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Firefox 1.5 Beta Released

The first beta version of Firefox 1.5 was released today. Formerly known as ‘Deerpark’ (which is the name of the street where my family lived when I was a kid), it adds several new and improved features, but still lacks that ‘native’ look and feel on OS X. Still, this version is faster on my G5 than any of the previous versions, so it’s definately an improvement. As soon as it becomes a native aqua app, it will become my default browser again.

BTW, the Contextile plugin works fine in 1.5 beta 1.

Netgear WG311 on an older PowerMac G4

I finally got a wireless adapter to work in my wife’s G4 (running OS X 10.3.7).

The Netgear WG311 with drivers from OrangeWare works like a charm.

New office

My new office is almost set up. New desk, new shelves, and a new chair. Like everything else in our house, it’s a work in progress.

Today the kitchen floor was completed (we laid ceramic tile) and the foyer is next on the list which will hopefully be finished by Saturday. After that, I suspect life will return to a somewhat ‘normal’ state, which is all I really want anymore.

I’m finally working on my Mac again, but trying to set my wife’s older G4 up with a wireless adapter has proven more difficult that I at first imagined. None of the USB or PCI adapters claim to work with anything other than Windows. A quick search, however turned up this Mac OS wireless adapter compatibility list which has been a great help. Tomorrow I’ll get down to the store and see if I can find an adapter from the list. Either that, or I’m going to have to run a seriously long cable which I really don’t want to do. I hate cables.

I also hate carpet.

New Rails Book

I finally got the print copy of the new Ruby on Rails book, ‘Agile Web Development with Rails’ from the Pragmatic Programmers.

While I was on vacation, I nerded it up quite heavily by reading all of ‘Programming Ruby’ (which was the best technical book I’ve ever read), and the new Rails title promises to be just as good.

Even though I’ve already been developing with RoR for a while now, there’s nothing like a good book to use as a reference tool, or just to sit down and relax with. Seriously, I read technical books as if they were novels.

Moved

I’m moved. Into a new house, that is. I’m still working off an old laptop (running Windows, no less) because I don’t have my office set up yet. But at least I can check my mail now.