Tab Candy from Firefox

Browsers have largely remained the same as far as user interface goes with the notable addition of tabs. (I love my tabs.) The Firefox team is working on a new concept called Tab Candy which would not only help you manage your tabs more efficiently, but create new ways to share information and browse with friends.

Check out the video below. Fair warning: on a geekiness scale of 10 this probably ranks at about an 8.

Actually, that’s not a bad idea. I should probably rate most of my posts on a geekiness scale and create custom RSS feeds based on each level of geekiness. That way my mom (who sometimes still calls Firefox, Foxfire, bless her heart) would read my blog without fear of coming across posts like this.

The fact that I’m discussing putting a Geekiness Scale on my blog with custom RSS feeds has just bumped this post from an 8 to a 9.

Enjoy the video (it’s probably best to watch it full-screen) and let me know what you think in the comments.

An Introduction to Firefox’s Tab Candy from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Half a billion friends on Facebook

Well lookie here. Facebook now has a half a billion (not a typo) users.

For those of you not deeply interwoven into the intricate world of social media, that’s a lot of people.

In one of the shorter blog posts to escape the company, Founder Zuckerberg gets all sentimental about things (see video below) and announces the launch of a new service, Facebook Stories which is designed to collect happy things people say about Facebook.

Tender. I wonder if he feels the same way about these people’s stories about Facebook?

If I had to wager a guess, I’d say probably not. Here’s hoping Diaspora is all it’s cracked up to be.

My Pandora experience

I’m new to Pandora. I was enjoying the service with the exception of a few skanky American Apparel ads. I’m not sure what they were advertising exactly, but it must have been some kind of shirt because the girl in the ad wasn’t wearing anything else.

Ahem.

So I shot off an email to Pandora to voice my concern/complaint about the ads.

Shortly after I got a “Thanks for your feedback, we’re looking into it”-type of response. Unsatisfied, I wrote back and asked when I should expect to hear back on how the matter was resolved. Less than 10 minutes later:

“I believe our team is working on removing this ad as I type – we serve network ads at times that sometimes slip through…that don’t meet our standards.”

Impressive. Fast. Responsive. I gave them a shout-out on Twitter. Later that day I got this:

Wait. Hang on. I complained about your company, you did the right thing and took down the ad and now you’re sending me a t-shirt? Basically.

And it came in the mail today. Along with some stickers, a hand-signed letter from the founder and, oddly, a CD* opener/cleaner contraption:

Pandora did a great job of taking what could have been very negative (this post would have been very different) and turned it into a situation where I’m telling random coworkers about Pandora’s awesomeness.

*CDs? Really? Pandora is two steps removed from CDs (CD -> MP3 -> streaming music) so it seems odd to send out a tool to help you open and clean them. But thanks just the same.

Guilty as charged

Image courtesy of Xavier Fargas

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Macbreak Weekly, and naturally the discussion was about the iPhone 4′s reception issues. (Have you noticed that I haven’t blogged a single thing about the iPhone 4?) They made a really good point about how snobby we can get when it comes to technology.

Guilty.

But in my defense, anyone who is geeky about anything is, by definition, a snob about it. At least to a certain extent.

It’s funny. It’s just four minutes long. It has only one mild swear word. It’s a good reminder. Click the link below to listen to it in your browser.

MacBreak Weekly Clip

Miscommunication with the barber

Courtesy of the U.S. Army

Dear Barber Man,

There is a significant difference between “Take 1/3″ off the top,” and “Leave a 1/3″ on the top.” Please make a note of that. Thank you.

Also, it would serve you well to take debit cards so I don’t have to go back tomorrow to pay you for this monstrosity.

Silver lining: I do feel more aerodynamic.

Sincerely,

Dave