Just took a little trip to frye’s electronics. I went for some more RAM for my work computer (yay), but I came back with so much more.

I plopped down 19 big ones for this little baby:

It’s a USB powered drink cooler. Put any beverage on that metal blue plate and it will keep it at a brisk 45degrees.

Pretty sweet. I’ve been eying it for a little over a year now, and just finally decided to go for it since they had an open box one that was a whole dollar off.

Now I can go home, and if I feel so inclined, pop open a bottle of Harp or Bass, put it down on this bad boy, and drink it over the period of an hour or so during respawns whilst I enjoy a bit of CS:S. Always before my beer would get warm about half way through.

Awesomeness.

This morning I got my weekly PC World article in my mail box. “14 programs you didn’t even know you needed”.

One of the programs was a “Maxthon”. Up until this point I had felt the writer’s Microsoft bashing was just hollow lip-service to the audience he thought he was writing to. When I read this portion, I knew the guy was a Microsoft lover through and through.

He is talking about different web browsers, and he says,

“Sure, there’s Firefox; it’s sort of the DIY log cabin that Linux devotees build themselves because, you know, Microsoft is evil.”

DIY log cabin? Has this guy even used firefox?

He goes on to describe Maxthon as the savior of all browsers, then says,

“it originated in China and has never been properly marketed in the United States or Europe.”

Oh, ok. So there is this revolutionary new browser out there that is super awesome that no one can hold a candle to that just WROX!

So I download it.

It pops up and it looks like a nursery room. All these pastel buttons every where. It makes me feel like I’m about to browse a more tame, safe, friendly internet. Blech.

First thing it does is annoy the piss out of me. There are about 5 alert boxes that pop up asking me to make major decisions that I have NO idea which way I should go on. It’s like being dropped onto an alien planet that is at war and immediately being asked to choose sides, before you even get to see either side.

So I’m not impressed.

I decide to give it some more tries, so I click on the “open a tab” button that they handily place next to the last open tab. This is a feature I noticed in IE7 that I liked. The little “+” button to open a tab. With firefox, there is no “+” button, so you don’t really realize that you can just double click in the empty space to start a new tab. You could download a firefox extension to add the button if you wanted, but it adds the button to the left of the tabs, not to the right. So while it doesn’t have more functionality than firefox, it’s actually a little more usable so far…

Ok, so let’s just go to the google homepage and see what happens. I type in “http://www.google.com” in the URL bar and hit “Enter”. I’m immediately gunned down by more alert boxes (two of them, I have no clue what they asked as I have become accustomed to immediately closing any box that pops up unexpectedly from the days of pop-up ads online). Then google opens up in a new tab. Ok… I try it again, just to be sure this is going to happen each time, but this time no pop-ups. So, ok, instead of giving you default settings, then letting you find and change them, they force you to pick defaults immediately and suffer the consequences forever unless you go through the work of trying to figure out where to set them differently. Nice.

I decide to click on “» Visit Official Website” on the Maxthon default start page that the browser opened with. It opens the link in a new tab. Hrm… Looks like any link to an external site automatically opens in a new tab. That is actually pretty nifty…

I click around for a while. Doesn’t look like the site creator is a native english speaker. They’re very fluent, but there are a few things here or there that just sound kind of funny. Don’t flow real well.

It’s a pretty sweet browser for some Chinese hacker dudes to have thrown together. It works pretty well. It’s a little glitchy/choppy but doesn’t really throw any errors. I go to some AJAX heavy websites and they function fine, which is impressive for a home-brewed browser.

Then I click on something about “Awards”.

The first thing I read on this page is:

“Maxthon’s innovative IE-based browser combines the proven reliability and compatibility of IE with their compelling features providing users with an excellent choice.”

- Gary Schare, Director of Marketing, Windows Division, Microsoft

No. Dear lord no.

I feel dirty and violated. It’s basically just a skin. A skin for IE.

My theory is that back in 2003 the Chinese division at Microsoft was given the green-light to start exploring alternative browsing widgets and techniques. Basically to start emulating Mozilla or Opera on top of their crappy browser platform. China was a perfect place for it, because it would stay in the shadows, away from the prying eyes of the critical American hacker culture.

In China they could experiment, make mistakes, screw up, and work through the crud until they came up with enough shiny features to pass the test and then use all of the research, toys, and experiments to create IE7. Then after that, they could release the whole science project under the auspices of being an “IE alternative” much like FF, but better.

This whole browser, the one I had just downloaded and installed, was a MS research program for IE7 prototyping. IE7 was launched to keep the people using IE6 from switching to FF, and Maxthon was released to get the people who used FF because they didn’t like IE to use IE without knowing it. It’s a pig in a fox’s clothing.

So, in the words of Strongbad, “DELETED!”

…than ever make any money building anyone a pop-up advertisement.

The day I find myself in a position where I have to choose between writing any evil code and finding a new job, I’ll quit in a heartbeat. I don’t understand anyone who wouldn’t. I just feel like writing evil software is like being paid to go shoot out the knees of good people (I’d write malicious code to bring crackers to ruin in a heartbeat, just like I’d put a bullet in an enemy combatant’s knee in a heartbeat).

Check this out:

http://evil.hackademix.net/fullscreen/applet.html

This makes me want to get “Gary’s Mod” for Half-Life 2:

So, after going to their concert last night, I decided it was high time to head on over to HPB and buy their cd.

Of course, they only sold 500k copies, so it was highly unlikely that I would find one there. Sure enough, no cd.

So I headed over to Best Buy to shell out the bucks. Not there either.

So I headed over to the mall to see if there was a music store there. Yep. “F.Y.E” it was called.

I headed back to the pop/rock section and found “Third Eye Blind”. They had all four cds (That’s the first, second, third and compilation). The only copy they had of the third one was a used one (awesome!) for $9. That’s perfect because my music budget each month is only $10 (which means I spend blow money on cds when I want to buy new).

I picked it up and headed for the register.

Upon arrival, I was not greeted very pleasantly. Apparently my appearance was an inconvenience. I would greet my customers that way too if I had to badger them with a gauntlet of questions…

As he rang up my cd he exclaimed, “You know, this is a used cd, so if you guy two, you get one half off!”

Ode to joy. “That’s ok” I responded unenthusiastically.

“Wow, are you sure you don’t want to go look around a little more?” He asked confusedly trying to hand me back the cd so I could scamper off to make my other selections.

“Yep, pretty”

“ok…” He looked a little hurt. He scanned the cd and, “Well, this cd is actually only $7.99 instead of $8.99!”

“cool”

“Yeah! And right now we have these special cloths” he said waiving a little package in my face, “that will wipe scratches and stuff off of cds that maybe aren’t playing too well anymore, they’re only $.99!”

“I’ll pass”

“Even though you already saved a dollar on the cd? That’s like breaking even…” He said with a furrowed brow, wiggling the cloths between his hands at me.

“Even though!” (Breaking even? wtf? Why not come out a dollar ahead?)

“ok… Are you a rewards discount member?” He intoned as he shoved a rewards card towards me.

“no thanks”

“Oh, ok, well it’s only $24.95″ He picked it up and began to make motions like he was going to scan it.

Didn’t I just reject the offer? “No, that’s ok.”

“All right… Please choose which free magazine you want to receive!” He put down the rewards card and slapped down a flier with pictures of magazines on it.

“I think I’ll pass”

“Well ok then, your total is $8.47″ He looked very disappointed. I almost told him that I’d changed my mind about the magazine as I handed over my card to be swiped. I held my tongue though, and he crammed my cd, mile long receipt, and advertisements into a tiny bag as I signed his copy.

“Thanks” he said, and I responded in kind. Whatever happened to “Have a nice day!” I wondered, and almost said it to him, but didn’t want to seem patronizing as I was already walking away.

So in closing, F.Y.E. is a great place to get used or new music, but you have to either be assaulted with sales pitches at the register, or just make a run for it with your cd and hope the guards don’t nab you before you get away. It’s kind of a toss-up… Maybe next time I’ll just chuck the exact change at him and run.

1:44 PM me: Man, “Wake for Young Souls” by Third Eye Blind on their “out of the vein” album is pretty awesome…

“I wonder what they’re up to these days?” I thought as I relished in the music.

A wave of panic struck over me as I irrationally thought “crap… I never bought their third cd. I’ve never even listened to their third cd besides a few songs on Finetune… What if they broke up?!?”.

I frantically popped open a new tab in Firefox and typed in “www.thirdeyeblind.com”. It came up with a generic filler domain page. Oh no. They let their domain expire! What happened?

I sadly browsed to their wikipedia page to find out what their sad fate was. After reading a little bit I found they were still alive and kicking. Their real address was 3eb.com. Sweet. Oh, and they are even coming out with a fourth cd! Cool! Except… I’ve actually never bought a 3eb cd. Well, that is to say I’ve never been extorted by the music pirates for my 3eb music. I purchased the first two cds at Half Price Books for $2 and $7. I didn’t even have their third cd…

I idly clicked on the link to their web page and did a double take when I saw the announcement:

Third Eye Blind in Indianapolis, Indiana

Thursday, August 2 @ 8pm
Egyptian Room
502 North New Jersey Street
Indianapolis, IN

WHAT??? Are they… is it… could it be?

me: Probably

Now, I have never been to a concert before (besides Amy Grant/M.W.Smith). If I were to pick one band to lose my adult concert virginity to it would have been either Third Eye Blind, Dashboard Confessional, or Brittany Spears(just kidding).

But… but… could I actually go? It was just six hours away…

There were just too many reasons not to go. I had too much work to do. I was going to stay late at work and still not get enough done. We don’t really have a whole lot of money to blow. Julie’s ear had been ringing for like two weeks from some kind of ear infection or something and I didn’t know what a concert would do to it. Plus, it looked like it was sold out because there was no $ link to click on to buy tickets (like there was on their other upcoming shows). I gave up and went back to work.

We deliberated for the next two hours (according to the chat log, which I won’t bore you with). Julie got off work early and stopped at Marsh to buy tickets. Marsh had just stopped selling tickets the day before (that’s right, Marsh no longer sells tickets to anything). Great. I bought them online and printed them out. We were going. We were actually going.

I will admit here that I was nervous. I mean, it’s Third Eye Blind. They got me through two bad relationships with gems like “Motorcycle Drive-by” and others. I used to just listen to their cds over and over and over. There is no possible way they could ever live up to my expectations. Would going to their concert ruin them for me? They were so high up on a pedestal that I knew that going would knock them down, just hopefully not too far…

We got there right at 7pm when the doors opened. Joy of joys 5 drunk frat boys got in line behind us and their lewd shouting conversation consisted of dissertations on how much they loved 3eb, what their favorite song was, and how small their (the frat boy’s) penises where (small? Why would you drunkenly declare that???).

Finally we got to the door, and after being frisked and patted down we entered and had our tickets scanned.

We moved up the stairs and found a table half way back. There was a crowd gathering around the stage and 90s music was blaring from speakers at a comfortable volume. I looked around and saw a lot of… highschoolers? and old people? What was going on? Where are all the other looser geeky 20 somethings like myself who were fans when 3eb came out? How did these kids even know about them? I felt old…

Julie and I played war on the table until the opening band started. They sucked. Well, they didn’t suck so much as they were horrible. One of their songs was about how this girl wasn’t “pretty” enough for the ugly band leader. ok…

After a bunch of songs that we could only barely make the words out for because of how loud and distorted the music was they quit, and we cheered inwardly for it. I don’t think we even clapped politely though.

I had a couple of beers and Julie had a Diet Coke, and we sat there. The tables were filling up around us. A fat 4o something gay couple sat next to Julie. A drunk 40 something woman sat behind me with her obnoxious friends. A screaming ear splitting reunion happened right behind us as two girls who probably barely knew each-other jumped up and down hugging and talking at 50k mph.

Finally FINALLY 3eb came out to the pounding thundering screaming crowd strumming out the heavily distorted tones of the first song from their first cd “Losing a Whole Year”.

We couldn’t see, so we stood up and went and stood directly next to the music box (where they adjust the sound levels).

For the next 90 minutes we sang along to all of the songs. They played like every “single” from their first and second cd, as well as a few songs from their third. As an added bonus they played two songs from their upcoming album, but neither were that great (although I have noticed that usually the first time you hear a non-”single” 3eb song it’s not that great. They tend to really grow on you the more you listen).

The crowd screamed for them to sing “Motorcycle Drive-by” and they happily obliged. It’s my favorite song, so I screamed it out along with everyone else, probably really off key from how loud I was singing. I completely forgot to watch and listen to the bass player (it’s one of three songs I know on the bass so I wanted to see him play it).

So, did they get knocked off their pedestal? Sort of…

At one point Julie turns to me and says “Is… is the lead singer gay?”

“Shut your mouth! I don’t ever want to hear you say that again!” I yelled back at her in mock anger.

What the heck was she talking about? How could she say that about him?

Then I started watching him, and to my horror she actually had a point. Then he started talking to the crowd, and oh crap, this dude was… was… he was… maybe that’s just how all artists are. Slightly effeminate, sappy, whatever. He was flipping his wrists funny, and at one point I thought he might have actually be skipping…

I left the concert unsure about him, but on the drive home we determined that the dude was just a huge dork. That’s fine, not everyone can be the “cool kid” in school. But I really didn’t picture him as a dork. I pictured him as a more rugged… more “manly” guy. Of course from how I had him built up in my mind anything short of a love child between dirty harry and the terminator who was combined Frankenstein style with Han Solo and Indiana Jones and then given a guitar made out of bent metal with a sawed off shotgun for a neck would have been disappointing…

He came across as cheesy and fake though. At one point he was talking about the point of the tour being to “come and get energy from you to capture and put into our fourth cd. I can feel it tonight, from you and you and you and you (pointing at people in the screaming crowd). It’s here, and it’s awesome” and you are a cheesy LIAR.

At the end I decided to buy a t-shirt to commemorate the occasion with, but they took cash only and there was no atm around. There was one right across the street, but the security guards wouldn’t let me go out and get money and come back in. Great. Julie said I could just order one online. Yeah…

So we left and went home with our ears ringing and the whole world feeling like it was suddenly devoid of sound. We had fun though (my ears have still not stopped ringing btw). I’d do it again, but next time I’d bring ear-plugs and get the tickets cheaper (order in advance or something).

All in all, a good time.