With about 40 bugs identified since Release Candidate 1 (RC1), it appears that version 3.0 is imminent. But instead of releasing the stable version with all of the bug fixes now, Mozilla opted to hold off because of the remaining server-side and website-related issues.

I use RC1 and don’t plan on switching. I especially love the bookmarking feature to keep track of my favorite sites. With one simple bookmark, you only need to click once on the blue star in the URL box. How easy is that?

According to recent data from Net Applications, Firefox has a 18.4 percent share of the browser market, although Internet Explorer still is king with 73.8 percent. Apple Safari is slowly, but surely, creeping up with 6.3 percent. The data also predicts that Firefox could top 20 percent next month.

Just a note: Dogpaw Studio tests all of our client’s new websites on Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari on both PC and Mac.

Wow. No more hassles with emailing documents as attachments and worrying about document versions. Now you can work on a centralized document with all of your team members or clients.

What a great idea; leave it to Google to implement it. True, it’s another account with a username and password to remember (see my tips on picking passwords), but it might be worth your while if you work in teams.

I’ve tried it, and it works great. You can even upload existing spreadsheets or documents and store them securely. Invite others to log in and make updates to your documents together - in real time. All you need is internet access.

Isn’t the world wide web an interesting and useful place? This is just another example of how you can make the internet work for you.

You might want to give it shot - Google Docs.

Don’t get caught with your pants down when your computer crashes. There are numerous methods you can employ to organize and back up your computer files. I even find myself refining my backup strategy periodically. There’s also the constant struggle to organize local and offsite backups. What happens if there’s a local natural disaster? With a remote backup, you can have Aunt Stella FedEx your external backup hard drive from Australia and you’re all set.

Most of your files are likely in your My Documents folder (Windows) or Home directory (Mac and Linux). But do you know where your email messages are? Your applications? Your pictures? You’d better find out.

Here are some tips:

• Back up your email. A quick search on Google for “email backup software” results in numerous listings, but the one I have personal experience with is for Macs called MailSteward ($49.95). You can download a demo that archives up to 3,000 emails. It even includes a scheduler that automatically archives emails without you having to lift a finger. With email archiving software, you can store those thousands of messages you want to keep without clogging up your email server.
• Back up all your files. General purpose backup software can be configured to selectively back up your important files to external hard drives or even remote servers. You just need to organize your files, possibly buy some extra hard drives, and schedule your backups, and you can rest easy knowing that disaster recovery is just a few clicks away. My backup software of choice is ChronoSync ($30), because it can synchronize two hard drives - delete or change files on the master drive, and the copy automatically mirrors those changes.
• Make a bootable backup of your computer. Let’s say your computer crashes. No worries with a bootable backup drive. All you have to do is start up from your bootable drive and continue working. In other words, a bootable drive includes your operating system, applications, files, and preferences. It’s literally a mirror image of your regular working hard drive. Backing up all your files/documents is a great start, but when your main hard drive crashes, you not only have to copy all your files, but also reinstall all of your software and preferences. What a pain! Unfortunately, ChronoSync doesn’t create bootable drives, so I use SuperDuper! ($27.95). Confirm that the hard drive you’re using is a compatible bootable drive for your operating system.

The hackers somehow obtained the username and password for Comcast’s domain name registration account with NetworkSolutions. They logged into Comcast’s account and updated the settings to redirect their home page.

According to sources at NetworkSolutions, Comcast’s account was not hacked nor compromised. Currently, it’s unclear as to how they acquired the username and password.

I’m taking away a valuable lesson from this unfortunate incident: Guard my usernames and passwords with my life. I’ll continue to use my encrypted password manager software, 1Password. Another effective option is to periodically change passwords associated with sensitive accounts.

Here are some basic tips on how to avoid these scams:

• Don’t reply to or click on links in emails that ask for personal, financial, or account information.
• Check the message headers. The From: address and the Return-path should reference the same source.
• Instead of clicking on the links in emails, go to the websites directly by typing the web address into your browser, cutting and pasting it, or using bookmarks.
• If on a secure page, look for “https” at the beginning of the URL and the padlock icon in the browser.
• Keep your computer’s antivirus, spyware, browser, and security patches up to date, and regularly run system scans.
• Review your accounts regularly and check for unauthorized activity.
• Use a browser that has a phishing filter (Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Opera).

Incidentally, U.S. Postal Service rates just increased again, which means rates have gone up nearly 24 percent since 2001.

Save the paper, ink, and postage, and send email with attachments to provide information and documents (PDFs). Use hyperlinks within emails to refer to pages on your company websites. Rather than mass marketing through snail mail, email marketing is more efficient and easier to track.

Here’s the best part: You can choose Dogpaw Web Hosting to run your website on sustainable wind power.

The government just released a new report saying that wind energy could generate 20 percent of the country’s electricity by the year 2030. That’s the same amount that nuclear reactors currently generate. Rather than a prediction, the report merely concludes that this growth is possible, although there would be many challenges to achieving it along the way. Only 1 percent of the nation’s electricity comes from wind power today, so an increase to 20 percent would require major improvements to the wind energy infrastructure.

Sure, this would take a lot of work, but it would be worth it. We’d decrease our natural gas consumption by 11 percent and our coal consumption by 18 percent by 2030. “This is the equivalent of taking 140 million cars off the road,” said Andrew Karsner, the Energy Department’s assistant secretary for efficiency and renewable energy.

Help us support wind-powered energy by opting for sustainable Dogpaw Web Hosting.

Any application called Shredder has to be good, right? The underlying engine that runs Thunderbird 3, Gecko 1.9, touts more than 10,000 updates related to improved performance and stability and more.

One of the cool aspects of Mozilla products is the ability to customize the user experience by using what they call Add-ons. Thunderbird 3 will make it even easier to customize the application using the new Add-ons Manager.

I’m particularly excited about the update that lets you run Thunderbird 3 natively on Macs and integrate with the Mac OS X system Address Book.

Read more about this Alpha 1 release: http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/3.0a1/releasenotes/

Fortunately, two House members have asked Charter to put this deal on hold, as they question whether this “spying” complies with federal privacy laws.

Spooky, isn’t it? It’s creepy just thinking about this ad company knowing exactly what websites I’m visiting, and who knows what else they’ll find out about me? The internet is about the free exchange of information, but is this going too far? I wonder what my ISP is up to these days …

We’re reinforcing our commitment to go green and buy local. We offer various hosting plans to accommodate all of our clients’ website needs, including brochure sites, blogs, forums, shopping carts, and content management systems.

Read more about our green hosting plans.