IE8 RC1 released: The Pros and Cons
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Yesterday Microsoft made the downloads publicly available on their web site.In case you have trouble finding the files, here they are:
Windows XP and Server 2003 64-bit
Here is a close look at the features
A few good things...
1. Accelerators are cool - they provide a ton of additional functionality with just a few clicks.
2. Web slices are a great idea. Now if only there were more than two or three worth installing...
3. Smart Screen is like Linus' grubby old blanket - not overly useful, but reassuring nonetheless.
4. Visual Search previews work very well for sites like Amazon and eBay.
5. The zoom tool is still very handy, especially on smaller displays.
6. Developer tools are very solid - kind of like Firebug, but they're baked right in.
7. Memory usage has been improved over IE7.
A few bad things...
1. The RC1 download weighs in at just over 16mb, more than twice the size of Firefox or Opera.
2. Installation takes quite some time. Have-a-shower-and-put-your-jammies-on long.
3. Rendering needs improvement. GMail looked terrible, as did a few other sites I use frequently.
4. Page load times were slower than Firefox and Chrome across the board.
5. What can I block with InPrivate? But after a full browsing session it has yet to suggest anything to block on any site.
6. Still no download manager. Really? Come on now, not even a basic one?
7. Suggested sites need work. Example: Twitter. Suggested: Yahoo, Friendster, Wikipedia: Twitter.
8. Cpu usage was sometimes out of hand on Flash-heavy sites (Firefox: 21% versus IE: 54%). Whether this is IE's fault or the Flash plugin, it's a problem.
Labels: Software
Annular Solar Eclipse on January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The year 2009 will feature a range of eclipses, starting with an annular solar eclipse on January 26. This particular eclipse will be visible from an area that covers the Indian Ocean and western Indonesia.
Where is the Eclipse Visible?
Sources such as NASA say that the eclipse will be seen in the larger path of the moon's penumbral shadow, which includes the southern third of Africa, Madagascar, many parts of Australia (except Tasmania), south-east India, south-east Asia and Indonesia, on January 26, 2009.
According to Harrington (1997), the cities of Kotabumi and Telukbetung in Indonesia will experience more than six minutes of annularity while Krakatoa (or Krakatau), which will be closer to the shadow’s edge, will experience less than five minutes of annularity. The town of Sampit, in Indonesia’s central Kalimantan province, and Samarinda, the capital of the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan, will witness a lopsided ring-of-fire sunset eclipse as they will be located near the southern extreme of annularity.
Eclipses in 2009
The eclipse set for January 26 is not the only eclipse that will occur in 2009. The list of eclipses for 2009 includes:
- An annular solar eclipse on January 26.
- A penumbral lunar eclipse on February 9.
- A penumbral lunar eclipse on July 7.
- A total solar eclipse on July 22.
- A penumbral lunar eclipse on August 6.
- A partial lunar eclipse on December 31.
Labels: Science
Google adds video embeds to Gmail Chat
Thursday, January 22, 2009
If you want to share a video from YouTube or Google Video with someone, just drop the URL into your chat window.
A thumbnail image will show up in the chat window, and if you click on the preview a small video player will open up on the same page.
As you'd expect, this feature does not work with web videos that are not hosted by Google.
So you can't embed Hulu. DailyMotion, or Viddler videos just yet.
Labels: Google
Google launches Picasa for Mac
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
This was announced by Google during the Macworld. Picasa for Mac makes it easy to manage large photo collections and helps users make professional-looking edits without any technical knowledge, including:
* A drag-and-drop photo collage tool that gives users control over layout and content
* A retouching brush to wipe out scratches and blemishes - and repair old photos
* A slideshow movie maker that uploads users photo montage videos to YouTube with a click
* Smart auto-cropping that guides users on how to zoom in on their subject
* And, auto red-eye removal.
Picasa for Mac integrates seamlessly with Picasa Web Albums, Google's free photo-sharing site, which offers features like name tags, the ability for users to automatically organize and share their photos based on the faces in each picture.
Picasa for Mac is available for free download in US English at: http://picasa.google.com/mac/.
Labels: Google
