My blog posts on the heat are topped by a Jon Carroll column. I don’t mind when he does it better; I’m just glad I get to read him. He’s right on, once again.

Another “he” who done good: my boss wrote a song that’s worth checking out. You may recall from earlier posts that I work for some big ol’ software company, so this is a fellow software geek we’re talking about, but his song has something to say and says it well.

If you’re from my generation, you might be as clueless as I was, so here’s a tip on the background: the original Superman was George Reeves, father of Christopher Reeves, the guy who was famous as a movie hunk and then more famous as a spinal cord injury activist. George Reeves died under mysterious circumstances (murder? suicide? see the movie!). If anyone knows the truth and can prove it, they’re not talking, but for at least one little boy in Iowa who needed his hero, the alleged suicide came as a real blow.

It’s so amazing when people step way outside their usual comfort zones to do something that matters to them.

In other news, Ayse thinks my blog needs a new title. Obviously she’s right, but what would it be? Use that comment link, people!

I’ve just learned that if you read this blog with Windows Internet Explorer, you’ve never seen all the stuff in the right column.

Let’s take stock. Do you see nothing besides the title and recent posts? If so, you’re using a crappy, lousy, horrible, inferior browser, and you should move on. Over there—>> on the right, you should see a little picture of me, a list of photo collections found within, a link to archives of old posts, a wee sudoku, and some links to other blogs I read. If you don’t see that, your browser sucks.

Internet Explorer is about the lamest and most pathetic web browser I’ve ever attempted to use. I’ll restrain myself from the urge to level a blast at all of Windows and focus my wrath on IE: it’s lousy, and if it’s the only web browser you’ve ever used, you’re in for a huge surprise. Almost all the alternatives out there are better. I myself like OmniWeb, and Safari and Firefox are my backup browsers. None of them are perfect, but all of them are better. The first two are the exclusive privilege of Mac users, but those of you who haven’t yet seen the light on the whole Mac vs. Whatever question could at least do yourselves the favor of trying Firefox. (“Firewho?” I hear you ask. Use Google, it’s not hard to find it.) Download it and use it for two days. You might move on to something else, but you’ll never go back to IE.

For those of you who do have Macs, give OmniWeb a try. It has its little problems, but I have yet to find a browser that doesn’t. What OmniWeb does well, it does so well that you’ll want to use it all the time, and you won’t mind having to keep Safari and Firefox around for the bits and pieces it doesn’t handle as well.