Mozilla Firefox is a much better web browser than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer (IE) may have come pre-loaded on your computer, but you’re in no way required to use the mediocre software.

Firefox is not only faster and more powerful, but it’s more secure as well. In the year of 2006, there were (supposing everyone kept IE up to date) 284 days that Internet Explorer wasn’t secure. Firefox? Only nine days. With Firefox, you are immune to ActiveX exploits, and far less susceptible to other “drive-by” attacks.

In addition to security benefits, there are plenty of usability features as well. For starters, Firefox loads renders web pages faster than IE, saving you significant amounts of time, whether you have dial-up or broadband. You get tabbed browsing, which allows you to have multiple web pages open in a single window, saving you from taskbar clutter (as well as making it easier for you to switch among the open pages). You can also

• Read RSS feeds
• Toss your cookies, history, and cache effortlessly, hiding your browsing tracks
• Install add-ons (also called “Extensions”) to enhance your browsing experience
• Change the way Firefox looks with themes.

You’ll have to put up with a lot less web annoyances with Firefox. When you surf the web with Firefox, there are less pop-ups, no websites disabling your Back button or resizing your window, and no spyware hijacking your home page. If you install an ad-blocking extension, you can even get rid of banner ads.

What about your bookmarks (or Favorites) and saved passwords? When you install Firefox, you’re given the option of copying them into Firefox. You won’t lose a thing. If you’re still having trouble deciding, remember that you can use both browsers at once. At least try Firefox out for a couple of days. There’s a good chance you like it (once you get used to the subtle differences). If not, you can just uninstall Firefox.

As a final note, you’ll be doing the web a favor by using Firefox. You’ll be using a web browser that fully supports the w3C web standards (which IE doesn’t), and you will be one less person propping-up Microsoft’s oligopoly on web browsers.

What are you waiting for? Download Firefox!

Will we all use thought-controlled computers in the future? I think not…

Thought-based input would be cool, but there’s no way it would work. Sure, you have some early attempts, like the Project Epoc game helmet, but there’s no way you could write an email/blog post/book/etc with your mind. If the text you’re putting onscreen comes directly from your mind, hmmm… I should get some more coffee you will likely have unwanted thoughts mixed-in.

Obviously “mind-reading” computers aren’t a good idea. Now, what was that I was going to write next? Hmm…. What was it? Oh, yeah… Voice recognition systems aren’t much better. Suppose you’re dictating to your computer (which sounds like fun). Someone walks into the room and says “you haven’t saved that yet? Be careful not to close the window.” You lose an hour of work that you forgot to save. After all, it’s much easier to save your document by pressing Ctrl-S than by saying “File…Save.”

I’m not bashing dictation software, but merely pointing out that it does have some downsides. As for thought-input? Forget it.

Microsoft has for a long time liked the idea of Windows being subscription-based. What do I think? If they do, their little empire will collapse.

They’ve got to be kidding. Really, would you pay a yearly subscription…just for your computer to operate? You already pay $30-50 a year for your security suite, do you want to pay $100/year for your OS? If you stopped paying that fee, your computer would cease to function. Would you really agree to that? I wouldn’t.

Well, Firefox has attained a 28% market share in Europe. Globally it’s somewhere between 15% and 20%.

So, where do you think Firefox will stand in 2009? 87%, right? Tell those guys over at ZDNet that Firefox will have at least 50% by ‘09. Currently the majority says so (they have a poll). What do you think?

I think that by 2010 Firefox will be the leading browser, with Safari not far behind. Why Safari? Microsoft is dieing. Slowly, but surely. Apple will have the dominant OS by 2012, there’s no doubt about it. Yeah, you all know i don’t like Microsoft (despite not having a Mac…yet).

Look here’s proof that Microsoft is going to blow up in Gates’s face: (more…)

Yeah, Wordpress rules!

The other winners (places 2-10)  are:

• Adobe Flash
• Drupal CMS
• Google’s Blogger Blog Service
• Google Analytics
• Polldaddy
• TypePad
• Vox
• Silverlight
• Feedburner

What order would I pick?

• Wordpress
• Feedburner
• Google Analytics
• Adobe Flash
• Blogger

At WWDC 2007 in San Francisco, Apple showed off a near-final version of the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. The operating system, to be released in October, has a lot of new improvements. Microsoft barely manges to bolt on a new interface (and a couple security updates) to Windows XP in six years, meanwhile Apple majorly improves their OS, which was already way ahead of Windows. Here are some of the improvements Apple made:

• The Time Machine backup system
• Dock updated (including the new “Stacks”
• Core Animation
• Spaces, a Virtual Desktop tool
• Boot Camp. Want to dual boot Windows? Go ahead. You don’t need two computers anymore.
• iChat, iCal, and Mail upgrades
• DashCode: Make your own Dashboard widgets with a few clicks.
• And more, obviously.

The revolutionary OS will cost $129 USD. A lot cheaper than Vista, eh?

You can view the press release here, and also the OS X Leopard page. The Leopard page has some screenshots of the OS.

How interesting….

Apple has just released a public beta of Safari for Windows. Yes, you read that right. Apple’s web browser is coming Windows (Firefox is still better!).  Too bad someone found a security exploit only two hours after it was available for download. It’s beta, what do you expect? It’ll be patched pretty quick.

The whole idea of Safari for Windows reminds me of an old rumor. Could Apple be planning to release their iLife suite for Windows? Who knows. Personally, I don’t care. I want my next computer to be a Mac anyway.

According to Mozilla, we’ll be seeing Firefox 3 sometime in the last quarter of the year. Take that, Microsoft! It’s amusing that a group of volunteers can build an amazing browser (the best on the planet ) that quickly, while a team of paid engineers working for the World’s Biggest Software Company takes five years for a mediocre product that’s still nothing compared to Firefox.

In Firefox 3, we’ll see security improvements, support for off-line web apps, some “identity management tools”, and a revamped bookmarking system known as “Places”. Uh oh, “revamped”? I don’t like the sound of that…

I hope they don’t go polluting the browser with rubbish I don’t need. Why would I want “support for off-line web apps”? I have broadband! I’m pretty much never offline. What they really need to do is make it load faster. As for bookmarks, they work pretty well right now, but they’re kind of…out of hand. I tend to just through everything in the root of the bookmarks folder. I need to get around to sorting through my bookmarks. IT’s hard to find anything without using the search in the Bookmarks Sidebar.