Category: Computer/ Tech Related


Firefox 3.5 Released


Firefox 3.5 is now out and it is absolutely amazing. Download it now! Here are some of my favorite features of 3.5 (in order of their importance) Warning, long ass post. But it’s good

  • SPEED – Tracemonkey is the name of the brand new JavaScript engine that compiles javascript and runs it as machine code so it is much faster. It renders JavaScript quicker than I can shotgun beers at a townhouse party. Why is this important? Most websites make heavy use of scripts (Facebook, Gmail, Digg, etc). Even if you have a blazing fast internet connection, using IE on Facebook or Gmail is like trying to win the Indy 500 with a Ford F-350. Why bottleneck your scripts in IE when you can use a browser that renders them quickly and makes the page content snap up quicker. That’s right.
  • Private Browsing – Okay, so Firefox was a little behind on this, but not anymore. IE8 has this thing called InPrivate and Google Chrome has Incognito mode. In simpler terms, this is @SonicBlur23‘s porn mode. If you start your browser in this mode, it will not remember anything you did. All logons, cookies, history and temporary files will be destroyed. This is useful for public computers, or if you are the type to go on a friend’s computer to check Facebook, forget to log out and worry that your friend will change your profile to be interested in men.
  • Embedded Video – Firefox 3.5 has native support for embedded video, namely the open source Ogg Theora format and Ogg Vorbis audio. That is right, you can play video right in the browser without flash or any other plugins. You can also use CSS and SVG to interact with the video and style it. This is an amazing demo that shows how powerful embedded video can be with CSS effects and scripts. (This only works in Firefox 3.5 – Google Chrome will play the video but not style the CSS right, and IE *GASP* won’t even display the page) Even more amazing, this is my favorite demo ever. It shows dynamic content being injected into a video. See the game of pong? Those graphics are SVG animations and are generated on the fly. And you can inject that, a video or an image into a video. Wow (except my computer is too much of a piece of crap to run it smoothly)
  • HTML5 support and CSS3 Enhancements – This means nothing to you common people who visit simple websites, but the web is evolving, and Firefox 3.5 is ready for it. CSS stands for cascading style sheet, and it’s controls how the pages display. All browsers interpret CSS differently. IE renders CSS just about as well as Hellen Keller could read books. W3 is an organization that creates web standards in hopes that all browsers interpret CSS the same way and display pages the same way. Microsoft is like F that shit and does their own thing, so web designers always have a fit making pages look good in IE, when they already looks good in Firefox/Chrome/Safari/Opera etc. Anyway, CSS3 adds some new effects, such as font support. Say I want joeshoes.com to show up using the font “Disturbia.” If the font is not installed, all other browsers will just use a system font. With Firefox 3.5, CSS3 and @font-face property, it is possible for the font to be downloaded and rendered on the page, even if it is not installed. Neat! There are also other cool things like animated texture maps using SVG graphics and aPNG images text shadowing, word wrap and nth css selectors (for alternating backgrounds).
  • Smart Session Restore – So you’re browsing the web and your computer crashes. Or a webpage makes Firefox not do so well and there is an unclean shutdown. Rather than losing your pages, Firefox gives you the option to restore some or all of the tabs or windows.
  • hacks.mozilla.org – This is an excellent website that provides real life demonstrations of all the cool shit Firefox 3.5 can do. Is it useful to the common web browser? No. However, there are some cool ass demos here which you should check out. Only Firefox 3.5 can handle many of these demos. I linked some above in the CSS3 bullet, but check out more.
  • Geolocation – The browser (with your permission of course) can determine your location using Wi-Fi, cell towers and ISP data. Check this demo.
  • Color Correction – Web colors render rather generically. When photographers take pictures, the images may contain color profiles so the colors display properly a certain way. This isn’t the case on the web, where profiles are ignored. Not anymore. Now Firefox 3.5 can render these profiles and you will see images the way the pros see them. See here for more, they’ll explain it better than me.
  • Tab Tearing – You can rip tabs off the tabbar and make them their own window. You can also combine tabs or rearrange them within different windows.
  • Undo Close Window – They have undo recently closed tab, but did you ever close a window and lose lots of tabs? Now you can restore that window. Speaking of restoring…
  • See a nice list of everything – Things I may have missed or are too geeky for the common man to understand

Or if you’re too lazy to read, watch this video (Try not to worry aboot the dude’s Canadian accent, he knows his shit, and is project lead for Firefox over at Mozilla.)


Now Verizon is pissing me off


Dear Verizon,

I do not appreciate you LOWERING my internet speed. For a few years. I have had the 20MBPS downstream package, which ran at 20.3MBPS. How nice of you to go over slightly. A few days ago, the company announced speed increases for all, especially in competitive markets. The new low tier is said to be 25MBPS/15MBPS. Nice. However, not only has my speed not been increased yet, but it seems that a few hundred KBPS are missing off my downstream. I now max out at 19.3 MBPS. This is unacceptable. Is this how you make room for the extra bandwidth you are giving away? I’ll be expecting 25/15 by the end of next week.

love,
Portfolioso

Edit: Verizon says nothing is wrong. True, nothing is wrong, except for the fact that some engineer throttled my speed and didn’t inform the morons answering the phones.


Verizon Wireless Voicemail Sucks


Part 2 in the series on ripping apart Verizon Wireless (even though I still like them): Their voicemail system sucks. It takes 4 years, has 400 menu options and never works right. When you go to leave someone a message, I have to wait an extra 25 seconds after their greeting is over to listen to the annoying woman telling me to talk after the beep or ask if I want to leave a callback number. 1) I already know I need to talk after the beep, this is how voicemail worked since 1983 and 2)What the hell is the point of leaving a callback number if you show up in my missed calls? There is a skip button for the greeting, but I always forget it because it’s different for every wireless company. And can’t we get a British woman to read the menu options? Their accents are hot. No, we get an annoying nag that grinds on my nerves.

Second annoyance: I call voicemail, listen to my message and hang up. Two seconds later, my phone is beeping, vibrating and flipping out that I have a new voicemail. Um no I don’t, I just listened to it idiot. The problem here is that Verizon only flags the message as old only if you listen to the whole thing OR press 9 to save or 7 to delete it. I never do this because it wastes my time. What the system should do is mark the message as old once you begin listening to it. Sometimes I get the jist of the message after 5 seconds and want to hang up and call back ASAP rather than hearing the person ramble on.

Fix it, Verizon.


Verizon Wireless has you by the balls


I love Verizon to death because their service is decent, but their phones are WEAK. I want to be able to use an iPhone, an Android, or the Palm Pre – or anything revolutionary like that. I don’t want the crappy ass Blackberry Storm which sucks and forces me to to spend an extra $25/month for a data plan. I certainly don’t care that the Storm 2 is coming out. So what does Verizon have that’s semi cool? Nothing.

Last December, I was going to get the LG Dare or Voyager but then decided to keep my money. Why? When I looked at the phone, it was all eye candy. The software on the phone was unchanged from my current phone, which is over 2 years old. You’d think LG would learn from Apple and Palm to release something revolutionary where you can download open source apps. You know how many Verizon Wireless phones have Wi-Fi? One. And it’s over $300 because it’s a Windows Mobile Smartphone. It’s because they want to make you pay $40 more per month for their data plan, not connect to Joe’s wireless network for free.

Verizon Wireless’ CEO Lowell McAdam is a liar, a fool and doesn’t know how to keep up with the coolest technology. He complimented Motorola, which is struggling to turn around shrinking phone sales. Why are the sales shrinking? Because they’re making phones. No one wants phones. Everyone wants smartphones – for cheap, and with a lot of features. McAdam also said that Verizon Wireless would carry the Pre within six months. This is a downright lie, since Sprint’s CEO disclosed the exclusive contract with Palm to keep the Pre on Sprint only until the end of 2009. “We like what we see and we will, in fact, be bringing Android devices to the marketplace in the near future,” McAdam said. You better – because we’ve had it. And when you say Android devices, we mean smartphones. Not a stupid flip phone from 2004 with Android software and crippled Wi-Fi.

It all comes down to money and corporate contracts. They were too cheap to pay royalties to Apple for the iPhone. The huge marketing campaign and fuss was over the Storm, and it was a flop. Sprint grabbed the Palm Pre. Apple is releasing the iPhone 3GS, which has its own userbase. You fail Verizon – get your shit together, because I’m not a fan of your phones right now.


Wrapping it up from the Digg Meetup in NYC


Digg meetup yesterday at Webster Hall was absolute insanity. Good times, great show, good entertainment, and best of all, pics with Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht. They also signed my poster. I know this post sounds like I’m a little kid, but it’s sweet.

So here’s the breakdown of events:

  • We arrived at Webster hall in downtown Manhattan around 6:30. Klondike is sponsoring, so they’re giving away free Klondike bars. Yum!
  • Doors opened around 7:45PM and there’s a huge crowd waiting to get in. We were attacked by hot MSNBC interns giving out decks of cards. I told them they really shouldn’t and that I was giving out my card instead. Anyway…. This is why I don’t have a job this summer. Next, I run into this IT guy I knew from work – small world. He built this dude and wanted it signed by the Hak5 guys. Really cool shit. Next, some really smokin squarespace.com interns gave us free drink vouchers for dancing like a “white boy” for 5 seconds. Sick.
  • I’m probably going to be on Revision 3’s website because a camera crew interviewed us and had us act crazy for meetup footage. That should be interesting… No comment.
  • Jay Adleson, CEO of Revision 3 came out on stage and talked for a bit, and introduced some sweet beat boxers and freestyle guys who were making stuff up based on what was showing up on a screen in realtime on Digg Labs’ BigSpy.
  • Here’s where the show began. Episode 206 – watch it next week when it’s released. Some time in the middle of it, I had to take a huge piss (too much info?) but naturally didn’t leave during the middle of the show. No further comment on that.
  • After that ended, there were some MySpace DJs/ bands and the place cleared out because the geeks had to get home. I fought an insane crowd to Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht to meet them. Kevin is actually cooler than Alex, but I had three things to say to Alex:
    1. It’s southern California and I have fruit
    2. Apple Fanboys suck
    3. I agreed with his point of view over Kevin’s regarding ATM security. He was like dude, thanks.
  • If you are the girls from the photo booth and are reading this, tell me who the f you are, you were smokin’. And thanks for putting up with me dragging you in there. That was sketch, I would have been scared also. But I’m not a creep so it was all cool.

Sweet times! Week of Portfoliosofest continues!