Asa Dotzler: Firefox and more: September 2007 Archives

building on the mozilla platform?

September 29, 2007 3:20 PM | 8 Comments

If you're building on the Mozilla platform, why not help us out by contributing to the Mozpad API Project. It's as simple as running a script in your source tree to identify the Mozilla platform interfaces you're using. This kind of data will help the Mozilla platform evolve more carefully.

never mind. we're keeping him.

September 28, 2007 8:42 PM | 8 Comments

A while back I told y'all about this bunny rabbit that Deanna and I rescued after he had been dumped in a field near our house. Well, we had intended to foster him until we could find him a good home. Turns out, our home is pretty good, he's happy to be here and we're thrilled to have a new member of the family.

We took him to the vet last week (where we learned that he is indeed a he) and he checked out as pretty darned healthy. We'll be taking him back in a couple weeks to get fixed but there's no apparent ill effects from his weeks in the wild.

Oh, and his name is Munch. Click the photo above to see some new pictures of Munch. Older photos are available here.

spread firefox v.2 alpha

September 28, 2007 4:09 PM | 1 Comment

We're ready to start bringing in more testers for the next version of Spread Firefox. If you're interested in helping test, head over to Spread Firefox and read all about it.

pcf hits miro fundraising goals

September 27, 2007 11:04 AM

The good guys over at the Participatory Culture Foundation have hit their September goal of raising $50K and they're asking for your help in spreading the word about Miro.

If you're a Miro user, it's the perfect time to tell others about it. The product is solid and the content is really ramping up. They're at the same point in their early life that Firefox was when it started to really skyrocket and they're gonna get where Firefox got by the same process -- people telling their friends and family, coworkers, colleagues, etc.

So, if you're a user, get to spreading the word. If you're not a user, then you really should try it out. There's a button on the sidebar of my front page that'll take you there.

technorati falling down?

September 26, 2007 9:52 PM | 31 Comments

It's been at least 12 days since I noticed that one of my Technorati feeds, a feed for the results of a Technorati search on the term "firefox" isn't returning any results.

To see what I'm talking about, go to

http://technorati.com/posts/tag/firefox

where you'll see the search results for the term "firefox". Now click on the feed icon in your Firefox addressbar or the feed icon labeled "subscribe" at the top right of the search results. Either of those will take you to this address

http://feeds.technorati.com/search/firefox?language=en

This is one of several search results feeds I subscribe to and the only real feature I use at Technorati. Now it's down and it's been down for almost two weeks with no word that I can find on what's up.

Is Technorati heading down the tubes? If something like this isn't core to their product, then what is?

be afraid of monopolies?

September 24, 2007 1:56 PM | 8 Comments

Mike Shaver has an interesting post up about search results.

I'm going to assume that this is a case of incompetence rather than abusive and anti-competitive behavior -- not that they deserve that assumption of innocence.

two great posts

September 20, 2007 6:00 PM

I just haven't had the strength to blog at any length in the last few days but I didn't want to let the week pass without pointing you all at two great blog posts that I want to say more about and certainly will at some point in the near future.

The first is from Jesse Ruderman. The post, Firefox Memory Usage an Memory Leak News is a great rundown of some of the recent goings on in the world of Mozilla memory optimizations.

The second post is from Al Billings. I should start off by saying that I was indeed a bit of a jerk to Al back when he was trying to explain some of the goings on at Microsoft. He deserved better. Sorry 'bout that, Al.

Al's call to action is spot on and I'm definitely going to blog more about this since I've had a couple of draft posts sitting around for nearly a year now where I was going to talk about much of the same thing. Go read IE and the Demise of Borgzilla and let's see if we can't start rallying support to apply the pressures necessary to get them to move in the right direction.

plugin watcher

September 19, 2007 10:51 PM

Yay! This makes me happy.

...and isn't this just so much fun to watch.

six six point two five fucking days :-)

September 18, 2007 3:05 PM | 13 Comments

Six fucking days :-)

Apple can take a long time to fix bugs in their software, so we've mitigated the critical Apple QuickTime flaw, for our Firefox users with this Firefox 2.0.0.7 update.

Unfortunately, this doesn't protect all the other susceptible programs, so you might want to just uninstall Apple QuickTime until Apple gets its act together on this one and ships an update -- hopefully soon.

To get the update, simply go to the Help menu and click the "Check for updates" item. If you don't get anything right away, that could be because of heavy load on our end, (we are trying to update tens of millions of users in just a few short days,) so just try again in a few hours.

air mozilla live with mozilla's new messaging ceo

September 18, 2007 11:36 AM | 4 Comments

Tomorrow's Air Mozilla Live will be focused on the recent announcements around Mozilla's increasing investment in email and messaging. We'll have both Mitchell Baker, Chairman of the Board, and David Ascher, the CEO of Mozilla's new messaging company taking your questions, live just after 2PM.

The press continues to roll in around this exciting announcement:

At The Boy Genius Report, Joshua Karp wrote, Mozilla launches Thunderbird into the wild
At CNET Blogs, Matt Asay writes, Mozilla gets serious about email
At ComputerWorld and PC World, Gregg Keizer writes, Thunderbird flies: Mozilla spins off e-mail client
At Download Squad, Brad Linder wrote, Mozilla launches new e-mail initiative based on Thunderbird
Heise Online, with no byline, published Mozilla spins off development of Thunderbird
Lora Bentley, at ITBusinessEdge, wrote Mozilla to Spin Thunderbird into Its Own Company
Andy Beal, at Marketing Pilgrim writes, Forget Zimbra, Gmail or Outlook - Mozilla Developing Internet Email
Mozilla Links' Percy Cabello wrote Mozilla to spin off a Thunderbird subsidiary
Stuart Turton at PC Pro wroteMozilla lets Thunderbird fly
Platinax's Jan Harris wrote Mozilla invests $3 in Thunderbird e-mail client
The editorial staff at Portal IT posted Mozilla Foundation Gets New Thunderbird-Focused Division
RegDeveloper's John Leyden wrote Mozilla creates start-up to recruit email developers
TechShout, without a byline, posted Mozilla announces New Mail- and Communication-centric Inititiave
Alastair Otter at Tectonic wrote Mozilla pumps $3m into Thunderbird
Gordon Kelly, of Trusted Reviews, writes Mozilla Launches 'Internet, Mail & Communications' Arm
Ian Williams and Clement James from Vnunet wrote Mozilla readies launch of Thunderbird spin-off
WIRED's Scott Gilbertson wrote Mozilla Thunderbird Takes Wing
Ryan Naraine at ZDNet writes Mozilla pumps $3M into Thunderbird spin-off
Mashable's Kristen Nicole wrote Mozilla Launching Open Source Email Project for Developer Community
ZDNet's Dan Farber wrote Mozilla launches new company focused on email

And from my previous post,

Richard MacManus, at Read/WriteWeb, posted Mozilla Launches New Email and Communications Organization, Similar to Firefox
Om Malik, from GigaOM posted Mozilla To Spin Out Thunderbird As A Company
At Ars Technica, Eric Bangeman writes, Echoes of Firefox: Thunderbird spun off by Mozilla Foundation
Of CNET, BuilderAU, and LinuxToday, Stephen Shankland wrote Mozilla tries Firefox recipe with Thunderbird

(List compiled with help from Mozilla's PR team.)

mozilla makes major new investment in mail and messaging

September 17, 2007 6:59 PM

In case you hadn't read the news, Mozilla's making a major new investment in email and messaging. If you want to learn more, Mitchell's blog is a good place to start. If you still have questions, you can join us this Wednesday when Mitchell and David will be our special guests on Air Mozilla Live.

More at: Read/Write Web, GigaOM, and News.com.

More: boingboing.

More: ars technica.

miro is on your side

September 17, 2007 2:01 PM | 2 Comments

These folks are working their asses off building a truly awesome future for online TV.

There's lots of ways that TV online could end up sucking and there really aren't any other serious efforts to ensure that a sucky future doesn't happen.

The Participatory Culture Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization, is building a platform for online TV that will be open to everyone. They're strong believers in open source and in open standards. Their application, Miro, kicks ass, and they need your help.

So, if you can, give a little (or a lot). Though they may not know it yet, the online world will be forever grateful for your support.

air mozilla live this wednesday

September 17, 2007 1:49 PM | 1 Comment

We've got a super cool edition of Air Mozilla Live coming to you this Wednesday. Following some very exciting announcements from Mozilla, we'll have two special guests discussing the topic and answering your questions. This is one you won't want to miss so pencil it in to your calendar and don't be anywhere without a computer and a web connection this Wednesday at 2PM Pacific.

If you missed the recent broadcasts, you can still watch or download the recorded videocasts and podcasts.

The last AML broadcast featured Doug Turner on the topic of mobile Mozilla -- including discussions around Minimo and Project Joey. Videocasts, Part 1 and Part 2, of that program are available now.

For previous episodes, head over to the Air Mozilla Live Videocasts site or the Air Mozilla Live Podcasts site and listen or view, download, and subscribe today!

your chance to help make firefox 3 more local

September 17, 2007 1:34 PM

If you're using Firefox in languages other than English, you're interested in Web feeds, and you haven't seen Mic's post yet, you should head over to her blog, read the post, and sign up to help out. This is your chance to help make Firefox 3 a better citizen in your locale(s).

because it's fun, part 2

September 15, 2007 11:27 AM | 3 Comments

via Gen

Wow.

More here.

Photo by Flickr user nobihaya and used under a Creative Commons license.

because it's fun

September 14, 2007 5:16 PM

Jim has some really cool work going on with image dragging. Check out his blog post.

mozilla 24

September 14, 2007 2:20 PM | 1 Comment

Three continents. 24 hours. 8 amazing tech leaders.

"Mozilla 24" is a worldwide, 24-hour open discussion that connects community members, academics and Web visionaries from Asia, America and Europe, in person and over the broadband video WIDE network. The event will feature industry leaders who will present on Web trends and technologies that will help shape the future of the Web.

You can participate in person if you're near Tokyo, Paris or the San Francisco Bay Area. If you can't make it in person, you'll want to join us online at www.mozilla24.com

reminder: i'lll be on ustream.tv at 2pm

September 14, 2007 11:51 AM | 3 Comments

In about an hour, I'll be live on Ustream.tv's Black Book program. Tune in if you've got the time.

i'll be on ustream.tv's black book series tomorrow

September 13, 2007 9:11 PM

Tomorrow (Friday) at 2PM Pacific, I'll going to be interviewed on Ustream.tv's Black Book Series.

Ustream interviews the most fascinating people in Silicon Valley, and asks them to open their own black books to suggest who should be interviewed next. The goal is to create a chain of live interview events featuring the Valley's biggest personalities.

Bob Sutton, a good friend and someone I really really admire, tagged me so I'm it and you can see me attempt to be big and fascinating tomorrow.

The format and the Ustream.tv live broadcast platform are both pretty neat, so if you've got a bit of free time, join us live at 2PM.

go for it, jb!

September 13, 2007 11:14 AM | 1 Comment

One of the students over at Seneca's great open source classes is considering undertaking the task of implementing a Firefox feature that would notify users if plug-ins cause Firefox to hang. What an awesome project.

I'm not a Mozilla developer, so all I can offer is words of encouragement, so, good luck, Jesse and I sure hope you go with the plug-in watcher project. That would be a huge win for the 120+ million Firefox users out there. Be a hero ;-)

in happier news

September 11, 2007 5:58 PM | 2 Comments

The Mars Exploration Rovers have survived the recent dust storms and are continuing their science work.

As the dust settled out of the Martian atmosphere, the rovers faced a second power challenge with the dust moving from indirectly obscuring solar collection to directly obscuring it as it blanketed the rovers' collectors. Fortunately, and once again, beneficial winds have helped to clear much of that dust from their decks.

There's no direct word at the website about specific power levels, but I'll let you know more as I learn it.

rest in peace, alex

September 11, 2007 5:02 PM | 1 Comment

Some of you know my personal interest in interspecies communication. Well, one of the pioneers in that arena has died. Alex, an African gray parrot, was definitely a pioneer and a leader in complex interspecies communication and he shared that space with just a very few other non-human animals.

Alex was 31 years old.

Alex the parrot

Photo Copyright The Alex Foundation.

firefox four hundred million press roundup

September 10, 2007 3:12 PM | 4 Comments

Kudos, again, to the Mozilla community on your amazing efforts spreading Firefox so far and wide. Just to reinforce how amazing an accomplishment, check out some of the coverage around the web.

note: I read over 250 blog mentions of this milestone, and the links above are just a sampling where I thought there was interesting content along with the milestone mention. In addition, there were another 100 or blog mentions I came across that were in languages that I don't read/speak and they're not represented here either.

firefox 400 million downloads

September 7, 2007 12:32 PM | 9 Comments

digg it

From my post over at SpreadFirefox.com:

On November 9th, 2004, you all started a movement. Spread Firefox, supported by tens of thousands of contributors, took just 99 days to deliver 25 million downloads of Firefox to a world of people desperate for a better Web -- a Web that didn't overwhelm them with pop-ups, a Web that didn't infect their systems with viruses and spyware, a Web that was fun again, simply put, a Web that worked.

In less than six months, you all doubled that number to 50 million downloads, turned open source into a household word and reassert the supremacy of choice and simplicity.

It took the Spread Firefox global community of activists only one year to reach the 100 million downloads mark and to let the world know that innovation was alive again on the Web.

And just one year ago you all helped to double that number again, to 200 million downloads. More than 50,000 of you, with Spread Firefox buttons and banners, no only helped Firefox achieve an amazing download milestone, but you all helped to make Firefox one of the world's most recognized and respected brands.

Today, you all have done it once again. With your amazing efforts, Firefox has reached 400 million downloads and demonstrated that not even the world's most powerful companies can keep people from a better, safer, and faster Web experience. You all, the grass roots and the heart of the Firefox movement, have helped hundreds of millions of people find that better, safer, and faster Web.

Thank you for building this movement. Thank you for helping Firefox to deliver on the great promises of the Web. On behalf of the hundreds of millions of Firefox users, thank you for all that you have done in just three short years.

plans for the future

September 6, 2007 9:53 PM | 1 Comment

Maybe I'll start training for the World Beard & Moustache Championship. Two years before Anchorage probably isn't enough time, though. Unless. The partial freestyle category might be do-able. I might be able to do something creative with two more years of growth and a bit of wax.

your users are more than that

September 5, 2007 5:26 PM

Cedric, over at Peer Pressure, the AllPeers weblog, has a great post up about the importance of a strong community of users. His is just one example of where we've also seen Mozilla's community making _the_ differences between success and failure.

mozilla links interviews dougt

September 5, 2007 4:24 PM | 1 Comment

We finished another fun Air Mozilla Live broadcast just a couple of hours ago. As luck would have it, Percy Cabello over at Mozilla Links has posted his interview with Doug Turner -- today's Air Mozilla Live guest.

Percy, sorry I didn't get your question in there. I just missed it on my screen.

opera 9.5 alpha

September 4, 2007 2:20 PM | 18 Comments

Opera Software ASA has released an alpha version of Opera 9.5 based on the codenamed Kestrel back-end.

My initial use suggests some mild performance improvements on a few of the heavier pages I visit. There are quite a few rendering glitches but that's to be expected this early in the development cycle (I assume.) For example, I'm seeing all kinds of problems repainting satellite views at Google Maps and my Yahoo mail is just plain busted.

And, as has been the case for far too long, there are just too many sites that still block Opera completely. Not being able to use Google office apps and other top 1000 sites is just a deal-breaker for so many people. Even more frustrating, I think, are those sites like Microsoft's Live Image and Maps Search which only sort of work but not nearly as well as in Firefox or IE.

This situation isn't likely to change much until Opera breaks out of sub-1% global market share, or until Opera manages to become web developers' favorite program. The combination of increased market share and growing popularity among web developers was a real boon for Firefox's website compatibility and without strong compatibility, mass adoption is a fantasy.

Still, Opera's come a long way in cleaning up and simplifying the interface. I know that doesn't sit well with some of Opera's longtime users, but it's definitely the right approach if Opera Software wants to break out of the geek audience and start converting IE users. Opera today looks and feels a lot more like Firefox and IE than it did just a couple of years ago and their dev team deserves praise for those moves.

Still missing, though, and without which Opera simply doesn't deserve more users, is an automated security update mechanism that ensures Opera users are all up to date. Fixing security bugs doesn't mean a whole lot if you can't update all of your users. I'm really shocked that Opera has put as much effort as it has in updating features like the Opera email program, while failing to provide this most basic security feature available from all of the mainstream browsers.

air mozilla live - dougt and project joey

September 4, 2007 12:17 PM

Air Mozilla is the live "call in" show featuring influential Mozilla contributors from all over the world. This week's show will feature Doug Turner, mobile engineer, talking about Project Joey.

So join us this Wednesday at air.mozilla.com and on IRC or IM to be a part of the fun.

Who: The Mozilla community, host Asa Dotzler, and special guests DougT.
When: Wednesday, September 5, from 14:30:00 - 15:30:00 PDT (UTC -7.)
Where: View the webcast at air.mozilla.com and participate on IRC, IM, or email.
* IRC: join the discussion on irc.mozilla.org #airmozilla
* IM: instant message your questions to the AIM/YIM/GTalk screenname airmozilla.
* email: send in your questions before and during the show to airmozilla -at- mozilla -dot- com.

Air Mozilla is now streaming 24/7 with a new live show every month (or as close to that as makes sense.) If you've got ideas for shows, please email us and let us know. Even better, if you're a part of the Mozilla community and you'd like to be interviewed or present on our live broadcast, let us know.

back from a weekend in humboldt county

September 3, 2007 8:33 PM | 2 Comments

Deanna and I spent the long weekend up in Humboldt County doing some house shopping -- well, really preliminary reconnaissance. We're pretty fond of the hills above Arcata and Trinidad. Other areas we've been looking include Ferndale, with its gorgeous Victorian downtown. Eureka, and Mckinleyville.

Of course, we love the entire coast, from Santa Barbara all the way up to Vancouver. The San Francisco Peninsula is about perfect for us in terms of climate but it's just ridiculously expensive.

As you travel north up the California coast it gets wetter and wetter. The Eureka Arcata area, though, is somewhat shielded and, while a good bit wetter than where we live now, it's actually pretty nice.

For the drive up, we hugged the coast and for the drive down, we took it slow through the Avenue of the Giants (our 4th or 5th time there) and then sped down 101 trying to get home before dark.

It was a wonderful weekend at the Carter House Inn -- lodging and food I can definitely recommend without reservations, and the weather couldn't have been better.

September 2007 Archives

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