For a while I have been struggling to find a Mozilla theme that I am comfortable with. Today I found my perfect match. It’s called Noia and you can download (or directly install) it from deviantART.

Noia under Firefox 1.0 on SuSE 8.2

My friend Neil Baxter is entering the world of NFL. The article covers much of the story, but another story which is worth mentioning is that his father, David Baxter, is the person who urged me do my Ph.D. in Manchester. For that I am grateful to him.

Did you know?

On my way to work today I decided it would be nice if switching between tabs in Firefox was possible using ALT + tab_number. Guess what? This was already thought of. CTRL + tab_number (for example, CTRL + 1) will set focus on the tab that you requested. Use it. I strongly recommend that. – Roy

I enquired about the potential of Web-based Palm Desktop in UseNet. The main advantage is portability — either geographical portability or system portability, i.e. access to data from any operating system. Here is one response I received:

WeSync created a prototype web interface for their multi-user DateBook/AddressBook freeware, before Palm decided they didn’t like the idea. The code probably went to the purchasers of WeSync, Tanner Research, who are moving ahead with improvements. A discussion with them could be fruitful.

To be honest, I gave up on this entire idea. I want to see Palm surviving the PPC wave first.

Yesterday I hit the 9,000 mark for number of downloads at MATLAB Central. What makes it a greater achievement is that I have programmed in MATLAB for only 13 months and started publishing code no earlier than May this year. See my MATLAB page for more details.

Alex King started a thread which discussed a Web-based project he initiated. That project led me to thinking about a Web-based Palm Desktop — one which can be accessed from any machine and then synchronised over the Internet. Here is my (non-contextual) message on Alex’s site:

Hmmmm… actually, I was talking about off-line HotSync^TM. I don’t think I will ever find a Bluetooth connection point so I can’t rely on remote task lists solely. Maybe I am missing something though. What I suggest is the following:

Have your package modified to work as a partial replacement for Palm Desktop. This way users will be able to edit lists remotely. Then, when returning to a machine with a cradle, the users can Sync. the changes made on-line. In other words, make it a portable Palm Desktop.

I truly believe that UseNet attracts an audience far smaller than it should. Considering the enormous number of regular Internet users, probably only a small proportion is aware of the existence of global forums. Many choose to participate in very small forums like the BBC or various phpBB-like sections. They are missing out on access to gurus in various fields. A countless number of questions I had were competently answered in return to my involvement (see archive). If you haven’t yet become a part of groups relevant to you, I urge you to do so now.