Dewd! I am ready! Download it and check it out!

Firefox 3.0 Release Candidate 1 available on Mozilla servers

“Moving right along according to plan, the first release candidate of Firefox 3.0 appeared this morning among Mozilla’s beta and candidate downloads. BetaNews has obtained the link, and RC1 is downloadable now. On previous occasions during this testing cycle, what appeared to be public betas of Firefox 3 showed up in just the right place on Mozilla’s servers, at just the right time, but ended up being internal builds of the product. BetaNews is testing this RC1 download now, and will have more news about it later this afternoon. As best as we can tell, it’s the genuine article. As expected, most of the plug-ins recently upgraded for usability with Beta 5 were operable in this version, though our plug-in to switch rendering engines with Internet Explorer at will, is functional. The ‘About’ screen clearly registered the product as ‘Firefox 3.0′ instead of ‘Firefox 3.0b5.’ And after installation, the browser attempted to load a ‘What’s new in 3.0′ page that does not yet exist. In the early going, we notice one obvious new addition: A link marked ‘Most Visited’ appears next to the ‘Smart Bookmarks’ button in the Links toolbar, which itself was an addition that cropped up, we believe, in Beta 3. Clicking on this button brings up a list of URLs that appear to be the top 10 members of the current History buffer. The default skin looks ever-so-slightly tweaked, with more space between the new ‘Back’ and ‘Forward’ rocker-switch-looking contraption and the ‘Reload current page’ button. Some pixels appear to have been cropped from the Address bar to make room.”

Want to run the newest release of Fedora (which is Fedora 9, by the way) on your USB stick? Well, here’s the easy way to do it!

liveusb-creator

The liveusb-creator is a cross-platform tool for easily installing live operating systems on to USB flash drives.

Features

• Supports downloading various Fedora releases, including Fedora 9!
• Persistent overlay creation (only works with Fedora 9 right now). This lets you to allocate extra space on your USB stick, allowing you to save files and make modifications to your live operating system that will persist after you reboot. This essentially lets you carry your own personalized Fedora with you at all times
• SHA1 checksum verification of known releases, to ensure that you’ve downloaded the correct bits

How cool is that? And, it works for other OSes as well! Play to your heart’s content!

Want to play with the new version of Fedora? Here’s the link:

Get Fedora

It will rival Google’s “Android” system… but Verizon wants its own Linux-based Phone OS.

Verizon Wireless Backs Linux Operating System For Handsets

“Verizon Wireless said on Wednesday that it was putting its weight behind a Linux-based operating system that rivals Google Inc.’s ( GOOG) own Android offering. Wireless carriers are increasingly looking to open standard software for their phones because they reduce manufacturing costs and make it easier for the development community to independently create new services and programs. Verizon Wireless said it will use a standard called LiMo, and expects it to eventually be the preferred operating system for its phones. The carrier - jointly owned by Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) - plans to have phones using the LiMo operating system by 2009, according to Kyle Malady, vice president of networks. While LiMo has gotten less press than Android, it is further along the development process, with 18 handsets from eight different companies in the market. The wide number of development partners in the LiMo Foundation and the more open nature of the group attracted Verizon Wireless, Malady said.”

Gotta love it… a fairly cheap ($99.99) “camcorder” for videoing any weirdness you may see and then want to post on YouTube. Now, THIS is useful!

Creative launches its Vado pocket ‘camcorder’

“Offering a device for individuals to keep handy just in case a ‘must record’ moment happens (’Don’t Taze Me, Bro’ moments), Creative has unveiled its VF0570-P Vado Pocket Video Camcorder. With 2 GB of memory, and 640 x 480 VGA MPEG4 videos recording at 30 fps, Creative’s Vado has specs conspicuously similar to PureVideo’s 2 GB Flip Video. The main difference between the two is the price. The 2 GB flip carries with it an MSRP of $149.99, while the Vado shaves the price down to $99.99. Complete with two AA batteries, the unit only weighs 84 grams and claims to be able to record for 2 hours in an even further reduced quality. Like the Flip, there is a built in USB connector, a 2″ LCD screen, and an A/V out port. Though Creative and Pure both bill their devices as ‘camcorders,’ the quality offered is only marginally better than the capture quality on better mobile phones. Furthermore, a developing trend among point and shoot still cameras is the addition of HD video capture. Panasonic, Samsung, Kodak, and Canon all offer far superior video capture quality in a comparably-sized unit for only a fraction more money.”

Technorati Tags: camcorder, YouTube, VF0570-P, Vado Pocket Video Camcorder, Creative

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So, we are doomed. Global warming will be our end. But, wait! Now, there’s big news! We are now facing Global Cooling! Wow! And, to think, I was about ready to get a mega-powered air conditioner to stay cool… now, I will need fur coats and mukluks! Come on, guys… make up your mind!

The point is, it is all hooey! Just doomsday stuff to part us from our green (the kind that really counts, our money!)

Check this out:

Temperature Monitors Report Wide Scale Global Cooling

And this one:

Global Cooling?

And, of course, this one:

Evidence of Global Cooling

“Cold Reception - Tuesday we told you about several areas around the planet experiencing record cold and snowpack — in the face of all the predictions of global warming. Now there is word that all four major global temperature tracking outlets have released data showing that temperatures have dropped significantly over the last year. California meteorologist Anthony Watts says the amount of cooling ranges from 65-hundredths of a degree Centigrade to 75-hundreds of a degree. That is said to be a value large enough to erase nearly all the global warming recorded over the past 100 years. It is reportedly the single fastest temperature change ever recorded — up or down. Some scientists contend the cooling is the result of reduced solar activity — which they say is a larger driver of climate change than man-made greenhouse gases.”

Technorati Tags: Global warming, Global Cooling, Anthony Watts

Posted by DrBill | 2 Comments »

Dr. Bill Podcast - 135 - (05/10/08)
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Podcast Show Notes:
Geek Culture: “I’m a Marvel, and I’m a DC,” Tech News (short, but interesting,) and the usual silliness, including corrections from the Gamemaster (of course!)

Technorati Tags: Marvel, DC

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This week’s GSoTW is not actually a program… it is a web site… a place where you can get almost any boot disk that you might need, no matter how old it is!

BootDisk.com

I find myself needing this one every so often… so enjoy! By the way, if you are looking for free boot disks, on the site, they are here:

Free Boot Disks

Technorati Tags: web site, boot disk

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Our favorite free office suite is moving on up to version 3.0! Check out the new features!

OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta is ready for testing

“The OpenOffice.org Community is pleased to announce that the public beta release of OpenOffice.org 3.0 is now available. This beta release is made available to allow a broad user base to test and evaluate the next major version of OpenOffice.org, but is not recommended for production use at this stage. If you are a regular user of OpenOffice.org, here’s a great opportunity to help us make the next release the best ever.

What’s new in OpenOffice.org 3.0?

The most immediately visible change to OpenOffice.org 3.0 is the new ‘Start Centre’, new fresh-looking icons, and a new zoom control in the status bar. A closer look shows that 3.0 has a myriad of new features. Notable Calc improvements include a new solver component; support for spreadsheet collaboration through workbook sharing; and an increase to 1024 columns per sheet. Writer has an improved notes feature and displays of multiple pages while editing. There are numerous Chart enhancements, and an improved crop feature in Draw and Impress. Behind the scenes, OpenOffice.org 3.0 will support the upcoming OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2 standard, and is capable of opening files created with MS-Office 2007 or MS-Office 2008 for Mac OS X (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, etc.). This is in addition to read and write support for the MS-Office binary file formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt, etc.). OpenOffice.org 3.0 will be the first version to run on Mac OS X without X11, with the look and feel of any other Aqua application. It introduces partial VBA support to this platform. In addition, OpenOffice.org 3.0 integrates well with the Mac OS X accessibility APIs, and thus offers better accessibility support than many other Mac OS X applications.”

A more detailed feature guide is here:

OpenOffice.org 3.0 Feature Guide

Technorati Tags: free office suite, OpenOffice.org

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Star Trek lives! At least science is catching up with Star Trek. Now, there is a Tricorder-like device to help determine what’s wrong with a patient. Dr. McCoy would be so proud!

Real Trekkie Tricorder Invented

“New handheld medical scanners coupled with regular cell phones resemble “Star Trek” tricorders and could see what ails you with a push of a button. The invention, using off-the-shelf cell phone technology, would allow medical scanners could boldly go where none have gone before — to the aid of the roughly three-quarters of the world’s population currently without access to ultrasounds, X-rays and other imagers used for everything from detecting tumors to monitoring fetuses. In addition to offering medical scans in developing nations, the devices ‘could find their way in ambulances, or rural clinics,’ said Boris Rubinsky, a professor of bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley.”

Technorati Tags: Star Trek, Tricorder, Dr. McCoy, Boris Rubinsky, University of California, Berkeley

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Dr. Bill Podcast - 134 - (05/03/08)
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Podcast Show Notes:
The best, geekiest Geek Software of the Week… EVER! Also, Star Wars Ewok’s Gospel? And, the tech news as always… plus, the Gamemaster’s summer movie rundown… sorta!

Technorati Tags: Star Wars, Ewok, summer movie

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