As promised, here are my feelings on the latest RC1 release of firefox:

Firstly, the British English dictionary has been fixed, so well done to the author!!

Secondly, I’ve been so impressed with the stability and usability of this latest build, that I’ve installed it on my home PC, home laptop and work laptop (it’s OK, I’m in IT so I’m allowed =)

The themes are gradually being converted across too which is great news, even if the default theme now is looking pretty nice anyway!

The spell check is a godsend for anybody that writes a blog, because it checks spelling as you type by doing the red underline thing, much like Microsoft Word does. That’s a lot easier than copying and pasting everything into Word just to check the spelling!

Most add-ons have also been converted over too, especially my favourites [Google Browser Sync] and [McAfee Site Advisor]

It seems a little quicker, but the browser has always been quick so we can’t expect the speed to be improved much more. The memory footprint is 40Mb as I’m typing this (two tabs open with one add-on installed) which I’m almost definite is smaller than before.

I’ve had no crashes since I’ve installed it and no system instabilities (which I did have with version 1.5.x) but it’s still early days yet.

So it’s pretty obvious I’ve got nothing but good things to say about this latest release. Let’s hope at the end of October when version 2 is properly released everything will be as good as I’ve seen so far with this beta.

This is probably one of the neatest and smallest contained security computers I’ve seen ever. Not only does it look really cool, but does everything you would need to keep the internet safe. Included with this miniture computer is a Firewall, Anti-spam/phishing, Virus scan, Spyware and all sorts of other things.

Being an IT professional I know the sort of grey area that’s created when you give members of staff laptops to use whilst on the move. On the one hand, they need the flexibility and freedom a laptop provides, but the downside is off-site support for the laptops (which is always going to be difficult) and the huge security hole that’s opened up. When they’re at home or elsewhere, using their laptop on the internet, god knows what they’ll bring back into the office!

This is where the Yoggie comes in (although it’s pretty apparent this is not it’s only job.) You connect it between your laptop and the network point, which ensures no nasties creep into the system for re-distribution on the LAN when you return to base. Being that the Yoggie uses RJ-45 it would be no good for a USB modem, however, but still a great piece of kit for the home LAN or the roaming employee.

The device contains a specialised CPU which runs within a security hardened version of linux (distro not specified.) What is also pretty clever, is the OS is stored on flash memory which is read-only. When the device boots, it copies the OS into second flash memory unit which is read-write. This ensures that if the device is ever compromised, or hackers find a way to get in, a simple reboot will wipe it back to it’s original status. It’s a brilliant idea, but what’s stopping them doing it a second time after the reboot? The hacker knows what device they’re hacking, so would also know it’s possible a reboot would happen any moment and probably be prepared for it..! I guess it’s only a secondary security measure they put in place.

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Yeap, you heard me right, RC1 is now available for download. After testing the various betas of firefox over the last months, they’ve all been pretty stable. I’m sure this version will be no different, although expect a few add-on/theme glitches while the community gets compatible with the new version.

However, everything else, at least on the surface, appears to be the same as previous betas, although under the hood I’m sure things are continually being tweaked.

The anti-phising and inclusion of spell check facilities are the really welcome additions mentioned before, that new users to 2.0 will find the benefit to immediately - I did however have problems downloading the British dictionary, so I had to make do with an Australian-English version (hopefully not too different) while the author adjusts to the new version.

Apart from that, it’s looking good so far, but as always will give a full update within a couple of days. Enjoy the latest version (which is apparently pretty close to the final version) but as always, download at your own risk - betas can seriously harm your PC’s health!!

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If you’ve ever heard of [craig's list] then you’ll be very comfortable with this website. The equivalent really for the UK really, although, like craig’s list, expansion is ongoing to other areas in the globe.

For the uninitiated, craig’s list and gumtree are sites that create an online community, based around your location. If you can imagine a free-ads, lonely hearts, job paper, property paper all rolled into one, just for your area, updated daily. The content is provided by the community, obviously with a selling slant (either products or services.) I found myself browsing my area not really looking for anything, but being really interested in what was being offered. From a 15 year old girl advertising dog-walking expertise to a company looking for somebody to join a newly-created web design team. All really compelling and useful stuff.

The other good thing is it looks a damn sight better than craig’s list too..! =)

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Yeah, I know, I seem to be going on about this stuff quite a bit but I think it’s pretty important damnit!!!

Maybe it’s because I have a few laptops hanging about, and maybe it’s because I notice when they get really hot, or the PSU’s are beyond touching, but should things be actually blowing up???

I think for a long time people have worried in the back of the minds over the recent increase of heat within laptops, and especially the hotspot created on your desk after your PSU has been sat for a few hours melting the dodgy veneer on our desks. Only now have our worries been realised into tangible concerns over our lives.
I think, being an averagely frequent flyer, that the banning of laptop batteries on flights is a good thing… After all, it’s another excuse to the boss not to work, whilst flying, as long as the aircraft doesn’t have plug sockets of course! More importantly though even if it is a very unlikely event that one will go off, I think it’s been proved now that they do explode, so I would rather be absolutely sure and keep them out of the cabin if it means safety for everyone onboard. I’m starting to seriously think about even having them in the house, after reports of people’s houses being burnt down and trucks being burnt out. I thankfully have a Toshiba laptop, but how long will it be before one of those goes up..?
So here we are again (I promise I will stop reporting exploding batteries eventually!) another exploding battery, although this time at the Yahoo! HQ. Dell again… Battery..

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It’s not really much of a news type post, more of an observation really. Just to note how cool things are nowadays…

Never did I realise at aged 12 with my ZX Spectrum, that I would be sat in a hotel room, hundreds of miles from home 19 years later with a laptop hooked up to the internet via 3G, using a wireless mouse to surf and writing my blog moments before I shut things down and head downstairs for a few pints of local ale and something to eat! And all that after a day of doing my dream job (sysadmin) and also getting my hands dirty setting up a network. Phew, don’t things change eh??

Later on this evening I will pop back up and do some proper surfing trying to find the latest snippet of info (as long as I’m sober enough that is!) I did hear something about apple and google teaming up, which could be worth a look.

Anyway, see you a bit later, and sorry for the “random post”!!!

Yeap, I think we all knew it was coming after the recent Dell battery recall fiasco. Now Virgin Atlantic has joined Qantas and Korean Air as the third company to ban Dell Batteries, as well as the sony manufactured Mac laptop batteries.

The recent article on Engadget details speculation that all airlines will probably follow suit with and most are looking for a bill to be passed to prevent travellers from bringing any electronic device on-board, which I’m guessing is more to do with recent terroist activities, rather than exploding I.T. equipment. Watch this space!

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So we have the new version of iTunes 7.0. It has a few updates but basically looks the same (to the uninitiated.) So what’s the difference?? Well, to summarise:

iTunes Music Store is now just iTunes Store (presumably to incorporate the movies and things too and to get away from the “online music store” feel to the more “online media store” which must have a better longevity.)

The iTunes logo is also blue (hmmm… OK.) Green/blue, like whatever… =)

The main difference for me though is a slightly more polished interface, with simple iPod updates - No more do we run a seperate program to update the iPod BIOS, it’s all automatically picked up and updated by iTunes. Also a list of the number of podcasts you are subscribed to is visible, rather than clicking on the link and (god forbid) counting the number of different feeds.. The general feel thankfully is pretty much the same although there is a welcome downloads (within the new store list section) that shows store/podcast/iPod updates seperately. Don’t worry for those playlist whores, during the upgrade, all of your lists are kept safe.

There are a few cosmetic changes that will be welcomed by a few, but generally it just feels, again, that apple has just made things work as it seems they’re so good at doing. If you have the previous version, I’m sure things will feel very similar, although it will be more perfect than before (whatever that means..!)

Also, who could fail to mention the rather sexy iPod section that shows a picture of your iPod with a nice graph displaying used/free space and Update/Restore buttons. Very nice. Check it out if you have an iPod!

Oh yeah, almost forgot, it appears that iTunes does a zero gap search when first installed on all of your music.. Now I can only presume this feature will allow tracks with full volume at the end of the track, to blend seamlessly to the next track, without the cross-fade. This would be logically what it meant, but I haven’t yet tested it.. Will let you know if I’m right.. Download the latest version below to test for yourself:

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I found this whilst stumbling about - a high res picture of Saturn’s rings taken by the Cassini probe (which was Cassini-Huygens until the Huygens part hurtled towards Titan at stupid-miles-per-hour.)

Taken from 610,000 km away from the rings, it’s amazing the detail you can see. It’s very fractal like.

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This list is pretty comprehensive if you have a blog. If you implement at least half of these things I reckon you’ll see a definate increase in traffic. I personally do most and my traffic is still very light. The only thing I haven’t done is really promote the blog. I was hoping some of you guys would do that.. =)

Anyway, if you are a blogger or are thinking of becoming one, this list I think should set you off in the right direction.

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