John Lamansky

I checked the CNET Reviews website, and I realized I had rated Mozilla Firefox with the exact same rating as CNET did: an 8.0! It’ll be interesting to see how my future reviews and ratings compare to CNET’s.

Mozilla Firefox 1.0.6
Mozilla Foundation

Rating: 8.0 Stars (Excellent)
[How I Rate]

Awards: John’s Choice

Pros:

• Auto-Update – Firefox has a built-in automatic update system that can find updates to both Firefox and installed extensions and themes.
• Customization - If you want more features, extensions provide a great way to add more functionality to Firefox. You can also download themes to change the way Firefox looks. I’ll be discussing Firefox extensions in a later review.
• Documentation – Firefox has lots of documentation, plus a “For Internet Explorer Users” section under the Help menu.
• Download Manager - Firefox has a download manager that can easily manage multiple downloads and can pause, cancel, and restart downloads.
• Frequent Updating – Whereas Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 will have been their “latest browser” for about six years, Firefox has been updated very frequently in the past.
• Interface - Despite all of the features and settings, Mozilla manages to make the Firefox interface very uncluttered and easy to use.
• Platform Support – Firefox works on Windows, Linux, and the Macintosh. Internet Explorer is only available for Windows and Macintosh, and Microsoft’s latest version (which has no version number change) only comes with Windows XP SP2.
• RSS Support – Firefox can save RSS feeds as “live bookmarks.”
• Security - Firefox does not support ActiveX and VBScript, which are two common methods of virus propagation.
• Settings - Firefox has many settings, and a whole gob of them can be found by typing “about:config” in the address bar.
• Speed - When running Firefox on my computer, the alternate browser loaded faster than Internet Explorer. I clicked on the Internet Explorer icon in my Quick Launch toolbar, and then clicked on Firefox’s icon. Firefox loaded first. When I first started using Firefox, the speed improvements weren’t that noticeable. But when I recently had to use Internet Explorer to view a webpage, it was painfully slow.
• Standards Support – Firefox supports the latest W3C standards, and can even display some pages correctly that Internet Explorer can’t (gasp!). Having a browser that supports universal, rather than proprietary, standards makes it a lot easier for webmasters like yours truly.

Cons:

• Bugs – On rare occasions, Firefox will start to hog up processor cycles, slowing the computer to a crawl (though not to an unusable state). Also, occasionally when I open Firefox, the program will run in the background but not start up any window. These bugs probably happen to only a handful of users, since I haven’t seen these bugs reported. However it goes to show that, like almost all programs, Firefox does have bugs.
• Security – Just because Firefox doesn’t support ActiveX and VBScript doesn’t mean it’s secure. Firefox has its own set of security flaws, some as severe as those found in IE.
• Website Display – Because of Firefox’s lack of ActiveX support, it cannot display some pages, the most common of which can be found at, of course, Microsoft.com.

I recently received a forwarded email from a relative that read:

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter’s gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.

By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That’s pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.

I was getting all excited until I read this article and realized the email was a hoax.

The circulating emails are simply exaggerations. Yes, Mars will be rather close to Earth, but it’s going to happen in October, not August; it’s not going to be as big as the full moon; and it will not be 60,000 years before it happens again.

Sigh… I’ll need to be more careful about what emails I believe. I’m not used to this kind of email hoax; I’m only used to hoax emails that announce, “THIS [important system] FILE IS A VIRUS! REMOVE IT NOW OR YOUR COMPUTER WILL FACE UTTER DESTRUCTION!”

(Drum roll please…)

“Windows Vista!”

Microsoft announced the official Longhorn name this morning. ActiveWin claims they were the very first website to announce it. You can also see the Microsoft press release.

With five letters, it’s certainly the longest suffix a version of Windows has ever had, besides “Server 2003″ of course. The closest, with four letters, was “2000.” It’s certainly an interesting name. But it’s possible that the name could change, as Windows Server 2003’s name did; before its release, Server 2003 had an “official name” of “Windows .NET Server.”

I’ve also heard that beta versions of Longhorn… er, Vista… have been circulating in a invitation-only beta release. The next version of Windows is fast approaching.

Hurry up, Vista!

On this blog, I’ll be rating various items, such as software, hardware, etc. I’ll be using the following rating system:

1 Star = Worthless
2 Star = Terrible
3 Star = Very Poor
4 Star = Poor
5 Star = Average
6 Star = Good
7 Star = Very Good
8 Star = Excellent
9 Star = Spectacular
10 Star = Perfect

There will also be a “John’s Choice” award, which recognizes products used by yours truly.

Enjoy the reviews!

I read at the MozillaZine website that Firefox 1.0.6 and Thunderbird 1.0.6 have been released - only about a week after the releases of 1.0.5 versions. You can get Firefox here and Thunderbird here.

To me, it’s both good and bad that the Mozilla programs are getting updated very often - it’s good because it shows that there is an active community that wants to fix bugs and security holes quickly and efficiently; it’s bad because frequent updates can be a real headache for the consumer!

I found a way to create a special file that looks exactly like a JPEG file, but when double-clicked, opens a Windows Explorer window.

These are the steps; as far as I know, it only works in Windows XP.

1. Open a new Notepad document.
2. Copy and paste the following into Notepad:
   
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shimgvw.dll,3
[Taskbar]
Command=Explorer


3. Click File > Save, choose a location, then type “<file name>.jpg.scf” (where <file name> is the name of the file)
4. Close Notepad and open the folder where you saved the file. Notice that the “.scf” extension is completely hidden (whether extensions are enabled or not) and it looks exactly like a JPEG file. Double-click on the file and tada! Windows Explorer opens.

As far as I know, you can only use the SCF extension to:

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Show the desktop.
3. Show the Windows 98 “Channel Bar.”

I doubt Microsoft would be dumb enough to allow an SCF file to open any ol’ program (like fdisk.exe) due to the fact that the SCF extension is hidden.

Of course, there is really no practical application for this (for malicious purposes or otherwise). It’s just kind of fun to see how you can take advantage of the SCF extension.

When I went to visit the Google homepage today, they had a “Google Moon” logo and a sentence that read:

See what the astronauts saw on July 20, 1969. Try Google Moon.

If you follow the link to moon.google.com, you’ll get a version of Google Maps that shows satellite imagery from the moon, along with information about the various lunar landings. Also check out the Google Moon FAQ, where they mention their G.C.H.E.E.S.E. research center that was announced on April Fool’s Day of 2004.

And when you’re looking at the Google Moon maps, just remember - don’t zoom in too close.

In the July 2005 issue of PC Magazine, I found three big “boo-boos” within eight pages. All three errors were within an article about notebooks written by Bill Howard, Sean Carroll, and Cisco Cheng (just so we know who to blame ;-)).

1. Page 90: A review of the Apple PowerBook G4 showed a screenshot of the notebook running… Office PowerPoint 2003?!
2. Page 93: In the “Notebook Accessories” side section, there is a review of the “Etymotic ER6″ earphones that reads, “These great sounding phones form a snug fit in the ear canal using foam or silicone tips and reduce outside noise by about 30 dB. Just make sure to carry spare tips with you because these detach easily.”
3. Page 98: In a review of the Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513, the writer said, “The 48-Wh battery, on the other hand, lasted a dissapointing 1 minute 59 seconds.”

A friend of mine thought that was hilarious when I first said it.

But just plain-old “greetings and salutations” got kind of plain and old eventually, so I came up with a few variations:

• Greetings and Ovations! (something you’d say to a performer)
• Greetings and Activation! (what Windows does when you start it up for the first time)
• Greetings and Solicitations! (the basic script of a telemarketer)

These phrases are just the ticket if you’re a photographer who wants to capture some really weird facial expressions.

So may I repeat to you: “Greetings and Salutations!” Welcome to my blog!