Firefox 3 - Beta 2

For the last two days I have been running Beta 2 of Firefox 3. Looks-wise it is almost identical to Firefox 2. Everything (with 1 exception) works the same as before and I don't notice any difference between the two. The only thing is that it feels a bit faster, but, nothing measurable just a feel of faster. The only problem area is Yahoo mail in that it has problems reading my mail, but, I can always go back to version 2. When I get time I will log the whole session and pass the info to the development team for them to review.

The Java based game Runescape works without a problem. I will be trying out a number of other sites and see how it works.

If you want more information you can read MozillaZine.

Spams and Scams

After 2 1/2 years of tracking my email, spam and scams are still show up in my inbasket. No matter what the 'experts' tell us, the spammers will always find a way around their anti-spam routines. Scammers are doing just as well and their messages are getting harder to distinguish from the legit email.

Current spam stats are:

2005 - Legit 50%, spam 50%

2006 - Legit 22%, spam 78%

2007 - Legit 32%, spam 68%


If you get a note from your bank or financial institution asking you to log in for any reason to do some sort of update or verify the 'unusual activity' do not ever click on that link. Your banks or financial institutions will never use that method to inform you of the need to update or verify suspicious activities. Delete the note immediately.

If your ISP offers spam filters make use of them. Our ISP offers it andwe get maybe 1 or 2 spams that make it through the filters. When they do get through I flag the message so that our ISP can improve their filtering.

I also note the spam contents for the business using those services. If it is a company that I know I send that company a short note letting them know that they will not be getting my business in the future. If you get one from a company you know hit them where it hurts... their income by taking your business elsewhere and let them know why!

It is mostly Plug and Play

I have been doing a lot of playing around with my new Canon digital camera. I bought a new toy to go with it. It takes the SD card and makes it into a USB memory stick. I took out the photos from the wedding and plugged it into my Linux box. Within several seconds it recognized the new hardware and I had a window open in DigiKam and transferring over 800 megs of photos. I like the new hardware as it allows me to show people the photos without plugging in the camera to their machine (I normally don't bring the USB cable when taking pictures). The other nice thing is that I don't have to use the camera and wear out the batteries while viewing the photos.

DigiKam is a nice package and I have been using it for about a month. I have been moving my pictures into it and making suitable backups. Burning CDs is a simple option and it simplifies my task rather than using several programs for the tasks.