Firefox never fails to disappoint

Don't get me wrong, since the first days of Netscape (and I mean when the icon was still an M instead of an N) I've been using it as my main browser (between it and Mosaic, it was an easy choice). But boy I cannot take it anymore, the Mozilla franchaise is just all hypes.

The fact is, Mozilla is slow. "Oh, because of the seperate Gecko Rendering Engine... which we will integrate into the browser binary..." With an integrated GRE and ridding of its HTML editor and mail reader, Firefox 1.0 promised to be the slimmer nimbler new born of the Mozilla browser. But it wasn't really any faster... especially on slower machines (version 2.0 takes 8 seconds to come up on my Pentium II, versus 3 seconds for my IE 6). Firefox 3.0 promised a memory trim down, numerous editorials hailed the triumph... sorry, still slower than its counterparts in all 5 of my PCs. Ironically version 3.5's tagline is speed... it takes a whopping 9 seconds to start (in safe mode!) on my C2D 1.6 Lenovo x61s. Pathetic (this article blames a bug, yeah, we'll see).

Disappointingly, Firefox lags in features, in every sort of ways. I've talked about its feature sets before. Version 3.5 introduces Private Browsing, a moderately good idea, but Chrome and IE have already done it. Look under the hood, you realize it's still about copying other people's work. For example, it's messaging infrastructure - XPCOM - is really a copy cat of Microsoft's DCOM, just download the source and see for yourself.

I do like Firefox's ability to let me customize it; which is not found in any other browsers. But with its sluggish performance and incompatibility of many web pages out there (authors of those pages to blame), I am seriously considering switching...

CAPS lock? Really?

I mean, really, who uses the Caps lock key nowadays on a computer keyboard. "Oh gee, I need to type EVERYTHING IN CAPS AND GOD FORBID I AIN'T GONNA USE THE SHIFT KEY" Really, that happens? Really?

And I don't have the foggiest idea what Scroll lock and Pause are for. Come on.

No where to anchor my boat

I am quite disappointed at Google map's search result. On several occasions recently it pointed to a location a number of miles off from where I wanted it to go. Take Dutch harbor for example

View Larger Map

Now where am I supposed to anchor my ship if it is in the middle of the water? Since Microsoft has been running lots of commercials about Bing, I went over a tried, and I got a better result...

I am starting to wonder if I should switch search engine.

The last phone call

It was 1am when the phone rang and when Josh picked it up, he couldn't believe it. It was dad.

"Josh, I don't have a lot of time. I have to go. They have offered me a new live." He was obviously choking up but trying hard not to sound that way.

"Dad, are you alright? Where are you, I want to see you. I want to see you again." Josh missed his father. They had always been close since his mother died when he was just a little kid. Being a single parent was no easy task, but he did everything possible. Even when he had to work late, he'd wake up early next morning to fix breakfast and lunch for Josh. He always made sure he had his milk and something fresh in his lunch box everyday.

"Don't worry, they are very nice to me here. But I have to go. I want you to take good care of yourself, and be strong, OK? You are the only thing I care about in this world..."

Dad had taught him how to be strong, not as much with words as by example. Standing up to injustice, defending the weak, he had always been his hero since he was a little boy.

"Dad, I want to see you, I want to come to see you, I don't understand, I love you, I want to see you again?" Seeing dad working hard and taking care of him well, he had always hoped to repay him one day. Now Josh had graduated and had a job, but that hope would never be fulfilled.

"Son, I love you more than anything in the entire world. But I have to go. Take good care of yourself. Goodbye." dad said before the call disconnected.

Josh bursted into tears. His facial muscle contorted uncontrollably. He didn't get to say all the things he had wanted to say in the call, but we was grateful for the one last chance to say goodbye; something he didn't get to say before his father died in a car accident one month before.

Honey bees are disappearing all over the world

Good evening,

The world honey bee population is shrinking at an alarming rate, experts and scientists who puzzle over the phenomenon warn. Termed Colony Collapse Disorder, the leading theory of cause points to an infectious disease even though no conclusive evidence has been found.

In other news tonight, Prof. Phil Antik, an archaeologist from the University of Jupiter announced he had discovered the cause of extinction of the homosapiens. Commonly known as human beings who once roamed the planet earth thousands of years ago, they are now believed to have died out of hunger from an alien invasion. "The humans picked their food grain by grain in the fields all day long and then store them in these units called barns, while aliens from outer space just came and scooped everything away from them on a regular basis..." Antik says, likening the practice to bee farmers ripping off their unsuspecting winged laborers.

In sports... nah, who cares about sports news.

Apple's chief, sarcasm or not?

I just discovered this Time article where Apple's Steve Jobs reportedly described the Segway as something as big a deal as the PC. If he was being sarcastic, ha, that would have been a good one.

I can't run in my dream

A couple nights ago, in my dream, I tried to run home, and I couldn't. I tried to pick up pace, but something was weighing me down. I remembered that happening, in my other dreams, but it didn't occur to me that I was in a dream at that time.

It's strange that that happened. What could have caused that? My brain could not generate new surround images fast enough? Or that I am really so out of shape my muscles were sending signals back that running was not possible?