Firefox 3: Don't Ask for Help
"Firefox: The Browser 4 Out of 5 Geeks Recommend to Their Friends." Imagine that as the headline for an ad. It's probably true, except that the numbers would more likely be 9 out of 10. Firefox continues to gain on Internet Explorer and will probably surpass IE's numbers about the time Beelzebub begins to feel the need for a heavy winter coat, so don't hold your breath. Yet for many of us Firefox is a better browser, despite its flaws. That's why I've been anxiously awaiting the release of Firefox 3, which has been in development for about 3 years and it now in its fifth beta release. Although I try to avoid beta applications, I downloaded Firefox 3 for the Mac and installed it. I like what the developers have created, but I learned the hard way not to ask for help.
Software development today is mind boggling. Firefox is being developed for 3 major platforms (Windows, Mac, and Linux) in 45 languages: Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Basque, Belarusian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (British), English (US), Finnish, French, Frisian, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kurdish, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Mongolian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Norwegian (Nynorsk), Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (Portugal), Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish (Argentina), Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Turkish, and Ukrainian. Not all platforms are supported in all languages, but this is particularly impressive when you stop to consider that this is a development project staffed primarily by volunteers.
Downloading and installing Firefox 3 beta 5 was routine. On Mac and Linux machines, Firefox will overwrite your version 2 installation (geeks will know how to avoid that) but on Windows machines, version 3 installs in a new directory. The first thing you'll find, when you open version 3 is that most of your plug-ins will no longer work. (More on that in a moment.)
The next thing you'll see is the welcome page for version 3. This is the screen Firefox users know they will see after an upgrade. It indicates that the upgrade was a success.
How to Fix the Plug-Ins
Plug-ins are generally certified to work with a particular release of an application. The plug-in asks the application what version is is and if the version is outside the range known to be compatible, the plug-in won't work. Many version 2 plug-ins refuse to work with version 3. The solution is a lie.
Download the latest version of Dave Townsend's Nightly Tester Tool and all your installed plug-ins will think that they can work with version 3. Most will work fine, but there is no guarantee.
Seek Help and Ye Shall Not Find
As I always do with a new application, I looked through the menu to see what was new. When I clicked Help, nothing happened for a while. Then I got the spinning beach ball of death. The only option was to force quit Firefox.
Thinking that this was a fluke, I started Firefox again and clicked Help. Beach ball of death again. Then I opened Firefox again, opened no sites, and clicked help. The beach ball of death returned. I repeated this enough times and under enough conditions that it was clear that Help would always crash Firefox on my Apple notebook.
Well, it is beta software after all. This may be a problem for all users, all Apple users, or just me.
New Features in Firefox 3
The Mozilla Organization describes the features that are new to version 3 of Firefox: Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 32 months. Building on the previous release, Gecko 1.9 has more than 12,000 updates including some major re-architecting to provide improved performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. Firefox 3 has been built on top of this new platform resulting in a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot more under the hood to offer website and Firefox add-on developers.
Firefox 3 Beta 5 includes more than 750 changes from the previous beta, improving stability and web compatibility, providing platform and user interface enhancements, and resulting in the fastest Firefox ever. Many of these improvements were based on community feedback from the previous beta.
More Secure
- One-click site info: Click the site favicon in the location bar to see who owns the site and to check if your connection is protected from eavesdropping. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand. When a site uses Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, the site favicon button will turn green and show the name of the company you're connected to.
- Malware Protection: malware protection warns users when they arrive at sites which are known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware.
- New Web Forgery Protection page: the content of pages suspected as web forgeries is no longer shown.
- New SSL error pages: clearer and stricter error pages are used when Firefox encounters an invalid SSL certificate.
- Add-ons and Plugin version check: Firefox now automatically checks add-on and plugin versions and will disable older, insecure versions.
- Secure add-on updates: to improve add-on update security, add-ons that provide updates in an insecure manner will be disabled.
- Anti-virus integration: Firefox will inform anti-virus software when downloading executables.
- Vista Parental Controls: Firefox now respects the Vista system-wide parental control setting for disabling file downloads.
- Effective top-level domain (eTLD) service better restricts cookies and other restricted content to a single domain.
- Better protection against cross-site JSON data leaks.
Easier to Use
- Easier password management: an information bar replaces the old password dialog so you can now save passwords after a successful login.
- Simplified add-on installation: the add-ons whitelist has been removed making it possible to install extensions from third-party sites in fewer clicks.
- New Download Manager: the revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files, and you can see and search on the name of the website where a file came from. Your active downloads and time remaining are always shown in the status bar as your files download.
- Resumable downloading: users can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection.
- Full page zoom: from the View menu and via keyboard shortcuts, the new zooming feature lets you zoom in and out of entire pages, scaling the layout, text and images, or optionally only the text size. Your settings will be remembered whenever you return to the site.
- Podcasts and Videocasts can be associated with your media playback tools.
- Tab scrolling and quickmenu: tabs are easier to locate with the new tab scrolling and tab quickmenu.
- Save what you were doing: Firefox will prompt users to save tabs on exit.
- Optimized Open in Tabs behavior: opening a folder of bookmarks in tabs now appends the new tabs rather than overwriting.
- Location and Search bar size can now be customized with a simple resizer item.
- Text selection improvements: multiple text selections can be made with Ctrl/Cmd; double-click drag selects in "word-by-word" mode; triple-clicking selects a paragraph.
- Find toolbar: the Find toolbar now opens with the current selection.
- Plugin management: users can disable individual plugins in the Add-on Manager.
- Integration with Windows: Firefox now has improved Windows icons, and uses native user interface widgets in the browser and in web forms.
- Integration with the Mac: the new Firefox theme makes toolbars, icons, and other user interface elements look like a native OS X application. Firefox also uses OS X widgets and supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates. A combined back and forward control make it even easier to move between web pages.
- Integration with Linux: Firefox's default icons, buttons, and menu styles now use the native GTK theme.
More Personal
- Star button: quickly add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click; a second click lets you file and tag them.
- Tags: associate keywords with your bookmarks to sort them by topic.
- Location bar & auto-complete: type in all or part of the title, tag or address of a page to see a list of matches from your history and bookmarks; a new display makes it easier to scan through the matching results and find that page you're looking for. Results are returned according to their frequency (a combination of frequency and recency of visits to that page) ensuring that you're seeing the most relevant matches. An adaptive learning algorithm further tunes the results to your patterns!
- Smart Bookmarks Folder: quickly access your recently bookmarked and tagged pages, as well as your more frequently visited pages with the new smart bookmarks folder on your bookmark toolbar.
- Places Organizer: view, organize and search through all of your bookmarks, tags, and browsing history with multiple views and smart folders to store your frequent searches. Create and restore full backups whenever you want.
- Web-based protocol handlers: web applications, such as your favorite webmail provider, can now be used instead of desktop applications for handling mailto: links from other sites. Similar support is available for other protocols (Web applications will have to first enable this by registering as handlers with Firefox).
- Download & Install Add-ons: the Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to download and install a Firefox customization from the thousands of Add-ons available from our community add-ons website. When you first open the Add-ons Manager, a list of recommended Add-ons is shown.
- Easy to use Download Actions: a new Applications preferences pane provides a better UI for configuring handlers for various file types and protocol schemes.
Improved Platform for Developers
- New graphics and font handling: new graphics and text rendering architectures in Gecko 1.9 provides rendering improvements in CSS, SVG as well as improved display of fonts with ligatures and complex scripts.
- Color management: (set gfx.color_management.enabled on in about:config and restart the browser to enable.) Firefox can now adjust images with embedded color profiles.
- Offline support: enables web applications to provide offline functionality (website authors must add support for offline browsing to their site for this feature to be available to users).
- A more complete overview of Firefox 3 for developers is available for website and add-on developers.
Improved Performance
- Speed: improvements to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in continued improvements in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3 Beta 5, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows improvements over previous releases.
- Memory usage: Several new technologies work together to reduce the amount of memory used by Firefox 3 over a web browsing session. Memory cycles are broken and collected by an automated cycle collector, a new memory allocator reduces fragmentation, hundreds of leaks have been fixed, and caching strategies have been tuned.
- Reliability: A user's bookmarks, history, cookies, and preferences are now stored in a transactionally secure database format which will prevent data loss even if their system crashes.
Rough edges persist in the beta version. Most will be gone by the time Firefox 3 is "released to manufacturing", but some will remain. Still, this looks like the best browser for most people.
The Spam that Got Away
Truth be told, I open very few spams accidentally and only when one fools me into thinking it's a legitimate message (about 1 time per month or 1 in 6000 spams). The rest are so blatantly obvious that they're deleted before they can even get to my computer; I terminate them with extreme prejudice on the server. I also open spams when I think that they might lead to an interesting phishing account or provide a bit of entertainment in taking them apart. For a couple of days recently I paid closer attention to the subject lines and noted some that are particularly laughable.
In the interest of good taste, I am omitting references to the ones that describe an "innocent" someone engaging in some sort of sexual activity. These invariably also include the word "hardcore". "Innocent" and "hardcore" just don't mix.
Here's the list of spams I thought particularly laughable in a 48-hour period.
- Stalin took this pills two times per day before food
Stalin died in 1953. Why would I be interested? - FW: Your academic qualification expired
The last time I checked, college degrees were good for life. - Flush out excess pounds from your colon
I presume this is some sort of diet that proposes to help you shed pounds by inducing diarrhea. - Get PAID to Play Solitaire Online!
Someone's going to pay me to play solitaire online? I don't think so. - No per scriptt ion needed here.
I'd be more likely to believe you if you could spell prescription. - World's leading pills at dirt cheap prices!
Could you write "fraud" a little larger, please? - Convert Your Car to Burn Water
Yes, water contains hydrogen and hydrogen is used as a fuel, but it costs a lot of energy to liberate the hydrogen. 
Open this one at your own risk, buddy!- {first_name} are you using YouTube to Earn $ ?
Learn how to use your e-mail mass-mailer, loser! - Wanted: Movie Extras and Actors In Your Area: No Experience Required
Yeah, you know I've noticed a lot of movies being made here in central Ohio. - studied specifically in older people Therefore, it may not stone
Well, if it won't stone, I don't want it. - very CheapPrice Bacheelor, MasteerMBA, and Doctoraate dip1omas msqegpz
This is probably from one of those "prestigious non-accredited universities". It might be more believable if they could spell any of the degrees. 
Yeah, I'm likely to open something from "love virus"?- Brauchen Sie einen Nebenjob?
I don't speak German, but Google does and it tells me this translates as Need a part? No, I don't. - The extramarital son of John Kennedy appeared in Canada
If such a person existed, why would I care? - Find Wonderful and despicable OEM Programs for PC and Apple Mac OS.
I have enough despicable OEM programs. - Your life will be extended after just one click.
Is this an offer from the Mafia? One that I can't refuse? Sorry, but no sale. - Newly Available Living Dolphin ScreenSaver. Download yours today.
Sure, I always download craplets offered by spammers. Don't you? 
"Melisa Whittaker" seems to have a lot of problems and I'm fairly sure that I don't care to be involved in any of them.
And one that I decided to look at:
Where is that 6b8x45.cn domain located? It's registered in China, but that doesn't mean it's there.
In this case, it's not anywhere. By the time I had the opportunity to take a look, it was gone. The name "Richard Shoemaker" is associated with the address, but this may or may not be the name of the person who registered the site, which is why I have obscured the e-mail address.
The name server doesn't have an IP address, either, so it's already been taken down.
Apple Tries to Sneak Safari onto My Computer and Fails
I'm not sure whether Bill Gates or Steve Jobs has the larger ego, but I do know that it's Jobs's ego that grates more. He calls Itunes the best Windows application ever written and seems to think that I want a security-challenged copy of Safari on my computer. Recent Itunes updates have included Safari (selected by default). I always de-select it, but it wouldn't matter if I left it selected because Apple's software engineers seem not to understand how to write and installer that works with Vista.
I prefer WinAmp to Itunes because it can work with my Ipod and with another MP3 player I own for use at the gym. So although I keep the latest version of Itunes on my computer, it's more than a little annoying when Apple offers the latest version of Itunes and included Safari, which I do not want. Or worse (as you see at the left) Apple asks me to install Safari without even bothering to hide behind an Itunes update. Steve: I do not want Safari on my Windows machine. It's OK on my Mac, but I prefer Firefox on both Windows and Mac machines. Will you please just bug off!
When your new automatic updater notices that Itunes needs an update (above, right), you offer Safari again. I do not want Safari on my Windows machine. Will you please get off your knees, Steve. Just suck it up and get on with life. Stop bugging Windows users to install your not-quite-yet-ready browser.
What's Really Amusing (or Annoying) ...
Apple's software engineers seem not to understand Vista. When I try to install the latest version of Itunes (without Safari), the result (left) is failure. The Itunes installer needs enhanced permissions that can be obtained only by running "As Administrator". This isn't rocket surgery, Steve.
The only way to get the latest version of Itunes on your Vista computer is to download the installer independently and then to run it As Administrator (right).
Unfortunately, the installation process seems not to be able to communicate with the Itunes updater, which continues to beg me to update an instance of Itunes that has already been updated. "Best Windows application ever." Yeah. Right.
Nerdly News
Samsung's Latest LCD Will Be Something to See
Samsung it about to release LCD screens with a contrast ratio of 20,000:1. Contrast ratio is defined as the ratio of the luminance of the brightest white to the darkest black that the system is capable of producing. The higher the contrast, the more "snap" a monitor has. By comparison, a well-run movie theater with a brand new film print will have an on-screen contrast ratio of about 500:1. Early LCD screens had maybe half that.
Now Samsung is talking about 20,000:1 in its Touch of Color LCD line for desktops. This is the same contrast ratio Samsung claims for its high-definition televisions. The line includes 19-inch, 22-inch, 24-inch, and 26-inch screens. The screens will retail for $260, $360, $500, and $600 respectively. Yes, they're expensive, but considering the specifications, the prices are surprisingly low.
In addition, Samsung says the smaller monitors will have an average pixel response time of 2ms, which makes them more than adequate for games with fast-moving components. Even the larger models will run at a respectable 5ms. The two larger models will have an HDMI input to allow them to play full HD video from Blu-ray and other HD video sources.
Seagate Hits One Billion
Don't expect any Billions and Billions Sold signs out front of Seagate's headquarters anytime soon, but the company says that it has shipped its one billionth hard drive. The company's first drive was 1979's ST506. For $1500, the buyer got a 5MB hard drive ($300/MB) and I thought that I got a real deal a few years later with a 16MB drive for around $1200 ($75/MB). Now you can find a 100GB drive for less than $100 ($0.001/MB).
If you put all those drives into a single room and hooked them up to a large computer, you'd have 79 million terabytes of capacity, which is sufficient for 158 billion hours of digital video or 1.2 trillion hours of MP3 songs.
The initial PC hard drives were 5¼" across. Although large by today's standard, that was a miracle of miniaturization in the years before 1980 when hard disk drives were often freestanding devices the size of a small washing machine. The original Seagate drives weighed in at about 5 pounds.
Today's 100GB drive is probably 3½" wide and less than an inch thick, compared to the original drives that were several inches tall. Seagate says that it ships more than 100,000 terabytes of disk space every day. Seagate has about 35% of the hard disk market with Western Digital around 23%.
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