Website of the week

I know I did this one a few months back, but its worth repeating. If you have not tried Firefox as an alternative, or as in my case a supplement, to internet explorer than you are missing out. I still use IE the majority of the time, but due to the superior security of Firefox, I do my online banking and all other financial or confidential transactions on Firefox. I also like its tabbed windows, and the extensions that allow you to add only the features that you want.

Check it out here, and by the way, the new version of Firefox (Firefox 1.5) is out now.

http://www.mozilla.com/

If you ever suffered through the horror of Windows ME, please read:

Check out the article from Network Computing at the link below. It gives a brief history of the Windows operating system, including my personal favorite, Windows Millenium. I sometimes refer to it as MuhShiteem. Pretty descriptive title too because it really sucked big time. On days where I would be on my pc for most of the day, it was not uncommon to have to reboot my pc five or six times. ME was a resource hog. It would take resources for applications, but once you closed those apps, it would not relinquish the memory, even though it was not using it. Kind of sucked.

Anyhow, its an interesting read, check it out:
http://www.networkcomputing.com/showitem.jhtml?sssdmh=dm4.158878&docid=1624ms20-03

Instead of a law against vicious dogs, maybe they should have one against their owners!

Here is another case of a person being killed or seriously injured (killed in this case) by a dog or several dogs. In this case, the dogs in question were 3 pit bulls. I don't think anyone can argue that pit bulls can be very dangerous due to their exceptionally strong grip and their overall strength. But the problem is not necessarily with the dogs themselves, but rather with how they are treated and raised. Many pit bulls are bred to fight, making them very aggressive and short tempered. Then someone ends up owning a dog like that as a pet and you can probably guess the rest. In the case from the article listed below, an 80 some year old woman in Virginia was killed (along with her dog) by 3 pit bulls. She was walking her dog in her own yard.

And the best part? The owner, a 3o some year old woman. Yeah, this may sound sexist, but a thirty something woman owning 3 pit bulls, or for that matter any guy owning 3 pit bulls sounds like a recipe for disaster. In this case it sure was. Many cities are now passing laws against Pit Bulls and other "vicious" dogs. Denver is one such city that recently passed a similar law. More are sure to come. But the real problem is the people that breed pit bulls in such a horrible fashion and also abuse them. In many states, raising dogs to fight and abusing them in the process is only a misdemeanors. Until it gets expensive as a deterrent (and it won't stop them all) this kind of thing will continue.

You can read about it here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051218/ap_on_re_us/pit_bull_attacks;_ylt=Aq5lQel8cTFuHc.GcjBVuvlvzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

Note to insurance companies: Pissing off a senator is damn dumb

You have to hand it to State Farm Insurance. They apparently refused to pay a claim on a policy owned by long time Mississippi senator Trent Lott. You would think they would realize that its just not smart pissing off a senator, especially about a topic as sensitive as Hurricane Katrina. But they apparently have succeeded at doing just that, by refusing to pay on the policy. You can read the whole story at the link below, but basically the deal is that State Farm is saying that a wind driven storm surge is flooding, and that they will only pay that if the policyholder had flood insurance. That does makes some sense I suppose, if they made that clear to people that bought the policy to ensure they did not think they had coverage while they actually did not.

You wonder, wouldn't it have been a good idea to just pay his claim and not risk the negative publicity and possibility of a government investigation.

Read about it here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_lott_lawsuit;_ylt=ArdgNx5jkc6CAN5.j2MlBYCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

This kind of thinking just pisses me off.........

You have to love groups like Walmart Watch, which pretend to be objective but are really just a front for a totally one sided, union funded campaign against Walmart. I have never been a huge Walmart fan, mainly because I worked for one of their main competitors for nearly 10 years, but some of the attacks on Walmart just go too far. Take Walmart Watch for example, a group that is basically a AFC front, is pushing to get Maryland's legislature to override a bill the legislature passed but was vetoed by Maryland's governor. The bill stipulates that any employer in Maryland would be required to pay at least 8% of their payroll on health benefits, and that if they fail to do so, they would pay an extra tax as a penalty. Doesn't sound too bad right? But guess how many companies in Maryland this law would apply to? Not twenty, or ten, or even five, but rather just one company. That company, of course, is Walmart.

So basically the Maryland legislature passed a bill because they bought into the union BS and hysteria over health care and wages and passed this bill. I am not at all a fan of government mandating such issues to business. In some cases maybe they need to, but not in this case.

I find the whole Walmart Watch campaing a joke, basically they are pissed off because after years of trying, they have yet successfully organized a Walmart store.

I just might have to make this a topic (the whole Walmart thing) a topic for my issues blog, we shall see about that I guess.

If you want to read an article about all of this, check this out, its from a great business news source:
http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2005/12/12/daily13.html?hbx=e_abd