In an earlier post, I put up Sally Kern's secret speech in which she bashed homosexuality high and low, describing it as a spreading disease, a death knell to her country. Related to this, the "Ballad of Sally Kern", a poem, and a rather striking one at that (+transcript). Sally Kern also replies.
It certainly seems so from the screenshots that have been popping up all over the internet lately. A lot of them are most likely souped up for conceptional purposes, but one thing certain returns steadily: the click-wheel-like interface. Usually the Windows Logo Orb is seated in the center of a wheel with numerous icons surrounding it. These images are by no means official, nor were they acknowledgded by Microsoft.
They’re certainly fancy looking, though I wonder about the practicalities of it. Translucencies in the user interface as a whole seem to be coming back, too, sometimes turning out nearly transparant, other times more opaque.
One thing is sure, Microsoft has confirmed that Windows [codenamed] ‘7′ will arrive somewhere in 2010, contrary to earlier misconceptions (that suggested next year).
UPDATE: Mozilla has recently decided to roll out one more Release Candidate. While this wasn’t planned, they’re doing so to make sure the final release is extremely solid. With RC2, 40 additional bugs will have been fixed. The final release date will be pushed back with approx. 5 days, though. Better safe than buggy I guess.
Firefox has been all over the news today. This is probably mostly due to the latest Release Candidate Mozilla pushed a few days ago. The third iteration of Mozilla’s flagship web browser is due no later than next month, contrary to earlier reports. It doesn’t seem likely the Firefox team will be releasing another RC build, though. But never say never, of course.
Performance boost
I’ve been using Firefox 3 since beta three and I’m having mixed feelings about it. I love the way it doesn’t gobble down hundreds of megabytes of RAM anymore. And, it’s great to see they’ve finally made the rendering engine snappier. Now, in comparison to FF3 RC1, it becomes apparent that Firefox 2’s performance was taking a snail trail beneath its baggage of (amongst others) poorly supported Javascript processing and page rendering. In addition, the numerous leaking addons made using FF2 a rather crash-prone experience.
Mozilla, in my opinion, [still] under-delivers on its promise to give Firefox a native look on every platform. There were humongous plans for a Mac version (which made its debut a couple of betas ago), a Linux version and a Vista version. As most of us know, Mozilla threw out the latter to retain Firefox’ image and online presence. Instead, they slapped out a regurgitated iteration of Firefox’ former self, i.e. Firefox 2. A big mistake.
Enhancements
An other addition worth mentioning is the dramatically improved address-bar. Much like the Spotlight on the Mac, or Instant Search in Vista, Firefox searches for previously queried or bookmarked sites as you type. If you’re the type to frequently visit certain sites, but don’t want to go through the hassle that is bookmarking (yes it is), this is a great productivity booster.
The download manager finally allows for pausing downloads. And, closing the browser won’t flush them out either. They’ll just pop right back the next instance you open your trusty browser. This feature greatly obsoletes the need for addons like ‘DownThemAll’, though the aforementioned provides more that just download management.
Protecting the young’uns
Dumb and uninitiated web surfers are now protected against the dark side of the net. Clearer certificate pages and anti-phishing/scamming warnings are in place to wane off ignorant eyes.
One of the annoyances of running an ‘unfinished’ version of Firefox - like software is ever finished - is that support for addons is completely broken. Only a few are capable of keeping up with Mozilla’s beta/RC cycle. That, and the revised addons’ underpinnings usually render the addons-window empty. While there are methods at present to get incompatible addons running again, this is not advised, since many contain deprecated and insecure code. The solution is simple, just sit it out, or plainly revert back to Firefox 2 for the time being.
Firefox 3.1 in the running
Word goes round that Mozilla has already started planning the next major update to Firefox, i.e. version 3.1. It will reportedly incorporate features that were cut from the RC1 build because they weren’t yet on par with the rest of the feature set. Most of them were nearly finished, but just didn’t meet the quality bar for broad release.
The XMLHttpRequest (XHR) API is an example of this. The RC1 release notes note that the specifications for this technology aren’t stable, nor secure enough [yet].
With Firefox 3.1, it will be the first time Mozilla rolls out two major updates to the Firefox franchise in the same year. Interesting.
Get the RC
For those interested on living on the bleeding edge (cough), Firefox 3 RC1 is available from Mozilla’s website right here. In keeping with its good tradition, this download is available in all its multi-language/platform splendor.
Nehalem is the name of Intel’s next-generation 45 nanometer micro-architecture. It is a processor architecture that will harness the processing power for a wide range of computers, ranging from ultra-portable laptops to high-end server equipment, utilizing a scalable amount of cores.
The projection is that this new processor will make its entry for high-end computers later this year, with 4 and 8 core variants on a single die. With this introduction, Intel will sweep the old FSB architecture off the table.
Not CPU, it’s SoCs
Being touted as the biggest leap in processor technology since the Pentium 4, Nehalem will use the same 45nm production process as Penryn. It is said that the quad-core variation that’ll make its debut this year will house 781 million transistors (see Moore’s Law). It does the Nehalem injustice to call it a mere CPU, though. SoCs or ‘Systems-on-a-Chip’ suits this baby better. Why?
As illustrated by the image above, the Nehalem is indeed a complete system in itself, since it contains the processing cores, cache, and fast DDR3 memory on a single chip. Furthermore, the L3 cache, with its 8MB in capacity, is pretty huge, too. It also incorporates the newly-fangled QuickPath [Interconnect], which basically replaces the by now ancient FSB architecture. It’s a new point-to-point connection between the processor and other key components like the chipset and RAM. QuickPath will provide a tremendous amount of aggregate bandwidth, in comparison with FSB.
Since this architecture is scalable, it will be suitable for most all computing needs. Whereas the Pentium series was built around clock speeds, Intel’s new platform is centered around parallel bandwidth.
Integrated graphics, greener
Nehalem also promises 30% lower power usage when compared to its little brother Penryn, which is always nice. But the most interesting thing, in my opinion, has to be the option to include optional high performance integrated graphics into the architecture. This could lend an extra advantage to ultra-mobile devices like the eeePC - or any of the other lightweight laptops out there. But that’s just one of the possible uses for it.
Nehalem’s successor, Westmere will be shrunk to 32nm and should be ready for release by 2009.
My thoughts
It looks like this will be a breakthrough in day-to-day computing. It [moderately] breaks with old - yet tried - conventions. If nothing else, it’s delightful to see this kind of technology sprout out of Intel, which has been killing AMD big time with its Dual Core technology. I’m curious to see how it’ll work out and will keep you posted.
FSB: Front Side Bus
The FSB is the transfer bus that carries information between the CPU and the Northbridge of the motherboard. [Wikipedia]
a die: rectangular fragment of a semiconductor wafer
cache: limited, high-performing memory that is placed close to the processor
DDR3: DDR3 SDRAM
The improved reincarnation of its predecessor DDR2, promising lower power consumption (by 17%) and higher bandwidth. DDR3 is dimensionally identical to DDR2, except for the placement notch, since DDR2 and DDR3 modules are not interchangeable.
Save to Browser Favorites
Ask
backflip
blinklist
BlogBookmark
Bloglines
BlogMarks
Blogsvine
BUMPzee!
CiteULike
co.mments
Connotea
del.icio.us
DotNetKicks
Digg
diigo
dropjack.com
dzone
Facebook
Fark
Faves
Feed Me Links
Friendsite
folkd.com
Furl
Google
Hugg
Jeqq
Kaboodle
kirtsy
linkaGoGo
LinksMarker
Ma.gnolia
Mister Wong
Mixx
MySpace
MyWeb
Netvouz
Newsvine
PlugIM
popcurrent
Propeller
Reddit
Rojo
Segnalo
Shoutwire
Simpy
Slashdot
Sphere
Sphinn
Spurl.net
Squidoo
StumbleUpon
Technorati
ThisNext
Webride
Windows Live
Yahoo!
Email This to a Friend
If you like this then please subscribe to the 
