“Spread Firefox”:http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=user/register&r=5005 has started a new campaign to get 10,000 users signed up to help spread the word.
If you haven’t signed up, yet, get your butt in gear!
recommended
Browse Happy
A new site, “Browse Happy”:http://www.browsehappy.com, has been created by the “Web Standards Project”:vhttp://webstandards.org/act/campaign/happy/. It’s aim is to reach the world with the message that there are alternative browsers. They have (or at least, will soon have) testimonials from users of “Mozilla”:http://www.mozilla.org/products/mozilla1.x, “Mozilla Firefox”:http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox, “Opera”:http://www.opera.com, and “Safari”:http://www.apple.com/safari.
They also feature information about why IE is unsafe, along with promotional buttons so that browser evangelists can point traffic to their site. Their style seems a little girly, but all-in-all it’s a fun (and practical) site.
Amazing Race 5
I’ve found my new favorite show. I watched _[“The Amazing Race 5”:http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race5/]_ last night and loved every minute of it. I’ve seen advertisements for this show many times before and was always mildly interested, but somehow I never got around to watching it. I’m not sure how I missed four whole seasons, but I’m definitely hooked, now.
I’ve never been a big fan of reality TV, since most of it is pure drivel — steamy romance, bickering, foul-mouthed slander, etc. — but this show is clean and has a great premise. Teams compete to see who can be the first to reach various checkpoints. They don’t know where the next checkpoint is until they read a clue found at the current checkpoint. At the end of each episode, they reach a pitstop, where the team in last place gets eliminated, and everyone gets to take a breather.
I’m hoping my brother-in-law will get interested, too. He and I, along with several other family members, had a bracket wager on the third _American Idol_. We’ll have to see about setting up something similar for this show.
Make Your Computer Smarter
I uninstalled Internet Explorer from my work computer this morning, and let me tell you, I feel a lot better. My computer somehow seems smarter.
The only reason I was keeping IE around was so I could listen to my favorite streaming radio station, “K-LOVE Christian Music”:http://www.klove.com. Fortunately for me, they addressed some problems with Windows Media Player in Firefox 0.9, so now I can actually connect to the station in Firefox.
Uninstalling IE is easier than you might think. In Windows XP, you simply go to the “Add or Remove Programs” option in the Control Panel and choose “Add/Remove Windows Components” from the buttons on the left. IE appears on the list with a little check box next to it. Simply remove the checkmark and continue through the setup wizard. In no time your computer will be free from inferior browsers.
Happy Firefoxing.
Are you with Arby’s? — Unofficially.
I just had an “Arby’s”:http://www.arbys.com/arb01.html Beef ‘n’ Cheddar with homestyle fries. Holy cow. Could anything be better? I’m having trouble thinking of anything off the top of my head. Arby’s beats Burger King and McDonald’s hands down. Their fries are the best, and roast beef is so much more refined than hamburger. Did I mention they have awesome shakes?
Man, I gotta get me some more o’ that.
Debugging Woes
This made me laugh: “Beware of strangers“. If you’ve ever debugged a program, you’ll have a good idea what was going through this guy’s head.
Google News Alerts
I absolutely love Google News. It brings together articles from over 4,500 different news sites, and you can search for news on any topic you happen to be interested in.
One of the greatest features they’ve added to the system is News Alerts. You can specify search terms and an email address, and you’ll receive news about your search terms as often as you specify. I’ve set up a few different ones, for instance: “mozilla firebird”, “university of utah”, “contentwatch”, and “southern baptist”. I love being able to read current news about things I am interested in, rather than having to wade through a bunch of news I don’t care to read.
Ditch Your Google Toolbar
Mozilla Firebird offers an extension that emulates the Google Toolbar. It doesn’t have some of the newer features such as the popup-blocker (Firebird has it’s own popup-blocker that works great), but it does have the familiar options (e.g. the search bar, next/previous result buttons, highlight options, individual search term “find” buttons, etc.).
Every since I discovered the Google Toolbar, I can’t stand browsers that don’t have it installed. However, I have discovered that the features I use most often are available through Mozilla Firebird without having to clutter up my browser with an extra toolbar.
Bayesian Email Filtering
Ever since I read Jim Daniel’s article on SitePoint regarding Bayesian spam filtering, I’ve been wanting to get my hands on it. The article concerns a product called Spamnix, which is currently only available for Qualcomm Eudora. He listed a few suggestions for Outlook (and/or Outlook Express) users, but nothing that looked too promising.
A List Apart Returns
If you’re in to web design, but have never read any articles over at A List Apart, I highly recommend that you scoot your butt over there and start readin’.
The site has been under construction for over a month and I’ve really missed reading fresh content there. Now that their new layout is up, they have satisfied my cravings with three new articles. I especially enjoyed the sliding doors article.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about trying my hand at freelance web design. I think I would have to learn flash first, but some things I’ve read lately have convinced me that the world of freelance design may not be as hard to break into as I had previously thought. I’m not sure I could do it for a living, but I already spend way too much time working on my own site. Why not make a little side money doing something I enjoy?