Firefox 3.0.5 Is Great, But ... Usable?

Wow!

I'd love to say that this is the browser -- especially the Firefox browser -- of choice; but, where are the add-ons?

There are more than a few add-ons I find to be absolutely indispensable, but are not supported under 3.0.5.  Why not?  It's not as though this is a new browser, or a brand-new release.  I could understand it if it was the 3.1 Beta, but really.

It's not caused me to go back to 2.n; however, considering the possibility of doing without add-ons is beginning to make Google Chrome look pretty attractive.

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Chris Matthews Implies, 'Liberal is anti-American'? What? Did You Hear That Too?

As made clearly apparent within a recent post by Chris Cillizza, apparently Chris Matthews must think that to liberal is to be anti-American! I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't heard it myself.

During a recent interview with Minnesota Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann, one I watched myself, Mr. Matthews developed this hypothesis by apparently leveraging the 'ol "2 + 2 equals" mathematics combined with her comments about how some of Barack Obama's associations were with extremely liberal, anti-American types.

Yes, even after Ms. Bachmann repeatedly provided examples of how very specific liberal Americans held anti-American sentiments, Mr. Matthews some how managed to derive the conclusion that all liberal Americans held anti-American sentiments. Besides failing even the most rudimentary test of a sound, logical argument, I think it's unprofessional. Typical; but unprofessional.

With all the ongoing discussions about whether or not bloggers should be considered on some level to be journalists -- for reasons ranging from professionalism to specific education -- it is from many of the card-carrying journalists I tend to see the most unprofessional acts of spin and misinformation.

I like both Senators McCain and Obama, and I am concerned about either becoming our next President -- for some of the same reasons, and for some different reasons.

Regardless, I don't believe either of them would appreciate seeing Ms. Bachmann's words twisted against her, nor would they like to see an otherwise great journalist mistakenly believe all liberals are anti-American.

I'm just say'in.

Great Idea + Poor Execution = A Questionable Future

Have you seen Scribd? Well, once it works, it has the potential to be great.

What can I say about Scribd? It's a really great idea, to start off, as it is a great place to publish ones materials -- poetry, manuals, books, articles, notes, and pretty much whatever you can think of. And it's FREE!

And FREE could get you a lot! The Scribd site contains a vast quantity of materials that you are welcome to read. My first attempt to search for a book title that happened to be on my mind at the time resulted in, what else, the book in its entirety. Now I can't speak to the legality of this specific book being there, but all in all the site appears to be on the up and up.

But that aside, one of its greatest promises is the ability to eMail one or more people, include attachments, & the Scribd service will resend the eMail to everyone replacing the format-dependent attachment with a link to what they call ipaper -- a reproduction of the attachment without its reader being tied to the application that created it. And finally, the attachment is converted and placed inside the Scribd user's documents folder. Sounds too good to be true; yes?

Perhaps, yes.

At least that's what is promised -- but its execution leaves little to be desired. So far, I've not been able to get that part to work -- any part after pressing SEND on the eMail. The eMail recipients get their normal eMail, with the normal attachment included -- no mention of or link to Scribd. And to top it off, the attachment never ends up in the Scribd user's account.

Well, I've sent a message to their Feedback group, and I'll wait to see how well the other significant part of any Web 2.0 offering: service.