Internet Browsers

Here’s a controversial study you might want to check out. And when I say controversial, I mean hot, hot, hot.

AptiQuant, an online psychometric testing company based in Canada, has just released the results of study looking at the relationship between intelligence and the Internet browser that a person uses. The study has shown that those who use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer are more likely to be dumb than smart. Stupid. Yes, those words have been used, and people are not liking it. Especially those who are rather attached to Internet Explorer.

As a matter of fact, some enthusiastic fans of one of the oldest Internet browsers have gotten so offended because of the report. It is actually being rumored that they are already filing a lawsuit against AptiQuant because of its claims.

On the one hand, AptiQuant does seem to have it for Internet Explorer. In a post published by PCMag¹, it was revealed that the report used terms such as “nuisance” and “eradicate” in reference to the browser in question. That does show a negative attitude towards Internet Explorer, does it?

On the other hand, AptiQuant does clarify its report. CEO Leonard Howard himself says that the report’s conclusions state that if you have a low IQ, then you are more likely to use Internet Explorer to browse the web. It does not necessarily apply the other way around; that is, if you use Internet Explorer, you don’t necessarily have to be dumb. That should quell any dissatisfaction about the report, shouldn’t it?

In case you are the curious type, and you want to know exactly how the study was conducted, let’s go through it briefly. The psychometric testing company conducted the study over a period of four weeks, considering only people 16 years old and above. Believe it or not, there are many people looking for free IQ tests online, and they used the data from these people. Using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) to these people and took note of the browsers that they used.

I am not sure if this method is scientifically unquestionable, but one would think that such a company would know how to go about these things. So, what Internet browser do you use? FYI, yours truly uses Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. Not that I am implying anything. ;)

Photo via The Tech Labs

1. Source

The Electronic Freedom Foundation has democratized Topolski’s achievement via the said tool. The application is a command line open source utility that tests data communications integrity not just in networks but also in ISPs and firewalls. The tool spots IP packets that have been modified or forged and gives users a copy of those modified packets.

This is going to be a really useful tool for those who think they are getting duped by their ISPs.

I know, I know, one of the first things they tell you when you purchase a netbook is to forget gaming. You see, netbooks aren’t made to handle games. Sure, it can handle web browsing, watching non-HD movies, and maybe a little Photoshop (yes, I know of a few people who do that on their HP Minis), but gaming? No way, they say.

Well, we wouldn’t expect much from our netbooks in the gaming department. Most of them are running on a 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 1 GB RAM, and of course no video card. Those specs alone could make Firefox choke in the middle of watching a video on YouTube.

That never stopped determined netbook owners from downloading and running them games anyway. Heck, on the Eee Wiki, we even have a list of games that’ll run with the Eee PC 701. FYI, that list came out mere months after the Eee PC was launched.

Over at Liliputing, Joe has posted a list of 5 recent netbook-friendly games. He names Torchlight, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Sins of a Solar Empire, Trials 2 Second Edition, and, um, World of Warcraft.

Torchlight has been recommended to me by a lot of friends and I am going to give it a try once I finish this article.

I must point out, however, that he left out the insanely addictive Plants vs Zombies. PVZ runs very, very smoothly on netbooks. It killed a lot of productivity for me and my 701 until I forced myself to delete the game for the sake of my sanity.

What games do you run on your netbooks? Tell me about it!

Although I’ve never imagined myself downloading and using it, I’ve always kept an eye on BumpTop. BumpTop is an interesting piece of software: it replaces your usual desktop with a 3-D desktop that literally tries to mimic a real, physical desk. With real, tangible objects that you can manipulate.

BumpTop makes the items on your computer’s desktop more like their real-world counterparts. Icons and folders are assigned a virtual weight based on the amount of memory they take up and their importance to you. You can move them by click-and-drag, or fling them across the BumpTop space. The program determines their importance based on how often you use them, but you can also alter that by hand.

I haven’t downloaded BumpTop because I don’t think it’ll help me in my workflow; in fact, I think it’s a bit too early to use BumpTop. I mean, that sort of animation is going to eat up loads of memory.

But if you plan to download and test BumpTop, this week is your last chance though, because Google has bought BumpTop for an undisclosed price.

From BumpTop’s official website:

Today, we have a big announcement to make: we’re excited to announce that we’ve been acquired by Google! This means that BumpTop (for both Windows and Mac) will no longer be available for sale. Additionally, no updates to the products are planned.

Now I wonder where we’ll see BumpTop’s technology next. Will we see it in Google Desktop, or in Google Chrome OS for the upcoming Google Tablet? The Tablet makes sense. What do you think?

Played Quake Live before? If you haven’t I suggest you do it – it’s an excellent port of Quake Arena with better graphics, and you play on your browser. However, it uses a plugin, so it’s not exactly the most optimal way to play games on your browser. Same goes for Flash-based games like Farmville.

So what if you can play Quake 2 on your browser – with no plug-in needed? All you need to do it woud be HTML 5 and WebGL. And Google has pulled it off, apparently. Check out the video demo:

According to Download Squad:

They started off with Bytonic Software’s Jake2, a Java port of the open source Quake engine. From there, they re-compiled the engine using the Google Web Toolkit (also OSS), created a WebGL renderer to display the graphics, moved multiplayer communications from UDP to WebSockets (part of the HTML5 spec), and bolted on an emulated filesystem to allow game and preference saves.

However, I’ve looked for the download link in the Google Code page. I can’t find it anywhere. So if you want to try out something else that uses HTML 5 for Quake, you might want to check out Copperlicht. It’s a JavaScript 3D engine that utilizes WebGL and HTML5.

Amazingly, Copperlicht can actually render up to 110 FPS! For comparison, Google Quake 2 can only render 30-40 FPS. Copperlicht is going to work for Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

Well, this was unexpected. Nokia and Intel, the companies behind the Maemo Linux-based OS for Nokia Internet Tablets like the Nokia N900, and the Moblin Linux interface for netbooks, have announced that they’re merging the two projects to form one operating system designed for netbooks, tablets, mobile devices, in-vehicle entertainment systems, and internet-connected televisions.

The new OS will be called MeeGo. While nobody has any idea how the new OS will look like or how it is going to run, they have announced that the first version of MeeGo will be available by the end of March. The Nokia N900 will be compatible with MeeGo. Applications from the Intel AppUp Center and Nokia Ovi Store should be able to run on the platform. The Linux Foundation will be hosting the project.

I honestly like this. Moblin has one of the best interfaces of any OS, hands down. In fact, if there was a Moblin-based OS compatible with my Asus Eee PC 701, I would’ve installed it right away, no questions asked. I haven’t tried Maemo yet, though, but everyone who’s used a Nokia N900 attests to it being a rock-solid OS capable of taking over Nokia’s powerhorse mobile OS, Symbian. I do remember of plans of moving the whole N Series from Symbian to Maemo. I wonder if this will still happen or if we’ll see MeeGo-based Nokia phones by next year.

Once the first stable version of this OS comes out, I am seriously going to give it a spin. What about you guys? Are you looking forward to MeeGo, or are you going to pass this time?

[via]

As much as I love Ubuntu Linux and all its open source glory, I really am not a fan of the current logo and the color scheme. Come on, brown. I understand that they took the current design inspiration from the word Ubuntu’s African roots, but that particular shade of brown they used isn’t exactly the most enticing thing to see.

Which is why I’m totally behind Canonical’s decision to change Ubuntu’s branding and the operating system’s color scheme into something more modern and sleeker. They believe that the new Ubuntu logo – which I love, by the way – will “reflect the precision and engineering that sits at the heart of the product. The new logo reflects this but not at the expense of the immediately recognisable circle of friends.”

They’re dropping the brown “Human” theme and introduced a new theme called Light:

The new style in Ubuntu is inspired by the idea of “Light”.

We’re drawn to Light because it denotes both warmth and clarity, and intrigued by the idea that “light” is a good value in software. Good software is “light” in the sense that it uses your resources efficiently, runs quickly, and can easily be reshaped as needed. Ubuntu represents a break with the bloatware of proprietary operating systems and an opportunity to delight to those who use computers for work and play. More and more of our communications are powered by light, and in future, our processing power will depend on our ability to work with light, too.

If you ask me, I say it’s about time. But I’m curious about what you guys think. Give me a piece of your mind via the comments!

[via]

Until now I haven’t tweaked Windows because I actually love how the Superbar and all the other changes work. I can say that this is the first version of Windows I was practically very satisfied with. However, earlier today I was rushing a really important project and that required me to open and maintain around 15 windows between various programs, and even the Superbar wasn’t able to actually help me out here. I remember sighing in frustration because switching windows somehow took too many clicks.

Taking a breather from my deadline-intensive task, I did a little googling and found Switcher, a nifty little app that emulates the actions of Mac OS X’s fabled Exposé. Okay, yeah I know this is one of those little apps that try to make Windows look and act like Mac OS X, and I’m usually against that kind of thing. I mean, if you’re going to make your PC look like Mac OS X, just get a freaking Mac, right? Or if you’re willing to go down the illegal route, just Hackintosh your beloved computer. But I digress.

The thing is, Switcher isn’t just one of those “me too” programs you install. It’s actually fast enough, and kinda light on system resources. I say “kinda” because it’s not exactly lightweight, but it’s good enough to be functional when I have around 20 windows open. I didn’t even have to install it. There’s a stand-alone version that runs pretty well. I don’t see myself using it all of the time, but when I’m overwhelmed by too many windows and clicks and alt-tab just isn’t cutting it, Switcher works pretty well.

Download Switcher here.

On smartbooks, however, I think Chrome OS will be more than a threat. I’m pretty sure Chrome OS will become the de facto OS for smartbooks in due time, since smartbooks can’t run Windows. Speaking of smartbooks, we can see a pre-release version of Google’s OS on a Marvell Armada 510 chipset.

More from Liliputing:

Google has already stated that its upcoming Chrome Operating System can run on x86 or ARM-based processors. But it’s still pretty nifty to see a pre-release version of the OS running on devices with low power ARM-based operating systems.

We’ve seen Chrome OS running on a tablet prototype from Freescale using the company’s i.MX515 chipset. Now Charbax from ARMdevices.net has posted a video of a prototype device from Marvell using the Armada 510 chipset running Chrome OS.

There’s no support for Flash yet, and Marvell is still just testing the operating system. But seeing as how the Marvel Armada 510 platform is powerful enough to run Ubuntu 9.10 Linux with support for 1080p HD video playback, I can’t imagine why a light weight OS that’s basically a glorified web browser wouldn’t run smoothly on the same hardware.

[via]

Ok, so I guess you’re pretty excited for Google’s entry into the operating system market with Google Chrome OS. I don’t know how anyone could get pretty excited over an OS running a web browser and nothing else, but if you’re into cloud computing and you would want to have a feel of what Chrome OS might turn out, you should try BrowserLinux.

BrowserLinux is a fast and small linux distribution for surfing the web. In fact it’s so small that it claims that it eats up only 78Mb upon installation. It’s actually based on Puppy Linux, which is by itself one of the most lightweight Linux distros available.

Unlike Google Chrome though, BrowserLinux is not all browsers. It also has a few applications installed, and you have options to add extra software if you want to.

The applications that come preinstalled on BrowserLinux are:

• Web-browser (Firefox 3.5.5)
• Flash 10
• PDF-reader
• Music Player (Alsaplayer)

To install BrowserLinux, you need to download the ISO and run Unetbootin.

Okay, if you’re looking to install this on your main computer, I really wouldn’t advise doing that. Having a lightweight operating system is well and good, but to run a system as stripped-down as this, you’re going to run into something that’ll need an application not available for your OS. Better stick with a bootable flash drive if I were you.