First of all, thank you to everyone who is actually still reading this. The blogosphere is a ‘what have you done for me lately’ world, and I’ve certainly seen the hit count graph trending rapidly downward since I stopped posting. I appreciate those who have stuck around through the drought.

So, you may have noticed that things have been pretty quiet around here for the past couple of months. I’ve received a few inquiries about just what’s going on and if I’d ever resume posting, etc. The short answer is yes, and I’m going to be trying to get back into the swing of things now, though it may take a little while to get back to speed.

What happened? Well, as I posted back in January, I’m having some problems with my left hand. Since that post I have had an EMG, and it confirmed what my doctor suspected all along - something is wrong with the ulnar nerve. My left pinky and ring finger, and part of the hand, are still numb. But it has been a few months and I’m adapting to it, so typing isn’t the struggle it was at first. I’m waiting for a neurology appointment and I’m still hopeful the issue can be fixed in the end.

But that was just the first in a chain of events. I posted that on January 20th, and my blogging was a bit lighter in the days that followed as I was still struggling with typing and most of what I could manage was devoted to work. However, that soon changed - I lost my job with Sling Media on February 2nd. The short version is that I was participating in discussions at SlingCommunity.com and I posted something I didn’t think was an issue in the context of the thread, and it probably would’ve been nothing - just a small post in a discussion forum. Except it got picked up by a popular blog (which I won’t name since I don’t really blame them, as a blogger I’ve done similar things in the past) and excerpted out of context, and from there a bunch of other blogs picked it up, and before I knew it it was a major issue for management - and as a result I lost my job. I was completely blindsided by this, and I’m still out of work and trying to find a new position. I hope I can do so soon, I really can’t remain unemployed for long financially. (BTW, my resume is here.)

This was a pretty big punch in the gut, and, honestly, it put me into a pretty bad depression. Believe it or not, this is the first time I’ve lost a job. I’ve been laid off a couple of times, but in those cases it was a company-wide thing and there were huge signs that it was coming, so it was expected and I was ready. In this case I was completely unprepared for it. I really loved working for Sling, loved the people there, and believed in the products, so it was very hard to have that end. My job with Sling was my favorite job, ever, and it will be very hard to find anything like it again. I really saw myself working there for a long time. I’m also the kind of person who really puts my all into my job, and I invest a lot of myself in my work. A good deal of my self-identity tends to stem from my work and my accomplishments therein. So my emotional reaction to losing the job was as if someone I cared for had died - it hit me pretty hard. And with the economy as it is, it is not a good time to be looking, so that’s amped up the stress a bit.

The timing was also bad because I had a previously planned trip to visit my family from 2/14 to 3/1. I would’ve been blogging less, if at all, during that trip anyway as it was a vacation and time to visit my folks. But it also meant I couldn’t really start looking for a new position right away as I would not be able to interview, let alone start, until after the trip. And, honestly, the depressed mood I was in was not conducive to constructive job hunting anyway. I just didn’t have it in me to keep blogging during that time, my head was elsewhere. And I was still angry and frustrated over losing my job, so I didn’t really trust myself to post about it in that state. I tried to keep participating in Sling Community for a short time, but I realized it was like salting the wound at the time and it was better to walk away, at least for now. I still care about the user community, so I may jump back in once things are more settled.

The upside was that I forced myself to pretty much ignore everything in my life for a couple of weeks and enjoy the time with my folks in Florida. We also took a few days to go up to Walt Disney World, and if you want a place to ignore life, you could do worse than Disney. So the trip gave me some time and distance from everything else, which is also why I deliberately didn’t do anything related to tech, blogging, or work. (Well, except for my usual annual IT service for my folk’s PCs, but that’s family. And I could do that in my sleep.) After returning home on 3/2 of course I had a number of things to deal with - doctors, unemployment paperwork, COBRA, starting to look for a new position in earnest, and just generally pick up my life. I’m pretty much back on top of things now and my mood is a lot better, though not quite fully recovered, so I’m picking up the blogging reigns as well.

I’ve been largely out of the loop - I completely stopped reading blogs as well as posting. I needed a break from things to deal with everything - but I’ve been saving emails and the like to work my way through. Right now finding a new job is my first priority, but I miss blogging and I figure it’ll probably be good for me to keep my brain in shape anyway.

Oh, and I’m not too proud to beg - since I’m unemployed even a little bit helps, so if you’re planning to make any purchases using the site’s affiliate links will provide a little something.

Thanks again for sticking with me through the drought, and I hope to be back to my old post volume soon. I wish I could make a living doing this, but that’s not going to happen real soon. I’m the meantime, wish me luck.

You may have noticed a lack of blogging from me since CES. While I was at CES I developed a problem with my left hand; my pinky and ring finger are numb, and I’ve lost grip strength and some coordination. Obviously a nerve issue, which was confirmed by my doctor on Friday. Preliminary diagnosis is that it could be some kind of carpal tunnel issue or perhaps the ulnar nerve. I’m wearing a wrist brace as a precaution while I wait for additional tests (currently scheduled for late February, which I’m not at all happy about, I’m going to try to get them to move that up) just in case it is a carpal tunnel issue.

So typing is difficult, frustrating, and at times painful. Since I have to do a lot of typing for work, and work is more important (sorry, but it pays the bills), I’ve been focused mainly on that and not doing a lot of additional typing. I do have additional items from CES I want to cover, for example I talked to HAVA on the last day, and I will try to get to it soon. I’m slowly getting a bit better at typing with my gimpy left hand as I get more practice.

As far as I know I didn’t do anything to cause this. It just happened all of a sudden the Wednesday before CES opened. Maybe I slept on it wrong or something, I have no idea. It wasn’t as bad at first and I thought it might go away, but the more I tried to keep working normally the more it seemed to be aggravated.

So my apologies for the lack of posts lately, I’m hoping to get back to normal once this is fixed. Presuming it can be fixed of course and isn’t permanent, which I’m rather hoping it isn’t.

Today, Black Friday, kicks off the busiest shopping season of the year, and I’m sure many (probably most) of you will be doing some, even all, of your shopping online. What you might not be aware of is that while you’re making your purchases you have the opportunity to support the websites and blogs you enjoy. I’m not too proud to say that I’d love it if you supported GizmoLovers.com, especially with my annual trip to report from CES coming up in January, but I mean it in a broader sense. Many of the sites you visit probably have affiliate links to sites like Amazon, BestBuy.com, Buy.com, etc., and if you use those links to do your shopping then you’ll support that site without any additional cost to you.

Affiliate programs vary, some offer a percentage of the sale to the site, others have a flat rate depending on what is sold. It may be pennies, but those pennies can add up. But you pay the same price you would’ve paid without using the affiliate link, and you help support the site - two birds with one stone, compounding your giving. It is a win-win situation.

So, when you go online to make your purchases, start at a site you enjoy and use their links, especially the smaller sites that don’t have a corporate parent to back them. Personally I tend to throw my referrals to sites like TiVo Blog or one of the many web comics I enjoy. So, while I do appreciate the support, I’m really hoping that you’ll take the opportunity to support any site or blog by using their affiliate links. Hopefully year-round, but especially at this time of year when so many purchases will be made. Pick a site, or spread it around - you have an opportunity to help sites you enjoy, and best of all it doesn’t cost you anything. Year round whenever I buy something online (which is quite often) I make an effort to use affiliate links from the sites I read regularly.

Happy Holidays, and thank you!

I normally keep hot button issues like politics out of this blog, but I noticed that the Google AdSense ads today have been displaying banners for ProtectMarriage.com and their “Yes on 8″ position. I in no way endorse their position and I was disturbed and angered seeing these ads on my site. I realize that’s a risk in using open ad networks where I don’t pre-screen every ad, so I don’t blame Google.

I can’t express how much I disagree with the very notion of California Proposition 8. I regret that I haven’t moved to CA yet so I could be able to vote NO on 8. (I’ll be moving to CA (again) at some point now that my job is based there.)

I’ve added their domain to my ad filters, but that can take a few hours to take effect. I just hope that, if you live in CA, you’ll be voting NO on 8 tomorrow. But, in general, even if we don’t agree, I hope you’ll be voting tomorrow. (Yeah, presuming you live in the US, are eligible to vote, etc… pedants. )

Comments are off on this one since I really don’t feel like having a political discussion on this blog. I wouldn’t have mentioned it if not for the ads and not wanting anyone to think I wanted them on this site.

I updated a couple of the WordPress plug-ins used on the site. If you notice any problems, please let me know. Thank you!

WordPress 2.6.2 is out and I’ve updated the site. I also updated plug-ins, and in the process I decided to drop Viper’s Video Quicktags. It added a lot of page volume with the included files and I found it didn’t cover some of the sites I was linking video from. Plus, being JavaScript driven, it meant the RSS feed didn’t get the embedded videos, just a link. Since I’m a long time web geek I decided to just create my own template files for the sites I link video from. I’ve gone back and edited past posts where I’d used the plug-in so the videos should still work with it removed.

As always, let me know if you spot a problem.

Example templates:
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I just updated a few of the plug-ins I use on this site, so let me know if you experience any issues.

I also finally got around to switching to Firefox 3 yesterday. I’d kept using Firefox 2 because of some of the browser add-ons I prefer not yet being supported on FF3. But they flipped the switch to start prompting FF2 users to upgrade, and I decided enough of the add-ons were now available to make the jump.

• Adblock Plus 0.7.5.5
• BugMeNot 2.0
• ColorZilla 1.9
• FirefoxView 1.0
• Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer 2.1.0.12
• FoxyTunes 3.0.4
• Google Gears 0.4.15.0
• Google Toolbar for Firefox 3.1.20080730W
• Html Validator 0.8.5.2
• IE View Lite 1.3.3
• Image Zoom 0.3.1
• InfoLister 0.10
• JavaScript Debugger 0.9.87.4
• Linkification 1.3.5
• Linky 2.7.1
• Live HTTP Headers 0.14
• MR Tech Link Wrapper 2.2.1
• Plain Text to Link 1.5.20080618
• Tab Mix Plus 0.3.7pre.080816
• Tweak Network 1.3
• View Cookies 1.7
• Web Developer 1.1.6

Unfortunately it looks like two of my favorite Firefox extensions are gone for good - Tabbrowser Preferences and Google Browser Sync. Tabbrowser Preferences was last updated in 2006 and it looks like development is dead and it won’t be updated for FF3. I’m trying out Tab Mix Plus as a replacement, and it seems to do a decent job, but if anyone has a suggestion for a better add-on to replace Tabbrowser Preferences I’d love to hear it.

And I was upset to find that Google has discontinued Google Browser Sync. If you currently have it installed you can continue using it through 2008, but you can no longer download the add-on and it wasn’t updated for FF3. This is the biggest loss for me, I made constant use of this. I loved being able to close FF and re-open it later with my existing session even moving from one machine to another. And keeping everything in sync - passwords, bookmarks, etc. I was thrilled back when it came out because it finally gave me something to match the old Roaming support in Netscape 4.7.

So far I haven’t found a replacement for it. I’m using Foxmarks for bookmark sync and backup, but it only does bookmarks. Tab Mix Plus has some session persistence, but only on the same machine. I checked out Mozilla Weave but it is in the very early stages, and right now they aren’t accepting any more users anyway. Google has turned over the code via Google Code so someone may resurrect it in a new form. But in the meantime I’d love to hear there is a good replacement out there.

This was an especially bad thing to find out because during the upgrade I lost my current bookmarks and they reverted to a set many months old. Back when FF3 was in beta I’d installed it alongside FF2 and it imported my bookmarks. I’d since removed the FF3 beta from my system. But apparently the imported bookmarks lingered, and when I upgraded from FF2 to FF3 yesterday instead of importing my FF2 bookmarks it just used the old FF3 set, yet it seems to have completely removed any trace of my FF2 bookmarks from my system. So I’ve lost any new bookmarks I’ve added since then, and, of course, just last week I’d finally gotten around to cleaning up my bookmarks to delete a bunch and file them, and now all the junk is back and messy. Sure there is a nice copy stored in Google Browser Sync, but now I can’t get to them. Even if I reinstalled FF2 the add-on download is gone. (If anyone knows where I can get the XPI to install it, that’d be great.)

In general FF3 is a nice upgrade, despite the troubles, though I’m really not seeing what is so awesome about the ‘awesome bar’ (as some call the URL/Location bar in FF3). Even in FF2 I disliked the way it’d suggest pages from the history and I always lock that down to just pages I’ve actually typed - as below. If there are any other add-ons or configuration tweaks you think I just have to check out, let me know. Share your Firefox tips for everyone to see.

Some of the settings I tweak in about:config in FF3 (definitely not a comprehensive list):
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I’ve updated the site to WordPress 2.6.1. Please let me know if you notice any issues. Thanks.

Well, CES is just under five months away. I know that seems like a long time, but I’ve learned from experience that you do not want to wait until, say, November to try booking a hotel room. Not unless you’re made of money or want to stay on the other side of town and take a taxi to the show each day. Which is its own special hell, imagine literally thousands of people lining up for the taxi queue at the end of the show day, every day. You want to wait four hours for a cab? Be my guest. (Actually, tip - take one of the free shuttles to a con hotel, any one, and catch a cab there. Much quicker, but it still sucks.)

After five years running at CES I’ve decided on two important guidelines:
1. Book early.
2. If the hotel isn’t on a monorail stop, I’m not interested. (Seriously, since the monorail opened things are much better. Best way to get around.)

As you might have guessed, I just got around to registering for CES 2009 and booking my hotel. Once again I’m at the Sahara. Not the swankiest joint in Vegas, but it is on the monorail (and conveniently the other direction from the LVCC than most of the other hotels, which means most people are trying to pack into trains going the other way), the rooms are fine for me (I’m a man of simple needs - a clean room to crash in), and it is inexpensive. I’ve stayed at the Sahara the past couple of years. The Imperial Palace is also on a monorail stop and cheap, and I stayed there a few years ago, but frankly it was kind of nasty. The hallway carpeting was sticky and there was a funky odor. Ick.

This time around I’ve registered as Press/Blogger, though I have to see if Gizmo Lovers passes muster and they accept me. We’re no Engadget or Gizmodo, but I’d like to think we qualify. I’d like to be able to attend some of the press-only events that I couldn’t get into last year.

I’m looking forward to covering CES once again in January.

The server that houses GizmoLovers.com experienced a little glitch shortly before noon Eastern. Unfortunately that broke MySQL’s socket connection, and it wasn’t until I noticed the site was down around 17:00 Eastern that the problem was realized. It was fixed within a couple of minutes once I caught it. I’m sorry for the few hours of downtime.