I am so sick of Firefox. I’ve given it every chance to redeem itself. I’d shelved version two in favor of running IE 6 in three or 4 windows and having to shut them down every hour or two. But I installed V3 after falling for all the online hoopla about how much better it was at using memory and how it didn’t crash as much as two.
Jeez what a letdown! I probably didn’t help it any by installing every plugin under the sun but even after disabling or uninstalling them there was no getting around the fact that it hogged memory like nobody’s business. Every app I have had to wait in line while that pig took its time getting hung up in the dumbest ways possible. Switching tabs, loading sites with flash and active pages, it was the slowest thing I’d ever seen save Windows Live writer which I’m using to write this post.
Firefox really had a problem with Digsby, which I use to aggregate all my social networks and email accounts. For some reason these two got in each others way so much I had a hard time deciding which one should go. I raised the ceiling a little bit the other day by popping in 512 megs of RAM which helped but it still hung, just not as often.
The last straw came when I felt it seizing up on me the other day. I managed to open Task Manager and after about 5 minutes of watching the paint dry I saw that Firefox had consumed a whopping 300 megs of RAM and had my processor pinned at 100%! The hundred percent wasn’t new to me but seeing that pig gobble 300 megs of RAM while doing nothing just pissed me off.
So I yanked it. Without a bit of regret. But what to put in it’s place?
Next: Browser Wars II - Not as many choices as you think!
Viacom steps up their game to be the next MySpace. vLES (virtual Lower East Side) is a 3D world for bands to promote themselves. You know, MySpace + Second Life. Why not just MySpace and Second Life? Find out for yourself:
What is VLES?VLES is an online music community supported by a 3D world. Designed to support artists, fans and local music. It is a single point of contact for discovery of new music and simulating the music scene of the LESWe have two goals:1. make it incredibly easy for bands to self-publish music, and find their audience.2. make it incredibly easy for fans to find music they love and support the artists that make it.How much does it cost to join VLES?Nothing, and there are no levels or special features that cost more. Everything is available to every artist and fan that joins.
This sums up their mission:
What are the future plans for VLES?It will become the realization of all your dreams and desires and will fulfill all who touch it and bring peace to the world and cure cancer and stop the sun from going out and the ice caps from melting.
While that may or may not be true, it’s clear that virtual worlds are here to stay.
“Computer and video games need to be defended from stringent government regulations, as they continue to be a punching bag for multiple elected officials. Enough is enough! Stand up for games, and if you’re 18 or over, join the network to ensure that games remain self-regulated.”
My wife signed up for Snapfish some time ago, originally during their partnership with Earthlink, and has always been fond of it. The only problem has been their Mac support was a bit behind Internet Explorer. Yeah, not much of a surprise…
Last week we got an email offering a free photo album, expect the software to build a photo album is Windows only. So we sent them an email saying “thanks for the offer, but we can’t use it”.
After just a few days, they replied with 30 free prints and free shipping.
That’s not easy. Promotions like that are usually handled by Marketing teams and datamining and big email campaigns.
To get a response beyond “sorry” was a real surprise, and looks to me that they have a motivated team with the freedom to Make the Call–a focus on customer satisfaction not rigid policy. We’ll be their customer for a long time I think.
Listening Post–one of Wired’s million blogs–writes about SeeqPod. Using your browser (including for your mobile), you search for songs or artists and SeeqPod searches the net for MP3s:
…search for any artist and play their songs within seconds, for free. SeeqPod doesn’t transcode the music as it streams, so you hear it in its original form as scraped from MP3 blogs, personal web pages, and anywhere else on the internet that hosts MP3s.
Google Maps now have “Street View” (select cities only, see SF or NYC).
It caused all kinds of commotion last week. One list is here.
The two sides generally are “right privacy” vs “right to walk down the street and see stuff”. While on the one hand it seems like a reasonable argument to say that Street View doesn’t do anythig more than go down the street and capture what is readily available to anyone, it seems to me to be a matter of degrees.
People walking down the street can see inside my windows. If I’m not OK with that, I hang blinds or curtains. Frankly I don’t care if the select group of people that happen to be walking down the street at any given moment can see in. It’s a very small group.
But make that group “all people on Earth with an internet connection”……….?
My daughter just turned 3. Like all young kids, she loves music. They Might Be Giants and The Wiggles are her favorites. She’s also got an ear for techno, which isn’t much of a stretch really, given it’s “dance” music. Dancing is primeval, no doubt.
Another current favorite of hers is “Down Song”, a.k.a. “Download this Song” (website or MySpace) by MC Lars. The gist is, as you might expect, that the world has changed and that labels need to get with it.
People talk about how artists get screwed by the Labels, and that the best way to support your favorites are to go shows and buy t-shirts.
So I intend to teach my kid(s…) how to rip, download, and share music. I hope they can teach me how to remix it. I will also show them how to buy music directly from artists, and foster a love of live music and snarky t-shirts.
Linden already open-sourced the Second Life client. This move adds to the shine. Sure, it’s smart PR. But maintaining a sense of humor and perspective is rare these days, and it’s great to see.
Posted by E. P. 
Posted by E. P. 
Posted by iseekell 