On Firefox
I've been using the Maxthon browser (formerly myIE) for about a year now. I tried Firefox 6 months ago but couldn't get it to install. With all the Firefox buzz with the 1.0 release I tried again and have been flat-out enjoying it. For full compatibility (like for.Text posting where the FtbHTML editor control icons don't appear in Firefox), I still use Maxthon. One think I like better in Maxthon is its handling of “Groups,“ where Firefox doesn't have that exactly. Using IE now is a lot like it was circa 1996 when Netscape reigned, but you wanted to use the Microsoft browser out of a sense of loyalty to the Mothership and waiting for something real to appear out of Redmond in the browser arena.
An iPod in the hands of a Microsoft Developer is a dangerous thing...
I like the joke that when MS bloods like myself try to use a Mac, we don't get it because its too simple to use. My own experience supports that anyway. With this sweet little iPod in my hands for the first time today I tried to navigate through the menus and thought the damned thing was broken. I was clicking on what I thought were obvious icons of the selection wheel and nothing would happen. Finally, after reading through the manual I was able to “get it,” that is, grasp the elegance of the interface. You glide your finger over the wheel in a zen-like groove and click only when absolutely necessary. I was pressing arrow buttons like I wanted to launch a setup.exe. No. Its a Mac.
Another bit of advice for prospective iPod owners is this: beware of the iTunes store! I mean, I spent 4 bucks in 30 seconds just scanning through a Sarah McLachlan playlist. Those 99-cent clicks add up to real money pretty quickly. Realizing the danger, I quickly jumped over to DotNetRocks and downloaded four shows to keep me occupied.
All-in-all, its been a great Firefox week and iPod day. I started the week with my Windows 2003 box running well enough for me to do real work on it, and at the end of the week after installing Firefox and iPod and rebooting a few times, the darn thing still works.