourvisits.com.

It’s easy — the ugly one is either Helvetica or Arial.

A computer shop’s sales pitch: ‘We remove Vista’

From what I hear, Microsoft’s actually done a reasonably good job of improving security in Vista, but people really seem to hate it.

I still haven’t used Vista (XP & XP pro on the non-Macs here), and I’ve only seen it on one person’s laptop in the wild, and that person loved it (but found some of the changes to where things are stored took some getting used to, as compared to XP).

Sonic Solutions Online Store – Shopping Cart

So, I decide to get the new version of Roxio’s Toast, because Toast 7 is not Leopard-compatible.

But they have the audacity to charge a $16 premium for Canadian customers. At today’s exchange rate, $99.99 US equals $99.53 Canadian, but instead of fifty cents off, we get charged $115.99! If they think I’m willing to be ripped-off just for the privilege of not living in the United States, they’re nuts.

Interestingly, I’ve discovered that there’s upgrade pricing that does more closely follow recent exchange rates: the upgrade from Toast 7 is $59.99 US or $59.93 Canadian. That’s better. Now I’ll buy.

They also have a $20 rebate on the full product. But instead of selling the software at a discount, they take the sleazy route and do it as a mail-in, even though you’re buying direct from the manufacturer. Talk about a transparent attempt to skim extra profit from customers too lazy to bother. I suppose I should be happy the rebate’s not for $19.91 Canadian…

Things are improving, though: when I bought Toast 7 about a year ago, the rebate was only valid in the United States, something they didn’t bother pointing out until after the transaction was completed. Beyond contempt.

Katemonkey.co.uk: X-UA-Lemur-Compatible: “Lemur 11: It’s been a few weeks since we’ve had an Internet riot. Let’s go for it.”

The blue Zeldman toque is an instant internets classic.

(Via Digital Web.)

YouTube – ZENN on the Rick Mercer Report: Zero Emissions, No Noise. Of course, there are emissions, they come from the power plant, not the car’s tailpipe (it doesn’t have one).

According to Who Killed The Electric Car?, though, even coal-fired power plants are radically more efficient than gasoline-powered cars, so it’s still a major net-benefit (6 fewer tonnes of carbon emissions a year per car, according to the president of Zenn).

5min – Penn & Teller: How to Do the Saw Trick – Video: breaking the magician’s code.