Well, a nice short post, perhaps the shortest I’ve ever made:

Merry Christmas!

Today, I remembered of a Firefox extension I used to use, Firesomething. What Firesomething did was replace the browser’s name in the title bar with a random word. I then wondered if it was possible to choose a set browser name. And guess what? I found another extension which did just that and was FF 1.5 compatible. It is called Titlebar Tweaks, and the 1.5 version is available here.

Then what you do is to go to Tools>Extensions>Right Click Titlebar Tweaks>Options>Browser Name then in the prompt write what you want it to be. I chose Merry Mozilla Christmas!

My blog is going downhill. My Technorati rank has gone down about 500. This is probably as my blog hasn’t got as much fresh content as it once had. I’m trying to make it up though, and I believe I’m doing reasonably well.

Also, if you Google my name, I’m no longer top. This kind of makes me feel even more inferior.

I’d like to get my readers and popularity back. What do you suggest? A series of posts on blogging, perhaps? Please comment. I’d love a brazillionty of comments!

When Google Earth was launched, it was thought to most to be a nice little novelty so you can view the Empire State Building without the air fare. Now, it is frightening many nations.

Google Earth is nothing new debuting last summer, replacing Keyhole, a product Google had acquired. I used Keyhole for a month, then my free trial ran out. When it was launched as Google Earth it had various enhancements and was free.

Looking at my initial reactions in June this year (post here), I found it really great. This was due to fact it is/was.

It is very common now, yet still great. My favourite thing is making my own effects up, coming into 3D cities at certains angles, at certain zooms.

The reason it is frightening so many nation states is that it can damage their national security; showing military bases (sea Area 51 photo to the right), airports and border points. Sometimes, these are even in high details.

‘Terrorists don’t need to reconnoiter their target. Now an American company is working for them.’

Currently, all these countries can do is to protest, and ask Google to remove these images. America’s allies feel slightly concerned for their security with some photos, which is understandable for a country such as South Korea.

The United States Government has various rights other don’t. These include such things that any shot of Israel must be made at a fairly low resolution, the right to remove any image of national security and a compulsory 24hrs delay on the day it is taken to the day it is published.

I still think it is important not to just disregard Google Earth as a risk to (inter)national security. Google Earth is very useful for doing genuine tasks, such as gaining longitudes and latitudes. And the Layers are fantastic, it is nice to be able to see such things as volcanoes, earthquakes… grocery shops. Google Earth isn’t a fantastic educational tool, but a great way to burn a few minutes!

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Most of you reading this will be thinking to yourself WTF is IPv6. IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is attempting to replace what we currently use, IPv4 (IPv5 was experimental). IP addresses in IPv6 are very different to the current ones we use. IPv4 only has 4,294,967,295 possible addresses, however many of these are reserved for such things as LANs and Multicasts.

Below is standard IPv4 address representations:

Dotted Decimal (normal): 207.142.131.235
Dotted Hexadecimal:0xCF.0×8E.0×83.0xEB
Dotted Octal 0317.0216.0203.0353
Decimal:3482223595
Hexadecimal:0xCF8E83EB

Currently, IPv6 addresses are written as something such as 2001:0db8:85a3:08d3:1319:8a2e:0370:7334 . Which one is easier? An IPv4 one. However, domain names are fully supported in IPv6. Not many ISPs provide an IPv6 tunnel.

Not many sites are available on IPv6, however if you wish to access one which is I suggest you use the IPv4Gate, it is the bottom collection of sites. The top one is for IPv6 users to access IPv4.

Don’t worry too much if you don’t understand, IPv6 is only due to really replace IPv4 in 2025.