Firefox 3 Beta 3 - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

I heard that the new Firefox 3 Beta 3 was a good build of the new Firefox browser so I decided to try it. I've recently gotten very sick of Firefox 2 as it crashes semi-frequently and is a lot slower than it used to be. I wrote a post about how a few sites like Engadget were extremely slow in Firefox 2. I've actually found the public beta of Safari 3 for Windows to be the snappiest of any browser on my machine, which just doesn't seem right (jeez, Microsoft). I actually really like Safari except it doesn't support all of the extensions that I like to use in Firefox (mainly Google Bookmarks).

The Firefox 3 Beta 3 is noticeably quicker than Firefox 2 and it hasn't crashed on me yet after a few days of usage. I've also noticed that the Firefox 3 Beta 3 seems to be less of a memory hog. My extensions don't work yet but at least when they do, Firefox will be better, faster, and more stable than its bloated little sibling.

My little work-around for the lack of a Google Bookmarks extension (in Firefox and Safari) is to turn on the Bookmark Toolbar (which I usually leave off) and just keep Google Bookmarks in it. When I need to access a bookmark or create one, I just open a new tab and hit the shortcut in the Bookmark Toolbar. Not as convenient as the extension, but better than local bookmarks for sure.

Harder, better, faster, stronger.

Oscar Predictions

OK, so the Oscars have already started, and I should have written this post earlier...but I had Internet problems earlier. All of the big awards (except Actor in a Supporting Role) have not been announced yet so my predictions are still in time (Bardem was a given for that award in my mind anyway).

Actor in a Supporting Role - Javier Bardem

Bardem was absolutely terrifying in No Country for Old Men. Not only was the movie one of the best I've seen in a while, but Bardem was probably my favorite villain ever. The hairdo was definitely the icing on the cake.

Actress in a Supporting Role - Saoirse Ronan

Tilda Swinton was good in Michael Clayton but I think Ronan was pretty good too even though I didn't really care for Atonement. Damn, Swinton just won as I was writing this.....she was deserving.

Actor in a Leading Role - Daniel Day-Lewis

DDL was incredible in There Will Be Blood. The movie was one of those films where I want to see it again just to see DDL again. Clooney was really good in Michael Clayton, definitely worthy too.

Actress in a Leading Role - Kate Blanchett

Blanchett could be splitting the vote here with herself in the supporting category, but....alright, this is pretty much a guess. Ellen Page was good in Juno.

Score - Atonement

While I didn't really like this movie at all, the score was actually really good.

Editing - No Country For Old Men

The scene where Brolin shot the dog coming at him was good editing.....I think. I really can't say I have a lot of knowledge about this category. The movie was good. I know that.

Directing - No Country For Old Men

This was by far my favorite movie this year (and one of my favorite movies period). Maybe I'm just rooting for this one, but I think it's going to win a bunch tonight in a lot of close races with There Will Be Blood.

Best Picture - No Country For Old Men

I hope the Coens get the award this year because I enjoyed this film so much. I'll be buying the DVD and watching it again the day it's released. There Will Be Blood is a strong contender, but I didn't think the film was as good as Daniel Day-Lewis' performance.

More Strange Apple Memory Prices

My friend and I have written about how Apple rips off offers questionable prices on memory to its customers. I discovered another strange memory pricing scheme in Apple's iPod Touch product line. Here's the pricing.

• 8GB model - $299
• 16GB model - $399
• new 32GB model - $499 (ouch)

So 8GB of extra memory will cost you $100 if you are going from the 8GB model to the 16GB model, but 16GB of extra memory will cost you the same if you go up to the 32GB model. Bulk pricing? Who knows. I would guess that the extra 16GB would come at a higher premium since there are more chips crammed into the same space but not so.

On a related note....I know they are not the same components but this makes the Macbook memory upgrade prices (linked above) seem even more ludicrous when you can get an extra 16GB for $100.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

If you like video games, you'll really like this movie. If you don't like video games, you'll really like this movie. Seriously....this documentary is one the most entertaining films I've seen in a while. The story, which boils down to good vs evil, is classically great, the film's pace is perfect (entire length is only 79 minutes), and the characters are extremely memorable (geeky, weird, duplicitous, hilarious). It's hard not to get sucked into the emotion of the story and you'll probably find yourself on the edge of your seat rooting for Steve Weibe by the end. I promise, you'll enjoy this movie if you watch it. The DVD came out at the end of January. It's about $20 on Amazon right now - very much worth your time and money.

The trailer is really good. Enjoy.

Xerox

Xerox has decided to change their logo that they have had for the past forty years or so, which has to be considered one of the worst rebranding ideas in a while. The old Xerox logo was extremely recognizable and unique - The new one not only looks like every other current 2.0 logo (Xbox in particular comes to mind), but will fade out and look dated very quickly. The original logo was somewhat timeless in its simplicity. A $14 billion company should know better, no?

Here are a few similar logos.

Definr

Definr is the cleanest, most simple, and definitely fastest online dictionary I've come across. I don't think it's very widely used yet (probably because it's somewhat new and because people may not trust it since it doesn't have "Webster" or "Oxford" written across the top of its page), but it's a great tool if you ever use an online dictionary. Definr.com is based on Princeton's open WordNet 2.0. They have a few different ways to look up words including a Firefox extension (my favorite), which has a really good auto-suggest feature.

To get an idea of how unknown Definr.com is, a search of "definr" on all three big search engines (Google, Yahoo, Live) will not return links to Definr's actual site, which I thought was kind of amusing. I hope Definr doesn't change a thing as it gains more users because it's rare to come across a tool that's near perfect through its simplicity.