09.22.2003
If you have to use Windows, the nifty little Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 browser takes away a lot of the sting. Even though (one has to admit) web browsing and e-mail are generally faster experiences on a PC these days (the suspected culprit being a lack of speed optimization in Jaguar in favor of stability — here’s hoping Panther will fix that), I still find myself hating using PC web browsers, mainly for reasons of taste. IE, for instance, is just this ugly, mean window surrounding your content, with crappy looking buttons and tools all over the place, and none of the newer features I’ve grown to love using Mac OS browsers like Safari and Camino - the clean, minimalist, well-designed controls, the integrated Google search, the nifty tabs, the easy-to-use pop-up blocking… to get IE doing even half of that, you have to add the Google toolbar, which just clutters things even worse. Meanwhile, Mozilla for Windows, while admirably small and stable and very extensible, with plenty of available add-ons and themes to customize the app, just feels, in some hard-to-explain way, like an open-source application, in that it just feels a bit uncool, like the generic store-brand version of the product you really want. Also, it just comes with too much functionality for my liking - every time I install it on a new machine, I have to turn half the things off.
But then I found Firebird. All the features I want, none that I don’t, the ability to still add Extensions if you really want ‘em, and a consistent application design throughout. If Mozilla feels, ultimately, designed by committee, with a kitchen-sink list of features, and IE feels like something a defense contractor would deliver seven years late and seriously overbudget, Firebird feels like it was made by serious people, who just want the most up-to-date, efficient tool possible, and who have strong opinions and tastes as to how web browsing should be. When it comes down to it, that’s what I like so much about Safari as well. So, hurrah for Firebird.
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09.21.2003: lost in translation: the translation
I wouldn’t recommend this article if you haven’t seen Lost in Translation yet, but the NY Times published a translation…
09.22.2003: we’re number one!
DC is once again leading the nation where it counts — in murders — and we find out from The Onion, of all places.