After using Fedora Core 9 for some time I feel that I have the right to wine a little bit.

Firefox Release Candidate 1 is available for download and I decided to give it a go. My first impressions are quite positive - performance is must better on the same machine, the design has been improved and they have added quite a few usability features.

Microsoft is developing a command line environment, which they call PowerShell. I read some negative feedback, but it looks rather interesting and powerful. The main difference from traditional Unix approach is that the commands do not communicate via standard input/output channels, but rather export and consume objects with properties. These properties can be queried and eventually actioned upon.

Since I heard about first release of Mozilla browser, and the fact, that most of it was written in JavaScript and XUL, I thought about creating a web testing tool, which would use Mozilla-based browser to test web site functionality automatically.

The tool would automatically visit every link on every page and would try to click every button and so on. The tool should be configurable via some sort of script language. In the end the human user would be presented with a report.

As I wrote in a recent entry, the troubled PC maker Dell was facing more problems with their explosive laptop batteries. Now it is revealed, that the faulty equipment was provided by Sony, which now faces problems as well.

As a

My site exports Google Sitemap, using a module for Drupal. I find it quite amazing, that every time I add content, Google actually go and download the sitemap and then the new content! I guess it is still not very popular, so they can afford to devote quite a lot of resources for individual updates of sites with low rank.

Another, this time much more serious problem, for Dell. According to all major news sources, the computer manufacture is recalling more than 4 million laptop batteries due to safety reasons.

Personally, I never liked Dell's laptops, always preferring IBM's.

According to a BBC article Dell gave false information in some of its advertisements. They claim it was a genuine mistake in one of their sales brochures, but it didn't save them from being sued. This is not surprising at all, given the number of desperate lawyers in the US.

According to this blog, some Chinese engineers claim, that they managed to reverse-engineer the protocol, used in Skype VoIP products. They are also said to be developing an example application implementing the protocol, which will be able to communicate with other Skype clients.

What is Runet?

Runet is basically Russian Internet.  Or, to be more verbose, it is the network of sites, publishing context in Russian language.  While some consider only the web sites in the top level domain .ru as the true Runet, it is more acceptable to view other sites as part of it, as long as they are in Russian.  This, for example, includes a huge number of Russian-speaking m