With Safari Public Beta 3.0.2 now available for download, what's in store for Firefox users?

I'm not so sure myself. The differences between the two browsers are becoming less and less distinct, especially now that Safari runs on both Windows and Mac machines. Considering performance on both operating systems, I think Firefox still has the upper hand with its showcase feature, which displays all open tabs in a tiled format for easy viewing. Most of the enhancements of Beta 3.0.2 are Mac-specific, such as WebKit support for iChat, Mail and Dashboard. Both the Windows and Mac releases include the latest security and stability updates, however.

The future of Firefox seems shady, as Safari is promising numerous features to rival those of Firefox, such as in-browser spellcheck and tooltips. But right now I think I'll stick with Firefox, as I like to be able to automatically open new browser windows in tabs, instead of shuffling through dozens of windows for what I want. And plus, my site's stylesheet renders much better in Firefox

NPR released a review article on the iPhone, which as many know is set to go on sale this Friday with a starting price of $499. New York Times technology writer David Pogue had some interesting thoughts on the iPhone, which I thought I'd summarize here for you.

The iPhone's software is amazing. We all know that the iPhone uses a touch-screen interface, and according to Pogue the software does well in providing the user with natural-feeling touch navigation.

There is no keyboard. It takes practice. Yes, being a purely touch-sensitive device, the iPhone's greatest weakness is that there is no hardware keyboard. According to Pogue the on-screen keypad takes some getting used to, as the user is required to tap keys with their "big, fat, fleshy finger that are much smaller than the finger itself. It does take practice."

He's not so much bothered by the price. Ok, he had me on a leash up until this point. $499 for a glorified Blackberry is definitely not worth it in my opinion. I'll just watch television and let my vision waste away for free. I'm assuming David Pogue got a big bonus up at the Times.

The biggest problem is that Apple chose to parter with AT&T. I don't think I can say this much better than Pogue himself did:

Both Apple and AT&T strenuously suggest that their network coverage has gotten so much better over the last few years. And you know what? I just don't experience that.

I don't at all expect to have swayed anyone's opinions regarding the iPhone. I know our impulsive, bullheaded culture too well. That's why I have a MacBook and an iPod, and I don't feel too badly about it.

For the past week, we've been working on getting our attic finished to make it a somewhat livable space. At present my dad is putting up drywall, and thus far I have managed to evade any part whatsoever in this project. But alas, all good things must come to an end.

This morning I awoke at 10:45 to be confronted with the arduous task of restoring our old attic windows to their supposed previous grandeur. (These two windows, if I may say, are already beyond any kind of profitable restoration, but thankfully they will be so high up that no one will really notice.) So my dad and I lugged the windows to the back yard, where I would be scraping paint, filling in cracks and then re-painting the frames. At first I didn't think much of it; it all seemed simple enough to me. Scrape, fill, paint.

But what I didn't bet on was the impressive stamina of 90-year-old exterior enamel paint. In short, my dinky scraper was no match for the paint that was probably, by now, atomically fused with the wooden window frames.

So I resolved to leave the sections that were impossible to remove, as painting over them probably wouldn't do any harm. Unfortunately, by this time I had inadvertently scraped off a great deal of the putty keeping the windows in place in the frames. My dad fetched me some putty, and I immediately realized that my devil-may-care approach had been my demise.

For those who have never experienced this, it must be established that painter's putty is evil. I'm convinced that the purging of evil in Deuteronomy 19 is actually a reference to painter's putty. It will stick to anything and everything except what you actually want it to stick to, as though it is mocking your futile attempts at forcing it into submission.

After about 45 minutes of scraping, filling, puttying, and flinging said putty in abject surrender, I decided on a break so that I could have lunch and then recount these events on here. I'll most likely be returning for a second round (and perhaps a third), so updates will be posted as needed.

It can rarely be said that a visit to Starbucks is, of all things, enlightening. I mean sure, they have those "The Way I See It" blurbs on the cups, but I regard those as nothing more than another venue for obscure millionaires to parade their idealistic musings for the average coffee drinker to ignore. No, I must contend that intellectual growth is not a usual part of the Starbucks experience.

But for me, this trend was violently contravened when I visited my nearby Starbucks earlier today. My sister, brother and I went with the intent of buying a gift card for someone's birthday, and I figured that I might as well get something to drink. Because I hadn't originally planned on getting anything, I had to borrow money from my sister. She allowed me to do so only under the condition that I didn't get the white chocolate mocha (my favorite), as we were going to share the drink, and it just so happened that she utterly detested my favorite Starbucks beverage.

So after brother and I walked into the cramped Starbucks, I perused the menu of butchered Latin to find a suitable drink. I eventually settled on the caffè latte, since it didn't seem to contain anything that would aggravate my sister's palate.

I purchased my drink and the gift card, and as I walked out of the Starbucks I sipped the latte, to find that it tasted like nothing more than coffee and milk.

I was dumbstruck. I paid $3.25 for coffee and milk. Now, you may at this moment be utterly verklempt at my lack of coffee cognizance. I admit, it's probably common knowledge that a latte is just coffee and milk. But you must understand that I don't frequent coffee shops as often as most people, so my ignorance is justified. In my mind, "latte" sounded like some fancy, posh term well-fitted to the beverage it describes. Little did I know that it's nothing more than Latin for "milk." Caffè...latte.... Coffee...milk.

Ok. I've started blogs, deleted blogs, and started more blogs. This is it. I plan to actually keep this blog for more than a few months, perhaps for the remainder of my blogging career. So hopefully I can provide you all with substantial posts for your enlightenment and entertainment.

For more information on my blog, read the About page.