Month: March 2006

And You Thought Bugzilla was Bad?

Microsoft announced the opening of their new IE public feedback/bug database this week and I must say it makes our copy of Bugzilla look like a sexy, Web 2.0, AJAX-ified beast.

For starters, a Passport account is required to even get close to seeing the thing. Once you’ve completed that registration process, you should be able to view and submit feedback now, right? Wrong. Next you’re required to sign in to Microsoft Connect and specify that you want to enroll in the IE Feedback program. Now (after ignoring the invalid SSL cert dialog) you can at least view and submit feedback. Of course in order to submit, you must search prior to being offered a link to submit a report. Once through the initial search for a bug or after submitting one, you’ll be presented with a screen fairly devoid of what you’d really expect to see along with a bug report – it’s current status and a specific reason why that status was decided upon, all without having to dig through various other links.

Now of course it wouldn’t be fair to discuss how awful MS’ system is without discussing Mozilla’s Bugzilla. Which has a few usability faux pas of its own and can be pretty intimidating for the first-time user. But after a few months and a thousand or so triaged bugs later, I must say that it at least gets the job done without making you jump through an ungodly number of hoops.

Server Carnage

It’s always refreshing to see a webhost who knows what to do with an obsolete server.

Heck, it’s refreshing to see a webhost that knows what to do period. Having switched from 1&1 to Site5 after going through bad-RAM-host-denial hell, I couldn’t be more satisfied with them. They’re even got a nice flock of Firefox users to boot! What more could you ask for? 🙂

From Angry Young Man to Piano Man

pre.png
30min before Joel hit the stage. By the time he did, not a single empty seat could be found.

I just got back from the Verizon Center where Billy Joel just played an awesome concert. As you can probably tell from the above picture, I had great seats! My mother and I were literally 20ft. or so from the stage. The tickets (bought through eBay) were a real pain to get since Paypal ended up charging twice for them causing my bank to charge me $50 bucks in overdraft fees. Luckily I managed to get the second charge refunded and somehow even managed to have my bank return the $50. While incredibly inconvenient, the hassle was totally worth it to get seats as close as they were.

bjoel.png
Joel playing Don’t Ask Me Why.

The show itself was great. Even at 56, Joel still knows how to please an audience. Playing a setlist that included some of his lesser known songs as well as the bigger hits.

  • Prelude/Angry Young Man
  • My Life
  • Everybody Loves You Now
  • The Entertainer
  • New York State Of Mind
  • The Downeaster ‘Alexa’
  • Zanzibar
  • Allentown
  • Don’t Ask Me Why
  • Pressure
  • Goodnight Saigon
  • Movin’ Out
  • An Innocent Man

  • She’s Always A Woman
  • Captain Jack
  • Keeping The Faith
  • I Go To Extremes
  • The River Of Dreams
  • Highway To Hell
  • We Didn’t Start The Fire
  • Big Shot
  • It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me
  • You May Be Right
  • Only The Good Die Young
  • Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
  • Piano Man

stagel.png
Introducing Pressure prior to running to another keyboard on the right side of the stage.

One thing that really surprised me about this concert was the massive number of younger faces in the crowd. Of course the middle-aged to older group you’d expect to be there were, but the younger folks seemed to have more of a presence at this concert. It really shows that in times of crappy music, people will go off looking for alternatives. It also speaks for how timeless Joel’s music is considering his first hit came out in ’71.
I really had a great time and given a chance, would buy another ticket or two to another of his upcoming shows.