Nifty Add-ons for Firefox and Your Bike

I can't believe we actually got a snow day without even any snow! I guess it was necessary to close down campus because roads were bound to get icy, but it sucks that we have to make up for it during dead days. Anyway, I ended up wasting an hour or two reading articles and playing around with Firefox, whereupon I came across this article with some real choice extensions. My favorite thing is FastFox, which really does make a difference, and it's cool to know how long pages take to load. I also changed my theme so that now when people see me browsing the web they'll really think I'm a dork. The IE tab extension is also really useful if you encounter sites that don't support Firefox *cough*MTV*cough*. My room mate pointed out BugMeNot to me, for which there is also a Firefox extension. The point of this site is to allow you to view articles at sites that require free registration without going through all the trouble. It's very useful and really sticks it to the man. The last part of the topic is weird, I know, but I just had to point out this bike charger for your iPod that generates power purely from your pedaling, and it operates just like a hand crank. It just looks really cool and creative. Hats off to that guy.

Out of the blue, we have some technical specifications for the Revolution today through the boys at IGN and, as I've mentioned before, rather than be a technological powerhouse, Nintendo has gone the affordable/profit-producing route with their console. While most of the numbers there won't impress you a couple will: the possible price of $150 or even $100. They're not out of the running yet, folks. The music industry just keeps slapping its fans around as it has now decided to start a more serious campaign than before against lyrics being available online by taking down one of the more prominent freeware applications: pearLyrics. The software simply searched lyric sites, but apparently consumers aren't allowed to know what the artists are actually singing. These people
really need to get a life (yes, more than me). There is some good news though: Real is starting up a web-based version of Rhapsody, which is a huge step against DRM since more labels are likely to go the streaming route rather than the controversial copy-protection route. Apple doesn't like DRM either (iTunes has to illicitly bypass it), so when will Sony give it a rest? Lastly, Microsoft has decided to throw more than a billion dollars at expanded operations in India, which will no doubt deter some computer scientists from the company. It's not necessarily outsourcing, but it's not going to make them look good to American workers either.

Many of my regulars know that I don't shy away from posting pictures of pretty ladies, and I thought I'd showcase Naomi Watts today since I keep putting up shots of King Kong rather than her. I think she has sort of an elegant beauty to her. Anyway, we also have a few shots from the third installment of Pirates of the Caribbean and a supposed sub-title of "Uncharted Waters", but that's more likely just hearsay. If you still need more pictures though, there are some new ones up for Superman Returns, but I didn't post any because many of them were down as of the time of this posting. The Batman rumor mill is churning out reports that Phillip Seymour Hoffman may be in the running to play the Penguin, which would be interesting, but I wonder where they're getting this stuff from? If you like independent films then you'll definitely want to look into This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which takes a look into how the MPAA produces its ratings, and has actually gotten an NC-17 itself but will show it uncensored and everything. The Clerks 2 site has some new video production entries up, and they're as strange and humorous as ever. Lastly, it looks like theaters are reacting to lagging sales by showing more ads before movies, which defies all logic to me. They're not going to attract more customers that way.

The only worthwhile meme today is QOTD II:

Through the use of a time machine, you are traveling back to the year 1850. You are allowed to take one, and only one, product or invention from the modern era. What would you take with you?
This is a pretty tough one, but I suppose I'd take a cell phone with me. You never know when you might use it.

Today is the anniversary of Pearl Harbor by the way, so please spent a moment in remembrance of those who lost their lives on that infamous day.