MacWorld’s browser round-up

MacWorld has put together another browser comparison. It’s fairly lengthy and in-depth, and I’d recommend it for those of you who, like me, enjoy testing different software to see if you find something you like better.

That said, it would have been nice if MacWorld had waited just a bit. Firefox 3 is light years ahead of Firefox 2, and as I stated earlier, it’s replaced Safari as my browser of choice.

Of the others covered by MacWorld, the only one I’ve used with any real enjoyment is OmniWeb. I paid or it a couple of years ago. However, I can’t justify paying for it today.

Confessions of a Doctor Who fan…

My name is Sam Hall, and I watch Doctor Who.

There, I said it. I’m a fan of Doctor Who. Growing up, I loved the original series. Tom Baker, of course, was my favorite, but it was actually Peter Davison who I saw the most.

I came late to the new series, which started three years ago as a BBC show ported to the Sci-Fi Channel for American viewers.

Flipping channels one afternoon a while back, I came across the distinctive theme. It was just a couple of episodes in on a marathon of the first season of the new series, starring Christopher Eccleston.

Eccletson, of course, lasted only one season. Just as I was getting accustom to the new Doctor Who, the end of the marathon threw me for a loop when Eccleston regenerated into David Tennant.

“Isn’t that just my luck,” I thought. “I’ll probably hate the new guy.”

Wrong. So wrong. Tennant is my new favorite Doctor. And while I know the fact that I get all giddy about having a new favorite portrayer of a childhood icon marks me as a bit on the geek side of things, I truly do not care.

I’ve seen every episode of the new series, save the two Christmas specials that began seasons 2 and 3. My uncle (actually Tara’s uncle, but who’s counting…) and I even bought an old series of Tom Baker and had a marathon a few Saturdays ago.

Season 4 begins on April 11 on the Sci-Fi Channel. And while others may be out partying, I’ll have just put my children to bed as I settle back into my office chair and watch Doctor Who.

Why not watch it in the comfort of my big, cushy chair in the living room, you might ask? Because my wife thinks Doctor Who is stupid, and she won’t watch it with me.

Shows what she knows!

Ecclesiastes, Proverbs for the 21st Century

The unexamined life is not worth living. —Socrates

For several years I have been lurking on sites such as LifeHacker, ZenHabits and 43 Folders. Each offer great tips on everything from technological productivity to enjoying life and work more with simple pleasures.

It was from these sites, and many like them, that I first started yearning for the freedom in life to work for myself. And while my decision to leave my old newspaper and start afresh as a consultant may not have been all mine or have happened under the best of circumstances, the end result has been glorious.

My favorite books of the Bible are Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. If you are reading a Catholic Bible, I would throw in the Book of Wisdom. They are full of bits of wisdom, a users guide, if you will, to living a moral and peaceful life.

In many ways, these sites are the 21st Century equivalency, though without the religious overtones. To boot, most have a good community of people who interact in comments and cross-postings.

Through following these sites I’ll post the “neater” findings here, along with my own tips and tricks that I’ve developed over the years.

Why? Because one of my greatest interests at this point in my life is living better. It is a real calling for me, and I want to share what I discover along the way.

And I encourage you to visit a few of my favorite sites:

• 43Folders
• Escape from Cubicle Nation
• LifeHacker
• Tim Ferriss
• Unclutterer
• ZenHabits

I’m subscribed to twice as many feeds similar to these, but the ones I listed above are by far my favorite.

Writing on writing … really?

Some people tire quickly of reading writers write about writing. Fortunately, I’m not one of those people. I’m hoping that people who pick up on this category of my blog agree.

The first thing I ever wrote was before I entered grade school. It was called “Bugs Bunny and the Magic Carrot”. It was a story about how that wily ol’ Yosemite Sam tried to trick Bugs into thinking he had found a magic carrot.

You see, every time Bugs chased the carrot, it moved a little further away. Bugs soon caught on that the carrot was attached to a string, so he cut the string and took the carrot. I even illustrated it.

OK. So the plot was thin and the illustrations were bad even for a 5-year-old. But I still wrote it, drew it and stapled it together as a book for my mother.

That interest — the writing, not the drawing and stapling — led me to a career in journalism. I’ve since left that career, but I’ve not left writing. I’ve done a bit of freelancing and have returned to working on my short stories. I’ve added to my cache blogging.

What I’ve found is that in each vein — journalism, creative, freelancing and blogging — the writing process changes very little. Styles may differ greatly, and inspiration may sprout from different places, but the approach, execution and substance is very much alike across all plains.

Along the way, I’ve chosen various software for my writing — TextMate for blogging and Scrivener for creative and freelance work — and can’t be without certain tricks on my laptop — full screen writing or using a black desktop void of files to mimic full screen in TextMate.

These tips along with various projects on which I’m working I will share here. So again, as in a few other sections of this blog, this serves as little more than an intro. But it serves its purpose, and that’s all we can ask of our words.

Bubbles, balls and a break from Merlin

I’m learning how to use Merlin, a project management tool that I plan to utilize as I manage various projects for different clients. For managing a campaign, I believe it will be quite useful in tracking all of the different staffs, consultants, projects, etc.

But there is only so much sitting in front of a computer on a pretty Saturday afternoon one man can take. So when Mommy and Joshua headed outside for some playtime with bubbles and his favorite ball, I couldn’t resist joining in on the fun.

We left Ella asleep in her crib, but we were right outside her window to hear her if she woke up. (She never did. She’s still asleep as I post this.)

Here are a few bubbly shots of Joshua and Tara. And since I promised pictures of Joshua’s birthday party and never delivered, you can see them here. His aunt, uncle and two cousins came over. (Kristen is Tara’s sister.)

Now, it’s back to the tutorial.

Blue spot in a red state

Democrats are not exactly a dying breed in Mississippi, but we’re definitely outnumbered. Why, I have no idea.

Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the nation. In the past five years, Republicans here have:

• Kicked thousands of elderly low-income people off Medicaid
• Limited an individual’s access to the courts by capping how much negligent companies/doctors/individuals must pay if they are wronged
• Underfunded public education
• Refused the will of the people by repeatedly killing bills that would cut the grocery tax in half (Mississippi has one of the highest grocery taxes in the nation)
• Cut funds for the Mississippi Department of Transportation

Nonetheless, many people here — like many people everywhere — have bought into the misconception that if you are Christian or have conservative social values that you must be a Republican. That’s a sham of an idea.

Still, Republicans are masters at labeling things and then persuading people to blindly follow those labels.

In this spot, I’ll explore political happenings from time to time. Don’t expect straight partisan ramblings, however. Republicans are not without good ideas, and there are a few other political movements that don’t fit neatly into a two-party system.

So this kicks things off for the Politics section of my blog. It’s not much more than a space-holder, but at least it serves the purpose of giving you an idea on where I stand in politics and what I plan to blog about in this space.

A traveler’s light

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” — Psalm 119:105

Few preachers consistently move me like Elder Sonny Pyles. He is an old-school Primitive Baptist preacher from Texas. Until Sunday, he is preaching a meeting at Grace Primitive Baptist Church.

Elder Pyles began the meeting with a Thursday night sermon based on the above scripture. He talked about the “lights” of the Bible. His message, at its core, was rather simple and elementary. But the lesson was quite thought-provoking and — if taken to heart and applied — quite powerful.

The Traveler’s Light

Elder Pyles told the story of having to travel through the night from Tennessee to Texas, nearly 500 miles, to get to his mother who was gravely ill.

“I did not have 486 miles of light in front of me,” he said of his headlights. “I had maybe 300 feet of light. I had just enough to keep on traveling through the night.”

Elder Pyles’ point was that we are taught to take life a day at a time, that what we have been given in foreknowledge and understanding and wisdom offers us no real glimpse of what the future holds. But, if we live a life of Godly works and act as an example of righteous living toward others, then God will provide for us.

This speaks to not dwelling on the troubles of the past or worrying about the difficulties of the future — lessons that should be taken to heart by people of any faith. And it does not dismiss the idea of planning for the future. To not do so would be irresponsible toward our families and ourselves.

But to live simply for what we can control in the present is a smart idea, one of biblical grounding.

Night lights

Elder Pyles said the most important lights in his house are the night lights his wife has plugged in various places. They have saved him from breaking toes on many occasions.

Likewise, the Word of God, he said, can act as a night light for those who find themselves in the dark, lost from a righteous path of living.

Simple scriptures, like those found in Psalms or Ecclesiastes or Proverbs, can provide encouragement and strength and guidance. These books — along with any of the others — are filled with more than parables and commandments. They offer real substance in the realm of living a fruitful, productive, peaceful and loving life.

And when we find ourselves starved for positive influence and feelings, when we find ourselves feeling around in the dark, the Bible is the best place to turn.

Warning lights

Back to a car analogy. He told of an old friend whose “check engine” light kept coming on.

“I need to get that light fixed,” the old friend kept saying when he saw it come on. Of course, other things kept demanding his attention. Then one day, his car gave out on him and he ended up parked in front of this business.

When the old preacher friend went inside, he realized it was not the kind of establishment he should be visiting. (Elder Pyles did not say what kind of business it was, but I suspect a strip club or a bar of some sort.)

The lesson: Heed the many warning signs.

From my own personal experience, my conscience has warned me time and time again about certain paths I was taking. My gut told me not to do the things I was about to do. Fate would intervene with a reminder via a song on the radio that I was making a wrong decision.

Whatever you call it, God gives us warnings. The best set of warnings reside in the Bible. Again, the simplest, most practical of these are also the most powerful. (Don’t commit adultery, do not steal, live in a peaceful manner, etc.)

We will all fail, some of us worse than others. Thankfully, forgiveness can be ours. But we could also avoid the pain and strife caused by our mistakes if we would simply head the warning lights.

Simple truths are simple pleasures

It seems to me that as a society in general we often get so caught up in the things of this world that we miss the simple pleasures in life. The same can be said for many churches, who seem to be getting caught up more and more with the things of this world that they miss the simplest of lessons.

From my perspective, there is a certain irony to the newfound and growing worldliness of mega-churches, the same institutions that decry the worldliness of society as a plague. For certain, the simplicity in Elder Pyles’ message is a reminder of the simple truths the Bible has to offer.

And in those simple truths is a well lit pathway to a more fruitful life and a more pleasurable way of living.

Firefox 3 versus Safari 3.1

My adventures with Firefox have generally ended badly. I’ve always found it to be sluggish and bloated. Start time and page renderings frustrated me, and after a few days of what I said would be a weeklong test I would give in and return to my browser of choice: Safari.

Nonetheless, with every new improvement, I download a Firefox update and toy around with it, trying to figure out what the fuss is all about. (I’ve done the same with OmniWeb and Camino, but never have I developed the love-hate relationship I have with Firefox.)

Then came Firefox 3, specifically FF3 Beta 2. FF3 was going to be more “Mac like”, and that intrigued me. Of course, the theme was still an add-on, but I could live with that.

The address bar was improved, bookmarks had tagging ability, the memory leak problem had been fixed and it was faster! The early reviews were intriguing, but I knew what was going to happen. What always happens was going to happen. I would download it, play with it a few days and then close it in disgust and violently rip it from my dock (well, as violently as you can rip a program from your dock.)

But a funny thing happened. I actually liked it. It felt good to use. Some of the features that I loved about it seemed to work better. It had advantages to Safari that made me not want to go back. And while I did go back and I largely skipped Beta 3, I’ve returned for Beta 4 and am giving Firefox the long-deserved test run it deserves.

Why? Several reasons.

Speed and rendering

Finally Firefox gives me the speed I need in a browser. Make no mistake, overall Safari is faster. Still, the difference in speed is not that noticeable. And on some sites, Firefox wins. I’m good with this new speed improvement.

The other big drawback, until now, was the way Firefox rendered pages. No other browser has ever done what Safari does with fonts. Reading pages in Safari is easy. Your eyes don’t strain. It’s a beautiful rendition of the text. Firefox 2 was abysmal. Not readable. Horribly ugly.

In Firefox 3, things are much improved. No need for Vi-sine as your browse. (See MacWorld for a quick comparison of text rendering — and a better review of FF3.)

Bookmarks

I admit that I hate bookmarks. They are wildly useful but hard to tame. I have hundreds upon hundreds of bookmarks that I routinely have to go and trim ever so often.

And bookmark functionality has never been well done. A single keyboard shortcut (usually Command-D) was about the extent of usefulness in bookmark implementation in Safari. Not being able to sort bookmarks alphabetically within folders (which can be done now, but it must be all bookmarks at once) is a nuisance.

But my biggest problem was organization. Del.icio.us answered the question with tags for bookmarks. The ability to sort and search by tags and then see what else was out there based on those tags revolutionized the way people browse with bookmarks.

Still, I hated having to use del.icio.us just to access bookmarks that I may not use every day but use frequently enough for the extra steps to be a nuisance. So I engaged Quicksilver to do the work for me, and that bit of functionality works well. (I’m a Quicksilver disciple.) I can search my del.icio.us tags and bookmarks from Quicksilver and launch what I need into my browser.

In the end, though, I want my core bookmarks native to my browser. I want to search by tags so that I do not worry about hierarchal filing of every last little site I bookmark.

Voila. Firefox 3 addresses my need, and it does so well. First, it adds tags to bookmarks. This is nice, but not revolutionary. Also, it defaults your bookmarks to an “Unfiled” folder so you can come back and clean up at your leisure.

Furthermore, it adds a set of Smart Bookmarks to your bookmarks bar. These show you recently bookmarked sites, recently used tags and the sites you visit the most.

One bit of functionality that is not native that should be is a menu item inside bookmark bar folders that allows you to add a bookmark to that particular folder. You can get this through an add-on.

Address bar functionality

Firefox 3 has a more intuitive address bar. When you begin typing the Web address, it provides you with smarter lists of addresses than does Safari. Instead of just a list of addresses, you get page titles with the addresses below it. But that’s just the beginning.

You can type a part of the page title or the address (say “store” for Apple Store or store.apple.com) and Firefox will find it and throw it toward the top of your list.

You can also search your bookmarks by tags in the address bar. For instance, typing in “research” will bring up a list of my sites that are tagged with “research”, complete with a tag icon that lets you know an address was found based on a tag and not on either page title or address.

RSS feeds

I’ve never used an add-on or a browser’s native RSS reading functionality for very long. The plug-ins in Firefox were never given a good shot based on my quick frustration with the program in the past. And neither Safari nor Firefox has good enough implementation of RSS reading at this time, though I’m hoping one eventually does.

Instead, I use Google Reader. Why? I’ll tell you later, but if you do not use it then I encourage you to give it a try.

That said, Firefox allows (and has since Firefox 2) a user to add feeds to Google Reader just as you would add a feed to Firefox itself or to a standalone application. Safari allows only adding the feed to Safari or to a standalone app. This lack of functionality is a real hinder to my workflow when I have to copy a feed address, open Google Reader and manually add the feed.

With Firefox, it’s a 1-2-3 step process that is seamless from feed to reader.

Zoom, zoom, zoom

Another improved functionality of Firefox 3 is its zoom capabilities. I use two monitors that are both set back on my desk. From time to time, my tired eyes demand larger print.

Until now, zooming in on a Web page more than about two times destroyed the page. The reason: Graphic elements were left alone, causing them to crowd into growing text. It was sloppy, first-generation implementation in second- and third-generation Web browsers.

Firefox 3 gets it right. When you zoom, now your images are zoomed proportionately as well. While you will see some natural degeneration of your images, you see a proportional Web page that is easier to read. Terrific!

Add-ons and plug-ins

Firefox 3 gets add-ons right for those of us who do not want to bloat our browser but still like a few frills.

With Firefox 2 on a Mac, every new add-on seemed to slow my browser by a fraction of a second. Given that Safari was (and still remains) the faster browser, slowing down was a big strike against Firefox 2.

However, now I can add-on my favorite frills and not be set back any real speed. Too, restarting Firefox is much quicker, so I don’t get “buyers remorse” waiting on the program to reload with my new toy attached.

To note: Some add-ons still do not work with Firefox 3. This includes some mighty important ones, like del.icio.us buttons, will not be available until the next version of the bookmarking network is launched.

Tab selections

I love being able to select tabs with the command key. Command-1 gives me my first tab, Command-2 my second tab, Command-3 my third tab and so on and so forth.

For someone who continually has multiple tabs going at once, usually for research or Web development, being able to quickly choose my tabs via my keyboard without having to flip through them is an absolute must.

This is not new in Firefox 3, but it is one of the reasons that Firefox has always been ahead of Safari, which selects bookmarks when using the Command key in conjunction with a number key. (This is also wildly useful, but I mimic this behavior with a Quicksilver trigger with my targets being Command-Option-Number.)

Style

Ironically, it’s Firefox 3’s overall look and style that keeps me coming back for more. Under Tiger, Safari was downright ugly. I used Saft to get an Aqua look, which made it bearable. Still, it was ugly.

Under Leopard, the unified look helps. Still, it has no pizzazz. It lacks the simple elegance that most Apple products have. Instead, it’s just simple.

On the flip side, Firefox 2 looked too cartoonish for me. I hate a bunch of toolbars and gaudy colored buttons. And the Mac themes of old were little better than Safari.

So the developers over at Mozilla put a bit of time into the “look and feel” of Firefox 3. They knew Mac users are a picky lot (and we are). So with substance, they wanted to add style.

Thankfully, they finally got it right. On a Mac, you get a native theme that feels like a Mac application. It is far more attractive than Safari. My only knock could be that the top tool bar is just a little deep, eating up a bit more screen real estate than it has too. Still, it is not enough to really matter.

Style may not be important to you, but it is to me. And enjoying the look and feel of the app I use as much as anything else on my computer is an absolute must!

Shortcomings

Firefox 3 is not without its shortcomings. The main one is the way it handles pdf’s. If you encounter a pdf with FF3, it downloads it to your desktop and leaves clutter. That’s a HUGE no-no for someone like me, who 90 percent of the time has a beautiful, black desktop with absolutely NOTHING on it.

To get around this, you can use the PDF Download add-on, but it doesn’t fully fix your problem. With the right settings, it will open your pdf in your default reader without downloading it, but the title is replaced with html naming conventions, which makes it difficult to rename if you decide to save the pdf. (This may work better with an Acrobat Reader plug-in. I’ve not tried it since I don’t have Reader installed.)

The other pdf-related functionality that Safari beats Firefox on is printing. Firefox 3 lacks the ability to natively export a page as a pdf. Instead, you have to print it and use Leopard’s built-in pdf drivers. However, the pdf that is rendered does not look like the page you viewed.

If you just need the nuts and bolts of the page, this will suffice. If you need a representational pdf of the page and its full contents, you’ll have to switch over to Safari for your pdf print needs.

I get around this by using Journler and dropping the FF3 page into it. That creates an archive of the page, which I can then print as a pdf in almost perfect form. (Journler, by the way, is a great piece of software. I’ll share with you my workflow in it later.)

Taking her for a spin

It was a few weeks ago when I killed off FF3b2. What got me was the pdf and no Web Archives. I’ve learned to live with the lack of great pdf functionality, and I’ve figured out a great workaround with Journler for my Web archives.

But even before doing so with FF3b4, I found myself remembering fondly my last interlude with the browser. It was a love-hate affair that finally found love. And so far, now a full week into using Firefox 3, I may have finally settled in with a new browser of choice.

Remember, this is still beta software, but it is thought to be about one or two steps away from its final form. Either way, it is a stable version that I have used with no real problems.

Ella’s first Easter

This was Ella’s first Easter. Her mother donned her with Easter Bunny ears, which were a bit big for her head. Nonetheless, she was as cute as could be.

This is Joshua’s third Easter and also his second birthday. We’ll do birthday this afternoon. At 2, he’s surprisingly adept at unwrapping small chocolate eggs and helping himself. Before we noticed, he had eaten four or five. (We’re hoping he crashes from his sugar high about the time we get to church.)

His favorite Easter Bunny gifts were two hot wheels. Dad enjoyed them about as much as Joshua during breakfast.

Enjoy some of the scenes from the Hall Easter morning here.

Back later with Joshua’s second birthday. It’s an Elmo theme with a splash of Cars, his favorite two things.

Welcome to samrhall.com

Welcome to my little home on the Web. As you can see, I’m just getting things up and going.

In the coming weeks, I’ll add more content — from blog posts on topics such as politics, writing and lifehacks to the different consulting areas in which I’m involved to additional pages about me, my family and the work I’m doing.

Just to get you started, I’m a former journalist turned political consultant who still enjoys writing and graphic design. I’ve been the publisher of several weekly Mississippi newspapers and one small daily in west Alabama.

On the political side, I’ve worked as communications director for the Mississippi Democratic Party and caucus director for Democrats in the Mississippi House and Senate. I’ve since moved to a more non-partisan role in politics, currently helping to organize and manage a race for the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Taking the route of a freelancer/consultant is giving me the opportunity to learn more things that I’ve always wanted to learn, such as Web design. I’m just starting to toy around with simple designs, such as this site by customizing a WordPress theme designed by Brian Gardner.

I’m also talking with a few small Mississippi weekly newspapers about helping them to launch Web sites. Our goal with these sites is to give small, rural newspapers a good presence on the Web but not break their budget or cause them further strain on a usually one- or two-person newsroom.

Finally, I’m not complete without my family, something I’ve grown to realize more and more in recent months. My wife, Tara, and I have been married since the summer of 2002. We have two children — Joshua, 2, and Ella, 8 months. Our family is rounded out by our two cats, Hemingway and Huey, and our beloved dog, Rosie. (Unfortunately, Rosie is not living with us right now.)

As I’m wont to do, I’ll share with you two photo galleries of my family at leisure, here and here. The first is of us at the lake for the afternoon. My son loves to feed the ducks. The second is of us building a bird house at the library one evening. Tara did a better job of decorating than I did of building.

That’s about it for now. Check back often, as I hope to have my full site up and going within two weeks.