IE down, Firefox, Safari UP - The Browser Wars Continue…

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browserinfo.jpgArstechnica has a great article up breaking down the current trends in browser usage. In the US Firefox and Safari are on the rise, while IE has taken a slight dip, but Worldwide, IE is holding it’s own. Even though Opera is not mentioned in these charts, I think they are going to be one to watch with their connections to the mobile market, and devices like the Nintendo Wii.


The Browser Wars are back in full swing, and hopefully this will lead to some cool new innovations as each company tries to grab our attention with their latest releases.

(Via Apple Gazette.)

Don Imus Reports Administration Won’t Allow Him To Tour Entire Walter Reed Facilities

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This morning on his radio show, Don Imus continued to call attention to the deplorable conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Imus has highlighted the issue every day this week. On yesterday’s show, he revealed, “I haven’t heard from anybody [in the administration] about whether I can come down there and take a little tour.”


This morning, Imus updated his audience, reporting that administration officials called him and said he could take a limited guided tour of the facilities. Imus explained, “They will cherry pick some places for me to go look at, but they don’t want me just going down there looking at the entire facility. I’m not interested in having that.” Watch it:



Screenshot




Imus said that all he has received from the administration is talking points. “The Veterans Administration called me — they keep trying to cherry pick a couple of situations you have that you are doing what you are supposed to do. Don’t think that is going to shut me up, because it’s not. So just save your breath on all that stuff. It’s annoying and it’s insulting and it’s a waste of time,” he said.


Email the Walter Reed Public Affairs office, and tell them to let Don Imus tour the full Walter Reed facilities.


Digg It!


Transcript: (more…)

(Via Think Progress.)

Flame First, Think Later: NYT on why we act like jerks online

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Xeni Jardin:



Image: Penny Arcade.

This New York Times story on the psychopathology of flame wars has -- surprise! -- generated much heated discussion around the internet:

John Suler, a psychologist at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., suggested that several psychological factors lead to online disinhibition: the anonymity of a Web pseudonym; invisibility to others; the time lag between sending an e-mail message and getting feedback; the exaggerated sense of self from being alone; and the lack of any online authority figure. Dr. Suler notes that disinhibition can be either benign — when a shy person feels free to open up online — or toxic, as in flaming.


Over on Metafilter, user scblackman rounds up links to some related web references:

What's behind those flaming hot e-mails or UseNet flame wars or MetaFilter comments?. Perhaps, as John Suler suggested, there are a number of factors, including dissociative anonymity, invisibility, asynchronicity, solipsistic introjection (altered self-boundaries), dissociative imagination, and minimzation of authority, as he discussed in his fascinating 2004 paper.

Link to that MeFi thread, in which several commenters said the NYT article reminded them of the timeless comic above.

(Via Boing Boing.)

Second Life: Drew from “Toothpaste for Dinner” tries it.

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Xeni Jardin:



Drew, the Columbus, Ohio-based creator of the offbeat webcomic Toothpaste For Dinner, recently tried out Second Life. Drew being Drew, he had this to say:

Yesterday I downloaded something called Second Life. It is like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, except you can't shoot anyone, and you can't hit people. You just walk around. There are no prostitutes, and everything costs real money, and you can't rob anyone to get money. You have to use your credit card, with real money, to buy fake money to use in the game. It's not actually like Grand Theft Auto at all.

Second Life is free to play, and I keep seeing people referring to it in the news, so I had to take one for the team and just dive on in. I knew it probably wasn't going to be intriguing when I got to the signup part and couldn't even make a one-word name. I had to use some fantasy-ass last name and I couldn't even use cusses. The best I could do was call myself Wenis.

Wenis Swindlehurst: How do I hit people

Foxbrand Leprechaun: You can't

Wenis Swindlehurst: I need that shit you drive.


My character came pre-loaded as a "cybergoth". Most people I saw in the game, jerkily wandering around, also had fantasy-ass names. They also had fantasy asses. Perfect, round fantasy asses. Which left me with only one choice: I had to become what they were not.

Link to the full text of Drew's post. (Thanks, Michael Varrenti)

(Via Boing Boing.)

Penny Arcade: A rare opportunity

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Gabe: Yesterday I made a post about the teenagers that murdered the homeless guy and then blamed it on violent games. These kids have given the media their angle and just like all the other cases where games are mentioned no one will ever look any further. No one will ask what their family life was like, what their parents were like, what the kid was like before all this happened. Games did it and that"s the end of the story.

(Via Penny-Arcade.)