Update Itronix IX-250 and IX-260 GPS

Posted on September 16, 2008
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I get a ton of emails and alot of responses to the original article about my Itronix laptops so today I went in and did a new comment to address the most common questions I get asked.

I found the rest of the drivers in my archive and uploaded those as well so if anyone still needs them please do not hesitate to ask.

In my post located here Itronix Laptop I outline some important “basic” stuff regarding the GPS configuration and Hard Drive updates for the Itronix laptops. Its important to note that the Itronix IX-260 will take any standard 2.5 HD providing you are not attempting to keep the rugged nature of the machine. If however you are then its best to get the IBM rugged drives which can be spendy but have sizes up to 120GB last time I checked.

Google Launches New Browser – CHROME!

Posted on September 4, 2008
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Google launches the beta version of the first new web browser to show up on the scene in many years which Google calls “Chrome”. The new browser borrows many facets and features from similar open source projects and packs in what Google calls a better engine for increased speed, security and web application support.

Built in part using Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox components, the new browser has many promising or should I say aspiring prospects for its future. Google developers set out to build a new web browser with “Today’s Web” in mind. One of the most interesting features is that Chrome comes with a unique way of handling potential browser crashes by opening each tab in its own process in hopes that the tab will ultimately crash and not the browser. I could not get the browser to crash in my tests even when sites with lots of AJAX and other events that notoriously cause FireFox to buckle under the pressure. More testing will tell. Naturally this method does not come without its scrutiny from what I’ve read in blogs regarding this feature. Objective analysis, abusive bad mouthing, or just rant, there seems to be no shortage blog posts pointing out the likes and dislikes behind this feature, some claiming is still quite buggy. Regardless I think the idea behind it is solid and certainly appreciated having had too many browser crashes and losses of data in the past. Tabbed browsing isn’t a luxury, its a necessity. Thanks FireFox for that introduction.

Moving on, a key feature the Google developers articulate in the following video is the Chrome Browsers ability to handle web applications more efficiently. Upon casual examination I did notice an increase speed when visiting a few of my frequented JavaScript / AJAX rich sites. Having examined this for only an hour or so, I did notice there was no clear way to discern if a site had JavaScript errors or not as I’m sure there must be.

Regardless of those initial reviews, to me, Google’s Chrome is what one would expect from a the worlds most prolific search engine. The application feels clean cut, to the point and light which is more pronounced when contrasted against memory hogs like FireFox. Loads fast, runs fast, and its just plain simple to use gives me yet another browser I must test sites in before calling them done; but, is it compliant?

Google Chrome and CSS XHTML Compliance

Having visited a few dozen client sites with the Google Chrome Web Browser revealed none of the expected CSS and or XHTML issues I was sure would toss it a curve ball. From the infamous box model to browser handling of hover events, the Google Web Browser was equally matched to any of the existing compliant browsers.

Today’s designers are ever increasing their adoption of what is known as the CSS RESET introduced by Yahoo and quasi perfected by Eric Meyers known as the Ultimate CSS RESET. The CSS RESET is simply a summary of CSS selectors and declarations specifically built to bring all browsers to the same position on a level playing field. Having used the CSS RESET in all of my work since February of this year, I’ve come to depend on it and any new browser that could threaten the reliability of its use was my initial concern after downloading and installing Google Chrome. I was happy to discover that I wasn’t able to find an issue as of yet. Yippee!

Google Chrome and Security

Beta products can have beta bugs and as expected security issues had been discovered within hours of its beta release. Google developers pride themselves on security as being one of the new browsers foremost note worthy and important features. However security experts, keen on finding problematic security issues (I wish I knew how they did that so quickly) wasted little time in publishing their findings upon discovery just hours after the beta release. I don’t know enough in this regard to comment much further but I will be watching the development closely as a result.

Google Chrome vs these other guys

Where would Google Chrome eventually end up in relation to Internet Explorer – FireFox – Safari – Opera and others I wondered. It is my hope that with Google’s super massive marketing machine and all knowing all seeing web-o-sphere of power that this new browser grow in popularity so fast that it will put some of my least favorite browsers in the dumpster. I’d love to point out all the dozens of reasons why IE-6 is the worst browser on the web, but that has already been done a billion and a half times. In the design business frustrations with IE are par for the course and now that IE is in the midst of launching IE version 8, keeping pace with its past practices, IE will deliver the new browser with some new problems for designers to handle according to the IE blog. Naturally no one in their right mind can stress the need to keep 4.0 and 5.0 browsers in any analysis as both are dead sticks used only by those living in the sticks. No pun intended.

I’m not anti Microsoft for sure, but the birth place of IE was not to deliver a great product it was developed to bury Netscape and having been built with vengeance as a motive its no wonder why it has been substandard from its birth. IE and Netscape were key factors in the anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft if you recall. Therefore, seeing IE lose a chunk more of the market share will not force me into sleepless nights.

It is my hope that the new Google Chrome Browser will catch so much positive buzz on the web that people will download it, use it and make it their primary browsing tool. I personally am going to start using it in addition to FireFox as not to be a hypocrite. Go check it out Google Chrome at your earliest convenience.


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