Five Years of Firefox

Wow! Five years already!!! Who knew that time could go so fast.

Five years ago, Microsoft had killed off their major web browsing competitors and looked set to keep the throne for decades (mumble, grumble) to come. Then, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Netscape reborn, rebadged and completely (pretty much) recoded, comes back on the scene as Mozilla Firefox.
With features that MS could only dream of and a user base which rapidly grew (and still is), Firefox reignited the Browser wars of yesteryear and warmed the hearts of so many who had been enslaved in the net pits of IE.
Now, after paving the way, and wounding the dragon, Firefox has allowed other browsers to also take up the fight to reclaim the Internet - welcome Chrome, hello on Win Safari, and Opera: just keep on singing.
So to say happy birthday, I've linked to the celebration page. Go there and rejoice for the reign of 'good enough' is almost at an end.

Five Years of Firefox

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Why I trim my goatee

http://dilbert.com/fast/2009-11-28/

Ahh! Scott Adams, you've done it again. This is why I trim my goatee... so that I can move freely throughout this wonderful democracy where you don't have to feel threatened if you have facial hair... or something.

Well done Year 12s!

Last night I had the honour and pleasure of saying goodbye to the latest batch of Year 12 students from my school. I think this bunch of kids have done a great job of growing up - they're confident, driven and have rock-solid character.

To all those people who worry for the future when they look at Gen Y, don't. The future is in good hands - probably better than yours.

Do these guys want to have fun? Absolutely. But why not? Life is meant to be experienced (within boundaries) and these young adults (at least the ones from my school) are doing a great job of balancing fun and responsibility.

Thanks 2009 - I'll miss you ... a little :)
Have fun, take care, and stand firm in the faith God has given you.

Hang on - what is Google Operating System?

If you have no idea what it was that I was talking about in the last post, lucky for you that google has released a video for you:

Chrome Operating System - It's here!

Google has just released Chrome OS as Open Source and they've got bucketloads of videos out there.

I thought I'd post a very recent demo video (from Google's youtube channel) here - it's a live, working version.




What I find interesting is the absolute reliance upon the cloud. All documents etc are based "in the cloud" - or on a google server.

What I love is that it's not due for release for another year, but it's working and Google is mroe than willing to show it off.

There are more videos on the channel, but I thought I'd start with this one.

An IPT blog - finally.

I've finally bitten the bullet and created Teaching IPT - a blog of all things IPT related. Unlike one of my earlier blogs, this will actually be updated fairly regularly. I'm aiming to use it as an additional resource for my kiddies at school.
I'll have links to interesting things (like BumpTop OS, or GoogleOS) and extra lesson stuff for my classes (like revision sheets). In short, it will be a one stop shop. Plus - one day I might be able to update it and embed a Wave in it... Amanda, Michael et. al.

Sorry my peeps from Year 12. This is a little too late for you, but I hope you'll help contribute as time goes on. Please?

Speaking of Year 12s, there's only 1 week to go. I'm already tearing up and that's not from the stress of trying to make it an enjoyable and memorable last week for them. Hmmm. Maybe I need to drink more coffee. Yep. The answer to all ills. :)

IPT - revision available

Sorry - was at the SU support dinner. Great night!

Anyway, the pdf of the revision sheet is here: http://www.christlife.org.au/images/stories/IPT/2009_IPT OT2 Revision with asnwers.pdf

It's MY info, Google! .. Enter dashboard

We all know that Google can build up a lot of info about you, but most of it comes from yourself. You create a blogger account, set up a gmail, enter in the Wave playground, make your own profile, write some pages, create some documents online, have a calendar - you know, all the regular stuff. All this info, you give to Google because they run all those things. And, until now, it's been kind of hard to check what the world could and couldn't see about you because of it.
This is where the Dashboard comes in.
In short, it allows you to see what Google stuff you've got and what personal information is being given out as well as offering you the opportunity to change settings about what is public and/or private.

I like it. YAGGT! (Yet Another Good Google Tool).

For another view of it, see: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/11/google-dashboard.html (google's own blog - so it's a bit biased)
or: http://blogs.computerworld.com/15054/google_dashboard_triva_tabulator_for_my_google_life?source=rss_blogs (has a more...'trivia centered'... view of it)

BTW: my twitter's going well... and I've hooked it up to my facebook too! Woot. I almost sound Gen Y!