Meador Manor

On the Hunt for a Fast Browser

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Granger Meador

Safari Safari is fast…really fast. Recently I downloaded Apple’s Safari web browser for my Windows XP machine, and I’m surprised at how much I like it. Knowing that it would lack all of the nifty add-ons that I use with Firefox, I didn’t expect to like Safari. But its speed in loading and displaying web pages is quite impressive. The other striking thing about Safari is its font-smoothing technology, but I have mixed feelings about that.

Safari has the same tabbed browsing features as the latest Firefox and Internet Explorer releases and so far I haven’t noticed any problematic page displays. I do miss some of the Firefox add-ons, most notably thus far how AdBlock Plus can wipe out ads on web pages, how Googlepedia shows a related Wikipedia entry display on a Google search, and how Foxmarks keeps my bookmarks synchronized on multiple machines.

What I certainly don’t miss is Firefox’s glacial startup (worsened by the plethora of add-ons I’ve thrown in) and its more plodding display of various web pages. And don’t get me started on the hideous menu and toolbar system in Internet Explorer 7!

I’ll make good use of Safari on my laptop, since its slow hard disk and aging microprocessor will likely make the snappy Safari experience quite alluring. But those Firefox add-ons will likely keep drawing me back. I look forward to the release of Firefox 3, but I have a feeling Safari will retain the speed crown.

CNET has a good comparison of Safari and Firefox in the Windoze environment.

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The Last Grand Master has Died

Posted on March 18, 2008 by Granger Meador

We lost a true hero of science, engineering, and science fiction this week with the death of the final Grand Master of Science Fiction, Sir Arthur C. Clarke. The original three Grand Masters were Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Clarke.

Clarke was probably most renowned for 2001: A Space Odyssey, but I enjoyed each and every one of his books and stories, and own them all. The novel I would recommend to a newcomer would be the mysterious and ambiguous Rendezvous with Rama, although I am also very fond of the inventive The Fountains of Paradise, Childhood’s End is justifiably famous, and the little-known A Fall of Moondust is a great engineering adventure.

Clarke was an extremely intelligent and funny man who helped bring awareness and understanding of the Space Age to the public. He was a featured commentator on television for the moon shots. He invented the concept of communications satellite, although he did not patent the concept. A sign of his humor was his 1965 essay about this: How I Lost a Billion Dollars in My Spare Time.

You can see his farewell video, recorded three months ago as he approached his 90th birthday, at YouTube. Rest in peace, Sir Arthur.

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Wonders of the Milky Way

Posted on March 17, 2008 by Granger Meador

Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy has a fun post called “Ten things you don’t know about the Milky Way Galaxy.” He presumes, of course. I knew six of the ten things, but that meant I learned four new things today. Just call me a lifelong learner. And if you want a good read on astronomy, I recommend Timothy Ferris’ Coming of Age in the Milky Way.