Although it seems rather absurd, in this day and age, to pay for a web browser — there are at least 4 high-quality free browsers available for OS X — I decided to give the OmniWeb 5.5 Beta a try, mostly because most everything that emerges from the brilliant minds at OmniGroup is golden.

Wow!

I thought that my little old iMac was just getting slow in its old age — either that, or my Internet connection was wilting. OmniWeb disabused me of both notions: this browser flies. It’s also got a couple of nice features — like a new take on “tabs” — that remind me that browser UI hasn’t moved very far in the past 5 years.

I’ve got 29 days left on the free trial; so far, I’m delighted enough to seriously considering upping for a license and making it my primary browser. More later.

The L.M. Montgomery Land Trust is holding a fundraising variety show in Cavendish on Sunday, August 13th, 2006 at 3:00 p.m.

The show features Michael Pendergast, Leon Gallant, Neil Matthews, Allison Ling and the characters of Avonlea Village and will be held inside the old Long River Church at Avonlea Village.

Tickets are $15 per person, and this includes admission to the concert, ice cream and strawberries, and entrance to Avonlea Village for the day.

Oliver and I went up to the concert two years ago, and it was fantastic; the $15 ticket price is a deal, especially if you’re planning to visit Avonlea Village anyway, as you save $3.95 off the regular admission.

If you’d like to purchase tickets, please send me an email.

I’ve been subscribing to David Smith’s del.icio.us links since I heard him speak at [[reboot]] back in June. Perhaps because we appear to have a significant interest overlap, I find three or four very useful things in the stream every day. This is notable for me because it’s the first time I’ve every truly profited from the “social” part of “social software” — before this I’d only ever use del.icio.us as a souped-up bookmarks menu.

[[Laurent Haug]] has some interesting observations about reboot 8.0.

Every summer I have the distinct (if somewhat disconcerting) pleasure of having regular readers of this weblog “from away” showing up here at the office to say hello. This morning, just as I was returning from my Breakfast at Barristas, I ran into Valerie Bang-Jensen coming out of the front door of the office with her daughter. You may recall that Valerie is the official grammarian of the weblog; she’s also got Copenhagen ties and lives in Vermont, two things that always raise someone’s stature in my world.

In addition to learning how to prounounce Valerie’s last name, I’m also the happy recipient, on [[Oliver]]’s behalf, of some wonderful postcards:

The postcard is an advert for the book The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman, a book the School Library Journal calls “A fresh, unusual tale.”

Who will show up next?

Barristas is the new wrapping put on the space formerly occupied by the Downtown Diner and, before then, by Checkers and, before then, by a furniture store. Word on the street is that it’s also the new home of the former Cora’s franchisees, something the 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. opening hours would seem to support.

Inside the space has lost most of the faux 50s feel it gained during the Checkers days — only the black and white tiles on the floor recall this time. They’ve constricted the large counter that used to run the length of one side back into a far corner, removed the smoking room, and done everything over in an aubergine colour scheme. There’s lite rock on the turntable, servers clad in black, and Island art on the walls. Overall the effect is sort of like “Timothy’s meets Linda’s”.

The menu is more Linda’s than Timothy’s (or Cora’s), albeit tuned for a higher income bracket ($9.50 for waffles!?). Eggs, omelets, french toast, etc. Precious little if you’re not an egg lover, alas. I reconciled myself to ordering from the sides section and had a bagel with cream cheese and hash browns; both were well-prepared. I pulled the old “pot of tea and glass of ice” trick to get myself an unsweetened iced tea; I didn’t make a fuss about it, and got exactly what I asked for, which was nice.

For a place called Baristas, they serve coffee in a surprisingly limited fashion: basically, they have “coffee.” Albeit from a large menu of varieties. If you like your coffee straight and unadorned, you’ll be happy here; if you’re of the “low fat latte with a double shot” set, go around the corner or across the street.

In the end Barristas appears to target the “everyday Islander” who’s looking for a regular everyday restaurant with a thin veneer (and only a thin veneer — no earrings in the lips here) of urban hipness. I wonder, however, whether this “everyday Islander” exists any more — is Beanz really too drenched in funk that some are scared off.

Staff — free of earrings as they are — are incredibly friendly (there were four servers for two tables this morning). Wifi is free and plentiful.

The Little Mac Shoppe, Charlottetown’s Apple dealer, is moving out of its basement location and into the space formerly occupied by Jumbles and Gems (and before that by a dizzying series of restaurants-that-failed) on Victoria Row.

The shop’s corporate cousin The Buzz newspaper, is making the move too, meaning that Peter and Nancy will be working above ground (and without the constant danger of office flooding) for the first time in 15 years.

I walked by the new space yesterday and it’s looking terrific; a wonderful new home:

Word from my friend [[Peter Lux]] is that there is one mother of a yurt going up this weekend in South Melville, PEI. He’s promised to take pictures.

I am hiding out inside the Confederation Centre of the Arts. It’s 40 degrees C outside, they tell me (at least with the humidity factored in). In here it’s about 20 degrees cooler. I only wish they would rent out little bits of the floor and pillows: I’d happily sleep here tonight.

Later: laptop ran out of power (the Centre has free Wifi, but no power outlets) so I’ve moved upstairs to the equally cool Confederation Centre Public Library. The only downside up here is the very annoying buzz of the lights high above. But I’d trade cool for buzz any day. Open until 9:00 p.m.