Hilarious.

That’s actually Firefox, perfectly diguised.

From the author:

Yes, it’s true. There are some people that prefer the look of Internet Explorer to the way Firefox looks (though I’ve never met one). So, I’ve created this simple How To guide that shows you just what needs to be done to get Firefox looking just like IE. The goal of this project is mainly to demonstrate the power of Firefox’s themes and extensions in making the browser work the way you want it to.

The disclaimers and apologies are the best part. (Sample: “And, YES, I still think Internet Explorer should be removed, placed in the corner and set on fire.”)

(Via Scott Hanselman)

One of my favorite Windows utilities is Magical Jellybean Software’s Keyfinder. The latest beta version (Keyfinder 2.0 Beta 2–1/2) works with all versions of Windows XP and Office and with 32–bit versions of Windows Vista. (I discovered yesterday that it even works with VMWare product keys. Who knew?)

Alas, it doesn’t work with Windows Vista 64–bit versions. So how do you track down an installed product key if you’ve gone 64 bit? Use RJL Software’s Windows Product Key Viewer. It’s not as pretty or as comprehensive as Keyfinder, but it works.

I can understand why developers love the WTFPL. (Yes, the F means exactly what you think it does, so don’t click that link if you are offended by four-letter words.)

I found this link via Jeff Atwood, who introduces the concept thusly:

I hate software licenses. When I read a software license, what I see is a bunch of officious, mind-numbing lawyerly doublespeak. Blah, blah, blah.. kill me now.

Go read Jeff’s post, where he explains why a proper software license is a necessary evil and why the absence of a license is a terrible thing.

I’m looking at some hardware and software devices for managing username/password combinations and other authentication secrets. I’m looking at fingerprint readers, smartcard devices, and password storage/encryption utilities.

Anyone out there using these tools? What are your favorites? Any categories I’m missing?

Also, I’m curious about how security-conscious you are when creating and using passwords on websites. Do you use genuinely strong passwords? Do you ever reuse passwords? How often do you use weak passwords at sensitive sites? Do you save passwords in IE7 or Mozilla?

I’ll probably post something similar at ZDNet but I know I’ll get a much higher signal-to-noise ratio here.

ExtremeTech has a newly published article called Speed Up Windows Vista, which promises “tweaks that can help you turn up the throttle on your new operating system.” Of course, the usual Digg mob has descended on it.

My summary? Pure, unadulterated crap. Half the advice is painfully obvious, the other half is downright dangerous, like the ridiculous advice to “experiment with services [and] [s]treamline the system by shutting down as many services as you can.” Uh, that’s a really bad idea.

Even the commenters at ExtremeTech noticed that there weren’t any, you know, benchmarks or test results to actually substantiate what any of this stuff does.

And ExtremeTech, like so many Ziff-Davis sites[*], insists on chopping articles like this one into a dozen pieces so you have to click-click-click-click to read it. (Here’s the single-page, ad-free, printer-friendly link so you can scan this load of rubbish without driving yourself crazy.) [Oops, not surprisingly Ziff-Davis doesn’t allow direct links to their printer-friendly page. So if you must waste your time, go to the main page and click the Print button (in light gray type, under the Options heading beneath the post itself). Thanks to Ian Easson for the heads-up.]

Once upon a time, ExtremeTech published some interesting stuff. These days, it’s just plain junk.

[* Ziff-Davis is not ZDNet.]

Over the past two months, Judy and I have watched all six Star Wars movies, starting with Episode 1 and ending with Episode 6, in high-definition, thanks to DirecTiVo and HBO. The one thing we were struck by in every single episode was how truly stilted the dialog was.

Last night, we watched Joss Whedon’s Serenity (2005), which we missed when it was in the theaters. Great writing, great effects. Absolutely engrossing. If you’re a sci-fi fan and you haven’t seen it yet, you’re missing out.

Today, this little bit of news shows up in FeedDemon, via Slashdot:

The BBC is reporting that the film Serenity has been voted the number-one Sci Fi film of all time. Serenity is a followup to the series Firefly. The 2005 film beat out Star Wars better than two-to-one for the top honors. This result came in a poll of 3000 readers of SFX magazine.

Synchronicity? I know how I would have ranked those two. Although #3 on their list, Blade Runner, would have been #1 on my list.

Is anyone out there still using third-party boot managers? I’m researching dual-boot (and multi-boot) scenarios and I’m trying to work around the limitations in the Windows Vista boot manager and the Grub[*] and LILO alternatives included with Linux distros.

If you use a boot manager, which one is it, and why do you like it?

*Update: GRUB is actually an acronym, by the way, for GRand Unified Bootloader.

It’s been almost exactly six months since I checked the numbers. Here’s the latest report from this site, courtesy of SiteMeter:

Browser shares are statistically unchanged in the past year. The Firefox/Mozilla share is at 35.3%, up a point from its 34.2% total last September and back to its 35.2% share from a year ago.

IE is also stuck at the same level: 61% today, down a half-point from September and up a point from its 60% share a year ago.

Opera, at less than 2%, hasn’t made any inroads, and the number of visitors to this Windows-focused site using Safari is predictably small.

The one noteworthy trend I see is in upgrades. Firefox has done a better job of encouraging its user base to upgrade to version 2.0. Roughly 16% of the Firefox users who show up here are still using version 1.x, whereas 35% of IE users have resisted attempts to upgrade to IE7.

(And yes, I realize that browser strings can be tweaked, but I’m pretty confident that the overwhelming majority of entries in this database reflect the true underlying browser.)

Trend-watchers can look at all previous editions by following these links:

September 2006

April 2006

August 2005

October 2004