January 20th, 2010
ICQ7 has been released. ICQ7 seems to have been designed to copy some of the design features of Windows Live Messenger, and they might have rushed it out to be the first to have the social networking features integrated in the program, many of which Windows Live Messenger has been rumored to include in the next version. ICQ is going to lose its unique qualities if it becomes no more than a Windows Live Messenger imitation, however. This makes me wonder if they’re planning to allow communicating with users of Windows Live Messenger in the future. Dropping the statuses to be the same could be a clue to this possibility.
One thing that surprised me was that they changed the database engine yet again. This time it went from Microsoft Access to SQLite. Now SQLite is probably fine, it’s just that another change is annoying, since it’s incompatible with the previous database, and you have to import the message history (at least they allow this). And it just makes more work for me…
So here is my list of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The good:
- Spell-check is still there.
- The smileys are the same as in ICQ6.
- Most of the options from ICQ6 have remained.
- The color scheme can easily be changed. Just like in Windows Live.
- Xtras removed. While it was a good concept in theory, the Xtras were a failure, and it’s good that this feature is gone.
The bad:
- Sometimes a bit slow and momentarily unresponsive.
- No send button from the message window. There is plenty of room for it. Really, does everything have to be like Windows Live Messenger?
- Statuses have been reduced to only these 4: “available”,”away”,”busy”,”invisible”.
- Status messages, again more like those in Windows Live Messenger, dropping the unique status icons that made this feature stand out in previous versions.
The ugly:
- All avatars / display pictures don’t scale properly in most parts of the program, the exception being in the message window.
- The message window copies Windows Live Messenger’s message window style for the most part, except it’s uglier. Instead of giving the program a look that follows Windows 7, for example, it looks more like it belongs in Linux. They moved the avatars / display pictures to the left side too, just like in Windows Live Messenger.
- The buttons for the smileys, spell-check, etc. are blended into the chat window and look dull.
- Profiles have been reduced to very basic information plus social news feeds. You have to go to the website to view the rest.
- Ads: Why have advertising all over the place when it’s only to advertise ICQ on ICQ? What’s the point of that?
So, in the end, I will stick with ICQ6.5. I have to say that while I don’t like ICQ7 that much right now, they still did a pretty good job on it. At least the features are there, and they all work pretty well. I remember when the first version of ICQ6 was released — how bad that was — it was shocking, and this is better than that for sure. But I still feel that they could have done better in some areas.
Posted in Technology
January 12th, 2010
This all started yesterday. I suppose it was caused by yet another virus. I was very tired, and I slept almost all day and all night. Once I got up at around midnight, I ate what would have been my dinner the night before. A couple of hours later, I was still hungry, so I ate a can of soup. At about 5AM, I started to become very nauseous. So much so that I decided to take some medication. It didn’t help. So, I ended up vomiting. The scary part was that there was some blood in there.
So, I woke up my parents, and then we decided to wait and see what would happen. At about 7:30AM, it happened again. There was some blood again, but a bit less this time. It was time to go have it checked. By the time I was ready to go, the clinic had opened, so my father took me there instead of the hospital.
Things went pretty well at the clinic. It took only about an hour to get examined by a doctor. It turns out that I probably ruptured a blood vessel in my stomach while vomiting. Who knew that such a thing could happen? 
I should be okay now, but that was quite a scare. I’m not supposed to eat until tomorrow, and then I’m supposed to start eating soft foods, like soup, rice, etc.
Not a good way to start the year… 
Posted in Health, Life
January 7th, 2010
Yesterday, I received a box of stuff from Amazon.ca. I got up pretty late, so I didn’t post about it. My energy has been terrible for the past few days. And to make that even worse, I had insomnia, too!
Anyway, I got some more Iron Maiden CDs and a few movies. Here’s what I got:
CDs:
- Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden
- Powerslave – Iron Maiden
- Somewhere in Time – Iron Maiden
- The Number of the Beast- Iron Maiden
DVDs:
- Backdraft
- Bulletproof
- Cop Land
- In the Line of Fire
- Shooter
- True Crime
Posted in Loot, Movies, Music
January 6th, 2010
I finished up the theme, and now MostWeirdo.com is up. I deleted the most recent junk mail from here, and moved it over there. I used the classic WordPress theme as the base for my theme, and it looks okay. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on that, since it’s not really important for it to look pretty.
Funny that WordPress only suggested the upgrade to version 2.9.1 (yes, already) on one of the sites, but not the other. I updated both, though.
Posted in Railwolf.com
January 4th, 2010
I wish you all a Happy New Near, including those who have seemingly disappeared. 
I realize that I’m a bit late in posting this. I usually would have posted it on January 1st, but this year, I was pretty tired and depressed. Despite the fact that 2009 was not a bad year, some things didn’t go so well. As always, I was alone when the clock struck 12, and that wasn’t so great for my mood.
I need to work on my writing more, but I often have almost no energy, along with lots of brain fog. I do still write some lyrics and poems now and then. I can focus on a verse, but the pages of a story are not so easy to focus on. It’s a challenge, but I still enjoy writing, even if I’m like a tortoise with a typewriter. 
My bass playing has improved a lot. It’s only been two and a half years since I started, and it’s getting closer and closer to my guitar playing, but I still have some more work to do.
I’ll be moving the junk mail posts over to another site which suits that better, and that will keep this site more clearly focused. I will have that ready pretty soon. I just need to make the theme for it. That site has been around for a long time, but I never really did anything with it, so I might as well do this.
Posted in Life, Railwolf.com
December 19th, 2009
I just upgraded to WordPress 2.9, and everything went smoothly, as usual.
Not much else happened this past week other than a bit more snow and some quite cold temperatures for a few days. I had some problems with my lower back, some pretty bad pain at times, and I was really tired, too. That can be a bad combination, because I get back pain if I sleep too much, but I’m too tired if I don’t sleep enough. It becomes a sort of vicious circle. It’s better now, though.
Posted in Health, Life, Railwolf.com
December 11th, 2009
I received another package from Amazon.ca today. I had preordered Pin Points and Gin Joints by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones the other day, I think it was even before I ordered Public Enemies, but it took a day longer for some reason. I decided to get a couple more albums by The Real McKenzies since they were in stock, and that’s something that rarely happens.
CDs:
- Pin Points and Gin Joints – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
- G N’ R Lies – Guns N’ Roses
- Loch’d & Loaded – The Real McKenzies
- Pissed Tae Th’ Gills: A Drunken Live Tribute to Robbie Burns – The Real McKenzies
As is often a problem with new albums, Windows Media Player didn’t have the album information for Pin Points and Gin Joints. I don’t understand why they cannot get that information ready by the album release date – the song names are no secret. They are often announced well in advance, as is the album art.
Also, the album info for Pissed Tae Th’ Gills was incomplete by one track and that pushed a few tracks off into the wrong positions, plus one song was quite obviously misspelled. However, I looked out of curiosity and found that the track information for the DVD version of it was fine.
Posted in Loot, Music
December 9th, 2009
Today, I received a package from Amazon.ca. It made it despite the snow storm. Well, the storm is not really that bad, but people are in panic. It’s as if they forgot what snow is, and the fact that last winter was far worse.
I got the 2 disc versions of both of these items:
DVDs:
- Public Enemies
- Iron Maiden: Flight 666
Posted in Loot, Movies
November 20th, 2009
Tonight, I got my Epiphone Thunderbird Pro V. I had ordered it last week, and the first one had arrived on Monday, but there were serious problems with the bridge, so the shop had to have another one sent from the supplier. I don’t understand how the first one made it past the factory inspection. I saw it, and it was pretty obvious just by looking at it that there was something wrong, not to mention the fact that it was unplayable. Luckily, the second one arrived today, and it’s just fine.
I had always wanted a Thunderbird bass, but I never got one until now. I decided that since they introduced this model with a five string version, and I was interested in getting a five string bass, that this would be the perfect time to get a Thunderbird. It was. 
Epiphone Thunderbird Pro V
Now, I heard about some people not being able to adapt to the five string basses, but while playing it just now, it was no problem for me at all. I actually prefer the feel of the wider neck. I’m really glad I got it, despite the problems with the first one.
Posted in Guitar, Loot
November 12th, 2009
I went downtown yesterday afternoon. It was a surprisingly nice day; sunny without any clouds at all. That’s quite nice, especially since it has been either cloudy or raining almost every day for the past several months.
So, I went to the music shop, and I ended up getting a bass amplifier. I was thinking about the Roland Cube, but it seemed to not be the right choice, since its knobs are all at the back, and I was thinking about possibly putting all my amps on a shelving unit, or just stacking them all on top of each other. The bass amp would be at the bottom in either case, so the knobs would have become impossible to reach. So, I got a Traynor DynaBass 100. This amp is 100 watts, it has a 15″ speaker, and it only cost a bit more than the Roland Cube. I seem to have made the right choice, I really like this amp.
Traynor DynaBass 100.
I also got a couple of BOSS pedals; a Blues Driver and a Chorus Ensemble. This brings me to a total of 13 pedals. And I ordered something that should arrive in a few days…
Posted in Guitar, Lair, Life, Loot
