Chrome Strives To Become New Gold Standard

Google is on its way to becoming the new Microsoft.  Not in the field of support, operating systems, or anything that has to do with windows, but instead in becoming one of the biggest and most widely used names in a computer filled household.

Google has made its mark on the internet community by providing us with the most innovative search engine, online documentations, the phenomina of YouTube! and much much more.  We are all ‘wow’ed’ by the success and sheer performance of the Google standard, and are driven by its technology on a daily basis.

Open Source : A free for All…(seriously)

Google has always been an advocate for open source and to this day still continues its push for open source driven technology.  Many of us have already heard of their latest innovation in cell phone technology, the coming of the new Google Operating System, Android.  However, in the last few days, the internet has been swayed with Googles newest release, an internet browser called Chrome.

Google Chrome has taken open source to a whole new level, using technology that has helped drive one of todays most powerful browsers, Safari, and also added its own share of application book keeping.  

Google Chrome

Releasing their new beta has been quite an experience, with web forums buzzing, and downloads rolling in to test this new browser.  The internet community got their first hint of the release not through a website, not through a report, and not through any internet news pages, but a comic!  Found at  http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/ the comic serves as more of an educational purpose rather than a comedic effort.  But lets sum upexactly what this browser has to provide for us.

 

Multiple Threaded Browsing

Ok, so what exactly is multiple threading?  Think of it as being at work, and being the only person to handle a project.  Think of your boss being Internet Explorer / Firefox, and think of you as a Tab.  Now, this is an example of a single thread, aka, a single worker.  If your boss wants something done, then he will have to hand you the job, and wait for you to be done.  Lets pretend that he asks you to grab him a piece of paper.  Just like opening a tab and entering the address, he tells you where to get the paper and to grab it now, got it? Great.  Now imagine if your boss also needed you to grab him a pen, he would have to wait for you to come back with the paper, before he could effectively relay the message that he needs a pen.  Think of this as opening another tab, and going to another tab.  For this process to work, the browser needs to wait for the thread, or worker, to be done what its doing, in other words, wait until the other page has loaded.  Have you ever noticed that if one webpage crashes, your entire Internet Explorer / Firefox crashes?  Its because it is only one “worker”, and if he “passes out”, all work will end (crash).

Google Chrome does something taken from operating system technology called multiple threading.  In contrast to the above scenario, multiple threading is like having mutliple workers.  The browser is able to open various tabs, without having to worry about the other.  As far as the browser is concerned, the other tabs are off doing their own thing, and doesn’t really care or need to control anyone, and if one tab crashes, then just that tab will go away, not the entire browser.  Also, this does a good job at memory management as each website will get its own space in memory and not consume a big balloon of memory like a single threaded application does.

Task Management

Google Chrome also provides a task manager to go hand in hand with its multi-threading.  The task manager can help users see the memory usage that each of their tabs are using.  You will also be able to monitor the amount of data that is being transmitted at any given time.

Google Chrome Task Manager

Here we can see exactly what is running in our browser.  First, we can see that the browser itself is only consuming about 29MB of memory space.  The browser itself isn’t doing any networking, hence why you see a N/A, it is just a “container” for the web pages.  I have three tabs open, Google, my blog, and Comcast, each taking up its own share of memory.  Lastly we can see that Shockwave Flash is open as well, this is because comcast uses Flash.  From this screen we can monitor network activity, memory consumption, and cpu usage, as well as end processes that are being stubborn.  The “stats for nerds” button will provide a bit more indepth information.

Stats For Nerds

 

Accessability

Google takes a shot at making your browsing experience more convenient when you open a new tab.  Upon clicking the ‘New Tab’ button, google will open a new tab with some information that you may find useful.  At the top of the page you will find a list of pages as well as thumbnails of your most visited sites.  You will also see your recently bookmarked pages, as well as recently closed tabs

New Tab

 

Chrome also houses its own little download manager.  By clicking on the menu button and “Downloads” a page will open up showing the files that you have recently downloaded.  From here you can see when the file was downloaded, and even locate the file on the computer.  Again this isn’t something new, but it is nice that its there

Chrome Download Manager

Privacy

There are times when we browse the internet, and we would prefer there to be no traces.  Whether we are doing regular things like banking or ordering things on the internet, and would prefer our credit card numbers not stored, or doing more personal things that you would prefer not be seen by others, Chrome provides a solution

Chrome Incognito

By clicking on the menu button, and “New Incognito Window” or by simply pressing Ctrl + Shift + N, Chrome will open a new “Incognito” window.  You will note the difference in the windows with the sillouhette of a spy in the upper left corner of the Chrome window.  You will also be presented with a warning that you are in Incognito mode that will let you know that the pages you view will not be shown in the search history, your browser history, and will not leave cookies on the computer.  However, be warned that it wont protect you against downloaded files, webpages that share information, “surveillance by secret agents”, or my favorite “People standing behind you”.

Customization

Currently there isn’t much to do with customizing Google Chrome.  It is a brand new “Beta” browser so this is obviously expected, however, due to its open source nature, it is only a matter of time until plugins and other custom features like skins appear on the web

Current Issues

Lets face it, its beta software, and for those who dont know, Beta means that A. its not a final product and B. it isn’t guarunteed to work.  The fact that it’s semi-stable and works at the degree it does is amazing considering it hasn’t even taken a half step in the version number (only version 0.2 at the moment).  A few issues that I have encountered, is that if you try and hover over a link that has a special character like a “%” or “&” Chrome will crash.  You can see an example by opening up Chrome and hovering your mouse over here : Bad Link! (ok so appearantly wordpress filters out malicious links, very nice!, anyway the link said “BAD:%” , you can find an example of this http://evilfingers.com/advisory/google_chrome_poc.php )

By Hovering Over the Link, Chrome Crashes

 Also, if you are working from a Proxy server (aka at work you need to enter a name and password to log in to the internet) the installer will not work for you because it downloads installation files from the internet.  You will have to search the net for the complete install package and go from there.

Conclusion

For Beta software Google Chrome is very promising.  I am actually very excited to start playing with newer releases as they start coming out.  It is a very nice, clean, gorgeous small browser that is taking browsing technology to a newer, more manageable level.  I suggest those who are interested to give it a shot, its free, its from Google, and it definately wont hurt.  Just remember, it is still beta (i have said it a bunch of times now) so dont do anything that requires the entering of information about yourself, banking, or anything else that will compromise your identity, it just isn’t safe until all of the kinks have been worked out.

Xtreme Progress

So I am about a week and a half away from finishing my Activate and Stoked cycle, and so far I am incredibly happy with the results.  I have actually seen a good amount of search results for “Activate Xtreme” and “Stoked” linking to my site, so I figured I’d talk a bit more about my routine, results, and recommendations.

Routine

My lifting routine is always changing.  Eventually plateaus are hit, and the body needs a nice little shock to get itself back into a mass building state.  Since I have been on the stack, my routine has been the following:

Click to View

All workouts start with stretching and end with some stretching.  You will note that legs dont really have a cooldown, mainly because I walk from the gym to my apartment, so I kinda cheat and use that as my cooldown haha.  I work on a 4 day a week cycle, and usually throw in rest days every other day.

Supplementation

My supplementation is as follows:  2 Stoked pills in the AM, 1 Activate pill in the AM, 1 multivitamin, 2 Activate Pills before the workout, Drink about 32 oz of water mixed with Xtend (amino acids) during workout, Drink about 16oz of protein shake (48g protein) after the workout, 1 multivitamin in the PM w/ dinner, then 1 activate pill in the PM, and 2 Stoked pills before bed.

Results

I dont really care for numbers, I go by body composition and just how I feel overall and how much weight I am putting up.  I can say that my numbers have increased all over the board (except chin ups, grr, hate that).  My body composition has increased and I can tell it isn’t a placebo as friends that I see on a once a week or two week basis have noticed changes in my body.  The stack isn’t a miracle stack, and it wont make you huge, but if you work hard, and focus I can guaruntee that it will help you out.  I have responded very well to this stack, which is shocking because I dont react well to most supplements (creatine is hard for me to react with, along with NO2 suppliments).  I think after the stack I may take a few weeks off of it, then get back on again, I am enjoying it and definatly recommend it to those who dedicate themselves at the gym.

Pornography: Painting Pictures of Society

Ok so it’s time to go off on a tangant here, and talk about something random.  Lets admit it, we have all watched porn at some point in our lives, and as a male, I can admint to random porn watching occasions.  I can’t think of one time that I have come across a porn clip that didn’t make me laugh.  But lets think seriously now, porn does teach us a lot about life and relationships!

1. Asian Men Do Not Exist

2. When a man climaxes, It is usually followed with loud grunting and yelling

3. Women always wear shoes in bed / during sex

4. Missionary Sex doesn’t exist

5. Contrary to popular believe, teachers and school girls get the most sex

6. Women will not get angry if a man “finishes” on her body/face

7. Lawyers, Engineers, and Musicians never get sex, only construction workers, repairmen, and doctors do

8. No matter how many men are in a room together naked, as long as one female is in the room, no matter how unattractive, it is not gay

9. Foreigners can be tricked into sex, anytime, any place, anywhere

10. Your maid is probably a slut

11. Public sexual activities are not arrestable offenses

12. No matter how severely injured you are, if you are male then you have a 98% chance of recieving oral sex from the nurse

13. Women would prefer not to hear “i love you”  during sex, but instead profane demeaning words make them enjoy the encounter far more

14. If you are having sex, someone is probably watching

15. If you are caught having sex with your gf’s friend, she will punish you by forcing you to have a threesome

16. Condoms are not necessary, and pre-mature ejaculation is just a myth

17. Women are actually never too tired to have sex, someone made that story up

18. Beds are the worst place to have sex in

19. Every woman owns a sex toy

20. If your friend owns a webcam, shes naked and on the internet

21. Every woman has a clean butt

22. Quiet sex is out of style, women can’t help but be loud

23. Physical harm through sex is encouraged

Opera: Attempting to Extinguish the Fire(fox)

I have always been a Firefox guy.  When I first started getting into the PC world and once the internet started to become commonplace in homes across the world, the battle for browsers started to heat up.  Taking the dive into the broadband waters, I started to toy around with browsers, email clients, search engines, etc.  Just as Google started becoming the new Yahoo!, Mozilla started to become the new Internet Explorer in terms of popularity.  Stronger security, tabbed browsing, and a small footprint made for an easy transition.  However, many of us forget where all of firefox’s key features originated from.

To Pay or Not To Pay

During its early reign, Opera was “pay to play” software.  Called Trialware, Opera gave users a period of time to play around with, then required a purchase to be able to use it.  Luckily, in 2000, this requirement ended, and advancements and popularity started pouring in.

Opera (Wikipedia Link)

Developers nicknamed Opera the “Fastest Browser on Earth,” and although this may have been true at some point in time, newer studies show that although it is indeed faster than Internet Explorer, Firefox still clocks in at a bit better speed…but honestly, the normal web surfer will not notice the difference, at least I havn’t.

Like a Security Blanket, It keeps You Safe

To be honest, any average Joe surfer will not be able to see, hear, or touch the secuirty differences between all of the browsers, so there is no sense in talking about all of the security mumbo-jumbo.  Bottom line here is that Opera does a wonderful job of protecting you from today’s web hazards.  It will warn you if you have connected to an unsecure site that is known for any malware and phishing practices.  Also, when using a secure connection, Opera uses the latest in security technology called SSL 3.0 or another excellent security protocol called TLS.  Opera has admitted to some security vulnerabilities, and like all web browsers like IE, Firefox, and Safari, the developers are working to fix these issues.

Features For The Masses

Ah yes, my favorite part, the features!  Images make the world go round, so here we go:

Main Screen

Appearance Options

Tabbed Browsing

The Wand

Speed Dial

Extra Options

Conclusion

Thats right, I took the plunge, I figured “why not”.  I have always heard of great things about Opera, but I am a huge GUI fanboy, and was never a fan of the simplistic GUI of opera.

Stack Status

Well I have been taking the Activate Xtreme and Stoked stack for about two weeks so far, and in my opinion it is working incredibly well.  I have noticed that all of my muscles are harder througout the day, and fatigue less easily.  The only side effects I have noticed so far is that the first week into the stack I had moments of lightheadedness throught the days, but that eventually cleared up, and also I am developing a bit of minor acne around my lower back, which I am assuming is the result of the increase in testosterone.  My regimine is easy to follow, 2 Stoked Pills + 1 Activate pill in the AM, then two more AE pills in the afternoon, if it is a workout day I take them both at the same time before my workout, if it’s my off day, i will take the pills at separate times throughout the day.  Then i take 1 more AE pill close to bed, along with 2 more Stoked pills right before going to bed.

I will post some lifting stats later this week.

Must Have Maintainance

I got a lot of great feedback from the post about my top 5 favorite programs, and I have even noticed a bunch of hits coming from google.  I figured I would continue the series with my top 5 favorite maintainance programs.

1. Antivirus – Avast and AVG (Tie)

Its very hard to pick between these two programs.  I have used a whole mess of antivirus programs including Nortons, McAfee, Panda, as well as these two.  On my PC I am using Avast! mainly because when I first started beta testing Vista, Avast! was the only antivirus available that supported the 64bit operating system.  AVG was my choice when I used Windows XP and still is my choice on my laptop which is running XP Home edition.  I was quickly turned on to these programs when, after having Nortons for years, installing these and finding tha norton’s missed viruses.  Also both use very low resources, and have no bloatware.  Daily updates are also an awesome feature.

AVG Antivirus

 

2. CCleaner (aka “Crap Cleaner”)

Lets face it, the more your browse the internet, themore you use the computer, the more garbage is collected.  The guys over at Piriform developed a wonderful, small program that at the click of the button will rid your PC of unwanted temporary files, clean out any downloaded files and cookies, and clear out all search forms.  I can guaruntee that the first time you run this program you will free up more than 100MB of space and will see better performance out of your PC.  This program is a staple on any PC that I run or maintain.

Piriform CCleaner

 

3. Spybot Search & Destroy

I am sure by now everyone has used, heard of, or even seen read about Spybot.  Being one of the best free spyware cleaners around, it is a must to have this on your system, especially if you are accessing the internet on a daily basis.  Spybot performs an extensive scan of your PC lettng you know of any and all cases of spyware and allowing you to remove them at the click of a button. Immunization adds protection to your internet browsers to prevent any future spyware attacks to enter your PC. 

Spybot

 

4. O&O Defrag

I have been in the market for a really nice set of defragmentation software, and finally found the winner here with O&O Defrag.  This program provides various different defragmentation options, auto defrag, and scheduled defragmetation.  O&O also provides various different types of defragmentation that can benefit your Hard Disks, your HDD Indexes (also known as MFT), as well as analyze your disks to let you know exactly what is causing heavy fragmentation.  Albiet defrags take a few hours even on my Raid0 Raptor drives, it is very extensive, and very powerful.  Although this program is not free, if you have some spare change, I suggest you pick this up for optimum system health

O&O Disk Defrag

 

5.  Wise Registry Cleaner

Although CCleaner provides a registry cleaner, I personally never found it to be powerful enough for the most demanding computers.  Wise Registry Cleaner is a program I came across within the last year.  Its a free, fast, and powerful registry cleaner.  Wise allows you to scan your computers registry for errors, make a backup, and warns you which entries are safe to fix, and which are not.  At the click of a button you can fix all entries that are safe to fix leaving behind questionable entries until further updates.  For a free program, this program is again, another staple on PC’s that I own.

Wise Registry Cleaner

Out With The Old, In With The New

Well, I finally got the tail lights today, and managed to install them in a few hours.  The reason it took so long was because I had to do a custom job on the wiring harness since the ‘02 harness isn’t the same as the ‘04 harness.  All in all the project was a success!

Old Tail Lights

The Newbies

Having Money Tickles Desires

Why oh why must I see all of the cars I desire on a daily basis on my way to work or in the garage of my apartment complex?  Here are my top 5 cars that I would die to get my hands on.

#1 . BMW M3

Ah yes, this gorgeous piece of ass.  The 2007 body style of the M3 was my all time favorite, but these new ones are starting to grow on me.  Being a BMW fanatic all my life, after my dad’s owning of a couple, I dream to one day own this top of the line 3 series, dubbed the M3.  Of course the price tag is well over 100k, but what can you expect from a 420hp V8 engine that blasts its way from dead stop to 60mph in a heart racing 4.5 seconds.

#2 . BMW 335i

I know, you are currently saying “what? thats the same car!”.  Au contraire!  Apart from the lack of the M style badging, the 335i does have a slight resemblence to the M3.  Of course, the difference is mainly under the hood.  Being bmw’s high performance 3 series model, sin the M models, the 335i rips through the lineup with a twin turbo charged 300hp engine.  The car checks in at about 40k starting price, again, just a tad out of my money range for the moment, but you can be sure that I would trade in my bed for a day with this car.

#3 . Infinity G37

I never used to be much of an infinity fan, until one of my friends purchased a G35 back in 2005.  Now with the latest release of infiniti’s G series beast, the G37 looks to compete with cars like the 335i in the performance market.  The specs of 3.7 liter, 330hp place the G37’s engine one step above the 330i’s, but the twin turbo’s and bmw’s superb engineering give the bmw enough kick on the dyno to beat the g37 most of the time.  However, I wouldn’t pass up an offer to take one of these babies home.

#4 . Mitsubishi Evo-X

Simply sexy is all I can say about this car.  Just like the G37, no mitsubishi motors car ever floated my boat other than the Evolution series.  With its sexy styling, turbo charged engine, and massive modders market, this is definately one of the “boys toys” so to speak.  Hearing one of these wizz by on the highway with the blowoff valve on the finely tweaked turbo charger makes my body shiver….Starting at about 33k, it is definatly a car to get your arms wrapped around.

#5 . Chevy Corvette ZR-1

Oh my, an american car on the list?!  Well this one makes an exception.  The ZR1 being the most powerful Vette that Chevy put on the market should make anyones top list.  At 100K, this carefully built piece of fine machinery will rip your heart into the backseat at the push of a pedal.  A reported 3.5 second 0-60 time places this 638hp car among the sexiest and fastest commercially available vehicles.

More Problems Lead to Cosmetic Change

Back in 2002 when I purchased the civic, I got a great deal on a rare car, and figured I would take my chances on making it more rare by asking the dealership to swap the stock tail lights on the car with the car from the showroom.  The show room had clear lens, or “altezza style”, tail lights which back then was still considered “cool” to have.

After a few years of having the car I realized that I made a poor decision, and was indeed plagued by the fact that I traded in stock tail lights for a poor excuse for a short lived fad.  I have been wanting to change the lights, but never really had the spare change or important need to go ahead and do so.  Well let the needy plane come in for a landing.

For a while now I have noticed the epoxy holding the lens of my tail light start to wear out, thus causing the lens to start peeling off.  It is still on there pretty sturdy, but is just obnoxious to look at, albiet not obvious unless you know about it.  Either way, it gives me a chance to change the tails and make my car look more respectable.  Introducing the newest cosmetic change to the civic:

They look exactly like the stock 2004 civic tail lights except they use LED’s for the brake lights, so that will hopefully look cool, giving a unique appearance, I guess we will see.  The wiring will require some modifications as the 2004 wiring is a bit different than the 2002, but I’ll post pics of the process.  The shipment should be in tuesday.

Sore all over

Well I am just wrapping up my first week back into bulking, and soreness has never felt soooo good.  After haggling a bit and managing to get a membership at the Y without having to pay any startup fees and getting a discounted membership, Pat and I have been getting back into the groove.  Starting the week off with Chest workouts, and ending the week with leg workouts, my entire body is sore to the touch.  I have been on my test stack for close to a week now, and obviously I am not “feeling” anything (at only a week into it, any feelings would be just a placebo effect), but I am very excited to see where it leads.  I have had a few spurts of lightheadedness today, but that could be either a lack of sleep last nite, my body reacting to a week of hard stress, or even my body’s reaction to the possible elevation of my test levels.  Hunger levels have been following the common trend of a possible increase in metabolic rate as I have noticed that I have been getting hungry at earlier times than normal at work, and I have been eating a larger breakfast.  So far so good!  And with my package BB.com actually sent me a DVD as a free gift that touches base on some more arm workouts and techniques, which has been great to watch as it has brushed up on some tweaks that have been helping out during workout sessions.  I will post updates asap.