Why am I testing it now? When there have been betas of firefox 3 out for weeks now? Well I thought it would be a good opportunity to perhaps show some of the early features as they start to appear and (hopefully) the version a few weeks on should be a little less "buggy" and a bit easier to review.

So what are the differences between the current stable V2 and the new V3? Well there has been a lot of talk about the "native" interface Firefox is going to adopt. And to be fair, it is a welcome addition as users of Vista will probably testify, Firefox doesn’t fit in with the OS at all. It has similar problems in linux with almost looking like it was shoe-horned into the UI. But it is important not to miss the point with Firefox - there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes too.

One of the problems the Mozilla team are addressing is the huge amounts of memory, on occasion, Firefox consumes. If you leave it running for hours and hours, it’s footprint will grow and grow. There were also mentions of memory leaks - more prevalent in Firefox 1.0, but still visible in Firefox 2.0 and because of this the odd crash is kind of expected. Even though the team don’t really admit to memory leaks, I’m sure there will be less come the final release.

Quite a quick post this one (which is testament to how easy it is) to show you how to share your iTunes library over the internet, without any complicated SSH tunnels, or port forwarding or anything - but still have it secure. Also, this method allows multiple remote connections with ease (as long as the computer hosting the iTunes library has enough upload bandwidth, of course.) How?

First things first, share your iTunes library on the host machine. Edit preferences, Sharing, Share My Library Over My Local Network (ticked.) Secondly - obviously - make sure you have iTunes installed on your work PC, or any other PC you want access to your iTunes library. And the second to last step - install Hamachi (google it) on both computers. Turn on Hamachi on both machines - create a new network on the host machine & connect to it using the client machine. Start iTunes on both PCs and bingo! You can even play protected content, just by authorising your works PC. Simplicity itself!

It appears that a meeting between the broadband industry and ministers is being held to discuss the reasons why and how the UK has found itself lagging behind in the high-speed network game. Whereas other countries in the US & Europe are seeing significant increases in bandwidth, the UK ISPs are having trouble just providing it’s current service to it’s customers.

The maximum speeds being quoted are 24 Meg from BT by 2011 & 50 Meg from Virgin by the end of the year (a bold move, considering it’s maximum is 25 Meg at the moment.) As the maximum bandwidth of ADSL2+ is 24 Meg, it seems as though our current copper lines will not be seeing any significant increases over the next few years. And as companies in the US like Verizon are investing billions of dollars into their fibre network, with a maximum of 100 Meg, it requires the UK to seriously invest in our online future now before we slip too far behind. [SHOW ME]

In a much anticipated move, AMD has announced that the Phenom processor is available today for sale. Also, in another announcement, in partnership with the ATI section of the company, the new Spider motherboard platform has also been announced.

The Phenom has 4 cores and comes in either 2.2Ghz or 2.3Ghz flavours initially. It requires the AM2+ socket to really be used to it’s potential, but can also be used with the current AM2 socket - for compatibility reasons - it just means not all of the chip’s new features are available. The Phenom is the first true quad core chip available to the home market. The cores are all on the same die. Intel’s current quad core chips are essentially two dual cores hard-wired together, so there is potential for the chip to not run as smoothly or with the same performance as a true quad core. If AMD have also manufactured this chip to the same standards then the raw speed is probably not going to be a telling factor as to the real-world speed on the desktop. I await some benchmarks on both high-end chips!!

Also announced was the Spider platform. A motherboard chipset and design ethos that incorporates the new quad core CPUs, up to 4 graphics cards - in CrossFire mode - incorporating the new Radeon HD GPU and the new 7 series chipset. All wrapped up into one package, this will be a very formidable gaming platform, and has been quoted by AMD as being a very stable and highly optimised PC Desktop system. [SHOW ME]

The conception of the transistor 60 years ago ear-marked the creation of the modern technology we see today. Without the transistor we wouldn’t have computers, aircraft, space shuttles or even toasters. This article by the BBC gives a slideshow view of the last 60 years of technology evolution - all thanks to the transistor. [SHOW ME]

Do you want to know the extent to the problems the human race is causing to Mother Earth? Well, you’re in luck - it seems poodwaddle have created the solution to our inquisitive nature, with EarthClock.. [SHOW ME]

As reported by the BBC, the Freeplay Foundation - the organisation responsible for distributing the wind-up radio throughout Africa - is currently producing prototypes to light African homes with wind-up power.

According to Freeplay, more than 500 million people in the lower half of Africa don’t have access to electricity. And those people tend to spend a large proportion of their families income on alternative sources to provide them with light during the darkness hours. The new technology will create a real solution to those people, and enable millions of others to see the light. It’s always been the case that the African countries want to work themselves out of poverty, without foreign aid, and maybe this will be another small step with technology’s help, to enabling those people to improve their lives. [SHOW ME]

A lot of people have asked me - why does my 40Gb hard drive, when formatted only show 38Gb? And I normally explain that hardware manufacturers don’t use the same Gigabyte that the rest of the world uses. They make certain assumptions about a Megabyte or a Gigabyte that aren’t true. But to say Seagate have actually mislead the public, sounds a little harsh. I think, in Seagate’s defense, that they were really only trying to keep things un-complicated for the end user. After all, it’s easier to say "Can I have a 200Gb drive please?" rather than "Can I have a 190.7Gb drive please?" Seagate rounded up to inflate their product, but the rounding is there because that’s how we communicate with each other - the whole numbers being more important than the fractions.

Getting back to the story, however, Seagate have been found to be misleading customers with their claims of storage sizes and are now being asked to pay damages to the customers - on 6.2 million hard drive sales!! Seagate are offering either a cash refund (which equates to 5% of the original cost - according to court documents), or free backup & restore software. However, as you have to provide evidence that you bought it & where, including receipts, there are going to be virtually no claims as far as I can see. It does however send a wake-up call to Seagate and any other manufacturers that they make sure they don’t over-inflate their capacities. This can only be good for me - people will no longer ask me why the capacity is different in windows.. [SHOW ME]

During a pretty normal day I was taken down a path on the web and wasn’t quite sure how I got where I did. I found myself at a company called "Qinetiq" who seem to be a bit of an innovator in the defense market and more besides. After flicking through a few products I noticed the x-net system. It’s like a spike strip, used by the police & the military, to stop vehicles. However this one causes minimal damage to the vehicle. They also have what they call a X-Tend system available for it that will allow remote operation. The link is a video of the X-Net in action! Cool stuff indeed. [SHOW ME]