Yes, you saw that right, I am going to actually put Chrome and IE (Internet Explorer) up together and see which one comes out on top. First however, I must say that I have a bias towards Chrome, however, considering Chrome has 46.60% of the market share 1 (as of January 2014), I am definitely not alone on the Chrome bandwagon. But to the comparison part. Here are a few things to think about…

I went out and signed up for the CrashPlan 30-day Trial a little over a month ago. I started by backing up about 350GB. (It didn’t finish during the trial, but we - my family - have the lowest connection speed that you can get and still pay money for it. We get a max of 850 Kbps [+/-50 Kbps] up and an average of 1.1 Mbps down.) After the trial, my family decided (on my recommendation) buy the 4 year family plan. The family plan made much more sense than anything else because we have 5 computers in the house that need to be backed up.

One of the worst things about ObjectBar Free is that you can’t use custom themes. You are limited to the themes that ship with the free version. When you try to use the theme selector to select a different theme (such as one that you’ve installed), ObjectBar tells you that you have to buy the full version of the program to use the theme. Well, I’m here to tell you that that is not the case. You can use any theme that you want.

A little while ago I downloaded and installed Office 2013 Preview on my PC. Now, with only a few days before the final version shows up in stores I decided to post some of my thoughts on it.

1. Files First

   

If you got a computer within the past few months, you probably have a computer with Windows 8. If you got one at Christmas, it is almost sure to be one with Win8 (unless the people who gave you the computer intentionally put Win7 on it). Random comment alert, I think that a lot of people who got a new computer for Christmas (especially the less young) were a little disappointed with the loss of their start button. Just a though. Anyway, about survival. Here are a few things that will help you get started with Windows 8.

Ever wonder why the search charm shortcut key is Win + Q? I think I know why Microsoft chose this as the shortcut key. Then I looked at the actual letter “Q.” Notice how it kinda looks like a magnifying glass The circle part is the lens, and the little tail is the handle. I know, it’s a long shot but it sorta makes since…

I first saw Windows 8 at my C# class last year (2011-2012 school year) and fell in love with it. Well… not really but… you know what I meant. Anyway, the teacher of the class decided to dedicate the second semester to programming for Metro (Metro is the same thing as Modern UI which is the new user interface on Windows 8). We were required to get Win8 CP (short of Windows 8 Consumer Preview) for our computers for class. So, of course, I installed CP. I had seen Windows 8 before and knew about how it worked so I was whizzing around the Modern UI in no time. I got Win8 Pro through DreamSpark before it even came out. All of this was to say that I have been using Win8 for a long time (in the computer realm, that is).

Sumner

Today was a sad day we had to get off the boat. We got up and packed the last few items. I went down to the front desk to tell then that we wanted to donate some clothes, they were really nice and said that they would come and pick them up later. After that we went up to the Lido Restaurant for our last breakfast :( We saw Gede, I unfortunately have neglected to tell you any about him but he as been such a neat guy. He always says hi to us every day and he always has a huge smile on his face. He lives in Indonesia (most of the crew/staff is from there except most of the bar people are from the Philippines). He also has a daughter back home that is about the same age as Hannah. I think that Hannah reminds him of his daughter back home. I just can’t explain it besides that I think that he has become almost family to us. He said himself that he feels like we (Hannah and I) are his sister and brother. He is just a great guy. We thanked him profusely for all that he had done and for being like a brother to us. We also saw Jeff’s assistant waiter, Weda and thanked him for being so nice to us and also having a smile on his face at all times. After that we went to our room and packed all the last minute stuff and got ready for our number to be called for disembarkation. It was so sad to leave behind all of our friends but we still have a grand adventure ahead of us. It is a different kind of adventure but at least we don’t have to think about “oh! Am I going to be late for the boat?” I am really exited about being able to see all of the sites that I have read about and see pictures of for myself. When we got off the boat and found our luggage we went outside of the terminal and looked for our taxi driver/guide. He was waiting for us at the other exit but we found him easily. Because we were actually in Civitavecchia we had a hour or so drive to Rome and then we were going to tour around Rome with him until three when we were to check into our apartment. I slept on the way to Rome but as the driver said nothing all the way, I didn’t miss anything. We went first to see the Colosseum. It was raining but the places that we went where mostly inside. I will not bore you on exactly where we went, instead I will tell you a bit about the Colosseum and my thoughts on it. First of all it is huge! In the best preserved parts of the Colosseum the entire thing is not there but even so it is as big as the Pepsi center at least. It’s just plain massive. It was the beginning of modern stadiums, there are walkways around a central seating area that used to hold shops and I bet t-shirts with the best gladiators (just kidding, they didn’t have t-shirts then). The thing about the gladiator stuff is not false though. It was the center of gladiatorial fights. It is awful to think about what occurred in the Colosseum but if all you think about is the marvel of the construction with which it was built it is spectacular. In ways its splendor has never again been matched because though some of our modern stadiums can hold more people they are not made of all stone. And just think, they built all of that with all the heavy stones without cranes or modern building equipment. there was another thing that was interesting about the building and that was that there were holes in between some of the stones and some in the stones. This is because in those places there was iron that had been used in the Colosseum were taken during the middle ages to create weapons. Though in ruins now, it would have been a grand achievement in architecture for its time.

Sumner

Today’s port of call was Messina, on Sicily in Italy. We did get to see a neat church and a large bell tower. The bell tower was really neat because it showed the date, time, and the phase of the moon. But the most interesting part of it was the bronze figures that moved. There were some that were set up on circular platforms that went round and round and there were some other figures as well. Unfortunately we were not there for a big display, all that we got to see was one of the figures move their arm. It was really cool. We then walked down a street and ended up at this circular square. I know you are probably thinking “what’s happened to Sumner, has he gone insane? There is no such thing as a square that is a circle!?” yes that is true but it was an intersection that was circular and there were buildings around it. All the facades were curved to the shape of the square. One of the buildings on this square was a shopping mall that had been deserted because of the economic crisis. It seemed recently deserted too, there was a store whose clock was still accurate and running, if that tells you anything about the recentness if the closure you’re doing well. There was a lot of graffiti everywhere but before the crisis I could see it as a nice shopping mall. Well that was about all, we went back to the boat and started to pack :( At dinner we had to say goodbye to Mrs. Anne and Mr. Peter. Let me back up just a bit, I told you before that we have a table that is ours for the whole cruise, well this table is right next to the window above the port (left) motor. It is oriented so that the chairs are perpendicular to the end of the boat. There is another table for two that is only about two feet from the end of our table on the inside (if they were on the other side, they would be in the ocean). At this table Mrs. Anne and Mr. Peter sat on the first or second night of the second part if the cruise and they liked us so much that they too asked to have that table for the whole cruise. We became friends with them and we were sad to say goodbye. They even tried some of the tricks that Jeff gave us which I will show you if you want when we get home. We also thanked Jeff because he was so nice to us all and knew what we wanted for drinks and such. Well, we have to have our bags outside the door by midnight so I should probably get busy.

Sumner

Today I will briefly describe our new room.