Late yesterday the Mozilla Corporation released version 1.5 of the Firefox Browser just a little over a year after Firefox 1.0 was released. There are a number of notable new features (from the release notes):
- Automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of an update is more prominent, and updates to Firefox may now be half a megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved.
- Faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance.
- Drag and drop reordering for browser tabs.
- Improvements to popup blocking.
- Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut.
- Answers.com is added to the search engine list.
- Improvements to product usability including descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, RSS discovery, and “Safe Mode” experience.
- Better accessibility including support for DHTML accessibility and assistive technologies such as the Window-Eyes 5.5 beta screen reader for Microsoft Windows. Screen readers read aloud all available information in applications and documents or show the information on a Braille display, enabling blind and visually impaired users to use equivalent software functionality as their sighted peers.
- Report a broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in Firefox.
- Better support for Mac OS X (10.2 and greater) including profile migration from Safari and Mac Internet Explorer.
- New support for Web Standards including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6.
- Many security enhancements.
I know I’m probably about the millionth person to post about this, but if you’re using Firefox, this is definitely worth the update. And if you’re using Internet Explorer… why are you still using Internet Explorer???? Download it now.
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It looks like the big three (ABC, CBS, NBC) aren’t the only networks jumping on the internet delivered TV bandwagon. 
CBS and NBC announced separate ventures into the realm of on-demand TV delivery. So now, all three of the major networks (after ABC’s iTunes Music Store venture) have stuck their toes in to test the waters of a new delivery mechanism. The floodgates are far far from opening though at this point. Of the three, I still think ABC’s partnership with Apple is the best because it’s a tiny bit more flexible than the others. The two latest offerings by NBC and CBS aren’t available yet, but when they are (they’re starting early next year) you’ll need either DirecTV for NBC or Comcast cable for CBS. Yes, that’s right, you’ll need to pay for those shows twice since you’ll already be paying for DirecTV or Cable from Comcast. Plus to make things even more fun, they’re leavin’ in the commercials! So, after paying 99 cents, you get a show (the next morning after it airs) that you’re already paid for, and you cannot remove from your cable or satellite box, and given the way the big media companies have behaved in the past, it will probably disappear from your box in a week.
This is the part that gets the biggest WOW factor from guests. The HTPC controls every single light inside and outside the house, along with several other appliances. To do this I use a very old technology called “X10†that never really caught on in the mainstream. This is good, because now you can get X10 stuff super cheap from online retailers or ebay. Essentially, the computer has a data connection to the power outlet, and then can send and receive signals through your homes power lines. Then you just attach an X10 device to whatever you want to control (a light for example) and now the computer can talk to it. It can turn it on, turn it off, dim up, dim down, whatever. About a year ago I upgraded all of our lights to X10, and installed motion sensors all over the place. Using the motion sensors the computer actually tracks where you are in the house and where you might be going next and then uses a “fuzzy logic†to turn lights on BEFORE you walk into a room and turns them off after you leave the room. At first this seems a bit like simple motion controlled lights, but it’s actually very different. Since it’s all controlled through the computer you can script all sorts of commands and actions limited only by your imagination. For example, the computer can sense when a DVD is playing and then dim all the lights in the house off. Then it might disable the living room motion detector so you don’t trigger the lights by eating pizza or rolling over on the couch. Then it might watch for motion in the dining room (in our house it’s between the living room an the kitchen/bathroom). If it sees motion in the dining room (it is assuming you are going to the restroom or getting more food) it will pause the DVD and bring up the lights to 50% in the kitchen and bathroom. Then it can watch for motion in the dining room again (it is waiting for you to go back and watch the movie again) and when it sees motion it might wait 10 seconds (for you to sit down) then dim all the lights back down, rewind the DVD 15 seconds, and then resume play on the DVD. This all just happened without you ever even touching a button; you just got up and walked to the kitchen or restroom. I don’t use that script anymore because I like to have a little more control than that, but I’ve got all sorts of scripts set up for in the morning and at night and special circumstances. It doesn’t need to all be automated either, you can install X10 switches in the wall that activate whatever you want manually. For example, in our house there are a few buttons next to the front door. If you push one of them, the living room starts blasting my theme song (Ghetto Superstar). If you push another button on the wall, the living room starts blasting my fiancé’s theme song (It’s getting hot in here). It’s really dorky, but also pretty darn cool. Another thing I have the computer doing is monitoring 4 stocks that I have. Then I have 3 candles (electronic) and a fountain hooked up to the X10, and the computer turns on/off the respective candle/fountain depending if the particular stock is up/down. I use it as a passive way to monitor my stocks everyday simply by glancing at the candles and fountain. We’ve used the X10 in the past to control the crock-pot and coffee maker as well. It’s also fun to have the ability to VNC into the computer and control the lights. Are you at work and you need to get a hold of you fiancé? Is she sleeping in the bedroom with her phone off? No problem, VNC in from work and manually flash the bedroom lights on and off over and over again until she wakes up. ☺ Again, the amount of stuff you can do with this is limited only by your imagination. The computer software I use to do this is called Housebot and it’s technically owned by Meedio, however it was actually written by a guy named Scott and was acquired by Meedio a little over a year ago. Meedio hasn’t done anything with it since the purchase (besides adding “Meedio†to the name) so I can’t really give Meedio any credit for it. The original author (Scott a.k.a. Scottbot) is a major contributor to the Meedio help forums and has been a huge help to me with some problems I’ve had along the way. Scott’s a great guy.