Blog Yellek

TechCrunch has reported that the Firefox 2.0 beta is out. For those of you not aware Firefox is a web browser that replaces Internet Explorer and offers a number of features that make web browsing a much better experience. I’ve been using firefox for a while now and I particularly like the tabbed browsing as well as extensions like mouse gestures and performancing (which I’m using to write this blog post). Internet Explorer 7, the version being shipped with Windows Vista, is adopting some of these features but Firefox isn’t standing still.

The Firefox 2.0 beta adds features such as spell checking as well as many bug fixes and improved fake website detection (anti phishing). I’m going to try and install this tonight at home to see what the stability is like. Most extensions will need to be certified to work with the new version but in the meantime there is an extension called Nightly Tester Tools which will force Firefox 2.0 to recognise them so that they can be installed and tested.

As described in an article on InfoQ on JSR303, Jason Carreira (of XWork fame) has proposed a JSR to cover Java Bean validation. Having worked briefly with XWork validation (and contributed to Webwork/XWork in the past) I think that Jason is a good person to be leading this JSR although I hope that they take into account some of the work being done on validation in Grails which I really like. It will be interesting to see how this one pans out.

Daily Links : 1 links from del.icio.us :

Next delicious load : tomorrow, same place, same time !

Ever since I discovered podcasting earlier in the year I have been filling my head with the latest and greatest in the tech world, with the latest web 2.0 sites on Tech Crunch, with del.icio.us bookmarks, Riya photo face recognition, News Alloy RSS reader and keeping up with the latest in the Java and SOA world. Listening to the Gillmor Gang has kept me up to date with the attention/intention economy and with the rise of RSS whilst David Berlind and Dan Farber continue to rail against DRM in all its many forms. I listened to Blogger Con IV and became enamoured again with the vision of blogging.

All of this is great but I find myself something of a lone voice in being convinced of all of these things. Sometimes it gets lonely. I long for a chance to just sit down and geek out with someone else who is exposed and engaged with all of these trends. I long for that geek intellectual connection.

When I try and convince people of the benefits of all of this, when I promote this website, when I try and tell people how good RSS is I sometimes wonder what my motive is. Am I really interested in all this stuff for the possibilities it brings and the vistas it opens up or am I just selfishly promoting it to meet my own needs? Am I seeking to transform others to suit my needs? I wonder sometimes. I wonder if I have lost my perspective on life.

God you know me, you know my motives and you search my heart. You know my longing for connection, the same longing common to the desire for relationship you place in all of us. You know the desires and talents you placed within me and you know the purposes you have for my life. You know the perfect balance of all the things you have given me. Help me to keep this technology in harmony with all of the abundant life you have given me.