Hot Koehl

We all know most TV is pretty banal, but every now and then something comes along that provides insight, makes you think. So if you ever wondered what it’s really like to be the boss, you need to watch the latest episode of House. They’ve done an excellent job (based on my experience, anyway) capturing the reality of being in charge. Everyone looks to you to fix problems they can’t handle, and everything that goes wrong is ultimately your fault. It also gets really lonely at times. If you’re one of those people who think that the boss just sits at his/her desk and collects a big paycheck, this is a must-see.

The show’s writers and producers get extra bonus points from me for taking on the issue of healthcare, and having the stones to come right and say, “This is a business, and we need to make money.” They even couch the message in a scenario that most people should be able to appreciate from both sides. Very timely given all the discourse surrounding healthcare reform.

44 minutes, well worth it.

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If you’ve read this blog before, you know I’m a big Firefox fan. But the one problem that has dogged me is the inevitable bloat that Firefox suffers when open for long periods of time. I work in my browser all day, and after 8 hours it has usually gobbled up all the available RAM, and sucks processor cycles like a Dyson. Fortunately I’ve finally pinpointed the cause and several solutions.

Let’s start at the source. The Firefox team made a crucial usability decision, which is at the heart of the problem. They wanted to allow the user to recover any page that may have recently opened. So by default, Firefox keeps navigation history for all your open tabs, plus the last 10 tabs that you closed. The navigation history for each of those tabs — both open and closed — can hold up to a maximum of 50 pages (i.e. the number of URLs you can traverse purely through the Back/Forward buttons)

With no limit to the number of open tabs, plus the high limit on the Back/Forward navigation, it’s easy to see why Firefox slows to a crawl. If you do a lot of browsing in a lot of tabs, your memory disappears in a hurry. Managing all that extra memory causes the processor to work overtime to keep Firefox hippo moving.

There are two ways to fix this issue in a pinch. First you can simply restart the browser, making sure that it doesn’t save your tabs (you are prompted to save tabs at close by default). Second, you can clear the Recently Closed Tabs to eliminate a portion of the tab history bloat (History > Recently Closed Tabs > Clear Closed Tabs List).

For a more long-term solution, we need to mess with the system settings. Type about:config in the address bar to bring up Firefox’s complete configurations list. The latest Firefox versions present you with a warning before opening the page.

A warning: this page handles everything in your browser. Everything. Don’t mess with stuff if you don’t know what you’re doing.

In the “Filter” textbox at the top, enter

browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo

This setting controls how many closed tabs to track. Less old tabs = less memory usage. Double click the lone entry in the list and change the value from “10″ to “5.”

Back to the filter box, enter

browser.sessionhistory.max_entries

This setting controls the navigation history limit. Double click the entry and drop the value from “50″ down to “25″.

Close the about:config tab and restart your browser.

Your mileage on these tweaks will vary depending on your system specs. If you can go a day of heavy browsing without hitting the creep, slowly increment the settings back up, until you hit the sweet spot.

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Reviews for Apple’s iPad are all over the place. Personally, I feel that tablets have tried and failed enough times in the general consumer market to call the concept dead. iPad will likely find adoption in the same niche’s as its predecessors: hospitals and other similar venues where it can effectively replace a manilla folder of documents.

Instead, I find the lack of Flash support more interesting to consider. This seems like a terrible omission for a device that Jobs touts as “the best browsing experience you’ve ever had” (around 0:30). I don’t know about you, but *my* browsing experience would be far less than perfect without access to the de facto standard video streaming technology.

The decision was apparently made due to compatibility problems…

Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5.

That may be where the web world is headed, but the iPad is entering a market nowhere near that reality. This just screams classic Apple mindset. They may share the mantra “Everyone else’s stuff is crap” with Microsoft, but Apple tacks the phrase “and that’s why you can’t use it,” onto the end.

I thought that Apple had figured out the market, how to balance a closed platform in order to maintain stability and skyrocket profitability. The Flash decision definitely throws that balance off kilter, and now I’m curious to see if they’ll fall back into the decision-making style of the PC wars in the late 80’s and early 90’s (Note to the kiddies: Mac wasn’t always “cool.” They lost a lot of weight and their acne cleared up just as you entered buying age).

They can get away with dictatorial control over platforms like the iPod and iPhone because they are very focused devices. However iPad is a closer technical cousin to the laptop than the smartphone, and the last few years of App Store and iTunes revenue may be skewing their vision on this one.

My gut tells me they are using iPad to push public perception away from Flash and toward HTML5. There’s no way they’ll make such a play on the Mac platform, but the iPad offers very controlled environment to test the waters. If people (continue to) complain, they’ll publish the iPad Flash patch that they’ve already got sitting on the shelf. Trust me, it’s there.

Update: This image sums up the problem for me quite nicely.

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…I suggest you do so immediately. We’ll have a major announcement by the end of the day, and the perks that come with signing up beforehand will go away at that time. Basically this is your last chance to get into the Fwd:Vault Beta, and enjoy the perks we have planned for our beloved early adopters.

Not-so-subtle hint: Beta users will have the chance to enjoy a serious lifetime discount.

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I typically hate the random flash games that go around the web, but I stumbled on one today that’s actually pretty fun, if only because of the mechanic at work. It’s called Invisible Cursor.

The game randomly spawns targets for you to click, but you can’t see the mouse cursor, forcing you to “feel” your way to each target. You do get a quick highlight of the cursor location each time you click, but it’s really brief and is accompanied by a screen flash and the target shattering. Oh and you only have a few seconds to shoot your next target.

It’s got all the depth of most web games (i.e. none), but the effect of trying to hit targets without seeing your cursor is very similar to playing a first person shooter. Lots of motion on the screen and you need to be accurate, thus demanding fast response times and a lot of eye-hand coordination. If you suck a sniping, I suggest you play this for a while to improve your aiming skills.

My top score right now is 164 408. Feel free to brag in the comments if you beat me.

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If you still don’t have any plans this evening and will be in the downtown Philadelphia area, you’re welcome to come out and meet me at the Philly Startup Leaders next Fishbowl event. We’ll be having a roundtable discussion of sales and marketing, with Fwd:Vault as the focus. Totally free to attend, light refreshments and snacks will be provided.

Registrations are still open, but you can make a last minute appearance if that’s what works for you.

PSL Fishbowl w/ Fwd:Vault
Wednesday, January 20th @ 7:00 pm
Terra Building, Room 1107
211 South Broad St., Philadelphia, PA

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The latest and greatest version of jQuery, version 1.4, was released on January 14, the birthday of jQuery’s original launch. Bugfixes and improvements abound!

The jQuery team has put together a site devoted to the new version, called the 14 days of jQuery, covering the major version changes as well as infrastructure updates coinciding with the new release. For example, the documentation site has been completely redesigned, and been moved to it’s own subdomain home, api.jquery.com. Links from the primary jquery.com site should be updated within the next week. With video demos of new features, Q&A’s with the core team (including founder John Resig), it’s well-worth checking out for every jQuery developer.

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According to Search Engine Land, Google has been letting a “small number” of users try out a revamp to the search results page, and yours truly has been lucky enough to stumble onto it a few times. Unfortunately, the small number are only given a small chance of actually seeing the damn thing, and even a refresh will bump you out of the redesign.

Having seen it whoosh by me a few times, I was ready for it last week, and managed to poke around and snap a screenshot:

I don’t think it will do anything to stem the “spartan design” criticisms, but it definitely makes it easier to access the menagerie of advanced search functions (assuming the left nav menu becomes a permanent fixture). The chunky blocks for the “Everything” and “Search” buttons are surprisingly effective at framing the page, making the entire layout less nebulous and giving off less of that “just there” feeling. Aligning the search box with the results is another subtle touch with big impact.

The Search Engine Land article provides more screenshots and hands-on time; I’ll post more if Google decides to let everyone else look at more than 1 pageload at a time. In the meantime, compare the screenshot with the current advanced date search layout and see what you think.

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I’m usually dreadfully behind on viral sensations, so this time I’m gonna stay ahead of the curve this time.

This aired on American Idol last night:

A “Pants on the Ground” Facebook fan page followed very shortly thereafter. My wife and I saw 40,000+ fans before midnight last night.

The morning after, “Pants on the ground” is a trending Twitter topic, and usage of #pantsontheground is spiking.

I think I know why this has been picked up en masse, and it’s not just because it’s a catchy tune. More analysis when I have time to lay it out.

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I know it’s last minute, but I’ll be at the PSL Happy Hour event tonight, mostly to plug my Fishbowl event next week. I’d love for you to come on out, grab a beer, and shoot the breeze.

6:30 – 9:30 PM
MidAtlantic Restaurant and Bar
3711 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA
215-386-3711
http://www.midatlanticrestaurant.com

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