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The latest version of the popular Firefox browser is available for download from Mozilla.

The primary improvement is in the performance department. Firefox 3.5 is said to be quite a bit faster than the 3.0 version. Less memory should be consumed and a new feature to hide your browsing trails a la Safari is included. The ability to restart after an unfortunate browser crash has already been around before – it is now faster and improved.

Download the browser here.

Here’s hoping most add-ons I use will still work after the upgrade…

Less dust!

Posted via email from mhertenberger’s posterous

To supplement our diet of The Thunderbirds and Stingray.

Posted via email from mhertenberger’s posterous

Just a bit too late for the Confederations Cup, though we saw our fair share of headless footballers running around South Africa’s pitches over the past 20 or so days.

The strong point of these dudes is less playing the beautiful game than assisting with the storage and portability of your precious data: USB People Football is a range of USB storage devices in the shape of football players. A few European teams are represented in the range. The device is unceremoniously shoved into a free USB port after the player’s head has been removed…

The price of around USD 30 for these is a bit high, considering the fact that each USB device stores only 1GB of data. Otherwise, quite a novel idea.

It took the team from the USA a scant ten minutes to shock their Brazilian opponents. Dempsey scored a goal as the USA maintained pressure on the favourites in the exciting final of the 2009 Confederations Cup. Another 17 minutes, and Donovan scored yet again for the USA. Brazil seemed very unsettled and uncomfortable as the team from the USA showed remarkable skill and poise in breaking away and countering.

About 40 seconds after kick-off in the second half saw a Brazilian team that must have had a bit of a talking to in the locker room: Fabiano executed a remarkable turn, pushing the ball into the back of the American net. With that, the lead the Americans enjoyed shrunk to just a single goal. On 60 minutes, the ball hopped between the horizontal post and goal line, the Brazilians claiming a goal. Slow motion replays seem to suggest that a goal should have been allocated to them, but the US managed to survive, their lead still intact. Only a few minutes later, and Fabiano once again scored for Brazil. The top goal scorer of the tournament set the score to 2:2 in the 74th minute, requiring the US team to once again plan a comeback.

Lucio finally gave Brazil the lead, scoring in the 84th minute. That goal was the result of a huge amount of pressure from the Brazilian team, unabated since Fabiano scored at the beginning of the second half.

Brazil is the Confederations Cup 2009 winner.

USA 2 : Brazil 3

The game for the third place in a major tournament is often a boring affair: teams are ready to pack up and go home. This time, it was slightly different. Spain is the number one team and had high hopes of gaining access to the final to win the tournament. South Africa is the host nation and crowds in Rustenburg were keen to see their team repeat the performance shown against Brazil.

South Africa once again did not disappoint, playing a consistent and inventive game. Two names will be remembered in this game: Mphela for South Africa and Guiza for Spain. Both players scored two goals: Mphela opened the scoresheet for the hosts in the 73rd minute after South Africa had held their opponents well under control, though Khune was forced to make a number of spectacular saves to maintain the 0:0 prior to Mphela’s excellent goal.

It all seemed as though the hosts would be able to take 3rd place until the 88th minute when Guiza equalized. A minute later, and a cheeky chip by Guiza beat the South African keeper resulting in a 2:1 lead for Spain. In injury time, seconds to go to the final whistle: Mphela once again scores to equalize. His free kick must rank among the best of the tournament and left the Spanish keeper no chance. With the score tied at 2:2, the teams settled into extra time. Spain clinched the game in the 107th minute when Alonso scored from a set piece.

Spain rescued some credibility and South Africa indicated to everyone that their form against Brazil had been no fluke: the team has stepped its game up a notch and improved significantly over the last three weeks. That bodes very well for next year’s World Cup.

South Africa 2 : Spain 3

Posted via email from mhertenberger’s posterous

Posted via email from mhertenberger’s posterous

With a round of computer installations coming up soon, I’ll inevitably find myself looking for my favourite Firefox add-ons once again. I don’t overload Firefox, but have four or so add-ons that I generally can’t do without.

Over at Mozilla, the add-ons site now allows collections of add-ons to be created and stored, then shared. Little more than a website that lists specific add-ons, the collections site is nonetheless rather useful and also provides a wealth of further information on additional add-ons to try out.

Though the collection will not assist with a bulk installation of add-ons, having all add-ons immediately available on a single page makes browser customization on a new system far easier.

Collections can be shared and, if permitted by the creator, augmented with additional add-ons that other choose to include. My rather basic Essentials collection is available here and many, many more are available at the Firefox Add-Ons Collections site.

After last night’s shock defeat of Spain by the USA, South African fans are hoping for a similar result when the host nation meets Brazil at Ellis Park tonight. South Africa may stand a chance after having shown significant improvement in their previous game. Shoddy finishing and their poor track record when it comes to winning matches does not bode well for them, however.

Things ran pretty much counter to my expectation: South Africa seemed to have been transformed into a  completely different team, creating opportunities at a frenetic pace and without doubt keeping the mighty Brazilians in check. It is fair to say that the South African team was in no way outplayed or overshadowed by Brazil. Once again, the lack of a decent striker was evident. Of the many attempts at the Brazilian goal, none could find the mark, though a couple came pretty close.

With 0:0 at halftime, it looked very possible that the game could go into extra time. Brazil changed their tactic slightly, drawing the South African team into towards their goal, then attempting a quick break-away and counter-strike. The South Africans held on. Until two minutes from time, when a foul resulted in a free kick, a perfect set-piece. The goal by Brazilian Alves had a surreal effect, quietning the stadium and shattering the South African dream of reaching the final.

This game should remove a lot of doubt about the South African’s ability to compete on the world football stage. There are still many improvements to be made, but this was an excellent show of ability by the host nation.

South Africa 0 : Brazil 1