Firefox 4 RC is here…!!!

Mozilla released Firefox 4 (RC) on March 09, 2011 after a long journey which started off with Firefox 4 Beta 1 in mid 2010. After having fixed almost 8000 bugs since Firefox 4 Beta 1, this release candidate seems so much more stable, elegant, fast and light to use. I remember installing the Beta 6 and uninstalled it within a week. May be I was expecting too much. After that I have been waiting everyday for the next update, viewed the bug list regularly, canweshipyet.com, the twitter updates…. Ahh!! All’s well that ends well…

The key things that I liked most about Firefox 4 are the good use of screen realty (by removing the caption bar – no need for an addon now), much much faster startup times, faster graphics and page load, clean interface. I dont have a high end machine so the much talked about hardware acceleration is not for me to enjoy yet.

Well I would not mention Panorama and Sync much because I never use them. Not sure why Panorama button dissapeared from the toolbars somewhere after Beta 7..!? but I recently was made aware of Tab Previews – something you can enable from the about:config option in firefox. Just search for preview and am sure you will get it.

From beta 12, I can see a notable change in the tab height. It certainly has increased and the rounding of the corners have reduced. Looks much better now. I am not a big fan of rounding corners that much. May be Mozilla has taken some tips from IE 9RC. The tabs have also become a lot flatter now i.e. no shadows. It gives an illusion that the software is really light – something that Chrome did since the start.

It will be interesting to see how Mozilla goes ahead from here really. Firefox is due in July 2011 with Web Apps enabled – one much step forward in the browser world. We have come such a long way since using IE5 which just barely managed to work and Microsoft did not even bother complying to any standards. Those days were a bane for web developers since they had to understand how each CSS statement behaved in different browsers. Well, those days have gone. Microsoft had finally woken up and realised that just because they install IE on Windows, people will not use IE.

I have loved Mozilla Firefox since the day I first used it and still love it and I am sure there are millions more who do so. Congratulations to Mozilla on this release candidate!!!

Started to Snow!

I happened to peep out of the cold window… it was 24-Nov-2010… and I was startled to see everything WHITE… I may have never seen so much of this color before. Although it looks beautiful, it starts to get a bit painful when you start associating the sub zero temperatures to it… and start imagining how would it be when you would be out there…

It is my first snow fall… and it looks beautiful…

Beauty of English

Ever noticed… how deleting one word after the other in a sentence can lead to a nice story… I won’t tell you what the scene is:)…?? … ???

Here’s an example:
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Oh John please don’t touch me at all…!
Oh John please don’t touch me at…!
Oh John please don’t touch…!
Oh John please don’t…!
Oh John please…!
Oh John..!
Ohhh……!!!!!!!!!!

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Huh… hmmm

An Idea for a cleaner Mumbai

The Concern: Mumbai gets dirty everyday because of good & bad people with dirty habits. For me, the most affected areas are the Railway Stations of Mumbai.

We should be able to do something which will help keep Mumbai clean. The approach is not towards cleaning the place, because that’s too passive. The approach is not towards increasing the fine charged to mis-creants; that has a very short-term effect and also brings in corruption. The approach should be towards proactively stopping the mis-creants in such a way that it has a strong Short-term and Long-Term impact.

The Idea:

1. Senior Citizen Groups can be engaged to patrol the railway station premises and fine the miscreants. The fine can be increased, with a fixed percentage of the fine going to the welfare of the Senior Citizen Group. They would have a new purpose in their lives.

2. Occasionally, School & College students can be engaged in this activity. A child pointing out to you that spitting is bad, would put the miscreant to shame without any heated argument. On the other side, a child who stops bad deeds today, would himself stop doing it tomorrow.

3. Eunuchs can play a very vital role in this activity too. They are anyways considered to be out of the society. This should be good opportunity for them to involve themselves in Social activities and gain some good-will for themselves.

The idea is to create mixed groups of the above three categories of citizens and have them patrol the railway stations on frequent to rate basis. By doing this, we can reduce corruption, increase revenues generated through fine, educate children on keeping the vicinity clean, and much more.

Its time that control comes to the people, because I believe we can do it better than our representatives. Do send me your comments on this and let me know if you think this would work, flop, or even if you felt like laughing. I plan to send this across to the concerned authorities soon.

Holi-Day

Our first Holi after marriage…

The Sibling Theory

With the basic assumption that there are at least two siblings in the house –

The eldest in the house usually has an innocence attached to them. One can visibly notice the childhood alive in them. Their feelings are usually straight from the heart. You would see them as a carefree breed of people.

The younger sibling on the other hand, lacks innocence. If they try to, it would look as if they are being superficial. They tend to use their brains more than the heart. They do not portray a carefree image.

Disclaimer: The theory is a brainchild of all the spare time that Vidya and I have had in our earlier years together. If it matches your thoughts, then I would say - Great minds think alike.

…my dual wedding…

How many of us get a chance to get married twice on the very same day??? Well I did.. I must say I am so proud of this…

It was the most exciting day of my life… the most awaited day… and not to forget the anxiety, expectations, laughter and tears that come along with it…

So, 08-Feb-2009 it was for Vidya and me when we tied the knot after a long wait of more than 7 years… thats when we got married in Vidya’s custom… she comes from Tamil Nadu so… was fun… was the first time I was getting married and I did not know much what I was supposed to do or what I was actually doing… but it all went well… we were lucky to get the club house (in our society premises itself) for the morning wedding… so things happened pretty smoothly…

Once lunch was over at about 1:00 pm, it was time to go home and get ready for the second wedding… and that would be in the Goan style… I still managed to catch some sleep in between… got ready and off to St. John’s Church at about 4:30 pm… Vidya reached exactly at 5:30 pm, just when the mass started… After the wedding vows (I Do, I Do)… we were officially Man and Wife for the second time on the same day… How exciting…!!!

So thats the short story of  “… my dual wedding…”

By the way… thats one more benefit of an Inter-Caste marriage…

Hey and if you did not get to see the photos till now, do let me know.. will post them to you ASAP…

~ Allwyn  |  May the best happen to You