Entries in "internet"
I Miss My Computer
Like many computer-savvy users today, I've been taking full advantage of the customizability of programs like Mozilla Firefox and the freedom to define my own internet-powered entertainment through feed aggregators. Sitting at my keyboard, I'm in control and I can whiz through one task after another with ease. Middle-click here to pull up a useful link in a new tab; switch to Thunderbird to check e-mail; flip back to Firefox and use the Case directory searchbar to look up the person e-mailing me; have Winamp compile a new playlist for me based on that great song that just came on--the ease and usefulness of this personalized computing is endless.
Until I'm not in front of my computer. Then, I'm a drunkard: tripping over unfamiliar keys, muttering when I can't find something on an unfamiliar operating system, cursing when the middle-click doesn't work on the mouse (or, God forbid, the mouse has no middle button!), and quickly running out of things to do when I realize that I can't remember all of my favorite bookmarks and my Google Reader account doesn't contain all of the juicy feeds I normally read.
It's a sad compromise. You can get everything you could ever want just the way you want it, but only on one computer. Whenever you have to plug into a different computer, your personalizations are gone (unless, of course, you conduct all of your business through a web portal, but I have yet to find one of those that really appeals to me).
Alas. If only my department's computer lab allowed Remote Desktop capabilities! Maybe that's too much to ask. I'd settle for the ability to use a stripped down version of Firefox. Having all these IE windows open is annoying.