I went to fill out the FAFSA today to discover that I couldn’t because my browser was unsupported. As I am on Chrome 10 on Mac OSX 10.6, I assumed this was a mistake and went to Live Help to let someone know the BrowserDetectService was malfunctioning. It was then that I was informed that, indeed, Chrome 10 was incompatible and blocked.
It wasn’t even a friendly, “Hey, your browser is unsupported. Proceed at your own risk.” kind of message, but rather,
“Your Web browser is not supported by our Web site. You must use a Compliant Web Browser – Standard* to view our site properly. We recommend you upgrade to the latest version of your browser according to your Operating System.”
This begs a few questions:
1. Why, in a newly redesigned website, would you bend over backwards to support Internet Explorer 6.0, but choose to disregard one of the most up to date and standards compliant browsers on the market?
2. Why would you explicitly block Chrome as “incompatible”, but still allow Firefox traffic with a disclaimer that one should use a different browser?
3. After having completed the FAFSA and not finding anything myself, what is the extraordinary functionality that requires a browser other than Chrome 10?
I was greeted with a message when I first arrived at the site, letting me know that everything has been newly redesigned, and I concur that it really does look good. Government websites have come a long way. But this unnecessary browser detection AND blocking is ridiculous.
Thanks for letting me rant,
Nate Tallman
P.S. For what it’s worth, I still filled out the FAFSA using Chrome 10 on OSX 10.6. I just spoofed the user agent to appear as Internet Explorer 8.0. Everything worked flawlessly.
Installing the SSH2 extension under PHP 5.2 was easy enough.
pecl install ssh2
or
pecl install ssh2-beta
PHP 5.3 broke that. Trying to compile the extension would net:
warning: passing argument 4 of ‘add_assoc_string_ex’ discards qualifiers from pointer target type
The only patch I could find was provided by remicollet (http://remi.fedorapeople.org/ssh2-php53.patch). A lot of people swear up and down that the patch works, but it didn’t for me :/
We are entering a new season of life. I can see it coming down the line in the inevitable sort of way.
Dear friends are moving on, socially, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I’ve never been the homebody, the one who pines for the comfortable places with recognizable features that welcome the senses, but I can’t help to feel that this time might be a little bit different. I don’t know what it is, but it’s paining me like never before; I wonder if this is what has been bothering me for the past seven months.
Physical separation is easy for me to handle. After all, I’ve got family in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, South Dakota, Michigan, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Germany, and elsewhere. We’ve never really been from anywhere. We just deal with it and get together and enjoy the time when we can. Physical separation from friends, while not exactly awesome, is still manageable. We just deal with it and get together and enjoy the time when we can.
Emotional and social separation, again, is somewhat easy to handle. That might be different if codependency was an issue or something weird like that, but it’s not. Most of us are all married now, so emotional and social needs are mostly met in our spouses. That’s not to say that our emotional and social needs our totally satisfied, but that alone isn’t cause for distress.
But, spiritual separation is a beast. Hebrews 10:23-25 says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
Now, to put it into context, Christ came, he paid the ultimate, final sacrifice. We no longer are bound to law and sacrifice, but our sins were finally forgiven by the complete blood of Christ. The writer is saying, yes, you are forgiven and no longer have need for meeting at the temple in order to sacrifice bulls and goats and to make confession for reconciliation. You are completely reconciled to God and can have a personal relationship with Him because Christ is now the mediator and high priest. Now, don’t use that as an excuse to stop coming together. Our sanctification is a daily process and our spiritual longevity is assisted by our coming together; we sharpen and disciple one another. Discontinuing that avenue of sanctification is detrimental to our spiritual health.
We see exactly that if we continue reading through Hebrews 10:26-27, “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgement and the fury of fire which will consume the adversaries.
Spiritual separation from my brothers burdens me because I know that, given the opportunity, I will fall. I will fail, but I may not recognize it. It’s a slow fade from disciple to adversary. I need my brothers like the axe needs a grinding wheel, and I know the same is true for my brothers. If we forsake the coming together, then I fear for our spiritual health. The trend so far, at least among my group of friends, is to take a lackadaisical approach to coming together. Only if it’s convenient and there’s nothing else to fill our time with, do we even consider the prospect of coming together.
Most of our time is already filled with vain activities that we use to support identity. We are what we can do. We are what we accomplish. We are how we live. And it’s killing us spiritually. For the sake of our vain narcissism, we grasp at ways to identify ourselves, missing Christ. Not only am I speaking of myself, but also my generation, and even my personal friends.
We are sacrificing the opportunity for true spiritual growth and sanctification, for idle and empty feelings or accomplishments.
When we finally do “find the time” to meet together, it’s wasted getting re-acquainted, and catching up on the petty goings on that all relationships need to build rapport.
This is an uncomfortable season in life. I’m praying there is some way to steer the trend in the right direction. I’m sure I’ll write more about this as I get more clarity. For now this is it.
–
As I re-read this, I realize it may have come across as quite a selfish note, but it’s not quite as selfish as it seems. Part of my motivation is that too many friends are suffering in some way, and it feels like they may be going it more alone than is necessary.
I’ll expound on it more in the next couple days (I already have a draft post that’s pretty long), but for now this will stand unedited:
I was raised AG, but have been SBC for the past seven years. I love the idea of the cooperative program. I love my church family. I love my pastor who expositionally preaches the full gospel and doesn’t shy away from the convicting words of Christ. I’m blessed to have been discipled by a few godly men in our church.
That being said, my heart is broken. There are so many divisive battles taking place, too many old souls unwilling to adjust, too many young souls unwilling to learn. I’ve seen too many inter-church relationships destroyed in such spectacular form, that the fallout poisons anyone around. My heart is broken because we no longer live the Great Commission. There are lost people next door, across the street, and around the world, yet, we are tearing ourselves apart out of pride and jealousy: religiously defending our calvinism, arminianism, Driscoll, MacArthur, patriotism and capitalism (the new idolatries), traditional, contemporary, legalism, grace, young men’s disrespect for old men, old men’s unwillingness to teach young men… I could go on and on.
We have proven ourselves to be a passionate people! Why aren’t we as passionate about Jesus? People are dying around us. People are hurting. People are searching (sure, culture is in a downward spiral, but they’re still searching). People are going to hell… and yet we know WHO IS the cure!
Our pride has blackened our hearts. God is so gracious to have not turned His back on us completely, because we are in no spiritual state to be calling ourselves His followers. But in mockery, we do.
Jesus called us to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. He commanded us to go and make disciples. He wants us to love. He told us to obey.
But, we cannot follow One whom we don’t know, we cannot make disciples when we are not, we cannot love with the hate that fills our hearts, and we don’t obey because we won’t focus on the One who commands.
Young people are leaving the SBC because they aren’t finding what truly satisfies. It’s not about how many souls we can save (as if it’s not God’s decision), or having a rock concert in the contemporary service (or even having a contemporary service), or hearing people fight (often from the pulpit) about who is MORE theologically correct.
They want Jesus.
They need Jesus.
I am called to missions. I used to believe my calling was to East Africa/West Asia, but I’m realizing more and more that my mission field is right here, both in my secular workplace and in my church.
I’m starting this post with a goal of actually hitting the Publish button. You see there’s a few scraps in the draft category, but for whatever reason, I haven’t pushed them out.
I don’t know if it’s just that I feel my thoughts are incomplete, my thoughts are too far off base, or my thoughts are just mindless drivel to which no one should have to be exposed. It’s probably a mixture of all three and more reasons I can’t yet identify.
The other issue is that it has been quite a while since I’ve actually written in a public place. I used to post quite a bit on another blog, and I still write in my journal (with actual paper and pen), but to get in the habit of making private thoughts public takes a bit of intestinal fortitude that I’m not sure I still have.
I think that’s as far as I can get right now without feeling like I should just keep pressing Save Draft.
I love calling Comcast almost as much as I love calling the IRS.
About three weeks ago, my Comcast leased modem went out, so I called to have them switch my service to my own self-owned modem. Today, I got my bill and noticed that the $3.00 modem rental (plus the $0.28 Equipment Sales Tax) was still on my bill. I called 1-800-COMCAST hoping I could find a quick resolution to my problem.
1:58 – This is the time it took to listen to the “Hello” message by Ben Stein, navigate the automated menu (press 2 for billing), answer the question about satisfaction survey, and finally be put on hold.
4:29 – This is the time it took for me to be picked up by a Real™ person. It’s kind of sad to say that this is an improvement. Normally it takes longer to reach a real person, but then again, normally, I’m not calling billing, and normally I call when I’m having service issues, lots of other people are calling too.
13:15 – This is the total time I spent on the phone waiting for billing support, explaining my issue, and waiting for it to be resolved.
(Times listed are in mm:ss format)
I’m not actually upset or anything, just analyzing. This was actually a much better experience than most that I’ve had with Comcast.
I know it’s not pretty, but it’s all I’ve got today.
My list (or part of it):
The wife and I bought Ticket to Ride cause it’s an awesome board game. We like games.
I can’t keep my girl dog from jumping into the little fence I have around the tomato plant and air conditioner. She keeps wanting to dig up the plant and chew on the insulation on the air conditioner. Next up… electricity.
My honey-do list is mega long… so long that I feel like I can’t catch up, which I know is impossible. It’s sometimes overwhelming, along with the rest of life.
Speaking of overwhelmed, I feel several weeks behind at work. Trying to catchup without destroying my marriage :)
I’m in the middle of reading three books right now.
Richard Stearns’s A Hole in Our Gospel // Amazing, but taking a long time to work through. I’ll be reviewing it soon, but the book is thick with heavy stuff.
Max Lucado’s Fearless // I’m about halfway through this book. Review will be coming on September 1st (same day as the book releases). I can say this, I don’t know if there is another story teller like Max Lucado.
Life is too busy sometimes. I would love to be on a ranch in Montana right now…
As much as I don’t want to, I’ll admit it; I’m a creature of habit. I eat the same food when I go to a familiar restaurant. I follow the same routine when getting ready for the day. I shop at the same grocery store every week. I like to think I walk by the beat of my own drum, but I don’t. I’m predictable.
I’ve been going to the same guys for tire service, oil changes, and minor car maintenance for a few years now. They were great! Prompt service, honest, fair prices, free wi-fi and coffee all had me convinced that I had found a gem of a locally owned shop who I could trust, even if my wife had to take one of the cars instead of me. I liked these guys so much, I even sent my friends (they say referral business is the best).
All of that changed today.
Saturday, 3 days ago, I noticed that one of my tires was running a little low. I stopped in at a gas station to add air, and while I was there I had my wife turn the wheel all the way to one side and roll the car while I examined both sidewalls and tread looking for any obvious problems. I finally found a small nail (like a finish nail) in the middle of the tread. Other than the slow leak, there were no obvious problems on this tire that was only a couple months old with less than 10,000 miles on it, so I added air and went on my way.
This morning, I took my car up to the usual shop on my way to work to have them do an oil change and fix the leak in the tire. About 20 minutes into it, the owner called me out to the pit to look at the tire. When I got out there, there was a fine cut all the way around the tire on the outside of the inner sidewall. “You must have driven on it while it was flat”, he said. “Fortunately we have two of those tires in stock and we’ll fix it right up. Unfortunately, it’s not under warranty since it’s on the sidewall.”
Now, I’m not ASE certified, but I also didn’t fall off the baby wagon yesterday. I’ve seen (and participated in) rim cuts from driving on a flat or low tire, and this didn’t fit.
I went ahead and told them to replace the one tire (since it absolutely had to be done now) and do the oil change. I also went back out to look at the tire again, just to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing.
When they finished and I went to the counter to pay, I was sick to my stomach. When the owner rang up the $50 tire, mount and balance, tire disposal fee, and oil change, I was going to have to pay two and a half times as much as I intended. I brought up a few points to him:
The tire never actually went flat. There was a slow leak and it got a little low, but it was never flat, much less driven on while flat.
There was a nail in the tread, which I assumed was causing the slow leak.
The cut was on the inside of the tire, but not the outside. Also, the rubber showed no signs of wearing or rubbing as most tires do when driven while flat.
The cut was clean. Cuts made by the steel rim are large, rough, and consistant. This cut was fine: even surgical; Inconsistant: the cut made a wavy, jagged, and broken line around the tire; and shallow: just deep enough to get under the outer skin, but not enough to touch the inner wall and reinforcement.
After these points were brought up, he blithely said, “Well, watch this tire and if it gives you any problem, I’ll slap a new one on for free.” That’s all well and good, but I had a problem right now.
It was then that I informed him, that I had examined the same tire three days ago and the cut wasn’t there. He looked at me, and I held his eyes… looking for something more than a promise of future help if needed. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do”, he says. “I’m going to go ahead and comp your oil change today, that way it’ll come out about even” (it hardly came out even. The final price was still double what I was expecting to pay for an oil change and a tire repair). I agreed to that, just eager to be on my way. The knot in my stomach was growing stronger the longer I was in the shop.
This story still has me sick. It’s not about the money. I would have cheerfully paid, had I thought the cost was justified. My pain comes from having my trust violated. I know the media and the president say that the economy is bad, and I know times are tough for business big and small, but you can’t build a successful business when your customers can’t trust you. I can’t send my wife to that shop. I definitely won’t refer friends.
The cost of losing this customer because of distrustful actions is much greater than the monetary gain from that action.
Before the Bang is the second part of the question, "What was the last thought in your mind... before the bang?". Sometimes the question may be "What was before the bang? (big bang)" or "What is about to happen? ([insert any event forseen by any amount of time, e.g. car wreck, birth of baby, marriage, etc])".
This blog is my outlet: my musings about life previously, currently, and on the way.
