February 2008

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February 2008.

installfest for kids and schools in the bay area this weekend

February 27, 2008 in Uncategorized | No comments

Paul reminded me about this and it sounds like Zak already posted about it. There’s going to be an installfest this weekend for kids and schools in the bay area. If you’re interested in helping out then sign up.

the word of the day is ‘jackassery’

February 26, 2008 in Comcast, Freedom, Jackassery, Open Web | 1 comment

I’m glad I’m not a comcast customer. Because, come on.

interview on linux.com

February 26, 2008 in Design, Mozilla, Open Web | 2 comments

Yes, this is more shameless self-promotion because it’s an interview with me.

I did an interview a little while ago with Tina Gasperson and it’s up on linux.com. I spent some time talking about building success with a product instead of a project plan in open source, Mozilla’s revenue model, Mozilla’s commitment to transparency and some technology stuff – XULRunner in particular, and what it means for people who want to build something quickly that’s cross platform and leverages web development skills and technologies.

I also like the message that Tina pulled out of our interview for a title – that we are advocating on behalf of our users. Firefox as a product has become more than just a great browser. It’s become a great platform for Mozilla as an organization to do things on behalf of people who use our products, and even for people who use other products. (What we do influences other products all the time – it’s pretty neat to be dragging the web forward indirectly as well as directly.) I have started to think of this kind of experience as “tangible empathy.” We see things that can be improved and we create that change. For vast swaths of people all at once.

Anyway, it’s a decent interview. I like how it came out.

pile of random firefox and mozilla stuff

February 12, 2008 in Design, Firefox, GNOME, Linux, Mobile, Mozilla, Red Hat, Speaking | 1 comment

I have a pile-o-stuff to post about here. In no particular order.

Interview with John Lilly on GigaOM

Interview starts about 4 minutes in.

There’s a large number of people in the Mozilla community (outside of the Corporation staff) that don’t know John very well. This interview starts to give a sense of him. Honest, intense and very thoughtful. It’s a good interview and talks a little bit about what Mozilla is about and how he feels he fits into the bigger picture. Worth watching.

For the Record Weblog Launches

For the Record is something that Asa started to help process, catalog and understand what’s being said about Mozilla and Firefox online. The first post talks about the Firefox release cycle and how we get to the point where we’re ready to release.

This is a good companion to the newly-launched about:mozilla newsletter. If you want some low-traffic, high-quality weekly access to what’s going on in Mozilla this is another good place to get it. Signing up is pretty easy.

Mozilla Mobile Talk in Japan

Christian and Jay will be in Tokyo, Japan to talk about Mozilla’s mobile strategy. If you’re in the area, it’s a pay event, but it’s probably worth attending.

Podcast Enhancements in Firefox 3

Will Guaraldi talks about the work that he did to include better podcast support in Firefox 3. Will spends most of his time working on Miro, a wonderful counterpart to Firefox for video podcasts. (Seriously, why aren’t you using Miro already? It’s a great app. Go try it. Right now.) I ran across this feature today when I was looking at some feeds for a friend’s photo site and it’s pretty nice. It shows the inline enclosures and types and gives you a sense of what you’re about to get. Very nice.

D-Bus Support for Extensions in Firefox

Eric mentions my interest in his D-Bus JS bindings. True – I am interested! He’s apparently trying to get help on the Mozilla Linux Platform mailing list and trying to integrate a bunch of stuff. Assuming that he does, it will be a great way to get some more great integration when you’re using Linux. Being able to connect extensions to other services on the desktop and being able to use them to affect your web experience sounds pretty good to me.

Matt Asay on the Future of the Web

Matt Asay posts about his thoughts about the web, including my talk at SCALE. I don’t know Matt personally, but I do read his weblog. Given how much attention he pays to Red Hat and the other Linux vendors, I always assumed that he knew what was going on with us, our current impact and our future. I was wrong. We’re a fantastically transparent project, but that also means that it’s sometimes hard to find the clear message and the meaning in all the noise. Efforts like For the Record will hopefully make it easy for people to understand the meaning we’re trying to create in the world.

my talk at SCALE 2008

February 11, 2008 in Firefox, Freedom, Linux, Mobile, Mozilla, Open Web, Speaking | No comments

I did a talk at SCALE on Saturday, talking about the future of Firefox 3 on Linux and in general. There was a good attendance and the audience seemed like they really understood what Firefox meant to the future of the web. Lots of people in the audience were using the latest trunk nightlies (use at your own risk, of course!) and tons of people were using extensions – many extensions I had never heard of. I love that there are now so many extensions that there’s no way anyone can know all of them.

Ryan Paul put up a great story about the talk on arstechnica. It’s worth reading. You can digg the story or see the the slides as well.

ugh – time for a new phone

February 11, 2008 in Microsoft, Mobile, Sidekick | No comments

Microsoft buys Danger. Crap. I love my Sidekick (Web browser aside, of course, but we’re working on that.)

See also: Microsoft is building a spaceship out of spare parts.

upcoming travel

February 4, 2008 in Travel | 2 comments

I’ve got some travel coming up:

April looks pretty brutal, no?