ZDNet report that Google will release an official Google toolbar for Firefox.

Google is poised to release a version of its toolbar for the Firefox browser, according to information sent to developers of an open source toolbar alternative.

…

It has pretty much the same features as the latest IE toolbar except of course for things like the popup blocker

Various other bars (using the same API) have indicated erratic PageRank recently and PageRank was sometimes greyed out for no known reason (see below). About a month ago it was greyed out globally for 2 or 3 days straight.

Until google release their own homebred bar for Firefox, the GoogleBar project will serve as a primary alternative. However, PRGoogleBar (formerly the PageRank bar) is much more powerful as it experimentally makes use of Google Suggest for search phrase completion. It also incorporates extra shortcuts and the ability to customise SERPs behaviour. This bar is definitely better than the equivalent from Google.

Another excellent search-related bar is SearchStatus, which additionally provides Alexa ranks and does not occupy much screen space (see below).

SearchStatus in action

Finally, also worth mentioning is Yahoo’s search bar which has been kind to Firefox for quite some time.

ood news have just arrived: the EU has rejected, with a crushing majority, the software patent bill.

The Register states:

The European Parliament has voted by a massive majority to reject the software patents directive, formally known as the Directive on the Patentability of Computer Implemented Inventions. The vote to scrap the bill was passed by a margin of 648 votes to 14, with 18 abstentions.

Some outrageously simple algorithms have recently been filed as patents. More notably:

• Microsoft filing a patent for address book encapsulated objects (i.e. more proprietary)
• Amazon with the ‘one-click shopping’
• Leaving the best for last: Amazon patenting the recommendation of books based on pages previously viewed

Luckily, such insanity is unlikely to invade Europe.

According to the BBC, Open Source begins to have its impact on schools in Britain.

In open source software (OSS), the underlying computer code is freely available so users can alter it and publish new versions, to benefit the community.

Leslie Fletcher, chair of governors at Parrs Wood High School in south Manchester and campaigns manager for the UK’s Unix and Open Systems User Group, offers a personal perspective on how schools can benefit.

Manchester made this courageous step, which came to my attention via the Manchester Linux Users Group. There was another recent and much more widespread initiative in Michigan.

Audra Ang, an Associated Press writer, reports about a Beijing clinic that treats online addicts.

All the children here have left school because they are playing games or in chat rooms everyday,” says the clinic’s director, Dr. Tao Ran. “They are suffering from depression, nervousness, fear and unwillingness to interact with others, panic and agitation. They also have sleep disorders, the shakes and numbness in their hands.

The descriptions sound a little freaky, but I have known people whose entire life was dependent on their computer.

Hmmm… 5 AM… time for lunch…

Judging by the official Firefox Roadmap, the release of Firefox 1.1 is near.

Quoting the site:

We are planning for a Firefox 2.0, but will divide the planned work over (at this point) three major Milestones, 1.1 (July 2005), 1.5 (unscheduled) and 2.0 (unscheduled). All major development work will be done on the Mozilla trunk, and these releases will coincide with Gecko version revs.

If you have free time in your hands, you can use Burning Edge to keep track of the Firefox changelog.

“Now, this is one heck of a big fish!”

hown above is an enormous catfish. Even my Thai colleague was flabbergasted by the image on my monitor. My strict diet relies on fish so I could not resist posting this picture which demonstrated the size of the very unusual ocean salvage. Unfortunately, it will end up on somebody’s table.

Fishermen in northern Thailand have netted a fish as big as a grizzly bear, a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish, the heaviest recorded since Thai officials started keeping records in 1981. The behemoth was caught in the Mekong River and may be the largest freshwater fish ever found.

Source: Science Blog

ZDNet Australia writes (on behalf of Secunia) about potential phishing attacks which affect all major browsers.

How does this exploit work?

• A user arrives at a malicious site
• The site re-direct the user to a trusted site while opening a pop-up
• The user gets fooled into entering a password in the pop-up
• While the user believes that the password reaches the trusted site, it actually reaches the malicious one

Pop-up windows, JavaScript and their nasty siblings again take the blame, but if someone is foolish enough to log in via pop-ups, perhaps the flaw lies within the user. Very few sites, if any, will use child windows to request details. It is understandable that many surfers are unaware of that, but they probably ought to stay away from malicious sites to begin with, or at least disable some browser functionality.