For years I used to funk around looking for new applications and plug-ins to make my Mac go faster or look snazzier. Funnily enough, though, when I started this blog, I stopped the mindless searching and fine tuning for my own ends and limited myself to the occasional software review for my readers benefit.

Kicking around for 5 minutes yesterday I decided it was time to break the habit of a blog lifetime and go geeky again for my own pleasure, so I went to Versiontracker to seek out some ways to spice up browsing the web on Safari. Despite a lot of extra Safari info, my tweaking started and finished with Inquisitor, a funky Web 2.0 search plug in.

Wot is Inquisitor?

Basically, as you type a search term, Inquisitor turns up all sorts of related search terms, reading your mind. It seems more like it is trying to change your mind, because as you type, it shows words and terms you never dreamt of.

For instance, in my mind I was searching HELP, but as I typed at my normal 34 words an hour, it turned me onto Heroes, then Hello Kitty. By the time I had looked through Hello Kitty's site, I forgot what i was looking for, and decided to write this post instead.

It is free, artsy and works with Yahoo search as default. Apparently you can use Google too. Buggered if I know how, but there you go. Looks sweet doesn't it?



And it found The Pisstakers, so all in all, a neat improvement on the standard fare for searching.

Funny Quote of the Day is by far the most popular page on the Pisstakers site. How annoying that the easiest to come by material attracts the most attention.

I jest, I am not annoyed, just saying that compared to writing real material, it was a doddle to compile a list of funny quotes that I found around the internet, in real life and on TV.

My own favorite is

If we were meant to be vegetarian, why did god make animals out of meat. Why not tofu? (Dan Nainan)

If you want thousands of people to continually call by and spend a few minutes perusing your blog, why not add a funny quote of the day page yourself, there is always room on the 'net for easy-to-read gems.

At a time when oil has hit $122 a gallon, some one still has the nerve to pump out an article warning against dumping your gas guzzler for a lean mean hybrid machine!

According to this (exxon?) sponsored post, owners of 30mpg cars would spend about $1700 a year less on gas than owners of a 15 mpg truck. This sounds all well and dandy and what can possibly be wrong with buying a fuel efficient run around - until you get to the premise of the article - that you need to sell your brand new truck, eat the depreciation AND spend $22,000 to acquire this hybrid car.

Now, of course the wheels fall off being efficient, and on that basis, $1700 savings at the pump only partially offset the overall cost of changing cars. So, there is no incentive to being socially responsible, as you were.

Except that instead of beating your head against a wall of stupidity and throwing money endlessly into the gas tank of a spanky new truck, how about this. Keep your truck for posing at the weekend, and spend $3500 on a second hand Japanese car that you can drive in the week. That way you break even financially by end of year one; from your low down sedan seat, you get to see just how stupid and overkill most trucks are for driving around town; and you can be fuel efficient.

Sorry to be sensible and all, Messrs Exxon and co. but who can afford to think the same old ways that got us into this gas dependent mess? Not me.

No doubt we will revisit the argument when oil hits $200 a barrel. Till then, happy driving.

I have noticed a lot of resistance to change, which surprises me, considering we are all so well educated, open minded and exposed to new ideas these days.

Resist the iPod

I remember loads of resistance to the iPod, with critics saying it would never take off because ALL it did was play MP3's. I suppose we expect the latest new thing to be ultra complex and have loads of bells and whistles and flashing lights. Perish the thought that we give up the fiddly and unreliable electronic device we already can't make work for something simple that does work!

Resistance in Germany

Talking electronic gizmos, a friend of mine was a big shot with Mercedes Benz and he said they met with constant resistance from suppliers whenever they asked them to produce new state-of-the-art components. It seems crazy to me that any high tech manufacturer would shy away from advancement, but there you go! Vorsprung durch Zwang? Progress by force.

Resistance from painters

I know a little bit about paint, and the construction industry, a domain that embraces the whole idea of resistance to change.

When I was working as a painter in the UK, I used to do a lot of research into new materials. I was a great fan of the Dutch, who are the masters at house painting, and so I gravitated towards paint from Dutch conglomerate Akzo. It was easy to get a perfect finish using their basic oil undercoats and gloss paints and fillers, and I raved about it to colleagues, but to almost no avail. There was a lot of lunatic reasoning against change - saying that it was best to stay with what was known; that the price of the known brands was right; that customers would think they were being gipped when contractors turned up with paint from a company they had never heard of. Whatever.

I was a lone voice banging my head against a wall, but thanks to millions invested in marketing, Akzo did change the minds of painters, convincing them to change paint and get an advantage so they could make money more easily. It makes you wonder why they bothered helping such curmudgeonly old bastards.

In fact I was talking to a tech guy from Akzo and he said they had many products in mainland Europe that would not be available in the UK for years, because, not surprisingly, the island mentality market wasn't ready for them. You get the product you deserve.

Conclusion

It is hard to criticise people for not wanting to change, especially as I have just retrograded 50 years by getting a wood, not fiberglass boat, but it does annoy me when people stick with the same old same old, despite new options. Do you often come across Luddite mind set and scratch your head? Or do you think there is too much change going on for our own good anyway, so change is not a good thing?

Change a habit of a lifetime and resist the urge to not comment...