Power Efficient Web Browsers
Microsoft ran browser benchmarks with a very interesting idea: testing the impact on battery life:
Browsers play a significant and important role in overall power consumption. The more efficiently a browser uses power the longer the battery will last in a mobile device, the lower the electricity costs, and the smaller the environment impact.
No doubt the fact that IE does so well is unsurprising given that Microsoft ran the tests, but the post is still worth taking note of for its insights into the other major browsers and for introducing the concept itself, which seems like a reasonable test in an increasingly mobile computing world.
The Times' Spring Cleaning: Books Stay, What of Papers?
The Times reviews those potentially outdated “gadgets” one may be able to do away with, finishing with a well argued point about books:
Keep them (with one exception). Yes, e-readers are amazing, and yes, they will probably become a more dominant reading platform over time, but consider this about a book: It has a terrific, high-resolution display. It is pretty durable; you could get it a little wet and all would not be lost. It has tremendous battery life. It is often inexpensive enough that, if you misplaced it, you would not be too upset. You can even borrow them free at sites called libraries.
Well said. Too bad the Times fails to include newspapers in the list of technologies that can be increasingly replaced by superior electronic alternatives. Maybe that's because their own electronic alternative is absurdly priced.
A Glimpse Inside Fukushima Daiichi
National Geographic has posted a really eerie set of photos showing the “Fukushima 50” doing their unenviable work trying to save Japan from a complete meltdown. Amazing.
Firefox 4
Somehow the Firefox 4 launch feels less significant than the Firefox 3 one. Not only have fewer people downloaded it so far (by about half — four million so far), but WebKit browsers have managed to wrest away much of Firefox's mindshare. If I want an innovative browser today, I look to the latest Safari and Chrome, not to Firefox.
Nevertheless, while Safari is my browser of choice, Firefox remains my personal recommendation for a browser for Windows users. I have not yet been sold on Safari for Windows and I think Chrome's user interface is still less than ideal. What I like about Firefox 4 is that it gives me something to recommend to my clients that keeps that familiar, friendly user interface without compromise.
That's a good thing.
Last Year's Asisaid Stock Tip
I wrote on March 12, 2010:
With that in mind, and with full disclosure that I am an AAPL shareholder, let me suggest that I think $250/share is not an unrealistic price target within the next three to six months.
Apple closed today 345.43, down 8.13.
U-verse Issues
Andrew Robinson on the “plus sides” of AT&T U-verse:
On the plus side, I watch a lot less TV, spend less time on the phone and am forced to take breaks from my various online duties from time to time, so it's not all bad I suppose. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way, maybe it's not that AT&T U-verse is the entertainment equivalent of swine flu; maybe it's that AT&T wants to make sure its customers have time for their other hobbies like reading or enjoying a real sunset instead of watching one on Sunrise Earth on Discovery HD.
I missed this review when it was published last year and it has a few technical errors in it, but it gets to my long time thesis: cable is not worse than the alternatives. Cable just has worse PR.
Xoom, Xoom, Xoom
Verizon has loaned me a Motorola Xoom to review. So far, Honeycomb is a massive improvement over Samsung's tweaked Android 2.x that is used on the Galaxy Tab. As I work through testing, the big question will be this: does the Xoom offer anything compelling that is not offered on the iPad?
The jury is still out.
Romeo and Juliet in a Nutshell
Andy Griffith explains the plot of Romeo and Juliet to a young Ron Howard in this clip from the Andy Griffith Show:
You can change the name of a rose but you can't do nuthin 'bout the smell.
Chrislam
Google that word and you will discover dozens of blog articles hailing the approaching end times, noting how people like Rick Warren are now pushing for a merger of Christianity and Islam. Reading even one of these reveals the poorest of justifications for saying Warren has “embraced Chrislam.” I am no Warren fan, but any Christian who writes such junk should be ashamed.
But, if fallacious argumentation is not enough to demonstrate the flaws of these “reports,” maybe plagerism will do the trick. All of the content I have found seems to originate from a pseudo-journalist named Paul L. Williams. The posts seem to be minor variations of each other, using the same words — and even the same church sign picture. Also note that all of them talk about the same events happening “this week” despite being posted anywhere between November and this week.
This smells more of an email urban legend than news. Yet this misinformation is being passed around as news and people will take it as such. Even when we disagree with people, we must reject spreading mistruths, no matter how perfectly they may confirm our biases.
To do otherwise is sin.
UPDATE: My friend Ed Hurst notes that the Chrislam church sign accompanying such posts was fabricated using a church sign making site.
