Browser Wars I

The Death of Firefox 3

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!

This is cool…

Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote

 

 Every day we get a little closer to the mythic fully immersive 3D multiverse…

Separation of Video Games and State

“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.”

‘Nuff said. Join the Video Game Voter’s Network.

Second Life in AJAX

And open-sourced. Pretty cool, if only as an experiment:http://blog.katharineberry.co.uk/category/ajaxlife/And the developer? She’s a teenager. Outstanding.

Cool music search and play

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.

Very cool.

Mac gamers* rejoice

From MacMinute:

Gears of War, UT 3 for Mac confirmed
July 16, 2007 – 12:17 EDT According to a report on Inside Mac Games today, Epic Game’s VP Mark Rein announced “that a Mac version of Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3 are heading to the platform. Rein enthusiastically announces in the video, ‘And don’t forget, we’re also doing Macintosh. Yes, Gears is coming to the Mac and so is UT.’” Further information is available from IMG.

After playing Gears on Mr. Dahlen’s 360, I gotta say I loved it. I sucked at it, but I really enjoyed it. What got me was the subtly of combat. You don’t run in full steam with rocket launchers akimbo. You use speed, cover, and battlefield awareness to protect yourself and take out your opponent. Can’t wait.

And the Unreal franchise has never disappointed me; UT has provided some of my fondest multiplayer memories. Unreal 2 was more than my POS PC could handle, and crashed it mercilessly, but what I got to play I thoroughly enjoyed. Once I get Parallels 3 running, I’ll have to install Unreal 2 and give it another go.

* No, “Mac Gamer” is not an oxymoron, thank you very much. Granted, I can’t play HL2 and that pisses me off. Well, until now anyway.

Ubuntu on PS3

I don’t think it’s taking full advantage of the Cell yet (officially you use PPC builds). Also, I don’t think Linux gets access to all the video processing power either, from some of the comments I read.

But still, for “everyday” use, this could be cool and a sign of good things to come as they continue to make improvements to the Distro. If you start at the beginning of the thread you can really see how it’s evolved.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=298256

I still cannot justify spending money on a PS3 for games alone or games plus movies (even if I had an HDTV).

But a fully fledged computer? Ubuntu is excellent, and getting better all the time. Add the full power of the PS3’s Cell and video processing, and you’d have one hell of a thing.

Best of all, Sony seems to have learned something from the PSP hackers. Namely, LEAVE ‘EM ALONE.

So you don’t like draconian copyright?

Then quitcher bitchin and do something about it.  BoingBoing writes:

FAIR Use Act: copyright reform bill introduced in House

By Xeni Jardin

Xeni Jardin: Derek Slater from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says, Reps. Rick Boucher and John Doolittle’s FAIR Use Act [PDF] would remove some of the entertainment industry’s most draconian anti-innovation weapons and chip away at the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) broad restrictions on fair use. Take action now and tell Congress to help restore balance in copyright now.

This bill wont “fix” the situation, but it’s a chip in the wall.  We all just have to keep swinging our hammers.

Speaking of the Simpsons,

Nelson says, “HA HA, yer fancy-schmancy DRM sucks!”

BluRay and HD-DVD cracked. Beautiful commentary at Boing Boing:

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/13/bluray_and_hddvd_bro.html

So yeah, people will steal movies this way; nothing has changed. Aside from illegal bootlegging, people will make legal backups too, and other people will creatively edit Jar-Jar out of terrible movies and make the world better. The studios still have no clue, and no one is surprised. Thanks hackers, for pwning the studio n00bz. Again.

I don’t condone theft, but the music and movie industries have made an awful mess for themselves. Most movies suck, and most music sucks. Plenty of attention is paid to production values, but little to no effort is put into writing a song or telling a story. These industries mass-market shiny garbage and are wholly responsible for their products’ absurd lack of perceived and actual value. The product has become disposable to the consumer. No value, no pay. Tough nuggies.

If music studios and record labels would stop relying on formulas and trends, have faith in their audience, and actually have the stones to take chances, develop artists, and reward artistic courage, they’d have a shot at turning things around. Unfortunately, in addition to flooding the market with dried beer puke, they’ve also been treating paying customers like thieves, so they’ll have quite a job of earning back consumers’ trust. In the meantime, people who really care about music and film just do it themselves however they can, and learn as they go. It makes for mistakes with heart, and a growing number of people will empty their wallets for that kind of honesty.

Rating songs?

How many of you rate songs on your computer?

The only way I listen to music is via MP3 player or on the computer (iPod and iTunes, not that it matters for this). Pretty much every MP3 player and media application will let you rate your songs. But it always seemed like so much work. I just want to listen; I’m not typically interested in thinking about what I’m listening to, and how it might compare to other things I might not be listening to at the moment.

But am I missing important metadata that, while of limited use today, will someday be invaluable as music applications get smarter?

Am I better of spending time now, perhaps with no particular rush, so it will just be done with?