liam getreu

I’ve started using a sort-of new browser today, called Flock. I’ve tried it before, but didn’t really give it much of a try before going back to my dearly beloved Firefox.

But in the last few days Flock has entered its first Beta release, version 0.7b. So in my perennial pursuit of browser happiness I decided to give the self-proclaimed Web 2.0 browser another shot.

Flock is based on the Firefox source, so it’s very similar: tabbed browsing, extensions, themes, popup blocker, easy search interface and more but it seems that Flock does all of those and a few more things, too.

Things like far easier integration with Web 2.0 websites and ideals. Take Flickr for example: when I started up Flock for the first time, it asked me for my Flickr username and password (as well as del.icio.us and my blog, and a number of other services I elected not to use) so it could use a little button on the interface to make it easier to browse my pictures, and also those of my contacts.

But it seems as though it only gets better — it also has such good use of RSS feeds that I’m able to get all of the blogs and news services that I read and put them into a handy page that Flock generates for me.

There do seem to be a couple of problems, though. Like when Flock started up for the first time and self-imported all my bookmarks, history, passwords and all that jazz, it didn’t quite do the bookmarks correctly. If I understand perfectly, bookmarks are used in conjunction with del.icio.us. I don’t use del.icio.us all that much, only really for some bookmarks that I want to share and when I experiment, so it doesn’t look like it’ll be much use to me, but I definitely want all of my toolbar bookmarks back!

Some of the interface’s features also seem to be a little slow. Flock comes with in in-built interface which makes it easy to blog straight into most blog software and websites. Sometimes, though, Flock takes a little while to respond. I might type, or add some formatting to my blog post, and it takes some time to get going. I have a feeling that those bugs will be ironed out in due course, but.

Flock’s blog interface does have one outstanding feature that I’m still getting used to — when you find a piece of text, or an image that you like (be it from Cyberspace or Flickr) you add it to the ‘Snippets’ bar for later. Then, when the time comes, just drag and drop the item into the blog window, or any form on the Web.

Some of the new features will take some time to get used to, but overall it looks like Flock could be a nice little app that’s worth following.

However, as positive as my mini-review has been thus far, I have decided that I won’t be latching onto the Flock bandwagon. There were a few things that I thought I could get used to, that I just haven’t been able to shake. Call them old habits.

As much as I would like to rid myself of the crummy Google Reader that I’ve been using on-and-off, trying to find the alternative that may well be Flock, I can’t forgive a few simple problems with it. Simple, yet crucial to my web experience.

For one, to close a tab on Firefox, there’s a little “X” at the end of the tabs. I’ve become used to it. On Flock it’s next to each tab, which is very off putting.

And the other, more important, yet equally trivial difficulty I have is with bookmarks. Because it uses del.icio.us as a base, it is impossible to make sub-folders making the toolbar that I’ve slaved over for hours unworkable. It’s a shame, I know, to let such little factors decide my web experience. Petty, even. But I guess that makes me petty then.

Back to Firefox for me; but only until Flock changes those few things. Then I’m back on baord in an instant.

I’ve taken a bit of a fancy to hoaxes in my time. Usually it’s silly e-mails about winning free Nokia phones by forwarding an e-mail to umpteen people, or how Fuji left Israel off the map just to piss the Zionists off and keep the Arab nations on its side. It’s all a load of, well, to be honest, crap.

But finally there’s a hoax that you can really soak your teeth into. That’s right, I’m speaking of the supposed shelling of a Gaza beach by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). Seriously, it never happened — there are loads of moral, structural safeguards in place within the IDF to insure that silly things like this never happen. It makes the IDF one of the more moral and ‘fair’ armies in the world. You know, comparatively.

It appears that a report to be released today, and obtained by Channel 2 in Israel shows that the shell remnants found in bodies on the beach are very different to the shells used by the IDF. So, does that mean it wasn’t the Israelis? I think not. The report also says that the explosion was most likely caused by “an explosive charge, buried by Palestinians on the Gaza beach to prevent Israeli infiltration”.

Do you think Israel will get an apology from the world for this one? Again, I think not.

I have digested (see Ali G’s speech to Harvard students to understand the joke)… big time. Again, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged, and no excuse yet again. I fear that I have now lost my dedicated readership. It may well have halved from two to one. Oh well. Sorry guy(s).

The reason for my posting though is a very interesting campaign by the National party in New Zealand. There are a couple of billboards being posted around NZ to get people to vote National. Jonas Bergler’s blog “no tales” has the word along with some amusing original piccies, and a couple of spin-offs, too.