Written by zenhabits.net

Everyone knows that our school system, in general, is not giving our kids the basic reading, writing, ‘rithmatic and science skills needed to be competitive in the high-tech workforce of the upcoming generation (at least, that’s the general assumption, and we won’t argue it here).

But there’s much more to life than those basic subjects, and unless you have an exceptional teacher who is willing to break out of the mold, your child isn’t learning the crucial things he or she needs to learn in life.

Think about your own experience for a moment. When you got out of high school, did you know everything you needed in order to survive in life, let alone succeed? If you were lucky, you knew how to read and had some basic history and math skills, and if you were even luckier, you had good study habits that would serve you well in college.

But were you prepared for life? Most likely not, unless you had parents who did you that favor. In fact, many of us screwed up our early adult lives because we didn’t know those skills – and we’re paying the consequences now.

That’s a part of life, you might say, learning these lessons. But it’s also possible to prepare your child a bit before they go out on their own, and if we can’t get the schools to teach these skills, then let’s do it ourselves.

What follows is a basic curriculum in life that a child should know before reaching adulthood. There will probably be other skills you can add to this list, but at least it’s a starting point.

A note on how to teach these things: These subjects should not be taught by lectures or textbooks. They can only be taught by setting examples, by conversation, by showing, and by allowing the child (or teenager) to do these things on their own (with supervision at first). Once you’ve talked about the skill, showed your child how to do it, and let them do it under supervision a few times, give your child the trust to do it on his own, and to learn from his own mistakes. Check back every now and then to talk about what he’s learned.

Financial

• Saving. Spend less than you earn. It’s such a simple maxim, and yet very few young adults understand it or know how to follow it. Teach your child from a young age to put part of money he receives or earns in the bank. Teach him how to set a savings goal, and save for it, and then purchase whatever it is he was saving for.
• Budgeting. Many of us dread this task as adults, and suffer because of it, because we lack the understanding and skills necessary to make budgeting a breeze. Teach them simple budgeting skills, and what’s involved, and they won’t have problems as an adult. You could wait until teenage years to do something like this – but it’s a good thing because this shows them why basic math is necessary.
• Paying bills. Give them bills to pay and have them pay it on time, online or in the real world. Learn how to write a check, paper and online, and how to make sure that you’re never late with bills again – either pay them immediately or automatically.
• Investing. What is investing and why is it necessary? How do you do it and what are different ways of doing it? How do you research an investment? How does it compound over time? This is a good conversation to have with your teen.
• Frugality. This is something to teach them from an early age. How to shop around to get a good deal, to compare between products of different prices and quality, to make things last and not waste, to cook at home instead of eating out too much, to control impulse buying. When we go out and do a shopping spree, including before Christmas, we are teaching them just the opposite.
• Credit. This is a major problem for many adults. Teach them the responsible use for credit, and how to avoid it when it’s not necessary, and how to avoid getting into too much debt, and how to use a credit card responsibly.
• Retirement. Is it better to work hard and retire or to take mini-retirements throughout life? That’s a personal question, but your child should be aware of the options and the pros and cons of each, and how to do each. Why it’s important to start investing in retirement when you’re young, and how much of a difference that can make through compound interest. How to do it automatically.
• Charity. Why this is an important use of your money, and how to make it a regular habit. This should be not only a financial issue, but a social one. Show them how to volunteer their time and effort as well.

Thinking

• Critical thinking. One of the most important skills not taught in school. These days, we are taught to be robots, to listen to the teacher and not to question, to accept what we are told and not to think, to be good employees and to shut up. If you’re an employer, you might want your employees to be like this, and if you’re a politician, you might want your citizens to be like this. But is that how you want your child to be? An unquestioning, naive, ignorant citizen/employee/student? If so, carry on. If not, just start introducing the habit of questioning why? And the skill of find out the answer. And how to question authority – there is no one right answer. Conversation is a good way to accomplish this skill.
• Reading. Sure, we’re taught to read. But schools most often make this boring. Show your child the wonderful imaginative worlds there are out there. And show them how to find out about stuff in the world through the Internet, and how to evaluate what they read for credibility, logic, factualness.

Success

• Positive thinking. While critical thinking is an important skill, it’s also important to have a positive outlook on life. Sure, things may be screwed up, but they can be changed for the better. Find solutions instead of complaints. And most of all, learn to believe in yourself, and to block out negative self-thinking.
• Motivation. Learn that discipline isn’t the key to achieving a goal, but motivation. How to motivate yourself, different strategies, and how great it feels to achieve a goal. Start them with small, easily achievable goals, and let them develop this skill.
• Procrastination. It’s a problem we all deal with as adults (and even as kids). Now, I believe that there should be a time for goofing off, being lazy, and having fun. But when there’s something to do that we really need to do, how do we get ourselves to do it? Learn the reasons behind procrastination, and how to address them. How to beat procrastination.
• Passion. One of the most important ways to be successful is to find something you’re passionate about, and do that for a living. Your child won’t know the answer at a young age, but you should show her how to find her passion and how to pursue it, and why that’s important.

Social

• Anti-competition. As kids, we’re taught how to be competitive. In the adult world, that’s how we behave. And that results in back-stabbing, undercutting, feelings of resentment, and other life-affirming things like that. Instead, teach your child how there is room for many people to be successful, and how you’re more likely to be successful if you help others to be successful, and how they’ll help you in return. Learn that making friends and allies is better than making enemies, and how to do that. Learn cooperation and teamwork before competition.
• Compassion. Not taught in the schools at all. In fact, instead of teaching children how to empathize with others and try to ease their suffering, our schools often teach children to increase the suffering of others. Learn to put yourself in the shoes of others, to try to understand them, and to help them end their suffering.
• Love. Compassion’s twin brother, love differs only in that instead of wanting to ease the suffering of others, you want their happiness. Both are crucial.
• Listening. Are our children taught how to listen in school? Or how to talk at someone. Perhaps that’s why many adults don’t have this critical skill. Learn how to truly listen to someone, to understand what they’re saying, to empathize.
• Conversation. Goes hand-in-hand with listening, but the art of conversation is something that isn’t taught in school. In fact, kids are taught that conversation is bad in most cases. But in most cases, a conversation is what is needed, not a lecture. This is an extremely important social skill that should start in the home. Learn to converse with your child instead of talk at him.

Practical

• Auto. Why cars are needed (no, not to look cool), how to buy a practical car, how to take care of it. How the engine works, what might break down, and how it’s fixed. Should be taught to both boys and girls (that should be obvious, but I had to say it).
• Household. How to fix things around the house and keep things maintained. Plumbing, electricity, heating and cooling, painting, roofing, lawn, all that good stuff. The tools and skills necessary to do just the basic maintenance and repairs. And how to know when to call a professional.
• Cleaning. Too many adults grow up without knowing how to do laundry, to clean a house properly, to keep the house clean and uncluttered, to have a weekly and monthly cleaning routine. Teach your child all these things instead of just telling her what to do.
• Organization. How to keep paperwork organized, how to keep things in their place, to to keep a to-do list, how to set routines, how to focus on the important tasks.
  

Happiness

• Be present. For some reason, this extremely important skill is never taught to us when we’re kids. In truth, the younger we are, the more natural this skill is. As we get older, we start thinking about the future and the past, and the present seems to slip away from us. Some skills for living in the present would go a long way.
• Enjoy life. Kids don’t have much of a problem with this, but some awareness of its importance and how to do it, even as an adult, would be helpful. Set a good example of this, and your kids will follow.
• Find purpose. Whether this is a higher religious purpose, or the purpose of making your family happy, or the purpose of finding your calling, having a purpose in life is extremely important. Teach your children the importance of this and show how to do it yourself.
• Develop intimate relationships. The best way to teach this is to develop an intimate relationship with your child, and model it with your spouse or other significant other (within appropriateness). Teach them the skills for developing these types of relationships, talk about the importance of it, and how to get through the bumpy parts as well. There are bad times in every relationship, but with the right skills of communication, empathy and compromise, they can get through them.

Do you have any skills to add to this list? Let us know in the comments.

Written by Ben Gold

When you think of social networks you probably think of MySpace. But recently, Facebook has been gaining popularity – since it opened up beyond college users, it has enjoyed a flood of new users, boosted further by the launch of Facebook apps. It’s time these two social networks fought it out.

Round 1: Design

Layout: Facebook wins here because the profiles are well set up and neatly organized and it’s easy to navigate through the profiles to find the info you want. It mainly beats MySpace because most profiles are so ugly and inconsistent.

Overall Site Design: Facebook is obviously the winner here. MySpace looks so unprofessionally done when compared to Facebook, mainly again because of it’s inconsistent design. This time its MySpace themselves, not the users, who make the site difficult to use.

Profiles: This is a tie because MySpace has a lot of customization, but Facebook’s default looks better than MySpace’s and it’s very neat and well organized.

Customization: MySpace and Facebook tie here. While Facebook lets you add and remove applications, MySpace lets you do whatever you want with the pages, if you know a little HTML that is. Unfortunately thats the reason MySpace’s design is so unruly for the most part.

Site Organization: Both site are pretty well organized. However, Facebook wins because of its clean layout that allows you to find everything right away, and it’s start page is a link to everything you need in neat and tidy boxes.
Round Winner: Facebook!

Round 2: Media

Pictures: Facebook wins here because of its well-organized picture section and the ability to tag people and have people tag themselves. Also, with the apps recently released you can now add Fiickr and other photosharing site streams to your profile. However, Fox now owns Photobucket, which provides photo hosting to MySpace users.

Videos: This one is a tie because both MySpace and Facebook let you upload video and they both have their own flash player. MySpace will let you embed video into your profile but you can post videos to Facebook as well.

Music: MySpace wins, but only just – we all know that every band ever has a MySpace account . However, with the new Facebook apps you can add your data from music tracking sites like Last.fm and iLike: in fact the top app on Facebook at the moment is the iLike app.

Sharing: Now, Facebook’s advantage here is only a slight one. Facebook allows you to share media links very easily and i fact automatically though the Facebook feed, something that I’m sure many MySpace users would like to be able to do (MySpace News isn’t really suited to this). You can, however, grab embedded media like videos from other profiles to repost on MySpace.

Round Winner: Facebook!

Round 3: Community

Relationships: A big difference on Facebook is that the friends you add are usually your real friends. It’s not a contest like on MySpace where everyone is trying to have the most friends. On Facebook it about talking to the people you know and sharing things with them.

Groups: Both sites have groups, but Facebook makes them more prominent. They are a bigger part of the service and there are a lot of people using them for clever uses like planning meet up and giving info to fans.

Keeping Track of What’s New: Facebook kills MySpace here. On MySpace the only way to know if a friend added something new to their profile is to go look at it, and the only way to know if you made a new friends is to look for the person. Facebook has two feeds. One tells you what’s new with you, like who accepted your friend request or your posted items, etc. The other feed tells you what’s up with all your friends, like who they added and what groups they joined.

Messaging: This is a tie. They both have a place where people can leave messages on your profile and they both have a basic mail system.

Co-Workers: Facebook can be used as a tool to talk to the people you work with also and see what’s new with them. You can even join a network for your company. MySpace was really designed for teens so it doesn’t really have these types of features.

Round Winner: Facebook!

Round 4: Usefulness

Finding Old Friends: One of the major reasons for joining a social network is to reconnect with old friends or classmates. Facebook makes this really easy because the whole site is organized by schools and now by locations too. So unless you forgot your friends name you will probably be able to find them if they have an account. MySpace lets you search for school friends, but doesn’t put the emphasis on real friendships.

Communication:Facebook is a good way to contact people if you don’t know their contact info. Someone is more likely to notice a Facebook message than a MySpace Message due to the fact that there is less Facebook spam.

Promoting Yourself: MySpace wins here. Thousands of bands use MySpace to promote their music and their fans use it to show their support. This isn’t nearly as evident on Facebook, although groups allow companies to promote themselves.

Getting Laid: If you are looking for action, then you’ll probably want to go with MySpace – see our survey for the reasons behind this.

Round Winner: MySpace!

Round 5: Ease of Use

Adding Friends: MySpace wins here because adding new friends and accepting friends requests is usually a one click process. The major advance here over Facebook is the ability to add large amounts of friends at once which for some reason was never added to Facebook.

Search: The winner here is a little bit surprising when you consider Google does the search for the loser. Facebook’s search beats MySpace by a mile. Even though the search engine giant Google is providing MySpace’s search, its results are not nearly as useful as Facebook’s. The big issue here is that MySpace’s search looks in the whole profile, even when just looking for a person, Facebook’s is smart enough to know if you are looking for a user or a movie in someone’s interests.

Navigation: Both MySpace and Facebook have pretty decent navigation, but Facebook beats MySpace when it comes to getting to specific people’s profiles due to its superior search.

Privacy: Facebook makes it really easy to hide info from certain people and to not show information that you want to be kept private. So, if you only want you close friends to see you contact info, it only takes a second. MySpace has privacy too, but it’s far less granular.

Round Winner: Facebook!

An the Winner is? Facebook!!

MySpace was a great social network for a while, but now there are too many spammers and the developers have stopped innovating. Facebook is just starting to become popular (well, popular with those who were not on it when it was limited to schools). So, you might want to check it out, while it’s still cool.

Written by Justin Glow

Found in Hiroshima, Japan.

Here’s a rather large collection of funny signs from around the world that you probably haven’t seen before. There are multiple pages worth, so look for a link at the bottom to continue on to the next.

Found in Beersheba, Israel.

“Milespit Hill” in London. Note that horse riding is forbidden.

Spotted in Ephesus, Turkey.

Also spotted in Ephesus. “Hey, are those real fake watches?”

This one was found in Vienna, Austria — you can see the actual toilet here.

Don’t park at this Wal-Mart in Millville, New Jersey. But if you do, shut your engine off.

The blind, deaf, old, and schooled citizens of Chicago all hang out here.

“You live on what street?” Somewhere in rural England.

Wipe that smirk off your face, kid. (Found in Scotland.)

Herbs, sheep, and massages near Columbus, Ohio.

Superloo in Scotland.

Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia.

Madrid’s “Planet Sandwich” is hoping the “Planet Hollywood” customers don’t pay very close attention to the signs…


Rooted out in Allerton, a suburb of Liverpool, England.

Get nailed in Scotland.

Really hungry? Stop by Braum’s in Okmulgee, Oklahoma.

Puffers beware. Found in Tokyo, Japan.

I LIKE TAILORS TOO!!!!!11 (Delhi, India)

Cosmo? (Alberta, Canada)

The best way to attract potential leakers to your door. (San Fransisco, CA)

Snapped in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Manute Bol lives near by. (Somewhere in Maine.)

Caution: Sign Warning of Stairs. (Slough, Berkshire, England)

Liverpool, Pennsylvania

Easy directions in Brasilia, Brazil.

“Do not dangle any doll.” Taken at the entrance to Wat Arun Temple in Bangkok, Thailand.

Dublin, Ireland.

Confusion on a Montana highway.

And poison protects the sheep how? (Ireland)

Written from wsj.com

A look at U.S. presidents’ job-approval ratings.

Truman became president after Franklin D. Roosevelt died at the start of his fourth term.

After a major heart attack in the fall of 1955, Eisenhower was elected to a second term a year later.

Kennedy‘s ratings were well above 50% when he was assassinated.

Inheritor of the war in Vietnam, Johnson was unable to improve upon his inaugural highs.

Nixon struggled with Vietnam, too, but Watergate was what ended his presidency.

Appointed Nixon’s vice president after Spiro Agnew’s resignation, Ford finished Nixon’s term.

Carter made progress with the Camp David Accords, but the Iran hostage crisis ultimately hurt him.

Reagan survived two major downturns, during a recession and after Iran-Contra.

A reversal of his “No New Taxes” vow hurt George H.W. Bush, but the Gulf War was a diversion.

Clinton was stung by response to the Nafta trade pact, but floated atop impeachment concerns.

The Sept. 11 attacks prompted Americans to rally for George W. Bush, but the war in Iraq is wearing.

Sources: Gallup, AP, WSJ.com research?????????NOTES: Plotted points are the averages of all approval polls taken by Gallup in each three-month period of each presidency. The first two points for Johnson and Ford are for polls taken in their first two months. Key dates are marked next to the poll results for the three-month period in which they took place.

Written by Leo Babauta

For millions of people, Google is an indispensable search tool that they use every day, in all facets of their lives. From work or school, research, to looking up movies and celebrities to news and gossip, Google is the go-to search engine.

But instead of just typing in a phrase and wading through page after page of results, there are a number of ways to make your searches more efficient.

Some of these are obvious ones, that you probably know about. But others are lesser-known, and others are known but not often used. Use this guide to learn more about, or be reminded of, some of the best ways to get exactly what you’re looking for, and quickly.

1. Either/or. Google normally searches for pages that contain all the words you type in the search box, but if you want pages that have one term or another (or both), use the OR operator — or use the “|” symbol (pipe symbol) to save you a keystroke. [dumb | little | man]
2. Quotes. If you want to search for an exact phrase, use quotes. [“dumb little man”] will only find that exact phrase. [dumb “little man”] will find pages that contain the word dumb and the exact phrase “little man”.
3. Not. If you don’t want a term or phrase, use the “-” symbol. [-dumb little man] will return pages that contain “little” and “man” but that don’t contain “dumb”.
4. Similar terms. Use the “~” symbol to return similar terms. [~dumb little man -dumb] will get you pages that contain “funny little man” and “stupid little man” but not “dumb little man”.
5. Wildcard. The “*” symbol is a wildcard. This is useful if you’re trying to find the lyrics to a song, but can’t remember the exact lyrics. [can’t * me love lyrics] will return the Beatles song you’re looking for. It’s also useful for finding stuff only in certain domains, such as
   educational information: [“dumb little man” research *.edu].
6. Advanced search. If you can’t remember any of these operators, you can always use Google’s advanced search.
7. Definitions. Use the “define:” operator to get a quick definition. [define:dumb] will give you a whole host of definitions from different sources, with links.
8. Calculator. One of the handiest uses of Google, type in a quick calculation in the search box and get an answer. It’s faster than calling up your computer’s calculator in most cases. Use the +, -, *, / symbols and parentheses to do a simple equation.
9. Numrange. This little-known feature searches for a range of numbers. For example, [“best books 2002..2007] will return lists of best books for each of the years from 2002 to 2007 (note the two periods between the two numbers).
10. Site-specific. Use the “site:” operator to search only within a certain website. [site:dumblittleman.com leo] will search for the term “leo” only within this blog.
11. Backlinks. The “link:” operator will find pages that link to a specific URL. You can use this not only for a main URL but even to a specific page. Not all links to an URL are listed, however.
12. Vertical search. Instead of searching for a term across all pages on the web, search within a specialized field. Google has a number of specific searches, allowing you to search within blogs, news, books, and much more:
    • Blog Search
    • Book Search
    • Scholar
    • Catalogs
    • Code Search
    • Directory
    • Finance
    • Images
    • Local/Maps
    • News
    • Patent Search
    • Product Search
    • Video

13. Movies. Use the “movie:” operator to search for a movie title along with either a zip code or U.S. city and state to get a list of movie theaters in the area and show times.
14. Music. The “music:” operator returns content related to music only.
15. Unit converter. Use Google for a quick conversion, from yards to meters for example, or different currency: [12 meters in yards]
16. Types of numbers: Google algorithms can recognize patterns in numbers you enter, so you can search for:
    • Telephone area codes
    • Vehicle ID number (US only)
    • Federal Communications Commission (FCC) equipment numbers (US only)
    • UPC codes
    • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airplane registration number (US only)
    • Patent numbers (US only)
    • Even stock quotes (using the stock symbol) or a weather forecast regarding the next five days

17. File types. If you just want to search for .PDF files, or Word documents, or Excel spreadsheets, for example, use the “filetype:” operator.
18. Location of term. By default, Google searches for your term throughout a web page. But if you just want it to search certain locations, you can use operators such as “inurl:”, “intitle:”, “intext:”, and “inanchor:”. Those search for a term only within the URL, the title,
    the body text, and the anchor text (the text used to describe a link).
19. Cached pages. Looking for a version of a page the Google stores on its own servers? This can help with outdated or update pages. Use the “cached:” operator.
20. Answer to life, the universe, and everything. Search for that phrase, in lower case, and Google will give you the answer.

More info:
For more on Google’s search syntax, see this guide, and this one.

Reported and written by USA TODAY’s Robert Fleming. Photo research by Mike Tsukamoto.

Times have changed for Michael Jackson (No. 24 below) and vinyl records (No. 5) since he released Thriller 25 years ago. Today, we look back at 25 years of other changes in our lives. Some things are still around (No. 4), some not (No. 6). Disagree with our picks? Tell us at usatoday.com, and we’ll post yours.

Sylwia Kapuscinski, Getty Images

1 Indoor smoking

The workplace once had clouds of secondhand smoke and first-rate smokers. You could even puff away in the rear of jets. Attitudes have changed, forcing smokers outside, rain or shine.

Chris Pizzello, AP

2 Service stations

It’s easier to find chips and a hot dog than free air or somebody to clean your windshield as service has transformed into convenience shopping and self-serve fill-ups. Want fries with that?

Alexander Zemlianichenko, AP

3 The Soviet threat

The United States’ Cold War rival ended with the stroke of a pen in December 1991. The “evil empire” was undone by internal changes, the desire for independence by its satellites and economic pressures.

Handout

4 Typewriters

The computer keyboard on your desk used to be a thundering, hulking device. The electric model sank the manual, only to be trumped by a revolution in technology that continues to this day.

Henry J. Koshollek, AP

5 Vinyl records

Music used to be big. Literally. Before palm-sized CDs took over, songs were embedded in vinyl platters the size of hubcaps. And then there were 8-tracks and cassettes. But that’s another story.

AP

6 New Coke

Introduced in 1985 as a replacement for Coca-Cola’s flagship brand, New Coke is considered one of marketing’s all-time duds. New Coke evolved into Coca-Cola II before being discontinued in 2002.

7 Carbon paper

If you worked with typewriters, you’re familiar with the flimsy, filthy filament. To make copies, you’d need a sheet of this purplish-looking stuff. Type “good riddance.” In triplicate.

8 Betamax

Betamax was the most popular video format in the early 1980s. By the end of the decade, VHS was king. What happened? Some say Betamax’s limited recording time was the culprit.

D. Kevin Elliott for USA TODAY

9 Phone booths

Don’t tug on Superman’s cape – especially when he’s been trying to find a place to ditch his Clark Kent duds. The bulky boxes with a phone inside have gone away for the most part. Sorry, Clark.

10 Leaded gasoline

The EPA phased out leaded gas in the mid-1990s, citing threats to the environment and public health. Lead was blended into gasoline to boost octane levels and enhance engine performance.

11 Rotary dial phones

Imagine your cellphone, only stationary and way bulkier, with a numbered wheel that you had to spin seven to 10 times or more, depending on your call being local or long distance. Oy.

Handout

12 Videos on MTV

Before reality shows and the like filled its airtime, MTV forged its identity with wall-to-wall videos and the veejays who loved them. OK, who misses 1984’s 99 Luftballoons by Nena? Anyone?

Handout

13 Baltimore Colts

One of the NFL’s cornerstones ended its stay in Baltimore with a whimper in 1984, hitting the road for Indianapolis. The Colts’ Marching Band lived on, even after the Ravens took the field, till 1998.

14 Oldsmobiles

The last Olds rolled off the assembly line in April 2004, signaling a shift in the U.S. auto marketplace and marking the end of a renowned brand. Also deceased: Plymouth (2001) and AMC (1987).

Getty Images

15 Civility

It can be rough out there ? whether on TV, radio, the Web or at sporting arenas. Today?s discourse has plenty of ?dis,? and it can be pretty ?coarse,? too. And whatever happened to thank-you notes? We could go on.

Handout

16 ‘American Bandstand’

The TV dance show, a sensation in Philadelphia in the 1950s before going national on ABC, survived countless shifts in musical tastes. Bandstand ended its run in 1989.

Michael Madrid, USA TODAY

17 Beverage pull tabs

Once, to open a beverage can, you’d pull a metal ring from a can, creating a tiny blade you’d rediscover walking barefoot. Tabs that stay attached to the can did away with pull-tabs.

Chris Ocken, AP

18 West African black rhino

At 12 feet long and 3,000 pounds, the rhino might appear indestructible. Last summer, it was “tentatively declared as extinct” by the World Conservation Union. Blame illegal poaching.

19 Hand-crank car windows

Before your car was controlled by electronics, you could get a brisk workout just opening the window for a little air. No fingertip controls here, thank you. Crank, two, three. Repeat.

Tim Parker, Reuters

20 Home run kings

Roger Maris got a record and an asterisk in 1961 when he passed Babe Ruth’s season record. He’s been passed by Mark McGwire (70) in 1998 and Barry Bonds (73) in 2001. More asterisks to come?

Lennox McLenden, AP

21 Hair bands

The music: bad. The hair: worse. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, the mix was magical for bands such as Poison, Ratt and Cinderella. Some continue to tour, testing the endurance of leather pants.

Roberto Borea, AP

22 The afternoon newspaper

Remember the kid on the bike who never quite reached the porch with your afternoon daily? He moved on, as did lifestyles and the media world. City afternoons became lonelier for newspaper readers.

23 Transistor radios

Before iPods, the handheld music-delivery system of choice was the transistor radio. The transistor tuned in to whatever your local radio station was dishing out. It’s the very definition of “quaint.”

File photo

24 Michael Jackson

The Jackson 5’s lead singer evolved into, well, the “King of Pop,” selling gazillion of copies of 1982’s Thriller. Sales slowed as various accusations and trials came. Today, he is believed to reside in Bahrain.

Handout

25 Checker cabs

The iconic yellow Marathon cab – you know, like the ones in the movie Taxi Driver – stopped being produced in the early 1980s. The last Checker cab in New York City was retired in 1999. So it goes.

Written by automotoportal

We know that geek cars are all loaded with the latest technological marvels – which are really what is supposed to turn the true geek on. So which cars do geeks prefer? Maybe the luxury car Mercedes-Benz 2007 S-Class sedan chock full of electronics – an onboard radar system, automated acceleration and braking controls, night vision display are some of the features that can be expected in this car. So let’s take a look at the most well known geeks’ cars and how they are customized.

Bill Gates (who else!)

The first geek car we’ll look at belongs to the one and only Mr. William Gates III, founder of Microsoft. Now Bill Gates loves the Porsche. He owns a 1999 Porsche 911 convertible, which is quite a rare car. His other car is a 1988 Porsche 959 Coupe, which is one of 230 made by Porsche.

1988 Porsche 959 Coupe owned by Bill Gates
You will be amazed to know that in spite of the 959’s unknown crash ratings, Bill Gates is still driving this car around, thanks to a federal law signed by President Clinton allowing him to do so. Rumor has it that Bill Gates and Paul Allen employed Microsoft engineers to write a computer program that could simulate the 959’s crashworthiness, which helped in the bill’s passage.

Michael Dell

Our next geek is Michael Dell, of Dell, who gave us the personal computer. Luxury is a way of life with Michael, and he enjoys his 2004 Porsche Boxster when the sun shines brightly. This is a two-seater car that handles smoothly with its six cylinder engine and top down capability. The Porsche Boxster is no longer sold as a new car. In less clement weather,

2004 Porsche Boxster owned by Michael Dell
Dell prefers to move around in his 2005 Hummer H2 SUV. Satellite Radio, Power Driver’s Seat, Heated Front Seats, Heated Rear Seats, Split Folding Rear Seat – are only a few of the standard features of this car. Optional features are a navigation system and a back up camera.

Larry Ellison

Mr. Oracle himself – he loves adventure and the Bentley is his car. He enjoys the luxury and style of the Bentley Continental Flying Spur sedan, which is a great four-door car to drive.

Bentley Continental Flying Spur owned by Larry Ellison
Among Bentley’s two full size sedans, the Continental Flying Spur is smaller, sporting a twin turbo W12 engine. Performance is unquestionably superb and the car looks very impressive with its luxury levels. This car is identical to the Continental GT coupe.

Steven Ballmer

Ballmer is also a Microsoft billionaire who surprisingly drives a sporty maroon 1998 Lincoln Continental rather than a Ferrari, Porsche or a Rolls Royce. He plans on getting a Lincoln Zephyr.

1998 Lincoln Continental owned by Steven Ballmer

Chris Pirillo

Chris Pirillo is an Internet entrepreneur, book author, ex-TV show host and technology enthusiast. He is addicted to computer hardware and software -and the Acura TSX. According to him, the 2006 TSX is about as geeky as today’s cars can get. This car has an audio in jack, live traffic reports, Bluetooth connectivity, Zagat ratings and an excellent navigation system with voice recognition.

2006 Acura TSX owned by Chris Pirillo
The car also has handsfreelink, keyless access system with driver recognition. The sound system in the Acura is a 360-watt system with AM/FM stereo, 6 disc in dash CD changer and eight speakers. There is also an XM satellite radio, MP3/auxillary input jack and home link. Other accessories include a dual zone automatic climate control system and heated front seats, theft deterrent system with an electronic immobilizer. The exterior temperature indicator lets you know what the temperature is outside.

David Pogue

David Pogue is a New York Times technology columnist and CBS news correspondent. His favorite car is the Prius, which is a hybrid car – that is, it has both a gas engine and an electric motor. While driving at low speeds, the electric motor powers the car. When the car stops, the gas engine shuts off. While traveling at high speed, the gas engine takes over, accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in about ten seconds.

Toyota Prius owned by David Pogue
Pogue is thrilled with the keyless entry and ignition. The key chain has a transmitter and you can carry it in your pocket. To unlock your car you don’t even have to take it out – as you approach your car and go for the door handle, it unlocks itself. After getting into the car, you can continue to keep the remote in your pocket. To start the car, there’s a power button on the dash. The car comes on, sensing the transmitter in your pocket. You can lock the car after you get out by touching a button by the door handle. If you prefer to actually use the remote, you can operate the relevant buttons for the necessary actions.

The battery in the Prius powers the Air conditioner, conserving energy when the car is running. The car’s optional voice-recognition system lets you program it to respond to certain words so that you can use the radio, turn on the heat, watch the next CD or use the navigation system. The Prius has plenty of space in the hatchback area. According to David Pogue, the Prius is one of the best cars that deliver far better mileage on a gas engine and a tax break, thanks to its hybrid status. The car drives very quietly.

Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Inc, and Chairman of Pixar Animation Studios, and the biggest shareholder at Disney, drives a car without number plates.

Steve Jobs’ plateless car

Written by zenhabits.net

Normally my Family Day articles are about spending time with your kids, but today we’ll talk about another important aspect of families: couples. If you’ve got a significant other, I highly recommend you keep the spark of your relationship alive and find ways to show you appreciate each other, every week and every day, if possible.

Look for little, inexpensive ways to be romantic, and it will pay off for your relationship in innumerable ways.

Why inexpensive? Well, you could rent a limo and take your love to a snooty French restaurant, or whisk him or her off to a trip to the snow-capped Alps, or rent a stadium and have the Three Tenors sing love songs for you while the New York Philharmonic plays in the background. I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to do that kind of stuff more than a few times a month. The rest of the time, I have to resort to cheaposity.

Before we get into the list, let’s look at a few notes on how to use the list:

1. Weekly dates. I recommend you have a date at least once a week with your partner. It doesn’t have to be an expensive one, but at least find some way to spend a couple hours time together. If you’ve got kids, like I do, find a babysitter.
2. Communicate. Romantic gestures don’t take the place of real communication. Take time to talk about your goals, your dreams, your plans for the future, your current lives, things you’re happy about, things you love about the other person, things you’d like to work on, things you’re grateful for.
3. Inspiration. This list contains a lot of obvious stuff – you could probably come up with twice as many good ideas yourself. But the list doesn’t aim for originality – it aims to be an inspiration. Pick and choose some good ideas, or use it to spark some of your own. Sometimes we just need a little reminder.
4. Forget Valentines. Boycott Valentine’s Day, as it makes people think they should be romantic on special occasions. Instead, pick one of these ideas and do it any day of the week – no need for a special occasion.

OK, enough talk. Let’s look at some ways to be romantic without breaking your budget (note to my mom: don’t read this, as there are a couple of sexy-time things later on):

1. Write a poem.
2. Cook a romantic dinner.
3. Give a full-body massage.
4. Pack a sunset picnic.
5. Pick wildflowers on the way home.
6. Burn a CD with love songs.
7. Give dark chocolates.
8. Read poetry together.
9. Prepare strawberries with fondue chocolate.
10. Snuggle together on a rainy day.
11. Leave little love notes everywhere.
12. Send a love email every day.
13. Take a moonlit walk on the beach.
14. Snuggle together while watching romantic movies (Casablanca, Audrey Hepburn are my favs).
15. Get good wine, watch shooting stars.
16. Take a bath together (use bubbles!).
17. Bring home good coffee or a decadent sweet.
18. Take a walk down memory lane – visit some of the special places from your early days of dating.
19. Make warm chocolate cake for dessert.
20. Make a scrapbook with photos, mementos, and little notes from you lives together.
21. Kiss in the rain.
22. Ride a ferris wheel.
23. Sneak away from a party and make out.
24. Bring home great take-out, and light some candles.
25. Fix something or fix up the house just to make your partner happy.
26. Slow dance to romantic music.
27. Take a nap together.
28. Kiss slowly, touching his or her back and neck and nape – slowly.
29. Make a list of everything you love about him or her.
30. Write a love letter.
31. Clip or email things that make you think of him or her, every day.
32. Go to a movie, ignore the movie, and make out like teen-agers.
33. Groom yourself, and try to look good for your partner.
34. Take some quiet time and talk about your day.
35. Write little notes, one for each way he or she drives you crazy.
36. Feed each other grapes.
37. Recreate your partner’s favorite romantic movie scene.
38. Pretend you’re going on a first date – show up at the door with flowers, all dressed up, with your car washed and cleaned, looking spiffy. Recreate the first time.
39. Create a little box with a bunch of your partner’s favorite things inside.
40. Paint each other with flavored body paint. Be creative!
41. Try some sexy role-playing. Get dressed up, be daring, have fun.
42. Give a little token to your partner to wear, and say it’s to remind him or her all day that you love them.
43. Sing a favorite song to him or her. Only do this if you can sing fairly well.
44. Have dinner on the roof, with some candles. This doesn’t work if your roof slopes sharply.
45. Hold hands, and walk somewhere with lots of pretty lights.
46. Say I love you. In a different way, every day.
47. Blindfold your partner. Use a feather. Slowly.
48. Declare your love, very publicly.
49. Fruit or berries and freshly made whipped cream.
50. Play Sade. Do what comes naturally. Slowly.

Written By Joal Ryan

Forget The Godfather. What we’ve got here are the overlooked greats, the hidden gems. From Jake Gyllenhaal in a bubble to a murderous Kate Winslet to a pair of violent, avenging Irish “angels” ? these are the box-office left-behinds

1. Falling Down
Michael Douglas is a mild-mannered guy with a screwed-on-tight haircut who’s had it with everybody – Latino gang members, an Asian shop owner, mighty-white golfers, even a surplus-store-owning Nazi. Crash would go on to win Oscar and Oprah acclaim for exploring the meaning of race, alienation and L.A. traffic, but remember: This 1993 movie, badly marketed as a mere serial-killer flick, expended its bullets first – and with better accuracy.

2. Igby Goes Down
Hey, here’s an original idea: An out-of-sorts teen comes of age in New York with the “help” of his dysfunctional family. Well, this 2002 comedy-drama feels anything but done to death. Kieran Culkin’s a find as the titular lost boy who finds his way with the ladies. Jeff Goldblum’s even better, and smarmier, as his godfather. Ryan Phillippe proved he actually could act as Culkin’s snot brother. Privileged white people have never been so pitiable.

3. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
A 23-year-old cult cannot be wrong. Forget that the score to this 1984 sci-fi-something-or-other sounds like bad video-game music. Forget that star Peter Weller dresses suspiciously like Pee-Wee Herman. Forget that bad-guy John Lithgow deserves to go to acting jail on scenery-chewing charges. Just remember that people love this film, quote this film – and get Team Banzai references that you don’t. So, just give in, and watch the thing already. Weller is actually pretty cool. Even if his choice in neckwear sucks.

4. Bubble Boy
John Travolta may have played a Bubble Boy first, in a sappy TV movie about a kid who needs to be wrapped in plastic and protected from the elements. But Jake’s haircut tells the whole story here; there’s something a bit “off” about this surprisingly funny 2001 big-screen version, in which Jimmy builds himself a portable bubble to go after the gal he loves. Oh, sure, there are moments that challenge our dear boy. (Ever try to steal a can of beer while waddling around in a homemade germ-free sphere?) But nothing can keep Gyllenhaal’s love-struck Jimmy down for long. His heart – and the film’s heart – is that big.

5. Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane
The backstory on writer-director Joe Carnahan’s debut is worth the price of admission alone: 13 shooting days, $8,000 budget and one passport to a Hollywood career working with the likes of Ray Liotta, Tom Cruise (Narc, which Liotta starred in and Cruise produced), Jeremy Piven and Ben Affleck (Smokin’ Aces stars). As an actual movie, Blood, Guts is a high-energy romp about two used-car salesmen and one very special Pontiac LeMans convertible.
It’s so heavily Tarantino influenced you fully expect John Travolta
and Samuel L. Jackson to turn up at the car lot, but all you get is the
scrappy Carnahan and the equally unfamous Dan Leis – and, trust us,
it’s better that way.

6. The Hidden
Hollywood used to make sci-fi/buddy/cop/action flicks all the time, more or less. Then Spielberg and Lucas ruined everything with epic landscapes, big budgets and supercool special effects. By the time this popcorn throwback opened in 1987, the era of the sci-fi/buddy/cop/action flick was over – but not the genre’s charm. Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Nouri play two lawmen with nothing in common except a shared belief that an outer-space creature who sucks the life out of innocent civilians in order to further its own sick existence must be stopped. Take that, E.T.

7. Bully
Even if Columbine hadn’t made teen violence an uncomfortable subject for Hollywood and audiences, this lurid 2001 look at teen violence wouldn’t have packed multiplexes. Never to be confused with the Disney version, we get youth as a sweaty, icky, frequently shirtless thing. The real-life tale of a group of kids who decide to kill their alleged tormentor, the drama is hard to watch – but foolish to ignore. Brad Renfro and Nick Stahl (especially Nick Stahl) are great as the dysfunctional friends at the center of their screwed-up world. The best part of sticking with the movie to the end? You get to take a shower after.

8. Grace of My Heart
Reel life is so much better than real life. In real life, for instance, Phil Spector is an alleged homicidal menace. In reel life, however, he’s John Turturro, and so he’s merely lovably strange. There are all sorts of nifty real-life upgrades in this little-size, but big-feeling 1996 biopic about singer-songwriter Carole King ? oops, we mean, in this completely made-up story about singer-songwriter Denise Waverly (a winning Illeana Douglas). Watch Carole, oops, Denise lose her heart to tragic Brian Wilson, oops, Jay Phillips (a sweet Matt Dillon). Listen to Carole, oops, Denise find her voice by singing her own songs (written by ringers like Elvis Costello, Burt Bacharach and Gerry Goffin,
King’s real-life ex). Oh, it’s too confusing to explain – just watch it.

9. The Black Cat
If you see only one Universal horror classic, you’re probably going to watch Dracula. Or Frankenstein. But what you should watch, in the spirit of adventure, is this creepy, kinky 1934 tale with both those films’ stars, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. And yes, we said kinky. See, this was made after Hollywood’s self-imposed no-fun rule, the Hayes Code, was adopted but released just before it was strictly enforced. So, when a young couple (David Manners and Julie Bishop) seek refuge in Karloff’s house of horrors, they’re in store for an eyeful of S&M imagery and – woo-hoo! – devil worshipping!

10. Breakdown
It’s not Kurt Russell’s fault that he’s the king of the underrated movie. It’s not his fault that they don’t give Oscars to stuff like Big Trouble in Little China. And it’s not his fault that screen-wife Kathleen Quinlan takes a ride with an ill-advised stranger in this 1997 thriller. Well, actually, all right, that last one is his fault. If you can forgive that one lapse in judgment, this cautionary tale about the dangers of heading onto the highway minus an OnStar-equipped vehicle demands viewing. Think of it as Deliverance with trucks, instead of canoes.

11. Chopper
How boring was Ang Lee’s Hulk? So boring it made a dullard of Eric Bana. And if you know Bana from Chopper, his nonhyped pre-Hulk film, you know he’s capable of being explosive. And funny. And brutal. And funny again. Maybe the problem with the Hulk is that Mark “Chopper” Read, the real-life Aussie whom Bana plays in 2000’s Chopper, is just better source material. If you stabbed the Hulk in the stomach, for instance, the green guy would get all predictably wiggy. But if you stab Chopper in the stomach, the dude will surprise you. He takes those hits like the big, scary tattooed man he is.

12. Gojira
Note we did not say Godzilla. We said Gojira. What’s the difference? About an additional 20 minutes, for one thing. Three more things: no Raymond Burr, no dubbing and a coherent plot ruined when Hollywood recut the original Japanese monster movie into a yuckfest. Indeed, this original 1954 version – finally getting wide release in the United States, on DVD – is an ultra-sober nuclear-age drama that stands as understated testament to the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Prepare to bow down before the giant rubber monster.

13. I Shot Andy Warhol
Shortly after starring in this strange-but-true 1996 drama, Lili Taylor started popping up in Hollywood fare like The Haunting and Ransom. But she never popped in the new roles, because she’s not Hollywood. She’s New York indie. She’s Valerie Jean Solanas, the unhinged real-life feminist who, well, shot pop-artist Andy Warhol. Lesser talents would have made Solanas seem nutty; Taylor makes her seem nutty and almost sympathetic. British actor Jared Harris gets points, too, for his spot-on Warhol. Soup, anyone?

14. Three O’Clock High
What exactly were Molly Ringwald’s problems anyway? That Michael Schoeffling might not notice her? That Andrew McCarthy might not take her to the prom? That Judd Nelson might kiss her? Well, boo-friggin’-hoo. Try being Casey Siemaszko in this stylish 1987 high school flick, released just as John Hughes had played out the high school flick. As good-guy Jerry Mitchell, Siemaszko’s got a big, bad problem that’s going to get him killed – perhaps literally – at the end of the school day. A little tougher than study hall huh, Molly?

15. Brannigan
It’s all over the Internet, so it must be true and/or utterly not: John Wayne passed on the chance to star in Dirty Harry. No matter, the important thing is Wayne didn’t star in Dirty Harry and thus had the time to star in this glorious 1975 cop flick. Wayne so rarely was photographed off the Old West range, it’s a treat to see him mingle with modern-day mortals and try out their peculiar polyester fashions. Brannigan gets the nod here over McQ, Wayne’s other foray into copland, because it takes place in London. It would have been nice if Wayne could’ve kicked some British butt before he got to be pushing 70, but better late than ever.

16. The Ringer
You cannot make a movie about a guy who pretends to be mentally challenged in order to compete in the Special Olympics. You cannot do that. Except, the Farrelly Brothers did. And they did so spectacularly. (Not that many people noticed.) Their 2005 comedy (they produced) is funny in a way that neither makes you feel bad for laughing nor makes you feel sorry for anybody. As an added bonus, Johnny Knoxville as the titular ringer is actually kinda touching.

17. End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones
By the time this 2004 doc made its way into a handful of theaters, Joey Ramone was dead, Dee Dee Ramone was dead, and Johnny Ramone was dying. Their premature demises make a poignant tale of dreams not fully realized all the more so. The crux of the Ramones’ tale is that while you can’t go to a sports stadium without bopping your head to one of their 120-second punk classics (“Blitzkreig Bop,” “I Wanna Be Sedated,” etc.), you can’t go through the charts and find any smash-hit records, either. They played, they toured, but they never broke big. At least not while three-quarters of them were still alive.

18. Real Life
We’ll let others debate whether Albert Brooks is a genius. But we’ll just flat-out say the man is a prophet. Exhibit A: This oft-forgotten 1979 comedy about a filmmaker, played by Brooks, who sets out to document a suburban family but ends up goosing the drama whenever real life gets too boring for his taste. True, Brooks wasn’t so much foretelling the reality-TV era as spoofing the pioneering PBS documentary series An American Family, but when you’re right, you’re right.

19. Time After Time
You either have a thing for time-travel movies or you don’t. Unless you’re one of those wet blankets who insists time-travel movies never make sense, you have to see this 1979 gem about famed author H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) pursuing infamous serial-killer Jack the Ripper (David Warner) into 1970s San Francisco. Put your sense of time and space on hold, and let a smart, classy adventure remind you that smart, classy adventures used to get made.

20. Idiocracy
Why did Fox dump this 2006 Mike Judge comedy in fewer than 150 theaters last September? Is it because it’s not clever? Um, no. Is it because it’s not funny? Wrong again. Is it because it’s such a dead-on take on our push-button, pro-wrestling-loving world that the studio feared either nobody would get it or, worse, somebody would get it? We may have a winner! Luke Wilson stars as a regular Joe who wakes up in the year 2505 as the smartest person on Earth on account of everyone else is such a dumbass. Come for the premise, stay for the new-age Carl’s Jr. slogan, “F— you, I’m eating.”

21. Girl 6
What do you call a movie where Naomi Campbell is surrounded by telephones and proceeds without assaulting anyone? Where Madonna is given lines and uses them to her advantage? Where Spike Lee resists his usual jazz urge and calls on Prince to supply the bouncy soundtrack? A flat-out miracle. Lee’s made so many movies that some of them, like this 1996 comedy, get lost. So, go find Girl 6 already. For all of the above reasons, and for this one: Theresa Randle turns in what should have been a star-making performance as a struggling actress who gives good voice at the world’s nicest-looking phone-sex bank.

22. Female Trouble
Don’t let Hairspray, the Tony-winning Broadway hit, or the upcoming John Travolta movie, fool you. Mainstream acceptance or no, auteur John Waters has seriously bad taste. Nowhere is it badder (or greater) than in this 1974 flick, somehow nowhere as notorious as Pink Flamingos, that gleefully trashes family, Christmas and spaghetti. Longtime Waters muse Divine is in rare form – and apparently an old Susan Hayward plot – as a driven, doomed gal. If only she’d gotten those cha-cha heels ?

23. Kurt & Courtney
This 1998 documentary didn’t come close to earning even $1 million in theaters. But it’s sure got a million-dollar tale to tell: Filmmaker Nick Broomfield explores the conspiracy theory that says Nirvana god Kurt Cobain was killed by someone other than himself. Broomfield’s a camera hog, and his pursuit of the widow Cobain, Courtney Love, is sheer stunt, but the movie’s undeniably compelling as a portrait of the fame-game’s bit players. It’s not every day you get to hear a guy growl and claim that Love offered him $50,000 to “whack” her husband.

24. The Boondock Saints
Made for a reported $6 million, writer-director Troy Duffy’s first and so-far only movie “grossed” about $30,000 on its way to serving as fodder for the 2003 crash-and-burn Hollywood doc Overnight. The weird thing is, it’s hard to figure out what Duffy did wrong. He told an original story about two Irish fraternal twins in South Boston who are considered heroes for accidentally killing a bunch of Russian mafiosos – so they go out on a mission from God to violently snuff out the rest. And no one, not even detective Willem Dafoe, thinks their gruesome quest is wrong.

25. Heavenly Creatures
Why is it that one movie, say, Peter Jackson’s too-long King Kong, makes hundreds of millions of dollars, while another movie, say, Jackson’s mesmerizing Heavenly Creatures, makes nothing much but art-house buzz? The answer lies with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which came in between the other two projects and made Jackson a star. Heavenly Creatures, released in 1994, stands on its own as an accounting of a real-life 1954 New Zealand murder hatched by two schoolgirls, played by Melanie Lynskey, on her way to Two and a Half Men, and Kate Winslet, on her way to Titanic and a slew of Oscar nominations.
It’s the stuff reputations are built on.

Written by Alex Faaborg

Firefox 3 is going to provide a wide range of improvements to performance, stability, and security, and it’s also going to present several new user facing features. Here is a quick recap of design work that’s been going on in the Mozilla community over the past few weeks for Firefox 3, along with information about how you can help contribute, by providing feedback on these designs, or creating your own UI mockups.

In case you are wondering how Mozilla decides on which features to include in Firefox, we believe in “Delivering the right set of features – not too many or too few. (The goal is to create a useful browser, not a minimal browser.)” We are only interested in adding features that are universally useful, and have no impact on performance. For previous releases of Firefox we added features like RSS detection, spell checking and session restore. Here are some of the user facing features we are considering for Firefox 3.

Standard Mockup Disclaimer
All of these images are only conceptual mockups of Gran Paradiso, any particular feature may end up looking entirely different, or may not even make it into the final release. On a lot of these features we are iterating very quickly on the UI design, so even the mockups posted here may already be old.

User Facing Features in Firefox 3

Places: Bookmarking, Tagging and History – more information
Places is our new infrastructure for storing bookmarks, history, and other information about Web pages. We are working on interfaces that allow users to quickly bookmark pages:

Tag pages:

Bookmark “saved searches” in Smart Folders:

We believe these interfaces will allow users to organize bookmarks in the ways that work best for them, ranging from constructing traditional folder hierarchies to quickly searching a Web 2.0-esque tagspace. Places will also enable a lot of really innovative bookmarking, history and annotation extensions.

Discuss the Places UI

Malware Detection – more information
Similar to how Firefox 2 blocks Web sites that are potentially going to try to steal your personal information, Firefox 3 will block Web sites that we believe are going to try to install malicious programs on your computer. Mozilla is coordinating with Google on this feature.

Discuss the Malware Detection UI

Content Handling – more information
Firefox currently has different dialog boxes for dealing with content depending on if it has a MIME type, is a protocol, is being delivered through RSS, or is an application being downloaded. In addition to unifying our internal architecture for content handling we are also working on a unified content handling user interface. The user will have a consistent UI for selecting the actions they would like associated with content, regardless of if the content is a file being download or is a microformat embedded in a Web page.

Discuss Content Handling UI

Microformat Detection – more information
I can’t post to this blog without mentioning microformats at least once per post Based on feedback from previous design work I’ve posted, we are now looking into changing the mouse cursor for interacting with microformatted content in the context of the Web page. This idea was suggested by Jeff Carlsen in a comment on a previous post, and by Jesper Kristensen on the brainstorming wiki page.

Discuss Microformat Detection UI

Changes to the Location Bar – more information
We are considering removing the favicon from the location bar, and changing the location bar so that everything except “Public Suffix + 2? is greyed out. This will prevent malicious sites from placing visual cues in the location bar (like using a lock as a favicon), and the change in text color will help users identify the web site domain.

Discuss Location Bar UI

Private Browsing – more information
The purpose of private browsing is to put Firefox into a temporary state where no information about the user’s browsing session is stored locally. When in this state, we are considering changing the appearance of the location bar:

Or maybe even a drastic change to the entire theme (my apologies for the shoddy photoshop work on this one):

Discuss Private Browsing UI

Coming Soon

A few other features that are also on our radar, but don’t currently have any UI mockups yet:

-Offline Web applications
-Improvements to the password manager
-A graphical keyboard-based UI similar to Quicksilver and Enso for searching the Web, bookmarking and tagging pages, navigating recent history, and switching between tabs. Note: this feature isn’t in the Firefox 3 PRD, and it will probably be released as an experimental extension through Mozilla Labs before it gets considered for inclusion into Firefox.

How you Can Contribute

–Provide feedback on any of these above features in their respective threads (or comment below)
–Create your own UI mockups of these Firefox features, using your favorite image editing application