Running V3

After all the hype this morning that took down the Mozilla servers, I have finally installed Firefox 3. It is such a relief to know that I am secure, fast, and stable while browsing the web. Besides that most of my major addons have been updated:

• Web Developer Toolbar
• Firebug
• MeasureIt
• Colorzilla
• Delicious Bookmarks
• FireScribe
• PicLens

It looks much crisper on the Mac with native graphics. Congrats to Mozilla on a solid & timely release!!!

Firefox 3 Coming June 17th!

Firefox 3 is just about ready. It will be ready on June 17th! Everyone get your mouse buttons ready because we are gearing up to get Firefox to the most downloaded software package ever. It is already going to be the best software package you download if it already isn’t.

Why Gas Why

Disclaimer: These are just my opinions not any kind of expert viewpoint. I’ve been meaning to write for some time about the ugly state of gas prices. I think it is safe to assume we are all feeling the heat, which is turning more into a full fledged burn (soon to be 3rd degree). It’s a saddening bit of reality that gas prices are no controlling us. As prices begin to soar businesses need to keep making money. So in order to do that they need to increase their prices. Its the whole Sales – Expenses = Profit, or lack-thereof if your expenses include the price of gas. Now we are seeing food prices going up by a quarter or two. You now have to start paying extra fees to bring stuff on a plane. The list goes on and on, but don’t get so depressed. We are trying to fix this, right?

Just recently I know that the U.S. with Bush at the helm had asked and, for all I know, begged the Iran or Saudi Arabia to start pumping more oil for us. I can see it now, tears streaming down their faces laughing until they pee. Someone tell me why give more oil to your sworn enemy? It’s like trying to win a race and asking the other contestants to help you out of the mud, all the while they know full good and well you are faster than them. Right now all of the Middle Eastern countries (and the World) is watching our economy tank. Housing markets are shot, people going into debt left and right, the value of the Dollar declining like a 3rd world country hit by disease, and more. What are we to do now?

I think we should probably pray, because the U.S. isn’t going to be the same unless someone steps up their game. I love the Internet for the very reason that it spurs innovation and new technology, and the hands of almost everyone for nearly free. But how can the internet save us gas? How can the internet lower prices and save our economy? I don’t think it can, but spurring innovation is what we need. I don’t think putting a hybrid car in everyone’s garage is going to be the answer. Someone needs to step up and NOW, why is everyone just assuming this will end?

I like the Progressive Auto X Prize. Lets throw $10 million dollars at whoever can build a fast car capable of getting 100 Miles Per Gallon. Not too bad.

Whatever happened to Hydrogen powered cars? It seems like a handful of companies have made at least one hydrogen car, but they don’t seem to be pursuing any more development.

Can you tell I am frustrated?

Testing Firefox 3 RC1

I’ve decided to test out the newly released Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1. So far the Mac version is just short of being delicious! If you are a developer, now is the time to get your hands on it and make sure all that fancy javascript is working correctly. Watch out for the new getElementsByClassName().

Collide Magazine redesigns

I think you should head on over to CollideMagazine.com. They just launched their new website, created by ChurchMedia. The site is definitely a step up from the previous site. What I like the most about it, is that all the articles in the mag are also online PLUS more!

If you haven’t heard about Collide Magazine head on over there and check it out. Also interesting to note, they are looking for new writers for both online or print.

McDonalds vs Chick-fil-A?

Looks like good ol’ home cooking McDonalds has decided to try and give the classic Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich a run for it’s money: Introducing McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Biscuit and Southern Style Chicken Sandwich.

Promotional offer says if you buy any medium or large drink you will get one of these free! Offer is good only on May 15th.

Openness

One of the greatest things about the web is that it is open and practically free. I came into the internet when email was a really big thing. Hotmail was everything anyone could ever talk about. “Get a free email account!”. I followed my dad onto the internet through, the then free ISP, Juno. You could get online free and get a free email account along with it. It was a new found revolution. I gave out my email address, and then check my account religiously everyday. It was a very satisfying feeling to get a message instantly.

Soon thereafter I got hooked into Instant Messaging. Once again the name says it all. But I got into the art of pirating, because all the coveted software costed money. Now, I wasn’t a huge pirater, but if my friend had something then we’d share. It got to be unhealthy.

I don’t know what did it, but one day I decided I would try and find Open Source software or Freeware alternatives for all my favorite programs. Quickly did I find out that some of this software was much cleaner, faster, and better! That is one of the best things about the internet for me, that I could find some really cool free stuff. When it comes to information, information is free and widely available at sites like Wikipedia or Dictionary.com. You can freely connect with people easily as shown with MySpace and Facebook. Development wise information is widely available at places like MDC or MSDN.

It’s all of this that has allowed me to embrace the web. More specifically, it has allowed me to embrace Open Source.

Parsing HTML with Javascript

Just recently John Resig released what he calls a Pure HTML Parser written in Javascript. Now this could come in handy!

Firefox Market Share

Looking at one view of the latest percentages on browser market share, it shows some very interesting things. While I’m not a statistics guy, the numbers do show a few things.

Internet Explorer holds the lead in total market share. But what is interesting is the way in Microsoft goes about doing that: the divide and conquer approach. Microsoft has 3 browsers in play with IE7, IE6, and IE5. IE 5 users are most likely holding out because that was the last active version of IE for Mac. People still seem stubborn to let go of IE6 because there are still more of those than IE7 users. Talk about a poor updating methodology!

What I really wanted to say was that Firefox has gobbled up 37% ( as of March 2008 ) of the market share. As you look back, the percentage has only been going up ever so slowly. While Firefox has been gaining ground, IE6 is slipping down to about 30%. It is my guess that Firefox and IE7 are vying for the IE6 defectors.

But now we are already talking about Internet Explorer 8!?!? No wonder the browsers are fighting for market share! If you count each verions of IE as it’s own browser (which isn’t far from the truth), then Firefox is the market leader.

Side note: Safari has slowly been gaining ground as well, but comes in at a measly 2.1%.

Since Firefox 3 is coming soon we can probably place bets that it’s market share will only continue to grow.

Echo: Church Media Conference

There is a new conference in town: Echo Church Media Conference (http://www.echoconference.com/)! If you are interested in telling others the message of Christ and doing so through media and technology, this seems to be the conference for you. Everything from advanced video production, web 2.0, podcasting, church presentation software, inside look at what makes certain churches successful, handling conflict, visual worship, and budget creativity.

The Echo Conference has managed to secure an outstanding lineup of Keynote speakers as well. They include:

• Mark Batterson
• Matthew Paul Turner
• Todd Wagner (pastor of Watermark Comm. Church)
• Donald Miller
• Brad Abare
• Mark Steele

The conference will be hosted at Watermark Community Church which is centrally located in Dallas, TX. If you hit the early-bird registration (register before May 25) you will be entered for a chance to win a FREE Macbook! Might want to get on that then, coming August 14th – 16th.