Nuther good freebie

Got a good freebie today. Actually it's a freebie that replaces another freebie, but since it's better than the original it's worth a look.

I like RealPlayer and the QuickTime Player because I occasionally need to look at Real or QuickTime content. I dislike RealPlayer and QuickTime player because they're annoying and they're always showing you ads and they insist on running even when you're not using them and they have annoyingly nonstandard user interfaces and they put icons all over the place to remind you of how very GOOD THEY ARE!

And it looks like I'm not the only one. . .

Here's a group of folks who have pruned out the QT and RealPlayer plugins and built a dirt-simple little player and installer for 'em. It works as a standard browser plugin so you can play QT and Real content in a browser. They also work through a little player called 'media player classic' that looks like the old Windows Media Player (circa 1998 before it got skins).

In short, they're exactly what I want. QuickTime and RealPlayer content without QuickTime and RealPlayer annoyances.

One warning. The download site pops up ads, tries to install spyware, wants you to purchase a Russian bride, and is a general nuisance. Once you get past that and get to the download, though, the rest is smooth sailing.

Having read that warning, go here, scroll down to 'QuickTime Alternative' and 'Real Alternative', download 'em, uninstall any existing Real or QT player you've got installed, and enjoy. Been using it for six months now, and I love it.

Moved in

We're finally moved into the new digs full-time. We still own the old place, but all that's left are a couple of pickup truck loads of miscellaneous junk and some old furniture that's marked for donation. The new place is pretty-much painted except for some trim. The top floor (the office) is newly hardwooded with bamboo flooring and has most of the office moved in. Maggie's now used to the place and has now graduated to a 'big girl bed' from her crib. About the last thing left to do here is to put up supply shelves in the upstairs closets, finish painting the trim, and get the rest of the junk moved over.

Unfortunately, we still haven't sold the other house yet. Two or three contracts have fallen through now. One for bad credit and one for a disagreement about the roof. The inspectors cited some 'roof damage' when they looked the place over. The new buyers said that we should cover repairing the roof for a cost 'not to exceed $2,400'. We agreed and hired a roof repair guy who said the damage was very minor, with about a dozen shingles that were scratched or peeling up and a roof vent that needed to be replaced. He estimated $350 to make the repairs. We figured that that'd be fine, given that it addressed the problem and it did not exceed $2,400. Problem is, the homebuyers assumed that 'not to exceed $2,400' actually means 'replace the whole roof'. We tried to make it clear that this would address their problem exactly as they wanted and that the roof was in good shape, but the contract got dumped the next day.

Looks like we're probably gonna go through with the repairs anyway. It'd actually be better if the new buyers would have the repairs done on our dime, because then any warranty on the repairs would be in their name. People just have an aversion to doing any repairs though, minor as they may be. Oh well.

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On another note, if you bought a million dollars worth of Enron stock on July 17, 2000, it would be worth a little under $460 right now. That has nothing to do with anything, but I thought it was interesting how the cash that could buy a big luxury house four years ago could be parlay-ed into enough money to buy a secondhand refrigerator today.