As we now well know, the Internet is serious business.

And to further clarify the point, the Guinness organization (World Records, not beer) has now given the title of "most downloads in a 24-hour period" to Mozilla, which hurled 8,002,530 copies of its Firefox 3 browser into cyberspace on June 17.

"As the arbiter and recorder of the world's amazing facts, Guinness World Records is pleased to add Mozilla's achievement to our archives," Gareth Deaves, Guinness' records manager, said in a statement.
While "Download Day," as Mozilla branded it, may have been a bit of a publicity stunt, it's still a pretty hefty achievement; this is the biggest launch to a piece of software, free or otherwise, in the history of the series of tubes that we have come to know as the Internet.

So how do things stand? Net Applications gave Firefox 3 2.31 percent market share for the entire month of June, compared with 4.28 percent for Safari 3.1, 16.13 percent for Firefox 2, 26.38 percent for Internet Explorer 6, and 46.45 percent for the Internet's 400 lb. gorilla, Internet Explorer 7.

And to the longtime users of IE, we have some advice: try Firefox for a week. Install some plug-ins. You may never go back. [Source: CNET]

Do you ever wish you could find out how an offer you've received at a new job compares to other salaries in the company? Or what what other companies are paying for the same position? Wouldn't you like to hear about management styles and working environment before you sign on the dotted line?

The just-launched Glassdoor.com offers you the chance to see what salaries at various companies are like and what people think of their employers. It's already possible (and free) to see what Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft employees think of their workplaces, and what they're paid, but if you want to know about other companies, you'll have to cough up your own information.

Everything is anonymous, but getting you to hand over your salary information in exchange for seeing what others are getting paid is how Glassdoor plans to keep expanding its pool of data and make sure its information is accurate. [Source: Cnet and TechCrunch]

While it may not feel quite like the Wild West anymore, the Internet is still full of people looking to rip you off -- the anonymity and secretive nature of online dealings makes them much more prone to fraud than in the real world. We've compiled a list of the top threats to your security lurking around the Internet -- and what you can do to avoid them.


The threat: The upcoming presidential election

The problem: All of the presidential candidates accept donation contributions online -- but be careful. Extremist supporters have been using "typo-domains" that mimic the Web site of a political rival; when the contributions come in, they're either pocketed or contributed to someone else's campaign. GOP Presidential nominee Ron Paul's campaign received funds from five hundred stolen credit cards, which were stolen from Frost bank; investigators discovered overseas thieves used Paul's site to test the stolen cards with $5 contributions.

How to protect yourself: Don't reply to the email -- and don't click the links inside it, either. Want to make an online donation? Google the name of your candidate of choice, go to his or her official site, and donate away ...

Now that the hang over from New Year's Eve has worn off, it's time to get down to the business of tackling those New Year's resolutions you foolishly made. Of course, the biggest problem with resolutions is finding the motivation and organizational system to make you stick to your guns. Thankfully there are Web sites such as Lifehacker looking out for you. The productivity-focused site has some advice and a healthy helping of (primarily Web-based) ways to track your progress.

The first piece of advice is to utilize management expert Peter Drucker's S.M.A.R.T. system. S.M.A.R.T is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely, which really doesn't need any further explanation.

When it comes to tracking your progress and keeping yourself motivated, you'll find a wealth of options, including two highly flexible Web apps suggested at the beginning of 2007: Backpack (a Wiki-like note-taking tool, to-do list and calendar app) and Joe's Goals (a daily checklist of objectives).

There are also two new weight-loss-specific sites added this year: Traineo, which tracks your diet and exercise with a bit of social-networking thrown in to keep you motivated, and Daily Plate, which lets you look up and track not just your caloric intake, but also your fat and carbohydrate consumption.

For those with resolutions that are more fiscal in nature, Lifehacker suggests taking Mint for a spin. Mint will let you set budgets and track your spending. These tasks are made all the more easy since Mint can automatically pull in financial data from your bank accounts and credit cards.

We'd also like to suggest Remember The Milk (RTM) (pictured above), a very flexible and full-featured task management site. RTM even has a newly released Firefox extension that integrates your to-do list with Gmail, making your daily goals unavoidable every time you check your e-mail.

Good luck and Happy New Year!

From Lifehacker


Related Links:

• 'Operation New Year's Eve': Support Service Men and Women Via Text Message
• E-Mail, Text Messages, IMs Cost The US $650 Billion in 2006
• Meet Sandy Your New Assistant

Adobe Flash Player just got a bit of an upgrade the other day, one affectionately known as 'Moviestar.' The third update to Flash 9 adds a couple of features that may not immediately mean that much to the average user -- support for the H.264 codec, AAC audio support, and hardware graphics acceleration.

So what does that mean for you, the web-video-obsessed public? It means a much greater quality video experience is on the way. Supporting H.264 (the same codec used by Quicktime) means that HD video in your browser is just around the corner. Imagine watching that great video of the skateboarding dog in 1080 lines of resolution. The hardware acceleration in the update also means that better quality video rendering and scaling to full screen will finally make it possible to watch YouTube videos not only in high-def, but also in full-screen high def. These features are even available in the Linux version, which is the first time Adobe has kept the Linux version of Flash current with the Windows and Mac versions.

The only problem is the current version of Flash CS3, the application used for building Flash based applications, players and sites, doesn't support the new features, and no time table for an update has been set by Adobe.

From BetaNews

Related links:

• Christian YouTube is the Fastest Growing Site the Net
• How to Watch TV Online - For Free
• YouTube's Online Editing Tools