The Browser Wars

Last week, Microsoft and Mozilla both released new versions of their web browsers. I must say, Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 7 is a major improvement over version 6. Mozilla's Firefox 2 is an improvement, but not nearly as major as IE7. But with 5 years since the last major release of IE and 2 years since the last major release of Firefox, IE had a lot more catching up to do. Some of its best new features (like tabbed browsing and the search bar) were copied from Firefox.

Both new versions seem to run faster and more efficiently than the old ones. I think I prefer IE7's screen layout. It just seems more compact. Even if you remove the bookmark toolbar in Firefox, you still have less room on the screen than with IE (it's about even if you don't have multiple tabs open in Firefox). Firefox just introduced a spell check for web forms, which IE doesn't have. In fact, Firefox is checking my spelling right now.

Both browsers have phishing filters now. Both have the option of sending the address of every page you visit to some website to check if it's on a list of known phishing sites. If this is a privacy concern for you, Firefox provides the option of just checking if the site you're visiting is on a regularly-downloaded list of phishing sites (this isn't quite as secure as the other method). IE doesn't have this option. Both browsers have the option of shutting off this feature.

Quote of the Day

"Education bears no relationship to intelligence."
--Ralph Klein

Second post about Uganda

Waaaay back in May and June I went to Uganda, and around the end of June I did a blog post summarizing my trip. Now here's one story from the trip:

In 1971 a man named Idi Amin led a military coup in Uganda. While he was in charge, most religious groups were illegal, but some, including Catholics, Anglicans, and Muslims, were still allowed. In 1979 Idi Amin was defeated, and religious freedom began to improve.

In southwest Uganda, there was a man named Ignatius who had grown up in a nominally Christian church. In his church, and in any other churches in this area, Christianity had been reduced to mere ritual. Then he met a man who had recently returned from Kampala, the capital. This man had met a Canadian missionary named Stan Hoffman. This missionary had told him that these rituals weren'’t enough to please God, that he actually had to turn away from his sinful life and follow Jesus. Ignatius thought about this message, and in time he decided to follow Jesus.

This form of Christianity was quite new in this area so Ignatius quickly became a leader among the "“born again"” Christians in the area. They had no church building, so they met under a tree. Other people in the area got suspicious of this group, thinking they might be a revolutionary group. Soon, Ignatius was arrested and spent time in jail for his faith. The Canadian missionary, Stan Hoffman, heard about this and helped Ignatius get his name cleared. The authorities heard about how Ignatius's life had changed and if anything, he was less likely to be violent than he was before. They realized he wasn'’t a revolutionary leader and so they let him go.

As a pastor, Ignatius found a lot of success in starting churches in the surrounding region. His wife Mary, also a pastor, became the head evangelist for the Church of God in that region of Uganda.

I met Ignatius in Kampala where we were building the dorm at the Church of God headquarters. He had come to Kampala with many of the teenagers from his church. They had all come to Kampala for a national youth convention. Ignatius was always eager to help with the building project and to talk with us. It was inspiring to hear about his faithfulness in getting the church going in southwest Uganda even with all that opposition.

Later, our whole group went to visit a small village called Kasaroza where Ignatius lives. We visited his church and met many people whose lives had been changed through their work. We saw how they are also helping educate the kids through a nursery school, and how theyÂ’re helping people with AIDS. We met some of the orphans that Ignatius and his wife care for (some of them are provided for through child sponsorships from overseas).

Kasaroza was probably the most unique place I have ever visited, in comparison to Edmonton. It'’s a beautiful place (check out this picture) and the people were quite hospitable. But we saw a darker side too. At one point two teenage boys stole a couple of small things from our group, and when they were caught, they were beaten for it. Definitely different from home.

Goodbye Earl

It looks like the Earl Grey's Cup won't be returning to Edmonton this year. The Eskimos have been officially mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. And I happened to be at the game. The Eskimos scored a touchdown on the last play of the game, but they were still 3 points behind. Maybe if they'd scored one play earlier, maybe they could've done an onside kick and scored again, but it didn't happen. So the amazing 34-year playoff streak is over.

Job interviews

I might not be unemployed much longer. I have two job interviews later this week, one on Thursday, one on Friday, both with energy companies in the Edmonton area.

And then there's the age-old question: does God want me at a specific job or a specific city, or is it completely my decision? I am sure that God wants me to follow him in everything I do, wherever I am though. So my plan is to use my brain in picking a job, and if God doesn't give me some clear indication (and he hasn't given me obvious indications of what job to take or what to take in school in the past), then I think it either doesn't matter which job I pick, or using my brain will bring me to the right place.

Anyone want to comment? Comments from atheists are welcome.

More eastern Canada pictures

I've uploaded the last of my eastern Canada pictures. Even though many of these pictures were taken in Ontario, they are in the "Quebec 2006" album on my photo site. Enjoy!

The other side of the federal accountability act

I heard another side to this federal accountability act issue recently. (Click here to see what I wrote about it before, and click here to see an article about someone's defense of the Act.) The Auditor General is claiming that the new Act would've have stopped the advertizing scandal from coming to light. The article mentioned that existing access to information laws have stopped some government employees from even writing reports. Instead they just give certain reports orally so that the public never finds out.

This makes me wonder if any access to information/accountability law is enough. Maybe a different approach, or something else with an accountability law would work better.

I don't envy politicians. I sometimes find it easy to point out certain things they're doing wrong, but trying to figure out how to do it right is a lot tougher.

Another weekend away

This time I went to Fort McMurray, that place where I worked last year. I got to see my cousin, her husband, their son, and their new daughter. I lived with the first three of them last year, but I had never met their daughter Ava yet. My grandma came along too and got to see her new great-granddaughter.

So I got to hang out with my relatives and see some old friends (i.e. people I met last year, who I haven't seen in 6-10 months) that I don't seem to talk to very much anymore. Hopefully I'll keep keeping in touch with at least a few of them. It was a good visit.

And if you've never been there, I want to clear up a common misconception: many parts of Fort Mac aren't ugly. For example, check out the view from my cousin's back door: