Tech Thursday on The Gist of It
As if there weren't enough nerds...
I've decided to devote this post to two applications that deserve all the recognition I can muster. Today being Thursday, I thought I'd be generous and give two unique thoughts for the price of one. Because I'm a nice guy, and all. And because I want this post to stay fresh for a few days.
Giving a whole new meaning to the phrase "they're watching you," the coolest new application around is Google Earth. You can move to any location on earth with the click of a button, and see beautiful detail of the Eiffel Tower, or the Golden Gate Bridge, or your ex-girlfriend's house (not that I'm encouraging that). I had so much fun pinpointing all the locations I had lived at or visited in the last two years: Grangeville Idaho, McMinnville Oregon, Thunder Bay Ontario, Santa Rosa, and my present location in Grass Valley Ca. It's so cool! You enter in an address and shoot off to that location in an instant. You can even enter in two locations and have Google Earth "drive" you from one place to another. The best part: The basic version is absolutely free! Frankly, I scratch my head at Google's marketing techniques. Maybe I'm ignorant to the whole "making money" thing, but most, if not all, of their software creations are offered at no cost, which seems detrimental to "making money." Google Desktop Search, Blogger, Hello, Picasa 2, Google Earth, are all free, and they are all wonderful pieces of software. Why pay $100 for Microsoft Digital Imaging Suite when you can get Picasa, a similar or better application, absolutely free? And why does Google offer them all for free? Is it to spread brand recognition? Are these lost leaders? I just don't understand. Someone please enlighten me. And while you're at it, downloa
d Google Earth.Now, my relationship with Firefox is a little different than my relationship with Google Earth. Whereas Google Earth was instantly admirable, and we fell into a comfortable rapport very quckly, Firefox has grown on me much more slowly. I have tried Firefox on various occassions in the past 2 years or so, and each time I ended up moving quickly back to Internet Explorer. To me, Firefox just seemed slower. When you load a web page, the images would first show up with the "x" logo (like in the dial-up days, *cold shiver*) and then load into the proper image. IE did not do that. There are two main trump cards for Firefox:
1. You want to use Firefox to stick it to the man (in this case, Microsoft)
2. You want better security (no support for ActiveX controls means less chance of someone hijacking your system or browser)
Number #1 is exciting for the older hippies and the newer anti-corporation generation. In their case, sticking it to the man is very edifying.
Number #2 is exciting for the nerds and the programmers, the online video gamers.
So what's in it for the layman?
It's gotta be the tabs.
Firefox has the ability to open many different web pages in one browser with tabs to differentiate them. And that's really cool. As I type in one tab, I have yahoo, the google earth homepage, my gmail account, and my blog all just one click away. Of course, Internet Explorer 7 promises tabbed browsing, and if that occurs, I will be forced to look anew at my browsing options. For now, I'm a Firefox guy. If you too wish to stick it to the man, or give tabbed browsing a try, click here.
This has been Tech Thursday on The Gist of It. Hopefully I won't be so uninspired that I have to do it again.
2. You want better security (no support for ActiveX controls means less chance of someone hijacking your system or browser)
Number #1 is exciting for the older hippies and the newer anti-corporation generation. In their case, sticking it to the man is very edifying.
Number #2 is exciting for the nerds and the programmers, the online video gamers.
So what's in it for the layman?
It's gotta be the tabs.
Firefox has the ability to open many different web pages in one browser with tabs to differentiate them. And that's really cool. As I type in one tab, I have yahoo, the google earth homepage, my gmail account, and my blog all just one click away. Of course, Internet Explorer 7 promises tabbed browsing, and if that occurs, I will be forced to look anew at my browsing options. For now, I'm a Firefox guy. If you too wish to stick it to the man, or give tabbed browsing a try, click here.
This has been Tech Thursday on The Gist of It. Hopefully I won't be so uninspired that I have to do it again.
posted by Team Kerbel @ 10:04 AM
6 Comments:
I just dL Google Earth too! INCREDIBLE!!!
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FF rules... GoodTimes..
Its all about the Tabs and Extensions.
i've been using firefox for over a year now. before that i used the mozilla suite, and i had a stint with opera. it's always been the tabbed browsing that got me the most. but...
did you know about customizable keywords? if you right-click a search field in any website, you can select a keyword to bookmark that search mechanism. for example, i went to amazon and set the search for 'z'. now, if i want to look something up at amazon, i just click in the address field of my browser and type 'z some_book_name_or_author' then click enter (without quotes). ZAM!! makes everything easy.
take that, explorer!
Google Earth is awesome. I love firefox because of the 'open new tab'feature. So much easier when you have one page open rather than opening a whole new window every time.
I like the tabs, mostly. Also Firefox seems to be most well-behaved browser there is, across all platforms even. I just wish it had spell-check the way Safari does.
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