Opera and Safari pass Acid3

My favorite browser never ceases to impress me. The Opera team just announced Opera now passes Acid3. One concern I have is that apparently there was a bug in the test itself, so we'll see how that rolls out.

Btw, Safari just announced that they pass too.

Robbing is ok, when everyone does it

This is a really bizarre story: you could post a fake Craigslist ad saying someone is giving away all of their belongings, call the person out for some fake emergency meeting, and then join the mob of people who come and grab stuff from the person's house. And you won't be prosecuted even if you get caught with your hands in the dough.

Future forecast for big IT companies

You may or may not have heard this before. In a way, I think it does hold true to some extent (I'm personally growing more and more dissatisfied - and sometimes downright annoyed - with Apple products).

On the other, I can't help but point out that this whole shift of perception is only really going to apply to techie zealots. I mean, we live in a world where people think the E icon on the desktop is the Internet, that Macs are just pretty white PCs, and where a lot of people who think "Microsoft sucks" never used anything but Windows (and continue to use it, for that matter).

I don't think it's the size of the company that makes it less likable, it's how well it lives up to expectations. Microsoft has failed numerous times, notoriously in the security realm. I can see Apple failing on the customizability front, since virtually all of its products are monopolistic vendor lock-ins, but I don't see Google losing face because of privacy.

The thing about privacy, as it relates to advertising, is that what advertisers know about you affect the relevance and quality of their ads in a positive way. What could theoretically break Google is pushiness (like the Google search toolbar in Firefox, which I personally never meant to install), but their latest dip in stock prices shows they aren't as concerned with money as they are with not pissing off their users.

In summary: I expect Apple to end up somewhere close to Microsoft when it gathers a bigger client base, but I think Google is a bit smarter and forward-thinking than that.

Language popularity

Neat article about the psychology behind programming language popularity.

Steve Yegge had blogged about this around a year ago.

Fascinating study about emotions and spending

Moral: buy commercial spots for dramas.

White Hat Hackery at its best

Awesome.

Denno Coil IRL

If you ever thought Denno Coil's "augmented reality" goggles were awesome, check this out.

More speed optimization goodness from the Yahoo folks

20 more rules to speed up your sites.

Today must be room temperature day

Two noteworthy announcements: A silent solid state microchip fan (with no moving parts) and a new compressed-silicon-hydrogen compound that allows room temperature semiconductors.

Safari 3.1 is out

It's now the most standards compliant browser that is not in beta, passing 75 out of 100 acid 3 tests.

And we can now turn on the web inspector from the menu :)