Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Don't rush through the Digital Economy Bill
I’ve just written to my MP telling them why I am concerned that the Digital Economy Bill could be rushed through without a full Parliamentary debate.
Will you write to your MP too and tell them why the government shouldn’t rush through these draconian laws.
It only took two minutes: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/digitaleconomybill
Will you write to your MP too and tell them why the government shouldn’t rush through these draconian laws.
It only took two minutes: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/digitaleconomybill
Labels: computers, internet, politics
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Firefox 3
I've been using Firefox 3 now for the past day on both my Mac and Windows computers. I used to use Safari beforehand and am desperately missing Inquisitor - perhaps I'll find a similar extension or it's built in and I haven't realised.
So far I like the native widgets so it's aqualicious in Mac OS X which is nice - but you don't get the fancy Cocoa textbox facilities (spell as you type, built in dictionary lookup, etc) which Safari offers. I don't like the big "back" button, but luckily I discovered "use small icons" in the toolbar customisation which keeps it the same size as the rest. I've installed the del.icio.us extension which I used regularly with FF 2 on Windows, unfortunately it doesn't use the losenge shaped buttons on Mac OS X which makes the toolbar appear a little odd.
As a thank you, Mozilla are offering certificates to those who downloaded which is cool!
So far I like the native widgets so it's aqualicious in Mac OS X which is nice - but you don't get the fancy Cocoa textbox facilities (spell as you type, built in dictionary lookup, etc) which Safari offers. I don't like the big "back" button, but luckily I discovered "use small icons" in the toolbar customisation which keeps it the same size as the rest. I've installed the del.icio.us extension which I used regularly with FF 2 on Windows, unfortunately it doesn't use the losenge shaped buttons on Mac OS X which makes the toolbar appear a little odd.
As a thank you, Mozilla are offering certificates to those who downloaded which is cool!
Labels: computers, firefox, internet
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Firefox 3 Download Day 2008
The 17th June 2008 is Firefox 3 download day. The Firefox team are trying to get into the Guinness book of records with the largest number of downloads within a 24 hour period. I've pledged and will be downloading both a Mac OS X and Windows version during that time.
I didn't do anything special for the last major release - Firefox 2; but for Firefox 1 I donated and had my name included in their 2 page advert in the New York Times in December 2004! I even have this as a poster somewhere!!
Have you made the pledge for Firefox 3?
Monday, February 04, 2008
Microsoft Yahoo!
I read this earlier this weekend and didn't think much of it until I realised that I rely on two of Yahoo!'s products- Flickr! and del.icio.us. I used to have a hotmail account in '97 and found it to be very good, then when Microsoft acquired it, it when progressively downhill to the point today where my hotmail name is different to my original because it expired and I use the account only very rarely to log in to MSN Chat.
I don't want Microsoft to get their hands on either as the first thing they'd do is move it over to Windows based systems which will undoubtedly cause severe trouble - although, perhaps they've improved since Hotmail! del.icio.us works pretty well now, I don't want to have my account tied in to an MSN passport and then have my bookmarks progressively integrated with Windows Live services. I just want it the way it is. I was pretty reluctant to sign up with a Yahoo! account for flickr!, but I decided there wasn't much to lose and the Flickr! staff had announced they wouldn't be making any serious changes - good enough for me so I have one. There hasn't been any mention from the flickr! staff about what could or will happen, perhaps because it's speculative at the moment. I know one thing for sure. I don't want Windows Live Photos!
I did read somewhere that they may sell off Flickr! and del.icio.us. I don't know who'd buy either - perhaps Google would buy both. I've already mentioned a Google takeover of del.icio.us would be cool.
MS could do something very cool with Flickr!, something Apple has yet to do properly. MS could release an IPhoto type application for Windows Vista and tie it in with Flickr! with synchronisation. You alter the photo in "MS Photo", the alteration gets synced with Flickr! similarly you tag a photo in Flickr! it gets synced back to "MS Photo". That would be a great product and if done right, a great iPhoto competitor. Although, maybe, just maybe, Apple will buy Flickr! and add this capability to IPhoto as an extension to it's .mac services. I did notice a Flickr! viewer on screenshots of the new Apple TV take 2...
BBC NEWS | Business | Microsoft wants to purchase Yahoo
I don't want Microsoft to get their hands on either as the first thing they'd do is move it over to Windows based systems which will undoubtedly cause severe trouble - although, perhaps they've improved since Hotmail! del.icio.us works pretty well now, I don't want to have my account tied in to an MSN passport and then have my bookmarks progressively integrated with Windows Live services. I just want it the way it is. I was pretty reluctant to sign up with a Yahoo! account for flickr!, but I decided there wasn't much to lose and the Flickr! staff had announced they wouldn't be making any serious changes - good enough for me so I have one. There hasn't been any mention from the flickr! staff about what could or will happen, perhaps because it's speculative at the moment. I know one thing for sure. I don't want Windows Live Photos!
I did read somewhere that they may sell off Flickr! and del.icio.us. I don't know who'd buy either - perhaps Google would buy both. I've already mentioned a Google takeover of del.icio.us would be cool.
MS could do something very cool with Flickr!, something Apple has yet to do properly. MS could release an IPhoto type application for Windows Vista and tie it in with Flickr! with synchronisation. You alter the photo in "MS Photo", the alteration gets synced with Flickr! similarly you tag a photo in Flickr! it gets synced back to "MS Photo". That would be a great product and if done right, a great iPhoto competitor. Although, maybe, just maybe, Apple will buy Flickr! and add this capability to IPhoto as an extension to it's .mac services. I did notice a Flickr! viewer on screenshots of the new Apple TV take 2...
BBC NEWS | Business | Microsoft wants to purchase Yahoo
Labels: apple, flickr, internet, microsoft, yahoo
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Help find Steve Fossett using Google Earth
I think this is a really impressive use of Google Earth and the internet (centred around Amazon's "turk" technology); a massive distributed effort using recent satellite images on both Amazon and linked to Google Earth to find the missing explorer, Steve Fossett.
Basically you log into Amazon using your normal book buying username and password and select which Turk you want to do - the Steve Fossett one is free, but many others you can get paid for. Then you are presented with an example image and the image Amazon want you to check. You simply select "yes" (there is something interesting) or "no" (move along, nothing to see here).
Go to Amazon's Mechanical Turk (www.mturk.com)
Original article on BBC News
Basically you log into Amazon using your normal book buying username and password and select which Turk you want to do - the Steve Fossett one is free, but many others you can get paid for. Then you are presented with an example image and the image Amazon want you to check. You simply select "yes" (there is something interesting) or "no" (move along, nothing to see here).
Go to Amazon's Mechanical Turk (www.mturk.com)
Original article on BBC News
Labels: amazon, computers, coolstuff, earth, google, internet
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