Lab with Leo Laporte: Demoing Firefox 3 and an (Emulated) Trip Down Memory Lane
Some ways back in the haze that was 2007, I was a guest on a few episodes of the Lab with Leo Laporte show. When I was visiting, I did two brief segments – one on Hiveminder and another on Free Software/Open Source.
I'll be going back next week to record another few segments. This time, I'll be doing a demo of Firefox 3 and giving a brief overview of emulators for legacy PCs.
For the curious, my (very) draft talking points follow. Suggestions are welcome, but keep in mind that these are six minute segments that need to include introductions, friendly chatter and so on.
Firefox 3: From a Sprint to a Marathon
This segment is meant to give viewers a quick overview of the major changes in Firefox. I'll provide a two-or-three sentence intro to Firefox that sums up history, community model, use and current state. The rest of the segment, I'll focus on the major features of and enhancements to Firefox 3:
- UI improvements - as these look nice to show. In particular:
- Better interface
- Zoom features
- Bookmark enhancements
- Security enhancements
- One click site info
- Virus and malware protection
- Mention the performance, stability, etc. improvements
I'll support with graphs and other visuals where I can.
As I'm not that involved with the Firefox 3 dev process, I'm working up a screencast. This should make it easy for the Firefox team to help me not suck on our behalf on TV. :)
I'll point viewers to:
- http://getfirefox.com for getting their copy of Firefox 3
- http://addons.mozilla.org for getting add-ons
- http://www.mozilla.org/projects/ to find other cool Mozilla project software
- http://mozilla.com to learn more about the innovative company that coordinates the Firefox development process
The Ghosts of Computers Past: An (Emulated) Trip Down Memory Lane
Most geeks have a soft spot for their first PC, be it a Sinclair ZX81, a Commodore 64 or an Apple ][
I'll:
- acknowledge that emulators are a well-known concept (but still provide a sentence or two overview (if Leo doesn't)
- List off some of the emulators available - focusing on the most common systems of the past: Apple, C64, Sinclair, VIC20, … (Note: I need to =research what the nostalgia PCs are in Australia. The Lab with Leo is broadcast there and I don't know what machines tug on our Southern friends heartstrings.)
- Talk about why the people like playing with emulators:
- Nostalgia - you never forget your first computer :)
- Learning - simple systems that are easy to study
- Show off Power64, a Commodore64 emulator. Start it up. Load a disk image.
- Possibly show off another emulator - perhaps for the ZX81
I need to collect a good set of emulator and vintage PC resources.
Link Summary
- http://www.labwithleo.com/notes/96/#1263
- http://www.labwithleo.com/notes/99/#1294
- http://www.labwithleo.com
- http://hiveminder.com
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source
- http://getfirefox.com
- http://addons.mozilla.org
- http://www.mozilla.org/projects/
- http://mozilla.com
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Posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 23:28
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January 23rd, 2008 at 19:50
Leo's a big Mac fan, and a while back kinda ragged on Firefox for not looking Mac native, and for not being as speedy on Mac. So I'd really spend time talking on performance, focusing on several angles: rendering speed, memory usage, and data reliability. I'd also show him Proto.
After that, a lot of the changes are pretty easy to show off. The awesomebar. Some of the new extensibility potential with Weave. The zoom stuff. The new download manager. The changes to the add-ons manager (more coming by next tuesday!). The EV stuff. Go nuts.
January 24th, 2008 at 12:58
Thanks Beltzner! I'll bounce some screencasts off of you (and others) in the near future as well.
January 31st, 2008 at 15:17
I picked up a flu in Seattle that nixed the screencasts, but the other preparations went well (and Leo's like of Firefox 3 made the segment much better.) The show should go live sometime in April.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:42
[...] with Leo Laporte TV Show: I prepared and then presented a brief Firefox 3 segment on the show. Many thanks to the Mozilla Corporation team for their help. Additionally, I worked up a set of [...]