After being on life support for many many years, AOL has finally killed the web browser that started them all. AOL is pulling the plug on Netscape. There really hasn’t been much of a flutter from the browser for quite some time, and not it is officially done. AOL will be cutting off support in Feb ‘08. It has been near death for quite some time with AOL disbanding their browser division again and again over the years just to release another (sad) version of the browser. The death nells began playing when Netscape sold to AOL back in 1999. The browser had a great history and thankfully the code was open-sourced and became the wonderful Firefox browser. Even though Netscape hasn’t been a player for a long long time, and AOL basically ran it into the ground quickly after purchasing it, it’s sad to see one of the big reasons the internet took off be put to rest.

R.I.P. Netscape Navigator 1994-2008

I received some new Mentos the other night from a few new Mentos Ambassadors (Ambassador Kilgore and Ambassador Brown). These Mentos came from China, so I’m going to have to guess on some of the flavors (because I don’t speak or read Chinese). One was a double-wrapped roll of lime mint which I have seen before. The other two were unique to my collection. One was a small box with a picture of a lime, an orange, and a grapefruit on the front with some some Chinese writing. I’m guessing these are just regular size Mentos in a smaller box. The last one was probably the most unique. It arrived in what looked like a vitamin jar. I think these one are gum with some sort of gooey center judging by the picture on the front. Again, it is hard to tell because there isn’t any english writing on these.

Um… wow!

Flickr (the lovely photo editing site), has just launched a new editing feature. Now, by just clicking the small edit button above a photo, you can make minor adjustments to any of the pictures in your Flickr account. Flickr announced a partnership with Picnik regarding this technology back in October, and have just recently integrated these tools into the site. The Picnik system is actually pretty cool considering that all the editing is browser-based. Now don’t get me wrong, this is no Photoshop. It does give you the ability to do some nice quick adjustments from right inside of Flickr for those times when you don’t have an image editing program with you, or don’t want to take the time to fire up Photoshop just to crop a photo. It is a handy tool in the Flickr arsenal that I know I’ll be taking advantage of.

The main editing features include:

• Auto-fix - think of it as Google’s “I’m feeling lucky” for your photos
• Rotate - rotate your photos
• Crop - crop images
• Resize - resize your photos
  
• Exposure - adjust the exposure on your photos
• Colors - adjust colors and saturation
• Sharpen - sharpen your photos
  
• Red-eye - red-eye removal tool
• Other Create Presets - black and white, sepia, pencil sketch etc.

Another shipment of Japanese Mentos arrived a few weeks ago from Mentos Ambassador Roth (they’re really working their way up the Mentos Ambassador chain!). The package included four rolls both with “N’Cream” written in the area where you usually see the flavor printed. They don’t really say a fruit on them, but the red one has a picture of a strawberry, and the green one has what I think it a picture of a melon. I haven’t tried either of these yet, but plan on giving one a try soon. My guess is they taste similar to the yogurt and fruit flavors I’ve tried before. Anyway, kudos to Mentos Ambassador Roth for finding another untried flavor!