Reprinted from TidBITS#809/12-Dec-05 with permission.
Copyright (C) 2005, TidBITS. All rights reserved.
http://www.tidbits.com/
MailBITS/12-Dec-05
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**Firefox 1.5 Released** -- The Mozilla Corporation has released
Firefox 1.5, the latest version of the popular open source
Web browser for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Important new features
include an automated update capability, improved navigation
performance, drag-and-drop reordering of tabs, improved
pop-up blocking, a one-step method of clearing private data,
more-descriptive error pages, automatic RSS discovery, better
accessibility, a wizard for reporting broken Web sites, enhanced
support for Mac OS X (including profile migration from Safari
and Internet Explorer), and numerous security enhancements.
Firefox 1.5 requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later and is a 9.4 MB
download.
Ironically after my article about simplifying installation in
TidBITS-807_, the Firefox disk image provides only graphical
instruction that's actively confusing. An arrow leads from
the Firefox icon itself to a smaller, greyed-out version of the
Firefox icon that is presumably being dragged, to judge from the
non-Mac-like pointer and + badge, and then to a greyed-out icon
that looks like the Applications folder. Unfortunately, it's all
representational - the Applications folder is just a picture,
and not a symbolic link, and there are no textual instructions
to clarify what to do. I've already heard of people not realizing
they had to copy the Firefox package and instead running it from
the disk image. Worse, the instructions on the Firefox Web site
say "double click the Firefox Disk Image to open it in Finder,
and then drag the Firefox application onto your hard disk.
Drag the icon to your Dock if you want it to appear there."
I'm sure there are people who will promptly drag the Firefox
icon from the disk image to the Dock, instead of copying it to
the Applications folder and then dragging the copied version's
icon to the Dock. Obviously, there's nothing all that hard here,
but that's no reason not to make it easier yet.
In comparison, applications that deserve kudos for using this
installation technique include Jim Matthews's Fetch (of course!),
James Thomson's PCalc, and Frank Reiff's A Better Finder Rename,
with extra points to Rainer Brockerhoff for using the technique
for his XRay utility since 2003. Some disk images don't force icon
view if the user has Open New Windows in Column View set in the
Finder preferences, which eliminates any graphical or textual help
that would otherwise appear. I'm not yet sure how to force icon
view in all situations. [ACE]
**SETI@home Moves to BOINC Client** -- If you're anything like me,
you don't pay much, if any, attention to SETI@home clients you may
have running on machines with CPU cycles to donate to the search
for extraterrestrial life. But Jim Carr, one of the top members
of the TidBITS SETI team, alerted me recently that the classic
SETI@home client is being turned off as of 15-Dec-05, and everyone
who wants to continue donating spare CPU cycles must move to the
new BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing)
client that supports not just SETI@home, but a variety of other
distributed computing projects. The SETI@home page has the
necessary instructions for downloading the latest BOINC client
and requesting your account information. Unfortunately, it's a
slightly obtuse process, and I wasn't able to convince BOINC to
attach to the SETI@home project, but the error message implied
temporary server problems (which the SETI@home folks have
mentioned on their news page). I recommend waiting a bit before
converting; either check the SETI@home site every so often to
see if they've resolved their technical difficulties or look for
another note in TidBITS. If you're new to the SETI@home project
and want to join the TidBITS team, follow the third link below
and click Join once there. [ACE]
**DealBITS Drawing: GarageSale Winners** -- Congratulations to
Doug Breckenridge of gmail.com, Peter Pinch of rcn.com, and
Simon Sunatori of hyperinfo.ca, whose entries were chosen
randomly in last week's DealBITS drawing and who each received
a copy of iwascoding.com's GarageSale 1.9. Even if you didn't
win, you can save 20 percent off the purchase price of GarageSale
by placing an order using the third link below; this offer is
open to all TidBITS readers through 22-Dec-05. If you're planning
to attend Macworld Expo in San Francisco next month, you can find
iwascoding.com and GarageSale at booth 948. Thanks to the 612
people who entered, and keep an eye out for future DealBITS
drawings! [ACE]
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