Where’s my browser?

 or                  ?
I just read this blog post on web browsers on the mac. I have essentially the same problem. I really want to use Firefox because I love all of the extensions and I prefer the UI but everytime I move back to it I am convinced to leave again.

Ever since Firefox 2.0 was released it has seemed really buggy and eats more memory than ever. I realise I’m throwing more difficult stuff at it such as web apps like Google Reader but it runs so slowly that it requires regular restarts and crummies up my browsing. So I always end up back using Safari. The 3 beta is rubbish but 2 is a really solid browser though only made useable through additions such as Safari Stand and Inquisitor which incorporate features that should have been put there by Apple already.

I recently spent a few weeks with Flock and almost stuck with it, but there are only so many crashes that you can put up with. Apparently it is getting more stable though so I might have to go back and try it again soon. I’ve tried Camino and Opera and they’re both ugly as sin so I refuse to use them.

So for the moment I will persevere with Safari and Firefox 2.0. Hoping that Firefox 3.0 will be better.

Will apps kill Facebook?

I am one of many people that I suspect have abandoned Myspace in favour of Facebook in recent years. I never enjoyed using Myspace and didn’t see the point of it. I had to set up email alerts to remind me to visit and reject friends requests from porn sites and the like. The most painful thing about Myspace was visiting the pages of people who had stuck every conceiveable widget and slideshow on their page accompanied by some form of auto play god awful music. The vast majority of Myspace pages wouldn’t render properly in any browser.

Facebook’s interface on the other hand is clean and easy to use. The news feeds on each page suck you in and assist you in wasting too much time following what people are up to. You know that when you click on something that it will work. At least until now.

Since Facebook opened up their API there has been an explosion of applications. Some such as the Twitter and Last.fm apps are very good. Others a very bad for a variety of reasons. Some such as the ’super wall’ and the like risk turning facebook into Myspace. Now when you visit a person’s profile you can’t expect to see a clean, well laid out page, but often a hodge podge of crap. Not to mention the incessant invitations to determine your sex appeal score or to rate whose dog is cuter than the other.

Basically I hate them. While I think Facebook did the right thing by opening up, there should have been some form of quality control process. Apps should have to be vetted before they can make it onto the site. Otherwise the user experience will, and is suffering.

Does anyone agree or am I just a big whinger?

Update: I’m not the only one who is concerned

Screenshot from Mashable.com

Up in smoke

From The Age website.

We wont see anymore of this in Melbourne. Today is July 1st and that means no smoking inside licensed premises anymore in Victoria. As much as I’d like not to be, I am currently a smoker and I think its great that in clubs and other enclosed spaces, not only will people not have to deal with my smoke but I wont have to deal with theirs when I dont want to. Lots of pubs and bars have created some great outdoor spaces to deal with the ban as well which will be great for everyone. I look forward to sitting out on a roof top in the coming summer.

What I will miss is having cigarette and a beer in the dodgy old local pub when your just sitting and having a chat. I dont relish having to go outside in the middle of winter and a lot of people will probably give up as a result.

Just as I think it is extremely weird that that people could smoke on trains and trams when my parents were growing up, my kids will probably think it was weird that you used to be able to smoke indoors anywhere.

Oh well, I’m just going to pop outside for a cigarette.

When idiots consort with idiots

Australia’s venerable A Current Affair, in another one of their so called pieces of “journalism” may have caused another car accident involving a truck in the Domain tunnel where 3 people died in a car and truck pile-up in March.

The Age is reporting that the team of geniuses from ACA drove through the tunnel with a camera crew in a car driven by another genius who is scared of trucks.

An icy pole is distracting enough, let alone a camera crew! A witness said that they sat in the right hand lane for the entire length of the tunnel unable to maintain a constant speed, in front of a 22 tonne truck! The truck was forced to change lanes, allegedly resulting in an accident with another vehicle. How stupid are these guys?

There’s nothing that annoys me more than idiots who sit in the right hand lane! So don’t do that, move to the left, you don’t own the road. Now when you combine that with moronic current affairs shows that try to pass themselves of as journalism, you’ve got a corker.

Here’s my advice, don’t watch anything on commercial TV at 6.30pm. Better yet, don’t watch commercial TV. Full stop.