22" LCD monitor and Dell D620

I got an Acer 22" Monitor, only $219 + $13 shipping from Amazon. Good deal.

But when I hooked it to my Dell D620's monitor port, I couldn't set the resolution to be the monitor's native one, which is 1680x1050. My Dell has the intel's Mobile 945GM chipset. I googled, and followed what I found. It is simple: Just update my Dell's bios from A07 to A09. Then the monitor is at 1680x1050. Beautiful!

Good to be a Canadian citizen

Just checked the Chinese Consulate, Los Angeles web site. For U.S. citizens, the Chinese visa fee is $130. Wow! But if you have a Canadian passport, the fee is only $25. They still need to see your U.S. green card though.

The usage of the and a/an

 here
The above site is very authoritative. Look at Table 3 for decision. Remember the 5 sources
of definiteness. Should read it many times to memorize.

Here is a summary of the article:

• Understand 2 concepts: countable/uncountable, definite/indefinite
• Somehow remember Table 1: Some common uncountable nouns
• Definiteness: known to both the speaker and the listener.
• 5 sources of definiteness: previously mentioned, a ranking adjective, a unique thing, modifying structures, context
• Table 3 is the key: singular countable noun: use a/an for indefinite, use the for definite; plural/uncountable noun: use none for indefinite, use the for definite.
• 'the" is not used with most singular proper nouns (names of things). There are exceptions. Need to memorize.
• "the" is always used with plural proper nouns.
• Which of a/an to use depends on pronunciation, not on spelling.

Special cases:

1.  Sometimes countable nouns are considered to be uncountable and used without an article. This happens quite often with places/institutions (proper nouns).
2.  Do not use an article when you are referring to tables, figures pages, appendices, chapters or sections in your written work.
3.  Do not use an article with a noun after an '-s' possessive.
4.  Articles are not used with days and months, unless you are talking about a particular day or month
5.  Note the following when talking about television, radio, cinema and the theatre.
6.  Do not use an article with television when you are referring to the medium.
7.  Do use an article, however, if you are referring to a television set
8.  The is not used with titles which include the name of the person
9.  We usually uses possessives rather than the when we talk about parts of the body

It claims:
Keep in mind that native speakers of English seldom use articles incorrectly; therefore, any errors that you make are very noticeable and distracting to them. That is why you should make an effort to use articles correctly.

If you search "article usage" here, you get a lot of resuts. Reading them can be educational. I am not alone to be confused.

If so confusing, I wonder why 'the' exists in English in the first place.

Here  (the first post), even an English teacher is confused.

Hereis a post with 10 rules of THE usage.

Another post (the 4th post) about the idiom source of the usage.

bloger client softwares

Here is a list of blogging softwares.


BlogJet

• $45. But not allow to retrieve blogs.
• Tried. Had trouble to connect to blogger.com.

BlogWizard

• $23

Chrysanth WebStory -- $40. Anyway to tag/label posts?

DotPost -- link broken.

Ecto

• Originally for Mac. Now for Mac and Win.
• Version 2 doesn't install on my Windows XP. Verion 1.8.8 is ok.
• Adding labels (or tags) causes error when posting.

NBlog -- for pocket PC

PerfectJournal -- $20. Mainly for note taking and publishing notes to blogger. Auto keywording. How to manually label?

Photolightning

PowerBlog -- open source. no document.

RocketPost -- $100. Can import all blogs from servers. Doesn't allow multiple labels. Doesn't recognize Japanese. People complained the customer service and crashing bugs not fixed, in 2006.

Semagic -- open source. No document. Mainly for LiveJournal? Seems to have huge followers.

w.bloggar --

• freeware.
• No WYSIWYG. Only text editing, but with many buttons that help.
• No labeling.
• Post to multiple blogs.
  
• Can easily switch blog.
  
• Can retrieve blog posts.
• The biggest usage is to transfer posts among blogs.

Zoundry -- free. advertizement support? only Version 1.0

Senator Larry Craig

I just read the senator Larry Craig's story. I don't understand why it is becoming such a big deal. I am no fan of Republican, but I don't think Larry Craig should be picked on this small incident. The whole thing distract the nation from significant issues.

He is a victim.

Firefox's tab cycling

In Firefox, when you press Ctrl+Tab repeatedly, you cycle through the next tabs.

In fact, I like Opera's way better: You cycle through your recently active tabs, in a way similar to Windows Alt+Tab.

I researched for an hour, and still couldn't find a way to make Firefox to behave in the Opera's way.

Am I alone in this world wanting this?

Blogger data API

If you are a good programmer,  you can interact with blogger.com in codes. You don't have to deal with gui.

Here is a starting point: gData