BeatnikPad

Firefox 3 & 3.0.1 optimized builds for G4 / G5 / Intel

The first Firefox 3 security / maintenance release is now available and I have optimized builds available for G5 and Intel macs.

Check out the official Mozilla Firefox web site to see what’s new in Firefox 3.0.1.

G4 macfolk: I no longer have a G4-equipped machine at home, so I need a volunteer who is willing to donate a few hours and their machine. If you’re interested in helping out, get in touch. You’ll have to install a bunch of build-related items installed on this machine, so keep that in mind. It won’t affect system stability or anything wacky like that, but it will take up hard drive space.

What the hell is Minefield?

So for those of you who have followed my Firefox builds, you all know the drill - those builds used the Mozilla development codename “BonEcho” because it was against the Firefox trademark to distribute non-official builds using that name or icon. With Firefox 3 the development name has changed from BonEcho to Minefield (don’t ask me why), so all of the Firefox 3 builds available from this site will be called that instead of Firefox.

As for the icon, in the past I either used the default development icon (the blue earth) or a slightly tweaked version. Minefield’s development icon changed, though, and it’s just… grotesque. Sorry, I can’t mince words here - basically someone took the blue earth icon from BonEcho and tacked on a fuse to it. Get it? Minefield? Bomb? Ahem.

With these builds I’ve reverted back to the blue globe icon instead of using the default development icon, partially for consistency’s sake, and partially because it’s still a heck of a lot better than the bomb icon. Originally I distributed these builds with an icon by Adam Betts that is quite similar to the current Firefox icon, but to avoid any possibility of people thinking these builds were in any way official I’ve stuck with the globe.

Downloads and caveats

There are no longer two separate builds available as Firefox 3 now boasts “native” form widgets. Makes my life easier.

As I mentioned above, there are only G5 and Intel builds available at the moment, so I’ve left the links to the Firefox 3.0 optimized version up for now. If I can either track a G4 machine down or someone volunteers one a G4-optimized build will soon follow.

Finally, if you really aren’t a big fan of the new redesigned theme, I highly recommend aronnax’s lovely GrApple Firefox themes which basically make Firefox look a heck of a lot like Safari. Not a bad thing in my book, but your mileage may vary.

Without further ado:

» Download Minefield (Firefox) 3.0.1 for Intel

» Mirror · Mirror

» Download Minefield (Firefox) 3.0.1 for G5

» Mirror · Mirror

» Download Minefield (Firefox) 3.0 for G4

» Mirror

Totally not required, but if you feel like donating to help with bandwidth costs, etc., I’d be most grateful. Any excess money raised will be donated to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders). Thanks!

Moving forward there will no longer be more Firefox 2.x builds - as far as I’m concerned it’s obsolete and in the past. That said, I am still chipping away at complete instructions on how to build your own optimized Firefox builds from the comfort of your own home; watch for those in the coming weeks.

As usual, please post feedback and other effluvia in the comments. Enjoy, folks!

Back in the saddle

Not that anyone probably noticed, but the engine that powers the BeatnikPad (Movable Type) was having some major conniptions after I moved servers just over a week ago. Happily things seem to be working again, including comments, so one more thing is right in the world.

Since I have your attention, I wanted to confirm that there will be optimized Firefox 3 release builds available within a day or so of the official release (slated for June 17th, I believe). Firefox 3 has native form widgets built in (finally!) so there will be no more need for separate builds.

As this is a major release I definitely will build for all three platforms (G4, G5, and Intel) assuming the access I have to a G5 machine doesn’t go down.

So: web site is working again, Firefox 3 builds coming, and I am polishing off fairly complete instructions on how to build your own optimized copies of Firefox to follow soon afterwards.

That is all.

Happy Birthday, Alec!

A year ago almost to the minute that I’m posting this photo Alec was born into the world (at 12:32am to be exact). What followed was everything I could have hoped for and so, so much more.

I’ve sat down numerous times and tried to put into words just how incredible and insane and sleep-deprived and screwed up and inexplicably grounding it is to become a father, but eventually I’ve given up. Fatherhood is probably best experienced, not reminisced, I suppose.

Jonathon Coulton once remarked that becoming a new parent was like “becoming a vampire” - that your old life dies this slow, somewhat painful death, but then you fall in love and are reborn immortal and stronger.

I have fallen in love, and I can definitely say that everything he says is true.

Happy birthday, Alec!

Hooray for Spring

Optimized Firefox 2.0.0.14 for G5 & Intel Macs

Firefox 2.0.0.14 is now available and I have put together Intel Mac optimized builds, available below.

Unless Mozilla releases a major update I’ll probably skip every other maintenance / bug release as they seem to be monthly, and I just don’t have the extra time to build new releases every month. Just so you know.

I know I promised G4 builds last time and I still plan to get to these for the 2.0.0.14 release. The main issue is the only G4 machine I have is a Powerbook and it takes forever to build Firefox on it… but I’ll do my best to build for this platform when I have a spare moment.

Here’s what’s new in 2.0.0.14 according to the Mozilla change notes:

Security fixes.

That’s it!

Download

Intel Mac-optimized Firefox 2.0.0.14

G5-optimized Firefox 2.0.0.14

As I mentioned about, G4 builds should be when I have some time to actually get to them.

Why is the name / icon different?

I really shouldn’t have to keep repeating this, but every time I post a new Firefox release I still seem to get people annoyed / pissed off / confused as to why these builds are missing the Firefox name and icon. So here comes the strong emphasis:

The Firefox name and icon are trademarked and cannot be used with non-official builds. These are non-official builds, so they cannot have the official branding. Pretty straight-forward. Please don’t ask me to build versions with the official branding.

As always, feel free to post your thoughts / experiences / etc. in the comments. Enjoy!

Good Eats, Good Grief

The truth is, I’m obsessed with being healthy.

Okay, maybe “obsessed” is a bit strong — If I was truly serious about my health, I probably wouldn’t be living in a smog|noise|light|stress-polluted major city like Toronto, really — but my interest in maintaining my physical well-being has definitely increased exponentially as each year goes by.

Y.A.G.D.A.M.¹

I suppose this is par for the course. Taking care of your body could be like owning your first car in some ways. At the beginning you’re all in awe of this thing you have and what it can do, and before you know it you’re taking it for granted as you’re flying down the highway 50 kilometres over the speed limit with the stereo blasting Deep Purple’s Highway Star and the back seat filled with empty Doritos bags, slurpee cups, and cigarette butts.

After a while, though, you’re sitting on cracked upholstery begging it to “please, just start, I’m already late for work” as it’s drooling oil and antifreeze and god knows what else all over your driveway.

So before I start prematurely leaking fluids I’m getting more serious about what I do with my body as well as what I put into it.

Winning the Genetic Lottery

Being Asian, I’m totally aware that I won the youthfulness lottery. My body has basically maintained the same shape it was when I was in my earlier twenties, and for the most part I look younger than I really am. In the past, this made me complacent. If I wasn’t a vegetarian for most of my twenties I probably would have spent my days gulping back mugs of pure lard while eating twinkies sprinkled with chocolate-flavoured trans fats. Delish!

Even then I still did a lot of damage to myself, including maintaining a nearly pack-a-day habit for fifteen years as well as ingesting a lot of things I definitely would not want the Googlebot to index.

Now, I’m all mostly trying to be about the healthy.

Not Screwing With My Shit (not to be taking literally)

A big part of this commitment to not screwing with my shit involves eating better. I’ve been trying to spend more time eating cuisines that are considered healthy such as Japanese, Greek, and Italian. Heck, if nutritional scientists discovered that a diet consisting of twigs and leaves and steaming mugs of your own urine guaranteed you would live to be 150 in perfect health, I’d probably consider it.

No bathing in the blood of virgins like crafty old Elizabeth Bathory, however — one has to draw the line somewhere.

The point of this obscenely rambling post is to kick start a series of thoughts I’ve wanted to explore about eating healthy in the 21st century. I’m interested to talk about decisions I’ve made and experiments I’m trying out and I’m interested in what you’ve done (or are doing) to keep the gas in your tank sugar-free and high-octane.

And I vow that’s the last of the automobile metaphors you’ll see on this site.

1. Yet Another God Damn Automobile Metaphor ↩

Rannie Turingan's 20x2: What's the Difference?

Everyone’s favourite photographer Rannie Turingan presented his two minute video piece at last night’s annual 20x2. The question participants had to work with was “What’s the Difference?” and Rannie’s piece is just awesome.

It doesn’t hurt that my gorgeous family is one of the 20 couples that Rannie asked to participate. Thanks, Rannie!

Where it's at

Five posts since April. It’s not as though I haven’t been busy, though the cobwebs and ne’er-do-wells sleeping in the doorway of this joint might make you think otherwise.

This isn’t one of those grandiose “return to form” posts that some people do after an incredibly long absence. I’m not going to dazzle you with months of pent up brilliance and wisdom, nor am I going to pontificate on some wildly personal jibber-jabber (thanks Frank, for bringing the jibber back).

This is more of a virtual clearing of the throat.

«ahem»

For those of you who have been patiently waiting for optimized Firefox builds, some good and bad news. The good news is I’m still planning to build and release some optimized builds, and I now have access to a G4 machine so hopefully G4 builds should make a reappearance around these parts soon.

The bad news is I upgraded all of my home machines to OS X 10.5, and wouldn’t you know it, the Firefox 2.x branch doesn’t build on OS X 10.5 without patching. I’ve managed to successfully build Firefox 2.0.11 but it crashes on launch. So it may be a little while before updated builds are available.

In the meantime, I’m working on writing down a step-by-step “how to build optimized versions of Firefox” for your incredibly geeky enjoyment. It should be up before the holidays are completely upon us, assuming I manage to eke out enough sleep to remain semi-human.

Speaking of which, if anyone has any tips on getting a six-month old baby to stop waking up every two hours at night I’d sure be thankful.

C’est tout.

iPhoning it in and a Quicksilver tip

Seeing how it’s all about the quick fixes these days (with the bulk of my time taken up with more pleasant pursuits), I wanted to take a minute to spew out some random nerd potpourri.

To iPhone, or not to iPhone

I got a chance this afternoon to finally play around a bit with an iPhone, and from the brief time that I had to play with it I was very impressed. I think one thing that was really striking is how familiar the whole interface felt even though the only exposure I’ve had to its UI was via online video and some photos. Within seconds of getting my greasy, greedy fingers on it I was happily pinching and flipping and scrolling around like there was no tomorrow.

Seeing how no one has (yet) unlocked the iPhone to work on any non-AT&T GSM networks, I have to try and determine if it’s a worthwhile risk to buy one and use it solely as a WiFi-enabled iPod. One big plus is Toronto Hydro’s OneZone, which has adequate enough coverage that it could work fairly well as a replacement for Roger’s stupidly expensive EDGE network. It’s only $29 a month for unlimited access, too, so it’s not an expensive option.

The one concern I have with buying one now is the possibility that Apple may not be able to prod Rogers (Canada’s sole GSM provider) to loosen their grip on their bandwidth charges, Right now with Rogers for $5 a month extra you get a measly 5mbs of data transfer. The double kick in the balls is:

This is only WAP data - HTML pages are charged at 0.05 per kilobyte. This means that downloading the HTML version of the Globe and Mail’s front page (weighing in at 1.14mbs total) would cost me 58 dollars if my math is correct.
This is only a limited list of “mobile internet partners” — any WAP site not on this list is charged at the 0.05 per kb rate.

With AT&T offering unlimited data for all of their plans, Rogers’ price gouging is just fucking ridiculous.

So my concern is that Apple may end up giving Rogers a big middle finger and go with one of the CDMA providers (Bell Mobility, Telus, etc.) instead. Yes, there isn’t a CDMA iPhone yet, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. This would leave any early Canadian adopters who purchased one of the GSM iPhones hoping for an eventual Rogers / Apple deal cellular-less and sad-faced.

Sure, this is all conjecture at this point. Who knows, maybe Rogers might actually capitulate to Apple and completely revamp their data pricing. If I do end up buying an iPhone now I will definitely have to hope so, less I end up with a very expensive WiFi iPod with a useless phone feature.

Quicksilver tip: Assign quick keys based on the current application

I love the fact that I’ve been using Quicksilver nearly since it was first released and I still keep finding new stuff it can do. Here’s a tip I found recently: you can assign quick keys in Quicksilver on a per-application basis.

I recently implemented John Gruber’s killer non-top posting applescripts for Apple Mail and also followed his advice to use FastScripts to override Mail’s default menu keys and run these scripts instead.

I just realized you can do this from within Quicksilver, alleviating the need for FastScripts. The secret is when you are creating a new quick key action in Quicksilver to switch to the Scope tab in the quick key settings:

Here you can constrain the quick key to a specific application, to any application but the one you specific, or allow it to work in all applications. You can get to the Scope tab by clicking on the (i) button at the bottom right-hand corner of the Quicksilver quick key prefpane.

Hey, maybe it’s obvious, but it’s the first time I noticed it, so hopefully this is news to you, too. Anyone else have Quicksilver tips they want to share?

Alec Matthieu Ruel-Lee

World, please welcome a new addition to the global roster: our son Alec, born June 1st at 12:32 am and weighing 6 pounds, 3 ounces. For anyone who is waiting for a phone call, returned email, or smoke signal you may have to wait a while as our life shoots off into new and exciting tangential space.

We are currently accepting well wishes, offers of food, maid service, or deep tissue massages, or any tips or tricks on how to squeeze a day’s worth of sleep into 20 minutes.

All I can say is huzzah! Life is grand.