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  [Software]

Disclaimer: This is not a "use Firefox instead of IE" post.

Today at work, I opened Firefox to pull up one of our hardware manuals only to find a pop up box suggesting I upgrade Firefox to 1.5.something. I was about to do so, but instead decided to pull up the Firefox download page to find that Firefox 2 is out! Once again, where have I been? Version 2.0 was released on October 24, 2006.

Instead of reiterating the release notes, I'll share a list of features that I really like - both new and old:

• Built in spell-check (New) - This is especially useful for me. My spelling sucks, and I usually keep Dictionary.com in a tab whenever I'm posting a blog entry.
• Live bookmarks - It wasn't until recently when I jumped on the RSS bandwagon. Nuf said - I like to use Live Bookmarks.
• Bookmarks Toolbar Search - handy!
• Tabs have a "Close me" button (New) - One click instead of the ol' right-click/close combo! Very web 2.0-ish.

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  [Software]

So I'm a little late, and everyone has already written about the wholesome goodness behind Firefox 1.5. I first installed it today, and haven't started peeking around too much, but I did check out the "what's new" page over at developer.mozilla.org. To name just one of the supported standards, Firefox 1.5 has partial CSS3 support. I believe the spec is still in progress.

I don't know all the ins and outs of every standard used by the web, but all of the recent Web 2.0 hype makes me more curious about things like CSS3. One particular feature I've read about is CSS3 columns. A wiki-ish write-up over at mozilla.org goes into detail about CSS3 columns.

To sum it up, multiple columns in a wide screen browser window are easy to read. As you view the webpage in a narrower window, multiple columns become very narrow and less readable. CSS3 columns let you switch back to a single column if the browser window gets to narrow. For an example, check out the referenced blog that uses them. They are neat in action, but make sure you have Firefox 1.5 installed, or all hell may break loose in your browser.

An even cooler bell and whistle is support for the canvas tag. Find out more here and be sure to check out the Canvas tutorial. You can make animated games with this thing: Canvas Adventure

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  [Software]

I'll admit it. I sometimes start using a new program or utility just because it is new, and based around a feature that I'm looking for. The truth is that most of the time when you're looking for a feature, it's probably in a program that you've already been using - you're just not utilizing its full potential.

This isn't so bad on a personal level, but in the workplace, this can become a nightmare. I work in a busy work environment, and each engineer has his favorite tools. What tends to happen is someone looks for a tool to accomplish a task without knowing that a tool already exists to take care of the task. Now you have two tools when one could complete the job. On top of that, other people in the workplace have a new tool to deal with.

Yes it's great to try new programs out to see if they have something that's useful, but the feature you're looking for may already exist in a program and you just haven't seen it.

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  [Software]

I was browsing some websites today, and I realized there is too much crap piled in my favorite places and one too many toolbars in my browser. It'd be nice to have two different broswer configurations. One to load strictly for entertainment purposes, and another for my interests in embedded systems, general computing, and web develompent.

Anyway, I'll have to look into the Firebox configuration options. I haven't explored them too deeply, but I suspect there's more features that I don't know about.

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  [Software]

I've finally hooked up my MII10000 Mini-ITX motherboard to the TV in my family room. Still haven't purchased a PVR card, but other than that, it's up and running. One dilemma I faced was if I wanted to leave a keyboard and mouse lying around my living room. I decided against them.

Lately I've been using the Mini-ITX box to play MP3's in that part of my apartment. To do this without a keyboard and mouse, I've been using RealVNC. It uses a client and server, and allows you to control the client through a window on your server. You gain full control of the client, including the keyboard and mouse.

Another potential tool I ran into was the Micro Browser Keyboard Eliminator by Gootar.com. This is a basic javascript form that provides most buttons that are on a keyboard. It has a few additional keys like "www" and "com" that are helpful for generating web URLs. If I decide to get a wireless trackball mouse for my PVR, the keyboard eliminator will be a nice keyboard replacement.

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  [Software]

I don't typically prefer whether a project is open or closed source, but I often wonder why some people lean one way over the another. This survey points out a few reasons why users like open source projects. Although the survey doesn't say how many people contributed to the results, the biggest advantage users see in open source is that they become less dependent on the vendor.

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  [Software]

Recently I've been wondering about software patents. I know little of them, but had been pondering about what they are and how they work. One of my questions is how can you patent something that isn't tangible? Two pieces of software could be developed by two different groups of people who have no knowledge of the other group's project. In this case, how are the projects similar and different? If two similar projects use different algorithms to complete a task, are they both patentable?

Secondly, how can you patent a design? A design or concept is based around algorithms, which form the "behind the scenes intelligence" of the software. But an algorithm is a like a type of science or mathematics. Can mathematical research have a patent such that no others are permitted to use the findings in research of there own?

To answer my questions, I stumbled around the internet, and finally turned to the Wikipedia entry on Software Patents. From the Wikipedia entry, a software patent "covers the programming method itself, independently of any implementation in code. Thus usually reimplementing a program will avoid copyright infringement, but not patent infringement. Like all patents, software patents are enforceable even if the competitors did not even know of the patent (patents are also kept secret for at least 18 months) and the software was completely independently developed."

I can't say that I know where I stand on the issue, but I do see how copyright infringement is different from patent infringement. Rewriting a piece of software is not making a replica of it, and thus avoids copyright infringement. However, if a piece of software is rewritten such that it uses "the programming method itself, independently of any implementation in code", then the patent has been infringed upon. I interpret this to mean that design at the algorithm level can not be re-implemented to perform the same task.

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  [Software]

Yes, it can be done.

I was browsing though devnulled and discovered a post on how to make Firefox faster. This surprised me, because I wasn't aware of any detailed configuration of Firefox. I tryed it out, and sure enough, page requests were faster.

To speed it up, enter "about:config" in the URL box, then modify the entries for "network.http.pipelining", "network.http.proxy.pipelining", and "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests". Simply turn the first two options on, and then modify the maximum number of requests as you would like.

Many thanks to Brandon over at devnulled for the tip.

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