Browser speed comparisons...

Here is an interesting article on the speeds of the various browsers for each of the target platforms. Quite interesting figures. Of course, its left to you how much you want to believe it.

In brief, this is what the analysis recommends for each platform
1. Windows - Opera is the fastest
2. Linux - Konqueror
3. Mac - Opera and Safari

Firefox: 100 million downloads

Firefox has clocked 100 million downloads. wow!!. It's an incredible feat considering that it has been achieved in less than a year. Way to go firefox....

I am now more eagerly waiting for the 1.5 final release...

Sphere: Google's got competition

At last Google has some competition in blog search from Sphere. Though it is yet in beta, and about to be unveiled in a couple of weeks. Sphere claim to have faster blog search performance and uses new relevance-based algorithms.

Lets wait for the covers to come off...

News.com's Top 100 Blogs

CNET News.com has published the top 100 Blogs. They have categorized them into different sections depending on the purpose these blogs cater to.

Checkout here...

The World Is Flat

"In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears - and that is our problem" - says Thomas L Friedman in his book 'The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century'. Checkout 'Chapter 1 While I Was Sleeping' here...

Firefox Tweak Guide

Check it out here...

Americans and geography...

Well, most of the americans have a serious difficulty with geography. May be even George Bush will respond in the same way...if asked to locate Iran on a map..

Go checkout the video here...

fav extensions

My favourite firefox extension that's right there on top of my list is 'ReminderFox'. Since I spend so much of my time using the browser, it helps to have some utility that helps you to keep you organized. Especially for an unorganized person like me...

I am desperately waiting for Lightning from mozilla folks, hopefully we will have a 0.1 release in Nov 2005. I hope it meets the expectations of me as well as that of mozilla folks...But now I am not sure if I would be interested in that now....

Another of my favourite is the Cutemenus...right on top behind reminderfox. It really makes firefox look cute and keeps you glued to the browser.

And my favourite theme right now is Littlefox...

Apple video iPod?

Speculation about the unveiling of a video capable iPod are rampant on the net. Apple is hosting a special launch event next week on Oct 12.

Curious what Steve will get out of his pocket this time...

Flock - Latest entrant in the browser market

Well, browser is market is again abuzz with activity.

Back in 2000-01 when Microsoft stopped working on the IE after it had won the browser war against Netscape, everybody thought that that's the end to the browser war. It was perceived as if there was no fresh ideas and innovation needed. IE was thrashing all the web standards apart by imposing their own extensions. IE was the undefeated king of the browser with market share of more than 90%.

Flash back to 2005, and the market statistics are different. For the first time, IE is being threatened by a host of young browsers including Firefox and Opera. Firefox has steadily snatched market share away from IE by attracting customers with its lean & mean features, support for extensions, easy to use feature and full compliancy to web standards. Opera has also started attracting quite a number of customers since its Opera 8.5 release when it did away with adware. Its evident from the number of Opera downloads, though I agree that a download doesnt mean that its really used. For the first time, IE is on the backfoot and Gates might be wondering why they abandoned working on IE.

To add to all these developments, yet one more browser called 'Flock' has thrown its hat in to the ring. Though its still in the beta/experimental phase and not publicly available for download, its already generated quite a lot of buzz in the market. Flock differentiates itself by calling itself as a Social Browser. Flock hopes to turn the browser into a dashboard for collaborating, blogging, sharing photos, reveling in a raft of other group activities that have recently caught fire online.

I have already signed up to be notified whenever the initial public release is made.

Motorola Announces Five Mass Market Mobile Phones

Motorola looks set to gain some more market share away from Nokia and other low-segment vendors with the introduction of 5 new handsets - C118, C139, C168, C257 and C261. Some are thin, some fat, some with FM Radios, Cameras and a Lantern, but all with a stylish design.

what is Firefox

There's an article on firefox at O'reilly by Brian King. Anybody new to firefox needs to read it. Check it out here.

Firefox security update

Firefox version 1.0.7 has been released which has some bug fixes and security updated.

Not sure if these fixes are already part of 1.5 beta!.

Opera without adware

Opera has decided to be freeware rather than adware. That means now one wont see an ad bar and this simplifies the user interface. This is a rather sudden turn around for Opera since they always considered themselves for niche markets and power users.

Firefox makes it to the CNET's Top 10 products (digital living)

Firefox makes it to the CNET's Top 10 products (digital living). Others as expected include the iPod and Google apart from others. Complete list here.

Google Blog Search

Google launched the blog search yesterday. Accessible at http://www.google.com/blogsearch or search.blogger.com.

Apple and iPod Nano

Here is a review of the new Apple iPod Nano unveiled last week. The Nano shows that Apple isnÂ’t sitting on its laurels - it's evolving the iPod and expanding its market appeal.

Ebay laps up Skype

As per sources, EBay is to buy Skype in deal worth $4.1 bln. More details here.

Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 out..

Here it is...Firefox 1.5 beta 1 is out. Just installed it and looks fine till now. No problems so far. And this release is for testing purposes only. The regular users should go for the stable Firefox 1.0.6 release. That makes me a beta tester of firefox :).

In case you want to try out this beta release, go get your own FF.

Great book

Well, I have recently taken up reading the book "The Pragmatic Programmers: From Jorneyman to Master" by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas. My comments are reserved for later once I finish...

From the stable of Pragmatic Bokshelf, I came across yet another new book titled "My Job Went to India: 52 Ways to Save Your Job" by Chad Fowler. I just read the introduction and couple of other sample chapters and was impressed. This guy knows what he is writing and was bowled by his overall grasp of the situation and the compulsions of the business people who are outsourcing the work.

I have always empathised with the Western software folks when this outsourcing phenomenon started. And I see the same empathy and concern from the author about the jobs being shipped to India and other low cost countries.

"These were sons and daughters who were scraping by, trying to raise money to support their parents and their spousesÂ’ parents. These were mothers and fathers whose IT jobs meant the difference between really educating their children or sending them to a school from which the further educational options have a hard limit. They werenÂ’t trying to steal the American dream. They were trying to squeeze a once-dry economy for a few drops of life-giving
cash flow"

The above quote is taken from the introduction chapter of the book "My Job Went to India: 52 Ways to Save Your Job"" by Chad Fowler.