James M. Burke

This is a little old, but I was out of town, so here is the “news flash.” Last week, Mozilla released a much anticipated Firefox 1.5. Here is an exerpt of the new features (taken from the Release Notes):

• Automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of an update is more prominent, and updates to Firefox may now be half a megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved.
• Faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance.
• Drag and drop reordering for browser tabs.
• Improvements to popup blocking.
• Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut.
• Answers.com is added to the search engine list.
• Improvements to product usability including descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, RSS discovery, and “Safe Mode” experience.
• Better accessibility including support for DHTML accessibility and assistive technologies such as the Window-Eyes 5.5 beta screen reader for Microsoft Windows. Screen readers read aloud all available information in applications and documents or show the information on a Braille display, enabling blind and visually impaired users to use equivalent software functionality as their sighted peers.
• Report a broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in Firefox.
• Better support for Mac OS X (10.2 and greater) including profile migration from Safari and Mac Internet Explorer.
• New support for Web Standards including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6.
• Many security enhancements.

Get your copy at www.getfirefox.com.

Some of you may noticed that I updated the Photos site recently.  I added various photos from IBM and NetApp events.  I also added a few pictures of the new house…more to come.

Yesterday, I returned to Raleigh from Amarillo…I flew there on Wednesday night to attend my grandfather’s funeral. He passed away November 27 in an Alzheimer’s care center in Wellington, TX. The service was held on Thursday in my birth town of Pampa, TX. The service was excellent (given the circumstances); since he was a World War II veteran, they did the military thing, with the flag folding, taps, etc.

The truth is, for the last few years, he was miserable and uncomfortable. He was sleeping 23+ hours per day. Because of the Alzheimer’s, he had no idea who we were when we would go visit. That is truly a sad disease. I believe memories and people are the most important thing in this world, and without that, I see no reason to live. And, as a result, I feel I truly “lost” my grandfather years ago. I do miss him, but I do know that he is in a better place now…

EDIT: On a positive note, I got to see my dad, mom, brother, aunt, two uncles, and a cousin I haven’t seen in years. My brother was released from jail on bond (another story, probation violation) just in time to attend the event. I also got to visit my other grandparents, one of which was in the hospital in Amarillo…it was good to be there for her too.