brett's logjam

Finally, Mozilla gets some long-deserved press on its potential as a platform:

But the best part about Mozilla is that it is not just a browser. Scores of developers are now talking about using Mozilla as a “platform” — that is, using Mozilla’s underlying code to build non-browser applications, like calendar programs and e-mail programs and even Linux desktops. You don’t need to download Mozilla to use these apps, as some are distributed with their own stripped-down version of Mozilla’s engine — which, if you think about it, is exactly the kind of thing Microsoft was trying to prevent when it launched its war against Netscape. It didn’t want Netscape around, because Netscape was becoming a platform. So wouldn’t it be rich if, in the end, Microsoft succeeds in killing Netscape and winning the browser war but still, somehow, doesn’t eliminate the platform threat? If Netscape dies but the dragon that it spawned burns Redmond?

What is it with me and the lizards these days? I can’t stop rooting for ‘em.

Mozilla 1.2 Alpha is out, with better keyboard navigation. Also: 1.0.1, a bug fix and security follow-up to Mozilla 1.0.

Wow. When Google released their API, I never thought that Cthulhu would get tentacles on it. Best of all, it’s Mythos Compliant! Hot digitty! (Thanks, Ryan!)

Via Banjocat: Seventeen Magazine rated my alma mater, Rice University, its top coolest college. I’m stunned. Flabbergasted. Blown away.

Mozilla takes another step towards a complete application platform: Mozilla Calendar 0.8 released. (Via Mozillazine).

Scientific American has an article about GM’s take on fuel cell-based vehicles. Very cool. (Via Slashdot).

Artists vs. Record Companies makes it into USA Today:

Record companies see it as mutiny. Musicians call it an overdue rebellion. Either way, the artists’ rights movement has set the stage for combat that could revolutionize the music industry.

About damn time.

After running across David Brin’s Contacting Aliens in my local bookstore this weekend, I spent some time poking around his site. He’s got a followup to his original critique of Star Wars up:

Above all, just as in TPM, every heroic action by brave characters serves no purpose at all. None.

From Oblivio:

Anyway there was once this basketball player, Jeff Hornacek, who was ugly but a very good shooter. Whenever he shot free throws, he would bounce the ball a certain number of times, then rub his cheek with his right hand. This cheek-rubbing thing was a signal to his kids that he loved them.

Now I can clean anything.

Enterprise season two begins tonight.

For the record: I love the theme song. And the puppy. And the com officer.

BBC News: The first world championship for extreme ironing is being held in Germany. (Thanks, Kelly!)

Google News, the system that automatically scans the news channels, has been completely revamped. Excellent.

CNet has a great look at recent changes in the climate of computer security and polarization of hackers and loss of the `gray hat’ ethical position. Also has a lot of links to recent lawsuits and DMCA pistol-whippings. (Via /..)

From dooce:

Who knew that aiming a cordless 14.4 volt DeWalt drill at your husband’s ass might not be as funny as you thought it would be?

…Furthermore, why didn’t a certain someone tell me how to reverse the motion of a drill? Why would someone say to a wife, Reverse! Reverse! when the wife obviously, by demonstration of coming at you with the drill in the first place, has no idea how to reverse?

Why would you say to this wife who is standing there with a drill tangled dangerously close to your tailbone, You didn’t just do what I think you just did, did you?

The husband in question comments,

She’s not kidding. She stuck a drill in my ass and pulled the trigger.

The complete text of O’Reilly’s Creating Applications with Mozilla is now online. Click on the chapters link to dive right in. (Via Mozillazine).

Looking for a faster, lighter version of Mozilla? (Greedy bastard.) Why don’t you give Phoenix a whirl?

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to view The Adventures of Evil Overmom over at the Brunching Shuttlecocks:

Curses!

My darling beloved pointed out that the esteemed Tim Lynch shares my opinion of Ensign Sato:

And, of course, Hoshi’s shirt gets snagged as she drops into the hallway, so she arrives at Reed’s quarters topless. Was that gratuitous? A bit, certainly, but I think it worked a lot better than some of its predecessors like the decon scene in Broken Bow or Trip in his underwear for half of Acquisition. Mostly, it was handled with a far lighter touch: it wasn’t lingered on, it wasn’t particularly leering, and Linda Park projected just the right mix of embarrassment and acute annoyance. Were I in a mood to object, I’d object far more to the fact that when Silik tortures T’Pol he strips her down to a tank top, whereas Reed’s later torture just involves getting smacked around a lot. That’s a significant double standard.

(Of course, that opinion is in no way shaded by the fact that I find Hoshi orders of magnitude more appealing visually than T’Pol. Not in the slightest. No, sirree.)

You tell ‘em, Tim.