There’s a pretty good amount of downtime where I work (at least a lot of the time). Since as of tomorrow I will have been working there for three months, this seems like a good time to list what I’ve read since I started. This is seriously more than I’ve read altogether in the past few years prior to my new job, sadly enough.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles (re-read)
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (re-read)
Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen Ambrose
Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters by Dick Winters and Cole C. Kingseed
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Corner by David Simon and Edward Burns
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (re-read)
Currahee!: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy by Donald R. Burgett (halfway complete)

Next up: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Over the weekend I was hanging out with a friend and for whatever reason we started discussing web browsers.  Since I’m still living in the days of RAM not being inexpensive, I always become concerned when programs use inordinate amounts of memory. For quite a while Firefox has had a pretty bad problem when it comes to memory management which can be seen by running the browser for extended periods of time. The longer you use it, the more memory it needs. For example, you might start up the browser and see that it’s only using ~24MB with one tab open, but after using it normally for a few hours and closing all but one tab it might use something more like 70-100MB. Even if this is only because of the browser’s RAM cache, Firefox clearly isn’t doing enough to free its memory for reuse. (In fact, it’s hard to even find settings for the RAM cache. You have to use about:config and while you can enable or disable the cache, you have to create a new value ‘cache.memory.capacity’ to change the cache size.)

Because I’m interested in memory usage, I decided to try out the latest version of Firefox (the 3.0 beta) and see how it compared. Unfortunately, my idea of doing a side-by-side comparison didn’t work out because even after installing the new Firefox into a new directory and trying to run each manually from the executables, the only one I could get to start was the newer version. After restarting, the only one I could use was the older version. There’s probably a work-around, but I decided not to bother, because at this point I was informed that the Opera web browser is now completely free (and not even ad supported anymore). I think I missed that memo by maybe two or three years.

Way back when, I used to really like the Opera browser. But then a bunch of stuff happened with built-in ads and some other stuff and of course Firefox was new and seemed pretty nifty, so I kinda lost track of Opera. After downloading it a few nights ago, though, I’m kinda bummed I wasn’t using it at least alongside Firefox, because it’s pretty good. I’m not sure yet how much better it is with memory, but it definitely feels faster than Firefox in just about every way. (Note: if you haven’t noticed already, this is turning into a shameless Opera plug.)

It has this cool Speed Dial thing where you can customize a list of your nine favorite sites and then every time you open a blank tab, you see this 3×3 grid and you can click on the site you want to visit. It’s faster and simpler than bookmarks or toolbar buttons for your most commonly visited sites. I also like searching from the address bar rather than the dropdown search bar in Firefox. You can just type “g search term” to search google or “w whatever” for Wikipedia or any number of other things that you can easily set up (edit: I’m now finding that Firefox has this feature too, but I sure as hell never knew about it before). Page zooming is a cool gimmick, as is easily turning images on and off for an entire page. Then there’s mouse gestures and the superior download manager (it even has a built in BitTorrent client for people too lazy to use microTorrent).

There are drawbacks of course, the biggest one being lack of tens of thousands of third-party plugins. If I were slightly more of a plugin fiend, I could see myself only wanting to use Firefox. Opera sort of makes up for not having my favorite Firefox plugin (Adblock) with a built-in “Block Content” feature, but it feels pretty clunky and doesn’t always seem to work on the things I want to block. So, I’ve switched back to the traditional and superior HOSTS-based method of blocking ads. I miss having Forecastfox to tell me the weather, but I can live without it. All in all, Opera seems pretty decent, and for someone who doesn’t use a bunch of plugins, it’s definitely worthwhile when compared to Firefox.

“I think Tim Leary was right. Everyone must create his own religion. You must start your own religion. I have my own religion. Every sadhu has his own religion in India. They say every lama has his own religion in Tibet. Find the way you can genuinely be you. What do you like to do? Find God there. Find out what your special gift is and where you find that connection, what really makes you happy, and follow that way.

The peace that comes from letting go and surrendering is incredible. Again and again it keeps coming back to letting go of our own will to have a plan about where we’re going and a goal. It seems that we spontaneously align with the Plan of God for us. I think that’s the whole “follow your bliss” thing. It’s really Thy will be done, not mine. Jesus said it all. Love the Lord with all your heart and soul, and your neighbor as yourself. That’s it. There is no one out there but us. And if we can just put God first, Om first—offer the food up, offer the day up—then there is peace.”

– Bhagavan Das, excerpt from It’s Here Now (Are You?)

A while ago I wrote to Energizer about an article I had read on-line. I didn’t put much effort into what I wrote. In fact, this is all I sent:

Please explain:

http://www.newstarget.com/PhotoTour_Energizer_Batteries_3.html

Basically, someone opened up an Energizer D-cell rechargeable battery and found that inside the big battery, there is a much smaller battery. Not only that, but the battery has a lifespan of only 2500mAh, which is comparable to other batteries (such as AA batteries) that are much, much cheaper. Surprisingly, I actually received a reply to my not so well-written inquiry. (I use an alias when doing stuff like this in order to track sources of spam. My name is actually Mr. Ebben.)

Dear Mr. Hajo,

Thank you for contacting Energizer and for your inquiry.

All Energizer NiMH batteries have the mAh capacity on the label. There is no deception concerning the battery capacity and the D size designation only represents the batteries physical dimensions. We have found that most D sized devices will work satisfactorily with the Energizer NiMH batteries and the rechargability of the product is a true advantage of this chemistry.

D size rechargeable batteries have historically used a smaller internal unit cell. The main driving force behind this design is to keep the battery affordable to the average consumer. High capacity rechargeable batteries are more expensive than our standard rechargeable D size battery due to the increased volume of materials needed. In addition, they require a higher capacity charger to deliver acceptable recharging times which are also more expensive. Our research indicates that the high upfront cost for the high capacity rechargeable batteries and special charger would discourage many users from trying these batteries.

Clearly a high capacity D size NiMH battery would be beneficial in certain applications but we have found that the market for this type of battery is minimal due to overall cost. Energizer will continue to evaluate this market and look for a cost effective opportunity for higher capacity NiMH batteries.

Thank you for contacting Energizer. If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Wow. Well, first of all, this reply was much better than the one I received from Carl’s Jr. asking whether Hardees is superior because their logo advertises Charbroiled Thickburgers rather than Charbroiled Burgers (they said they’d contact me with more information and never did).

The Energizer reply does seem to make sense from an economical standpoint. It’s cheaper for them to sell lower-capacity batteries, regardless of the form factor. However, I really have to question whether these batteries are so expensive to make. I assume that Energizer still makes a hefty profit on their ~$12 rechargeable D batteries and that they’re trying to spin it so that it looks like the consumer is actually saving money.

In reality, many consumers probably don’t even know what ‘mAh’ is. They just think they’re getting a big battery. After all, shouldn’t a physically larger battery have more energy? That seems intuitive. Would it be impossible for them to make a higher-capacity battery and sell it for $12 and still make money? Well, I don’t have their R&D team so I can’t answer that question.

Finally, I also have to question whether a higher-capacity battery would actually require a “special”, “more expensive” charger. I will grant them that recharging a higher-capacity battery might take longer, but with a lower capacity battery, you’d just have to recharge it more often. Where’s the benefit?