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Microsoft’s “Mojave Experiment” is horribly misleading. Wil Shipley has some great thoughts on the matter: “The Mojave Experiment:” Bad Science, Bad Marketing.

I recently upgraded to Vista. I’ve avoided it like the plague since its initial release. I bought into a lot of the negative reviews, and they helped fuel my desire to stay away from Vista. But with a new laptop came the new OS and I figured I would give it a shot. After a couple of weeks of using it, I like it. It looks better than XP. I’ve found it to be more stable with the applications I use. I’ve found the OS to be more responsive (but I chalk that up to running it under better hardware). But it’s not without its problems.

I CAN HAZ SP1 PLZ? I tried upgrading my install of Windows Vista Home Premium to Vista Ultimate. I was told that I needed to upgrade to Vista Home Premium SP1 OR I’d have to reformat my laptop and install Vista Ultimate. I opted for the former. After downloading the 400+Mb manual install for SP1, I ran it. It processed for 15-20 minutes, restarted my system, and configured 3 stages of updates. After another reboot, I was able to log into my system only to find that SP1 did not install due to errors. My only option, now, is to do a fresh install of everything.

I CAN HAZ WIRELESS PLZ? I only had one hardware conflict: My D-LINK WBR-1310 wireless router wouldn’t work with my Dell Inspiron 1710 laptop. I could get the hard-wired connection to work fine, but nothing I tried worked. I ended up swapping routers with my mother-in-law – she had a pre-N D-LINK router – and it solved my problems. Everything else I had installed without any problems.

I’m sure, as I spend more time with Vista, I’ll find more things that bother me. I haven’t had enough problems with it yet to justify a downgrade, but that thought is looming in the back of my mind already. When I get some time, I’ll start from scratch on the laptop and get Ultimate on it. But for right now, I’ll deal with what I’ve got, which isn’t half bad at all.

I’m typing this from the Wordpress for iPhone app (http://iphone.wordpress.net). When I first heard about this app, I was excited. As good as some of the plugins are to make the WP admin more “iPhriendly”, they’re far from perfect. I think this app has a lot of potential, but it’s far from ideal. More

Today Mozilla officially released Firefox 3. If you haven’t grabbed it yet, what are you waiting for? These are some of the extensions that I now use:

• AnyColor - Currently available for the Windows version of Firefox 3 only, this add-on lets you shift the color/appearance of your current theme on the fly. It works really well with the default theme for Firefox 3 on Windows XP. I’m currently using the Dark preset.
• Better Gmail 2 - An excellent extension that allows users to get more out of Gmail. (Updated the link!)
• Color Management 0.4 - Though Firefox 3 has some support for color profiles out of the box, this add-on gives it the ability to read ICC color profiles embedded in images. (This hopefully translates to better and more consistent color fidelity in images on the web.)
• ColorZilla 1.9 - With the ability to sample colors from anything on a webpage, and the ability to grab color palettes from those sites, this is an invaluable add-on to have.
• Facebook Toolbar - If you use Facebook and Firefox, this toolbar is worth having. It notifies you when your friends post anything new, allows you to search contacts, see status updates and more all without visiting facebook.com.
• FaviconizeTab - I just recently started using this add-on, and I can’t see how I worked without it. If you’re like me, and keep several tabs open all day long, this extension allows you to right-click on tabs and turn them into just the favicon only. Not only does this save valuable screen real estate, it allows you some degree of privacy in that people looking over your shoulder won’t necessarily be able to see what’s in all of your open tabs.
• Firebug 1.2.0b3 - If you’re doing any sort of web design or development, you need to have this add-on installed. It’s an invaluable tool for debugging CSS/HTML, Javascript, and much, much more.
• Google Gears - Gears enables you to use compatible sites offline. Google Documents, Remember the Milk and many more sites support Gears, and I’d imagine more sites in the future will work with it as well.
• IE Tab - Another must have add-on for web designers/developers. Quickly toggle between Firefox and Internet Explorer rendering engines with Firefox itself.
• MeasureIt 0.3.8 - This ruler comes in handy when wanting to measure elements on a site, specific images and more.
• PicLens - PicLens lets you browse through photos on Flickr, videos on YouTube and more through an immersive 3D experience. The latest version has integrated Amazon “window shopping”, videos from MSNBC, ESPN and movie trailers and more…
• Prism for Firefox 0.2 - This add-on allows you to create stand-alone applications of websites you commonly use. I used it to create stand-alone versions of Basecamp, Gmail and gCalendar.
• ReloadEvery 3.0.0 - This simple add-on allows you to configure pages to be refreshed on a schedule you set. For example: If you use the web version of Twitter, you could set this extension to reload the page every 5 minutes.
• Web Developer 1.1.6 - Honestly, I don’t use this add-on all that often, but when I do - I’m glad I had it. Simple things like being able to disable all styles and resizing the browser window makes this add-on worth keeping around for me.

What add-ons/extensions are you using with Firefox 3 that you can’t live without? I’d love to know!

• AdBlock Plus
• GridFox
• HTML Validator
• Pearl Crescent Page Saver
• YSlow

The original post is now offline, but here’s the deal:

Just announced today, Google and Yahoo are entering into a partnership where Yahoo may offer Google paid search results as part of its search offering. As part of this agreement, we are agreeing to make our IM services interoperate. From the Yahoo press release:

In addition, Yahoo! and Google agreed to enable interoperability between their respective instant messaging services, bringing easier and broader communication to users.

PCWorld offered up 5 Reasons to Buy the iPhone 3G and I’m here to tell you why I won’t be buying into the hype. Before I go on, I should note that I own an 8GB iPod touch and use a Motorola E815 on the Alltel network. This article specifically addresses the points made in the PCWorld article. I recommend reading it first.

1. Price. Yeah, the price drops on the new iPhone are nice, but the rate plans suck. 3G service will now cost folks an additional $10/month. Nevermind the fact that everyone who’s already bought an iPhone and wants to upgrade will essentially need to break their contract and pay a penalty to get the latest and greatest. Oh, and did I mention there’s a two-year contract?
2. 3G Browsing Speed. Yes, 3G is faster than what the first-generation iPhone is capable of, but I’d imagine that for most people, the load times are tolerable. Also, the switch to 3G comes at a cost: According to reports, iPhone activation will now need to happen in-store.
3. Great International Support. Seriously? The only reason for this “push” is because iPhones are being unlocked everywhere.
4. Applications Galore. All of which can be had on the first-generation iPhone and iPod touch (for a $9.95 fee). The App Store is going to be a great thing for Apple mobile users, but it’s not something you HAVE to upgrade to 3G (or ditch your iPod touch) for.
5. iPhone: Still at the head of the Class. The iPhone is not the best phone out there. It still can’t record video. It can’t handle MMS. It promises the “real” web, but ignores popular plugins such as Flash which are a part of the “real” web and aren’t going away.

Where the iPhone gets things right is that it puts things together in a nice, user-friendly package, but nothing about it is truly groundbreaking. Upcoming smartphones, such as the Blackberry Thunder, Samsung Instinct or Omnia, or the HTC Touch Diamond will do more, offer greater expansion capabilities, better quality camera optics and much, much more.

I love Apple products but there just isn’t enough of a difference in the new iPhone to make me run out and buy it on July 11.

One of my biggest complaints with Twitter is that users were left in the dark when the site was having problems. That’s changed. Twitter’s more transparent than ever.

Recently Techcrunch asked Twitter several questions regarding their infrastructure, policies and more (Hey Twitter I Have A Few Questions Too). Twitter answered back with “It’s not rocket science, but it’s our work.“. In their response, Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone answer each of TC’s questions honestly and directly. As TC put it: “Twitter continues to be annoyingly and constructively responsive to criticism. They respond to this post here, saying “We’re working on a better architecture.” Kind of takes the air out of the balloon when you can’t get them riled up.”

Twitter is now serving as the model for transparency. Yes, they’re experiencing growing pains, but they’ve learned from their mistakes and are embracing the idea that the more they let users know, the more understanding they’ll be. Other companies should take note.

Fresh from the Adobe Labs comes betas for Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 and Adobe Fireworks CS4. It should be noted that if you’ve been using CS3, there is a new unified interface that’ll be appearing in CS4 that may take some getting used to.

Also, if you tested the Photoshop CS3 beta when it was released, I can’t stress enough that you should not install this software on a machine that is mission critical for your business. This is beta software. It may have problems. It may cause difficulties if you decide to upgrade to CS4 when it’s released.

Caveat emptor.

Recently I started an experiment on Twitter. I know that I’m not the only web/design geek in the area, so I decided to use Twitter to get to know some folks in the area. Using Twitter’s people search, I looked for people in and around Augusta, GA. The result? I’m not alone, and while Twitter use in and around Augusta is next to null, there are some pretty interesting folks that I’m glad I decided to follow.

What next? Well, my hope is that Twitter will grow in popularity in the area and it’ll be a means to growing a real life social network/community here in the area. Right now the tech/creative community is rather fragmented and the only organization that caters (sort of) to us is the Augusta Advertising Federation. Its focus tends to be more traditional media-centric. There is also the newly formed Augusta Developers Guild, but it’s focusing more on Software Developers/Programmers.

UPDATE: IE8 Beta 1 is now available for download. I’d recommend installing Virtual PC and then grabbing the latest Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image (Virtual Hard Disk Image for testing websites on IE on Windows XP SP2). That way you can conduct browser testing in a more controlled environment, as opposed to eradicating your local install of IE6 or IE7…

Some people will say Microsoft caved; others, that they listened to public opinion; some may even buy the company’s own explanation, which is that, given a company-wide reorientation away from proprietary winner-take-all competitiveness and toward interoperability, “web standards by default” takes precedence over “supporting all those badly made websites that were created specifically to work in IE.” Jeffrey Zeldman

Did Microsoft cave, or did it see the light? It’s hard to imagine a company as large as Microsoft “getting it” all of a sudden, but stranger things have happened. Zeldman’s post gathers many of the arguments for and against IE8’s proposed version targeting. It’s definitely worth a read. I for one am glad that Microsoft has chosen to go the more difficult route and support standards first.

If you’re (still) having problems getting Adobe Creative Suite 3 installed, there’s hope. Adobe’s setup a toll-free number - 1-800-642-3623 - devoted to assisting customers with any installation issues they might have with CS3. You can also check out the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Support site for updated information.