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Mozilla releases Firefox 1.5 on schedule – Computerworld

Ask a question, find an answer: the delta for the new version of Firefox according to the IDG News Service:

"For Internet Explorer (IE) users who haven’t made the leap to Firefox, version 1.5 includes a wizard that allows users to report Web sites that don’t work in Mozilla’s browser so developers can ensure sites working in IE also work in Firefox. The new version also includes more descriptive error-message pages and a redesigned Options/Preferences window that increases the number of category icons and moves them from the left side of the window to the top. Other new features in the browser include an automatic software update mechanism, faster navigation using the "Back" and "Forward" tabs, and the ability for users to drag and drop browser tabs for reordering. Developers also have fortified Firefox 1.5 with new support for Web standards, adding support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), JavaScript 1.6 and new versions of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). SVG is a language based on XML (Extensible Markup Language) for writing sophisticated two-dimensional graphics, and JavaScript 1.6 is the latest version of the scripting language. CSS is a W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standard for adding style elements, such as fonts, colors and spacing, to Web documents In addition, the Firefox update adds better pop-up blocking and a host of security enhancements, according to Mozilla. Other new features include the addition of Answers.com to Firefox’s list of search engines and a Clear Private Data function that allows users to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut."

I am such a lemming when it comes to software upgrades and just upgraded Firefox to 1.5, blowing away some useful extensions in the process such as GreaseMonkey, the hyper-useful Omniture ClickMap plug in, and fireFTP which was growing on me as the best FTP client I’ve used since SmartFTP. Sigh. Ten minutes into 1.5 Firefox and I can’t see any shiny new toys and pine for my extensions.

venturewire exclusives

"In addition, Vibrant has had to deal with some negative feedback from journalists, who have said that connecting words in news articles to ads puts news and advertising too close together."

 

This is the dumbest play in online advertising — contextual ad words — the same system that was tried and dinged by Forbes. 

Eurekster Swicki Home

Colin Crawford sent a pointer to Swicki — as best as I can determine a collaborative search engine. So I fired up an account and built a "swicki" on saltwater fly fishing. Not having write access to my Reel-Time Flog (where it belongs), I lit it up in the sidebar of this Blog.

Not quite sure of the functionality, but I will read the FAQ and report back. 

A VC: VC Cliche of the Week: If You Must Dorecast, Do It Often

"a couple years ago Matt Blumberg and Jack Sinclair, CEO and CFO (now COO) of Return Path came to the Board with an interesting proposal.  They suggested that they develop an annual budget and four quarterly budgets.  And they suggested that at the end of each quarter, they develop a new quarterly budget for the next quarter and beyond, which is essentially a reforecast based on what happened in the current quarter.  The net of this was that we went to a rolling budget processs where there was a big budgeting effort at year end and a shorter one at the end of each quarter.

If you must forecast, do it often."

 An excellent posting by Fred Wilson on the difficulties inherent in financial forecasting. Forecasts can crush a technology company — there have been some famous forecasting debacles when companies have completely misread the market and been woefully undersupplied in the cast of unexpectedly hot products, or overstocked with dogs.

When I was consulting to Gartner I had the pleasure to work with Gartner Fellow, Ken McGee on his book, Head’s Up, an excellent discussion of forecasting that comes to the critical judgment that it is impossible to forecast the future, only to "predict the present." McGee’s advice, similar to Wilson’s, is that frequent assessments are better than impossibly long-distance views over the horizon.

Best in Gym – New York Times

 "The rowing machine, which has plummeted in popularity in the last 15 years, ranked a surprising second in our survey, tied with the treadmill. Several panelists argued that rowing machines are highly underrated; when used properly they offer a thorough workout of the major muscle groups, including the back, hips, arms and legs. But despite its advantages, rowing machines demand an intensity of effort that many exercisers find too challenging."

The Times is SO wrong about this one. Having logged about 5,000,000 meters on a Concept2 ergometer, I know of what I speak. Nothing, absolutely nothing, will kick your butt faster than a rowing machine. Then again, with health club trainers making the selection, one can see why they would pick the machine favored by dillitantes, the asine elliptical trainer. Ergs are for masochists, pure and simple. Want the best bang-for-your-exercise-buck? Then erg. And learn how to use it the right way.  SportsGeezer agrees

Pew Internet & American Life Project Report: Search engine use

"Search engine use shoots up in the past year and edges towards email as the primary internet application."

Thanks to Ulla McGee and Bruce McCurdy at PCWorld.com for the pointer. While there may be a bit of a "duh!" reaction to the insight that search engine usage is soaring — up 23% year to year — the takeaway is that email is no longer the vaunted "killer app."

Ross Mayfield’s Weblog: The End of Process

A brilliant post on the pernicious P-word, Process, which yields the wonderful quote from Clay Shirky: "Process is an embedded reaction to prior stupidity."

I offer my own, cribbed from a column from the old Industry Standard, author unknown as the @#$^@$% archives are nowhere to be found and are probably moldering somewhere on a server, unspidered and lost. Anyway, that column had the line: "Process is for people who get out of the shower to take a piss." 

"A process is like a standard. It provides a common definition for others to build upon. This is generally a good thing. In technical systems it helps resolve complexity so higher order abstractions can keep things simple. But even in technical systems, efficiency comes at a cost of adaptation. In social systems, especially where not everyone helps design what they participate in, the constraints against adaptation are compounded."

Over at Reel-Time we’ve long felt the pain of never having the scale or revenue to invest in the tools that big sites can afford. Most notably a decent traffic analysis package. Sure, there’s the usual freeware log-file analysis, but nothing approaching the sophistication of an Omniture Teamsite or Websidestory HitBox.

Last week Google introduced Google Analytics, granting access to AdSense publishers such as R-T. Our webmaster Mark Cahill performed the install by adding some footer code to the pages, and voila, a week later we have the first real stats for Reel-Time that we’ve had in ten years.

 And it cost nothing. Omniture and Hitbox which charge $0.09-$0.22 per thousand pages, are way out of the range of the little niche players.

 Needless to say, I am very happy, but in awe of Google’s ability to overnight put companies like Omniture and HitBox under the gun. 

Jim Forbes, one of the greatest characters in tech journalism (InfoWord, PCWeek, MacWeek, Demo) is blogging in his retirement.

Good stuff. 

anders.com: Lectures: 12 Byzantine Rulers

Previously I posted about the dearth of decent university lecture podcasts. This one, by SUNY professor Lars Brownsworth, is very good, at least to me, a Byzantine history geek.

Two episodes and I want the rest NOW.

I have a serious Byzantium-thing that dates back to the publication of John Julius Norwich’s epic tryptch in the late 90s. Since then I’ve devoured everything from Ostrogorski to Gibbon, Runciman to the few existing primary sources. If I had one dream in retirement it would be to get a doctorate in Byzantine history, specifically the Paleogus line.

There is a big opportunity for some shrew aggregator to get in front of the lecture-podcast movement and start making available some "real" lectures and not the watered-down  "continuing education" crap.

 So check out 12 Byzantine Rulers for a good example of what could be.

WSJ.com – Top Web Sites Build Up Ad Backlog, Raise Rates

"In 1999, there was no research and people were chasing fear and greed," says Greg Stuart, president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. "Now there’s good data, plus marketers with their own real experience."

 Always a risk trying to point behind the WSJ cost-wall. But here goes. Good piece on the sold-out situation in online, especially in the auto segment. Big takeaways — broadband is hot, hot, hot.

Welcome to BtoBOnline.com

"Michael Friedenberg What: President-CEO Where: CXO Media Why: Friedenberg spent years climbing the corporate ladder at CMP Media, eventually rising to senior VP-strategic customer development. In September he joined IDG’s CXO Media, which publishes CIO, CSO and CMO magazines."

PressThink: If I Didn’t Build it, They Wouldn’t Come: Citizen Journalism is Discovered (Alive) in Watertown, MA

"Around the same time, I discovered Universal Hub (which at the time was called Boston Common). Universal Hub collected snippets from a huge collection of Metro-Boston area blogs, providing one-stop shopping for the local blogosphere. Creator Adam Gaffin had an unfailingly good eye for the funniest pull quote out of every blog from every corner of the region. In a way, Baristanet and Universal Hub were opposites: Nearly every post on Baristanet was written by Galant, in her persona of The Barista of Bloomfield Avenue. Gaffin, by contrast, rarely wrote in his own voice at Universal Hub. H2otown ultimately ended up being a hybrid of these two different approaches."

Nice plug on Jay Rosen’s Pressthink blog for Networkworld’s online editor Adam Gaffin’s excellent citizens’ journalism site, UniversalHub.

Ziff Davis Media : Press Release

"The Enterprise Group’s online revenues, which also include results for the two Internet companies acquired during the fourth quarter of 2004, increased by 23% during the third quarter of 2005 versus prior year, driven by strong growth in online advertising, eSeminars and virtual trade shows. In addition, the Enterprise Group’s custom events business grew by 34% due to increased event activity, and its custom whitepaper business, which is a new business unit this year, added meaningful revenue for the third quarter ended September 30, 2005."

Rafat Ali acerbically notes: "Somebody needs to put Ziff Davis out of its misery…well, the print group, to be exact."

MediaPost Publications – Annals Of Integration: New York Times and Times Digital – 11/07/2005

Great progress report of the integration efforts between print and online at the NYT. 

TechCrunch » Insert Ads into Podcasts with Fruitcast

Thanks to Janice Brand for the pointer to this service that inserts 15 second audio ads into podcasts.

 We shall check it out.

Jon Udell: The many meanings of metadata

A great piece on the importance of tags and the need for flexibility therein. 

ABC News: Silicon Insider: Forbes Fumbles the Blogosphere

 Michael Malone … what a class act.

Memo to Microsoft: Make Vista a Web Service, Too – Sound Off – Blog – CIO

Hmm. Far-fetched? CIO’s Gary Beach open-letters Microsoft to throw Vista into the Open Source pool. This would be the 2005 equivalent of his 1995 Netscape internal memo.