Mitch Gann’s

Today is the day Firefox 3 will be released in its “final” form (whatever that means in the world of software). I use both Firefox and IE, but have been using Firefox more and more.  By all accounts, Firefox 3 will be a faster, more efficient browser. Of course it is free.

I have pledged to download a copy today as part of the effort to set a world record for software downloads in a 24 hour period.  The challenge  begins at 1:00 pm EDT: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/.

(Source: Reuters/NASA)

Astronauts aboard the NASA space shuttle Discovery will be carrying an extra piece of cargo when they launch on Saturday — a new toilet pump.

Crew members aboard the International Space Station have been fumbling with plastic bags since their zero-gravity toilet . . . made “a loud noise” and stopped working properly last week (Reuters).

Let’s hope what goes into orbit, stays in orbit.

WordPress, the world-class and totally free blogging software used by this site and a billion others (give or take) is turning five years-old today.

Enjoy your day, WordPress, and many happy returns!

Did I mention it’s free?

“A new wrinkle in smoking enforcement” Reuters:

Cigarette vending machines in Japan may soon start counting wrinkles, crow’s feet and skin sags to see if the customer is old enough to smoke.

The legal age for smoking in Japan is 20 and as the country’s 570,000 tobacco vending machines prepare for a July regulation requiring them to ensure buyers are not underage, a company has developed a system to identify age by studying facial features.

I don’t smoke and I don’t live in Japan, so this age-detecting technology is of no immediate concern to me, but you know that if it works, it will spread. Those of us who have a perpetually youthful appearance, despite our elder status, may be in trouble. Apparently, if the machine isn’t certain of your age, it will card you. Who wants to be carded by a robot? It’s been a while since anyone carded me. In fact, I can’t remember ever being carded. I have always had a mature look, even when I was a kid. Now the gray hair and beard are a give-away.

Come to think of it, I’m not concerned.

OpenOffice has always been a decent replacement for MS-Office, especially given that OpenOffice costs so much less. Like, for example, nothing. (Yes, I do love the free software!) Development continues on OpenOffice, and a new beta has just been released. It promises to address that annoying problem of “.docx”:

OpenOffice.org 3.0 will support the upcoming OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2 standard, and is capable of opening files created with MS-Office 2007 or MS-Office 2008 for Mac OS X (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, etc.). This is in addition to read and write support for the MS-Office binary file formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt, etc.).

Here’s the complete list of features in the OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta.

The beta download itself is available at http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta/.

Bill Gates says that Vista is selling rapidly and doing fine, but personally I am sticking with XP. I don’t know of anything I want to do on a computer that I could do with Vista but can’t do with XP. So why bother to switch? It’s nice for Bill that he has sold 140 million units of Vista; I really mean that because the guy does great things with his money. But I can live without Vista, especially since there will be this new “Windows 7″ out in a year or two.

I am also playing around with Ubuntu Linux. If I have Ubuntu on my laptop and an old desktop computer, and the only snag I’ve hit is that I can’t get the laptop install to connect with my wireless network. It detects the network, but can’t log in. I can connect it with a cable, but who wants to have to do that for a laptop when wireless is available? I’d be using it right now to make this post if I could get over that glitch. That’s always been the story of me and Linux — one little thing it can’t do that I need it to do. Or to be fair, something that I need it to do but can’t figure out how to make it do.

Naturally, what I like most about Linux is that it is free.

"Most people don’t give much thought to the grime that builds up on their PC but if you don’t clean your computer you might as well eat your lunch off the toilet," said Sarah Kidner, computing editor for the British consumer-advocacy group Which?, commenting on a report by the group that showed computer keyboards to be up to five times more germ infested than toilet seats. The report attributed the dirty keyboards to the habit of eating lunch at one’s desk and "poor personal hygiene, such as dodging the wash basin after going to the toilet . . . ."

Here’s something for all of us boomers to look forward to. I just hope they give it warm hands. Or clamps.

uBOT-5 (Source: gizmag)

“Will robots step up to help care for the aging baby boomer generation?” gizmag:

. . . The uBOT-5 could assist the elderly in living independently, providing relief for caregivers, doctors and community services workers. The robot is designed both to make life easy for its owner and to act as eyes, ears and communications portal for loved ones and caregivers in remote locations. . . .

. . . Recognizing the fact that isolation and associated depression is a great challenge for the elderly, the team built in several specialized communications features. The robot can handle incoming and outgoing phone calls through its video touch-screen, speakers and microphones, alerting its owners who may not hear a regular phone ringing. Video call capability can make it easy for loved ones to keep in touch, as well as for medical caregivers to perform virtual visits.