wrap up and flock

Today is the first really cold winter day in the West of Ireland. My fingerless gloves are coming in rather useful, as I bundle up and type in my office. My office is at the back of the house, which means it’s quieter, but it gets almost no direct sunlight. It’s chilly in here even when it’s sunny, so I’m at the point in the year when I have to turn the heat on during the day. I was raised in an era when it was considered frivolous to waste money on heating when you could just wear an extra cardigan, sweater, scarf, hat, and coat around the house.

Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I tend to feel a touch of childhood guilt every time I put on the heating. I layer my clothing instead. I don’t believe in freezing in my own home, but equally I don’t see the point in having the house so hot I have to wear a t-shirt. Not when I have to pay the heating bills now…

I’m trying out the new browser, called Flock (1.0), at the moment. As much as I like Firefox I’m a believer in always giving new software a chance. So far it’s a funky little browser, with a useful “People” sidebar that’s dedicated to the plethora of social networking systems available to users these days. I’m not sure if I’m going to switch over permanently yet, but I plan to get a sense for its strengths and weaknesses. In particular, I’ll see how well it handles when many, many tabs are open (I often have 20+ running in any one window when I’m in research mode). Firefox has become a bit of a resource hog lately in that regard.

Ah, there are so many distractions…