Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com

AvantBrowser: The Best IE Add-On I've Seen. Like many of you, I'm always looking for great software - something so useful you install it on friends computers when you're over for a visit. Avant Browser is one such software tool. It's a light-weight add-on for Internet Explorer on your desktop PC, and adds some excellent features for a price you can't beat: free (though I'd urge you to give the author a small donation if you use it). It's has a tabbed browser interface, integrated Google searching, a pop-up blocker that works better than anything else I've ever used, and it's very fast (some add-ons to IE slow it down). One thing I like in particular is that most pop-up Windows that you DO want work and they float in their original size (NetCaptor forces them to be "full size"). I've been installing this application on every computer I come across - it's that good. The author is also amazingly responsive - he releases new versions nearly every week, fixing bugs and adding new features. He even added F2/F3 tab navigation when I asked him too! Download the trial version to check out, and if you like it and use it, please support the author with a donation. [Pocket PC Thoughts]

I think even when go 15 years without a confirmed BSOD sighting, and our kids look at us funny when we try to explain what they were, there will still be a population complaining about "all the BSODs." ***!!!*** PARITY ERROR PANIC ***!!!*** anyone?
[Sean 'Early' Campbell & Scott 'Adopter' Swigart's Radio Weblog]

You know, I've only seen blue screens in two places in the last few years...

1. Crappy hardware...usually video drivers from ATI...

and more interestingly,

B. The Airport.  I travel a lot, and I see a BSOD nearly ever trip.  Usually some touch screen e-ticket kiosk blows chunks and it's left like that for hours.  We flew back from Las Vegas today and saw a very nice Blue Screen of Death actually OVER head above the Alaska Air ticket counters.  It was not a typical BSOD since the monitor it was on didn't like the refresh rate of this particular BSOD.  But with the over-hertz-y-ed flickering and the nice, regular columns of DLLBase, DateStamp and module name were very recognizable.  Needless to say, I continually chuckle that some schmuck doesn't just set the thing to restart automatically.  It is a kiosk after all.

What is this crap?  I noticed that my tabs in Windows Messenger 4.7 disappeared recently...when I renabled them I got this:

"We are removing all tabs except the Alerts tab from Windows Messenger.
However, MSN Messenger 5.0 continues to provide tabs, including a link to this content. Go to the Messenger Web site to install the latest version of MSN Messenger.We apologize for any inconvenience."

It's this kind of cheese that is turning me off to the whole MSN brand.  You'd expect this lameness from AOL, but what's the deal?  If they are discontinuing WIndows Messenger and forcing us to move to MSN Messenger then just TELL us.  (And make the install easy without having the two IM clients fight!)

Merry freakin' Christmas, my computer is slowly turning against me. 

My wife and I are going to Vegas for the holidays so I will see you all when I get back! If I don't blog much, it's because I hit on a hard 17 at blackjack and am too depressed to come to the computer.

Cookie Viewing. I've been sort of vaguely looking for a cookie management application for Internet Explorer for a while. I've tried out a couple, and been generally unimpressed with their speed or features. However, I've finally found one that seems worth keeping: IECookiesView.
[Larkware News]

Snazzy!  This will be a good companion to IEHTTPHeaders!