RasterWeb!Does Lightning have a Daylight Saving Time problem?
I don’t know when to go to the Apple Store! (18:00 is not equal to 5PM…)
Ah, I just checked for updates and a new version of Lightning was installed. Looks like they had a DST fix about a month ago. There’s also a Calendar blog which I might actually try to follow in the future.
I finally got around to testing out Songbird…
First impressions? It’s cool. It’s usable. It’s still in development, but I love the concept. It even says “Now with video hack!” which you can see the results of in the image above, where I visited my videoblog at tinkernet.org.
Songbird (the application, and the idea behind it) is cool. I see potential for this thing. As Apple & iTunes seem to take away our rights with each new release, I see Songbird opening things up more and more with each release. When it comes to consuming media, that’s what I’m all about.
I noticed that Firefox seemed slow (hold the comments!) when downloading files. Not the downloads themselves, but the starting of the download. I would click on a link, and then wait like 10 seconds, and then the little download window would appear, and the download would start. I finally figured out the delay…
See that little button labeled “Clean Up”? Use it! Once I cleared out the list of files built up in there, it fixed the delay. I think I just let it build up for months without thinking about it, and it got gradually slower and slower.
Even though I’ve been using Mozilla since the early days, there is always something new to learn, or something old to not forget. Or something…
Ben Goodger had the following to say:
Netscape had it by being first.
Microsoft has it by being everywhere.
Firefox will have it by being best.We’re coming.
But I think he left out the bit about Netscape blowing it by getting all uppity.
Remember when Han Solo said Great kid, don’t get cocky!
? Well, small victories are great, but they are not equivalent to crushing the Empire.
While Firefox may be great, or even the best, I am continually saddened by the fact that many people/companies/organizations do not want the best, they just want the “good enough” – Really? Sure…
Ask yourself this? Is Windows better than Mac OS X? Is a BMW better than a Dodge? Don’t underestimate the power of “being everywhere” cuz while the dark side is not stronger…. ok, I give up on the Star Wars analogies, you get my meaning…
As an aside, I’ve had Firefox version 1.0 Preview Release quit on me a number of times. I can usually tell when it will happen because there is crazy disk activity beforehand. That’s ok, I blame the plugin authors, why? It makes me feel better…
Apple has Mail.app, Safari, and iCal. They all run on Mac OS X. Well, iCal requires Mac OS X 10.2 I believe, and I’m sure future versions of Mail.app and Safari will require an appropriately recent version of Mac OS X.
(I’ll assume the “standard” apps for Windows would be IE and Outlook, both of which seem to be the source of much trouble for many people…)
For web browsing I tend to use Firefox (and before that Mozilla.) I started using Mozilla back when the versions had things like M1 assigned to them, so I’ve grown fond of it over the years.
At home I’ve been using Apple’s Mail.app for quite a while, and it does an awesome job of determining what is junk, but I also use Thunderbird, which is great at doing IMAP, and I really like the way it handles multiple accounts. At work it’s all Thunderbird all the time. (I won’t touch Outlook!)
Now, when it comes to iCal, I was a bit split. When it came out, it was cool, but I resisted, because I was still using a PowerBook pretty often, and that PowerBook was stuck on Mac OS X 10.1.5, and could not run iCal. I toyed around with the early Mozilla Calendar extension, but now it’s getting closer to being the real deal in Sunbird.
So do you see a pattern? Apple does a great job of producing nice, clean, well-done applications, and if you exclusively or primarily use Mac OS X (the most recent version) you can be “all set” as the kids say. For the average user, there isn’t really anything lacking. Email, web browsing, and calendaring is handled.
But… for the folks who use Windows, Linux, etc. instead of, or in addition to Mac OS X, Mozilla’s got you covered. They put you in the “all set” mode with their offerings. Ah, one more thing, as Steve Jobs likes to say… For the hackers among us, those who like to push things further, extend. enhance, customize, tweak, and just turn inside-out, the Mozilla apps provide such a thing. The list of extensions for Firefox is impressive, and Thunderbird, and (I’m assuming) Sunbird will also follow with a nice list of extensions to do what the makers did not think of, have time for, or did not choose to do.
The Mozilla “platform” is a ripe field for the hackers to plant those seeds…
I would like to thank the Mozilla Foundation, and the supporters of these apps… They’re making computing better all the time.