So I finally decided to try the latest stable build of Mozilla for OS X, and it's a love/hate relationship. Love because it's just as fast as IE, at least for me, and I really dig the tabbed browsing - you can have multiple pages open in only one browser window, instead of a browser window for each page. A much better implementation than IE's PageHolder.

Hate because when I option-click on a link, I want that file downloaded immediately, just like in IE. Instead, Mozilla opens an Open/Save dialog box, asking me where to put it. Maybe it's a preference thing I have yet to discover. And it royally hoses my site when viewing, moving all of the right-side stuff to the bottom. Likely an HTML/CSS bug in the code that Movable Type is generating, so a bug in Mozilla's rendering engine. I don't know yet. Looks like it's back to the drawing board code-wise to figure out how to get proper rendering in both major browsers. The site redesign continues. . .

Passing without fanfare, mainly because Apple didn't say anything, was the iMac's fourth birthday yesterday. The original bondi blue all-in-one computer is credited with revitalizing Apple, and to date it ranks as the best-selling model of personal computer ever.

The O'Reilly Network has published a transcript of an awesome talk given by author Bruce Sterling at the recent O'Reilly Open Source Convention in July.

Did any one ever think that 24-hour news coverage might be a bad thing?

"[B]etween a kamikaze stock market, kidnapped children and battered bodies, fires and drought, the ever-present threat of terrorist attacks and carnage in the Middle East, it's increasingly hard to relax into the naïve belief that everything will work out. On top of all that, hormone replacement isn't good for us any more, they tell us. [My favorite bumper sticker: 'I'm out of estrogen and I have a gun.') I don't know whether to sign up for yoga classes or buy a gas mask. Buy or sell. Water the flowers or stockpile Dasani. Pray or buy an Uzi. So it goes with TMI Syndrome — too much information, which causes confusion, anxiety and an uncontrollable urge to make lists. I know I'm not alone, but I can't stop. Not like the obsessive compulsive who can't stop washing his hands, but like the opinion writer whose job demands 24/7 attention to horrible, mind-numbing news." —Kathleen Parker

Case in point: child abductions by strangers are actually on the decline, according to available statistics. It just seems like there are more and more cases of this nature because we are being inundated with stories of them.

So I have been jonesing for a pair of noise-canceling/reducing headphones for a while, for use when I fly and at the office, but didn't want to shell out 300 smackers for the pair from Bose or Sony.

Aiwa has a pair of noise-reducing headphones that are pretty cheap (saved $5 by picking them up at Best Buy), and have been working really well for me the past couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to our Hawai'ian vacation in October to try them out on a plane.

The Aiwa headphones are open-air, ie, they don't completely cover your ears, so you're not going to get total noise cancellation, but they have done an incredible job at killing all of the low-level hum of office life. I no longer hear my air purifier and the fans from the four G4s in my cube, not to mention the inevitable chatter that percolates throughout the day.

Now you can stream your music from your PC to your home stereo with this gadget from Slim Devices, Inc.. You no longer have to buy a large, noisy, 100-disc CD changer to have an unlimited supply of music at your disposal. Works with Mac OS X, Linux, and yes, Windows.

"Tradition is the manner in which we express a common understanding, a sense of community. Such are the very common joys of my small-town life. Joys that I remain very sensible about, for I know what it is to live in a community and to share common ideals. This sort of life is rooted in human interconnectedness in a way that much of American life has ceased to be." --Armstrong Williams

"In the popular culture, personal liberty is exulted over everything. Indeed, conventional notions of good guys and bad guys take a back seat to the all-important principle that the hero is the guy who won't take crap from anyone. Perhaps it was when Nietzsche pronounced God dead that so many decided to do His job themselves. Today, we are our own priests. Our truths are our own 'inner truths.' Our morality is bought retail." —Jonah Goldberg

Apple announced new Power Mac G4s this morning that break the gigahertz barrier. All models feature dual processors, and are available in 867 MHz, 1 GHz, and 1.25 GHz flavors.

The new G4s feature fast DDR SDRAM, and up to 2MB of DDR SRAM L3 cache per processor, which means the cache is capable of up to 4.6GB per second of transfer! The higher-end models feature a 167MHz system bus. Hard drives can be had in 60, 80, or 120 GB flavors. There's a headphone jack on the front of the system now, and there is an Apple speaker minijack for the optional Apple Pro Speakers, in addition to the normal stereo audio in/out minijacks.

Finally, the new G4s feature the ability to have dual optical drives, a longstanding request, though you lose the ability to have an internal Zip drive. This is a non-issue for me; when I bought my Cube, I had to go with an external Zip drive, and I cannot tell you the last time I actually used it. I mainly keep it around in case someone gives me something on a Zip. I do most of my file storage and passing around via CD, now that burners are up in the 40x range. So now you can have your SuperDrive and a Combo DVD/CD-RW drive both internal.

Check out the Power Mac pages for more details.

Apple is kicking the collective butt of the PC-building big boys, knocking off Dell, Gateway, HP, and Compaq in its technical support service, according to a new report from Consumer Reports.

The Yankee Group has released a new report, "The Desktop OS: Are There Real Alternatives to Microsoft?," which finds that interest in alternatives to Microsoft's client operating system is at the highest level in over a decade. The report states that both Linux and the Mac OS remain viable with healthy outlooks.

"Everyone is in favour of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage." —Winston Churchill

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but not everyone's opinion is right. And if you don't like my response to your opinion. . .tough cookies. Get over it.

Microsoft is at it again, complaining that it is complying with antitrust settlement terms while at the same time solidifying its position and continuing with business as usual.

For those who have not been paying attention, Microsoft's business as usual tends to be a bad thing: "But Rich Gray, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based lawyer who is closely following the trial, disagreed. 'Generally Microsoft's efforts to comply with the yet unapproved settlement agreement are really of no legal significance and are really only of PR value,' he said."

Oh, and: "A Gateway executive, during testimony, alleged that Microsoft was using the settlement change to strong-arm OEMs into more restrictive licensing terms. Hewlett-Packard and Sony also raised concerns about the licensing changes."

Again, for those who haven't been paying attention, this is the sort of thing that got Micro$oft in trouble in the first place. . .

"There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage." —John Witherspoon

One of my favorite movies, Ronin, is being developed into a TV series for cable station FX.

J.D. Zeik, who wrote the thinking man's action movie, will executive produce the series, along with producing partner, Paul Kelmenson. Zeik also writes and produces the series "Witchblade" on TNT. Too bad John Frankenheimer is not around to do the pilot. . . (Thanks, Kelly!)

Damien decided to document his working vacation.

"Now the networks would have us believe their new reality shows aspire to loftier ideals like romance and marriage. Perhaps no one watches these shows and takes them seriously. Maybe on a certain level it's easy to laugh because we know, don't we, that true relationships cannot be that plastic. We know, don't we, that true love is patient and kind and not boastful. All we have to do is tell this to several million youngsters who are now learning the opposite from 'reality' TV." —Brent Bozell

I have to agree with Brent. I have yet to sit through a so-called "reality" show that makes me want to care about anyone on it. Is it just me, or do most of the reality shows promote the worst in people, which may be more reality than we really want to see on television in the first place. . . ?

"For all the talk about corrupt CEOs who betray their stockholders, it's time we consider the problem of power-mad politicians who betray the voters. With or without criminal penalties for CEOs, the stock market is brutal in its propensity to punish companies with shady management. What means is there to punish governments with leaders who do everything contrary to what they promised in the election?" —Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Call or write your Congress-kritter regarding this horrendous legislation under consideration if you even remotely care about your fair-use and privacy rights. Dan Gillmor does a great job laying it all out.

Wendell Perkins, manager of the JohnsonFamily Value funds, picked Apple Computer as a good buy in the stock market, due in part "because it is the only innovative company in the personal computer sector." That sector includes Dell and Microsoft, boys and girls. Time to call your broker.

"Well, I'm here to end the debate and stop the fight. Simply, the Macintosh is the best computer built today -- bar none. I've used them both, and based upon personal experience, PCs running Windows XP can't hold a candle to the elegant user experience provided by a Macintosh running MacOS 9 or OSX."

A new project by Daniel Padua to map weblogs for better blogsearching. So, Google! DayPop! This is my blogchalk: English, United States, Dallas, Flower Mound, God, guns, Macs, Corgi, Pembroke, Macintosh, Mac, firearms, freedom, liberty, Christian! (Why this post? Seems the search engines don't automatically associate meta tags like they should for keyword mapping, but the above keywords will ensure that my blog gets properly indexed when they cache this page.)

I'm really getting tired of members of the tech community being punished when they point out system problems. Taking "shoot the messenger" to new heights, Harris County (home of the city of Houston) is prosecuting Stefan Puffer for his pointing out that the county's wireless network wasn't secure. Gee, you would think that protecting taxpayer-funded county resources would be a priority, wouldn't you?